Issue 2186 | Magazine cover date: 15 May 1999 | New Scientist

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15 May 1999

Issue 2186

New Scientist issue 2186 cover

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On the cover

Stone Age Kalashnikov

Breeding to death

Opinion

Reap the whirlwind

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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.

Life

Stone Age Kalashnikov

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.

Paper goes electric

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.

Escape from the nucleon

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 greatest apes

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

Breeding to death

Humanity's bloody history has some people wondering if there is a future for the human race—and they are doing a lot of their wondering on the Web. Some groups even want to bring the dominance of Homo sapiens to a (peaceful) conclusion. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement ( www.vhemt.org ) has as its creed "phasing …

News

Hybrid camera

News

Bug busters

News

Loud and clear

News

Listen to the music—but pay for it first

News

Master gene

News

Still dolphin friendly?

News

Acid attack

News

Great alien hunt

News

Grow your own

News

Asbestos out

News

Elephants are just big water babies

News

Downhill fast

News

Variety act

News

It's what she likes

News

Polar giants

News

Lucky dips

News

Into the abyss

News

On a losing streak

News

Thousands of lab animals reprieved

News

Uncle Sam's spies

News

The chips are down

News

Plants call in the pest control

News

Word power

News

You'll get cube eyes…

News

Divot defender

News

Hormone buster

News

Calling the tune

News

Space

Come together

News

Into the eye of the storm

News

Lights out

News

The nuptial gift that leaves a bitter taste

News

Fiendish fungus

News

No more needles

News

Calling all geeks

News

Get stuck in

News

Technology

Cracking idea

News

Technology

Standardised noise

News

Technology

Straight to the point

News

African outbreak

News

Australian beaches were made in Antarctica

News

Out of the wreckage

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.

Reap the whirlwind

EARTHQUAKES and volcanic eruptions are notoriously difficult to predict. But with all our weather-forecasting skills, surely we can work out which thunderstorms will spawn tornadoes and which won't and do more to save lives? Unfortunately, it's not that simple: ask the citizens of Oklahoma and Kansas. Over the years there have been very few solid …

Opinion

Bang goes another one

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.

Life

Stone Age Kalashnikov

WILLIAM ROBERT PERKINS notches the long, flexible spear onto a spur on the end of the stick in his hand. He draws back his arm, and throws. The spear flies away from the stick, an atlatl, towards the hay bales 30 metres away and thunks into the flattened cardboard beer carton that serves as a …

Features

Paper goes electric

Features

Escape from the nucleon

Features

The greatest apes

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.

. . . . .

AS THE conflict in the Balkans continues, the possibility of a NATO bomb or missile accidentally hitting the 6.5-megawatt research reactor at the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences near Belgrade worries me greatly. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the reactor was fuelled by highly enriched uranium, but has been shut down since 1984. …

Forum

Tectonics is putty in Myra's hand

Forum

The full picture

Books & Arts

Jobs for the boys

Books & Arts

from Oxford

Books & Arts

Last rock from the sun

Forum

The China syndrome

Forum

Island havens

Books & Arts

Other Edens

Books & Arts

Body parts

Books & Arts

Cloth of ages

Books & Arts

Colonial killers

Books & Arts

Fine talking

Books & Arts

Prophet warning

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

MANY thanks to Paul Spicker, who responded to the Feedback item on the potential hazards of brushing your teeth (1 May) by sending us extracts from the Department of Trade and Industry's annual report Home Accident and Leisure Accident Surveillance Systems. The report lists treatments in 18 of Britain's hospitals needed as a result of …

Regulars

The Last Word

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word