Issue 2157 | Magazine cover date: 24 October 1998 | New Scientist

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24 October 1998

Issue 2157

New Scientist issue 2157 cover

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On the cover

Features

You're on your own

News

Follow their noses

Opinion

Cultural reaction

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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.

You're on your own

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.

Shape is all

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.

Five and counting...

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.

Rainbow growing

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.

Follow their noses

WATCHING patients wipe their noses after epileptic fits can reveal where seizures occurred in their brains. Christoph Baumgartner and his colleagues at the University of Vienna reviewed video tapes of 440 epileptic seizures. Patients who had a seizure in the temporal lobe often wiped their noses afterwards—probably because a seizure here can stimulate mucus production …

News

Whale of an appetite

News

Farmer's friend

News

The hidden side of our nearest neighbour

News

A glass a day...

News

Puddle predictor

News

Deadly allies

News

Fine filters

News

One of the guys

News

Unforgettable

News

Lobster mystery

News

Distemper in whales

News

As large as life

News

Deadly legacy

News

Winning numbers

News

A planet is born?

News

Technology

Big staring eyes

News

Power house

News

Virtually hitched

News

Hot cow disease

News

Perfect People's Republic

News

Not disabled, just different

News

Earth

Growing pains

News

Running on air

News

Revolutionary spinner

News

Silent flying

News

Tree frogs show sticking power

News

Up on the roof

News

Radar bullets

News

Brain food

News

Army vows to resurrect Everglades

News

Thrown a lifeline

News

Technology

Saving small fry

News

Technology

Patent, invent thyself

News

Cracking up

News

All in one

News

A perfect excuse

News

Rogues' gallery

News

Rights and wrongs

News

Food furore

News

Physics

Out of this world

News

Hidden lakes could harbour Martian life

News

Into the vortex

News

Technology

Unisex contraception

News

Dangerous liaisons

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.

Cultural reaction

PARENTS the world over want perfect babies—though not everyone will agree what "perfect" means. A survey of deaf people (see p 18) has revealed a few who would prefer deaf children. Perhaps they see deafness as part of their identity, or maybe they fear rejection by children who can hear. Whatever their reasons, they would …

Opinion

Fuel's paradise

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.

You're on your own

IF THE wildest dreams of NASA's planners come true, a probe will one day melt its way through the icy sheath covering Jupiter's moon Europa. Once it reaches the sea that NASA believes exists beneath the ice, the craft will swim about searching for life before popping back to the surface to beam its findings …

Features

Shape is all

Features

Five and counting...

Features

Rainbow growing

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.

Off the shelf riches

AUSTRALIA is due for a bounty it didn't expect—exclusive access to minerals and other resources in four million square kilometres of surrounding seabed. The reason for the territorial windfall is that Australia's continental shelf is much larger than thought. Under international law, countries are entitled to claim sovereignty over a 200 kilometre wide band around …

Forum

Bunkers and boulders

Books & Arts

Cool's customers

Books & Arts

from San Francisco

Books & Arts

Tell it like it is ...

Forum

. . . . .

Forum

First, do no harm

Forum

Empire of cannibals

Books & Arts

Short facts

Books & Arts

Andean spirit

Books & Arts

Anti-flakes

Books & Arts

Vein hopes

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.

Feedback

IT IS only a marketing gimmick, but Feedback feels a certain glee over Xerox's offer to trade in printers made by its rival Hewlett-Packard and then hold a "Smashing Up HP Printers Party" in the Netherlands at the end of the year. According to the computer magazine MicroScope, Xerox aims to find out "how many …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word