Issue 2312 | Magazine cover date: 13 October 2001 | New Scientist

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13 October 2001

Issue 2312

New Scientist issue 2312 cover

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On the cover

Features

The big chill

News

One slot fits all

Opinion

Westminster diary

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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.

The big chill

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

Painted ladies

Features

Keep your hair on

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.

One slot fits all

Gadget fans can be driven crazy by the incompatible memory-card formats for digital cameras, handheld computers, palmtops and MP3 players—especially as they all use different leads and software to connect to a computer. But now help is at hand for those fed up of wrestling with mismatched hardware. A Minnesota-based data storage firm Imation aims …

News

The end of the roadie?

News

Stretching a cancer cell gives a clearer picture

News

Technology

Back-breaking genes

News

Technology

Bill's bargains

News

Technology

Electric fog

News

Going loco

News

Mighty muscles help chameleons grab a quick bite

News

Brain-boosting bacon

News

Cosmic life form

News

Go clean with spliffs

News

Ancient sea cow

News

Family trauma

News

Why black holes put the squeeze on memory

News

Fish on the slide

News

Cornflake monsters

News

Up for grabs

News

Jab warning

News

Salvation for rodents

News

Gender-bending ban

News

Enemy within

News

Must do better

News

Flat packs are go

News

Telltale bones

News

Jurassic Park's flying circus

News

Broken vistas

News

Focus on early cosmos

News

Baby repair kit

News

Acid ripples

News

Locked out

News

Anthrax attack

News

The nightmare scenario

News

Robot wars

News

First division

News

Check out the radiation

News

Homeward bound

News

Perfect pill

News

Their brains lit up across a crowded room

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.

Westminster diary

HEAVENS ABOVE! The police are to be allowed to keep tabs on DNA samples from innocent people without their consent. Is this good or bad? New Scientist reckons it's "time for a bit of fury. And a full and open debate" (5 May, p 3) . Bob Ainsworth, a junior Home Office minister with responsibilities …

Opinion

At any cost

Opinion

Never the same again

Opinion

In from the cold

Opinion

Send in the robots

Opinion

Give it to us straight

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.

The big chill

A DOWNMARKET neighbourhood in Detroit is not the most obvious place to discover a bunch of excited scientists and engineers. But here in Frisbie, we believe we're part of a revolution. From next month, the electricity delivered to 30,000 homes in Detroit will pass through three superconducting cables each 120 metres long, fitted at the …

Features

Life

Painted ladies

Features

Keep your hair on

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.

Hunting the past

Constructing Frames of Reference by Lewis Binford, University of California Press, $75, ISBN 0520223934 I HAD been struggling with this vast book for weeks when—on page 392, generalisation number 95, proposition 50—the truth finally dawned. The professionally flattering blurbs from three continents are not mere hype: Lewis Binford's Constructing Frames of Reference is a "compelling", …

Books & Arts

Not about us

Books & Arts

The Blue Planet by Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill and Martha Holmes

Books & Arts

Lunar child's play

Books & Arts

Hang on tight

Books & Arts

Adventures in the Atomic Age by Glenn Seaborg

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

Snail's pace Question : Everyone knows that conventional letter post is referred to by e-mail users as "snail mail". I wonder if this dismissive term may be really accurate. The other day I posted a letter to my parents who live about 25 kilometres away from me. It arrived two days later. I calculated that …

Regulars

Feedback

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word