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This week's magazine

29 March 2008

Issue 2649

New Scientist issue 2649 cover
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Editor's picks

Can coal live up to its clean promise?

Earth

Can coal live up to its clean promise?

Features
Does the Moon have a volcanic surprise in store?

Space

Does the Moon have a volcanic surprise in store?

Features
City songbirds are changing their tune

Life

City songbirds are changing their tune

Features
How global success is changing English forever

How global success is changing English forever

Features

Table of contents

News

Peahens may not prefer the flashiest peacocks tails

Life

Peahens may not prefer the flashiest peacocks tails

WAS Darwin wrong about the sexual allure of the peacock's tail? A controversial study in Japan has found no evidence for the traditional view that peahens choose their partners based on the quality of the peacocks' tails. Mariko Takahashi at the University of Tokyo and her team studied peacocks and peahens in Izu Cactus Park, …

News

Life

Anaesthetics shown to numb painful memories

News

Why pollsters are flummoxed over Clinton and Obama

News

Life

Lab animal carers suffer in silence

News

Health

Modern-day body snatcher pleads guilty

News

Earth

Chief scientist revolts over biofuel legislation

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Mars rover faces the axe

News

Whistleblowing scientists may lose promised protection

News

Earth

San Francisco to boast the greenest buildings

News

Life

Therapeutic cloning cures Parkinson's mice

News

Health

Hurried safety reviews could miss drug side-effects

News

Technology

Satellites could keep your secrets safe in space

News

Technology

Wii and iPhone to help military control freaks

News

Life

Neanderthal body art hints at ancient language

News

Earth

Dinosaur killer found in volcanic bubbles

News

Life

Statistics can predict Oscars winners

News

Health

Bugs provoke the immune system into fighting cancer

News

Life

Sluggish reptile evolving at record speed

News

Technology

Corn-based film foils food-poisoning bugs

News

Technology

Virtual pets can learn just like babies

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Life

Blue LEDS could rouse sleepy drivers

News

Life

Internet addiction is a psychiatric disorder

News

Health

'Repaired' kidneys could ease organ shortage

News

Soundbites

News

Space

Could 'bubble' universes threaten human existence?

News

Technology

Quantum effects could shed light on hazy images

News

Life

Microbes could survive meteorite smashes

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

Editorial: Time to talk about race

IT WAS inevitable that Barack Obama's speech on race, delivered on 18 March, would be dissected mainly in the context of another race – that for the US presidency. But whatever it means for his candidacy, the deeper significance of the speech is that it might just spark a mature dialogue on this most incendiary …

Opinion

Life

Editorial: Sad truth about animal experiments

Opinion

Physics

String theory's latest folly

Opinion

Interview: Can't see the desert for the trees

Opinion

Earth

Comment: Who are the real climate experts?

Opinion

Features

Can coal live up to its clean promise?

Earth

Can coal live up to its clean promise?

COAL is our cheapest and most abundant source of fossil-fuel energy. We probably have enough to keep the world powered for hundreds of years. Trouble is, the carbon emissions from burning it all would make the planet uninhabitable long before then. Is there a way to get the energy without the emissions? There certainly is, …

Features

Space

Does the Moon have a volcanic surprise in store?

Features

Life

City songbirds are changing their tune

Features

How global success is changing English forever

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: Flatland: The movie edition

EDWIN ABBOTT'S 1884 classic is billed here as a mathematical story, designed to stimulate young imaginations. But the tale of a two-dimensional "Flatland" and a visiting sphere, who introduces the Gospel of the Three Dimensions, is also a timeless satire on class privilege. A delightful piece of science fiction, it explores how a 2D world …

Books & Arts

Review: Flatland: The movie on DVD

Books & Arts

Review: Beyond UFOs by Jeffrey Bennett

Books & Arts

Life

Review: Kluge by Gary Marcus

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

Unrecognised irises THE UK government remains hell-bent on introducing biometric identity cards. We have to wonder how many of the civil servants behind the scheme have tried using the iris-recognition technology the government introduced a year ago to make it quicker to get through passport control at UK airports and which Feedback reported on at …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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