Issue 2147 | Magazine cover date: 15 August 1998 | New Scientist

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15 August 1998

Issue 2147

New Scientist issue 2147 cover

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News

China blazes the trail for video CDs

Opinion

The wild card

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A face in the crowd

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Starquake

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Life support

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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.

China blazes the trail for video CDs

FOR the first time, China is shaping the future of electronics by creating a new world standard. Its video standard has won support from Philips, Sony, Matsushita (Panasonic) and JVC. The International Electrotechnical Commission should rubber-stamp the super video CD (SVCD) as a world standard later this year. The format will be used for education, …

News

Counting sheep may settle old score

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Off the hook

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Humble origins

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Chaos at the polls

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DIY molecule

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Burnout

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Spaced out

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Big chill

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Safe house

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Bugs in the brain

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Technology

Ahead of steam

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Technology

. . . . .

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Technology

. . . . .

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Sensing is believing

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Small is beautiful when it comes to the Universe

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Young blood

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Heat your greens

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On the move

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Designer perfumes for fly-ridden cows

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Common bond

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Star tracking

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Ghosts in the machines

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In the shade

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A rubbish revolution

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Waggle dance shows how much bees like pollen

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Two-fingered salute

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Space-age bridge

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Toxic breath

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No junk please

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Greening the UK

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How not to save the tiger

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Mammoth trouble

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Life

Short in the tooth

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Life

Turtle eggs offer lifeline to dunes

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The heat is on

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Spud U dislike

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Touch and go for SOHO

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Russia condemned

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Steady as a rock

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Junky genes

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Clamp down

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Weight of numbers

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How to handle a herbicide

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Technology

Stunning idea

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Technology

Virtual chalk

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Snappy prints

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Life

Dying for change

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Opinion

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The wild card

YET another panic about the genetic engineering of food is under way in Britain. In the space of a week, saboteurs have destroyed a test plot of genetically engineered maize in Devon, and the media has gone into a frenzy over research in Scotland which suggests that rats fed genetically engineered potatoes have weakened immune …

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Dennis Bray takes a video from the shelf and sticks it into the VCR. On the TV screen, some bacteria flicker into view. To be honest, they are not much to look at. Single-celled and rod-like, they're bald as coots save for a half-dozen flagella sticking out proudly from the surface. But we are not …

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A face in the crowd

Features

Starquake

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Life support

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. . . . .

STREET lamps in parts of Manchester became rogue transmitters and caused general radio interference, earlier this year. NOR.WEB had set up its much vamped Digital PowerLine system to transfer data between electricity substations and people's homes. Because the lamps used the same power supply as Net surfers they acted as aerials and broadcast high-frequency radio …

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The sins of the fathers

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Roulette in Wonderland

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Your brilliant career

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Popular aesthetics

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In the know

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Natural beauty

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Astro answers

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Astro tome

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A woman from Mars

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Where the weird ones are

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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.

Feedback

AH, THE JOYS of unspoilt nature! The beauty! The silence! The solitude! These, at least, are Feedback's sentiments. But sadly it seems that not everyone agrees. According to a report on the Internet, these are some of the "actual comments" left on comment cards provided at the access points to wilderness areas by the US …

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