Subscribe now

This week's magazine

20 October 2007

Issue 2626

New Scientist issue 2626 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.

Health

The mutual poisoning society

Features
Space diving: The ultimate extreme sport

Space

Space diving: The ultimate extreme sport

Features
Knockout gas: Chemical weapons in disguise?

Technology

Knockout gas: Chemical weapons in disguise?

Features
Virus traps: Weapons of mass deception

Health

Virus traps: Weapons of mass deception

Features
Pangaea, the comeback

Earth

Pangaea, the comeback

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

'Half-quantum' cryptography promises total security

It has been an article of faith among cryptographers that the only way for two parties to transmit sensitive information completely securely is to use quantum cryptography to share the key they use to encrypt the information. Now it seems that the same degree of security is possible even if one party remains firmly rooted …

News

Life

Wrist sensor lets you conduct a virtual orchestra

News

Technology

Super-sensitive test spots cancer virus early

News

Life

Floating body bags could aid disaster recovery

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Earth

'Total recycling' aims to make landfill history

News

Life

Getting married saps your testosterone

News

Earth

How El Niño slows the Earth's spin

News

Life

Blind people tap unused brain to hear better

News

Life

Did oceans on Venus harbour life?

News

Earth

Leaders of cane toad invasion struck down by arthritis

News

Life

Gluttons can blame overeating on the brain

News

Life

Early modern humans had a taste for seafood

News

Earth

Himalayas created by high-speed impact

News

Life

Could quantum effects explain consciousness?

News

Earth

Small-scale fisheries wreak havoc on turtles

News

Life

The swamp fish that loves to live in trees

News

This week 50 years ago

News

Life

World is failing on poverty

News

Space

Heavyweight black hole is a record breaker

News

Life

Family planning lowers abortion rates

News

Catalysis pioneer scoops chemistry Nobel

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Brazil rides biofuel bandwagon to Africa

News

Over 5000 US patents are now state secrets

News

Health

Scale of pharma payments to med schools revealed

News

Life

Modern life is making us fat

News

Earth

Arctic expedition to measure shrinking ice

News

Health

Malaria vaccine protects infants against infection

News

Opinion

Don't exaggerate climate change link to conflict

Earth

Don't exaggerate climate change link to conflict

EARLIER this year, geologists from Boston University announced that they had discovered a vast underground lake in western Sudan's troubled Darfur region. By helping to reverse the critical shortage of fresh water in the region, the geologists and many other commentators said, the lake will ease the area's carnage and suffering. That prediction is part …

Opinion

Life

Editorial: Get ready for synthetic life

Opinion

Life

Interview: Licence to annoy

Opinion

Life

Interview: DNA's messengers

Opinion

Physics

Interview: Sleep when you're dead

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.

Health

The mutual poisoning society

For the assistant librarian at the Royal Institution, London's most fashionable science society, the evening of 20 December 1820 was decidedly uncomfortable. For 2 hours he stayed hidden inside a cupboard in the reading room, squinting through secret eyeholes at the institution's patrons as they strode in from Albemarle Street. Finally, he spotted his prey: …

Features

Space

Space diving: The ultimate extreme sport

Features

Technology

Knockout gas: Chemical weapons in disguise?

Features

Health

Virus traps: Weapons of mass deception

Features

Earth

Pangaea, the comeback

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.

Review: Four Laws That Drive the Universe by Peter Atkins

MANY books promise to explain the essence of physics to newcomers, but the truth is that real insight is hard won. Peter Atkins pulls no punches in his ultra-compact guide to thermodynamics, the theory of heat and motion that underpins physics, chemistry and other fields. He explains how we are all steam engines – inasmuch …

Books & Arts

Review: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 edited by Richard Preston and Tim Folger

Books & Arts

Space

The word: Space-time sirens

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

Hi-fi bunkum READER Ewan MacGregor writes to us about "hi-fi bunkum and hocus-pocus". It seems that audiophiles who fancy they have especially sensitive ears have been upgrading the leads that connect their equipment to the mains power socket. "Am I the only one who thinks that this fails to take into account the bog-standard wiring …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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