Issue 2221 | Magazine cover date: 15 January 2000 | New Scientist

Skip to content

15 January 2000

Issue 2221

New Scientist issue 2221 cover

Previous issue Next issue

On the cover

Features

Jams tomorrow

News

Height matters

Westminster Diary

Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine

View in the app

Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app

Find a previous edition online

Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

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.

Jams tomorrow

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.

When good bugs turn bad

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.

Gene cheats

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 buzzing at me?

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.

Height matters

TALL men are more likely to have children than their vertically challenged friends because women find height attractive, a new study shows. The preference may be putting evolutionary pressure on men, even today. In an earlier study, evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar of the University of Liverpool trawled through lonely hearts adverts to find which attributes …

News

Portrait of a prion

News

Setback for MS

News

Gap genes

News

Martian gift

News

How to make a sound choice . . . twice

News

Ice-cold on Charon

News

Don't move that dial

News

Whistle-blower freed

News

Guinea pigs spared

News

Long live Galileo

News

Bugs on the loose

News

Carry on screening

News

Technology

Post apocalypse

News

Clay spray could spell death for algal blooms

News

Synchronised spawning

News

Moon magic

News

Cholera toxin opens up the brain

News

Fatal weakness

News

Against the grain

News

Smart movers

News

Watch this

News

Terse nurse

News

Clones may not grow old before their time

News

Warning light

News

Dead giveaway

News

Just argue it out

News

Lifeless xenon wakes up in the cold

News

Technology

Bogus service

News

Technology

Fire away

News

Technology

51st century man

News

Definitely not in your backyard

News

Missing the target

News

Peckish poultry

News

Something in the air

News

Fly the flag

News

Protect and survive

News

Sting in the tail

News

Under siege

News

Don't catch this

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.

Humans

Westminster Diary

A REPORT about pay and conditions in higher education, published last year, sparked anguish in some quarters, glee in others. The committee responsible for the Independent Review of Higher Education Pay and Conditions consisted of representatives of academic staff trade unions, employers and independent members, and was chaired by Michael Bett, the chairman of telecoms …

Opinion

Eden on the edge

Opinion

Bloody tales

Opinion

Listening to Alex

Opinion

Silicon subcontinent

Opinion

Buy now, pay later

Opinion

An imperfect world

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.

Jams tomorrow

IT'S FRIDAY evening, and you're about to head out of the city. But the traffic news tells you that there's a jam on your normal route. Is it worth taking an alternative? And how far out of your way do you need to go to avoid the snarl-up? If you lived in Duisburg in Germany, …

Features

When good bugs turn bad

Features

Gene cheats

Features

You buzzing at me?

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.

Blast off

Forget Yuri Gagarin: Britain got there first. So, at least, runs the story in Diana Ross's 1956 The Little Red Engine and the Rocket, now reissued, with Leslie Woods's bold, jazzy illustrations, as an Andre Deutsch Classic. "It's about building a rocket and how the Little Red Engine helps," explained Josh (aged four-and-a-half). "I learned …

Books & Arts

Secrets and lies

Books & Arts

Gold standard

Books & Arts

Treasure trove

Books & Arts

The magnificent nine

Books & Arts

It's a dirty old world

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

COMMUNICATING on the move! That's the advertisers' glib message. Feedback's message is: read the small print on the "roaming" charges that make it possible to use cellphones and e-mail services abroad. Feedback recently tested one of the new European "triband" cellphones that can be switched to "roam" on the frequencies used in the US. It …

Regulars

The Last Word

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word