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This week's magazine

3 July 2004

Issue 2454

New Scientist issue 2454 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.

The power of five

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.

Nesperennub unwound

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 rise and fall of the wonder-drugs

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.

Hit cancer where it hurts

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

Robotic wheels that just keep rolling along

A GAGGLE of miniature robots are falling over themselves in a Japanese lab. But they are not malfunctioning: it is the way they have been designed to move. The wheel-shaped robots, which are just 4 centimetres in diameter and 1 centimetre thick, were built by Shinichi Hirai and Yuuta Sugiyama at Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu. …

News

Technology

Fair cop

News

Technology

Fill 'er up for bullet proofing

News

Technology

Shaken, not stirred

News

Technology

Let software catch the game for you

News

Technology

Welding breakthrough means stronger planes

News

Technology

Cutting edge

News

Better by design

News

Not too hot, not too cold

News

How penguin dads keep fish for chicks

News

Twin mysteries beneath the Antarctic ice

News

In theory, they should be dead…

News

Soundbites

News

The plants that self-compost

News

Bird flu becoming more dangerous

News

Technology

Bad driving holds the secret to traffic forecasts

News

Humans

High-protein diet, low fertility?

News

Humans

Narcotic khat gets sperm going

News

Keep eggs in the dark for friendlier chicks

News

Make it strong, make it glassy

News

Humans

Cancer drugs tame rogue womb cells

News

Air pollution damages DNA long before birth

News

Space

Gravity test for string theory

News

How babies become addicted to their mothers

News

Releasing Nemo proves a disaster for native fish

News

The famous early bird strikes again

News

Mad or unlucky?

News

Plan for plenty

News

Puberty inducer?

News

60 Seconds

News

If the speed of light can change…

News

Humans

An audit of war and occupation

News

Nuclear future gets the thumbs-up

News

First for fertility

News

Galileo fudged

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

ARGENTINE farmers have been experimenting with genetically modified soya (New Scientist, 17 April, p 40) . They thought that, used together with potent herbicides, the GM soya would solve many of the country's agricultural problems. Now the crop is being blamed for an environmental crisis threatening Argentina's fragile economic recovery. As chair of the all-party …

Opinion

To calm troubled waters

Opinion

It's time to plug into renewable power

Opinion

Feeding Africa

Opinion

Calling all would-be fathers

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.

Nesperennub unwound

Ancient Egyptians who wanted to enjoy the afterlife needed the services of a skilled embalmer. But even if your relatives hired the best, that didn't guarantee you would reach the next world suitably intact. Evidence from surviving mummies suggests some Egyptians made their final journey with a leg, a liver or other vital part missing, …

Features

The rise and fall of the wonder-drugs

Features

Hit cancer where it hurts

Features

The power of five

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.

A Sheltered Life: The unexpected history of the giant tortoise by Paul Chambers and other books

THE extinction of the dinosaurian reptiles obviously had nothing to do with human stupidity and ignorance, but responsibility for the loss of the remaining big reptiles does lie with us. In their different ways, these three new books on giant tortoises, iguanas and the extinct giant megalanid lizards of Australasia all tell the same sorry …

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

PASSWORDS can be a nuisance, especially when they are needed for an emergency system and the operator can't remember them. Wouldn't it be better if managements decreed that systems intended for emergencies had all their passwords set to the same thing, something like 0000000? Then we could all sleep better knowing that a forgotten password …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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