Issue 2060 | Magazine cover date: 14 December 1996

14 December 1996

Issue 2060

On the cover

Features

Lure of the rings - Tree rings laid down over thousands of years may cut through the arguments surrounding global warming. Fred Pearce reports

News

Science : Weeds won't save us from a greenhouse fate

Opinion

Editorial : A cool and deadly image - THE tobacco industry has long claimed that its gigantic advertising and sponsorship budgets aren't aimed at getting more people to smoke but merely at persuading existing smokers to change brands.

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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.

Lure of the rings - Tree rings laid down over thousands of years may cut through the arguments surrounding global warming. Fred Pearce reports

Features

Sixty ways to tour Saturn

Features

Hooked on HIV - What's the connection between a 1980s film character and the cutting edge of AIDS research? Philip Cohen reports on a protein that's unlocking HIV's mysteries

Features

All for one one for all - Damned for decades as quaint and wrong-headed, the notion of the superorganism is being reinterpreted in the light of modern complexity theory. Roger Lewin investigates

Features

News

Science : Weeds won't save us from a greenhouse fate

Santa Cruz AIR pollution may allow weeds to take over the world, say ecologists in the US and Canada. And this shift in vegetation could hinder the Earth's ability to moderate global warming, they warn. Burning fossil fuel releases oxides of nitrogen, which ecologists believe could act as a fertiliser. They hoped that luxuriant plant …

News

Science : One dynasty to rule them all

News

Technology

Technology : Safe landings on a wing and some air

News

Technology

Technology : Malicious viruses caught in the Net

News

Technology

Technology : Europe sets cellphone agenda

News

Technology

Netropolitan :

News

Technology

Technology : Cleaning up arsenic and old waste

News

Technology

Technology : Tots put painted toys to the ultimate test

News

Technology

Technology : Body gets the message across

News

Science : Bugs break the rules underwater

News

Science : Raising the roof in the Wild West

News

Science : Galactic tides bring showers of comets to Earth

News

Science : Arthritic French mice rewrite the textbooks

News

Science : Heart attacks that begin in the womb

News

Costly reading

News

Warlike genes

News

Station delay

News

Polio wipeout

News

Many moons

News

Psst...wanna Triceratops?

News

A hard day's work on the cyber-farm

News

Outlaw corn

News

Junk feud

News

`Missing link' is written in stone

News

Who needs a new liver?

News

Ship's halcyon days are over

News

Change of scene for monkey `gods'

News

Concerns grow over weight loss drug

News

Africa overtakes Europe as world birth rate slows

News

Priest supplies Saturn probe with missing ingredient

News

Top Guns terrify rare antelope

News

Reactors will burn old bombs

News

Bad medicine deepens Bhopal's misery

News

Can the market cool the world?

News

Canada declares war on tobacco

News

Opinion

Editorial : A cool and deadly image - THE tobacco industry has long claimed that its gigantic advertising and sponsorship budgets aren't aimed at getting more people to smoke but merely at persuading existing smokers to change brands.

THE tobacco industry has long claimed that its gigantic advertising and sponsorship budgets aren't aimed at getting more people to smoke but merely at persuading existing smokers to change brands. It certainly must be a comforting argument for them, given that between a third and a half of all smokers end up dying from cancers …

Opinion

Features

Lure of the rings - Tree rings laid down over thousands of years may cut through the arguments surrounding global warming. Fred Pearce reports

IT WAS one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the past 10 000 years. Mount Changbai in China blasted 50 cubic kilometres of rock into the air, darkening the skies and plunging the world into a wintry gloom. Radiocarbon dating of trees buried by the eruption put it at early in the 11th century. But …

Features

Sixty ways to tour Saturn

Features

Hooked on HIV - What's the connection between a 1980s film character and the cutting edge of AIDS research? Philip Cohen reports on a protein that's unlocking HIV's mysteries

Features

All for one one for all - Damned for decades as quaint and wrong-headed, the notion of the superorganism is being reinterpreted in the light of modern complexity theory. Roger Lewin investigates

Features

Formation of Earth

Leeds OUR Sun, like other stars, formed when a cloud of dust and gas began to clump together in interstellar space. No one quite knows why or how this happened, but it was the first step in the long and complicated evolution of our rocky planet, with its iron core and oxygen-rich atmosphere. The first …

