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This week's magazine

19 June 2004

Issue 2452

New Scientist issue 2452 cover
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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.

Flying saucers

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.

Copy and save

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 cell that makes us human

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.

Technology

May the fittest car win the race

CAN evolutionary theory help rival Formula 1 teams break Michael Schumacher's seemingly unassailable hold on top-flight motor racing? Computer scientists at University College London think it might. Peter Bentley and Krzysztof Wloch have used genetic algorithms – software that mimics evolution's drive for fitness – to breed the best tuning configurations for racing cars. Using …

News

Technology

Cutting edge

News

Technology

The metal that marks out a true champagne

News

Technology

ChatNannies' AI credentials still on hold

News

Technology

Spam-free phones

News

Technology

Going, going, click

News

Technology

Pronto printing

News

Technology

Stun weapons to target crowds

News

Technology

Give it some gas

News

Word-wise collie reveals secrets of language skills

News

'Lab on a chip' for stem cells

News

The vac factor

News

Mars marbles found on Earth

News

Liposuction leaves you no healthier

News

Juggling languages keeps brain sharper in old age

News

Stellar death, exotic birth

News

These jaws were made for biting

News

Soundbites

News

Technology

Power savers pack a punch

News

Technology

Green fuel earns its stripes in 24-hour endurance test

News

Fine-evading drivers have more accidents

News

Dye method of sperm sorting appears safe

News

Cities will swelter on summer nights

News

Life

Algae use sex to beat stress

News

Atoms trapped when shown their reflection

News

Elephant tremors only good for intimate 'chats'

News

Conspiracy threat to anti-nuke treaty

News

The final straw for a fragile treaty?

News

Climate blamed for upsurge in disease

News

New stars in the conservation show

News

Just add a chromosome…

News

Life

A new role for stem cells

News

60 Seconds

News

The attacks Bush forgot

News

Phoebe's portrait

News

Autism link?

News

Now prove it

News

The strain shows

News

Defending Darwin

News

Plans for NASA's future in disarray

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

SOME 30 years ago, as a parliamentary private secretary, I attended a meeting that health secretary Dick Crossman held with the chief medical officer George Godber and experts on declining sperm count – then a new phenomenon. Allan Pacey, a hormone expert at the University of Sheffield, said recently that to find out whether there …

Opinion

Build it big

Opinion

The great flood myth

Opinion

Don't try this at home

Opinion

Is this a shock tactic too far?

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.

Flying saucers

THROW a frisbee just right and it can skim straight for dozens of metres, arc across the sky, or zoom up before gliding gently to the ground. Misjudge the flick of your wrist and the spinning plastic disc will wobble precariously before flipping over and falling to earth. Why is it so easy to go …

Features

Copy and save

Features

The cell that makes us human

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.

Jacob's Ladder: The history of the human genome by Henry Gee

Jacob's Ladder: The history of the human genome by Henry Gee, Fourth Estate/W. W. Norton, £20/$25.95, ISBN 1841157341/0393050831 IF YOU believed the hype, the sequencing of the human genome would finally tell us how babies come from fertilised eggs and, more generally, what it is to be human. Henry Gee, very sensibly, doesn't buy it. …

Books & Arts

Environment

Leaping lemurs

Books & Arts

Scream of spring

Books & Arts

Reason to be cheerful

Books & Arts

Northern highlights

Careers

Treespotting

Books & Arts

Bestsellers - Portland,Oregon

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

NEVER let it be said that the US intelligence agencies are asleep at the wheel. According to US News and World Report, one day in April, the government's daily "threat matrix" identified a new hazard, one Don Emilio Fulci, a supposedly evil and reclusive millionaire. A tip-off had warned them that Fulci was planning to …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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