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This week's magazine

3 September 2005

Issue 2515

New Scientist issue 2515 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: Humphry Davy's dark side

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

Clean energy special: Eastern promise

Features
Clean energy special: A greener goal for coal

Earth

Clean energy special: A greener goal for coal

Features
Clean energy special: Gas-guzzling planet

Earth

Clean energy special: Gas-guzzling planet

Features
Clean energy special: Going underground

Earth

Clean energy special: Going underground

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

Clean energy special: The big clean-up

Features
Looking for LUCA – the mother of all life

Life

Looking for LUCA – the mother of all life

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

Illicit snappers caught infrared handed

WITH the rise of camera phones, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent people sneaking shots of works of art, say, or classified military hardware. But now there is a system that can automatically detect camera phones and fire out rays of light to distort any pictures they take. Previous attempts to prevent camera phones …

News

Technology

Canine coach keeps dieters on a leash

News

Technology

Cellphone TV gets good reception

News

Earth

Chinese fungus fad poses eco-threat

News

Life

Where did all the baby boys go?

News

Earth

Tsunami waves 'shot along' mid-ocean ridges

News

Health

Safe herbs and minerals for mother and baby

News

Life

King loses mother but gains a daughter

News

Physics

Superconducting crystal toggled by magnetism

News

Health

Olive oil reveals its hidden virtue

News

Life

Soil just got a lot buggier

News

Earth

Quake records reveal Earth's inner spin

News

Technology

Quantum computing switches wavelengths

News

Life

Ancient Brits had a way with mummies

News

Technology

Airborne robotic spycraft inspired by seagulls

News

Technology

Tech giants lock horns over DVD format

News

Technology

Drivers to get perfect view in the wet

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Life

Every non-human primate's guide to schmoozing

News

Soundbites

News

Earth

Habitat conservation could protect human lives

News

Life

If meditation is good, God makes it better

News

Health

Why fetuses do not feel pain

News

Space

High on a hill was a lonely rover

News

Earth

US states bypass White House over emissions

News

Life

British men's sperm is badly rated

News

Space

Cost cuts to dim space telescope's vision

News

Nuclear technology salesman kept under wraps

News

Life

Chimp genome: Lessons from our closest cousin

News

Health

UK cot deaths rise after nine years

News

Earth

Risk of West Nile virus grows in Katrina's wake

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.

Technology

Sex, lies and cyberpower

WHEN the internet company ICM Registry proposed the creation of a virtual red light district in 2000, fenced in by a .xxx web address suffix or "top level domain" (TLD), it was hoping to create revenue by providing a new business opening for pornographers. The company, based in Jupiter, Florida, plans to make money leasing …

Opinion

Earth

Painless emissions cuts – too good to be true?

Opinion

Life

Chimps and us – it is the differences that count

Opinion

Life

Perspectives: Watch the birdie

Opinion

Physics

Interview: Hot link to a Nobel prize

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: Humphry Davy's dark side

As scientific heroes go, Humphry Davy is up there with the best of them. He is revered not for his experiments with laughing gas or electrochemistry but because he demonstrated that science could be put to good, practical use. In 1815, he invented the miners' safety lamp, a simple but ingenious piece of technology that …

Features

Earth

Clean energy special: Eastern promise

Features

Earth

Clean energy special: A greener goal for coal

Features

Earth

Clean energy special: Gas-guzzling planet

Features

Earth

Clean energy special: Going underground

Features

Earth

Clean energy special: The big clean-up

Features

Life

Looking for LUCA – the mother of all life

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

The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

"A new form of science as literature" is how reviewer Mark Pagel described Richard Dawkins's The Ancestor's Tale , which is now out in paperback (Phoenix, £9.99). He relished its subtle insights of scientific understanding – part poetry, part science – in service of the big idea that is evolutionary history. Particularly good reading right …

Books & Arts

Space

Women in Space: Following Valentina by David Shaylar and Ian Moule

Books & Arts

Environment

Topping up the eco-skill reservoir

Careers

Earth

The word: Act of God

Regulars

Life

Lucust by Jeffrey Lockwood

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

Misleading and absurd JUST occasionally, a promotion for a commercial product is so misleading it makes us huff and puff. An example is the publicity for a new skincare product called Neaclear. It is apparently "creating a big commotion in the dermatologic community". The company's website ( www.neaclear.com ) helpfully explains how "the body can …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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