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This week's magazine

5 August 2006

Issue 2563

New Scientist issue 2563 cover
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Editor's picks

Catch the fog to grow a forest

Earth

Catch the fog to grow a forest

Features
The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale

Health

The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale

Features
Ocean acidification: the <I>other</I> CO<SUB>2</SUB> problem

Earth

Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem

Features
Buildings that whistle in the wind

Technology

Buildings that whistle in the wind

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

Shape-shifting lens mimics human eye

SOMETIMES all it takes is a quick hug, and everything looks different. Now a shape-shifting lens has been developed that alters its focal length when squeezed by an artificial muscle, rather like the lens in a human eye. The muscle, a ring of polymer gel, expands and contracts in response to environmental changes, eliminating the …

News

Earth

Why drinking beer is good for the planet

News

Earth

Electro-map spies salty aquifers

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

DNA processors cash in on silicon's weaknesses

News

Technology

Cyber-baddies mutate to win

News

Technology

Deliver goods by 'flying whale' mail

News

Life

Bone marrow still juicy after 10 million years

News

Life

Why midnight snacking is addictive

News

Earth

Cosmic dust off the hook

News

Earth

The bucket of bugs we all came from

News

Life

Premature babies' brains don't grow so well after birth

News

Earth

Itty-bitty little volcanoes revealed

News

Health

Popular curry spice is a brain booster

News

Life

Endangered cattle find pastures new

News

Life

How a mouse nose knows it's found a mate

News

Life

Starlings' disco vision means bungled mate choices

News

Health

Does drug testing tell the whole story?

News

Soundbites

News

Earth

US falling behind on clean air

News

Space

Supernovae make dark matter bloat

News

Space

Where are all the supermassive black holes?

News

This week 36 years ago

News

Life

To get home, a pigeon just follows its nose

News

Health

Now we have a fighting chance against bird flu

News

Health

Breast is best, but watch out for the allergies

News

Physics

The man who was both alive and dead

News

Life

The secret life of semen

News

Health

Not brain-dead, but ripe for transplant

News

60 Seconds

News

Technology

Making radioactive waste safe in just decades

News

Health

Drug-danger 'league table' revealed

News

Earth

Hurricane nursery to be examined up close

News

Life

Human egg exchange given green light in UK

News

Earth

Blazing row over 'salvage' logging

News

Earth

Sun, sand and lots of sewage

News

Health

Dressed to kill the malaria parasite

News

Opinion

In search of the big picture

Life

In search of the big picture

THERE is nothing new about scientists trying to understand art. The great German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz lectured on the relationship between painting and optics in the 1870s and encouraged physiologists to contribute to the theory of art. Plenty of scientists since have made similar forays. Yet there is a dazzling boldness in the ideas …

Opinion

Life

Why not become superhuman?

Opinion

Life

Editorial: Dealing with sports doping

Opinion

Health

Editorial: The empty promises of food supplements

Opinion

Features

Catch the fog to grow a forest

Earth

Catch the fog to grow a forest

When Spanish sailors landed on the Canary Island of El Hierro in the 15th century they were amazed to find an aboriginal population with extensive agriculture, which they had somehow managed to sustain with virtually no rainfall. Legend has it that the Guanche people derived all their water from a single large tree, which stripped …

Features

Health

The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale

Features

Earth

Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem

Features

Technology

Buildings that whistle in the wind

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.

Science stepping into the limelight

AT FIRST glance, science and theatre make unlikely bedfellows, but you don't need to look far to see that they've been making a good go of it recently. Consider the international popularity of plays such as Michael Frayn's Copenhagen , Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Terry Johnson's Insignificance , all of which explore science themes in …

Books & Arts

Earth

Too comfortable with catastrophe

Books & Arts

The word: Whorehouse meadow

Regulars

Physics

The Science of Describing, by Brian Ogilvie

Books & Arts

Life

Empires of Belief, by Stuart Sim

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

Noisy and obnoxious DON'T you get furious when obnoxious adverts keep popping up on a website you have visited? A middle-aged colleague recently encountered one on the site of, would you believe it, The New York Times . Out of the blue, the advert started warning him about sexual inadequacies – and it did so …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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