Subscribe now

This week's magazine

3 December 2005

Issue 2528

New Scientist issue 2528 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Histories: Mark Twain's big mistake

Technology

Histories: Mark Twain's big mistake

Features
Clean drinking water: a double-edged sword?

Health

Clean drinking water: a double-edged sword?

Features
Virtual fitness trainer gets pulses racing

Technology

Virtual fitness trainer gets pulses racing

Features
Is global warming making hurricanes stronger?

Earth

Is global warming making hurricanes stronger?

Features
Memory-altering drugs may rewrite your past

Life

Memory-altering drugs may rewrite your past

Features

Table of contents

News

Taking on the drugged and drunk drivers

Technology

Taking on the drugged and drunk drivers

The prototype Roadside Impairment Test Device presents a series of psychomotor tests designed to reveal drink or drug taking IN A government lab in a bleak, misty field in the middle of the English countryside, I am playing with a gadget that looks not unlike a PlayStation Portable. I have to press one button when …

News

Earth

Energy diary helps correct bad habits

News

Technology

Smart software learns actions of the elderly

News

Life

Two-metre-long water scorpion walked on the beach

News

Physics

Nuke test laser flickers into life

News

Life

Weaver birds let their guard down

News

Life

Puzzle of the failed clones takes a fresh twist

News

Health

Pesticide link to breast growth

News

Space

Saturn's ring has a coiled spring

News

Technology

UK case for holding terror suspects 'misleading'

News

Space

Bad vibes picked up from leaky spacecraft

News

Technology

Internet plan may shorten breast scan waiting lists

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Life

'America's first footprints' too old to be human

News

Health

If expectant mums put on the pounds, so do the kids

News

Life

Aerodynamic tricks keep bees airborne

News

Space

Dark energy: Was Einstein right all along?

News

Earth

The seas are alive with the sound of icebergs

News

Life

Ebola's hiding place revealed

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Concerns over IVF contamination risk

News

Life

Pregnancy drug can affect grandkids too

News

Earth

Faltering currents trigger freeze fear

News

Space

Giant eye ready to spot planet birth

News

Life

Lowly sea animals boast world-class genetic armoury

News

Physics

Newton trumps Einstein in poll of influence

News

Earth

Future bleak for dolphins and porpoises

News

Space

Second time lucky for Hayabusa

News

Earth

How much is a rainforest worth?

News

Earth

China apologises to Russia over chemical spill

News

Earth

Denmark to tax farmers of GM crops

News

Health

The folly of not going folic

News

60 Seconds

News

Opinion

Mind your scientific language

Physics

Mind your scientific language

IN DESCRIBING humankind's fascination with extra dimensions for The New York Times recently, I made the mistake of mentioning string theory and intelligent design on the same page. My purpose was not to claim they are similar. Quite the opposite. I wanted to describe how both science and religion sometimes provoke heated debates about features …

Opinion

Life

Editorial: We must learn from stem cell debacle

Opinion

Life

An accent on uniformity and difference

Opinion

Features

Histories: Mark Twain's big mistake

Technology

Histories: Mark Twain's big mistake

On 5 January 1889, Mark Twain watched with glee as an extraordinary invention clattered into life. "At 12.20 this afternoon," wrote America's most famous novelist, "a line of moveable type was spaced and justified by machinery, for the first time in the history of the world! And I was there to see it. It was …

Features

Health

Clean drinking water: a double-edged sword?

Features

Technology

Virtual fitness trainer gets pulses racing

Features

Earth

Is global warming making hurricanes stronger?

Features

Life

Memory-altering drugs may rewrite your past

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.

Round up

Full speed ahead Science just got faster in Ireland. This September, a €2.6 million supercomputing centre opened in Dublin, the first of its kind in the country. Irish researchers now have access to 1000 IBM processors, and will be able to use the facility for everything from molecular modelling to astrophysics. The fabric of life …

Careers

Science in Ireland: Reversing the brain drain

Careers

Life

A perfect world at any price

Books & Arts

Life

Famous ape artwork goes on display

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

Innovative freebies CONFERENCES sponsored by drug companies are usually awash with gifts from the munificent firms. These freebies range from pens bearing company logos to copious food and drink. The Second European Influenza Conference, which took place in Malta recently, was no exception. But companies are clearly casting about for novel ways to impress. Points …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop