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This week's magazine

17 May 2008

Issue 2656

New Scientist issue 2656 cover
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Editor's picks

Histories: Cutting energy bills the Victorian way

Histories: Cutting energy bills the Victorian way

Features
Vestigial organs: Remnants of evolution

Life

Vestigial organs: Remnants of evolution

Features
To make the most of wind power, go fly a kite

Earth

To make the most of wind power, go fly a kite

Features
'Cuddle chemical' could treat mental illness

Life

'Cuddle chemical' could treat mental illness

Features
Black holes may lurk in unexpected places

Space

Black holes may lurk in unexpected places

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

Robot gives hair transplants a natural look

A balding man is lying face down on a table when a robot arm begins piercing his head with long, needle-like tools. It sounds like a torture chamber, but the robot could one day restore a full head of hair to the follicularly challenged. Restoration Robotics of Mountain View, California, is developing a robot to …

News

Technology

Power plants open to hacker attack

News

Health

Viagra might protect hearts of muscular dystrophy sufferers

News

Life

Pilot whales make a dash for their prey

News

Life

Biggest is not best in mosquito mating game

News

Earth

Ice flow alone explains why fjords are cut so deep

News

Space

Cosmic dust gives water a helping hand

News

Earth

Ocean 'conveyor belt' gives warnings before it slows

News

Life

Seaweed reveals early Americans' adaptability

News

Life

Facial expressions excite mirror neurons

News

Earth

Killer cheetah disease spread by faeces

News

Health

Gene to blame for deadly pregnancies

News

Earth

A sprinkle of limestone could help oceans absorb CO2

News

Space

Victorian supernova helps fill missing link

News

Soundbites

News

Space

How to lose a hole the size of a universe

News

Health

Why blind brains never stop seeing

News

Earth

Life feels the effects of a changing climate

News

Space

Japan allows military to operate in space

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

How culture made your modern mind

News

Earth

Bird migration at mercy of weather patterns

News

Life

Creationists unveil 'God Lab'

News

Life

IVF test could spot 'dud' embryos

News

Earth

When burning gas is good for the planet

News

Health

No rise in premature baby survival rates

News

Health

Air pollution causes dangerous blood clots

News

Technology

How the MySpace mindset can boost medical science

News

Earth

Ballast stowaways get heat treatment

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Video search engine watches and learns

News

Life

Instant messaging 'a linguistic renaissance' for teens

News

Opinion

Comment: Indiana Jones is no bad thing for science

Comment: Indiana Jones is no bad thing for science

FEW scientific disciplines have a hero as charismatic as Indiana Jones . The whip-wielding character is the most widely recognised image of an archaeologist and largely due to this, the field enjoys huge and untainted popularity. Yet many archaeologists still seem desperate to distance themselves from the phenomenon. Since the height of the last Indy …

Opinion

Editorial: Digging for ancient minds

Opinion

Editorial: Burma shows the importance of farming science

Opinion

Josef Fritzl – a case of moral insanity

Opinion

Perspectives: Reinventing human identity

Opinion

Interview: At the heart of conflict

Opinion

Features

Histories: Cutting energy bills the Victorian way

Histories: Cutting energy bills the Victorian way

On the night of 12 February 1899, disaster struck Chicago. Fire swept through the celebrated bookstore of McClurg & Co, home to an irreplaceable collection of rare volumes and a favourite haunt of local writers. Firemen arrived to find flames shooting into the sky – and the water hydrants frozen. Helpless, they watched as floors …

Features

Life

Vestigial organs: Remnants of evolution

Features

Earth

To make the most of wind power, go fly a kite

Features

Life

'Cuddle chemical' could treat mental illness

Features

Space

Black holes may lurk in unexpected places

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: Apocalypse by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess

AROUND 1200 BC, many Bronze Age cultures in the eastern Mediterranean collapsed. Archaeology has traditionally put this down to invasions by seafaring peoples, but Amos Nur argues that a "storm" of earthquakes lasting several decades may also have played a major role. In this well-written book he examines the signatures left by such quakes, and, …

Books & Arts

Review: In Pursuit of the Gene by James Schwartz

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

How to become superhuman BACK in the summer of 2005, we reported on Laura Emery , whose internet browsing brought her up against the Lifetech DNA Activator CD (16 July 2005). This apparently had the power to "activate 100 per cent of your 2-strand DNA, plus 10 additional strands!" Now Robert Cox calls our attention …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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