Inside Science

Forum : Fiddler in the lab - Vincent Kiernan investigates what is being done in the US to discourage scientific fraud

Forum

Review : Oyster calamity

Books & Arts

Review : Serendipity

Books & Arts

Review : Thinking tools

Books & Arts

Review : Journey round the horns

Books & Arts

Review : Girls' own

Books & Arts

Review : Sterling works

Books & Arts

Review : Framed lives

Books & Arts

Review : Trust me

Books & Arts

Review : Child's play

Books & Arts

Review : Bits and bytes

Books & Arts

Review : Let me count the ways

Books & Arts

Review : What a wonderful cosmos

Books & Arts

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Bestsellers : from Washington

Books & Arts

Thistle diary : Of nuclear subs and basking sharks - More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Forum

Forum : Teaching some home truths

Forum

Review : Secrets of the death cell

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

THE British government is spending a fortune trying to persuade the electorate that Conservative ministers are a super-cool bunch of Web-surfing dudes who are thoroughly in tune with the cyberworld. They've even given their efforts a brand name in a green paper, Government.direct. Then they go and spoil it all by opening their mouths. Late …

This week's magazine

14 December 1996

On the cover

Lure of the rings - Tree rings laid down over thousands of years may cut through the arguments surrounding global warming. Fred Pearce reports

Sixty ways to tour Saturn

Hooked on HIV - What's the connection between a 1980s film character and the cutting edge of AIDS research? Philip Cohen reports on a protein that's unlocking HIV's mysteries

All for one one for all - Damned for decades as quaint and wrong-headed, the notion of the superorganism is being reinterpreted in the light of modern complexity theory. Roger Lewin investigates

Table of contents

News

Science : Weeds won't save us from a greenhouse fate

Science : One dynasty to rule them all

Technology

Technology : Safe landings on a wing and some air

Technology

Technology : Malicious viruses caught in the Net

Technology

Technology : Europe sets cellphone agenda

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Technology : Cleaning up arsenic and old waste

Technology

Technology : Tots put painted toys to the ultimate test

Technology

Technology : Body gets the message across

Science : Bugs break the rules underwater

Science : Raising the roof in the Wild West

Science : Galactic tides bring showers of comets to Earth

Science : Arthritic French mice rewrite the textbooks

Science : Heart attacks that begin in the womb

Costly reading

Warlike genes

Station delay

Polio wipeout

Many moons

Psst...wanna Triceratops?

A hard day's work on the cyber-farm

Outlaw corn

Junk feud

`Missing link' is written in stone

Who needs a new liver?

Ship's halcyon days are over

Change of scene for monkey `gods'

Concerns grow over weight loss drug

Africa overtakes Europe as world birth rate slows

Priest supplies Saturn probe with missing ingredient

Top Guns terrify rare antelope

Reactors will burn old bombs

Bad medicine deepens Bhopal's misery

Can the market cool the world?

Canada declares war on tobacco

Opinion

Editorial : A cool and deadly image - THE tobacco industry has long claimed that its gigantic advertising and sponsorship budgets aren't aimed at getting more people to smoke but merely at persuading existing smokers to change brands.

Features

Lure of the rings - Tree rings laid down over thousands of years may cut through the arguments surrounding global warming. Fred Pearce reports

Sixty ways to tour Saturn

Hooked on HIV - What's the connection between a 1980s film character and the cutting edge of AIDS research? Philip Cohen reports on a protein that's unlocking HIV's mysteries

All for one one for all - Damned for decades as quaint and wrong-headed, the notion of the superorganism is being reinterpreted in the light of modern complexity theory. Roger Lewin investigates

More

Formation of Earth

Forum : Fiddler in the lab - Vincent Kiernan investigates what is being done in the US to discourage scientific fraud

Review : Oyster calamity

Review : Serendipity

Review : Thinking tools

Review : Journey round the horns

Review : Girls' own

Review : Sterling works

Review : Framed lives

Review : Trust me

Review : Child's play

Review : Bits and bytes

Review : Let me count the ways

Review : What a wonderful cosmos

Review : Collected works

Bestsellers : from Washington

Thistle diary : Of nuclear subs and basking sharks - More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Forum : Teaching some home truths

Review : Secrets of the death cell

Regulars

Feedback