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This week's magazine

10 May 2008

Issue 2655

New Scientist issue 2655 cover
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Editor's picks

Do we need to change the definition of science?

Physics

Do we need to change the definition of science?

Features
How flickering light could replace rubber bullets

Technology

How flickering light could replace rubber bullets

Features
Aboriginal hunters raise a stink over tainted whales

Earth

Aboriginal hunters raise a stink over tainted whales

Features
Eight ways to get exactly what you want

Life

Eight ways to get exactly what you want

Features

Table of contents

News

Smart cables help bridges bounce back after quakes

Technology

Smart cables help bridges bounce back after quakes

They are one of the defining images of earthquakes the world over, from Kobe in Japan to Oakland, California: bridges whose sections have slipped from their supports, crashing to earth like discarded playing cards. How much better if they could be held in place by cables that stretch during the quake and then pull them …

News

Technology

Artificial mouth takes on chewy problem

News

Technology

Living bandage heals damaged organs

News

Life

Scanning corpses reveals killer's fingerprints

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Life

Safe websites let you embarrass people in high places

News

Earth

Why didn't Earth freeze under faint young Sun?

News

Earth

Ocean 'deserts' are increasing as planet warms

News

Life

Birds must babble before they tweet

News

Health

Why Popeye may have been right about spinach

News

Life

Rats feel peer pressure too

News

Earth

Uranium-eating fungi could clean up battlefields

News

Space

Black hole trysts revealed by ultraviolet light

News

Health

Kids' hospital hallucinations not just a bad dream

News

Space

Do we occupy a special place in the universe?

News

Earth

Fuel prices hit US drivers where it hurts

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Depressed dads affect their kids' speech development

News

Life

Sea creatures had a thing for bling

News

Health

Why hip fat is good, but pot bellies are bad

News

Life

How child soldiers can adapt to life after war

News

Life

Bizarre genetic makeup of the platypus revealed

News

Earth

Global warming spells bad news for tropical insects

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Restaurant smoking bans stop teens getting the habit

News

Health

Cow's milk may increase the risk of diabetes

News

Health

Stigma helps AIDS flourish in Russia

News

Earth

Food crisis may hamper Burmese relief effort

News

Physics

'Heaviest element' claim thrown into doubt

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.

Perspectives: Why humanity needs a God of creativity

WITH economic and communications globalisation, some form of a global civilisation is beginning to emerge, perhaps homogeneous, perhaps forever diverse. We all face the challenges of global warming. We face peak oil, that year after which we shall never recover so much oil again – with unknown economic consequences, including hunger and resource wars. And …

Opinion

Earth

Comment: A Green Revolution for Africa

Opinion

Editorial: How to wreck a nation's scientific credibility

Opinion

Editorial: Child soldiers are no 'lost generation'

Opinion

Commentary: The US should dismantle its nuclear weapons

Opinion

Interview: Hans Blix – the man who won't give up

Opinion

Features

Do we need to change the definition of science?

Physics

Do we need to change the definition of science?

WHAT is the difference between astronomy and astrology? That's easy: astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects, while astrology is a load of hokum. Anyone with the most basic understanding of science knows why. Astronomy passes the acid test of real science: its claims are always capable of being debunked – in other words, …

Features

Technology

How flickering light could replace rubber bullets

Features

Earth

Aboriginal hunters raise a stink over tainted whales

Features

Life

Eight ways to get exactly what you want

Features

More

Review: <i>The Future of the Internet: And how to stop it</i> by Jonathan Zittrain

Technology

Review: The Future of the Internet: And how to stop it by Jonathan Zittrain

IT WASN'T a telegram that informed me about Jonathan Zittrain's new book, but an email. A century-and-a-half of engineering ingenuity has brought us from Morse telegraphy to the content-stuffed global network available via a broadband socket near you. But is this express train of ingenuity about to fly off the tracks? Zittrain thinks so. He's …

Books & Arts

Review: Microcosm by Carl Zimmer

Books & Arts

Life

Review: Head Cases by Michael Paul Mason

Books & Arts

Review: Body Shopping by Donna Dickenson

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

Killing Hitler FOLLOWING our recent excursion into the theme of time travel (5 April) , a colleague has alerted us to a witty science fiction story on the topic. "Wikihistory" by Desmond Warzel appears in the online magazine Abyss and Apex . It consists of quotes from the members' forum of the International Association of …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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