Subscribe now

This week's magazine

20 May 2006

Issue 2552

New Scientist issue 2552 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

Redesigning life: Meet the bio-hackers

Life

Redesigning life: Meet the bio-hackers

Features
At last, a way to test time travel

Physics

At last, a way to test time travel

Features
Online games, real-life crimes

Technology

Online games, real-life crimes

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

The incredible shrinking iguana

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: The sweet sound of profit

Features

Table of contents

News

Gecko-like robot scampers up the wall

Technology

Gecko-like robot scampers up the wall

A GECKO-like robot with sticky feet could soon be scampering up a wall near you. Video: See the robot in action here Geckos can climb up walls and across ceilings thanks to the millions of tiny hairs, or setae, on the surface of their feet. Each of these hairs is attracted to the wall by …

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Google vs. Microsoft: The fight for your computer

News

Technology

How our body's defences aid computers in distress

News

Space

Magnetic sled could hurl objects into orbit

News

Health

Pinning down where Prozac works

News

Space

Three-planet star system discovered

News

Health

Superbugs slain by soil antibiotic

News

Life

Hidden codes in monkey chit-chat

News

Life

Pigeon-brained birds can think in logarithms

News

Life

Caterpillars scent signs of trouble

News

Earth

Captain Cook's logs tell magnetic tale

News

Technology

Flocking birds inspire information organisation

News

This week 18 years ago

News

Life

Baby Truman Show spies on speech

News

Life

When evolution runs backwards

News

Earth

Himalayan forests are quietly vanishing

News

Earth

Where have all the flowers come from?

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Did humans and chimps once interbreed?

News

Earth

Out of mountain ice in Africa?

News

Life

Korea's disgraced 'cloning king' may face jail

News

Health

Brits less fazed by Iraq war

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Carbon trading: Keeping the green dream alive

News

Space

The short reign of dwarf galaxies

News

Health

The reality of chronic fatigue syndrome

News

Health

Is hunt for 'cancer genes' a wild goose chase?

News

Earth

Welcome to Sun City, Peru

News

Earth

Monsoon gloom strikes South Asia

News

Technology

Prizes for viable hydrogen fuel cell

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.

Health

Bird lovers in denial over bird flu

MOST of us, at some time in our lives, have refused to believe something we don't want to believe despite considerable evidence that it is true. Such denial is understandable; the truth can be painful. But there are times when denial can also be dangerous. The reluctance of some ornithologists, conservationists and other members of …

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: Emissions trading system off to shaky start

Opinion

Life

Editorial: Messy divorce for chimp and human ancestors

Opinion

Health

Interview: Confessions of a brain surgeon

Opinion

Features

Redesigning life: Meet the bio-hackers

Life

Redesigning life: Meet the bio-hackers

THE turning point for Samantha Sutton came in the second year of her electrical engineering degree, while testing antilock car brakes. "There was something missing," she says. "I felt the average engineer in my division wasn't really hacking and constructing as I wanted to. They were fine-tuning, refining. I just didn't find it terribly exciting." …

Features

Physics

At last, a way to test time travel

Features

Technology

Online games, real-life crimes

Features

Life

The incredible shrinking iguana

Features

Technology

Histories: The sweet sound of profit

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.

Graduate special: Six perfect jobs for scientists

Beer scientist Robert Nisbet We have to ask: do you get free samples? Unfortunately, no. But tasting is a big part of the production of a beer – each stage of the process has to be tasted to make sure it's right. And when you're developing new beers you have to taste them to make …

Careers

Life

Intelligent Thought edited by John Brockman

Books & Arts

Physics

Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's codebreaking computers edited by Jack Copeland

Books & Arts

What am I going to do with my future?

Careers

Graduate special: Fourteen myths about graduating

Careers

Graduate special: Eight tips for job interview success

Careers

The briefing

Careers

Life

The word: Troglobyte

Regulars

Benjamin Franklin: Scientist for the common man

Books & Arts

In the hall of the silicon king

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

Holographic healing OLDER readers may remember the days when "holography" served as an all-purpose buzzword standing for "advanced sciency thing". It seems, we fear, to be making a comeback. Gareth Davies, a medical physicist, was searching for information about the holographic process that can be used to encode data. What should he stumble across but …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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