Subscribe now

This week's magazine

2 June 2007

Issue 2606

New Scientist issue 2606 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

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: Still dazzled after all these years

Features
Humans have rights, should human-like animals?

Life

Humans have rights, should human-like animals?

Features
Gordon Gekko makes way for trading software

Life

Gordon Gekko makes way for trading software

Features
Is a virus causing breast cancer?

Health

Is a virus causing breast cancer?

Features
What happens when galaxies collide?

Space

What happens when galaxies collide?

Features

Table of contents

News

Is dark energy fattening the Sun?

Space

Is dark energy fattening the Sun?

TWO mysteriously off-course spacecraft and the biggest puzzle in physics today – the nature of dark energy – could have a common explanation. If so, be prepared to accept that our sun is putting on some weight. Hans Fahr at the University of Bonn in Germany and Michael Heyl at the German Aerospace Centre, also …

News

Health

Smart painkillers target damaged tissue

News

Earth

Rainfall records could warn of war

News

Life

Life decisions separate 'hawk' from 'dove'

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Global warming is shrinking the Great Lakes

News

Earth

Fresh danger for fish as killer virus spreads

News

Health

Four new gene mutations linked to breast cancer

News

Earth

Trading bans have a perilous downside for wildlife

News

Health

Drug-based weapons all lethal at high doses

News

Life

'Terror' restrictions could be a blow to research

News

Earth

Tobacco's radiation dose far higher than leaves at Chernobyl

News

Earth

Bush claims his policies led to emissions drop

News

Life

WHO recommends routine HIV testing

News

Space

Radio waves warn of imminent storm

News

This week 50 years ago

News

Life

Cellphone chat on the hoof may be bad for your health

News

Life

Seeing red bears fruit for primates

News

Space

Stellar wind may have formed our solar system

News

Life

Water reveals the perfect spot for other Earths

News

Life

Babies are watching your language

News

Health

Blood of bird flu survivors give promising antibodies

News

Life

Plants raise chemical alarm to protect 'family'

News

Life

Female beetles have a thirst for sex

News

Win a trip to space the result

News

Life

Software learns when it pays to deceive

News

Technology

Bulletproof polythene is 40% stronger than Kevlar

News

Technology

Sound software should bring peace to the workplace

News

Technology

FBI data open to 'insider attacks'

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Open-source search engine gangs up on Google

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Speaking like a Chinese native is in the genes

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

Editorial: Stand up for your mates

THIS year sees the 40th anniversary of what was arguably the most successful referendum in Australia's history. On 27 May 1967, more than 90 per cent of voters endorsed a proposal to amend the Australian Constitution to include Aborigines in the national census. Aborigines had recently won full voting rights, yet it was the referendum …

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: Energy utopia

Opinion

Health

Interview: Time to heal a troubled nation

Opinion

Life

Ignoring stress in lab animals could mar research

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: Still dazzled after all these years

In 1948, a phantasmal killer stalked Americans: thousands of motorists were dying on roads from what The New York Times described as "death rays". Overcome by a blinding light – a "death dazzle" – they piled into oncoming traffic and telephone poles. But these death rays were not the stuff of fiction: they were headlights. …

Features

Life

Humans have rights, should human-like animals?

Features

Life

Gordon Gekko makes way for trading software

Features

Health

Is a virus causing breast cancer?

Features

Space

What happens when galaxies collide?

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.

Worst intentions

"FIRST we got the Bomb and that was good, because we love peace and motherhood," sang the satirist Tom Lehrer in 1965. In Doomsday Men , a history of weapons of mass destruction – chemical, biological and nuclear – culture is as crucial as science. Militarised scientists like Fritz Haber and Edward Teller mesh with …

Books & Arts

Jungle VIPs

Books & Arts

A message to the future

Books & Arts

Technology

Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture by Tarleton Gillespie

Books & Arts

Earth

The word: Drosscape

Regulars

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

Fascinating dust bunnies COULD it possibly be that some of our readers are under-challenged by their jobs? Back in September, New Scientist letter writers mentioned "dust bunnies", those evanescent collections of fibre that gather under beds and elsewhere – apparently also known as "slut's wool" (2 September 2006, p 19). In a clean-up of our …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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