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This week's magazine

7 July 2007

Issue 2611

New Scientist issue 2611 cover
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Editor's picks

Persistent vegetative state: A medical minefield

Life

Persistent vegetative state: A medical minefield

Features
Biorefineries: Curing our addiction to oil

Earth

Biorefineries: Curing our addiction to oil

Features
Why we are all creatures of habit

Life

Why we are all creatures of habit

Features
The programmable robot of ancient Greece

Technology

The programmable robot of ancient Greece

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

Cursor control at the tip of your tongue

Steering a wheelchair with your tongue sounds impressive enough. Doing so with your mouth closed and gadget-free is the feat allowed by a tongue-tracking earpiece due on sale later this year. Typically, quadriplegics must suck or blow into a straw to steer a wheelchair or move a computer cursor. That can be unhygienic and irritating …

News

Technology

Armed autonomous robots cause concern

News

Life

Jellyfish mucus perfect for cosmetics

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Location-based phone features could aid snoops

News

Dark energy found in our galactic backyard

News

Technology

Acrobatic robot set to fly with the flock

News

Technology

Slimebusting virus could clean medical kit

News

Life

Breast cancer drug backfires in rare cases

News

Life

Sex pheromones make mice brains grow

News

Earth

Bird song goes out of fashion too

News

Life

Rats influenced by the kindness of strangers

News

Zooplankton move to the moon's tune

News

Life

DNA shows domestic cat originated in Near East

News

Life

Gut parasites came from the deep

News

Earth

Organic tomatoes have more antioxidants

News

Physics

The universe forgets what happened before the big bang

News

This week 50 years ago

News

Earth

Biofuels could spell ecosystem disaster

News

Health

How to teach an old drug new tricks

News

Health

Prions prevent the progress of Alzheimer's

News

Space

Dark matter may emit ultra-high energy cosmic rays

News

Soundbites

News

Life

When fish get emotional

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Countdown to a synthetic lifeform

News

Health

Deadly flu flies in again to Europe

News

Earth

The world's largest snake hunt

News

Space

Mars rover to descend into mysterious crater

News

Technology

Biolab shut down after accidents

News

Earth

Car batteries plague Australian landfill sites

News

Earth

Could Russia claim the North Pole?

News

Life

Embryo screening can reduce chances of birth

News

Opinion

Comment: How not to save the planet

Space

Comment: How not to save the planet

HOW should we protect ourselves from asteroid strikes? Not in the way NASA suggests. In its recent report on this question, the agency is evasive about how it might search for incoming asteroids and has plumped for the most dangerous method of deflecting them. We know that so-called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) pose a real threat. …

Opinion

Editorial: UK science should benefit under Brown

Opinion

Essay: Why women lose out in the lab

Opinion

Life

Interview: A life brewing beer

Opinion

Features

Persistent vegetative state: A medical minefield

Life

Persistent vegetative state: A medical minefield

IN JULY 2005, a 23-year-old British woman was involved in a horrific road accident. She was taken to hospital in a deep coma with a serious head injury. After an operation to relieve the pressure on her brain, she gradually woke up, but only to what's been called a "living death" – a condition known …

Features

Earth

Biorefineries: Curing our addiction to oil

Features

Life

Why we are all creatures of habit

Features

Technology

The programmable robot of ancient Greece

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.

Physics

The word: Zitterbewebung

YOU don't generally think of electrons as nervous. Yet observe one closely enough and that is exactly how it might appear. As it zips through the vacuum, the lightest known fundamental particle displays a super-fast trembling motion whose name every Scrabble player in the world ought to have firmly in the front of their mind: …

Regulars

Treasure chest

Books & Arts

It's another world

Books & Arts

Second sight

Books & Arts

Life

Review: Global Outlaws by Carolyn Nordstrom

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

Oil, the greatest gift THE search for alternatives to fossil fuels continues apace. So delegates at Canada's Gas & Oil Exposition 2007 in Calgary, Alberta, were thrilled at the prospect of a presentation from S. K. Wolff, speaking for the US National Petroleum Council – which advises the Department of Energy on behalf of the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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