Issue 1950 | Magazine cover date: 5 November 1994

5 November 1994

Issue 1950

On the cover

Features

Einstein's Elusive Ripples: Years of scouring the Universe for Einstein's gravitational waves have proved fruitless. But now cosmologists think they may have found telltale signs in the microwave background radiation

News

Enigma: All the colours of the rainbow

Opinion

Escape from the killer car?

Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine

View in the app

Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app

Find a previous edition online

Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Einstein's Elusive Ripples: Years of scouring the Universe for Einstein's gravitational waves have proved fruitless. But now cosmologists think they may have found telltale signs in the microwave background radiation

Features

The SHIP that launched a thousand grids

Features

It's a Dog's Life: Most of the 500 dog breeds round the world are affected by at least one genetic disease; how DNA mapping might help

Features

Ten years after the famine

Features

News

Enigma: All the colours of the rainbow

TRICKY Dickie has devised a new game to attract gullible punters to his fairground stall. He has nine table tennis balls, seven of them painted in the colours of the rainbow, the other two being white. On the table are nine boxes, seven of them also painted in the colours of the rainbow, but the …

News

Technology

Silk spins out its secrets

News

Technology

Smelly success for sorghum's saviour

News

Technology

Gel delivers staying power in fight against liver cancer

News

Technology

Smarter microscopes move in for a closer look

News

Half a wing is better than none

News

How hepatitis B fights back

News

Lake warmed ancient climate

News

The star that came in from the cold

News

Technology

The quick route to an emergency stop

News

Technology

Buckyballs get under semiconductors' skin

News

Technology

One-step DNA test in a tube

News

Galaxy hunters close to the edge

News

Rhubarb toxin found in blood

News

`Responsible' Norway plans to buy greenhouse gas at sea

News

Malaria runs amok in India

News

Scientists fight off les coups

News

Bridging course faces collapse

News

Two in one

News

Women at the top

News

Cold oven, hot fridge

News

Earth

Eruption on cue as Endeavour flies by

News

Rarer still

News

Sea view

News

Smart tools

News

Guarded welcome for malaria vaccine: A controversial vaccine could help to save millions of people from malaria. Is it worth more than two cheers?

News

Fish with a flourishing future in the global greenhouse

News

Seven new satellites for planet Saturn

News

The indefatigable in pursuit of the insoluble?

News

It's good to talk ... at someone else's expense

News

Royal Commission slams road building plans

News

Colombian volcano coughs up riches

News

How cancer hits the Third World

News

Sell-off plan signals huge rent rises for learned societies

News

UN takes control of seed banks

News

Frustrated West watches as Arctic oil spill grows

News

Military badlands too dangerous to sell

News

Opinion

Escape from the killer car?

MORE and faster public transport, buses that run on time, plenty of safe cycleways, freight travelling by canal instead of along crowded roads, fewer cars, reduced air pollution, a big drop in the number of children killed by speeding motorists, more tranquil streets where people can chat at their front doors, hillocks rather than mountains …

Opinion

Features

Einstein's Elusive Ripples: Years of scouring the Universe for Einstein's gravitational waves have proved fruitless. But now cosmologists think they may have found telltale signs in the microwave background radiation

ALBERT EINSTEIN's general theory of relativity, the modern description of gravity, is one of the most successful scientific theories ever. It has passed, with flying colours, every test that scientists have been able to dream up. Yet one dramatic prediction of Einstein's theory remains tantalisingly just out of reach - the detection of gravitational waves. …

Features

The SHIP that launched a thousand grids

Features

It's a Dog's Life: Most of the 500 dog breeds round the world are affected by at least one genetic disease; how DNA mapping might help

Features

Ten years after the famine

Features

Sigmund and Charles get hitched: PsychoDarwinism: The New Synthesis of Darwin and Frued by Christopher Badcock, HarperCollins, pp 210, £16.99

CAN modern evolutionary theory rehabilitate Freud within psychology? Evolutionary biologists have an exact, and convincing, theory of social conflicts, and one part of that theory - Robert Trivers's analysis of parent- offspring conflict - looks readily applicable to the kind of things Freud thought about. Trivers noticed that any individual child is genetically 100 per …

Books & Arts

Bad breeding for Badlands bison: Bison: Mating and Conservation In Small Populations by Joel Berger and Carol Cunningham, Columbia University Press, pp 330, £43.50/$65

