Issue 2253 | Magazine cover date: 26 August 2000 | New Scientist

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26 August 2000

Issue 2253

New Scientist issue 2253 cover

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On the cover

Features

Metal heads

News

A pig of a problem

Opinion

Steamed up

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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.

Metal heads

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.

Eye wish

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.

Access all areas

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.

Outrageous fortune

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 pig of a problem

FEARS about the wisdom of giving people pigs' organs were reawakened last week. A study in the US shows that transplanting pig tissue into mice can lead to their becoming infected by viruses lurking in the pigs' DNA, while another in France suggests that controlling these viruses will be even harder than anyone thought. It's …

News

Technology

Hums and helicopters

News

Technology

Well-cracked code

News

Playing with bugs

News

Healthy clones

News

Chimp genes now

News

Catch 'em if you can

News

How sewage can clean up rivers

News

Life in the clouds

News

Globs in space

News

Down in one

News

Cause unknown

News

There's more to follicles than stubble

News

Together at last

News

Say it loud

News

Second-hand

News

A hole lot colder

News

Young deceivers

News

Bugs for bunnies

News

Technology

Damaged goods

News

Aspirin chained

News

Stop that virus

News

Spot the difference

News

Beware the bats

News

Up and away

News

Read all about it

News

Burnished bright

News

Lighten your wallet

News

Smokescreen exposed

News

Sniffing danger

News

Mystery hot spots have astronomers baffled

News

Sniffing danger

News

Electrocuting chicken and chips

News

Unhealthy glow

News

Safe to drink

News

Exposure

News

See me, feel me

News

Sensor sensibility

News

Nicotine's fatal attraction

News

Technology

Jams today

News

The art of killing

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.

Steamed up

IF YOU were to go out in the street and ask people what the North Pole is like, most would probably tell you that it is very cold and very difficult to get to, unless you like hauling sledges across vast sheets of ice while worrying about attacks by polar bears. A few might also …

Opinion

Humans

Washington diary

Opinion

Technology

Robots take the field

Opinion

City of dreams

Opinion

Thirsty work

Opinion

Compare and Contrast . . .

Opinion

Out of the shadows

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.

Metal heads

AN ORE prospector might think he was nearing the mother lode. For buried within the grey and white matter in your head, stashed safely inside nuggets of protein, is a surprising quantity of metal. In fact, the human brain contains about 6 milligrams of copper, enough to print a small circuit board. Zinc, iron and …

Features

Eye wish

Features

Access all areas

Features

Outrageous fortune

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.

Mindblasting

Too much contemplation of the infinite can damage your health. Amir Aczel, in The Mystery of the Aleph, makes this clear in what is mostly the biography of the celebrated George Cantor, who became intermittently mad while grappling with the rarefied mathematics of transfinite numbers. Theoretical mathematicians will revel in this well-written, witty book and …

Books & Arts

Vision thing

Books & Arts

Sue's story

Books & Arts

Bestsellers from Cambridge

Books & Arts

Caught in the labyrinth

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

A FRIEND working for the European Commission in Brussels had her Monday morning brightened up by this circular in the internal mail. "EU internal market ministers concluded four years of debate last week by agreeing legislation which defines honey as a 'natural sweet substance' produced by Apis mellifera bees." "Mellifera" means honey-making, so what the …

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The Last Word

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Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word