Subscribe now

This week's magazine

17 April 1999

Issue 2182

New Scientist issue 2182 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

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.

Antarctic landscape is testbed for Mars

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.

The Emperor's Eggs

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.

Great rivers of ice!

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.

Kingdom of the krill

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.

Subzero

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.

Meteorite heaven

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.

Silicon needles won't hurt a bit

A PAINLESS hypodermic needle could be one of the first surgical tools made using a technique borrowed from computer chip makers. The needle is one of several surgical devices built by Amit Lal of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Lal predicts that by using extremely sharp instruments that vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies it will …

News

Friend or foe?

News

No entry

News

I know you're looking…

News

Seeing the light

News

Inflammation may cause cerebral palsy

News

A robot in the right vein

News

Go for it

News

Activists up the ante

News

No reprieve for America's antibody mice

News

Take heart

News

It's a deal

News

Unpalatable truths

News

Technology

Crime and punishment

News

Family way

News

Burning tarmac

News

Netman cometh

News

The big thaw

News

New flu

News

Phone probe

News

Advisers axed

News

Heavenly twins

News

Can regular sex ward off colds and flu?

News

Back to basics

News

Technology

Permanent mark

News

Technology

Sky-high gambling

News

Technology

Phone-free zone

News

Blind bombing

News

Going loopy

News

Bottled up

News

Vive la difference

News

Moaning mould

News

Supervaccine

News

Dangerous din

News

I forget

News

Far, far away

News

Drink up

News

Escape artists

News

Saving our bacon

News

Bumper blooms left high and dry

News

Hunger zones

News

Fragrant threat

News

Gone with the wind

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.

Hot property

NEXT time you go to a party, try starting a conversation on the urgent need for public ownership of the intellectual property rights to single nucleotide polymorphism maps. Within seconds, you'll find yourself talking to the wallpaper. Now let's rerun the experiment. Argue boldly that commercial timber companies should have access to national parks or, …

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.

Antarctic landscape is testbed for Mars

IT IS a tortured landscape of ice towers, pinnacles and hollows that stretches to the end of a long thin valley. On either side, beyond the edges of the ice, brown valley walls rise up to form jagged ridges capped with snow. In fact, everything we can see is brown or white – a monochrome …

Features

The Emperor's Eggs

Features

Great rivers of ice!

Features

Kingdom of the krill

Features

Subzero

Features

Meteorite heaven

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.

. . . . .

WHEN it comes to catching criminals, few things are likely to prove more effective than a national DNA database. Paul Boateng, the Home Office minister, told MPs that the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Forensic Science Service are reviewing the development of the database. Boateng went on to say that on wider issues …

Forum

Sabotage threat delays trials

Forum

Beware flying mud!

Forum

Spit 'n' polish

Books & Arts

Having a ball

Forum

Mission impossible

Books & Arts

Antarctic witness

Books & Arts

Tame brain

Books & Arts

Carson's comeback

Books & Arts

Cut off their tails

Books & Arts

Quantum tools

Books & Arts

Novel nomad

Books & Arts

from Oxford

Books & Arts

That's my idea

Books & Arts

Trivia, truth and tasty tidbits

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

COMPUTER problems can drive the most mild mannered of us to distraction. So Feedback isn't at all surprised to learn that physical abuse of hardware is a widespread phenomenon. According to a survey by Concord Communications of Marlboro, Massachusetts, a chilling 83 per cent of network managers have dealt with computer users whose technical problems …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop