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This week's magazine

23 August 2008

Issue 2670

New Scientist issue 2670 cover
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Editor's picks

Blasts from the past: The Soviet ape-man scandal

Life

Blasts from the past: The Soviet ape-man scandal

Features
What would life be like on a two-star planet?

Space

What would life be like on a two-star planet?

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.

Life

The power of the placebo effect

Features
Dogs aren't stupid wolves; they are much smarter

Life

Dogs aren't stupid wolves; they are much smarter

Features
Looming water crisis simply a management problem

Earth

Looming water crisis simply a management problem

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

Special effects for your home movies

Video: New software makes Hollywood special effects simple enough for amateur film makers to use (footage courtesy Microsoft Research/ACM Siggraph) IT SOUNDS painful, but software that removes the skin from people and objects could give home movies Hollywood-style effects. If film-makers want to add special effects to a moving object, they normally have to be …

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Surveillance made easy

News

Technology

How to stop a new type of heart attack

News

Space

Colour-changing skin keeps tiny spacecraft cool

News

Technology

Robotic arm stimulates muscles

News

Technology

Robot aircraft will ride thermals to save fuel

News

Life

Craving fatty food? Blame it on childhood illness

News

Earth

Summer scorchers outpace global warming

News

Earth

Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara

News

Life

Are you aggressive? It shows in your face

News

Health

Cocaine could help map the brain

News

Life

Gene for male infertility found

News

Earth

Wrapping up the problem of broken light bulbs

News

Life

Macaques make democratic decisions

News

Earth

Arctic's grazing animals help global warming on its way

News

Space

Solar System cloud sends giant comet our way

News

Earth

Sewage could be vital to feeding the world

News

Space

Pluto controversy rages as planet debate continues

News

Life

Fast waters run deep for Olympic swimmers

News

Health

Can we keep unsuitable staff out of anthrax labs?

News

Earth

Psychologists rally to fight climate change

News

Soundbites

News

Health

First red blood cells grown in the lab

News

Space

Georgian conflict threatens space station

News

Life

60 Seconds

News

Space

Has dark matter's telltale signature been spotted?

News

Life

Guantanamo prompts psychologists' soul-searching

News

Health

Merck catches more flak over painkiller

News

Health

Menstrual stem cells save mice limbs

News

Life

The mathematician inside all of us

News

Life

How bisexuality is passed on in the genes

News

Space

Cassini spacecraft pinpoints geysers on Saturn's moon

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.

Comment: Beware the rise of high-tech medicine

WE SCIENTISTS spend a lot of time talking up our research and the discoveries it leads to. We do this partly because we are keen to maintain the profile of scientific endeavour, and so ensure continued funding. But "talking up" carries substantial risk. It provides only a narrow view of the impact of what we …

Opinion

Health

Why the placebo effect is rewriting the medical rulebook

Opinion

Human embryonic stem cells show promise at last

Opinion

Comment: The seabed is one of the last frontiers on Earth

Opinion

Life

Interview: Why praising your kid's intelligence isn't smart

Opinion

Features

Blasts from the past: The Soviet ape-man scandal

Life

Blasts from the past: The Soviet ape-man scandal

Distinctly different, as they should be To celebrate the launch of New Scientist 's latest book, Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers , we've asked its editor, Stephanie Pain, to select four of her favourite blasts from the past, together with a brand new one Read more: " Histories: Blasts from the past " In February 1926, …

Features

Space

What would life be like on a two-star planet?

Features

Life

The power of the placebo effect

Features

Life

Dogs aren't stupid wolves; they are much smarter

Features

Earth

Looming water crisis simply a management problem

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 World in Six Songs, by Daniel J. Levitin

Explore Levitin's groupings, and see some examples SOME of the oldest known human artefacts are musical instruments. Indeed we have never known a human society that didn't have music. And music lies at the core of our identity today, says Daniel J. Levitin , a music industry professional turned professor at McGill University in Montreal, …

Books & Arts

Earth

Review: Seven Years to Save the Planet by Bill McGuire

Books & Arts

Review: Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland

Books & Arts

Review: Sizzle: A global warming comedy directed by Randy Olson

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

Tradnl hmbking ingrdints BROWSING Tesco supermarket's online store, Diane Brown did a search for baking powder. She found it under a submenu entitled "Tradnl Hmbking Ingrdints", which she assumed meant "Traditional Home-baking Ingredients". This alerted her to the knotty problem of classification faced by large supermarkets. Moving on to the Tesco world of "Bakery and …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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