Subscribe now

This week's magazine

6 April 2002

Issue 2337

New Scientist issue 2337 cover
Previous issue Next issue

On the cover

Features

The sea of mirages

News

This won't hurt a bit

Opinion

Westminster diary
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

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 sea of mirages

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.

Moon behaving badly

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.

Body blaster

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.

Beat the clock

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.

Smash and grab

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.

This won't hurt a bit

YOU never notice mosquito bites until it's too late—because the bite itself is painless. So why not try to mimic the mosquito's unique "stinger" to make a needle that you won't feel when it's taking blood or injecting drugs? That's precisely what a team of Japanese microengineers has done. Contrary to popular belief, a mosquito …

News

Is ESA'snew climate observatory up to the job?

News

Looks amazing, shame about the teeth

News

Dark forces at work

News

Unfriendly giant

News

Faithful photons

News

Bad influence

News

Cat jab

News

It's bad to talk

News

Combing out disorderly DNA

News

Same again?

News

Ready to croak

News

Road gangs don X-ray specs to avoid a shock

News

Technology

Sockets in your pockets

News

Technology

Spelling out clearer signs

News

Technology

Heads like triangles

News

Robohack

News

Grub's up

News

The lynx effect

News

Dummy run

News

Mozzies in your tyres

News

Nightmare food

News

Blame it on the box

News

Beating the Alps

News

Crops can coexist…as long as they're kept apart

News

Bats on the brain

News

Emergency exit

News

India says yes to transgenic crops

News

Cunning killers caught out

News

Feel the force

News

Blinded by bread

News

Pick out pikachu

News

False alarm on beef

News

Keep a lid on it

News

You're my kind of curl

News

The great black spot

News

Stuff of miracles

News

Lost innocence

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

"CAUGHT out again" was this magazine's verdict on the recent volcanic eruption near the town of Goma in the Congo (2 February, p 3) . Geologists knew it was gearing up for something nasty, but they were still surprised when the lava began to flow. I fear that next time the headline could be "Caught …

Opinion

Shining star

Opinion

On the desire of wings

Opinion

Image problem

Opinion

Forlorn farewell to frogs

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 sea of mirages

THE Sahara is one of the great blanks on the map of the world. And 19th-century geographers and engineers abhorred such gaps. At the start of the 1870s, North America had been spanned by the railroad and the oceans were criss-crossed with telegraph cables. But as the "scramble for Africa" among European powers got under …

Features

Moon behaving badly

Features

Body blaster

Features

Beat the clock

Features

Smash and grab

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.

Flashes of brilliance

Science Pathways of Discovery edited by Ivan Amato, Wiley, £20.95/$27.95, ISBN 047105660X EACH month during 2000, the journal Science published a specially commissioned overview of one scientific discipline. The idea was to produce something as illuminating as the firework displays that marked the new millennium—but longer-lasting. Sixteen scientists, each with a sparkling reputation in their …

Books & Arts

Super furry animals

Books & Arts

Time Traveler by Michael Novacek

Books & Arts

Science Fictions by John Crewdson

Books & Arts

Out in paperback

Books & Arts

Wings of desire

Books & Arts

We are stardust

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

REVERSE-CHARGE text messaging is the latest big thing. It began in Britain and will soon roll out across the rest of Europe, which uses the same cellphone system. Whereas text messages normally cost nothing to receive, reverse messaging lets cellphone owners pay about 25p a time to receive business or sports news, for example. But …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop