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This week's magazine

5 January 2008

Issue 2637

New Scientist issue 2637 cover
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Editor's picks

Could new GM crops please the greens?

Earth

Could new GM crops please the greens?

Features
Wireheads: Healing the brain with electricity

Health

Wireheads: Healing the brain with electricity

Features
Ramming icebergs in the name of science

Technology

Ramming icebergs in the name of science

Features
Unlocking Mercury's secrets

Space

Unlocking Mercury's secrets

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.

Life

Physics tool makes students miss the point

Software designed to help physicists tackle complicated mathematics seems to be encouraging students to focus on the wrong aspects of scientific problems. Interested in how students use computer programs to solve problems, physicists Thomas Bing and Edward Redish of the University of Maryland, College Park, analysed videos of teams of students as they worked on …

News

Earth

US to turn off power-hungry light bulbs

News

Life

Website aims to speed up US broadband availability

News

Technology

Vital signs sensor saves ER patients

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines

News

Earth

'Plantstones' could help lock away carbon

News

Life

How bacteria tails whip up a thrust storm

News

Earth

Global warming could harm food quality

News

Earth

Some sea turtles stay close to home

News

Life

The secret energy store of enzymes revealed

News

Life

'Yo' is the word when 'he' or 'she' won't do

News

Earth

Indonesian mud volcano may not be man-made

News

Life

Macaque monkeys 'pay' for sex

News

Technology

Can we stop the internet destroying our planet?

News

Health

Flu deaths run in the family

News

Life

Begging chicks reveal family ties

News

Health

Traffic fumes are still damaging children's brains

News

Earth

Saharan dust clouds could aid hurricane prediction

News

Health

Blood substitute to be tested in humans

News

Health

Mysterious death reignites vCJD fears

News

Earth

Boreholes on the Moon could solve climate puzzle

News

Health

Super-wine might boost lifespan

News

Earth

Super-hairy plants could battle global warming

News

Life

Autumn leaves cling to their colour change secret

News

Health

Stem cell shots rescue terminally ill children

News

Life

Teenage smokers risk badly wired brains

News

Space

String theory may predict our universe after all

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.

Earth

Editorial: Testing the new GM generation

MORE than a decade after the first commercial plantings of genetically modified crops, the same old disagreement rumbles on. On one side stand agribiotech companies, arguing that crops engineered to produce insecticidal proteins or resist herbicides boost yields in an environmentally friendly way. Opposing them are advocacy groups who charge that these crops, or the …

Opinion

Health

Medicine for a sickly world

Opinion

Earth

Is there a language problem with quantum physics?

Opinion

Commentary: Scientists, show your good side

Opinion

Space

Interview: Fighting for South Africa

Opinion

Features

Could new GM crops please the greens?

Earth

Could new GM crops please the greens?

PAUSE for a moment the next time you pass a farm. It looks pretty green on the surface, doesn't it? Take away the diesel-guzzling machinery and pesticides, and farms would be green in every sense, you might think. No wonder some see agriculture as the answer to global warming, as the rush to produce biofuels …

Features

Health

Wireheads: Healing the brain with electricity

Features

Technology

Ramming icebergs in the name of science

Features

Space

Unlocking Mercury's secrets

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: Censoring Science by Mark Bowen

IN THE saga of global warming – the warnings, the growing danger, the politics, the failure to act – one researcher has perhaps played a more prominent role than any other, on both scientific and political fronts. From creating some of the earliest climate models to articulating his growing fear about their results, from speaking …

Books & Arts

Review: Nature's Palette: The science of plant color by David Lee

Books & Arts

Physics

Review: Copernicus' Secret by Jack Repcheck

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

"Flirt with science" competition: the runners up WE PROMISED in our last issue to publish the top 10 runners-up in our "Flirt with science" competition, in which readers were invited to seduce the person of their dreams with a science-related chat-up line. In the event we have decided to give you not just 10 but …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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