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This week's magazine

18 August 2007

Issue 2617

New Scientist issue 2617 cover
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Editor's picks

Stars of the Sahara

Life

Stars of the Sahara

Features
The microbes living inside us

Life

The microbes living inside us

Features
Spooks in space

Space

Spooks in space

Features
Breakfast: sustenance or sugar rush?

Health

Breakfast: sustenance or sugar rush?

Features

Table of contents

News

Robots surf the web to learn about the world

Technology

Robots surf the web to learn about the world

SHUT your eyes and picture a Buddha's hand citron. Chances are you can't, unless you happen to know it's an exotic yellow, tentacled fruit that looks a bit like a small bunch of bananas. The exercise gives a taste of what it's like for robots, which struggle to "picture" almost every word or phrase they …

News

Technology

Human tooth and eggshell can focus light

News

Technology

Your virtual avatar has all your best moves

News

Technology

Enter your PIN using only eye movements

News

Technology

Brain implant could prevent epileptic seizures

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Modified Tetris has calming effect

News

Life

Female hyenas prefer wandering males

News

Life

Squirrels' tails prove too hot to handle

News

Life

Woman hears voices with a speech impediment

News

This week 50 years ago

News

Life

'Life' in interstellar dust

News

Space

How the big bang chilled out

News

Health

Deadliness of West Nile virus explained

News

Life

HIV stops new brain cells from growing

News

Earth

Vast ancient settlement unearthed in Cambodia

News

Health

Correct address may fix faulty genes

News

Earth

Climate tipping points loom large

News

Health

When it comes to heart health, sex matters

News

Soundbites

News

Physics

Fermilab hot on Higgs trail

News

Space

Photons flout the light speed limit

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Can biofuels rescue American prairies?

News

Earth

Nations scramble for oil in Arctic

News

Earth

Call to save Australia's great savannah

News

Earth

New Orleans braces for levee test

News

Life

Mbeki sacks minister for attending AIDS conference

News

Space

Shuttle damage could delay launch programme

News

America gets cash to boost science education

News

Health

Patients denied access to new drugs

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.

Life

Comment: Racial alchemy

OF ALL the genetically determined traits that we might one day hope to control, skin colour is surely one of the most politically explosive. What might the consequences be for society if we could alter our skin colour at will? Would it prove the superficiality of race, bringing centuries of prejudice to an end? Or …

Opinion

US should look to UK for biosafety lessons

Opinion

Health

Interview: Would you try an untested cancer drug?

Opinion

Life

Humans can adapt to almost anything, even paralysis

Opinion

Features

Stars of the Sahara

Life

Stars of the Sahara

IT DOESN'T look like much today, just a faded outpost on the edge of the Sahara, but back in the 15th century Timbuktu was the height of luxury and sophistication. Traders made their way across the baking desert to sell gold, ivory, slaves and salt, and scholars gathered to trade books and exchange ideas. Explorers …

Features

Life

The microbes living inside us

Features

Space

Spooks in space

Features

Health

Breakfast: sustenance or sugar rush?

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.

Space

Review: Rocketeers by Michael Belfiore

IF THERE is one phrase that describes the emerging entrepreneurial space industry – sometimes called NewSpace – it is "unrealised promise". The possibility of low-cost access to space, including trips by ordinary people (albeit with not-so-ordinary bank accounts), has fired the public imagination. Since the media hoopla over the SpaceShipOne flights that snagged the Ansari …

Books & Arts

Life

The Word: Sting pain index

Regulars

Earth

Review: A Natural History of Time by Pascal Richet

Books & Arts

Life

Review: Life in the Soil by James Nardi

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

Prize-winning scams TOO often, receiving a Nobel prize happens at the end of an eminent scientific career, but that's certainly not true for the winners of the 2005 Ig Nobel prize in literature. The internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria continue to expand on the bold series of short stories, distributed by email, that earned them their …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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