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This week's magazine

9 April 2005

Issue 2494

New Scientist issue 2494 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.

Health

Welcome to the immortals' club

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.

Physics

Taking snapshots of a light wave

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

Life's top 10 greatest inventions

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

Will machines ever understand us?

IF YOU have ever called a directory enquiries or flight information service, the chances are that you have spent a few happy minutes speaking to a computer. And according to some business analysts, talking to a computer in this way will soon become an everyday experience, one that changes the way we live and work. …

News

Technology

Invention

News

Technology

Recharging a battery in three minutes flat

News

Technology

Blow to massive musical-ringtone industry

News

Technology

Non-acoustic sensors detect speech without sound

News

Technology

Internet Domain Name System working fine

News

Technology

World's most sensitive scales unveiled

News

Health

Brass pots polish off food-poisoning bugs

News

Earth

Aussie birds do not like it hot

News

Life

Strong competition leads naturally to class structure

News

Earth

Dandruff may contribute to world climate

News

Space

Cosmic 'smoke ring' floats into view

News

Health

Human guinea pigs speed up drug development

News

Health

Malaria-fighting gene may speed cancer growth

News

Life

Winning is great but losing is safer

News

Technology

Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

News

Space

Shape-shifting tetrabots tumble into action

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Look out for giant triangles in space

News

Humans

Will DNA profiling fuel prejudice?

News

Technology

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix

News

Technology

Fuel cell squeezes more from petrol

News

Life

Early toolmakers cast off rock-banger image

News

Health

Pandemic bug may make a comeback

News

Health

Is a horrific new killer emerging?

News

Technology

Hope for portable MRI scanners

News

FBI suspends bullet-matching technique

News

Earth

Pipeline diverted around whale feeding ground

News

Technology

Finger chopped off to beat car security

News

Earth

UK's nuclear waste to be buried

News

Health

UK may consider legalising assisted suicide

News

Earth

Weedkiller may cause amphibian loss

News

60 Seconds

News

Technology

Fire risk on ageing aircraft

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.

The power to choose a baby's sex

IT IS almost inevitable in the UK that anyone who encourages the use of technology to help people choose the sex of their baby, or to make any other intervention in the "natural" reproductive process, is accused of playing Frankenstein – or, perhaps, God. And so it was with the recent report on reproductive technologies …

Opinion

Editorial: Your DNA in their hands

Opinion

Humans

Westminster diary

Opinion

Health

Interview: Eat for your lives!

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.

Health

Welcome to the immortals' club

MY BRUSH with immortality began almost by accident. Late last year, rumours began to drift through my email inbox that some of the entrepreneurs who had backed the Ansari X prize – which I had been writing about for years – were working on a new project. They were helping to develop and fund an …

Features

Physics

Taking snapshots of a light wave

Features

Life

Life's top 10 greatest inventions

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.

Physics

The Math Instinct by Keith Devlin

CAN dogs do calculus? Well no, not the way college students do it. For one thing, dogs usually get the right answer. When chasing a ball thrown into a lake, dogs run along the beach and then choose just the right point to jump into the water to reach the ball in the shortest time. …

Books & Arts

Physics

The Scientific Legacy of Fred Hoyle by Douglas Gough

Books & Arts

Space

On the Shores of the Unknown by Joseph Silk

Books & Arts

Bestselling science books in Berkeley, California

Books & Arts

Life

Four books on human origins and evolution

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

Bleep-a-doodle-do ALIVE, ALIVE-O! Inverclyde council in Scotland is proud of the bird life to be found in the inner Clyde estuary, which has been designated a site of special scientific interest. The council devotes a page of its website to the birds that live there or pass through. The Clyde, it tells us, is the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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