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This week's magazine

19 October 1996

Issue 2052

New Scientist issue 2052 cover
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Editor's picks

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.

Sea launch is go

Features
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.

Into the mind unborn

Features
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.

Genesis to Exodus

Features
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.

Doctor snail

Features

Table of contents

News

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.

Technology

Technology : Gene trap catches `knockout' mice

GENETICISTS are to receive a helping hand from 500 000 strains of mutant mice. Each strain will have a single defective gene, so geneticists can study the function of the "silenced" gene. By offering strains with defective mouse equivalents of all 100 000 human genes, a company in Texas hopes to speed up the search …

News

Technology

Technology : Wings make flying less of a drag

News

Technology

Technology : Surface tension sugars the pill

News

Technology

Netropolitan :

News

Technology

Technology : Tiny memory card strikes a chord

News

Technology

Technology : Gene stops damage by cancer drugs

News

Technology

Technology : Blood-clotting drug lays siege to tumours

News

Science : Tracking oil's underground odyssey

News

Science : Pressure of light produced gold-plated stars

News

Science : Giant flying reptiles dined on shellfish

News

Science : Scavengers suspected in Alzheimer's

News

Science : The fastest tectonic plate in the West

News

Science : The killer that's vital for life

News

Science : Oily molecule helps smells get up your nose

News

Science : How the brain goes on the blink

News

Out of Africa and onto the Internet

News

Koala mouthwash

News

Cosmic-ray count

News

Second sight

News

Bone breakdown

News

Stolen tracks

News

Online tax

News

Green fingerprints

News

Earth

Fanning the wildfires

News

Will India starve if rains fail?

News

Strangest superfluid wins recognition at last

News

Chaotic records hide truth on Gulf War syndrome

News

Why Cold War secrets are still under wraps

News

Russia's scientists take to the streets

News

Downy `dragon' shakes up theories of bird evolution

News

Treason case dropped as Russia signs nuclear deal

News

Robofeet are made for sweating

News

Axe may fall on threatened species

News

Fatal fungus ravages vineyards

News

Millennium target hinders leprosy fight

News

Buckyball pioneers score the ultimate goal

News

Smog blights babies in the womb

News

Opinion

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.

Editorial : Cool heads in a hot climate - ARE human fetuses sentient? Can they "feel" pain or experience suffering?

ARE human fetuses sentient? Can they "feel" pain or experience suffering? For decades, scientists everywhere have shied away from such questions, fearing that their views will be misused in the emotional battle over abortion. They have been far more willing to discuss whether animals have minds and feel pain than to ask the same of …

Opinion

Features

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.

Sea launch is go

IN THE summer of 1998, a strange flat-topped vessel will sail out of Long Beach in southern California for a 10-day cruise in the Pacific. Called Odyssey, the cumbersome craft started life as an oil-drilling platform. But it will not be searching for oil or minerals beneath the seabed. Odyssey is a floating launch pad …

Features

Into the mind unborn

Features

Genesis to Exodus

Features

Doctor snail

Features

More

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.

Antipodes : Energy subsidies under fire - Ian Lowe examines a report on resource industries

A BROADSIDE has been fired at the huge government subsidies being pumped into the supply and use of energy in Australia. The attack comes from the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research which claims the public money is encouraging higher levels of energy use than would result if full pricing were applied. A report …

Forum

Thistle diary : Banking on human tissue - More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Forum

Forum : Starfish wanted, dead or alive

Forum

Forum : Tender traps for the unwary

Forum

Review : Plug into the future

Books & Arts

Review : Quids in

Books & Arts

Bestsellers : from Oxford

Books & Arts

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Review : Blessed are the genteel

Books & Arts

Review: No solution to Fermat's last theorem

Books & Arts

Review : Games with brains

Books & Arts

Review : Heavenly map

Books & Arts

Review : Critical eye

Books & Arts

Review : Bitter taste

Books & Arts

Review : Deep blues

Books & Arts

Review : Speaking wounds

Books & Arts

Review : At the Heisenberg frontier

Books & Arts

Review : Blaze and glory

Books & Arts

Review : Green and pleasant

Books & Arts

Review : Ripe old age

Books & Arts

Review : A calculated risk

Books & Arts

Regulars

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.

The Last Word

Wrought iron Q: My father, who is a sculptor, often encounters a strange phenomenon while he is heating iron bars. He holds the bar (about 1 metre long) at one end and heats the other. The end he is holding gets moderately hot but not too hot for him to hold with his bare hand. …

Regulars

Feedback

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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