Issue 2240 | Magazine cover date: 27 May 2000 | New Scientist

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27 May 2000

Issue 2240

New Scientist issue 2240 cover

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On the cover

Features

Odds on winner

News

A wet prehistory

Opinion

The daily grind pays off

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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.

Odds on winner

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.

Follow that food

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 demon duck of doom

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.

Slosh, rattle and roll

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.

Comic relief

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.

A wet prehistory

THE Chinese call the Yellow River their "joy and sorrow" because its life-giving waters so easily turn to killer floods. But the floods were once much worse, says Ge Yu of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology. He compared the sediments left by recent floods with those laid down over the past 9000 years. …

News

Hot, hot, hot

News

Eating your greens is now even better for you

News

Rich in carcinogens

News

NASA beams up a repair kit

News

Euro-blubber

News

Triumph of tamoxifen

News

Extraterrestrial volunteers

News

How life survived the big freeze

News

Curbing CJD

News

Stress express

News

Making light of it

News

Technology

Webby weddings

News

Airborne devastation

News

`Don't forget to breathe,' said the brainstem

News

Health

Behind the magic

News

Health

Face the facts

News

Caught in the act

News

Health

Saving grace

News

Health

Curse of the living dead

News

Back to basics

News

Microwave light bulbs?

News

Faster and faster

News

Health

Hybrid vigour

News

You're surrounded

News

Putting it bluntly

News

Licence to thrill

News

Corals face catastrophe

News

We are family

News

Technology

Howzat!

News

Technology

Salutary sting

News

Technology

Look, no wires

News

Will demand for cell transplants exceed supply?

News

Danger signals

News

Prion spotter

News

Phantom cats

News

Unknown killer

News

Bigger and better

News

Bugged phones

News

Continuous assessment

News

Agents of death

News

Incredible voyage

News

Sowing dissent

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.

The daily grind pays off

THE claim by American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson that, `If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door' was always pretty dubious. But for an Australian company which used the Internet to publicise its wares, it has turned out to be accurate. Eighteen months ago Advanced Powder Technology (APT), …

Opinion

Humans

Washington diary

Opinion

Here's health

Opinion

Feeding Africa

Opinion

The green man

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.

Odds on winner

If you've ever been bothered by the weight of that laptop you lug about on your travels, spare a thought for George Julius. In 1912, he left Australia in search of buyers for his brilliant new invention-a device that would transform a day at the races by taking betting out of the hands of the …

Features

Follow that food

Features

The demon duck of doom

Features

Slosh, rattle and roll

Features

Comic relief

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.

Engines of Tomorrow by Robert Buderi

Engines of Tomorrow by Robert Buderi, Simon & Schuster, $27.50, ISBN 0684839008 XEROX's Mark Yim is building modular robots that shape-shift. A curious ambition, you might think. But Yim sees his creations as rescue robots, able to go anywhere. They assemble their modules into a wheel to roll swiftly over flat ground, shape-shift into a …

Books & Arts

Future shocks

Books & Arts

Our house

Books & Arts

Forget the spotted owl,

Books & Arts

The world at their feet

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.

The Last Word

Cold start Question : Although this sounds counter-intuitive, I find that my car (a Ford Mondeo, if that is relevant) always seems to perform better on a damp, cold day rather than on a dry, warm one. Why should this be? Answer : There are several ways of improving the power produced by an internal …

Regulars

Feedback

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word