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This week's magazine

19 January 2008

Issue 2639

New Scientist issue 2639 cover
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Editor's picks

How primate porn reveals what we really want

Life

How primate porn reveals what we really want

Features
Coal: Bleak outlook for the black stuff

Earth

Coal: Bleak outlook for the black stuff

Features
Beastly tales: Rewriting human history

Life

Beastly tales: Rewriting human history

Features
Is time an illusion?

Space

Is time an illusion?

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.

Earth

'Pac-Man' molecule chews up uranium contamination

A MOLECULE that can bite a uranium-containing ion between its "jaws", not unlike the munching blob in the arcade game Pac-Man, could one day lead to a way to clean up groundwater contaminated with the toxic metal. Uranium leaches into groundwater from natural deposits of its ore, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear facilities and the detritus …

News

Life

A Wii warm-up hones surgical skills

News

Life

'Critter cams' reveal animal secrets

News

Technology

Rebuilt heart doesn't miss a beat

News

Life

Wi-Fi music polling device takes heat off the DJ

News

Technology

'Smart heating' fits the bill

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Health

Probiotic bacteria could keep us slim

News

Life

Long legs really are more sexy

News

Health

Rogue stem cells hold clue to melanoma growth

News

Life

Dinosaur teens were keen on sex

News

Life

Squirrels 'fake it' to fool would-be thieves

News

Space

Planet diet helps white dwarfs stay young and trim

News

Earth

Tremors keep crust-dwelling microbes alive

News

Life

Syphilis came from the Americas

News

Soundbites

News

Space

Did the Higgs boson puff up the universe?

News

Health

Super-sensitive BSE tests may not make meat safer

News

Life

Schizophrenia dooms victims to repeat mistakes

News

Life

Simple protein makes embryonic stem cells thrive

News

Life

Learning language with the singalong neurons

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Physics reels as the financial axe falls

News

Life

Is information essential for life?

News

Earth

Folk medicine spells doom for reptiles

News

Earth

Ice loss is severe at both poles

News

Earth

New monkey species is already endangered

News

Life

Antidepressants' benefits may be exaggerated

News

Earth

Carbon-trading plans could boost nuclear power

News

Health

Malnutrition causing a third of child deaths

News

Opinion

The great diet delusion

Health

The great diet delusion

FOR the past century, the advice to the overweight and obese has remained remarkably consistent: consume fewer calories than you expend and you will lose weight. This prescription seems eminently reasonable. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to work. Neither eating less nor moving more reverses the course of obesity in any but …

Opinion

Editorial: Supporting role for nuclear power?

Opinion

Editorial: Investing in science is not just about profit

Opinion

Physics

Commentary: The end of frontier science?

Opinion

Perspectives: What are the true threats to reason?

Opinion

Life

Interview: Out on a limb over language

Opinion

Features

How primate porn reveals what we really want

Life

How primate porn reveals what we really want

WHEN four male experimental subjects were found peeking at explicit images of naked female bottoms on laboratory computer screens, you might have expected disciplinary action, a review of internet security, or at the very least a new batch of subjects. Not in this case. Instead, Michael Platt and his colleagues at Duke University, North Carolina, …

Features

Earth

Coal: Bleak outlook for the black stuff

Features

Life

Beastly tales: Rewriting human history

Features

Space

Is time an illusion?

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.

Life

Study reveals sex bias in science

If you thought the glass ceiling for female scientists had been shattered, think again. Women are more likely to have their research published if the referees who peer review their work are unaware of their gender, a new study suggests. It has long been suspected that "single-blind" peer review – in which reviewers know a …

Careers

Physics

Review: Benjamin Franklin's Numbers by Paul Pasles

Books & Arts

Review: How and Why Species Multiply by Peter R Grant and Rosemary Grant

Books & Arts

Humans

Review: Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

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

The smell of beer HIGH on the list of technology launches we didn't mind missing in 2007 was the debut of Kaoru Digital Signage in front of the Kirin City Beer Hall in an underground Tokyo mall. From mid-October until the end of the year, a digital advertising display built by the Japanese phone company …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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