Books & Arts

All the president's men: The President's Scientists: Reminiscences of a White House Science Advisor by D. Allan Bromley, Yale, pp 273, £20

Books & Arts

Up intellectual periscopes: Stealth At Sea: The History of the Submarine by Dan Van Der Vat, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp 374, £20

Books & Arts

Explaining the nature of the beast

Books & Arts

How to cut a dash in Swahili: How to bluff your way in almost any language

Forum

A matter of life and cell death: A proud parent

Forum

Time to seek the moral high ground?: A debate on medical ethics

Forum

Foresights modern and medieval: More comment from Westminster

Forum

Brief flowering for the Greens: The Fading of the Greens: The Decline of Environmental Politics in the West by Anna Bramwell, Yale University Press, pp 224, £18.95

Books & Arts

The importance of being emotional

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

ALWAYS make sure the mikes are switched off before you talk freely. This advice has not been taken to heart in recent months in Brazil. Economy minister Rubens Ricupero was forced to resign after a confidential conversation with a reporter for Globo television was picked up by the station's satellite link and relayed into millions …

Regulars

This week's magazine

5 November 1994

On the cover

Einstein's Elusive Ripples: Years of scouring the Universe for Einstein's gravitational waves have proved fruitless. But now cosmologists think they may have found telltale signs in the microwave background radiation

The SHIP that launched a thousand grids

It's a Dog's Life: Most of the 500 dog breeds round the world are affected by at least one genetic disease; how DNA mapping might help

Ten years after the famine

Table of contents

News

Enigma: All the colours of the rainbow

Technology

Silk spins out its secrets

Technology

Smelly success for sorghum's saviour

Technology

Gel delivers staying power in fight against liver cancer

Technology

Smarter microscopes move in for a closer look

Half a wing is better than none

How hepatitis B fights back

Lake warmed ancient climate

The star that came in from the cold

Technology

The quick route to an emergency stop

Technology

Buckyballs get under semiconductors' skin

Technology

One-step DNA test in a tube

Galaxy hunters close to the edge

Rhubarb toxin found in blood

`Responsible' Norway plans to buy greenhouse gas at sea

Malaria runs amok in India

Scientists fight off les coups

Bridging course faces collapse

Two in one

Women at the top

Cold oven, hot fridge

Earth

Eruption on cue as Endeavour flies by

Rarer still

Sea view

Smart tools

Guarded welcome for malaria vaccine: A controversial vaccine could help to save millions of people from malaria. Is it worth more than two cheers?

Fish with a flourishing future in the global greenhouse

Seven new satellites for planet Saturn

The indefatigable in pursuit of the insoluble?

It's good to talk ... at someone else's expense

Royal Commission slams road building plans

Colombian volcano coughs up riches

How cancer hits the Third World

Sell-off plan signals huge rent rises for learned societies

UN takes control of seed banks

Frustrated West watches as Arctic oil spill grows

Military badlands too dangerous to sell

Opinion

Escape from the killer car?

Features

Einstein's Elusive Ripples: Years of scouring the Universe for Einstein's gravitational waves have proved fruitless. But now cosmologists think they may have found telltale signs in the microwave background radiation

The SHIP that launched a thousand grids

It's a Dog's Life: Most of the 500 dog breeds round the world are affected by at least one genetic disease; how DNA mapping might help

Ten years after the famine

More

Sigmund and Charles get hitched: PsychoDarwinism: The New Synthesis of Darwin and Frued by Christopher Badcock, HarperCollins, pp 210, £16.99

Bad breeding for Badlands bison: Bison: Mating and Conservation In Small Populations by Joel Berger and Carol Cunningham, Columbia University Press, pp 330, £43.50/$65

All the president's men: The President's Scientists: Reminiscences of a White House Science Advisor by D. Allan Bromley, Yale, pp 273, £20

Up intellectual periscopes: Stealth At Sea: The History of the Submarine by Dan Van Der Vat, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp 374, £20

Explaining the nature of the beast

How to cut a dash in Swahili: How to bluff your way in almost any language

A matter of life and cell death: A proud parent

Time to seek the moral high ground?: A debate on medical ethics

Foresights modern and medieval: More comment from Westminster

Brief flowering for the Greens: The Fading of the Greens: The Decline of Environmental Politics in the West by Anna Bramwell, Yale University Press, pp 224, £18.95

The importance of being emotional

Regulars

Feedback

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word