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This week's magazine

20 August 2005

Issue 2513

New Scientist issue 2513 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

Histories: Get up, get out of bed

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.

What if… Darwin had not sailed on the Beagle

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

What if… Electric motors pre-dated steam engines

Features
What if… Young Einstein had been ignored

Physics

What if… Young Einstein had been ignored

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.

What if… Charles II had no interest in science

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

What if… Newton had abandoned science

Features
What if…? Exploring alternative scientific pasts

What if…? Exploring alternative scientific pasts

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

What if…the Nazis had won

Features
The amazing food replicator

Space

The amazing food replicator

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

Cellular motors may help unclog arteries

AN OPTICAL "motor" made from a red blood cell and a laser could have applications as diverse as malaria diagnosis and measuring molecules. It could even be set spinning to unclog blocked arteries, according to its developer, Deepak Mathur of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. He and his colleagues discovered by …

News

Technology

3D computer model emerges from a pile of snaps

News

Technology

How bots can earn more than you

News

Technology

Electronic skin turns robots touchy-feely

News

Technology

Improved X-rays bring breast cancer into focus

News

Technology

Stored summer heat de-ices winter roads

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Earth

Was 'snowball Earth' more of a slushball?

News

Life

'Nurse' cells may help infertile males

News

Health

An aspirin a day is not for everybody

News

Life

Cheap drug could polish off HIV

News

Health

Human tests near for Alzheimer's treatment

News

Life

Some hotspots are hotter than others

News

Earth

Rapid-fire eruptions doomed the dinosaurs

News

Health

HIV could fight immune diseases

News

Earth

Sceptics forced into climate climb-down

News

Space

Swift probe answers gamma-ray burst questions

News

Earth

Global warming brings earlier spring thaw to Great Lakes

News

Space

Dwarf galaxy lights up dark matter debate

News

Life

Inca bean counters used string theory

News

Earth

Quest for oil could injure marine life

News

Soundbites

News

Health

Glimpse your genetic future for $1000

News

Health

New York smoking ban helps hospitality workers

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Baby comes with brain repair kit for mum

News

Space

'Tenth planet' hunted in wrong part of the sky

News

Health

Legal loophole may allow exposure to chemicals

News

Earth

Northern-most hydrothermal vents revealed

News

Life

Paternity uncertainty revealed as 1 in 25

News

Life

Sexy images cause temporary blindness

News

Space

NASA still flummoxed by falling foam

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.

Space

The space shuttle: To pointlessly go...

"I THINK this was a wildly successful mission in so many ways," declared Bill Parsons, the head of the shuttle programme, after Discovery returned to Earth last week. Sure, nobody died, and the astronauts managed to make improvised repairs while in orbit. But this mission, billed as the "return to flight", was supposed to prove …

Opinion

Life

Forget the statistics, killing is wrong

Opinion

Life

Editorial: What is the status of embryos?

Opinion

Technology

Interview: The world in focus

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

Histories: Get up, get out of bed

Thirty-nine years ago, Gregg Hill took the world's laziest summer job. First he was poked, prodded and had his fitness assessed by every technique then known to medicine. Then, for 20 days, he and four other student volunteers became the ultimate couch potatoes, confined to bed – not even allowed to walk to the toilet. …

Features

What if… Darwin had not sailed on the Beagle

Features

Technology

What if… Electric motors pre-dated steam engines

Features

Physics

What if… Young Einstein had been ignored

Features

What if… Charles II had no interest in science

Features

Physics

What if… Newton had abandoned science

Features

What if…? Exploring alternative scientific pasts

Features

Physics

What if…the Nazis had won

Features

Space

The amazing food replicator

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.

Not built in a day

This is a book of delights. A volcanologist and two geologists unpick the fabric of Rome, from its roots of silts and gravels overlain by volcanic flows to the summits of the seven hills. Lava from volcanoes in the neighbouring Alban Hills made a useful building material, soft enough to cut with a knife yet …

Books & Arts

The long view

Books & Arts

Living under a spaceport's flight path

Books & Arts

Physics

The word: Frustration

Regulars

The Geneticist who Played Hoops with my DNA, by David Ewing Duncan

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

Feedback

Paperclip philosopher FEEDBACK is surely not alone in detesting "helpful" computers, reasoning that their entire purpose is to be obedient, not to second-guess their owners. Adonis Patrikios, in contrast, decided to test just how helpful and friendly the Microsoft Office Assistant – usually incarnated as a supremely annoying paperclip – could be. "Who am I?" …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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