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This week's magazine

5 July 2008

Issue 2663

New Scientist issue 2663 cover
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Editor's picks

Cold war 'caterpillar drive' could harvest sea power

Earth

Cold war 'caterpillar drive' could harvest sea power

Features
Me and my genome

Life

Me and my genome

Features
Nature 2.0: Redefining conservation

Earth

Nature 2.0: Redefining conservation

Features
Lithium: The hole in the big bang theory

Space

Lithium: The hole in the big bang theory

Features

Table of contents

News

To silence a gene, join the quantum dots

Technology

To silence a gene, join the quantum dots

QUANTUM dots – tiny pieces of semiconductor – have already proven their worth in medical imaging thanks to their bright rainbow colours. Now it turns out they're also extremely good at making deliveries inside living cells. This is great news for the technology of RNA interference (RNAi), which involves blocking the action of messenger RNA, …

News

Technology

3D modelling gets the measure of stone axes

News

Technology

Smart camera keeps an eye on endangered penguins

News

Technology

Synchronising 'heartbeat' saves sensor batteries

News

Technology

Satnavs stop criminal trail turning cold

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Global treaty promises hard times for file sharers

News

Health

DNA-chopping molecule makes cells resistant to HIV

News

Health

Common drugs may combat ageing disease

News

Life

Youthful 'nurse' cells could restore male fertility

News

Health

Diet-sized snack packs turn off willpower

News

Life

Shaking up the bird family tree

News

Life

Secret sleep of birds revealed in brain scans

News

Earth

Cane toads kill off river crocodiles

News

Life

The universal language of charades

News

Space

Fresh puzzle over dark energy supernovae

News

Earth

Blanket effect flips Earth's insides

News

Earth

Lack of cracks may explain Peru meteorite mystery

News

Earth

Cleaner skies explain surprise rate of warming

News

Life

Disgust comes in three revolting flavours

News

Space

Cosmic blasts may throw out plasma 'cannonballs'

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Did 'burrowing' placenta give us big brains?

News

Life

Sex offenders unlikely to commit second crime

News

Earth

Can cow hormone help battle climate change?

News

Earth

Land purchase is big, wet boost for Florida Everglades

News

Space

Solar sail gets another chance for launch

News

Earth

List reveals countries failing on climate change

News

Earth

TV boom may boost greenhouse effect

News

Health

Should researchers tell over bad news brain scans?

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Wind power sails ahead in UK as US solar plans freeze

News

Life

Olympics drug cheats may go undetected

News

Opinion

Lab-grown meat could ease food shortage

Technology

Lab-grown meat could ease food shortage

"THE path is clear, but will we take it?" asked a recent New Scientist cover on how to boost the world's harvest to alleviate the global food crisis (14 June). The report itself discussed ways to increase crop production, but said surprisingly little about how to get meat production to meet growing demand. Humans evolved …

Opinion

Editorial: Dilemmas posed by chance research results

Opinion

Commentary: How Einstein kept it simple

Opinion

Life

The language detective

Opinion

Features

Cold war 'caterpillar drive' could harvest sea power

Earth

Cold war 'caterpillar drive' could harvest sea power

WHEN it was launched in June 1992, Yamato 1 seemed to herald the future of marine transport. With its sleek lines and glass-encased cockpit, this 166-tonne catamaran resembled a cross between a bullet train and Thunderbird 2, but its most advanced feature was hidden from view: a revolutionary electromagnetic engine that used superconducting magnets rather …

Features

Life

Me and my genome

Features

Earth

Nature 2.0: Redefining conservation

Features

Space

Lithium: The hole in the big bang theory

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: Relativity: A Very Short Introduction by Russell Stannard

EVER since Albert Einstein struggled to present relativity in layman's terms in 1916, physicists have sought ways to make its counterintuitions accessible. Stannard starts refreshingly with eight everyday notions of space, time and matter contradicted by relativity, such as "time passes equally quickly for everyone". Part 1 covers special relativity, part 2 the general theory, …

Books & Arts

Review: Cosmic Anger by Gordon Fraser

Books & Arts

Review: Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology edited by Oren Harman and Michael R Dietrich

Books & Arts

Life

Exhibition: Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

Books & Arts

Space

The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind

Books & Arts

Review: The End of Food by Paul Roberts and Eat Your Heart Out by Felicity Lawrence

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

Wonderful carbon dioxide RELAX. Don't do it. Don't cut carbon dioxide, it's good for the planet. This must be true: it says so in the respected Financial Post newspaper in Canada, no longer owned by Conrad Black. Lawrence Solomon, described as "executive director of Energy Probe and author of The Deniers ", writes in the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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