Subscribe now

This week's magazine

27 January 2007

Issue 2588

New Scientist issue 2588 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: The hunt for the Wicklow gold

Earth

Histories: The hunt for the Wicklow gold

Features
Born under a bad sign?

Life

Born under a bad sign?

Features
The Large Hadron Collider: Bring it on!

Technology

The Large Hadron Collider: Bring it on!

Features
Can you <I>believe</I> the weather?

Earth

Can you believe the weather?

Features
'Supersize me' revisited – under lab conditions

Health

'Supersize me' revisited – under lab conditions

Features

Table of contents

News

Do away with wires for more robust sensors

Technology

Do away with wires for more robust sensors

Whether they are detecting toxic molecules in the air or pathogenic bacteria in a vat of yoghurt, many microscopic sensors share a crucial weakness: the ultra-thin wires that relay signals from the physical sensing components to the circuitry. If those fragile wires break or corrode, the sensor becomes useless. Now a wireless sensor has been …

News

Technology

Nanoparticles offer hope for frayed nerves

News

Technology

Skimming the waves saves fuel

News

Technology

Abandon hope all implant bacteria

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Goodbye wires and silicon, hello plastic chips

News

Life

Looking for larvae in ancestral genes

News

Earth

Visitors leave apes with unwanted bacteria

News

Life

Did dinosaur glide on biplane wings?

News

Life

'Life came from Mars' theory survives pressure test

News

Life

Could cholesterol protect fetuses from alcohol damage?

News

Life

Adult stem cells can at least make blood

News

Space

China missile test was legal

News

Earth

Is rain in central Africa just a passing phase?

News

Life

Snow, teeth, paint... nothing is whiter than this beetle

News

Earth

Nature adds to oceans' pollutant mix

News

Soundbites

News

Health

Vaccines set to target immune panic button

News

Life

Did humans wipe out Australia's big beasts?

News

This week 50 years ago

News

Physics

Last-gasp test could reveal dark matter

News

Earth

Sun's fickle heart may leave us cold

News

Life

West African roots found in white Brits' genes

News

Health

Cigarettes now have more pep per puff

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Deadly H5N1 may be brewing in cats

News

Life

Rogue cells may play a healing role

News

Earth

GM crops may reduce greenhouse gases

News

Earth

Hope for Canada's Great Bear Rainforest

News

Health

US obesity tsar punished

News

Health

Tough action needed on deadly TB strain

News

Earth

Hot clean power under our feet

News

Opinion

The search for ET must go on

Space

The search for ET must go on

If you've ever wondered how anyone in their right mind can get excited about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, consider this. We live on a planet swamped by life forms, yet we don't know how life got going, or where. Discovering that it had also begun elsewhere in the universe would be an amazing breakthrough. …

Opinion

Health

Editorial: Getting realistic over polio eradication

Opinion

Space

Editorial: Space missiles speak louder than words

Opinion

Technology

The stuff of technofantasy

Opinion

Features

Histories: The hunt for the Wicklow gold

Earth

Histories: The hunt for the Wicklow gold

Half a century before California was flooded with wild-eyed prospectors, Ireland experienced its own gold rush, just south of Avoca in County Wicklow. The trigger was a local schoolmaster who – curious neighbours couldn't help but notice – was living beyond his means. It turned out he was panning the local river sands for grains …

Features

Life

Born under a bad sign?

Features

Technology

The Large Hadron Collider: Bring it on!

Features

Earth

Can you believe the weather?

Features

Health

'Supersize me' revisited – under lab conditions

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.

Earth

The word: Himalayan balsam

ALTHOUGH it hails from a remote region of the western Himalayas, this plant now looks entirely at home on the banks of English rivers. Brought to the UK in 1839, it quickly escaped from Victorian gardens and colonised river banks and damp woodlands. Now it is spreading across Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the US. …

Regulars

Earth

The Oxford Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, by Chris Park

Books & Arts

Life

Face of Britain: How our genes reveal the history of Britain, by Robin McKie

Books & Arts

Warming up to a career in climate change

Careers

Life

Review: Affluenza, by Oliver James

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

Hi-Fi sense of direction A NEW theory about hi-fi sound quality called "directionality" decrees that the sound of music depends on which way the electrons are flowing through the wires. So, surprise, surprise, we are told it is worth paying more for direction-tested wires. Theories like this are usually supported by sophisticated arguments along the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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