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This week's magazine

24 December 2005

Issue 2531

New Scientist issue 2531 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.

Technology

Histories: Military secrets and hidden patents

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

How clean is your desk?

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.

Ho, ho, ho...

Features
Looking for a creator's signature in space

Life

Looking for a creator's signature in space

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

Boring-ology: A happy tedium

Features
E-gift vouchers: Whose money is it anyway?

Technology

E-gift vouchers: Whose money is it anyway?

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

Revealing the secret of 'hot ice'

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

Addictive, seductive, sudoku

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

Is advertising flogging a dead horse?

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

A crackling Christmas mystery

Features
Put a wild wobble in your walk

Life

Put a wild wobble in your walk

Features
Animals and their amazing superpowers

Life

Animals and their amazing superpowers

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

Savour the festive flavour

Features
Highway heaven or highway hell?

Technology

Highway heaven or highway hell?

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

Do the brainwave boogie-woogie

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

When a deathtrap becomes a free lunch

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.

End of year quiz

Features
Discovering the nature of party people

Life

Discovering the nature of party people

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.

Review 2005: God on trial

IT IS not often that New Scientist receives letters from readers threatening to sue God, but one recently wrote in asking for compensation for his badly designed back. Disregarding the chutzpah of such a lawsuit, and the difficulties of arranging debt collection in case God lost and failed to pay up, the letter was emblematic …

News

Earth

Review 2005: The year of the hurricane

News

Life

Review 2005: Revenge of the mammals

News

Space

Review 2005: Return of the shuttle

News

Life

Review 2005: Here's looking at you, chimp

News

Health

Review 2005: Bird flu flies the coop

News

Life

Review 2005: Rise and fall of the stem cell king

News

Earth

Review 2005: Climate going crazy

News

Space

Review 2005: Touchdown on Titan

News

Space

Review 2005: Mars rovers roll on

News

Physics

Review 2005: Einstein remembered

News

Earth

The biggest stories of 2005

News

Technology

Dazzle gun will protect US helicopters

News

Soundbites

News

Earth

Spotting the world's polluters from space

News

Technology

Gyroscope sets course to fight cancer

News

Technology

Smoke detector ignores burning cigarettes

News

Technology

Gaping holes in internet security

News

Life

Civilisation left its mark on our genes

News

Technology

Camera phone helps label snaps

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Life

Cloning crisis goes from bad to worse

News

Earth

Fear still haunts Tsunami survivors

News

Earth

Drought plus snails equals disaster

News

Life

What's the point of the narwhal's tusk?

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.

Life

Art and emotion seen eye to eye

Art inspires strong feelings – and feelings work on the brain in very specific ways. So in theory, art should make a good tool for anyone who wants to explore not just art but also emotions and neurology. Absolutely, reckon British artist Helen Storey and American psychologist and neuroscientist Jim Coan. Earlier this year, they …

Opinion

Life

The gift of cord blood

Opinion

Life

Editorial: Breach of trust over stem cells

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.

Technology

Histories: Military secrets and hidden patents

When I was in the Royal Air Force in the 1950s, learning about electronics as part of my military service, my fellow airmen and I were ushered into a hut, told to sign the Official Secrets Act and shown how to repair an Enigma-like cipher machine that sent coded messages. We were told to take …

Features

Physics

A crackling Christmas mystery

Features

End of year quiz

Features

Life

When a deathtrap becomes a free lunch

Features

Life

Do the brainwave boogie-woogie

Features

Technology

Highway heaven or highway hell?

Features

Life

Savour the festive flavour

Features

Life

Animals and their amazing superpowers

Features

Life

Put a wild wobble in your walk

Features

Life

Is advertising flogging a dead horse?

Features

Life

How clean is your desk?

Features

Life

Addictive, seductive, sudoku

Features

Physics

Revealing the secret of 'hot ice'

Features

Technology

E-gift vouchers: Whose money is it anyway?

Features

Life

Boring-ology: A happy tedium

Features

Life

Looking for a creator's signature in space

Features

Ho, ho, ho...

Features

Life

Discovering the nature of party people

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 word: Sprawl

SPRAWL is a dirty word. Like weed or dementia, it's insidious, a creeping malaise with overtones of irresponsible and conspicuous consumption. "Most people don't believe that they live in sprawl," says art historian Robert Bruegmann in his new book on the phenomenon. "Sprawl is where other people live, the result of other people's poor choices." …

Regulars

Space

The New Atlas of Planet Management edited by Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent

Books & Arts

Space

The Space Tourist's Handbook by Eric Anderson and Joshua Piven

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

FORGET intelligent design – we suffer from damn stupid design, as many readers noted in response to our seasonal competition, which asked how you would modify the human body if you were not restricted in any way. As Stephan Peters puts it: "The human body is crammed full of messy plumbing, circuitry, scaffolding, dodgy components …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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