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This week's magazine

8 March 2008

Issue 2646

New Scientist issue 2646 cover
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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.

Histories: The military surgeon who hid his female history

Features
The cyborg animal spies hatching in the lab

Technology

The cyborg animal spies hatching in the lab

Features
Did we learn to walk in the trees?

Life

Did we learn to walk in the trees?

Features
Dark energy may just be a cosmic illusion

Space

Dark energy may just be a cosmic illusion

Features
Is dark matter mystery about to be solved?

Space

Is dark matter mystery about to be solved?

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

How secure are credit-card devices?

THE point-of-sale machines designed to verify chip-and-PIN credit and debit cards may be vulnerable to hardware attacks that allow crooks to steal PINs. Ross Anderson, Saar Drimer and Steven Murdoch at the University of Cambridge computer security lab discovered that it is possible to attach a simple data-tapping circuit between an inserted card and the …

News

Technology

The microchips that could heat your home

News

Technology

TVs reinforced for those smashing Wii games

News

Technology

Whistle-blowing website is back in action

News

Technology

High-tech necklace can speak your mind

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Why every home should have a cellphone mast

News

Life

City weeds evolving to stay close to home

News

Life

Brain scans reveal smokers' clouded judgment

News

Earth

Earthquake activity is frozen by ice sheets

News

Earth

Dinosaurs were no strangers to climate change

News

Life

Butterfly 'stare' doesn't intimidate birds

News

Space

Black holes could bump asteroids our way

News

Space

Ancient star may prove supernova-cosmic ray link

News

Life

Alaskan gateway for first American monkey

News

Life

Century-old humans reveal 'long-life' genes

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Autism payout reignites vaccine controversy

News

Space

Has 'dark fluid' saved Earth from oblivion?

News

Health

African healthcare drain may have benefits

News

Technology

Controversial nuclear club takes shape

News

Technology

Trident missiles delayed by mystery ingredient

News

Soundbites

News

Earth

Airborne bacteria make snow to get back home

News

Life

EU puts farmers in a bluetongue catch-22

News

Space

Particle race could settle dark matter debate

News

Earth

Biofuel blends not as green as they seem

News

Life

Controversial stem cell patent makes a comeback

News

Technology

Radiation exposure linked to heart disease

News

Bioscience journals 'too dry' say linguists

News

Earth

Grand Canyon flushing experiment criticised

News

Opinion

Comment: The pills that make us fat

Health

Comment: The pills that make us fat

WALK down any street in America and you'll see the effects of the "obesity epidemic". Two-thirds of adults, more than 130 million people, are now considered overweight, and nearly half of these are classified as obese. Those who are overweight by 45 kilograms or more are the fastest-growing group of the overweight in the US. …

Opinion

Editorial: Not another vaccine scare

Opinion

Editorial: Do bacteria control our weather?

Opinion

Health

Commentary: Don't talk down antidepressants

Opinion

Physics

Interview: Beyond the BlackBerry

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.

Histories: The military surgeon who hid his female history

On 25 July 1865, charwoman Sophia Bishop was asked to lay out the body of James Barry. During 46 years as a British Army doctor, Barry had served in garrisons across the empire, making a name as a zealous reformer who improved the health of soldiers and civilians alike. What Bishop now claimed to have …

Features

Technology

The cyborg animal spies hatching in the lab

Features

Life

Did we learn to walk in the trees?

Features

Space

Dark energy may just be a cosmic illusion

Features

Space

Is dark matter mystery about to be solved?

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: The Rise of Animals by Mikhail Fedonkin, James Gehling, Kathleen Grey, Guy Narbonne, and Patricia Vickers-Rich

EVOLUTION has many frontiers, but for me the most intriguing is the Ediacaran period, from about 580 to 542 million years ago, the era of the first complex fauna. In The Rise of Animals five leading experts have assembled more than 500 figures, mostly colour photos of fossils, and summarised years of research. It's a …

Books & Arts

Earth

Review: Confessions of an Eco Sinner by Fred Pearce

Books & Arts

Humans

Review: Big Brain by Gary Lynch and Richard Granger

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

Beer's effect on citations UNIVERSITY administrators are always keen to boost academics' output. They will surely welcome a paper by Tomáa Grim of the Department of Zoology at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, which is due to appear in Oikos , the journal of the Nordic Ecological Society ( DOI: 10.1111/j.2008.0030-1299.16551.x ). "Despite a …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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