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This week's magazine

25 June 2005

Issue 2505

New Scientist issue 2505 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.

Histories: The big scribble

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.

Earth

Aftershocks – living through a lightning strike

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.

Technology

Wanted! Search engine top spots

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.

Space

Killer asteroid: Too close for comfort

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.

Life

Cancer drug prevents premature birth

A CANCER drug might help prevent premature birth, for which there is no safe and effective treatment at present. It is the main cause of death in babies. During pregnancy, the hormone hCG keeps the uterus relaxed. Towards the end, the number of receptors that respond to hCG falls, allowing contractions to begin. But sometimes …

News

Technology

Quantum computer springs a leak

News

Technology

Blast of sound turns liquid to jelly

News

Technology

TVs will cost the Earth

News

Technology

Revealed: the true cost of computer crime

News

Space

Cast-off spacesuit turned into a satellite

News

Technology

Beware of strangers bearing iPods

News

Technology

Microwave-based missile defence for airliners

News

Life

Army gadget tracks rumble in the jungle

News

Life

Older mothers use anti-ageing genes

News

Life

Subterranean bugs reach out for their energy

News

Live to a ripe old age – with a little help from your friends

News

Life

Life thrives on ocean's faint glow

News

Earth

Global warming will bring fiercer hurricanes

News

Space

Big bang made waves in the sea of neutrinos

News

Health

Rapid test for bird flu developed

News

Life

Brain scans find the penis at last

News

Life

IVF safest with one embryo

News

Life

Women's orgasms are a turn-off for the brain

News

Health

Drug disrupts cancer's production line

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Is steroid treatment for miscarriage safe?

News

Life

Fossil mammal had a sting in the tooth

News

Earth

Let the big fish go to save the species

News

Earth

Worries over US response to tsunami scare

News

Life

Do games prime brain for violence?

News

Life

'Rubber hand' illusion creates ghost sensations

News

Earth

Fines used to keep Antarctica tidy

News

First private solar sail primed for blast-off

News

Earth

Bangladeshi island suffers accelerating erosion

News

Health

China hinders bird flu research

News

Space

Martian menu rustled up from nine ingredients

News

Health

Gene patent fight over breast cancer test

News

Space

Hubble spies lord of the stellar rings

News

60 Seconds

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.

Earth

Get off the fence over global warming

CLIMATE change is not a scientific issue. No, really, I'm serious. It is far more important than that. It forces us to make fundamental choices about our most basic belief systems. If policy-makers and the public could forget about the science, we'd have a much better chance of averting this looming catastrophe before it's too …

Opinion

Life

Editorial: The trouble with human-animal chimeras

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.

Histories: The big scribble

In the 1950s, the pace of change was astonishing. Pundits agreed that "immense progress" was being made: atomic energy, skyscrapers, electronic machines, potentially even space travel. Yet technological advance had its downside, and it looked as if penmanship was one of its early victims. Critics blamed the typewriter and the telephone, and forecast worse to …

Features

Earth

Aftershocks – living through a lightning strike

Features

Technology

Wanted! Search engine top spots

Features

Space

Killer asteroid: Too close for comfort

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.

Life

Evolution of the Insects by David Grimaldi and Michael S Engel

Their 400-million-year history of diversification has produced well over 900,000 living and named insect species, plus countless unnamed ones. Their evolution is a huge success story out of which Grimaldi and Engel, two entomologists, have produced a really excellent, beautifully illustrated account that will enthral both student and general reader. They have gone to town …

Books & Arts

Physics

Cartoon Guide to Chemistry by Larry Gonick & Craig Criddle

Books & Arts

The word: Serotiny

Regulars

Interview: The Koran to quantum physics

Books & Arts

Life

Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System: Book review

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

Promiscuous patenting SWEEPING liberalisation of the US patent laws is having some unexpected effects. Anyone with several hundred dollars spare to pay in official filing fees to the US Patent Office in Alexandria, Virginia, can now file for patent on more or less anything, it seems. Thus Colleen Giles and La'Mont Carmen of Columbus, Ohio, …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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