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This week's magazine

1 September 2007

Issue 2619

New Scientist issue 2619 cover
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Editor's picks

Toxic cocktail

Health

Toxic cocktail

Features
The long march of the penguins

Life

The long march of the penguins

Features
Disaster machines: Simulating nature's fury

Earth

Disaster machines: Simulating nature's fury

Features
What good is God?

Life

What good is God?

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

Glowing protein could be smallest thermometer

YOU wouldn't want to stick it under your tongue when you have a fever, but for "labs-on-a-chip" and the insides of cells, a flickering protein could be the ideal thermometer. Originally derived from the bioluminescent jellyfish Aequorea victoria , green fluorescent protein (GFP) glows green when bathed in light of a certain frequency. The eerie …

News

Technology

Plant genes switched on by sound waves

News

Technology

Cancer-seeking antibodies guide light-sensitive drugs

News

Technology

Mobile games consoles pose security threat

News

Technology

Blueprint drawn up for quantum RAM

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Virtual entrepreneurs and 'griefers' spoil the fantasy of online worlds

News

Life

Orchid fossil reveals flowers' domination of Earth

News

Life

Pitch perception skewed by modern tuning

News

Life

Why superheroes always win

News

Health

Alzheimer's tangles destroyed after gene therapy

News

Earth

India's monsoons more variable than thought

News

Space

Ringside view of change at Uranus

News

Life

Modern women are excellent gatherers

News

Life

An out-of-body experience – without the death bit

News

Technology

Cellphones affect human cells without heating them

News

Technology

This week 50 years ago

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Mistrust rises with social diversity

News

Technology

UK's nuclear accidents blamed on poor safety

News

Health

Could type 2 diabetes be reversed using surgery?

News

Life

Fruit bats carry deadly Marburg virus

News

Earth

Lessons of hurricane Katrina are being ignored

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Diabetes fears over corn syrup in soda

News

Space

The biggest hole ever seen in the universe

News

Earth

Antarctic seals carry virulent human disease

News

Earth

Whale hunt may stop, announces Iceland

News

Space

Jupiter both protects and endangers us

News

Health

Entire kidney removed through navel

News

Earth

Hurricane Dean decimated Mexican ecosystems

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

Essay: What really makes us human?

WHAT is it that makes humans so dominant on Planet Earth? Clearly, the answer does not lie in our physical attributes, for other species are stronger, faster or capable of such superhuman feats as flight or long-distance travel under water. The answer surely lies in our mental capacities. According to evolutionary psychologists, we acquired our …

Opinion

Earth

Comment: Cursing condoms

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: Save the Arctic Ocean for wildlife and science

Opinion

Technology

Interview: Second Life – under attack

Opinion

Features

Toxic cocktail

Health

Toxic cocktail

TODAY, and every day, you can expect to be exposed to some 75,000 artificial chemicals. All day long you will be breathing them in, absorbing them through your skin and swallowing them in your food. Throughout the night they will seep out of carpets, pillows and curtains, and drift into your lungs. Living in this …

Features

Life

The long march of the penguins

Features

Earth

Disaster machines: Simulating nature's fury

Features

Life

What good is God?

Features

More

The Word: Burble

Life

The Word: Burble

YOU are plunging towards Earth at 200 kilometres per hour – your terminal velocity. With your back arched and your limbs outstretched, the forces on your body are balanced, your orientation stable. You are about to link up with another skydiver who is falling next to you, but she misjudges her approach and flies beneath …

Regulars

Earth

Review: To Follow the Water, by Dallas Murphy

Books & Arts

Physics

Review: About the Size of It, by Warwick Cairns

Books & Arts

Health

View from the Top: Meet Andrew Wadge, chief scientist of the UK's Food Standards Agency

Careers

Life

Review: The Most Dangerous Animal: Human nature and the origins of war

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

Armageddon games WHY does NASA show the movie Armageddon as part of its management training programmes? We're talking about the thriller in which Bruce Willis saves the Earth by nuking an asteroid the size of Texas into dust just moments before it wipes out the home planet. If your first thought was that they're training …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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