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This week's magazine

6 September 2008

Issue 2672

New Scientist issue 2672 cover
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Editor's picks

Can the Red Sea raise the Dead Sea?

Earth

Can the Red Sea raise the Dead Sea?

Features
The world's biggest whopper

Environment

The world's biggest whopper

Features
Is the common cold becoming a killer?

Health

Is the common cold becoming a killer?

Features
Was sound the secret weapon of the Andean elites?

Life

Was sound the secret weapon of the Andean elites?

Features
The ice age that never was

Earth

The ice age that never was

Features

Table of contents

News

Shadow analysis could spot terrorists by their walk

Technology

Shadow analysis could spot terrorists by their walk

Nearly seven years after Osama Bin Laden disappeared, US intelligence agencies are still chasing his shadow. And shadows are precisely what they should be looking for, says NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. By analysing the movements of human shadows in aerial and satellite footage, JPL engineer Adrian Stoica says it should be possible …

News

Technology

Sensor-laden toy diverts kids from pain

News

Technology

Guiding internet traffic beats throttling it

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

3D models take the guesswork out of brain surgery

News

Technology

Off switch could protect your smart-card secrets

News

Life

Bronze Age mouse offers clues to royal shipwreck

News

Earth

Amazon hides an ancient urban landscape

News

Health

Sexual abuse may leave asthma legacy

News

Technology

Nanotube 'longboats' slaughter cancer cells

News

Earth

Strongest tropical cyclones get more extreme

News

Health

Snap-happy dieters reap benefits

News

Space

Interstellar 'slowball' could have carried seeds of life

News

Life

Chauvinists less unnerving than ambiguous men

News

Life

Fresh neurons are key to memory and learning

News

Life

Tree frogs pick out the loudest call in the chorus

News

Space

How big can a black hole grow?

News

Life

Why a big horn gives beetles a tiny organ

News

Monogamy gene found in people

News

'Aim a bit forward of the fly's starting position'

News

Life

Europeans' genes match their geography

News

Health

Drug ads may not increase prescriptions

News

Health

Did the Romans destroy Europe's HIV resistance?

News

Earth

Greenland melt could see huge sea-level rises

News

Health

'Knockout' rats could aid study of psychiatric illness

News

Life

Aboriginals and academics bury bones of contention

News

60 Seconds

News

Technology

How war debris could cause cancer

News

Life

Does buying a gun make you more likely to kill yourself?

News

Obama answers scientists' questions

News

Life

Genetic data withdrawn amid privacy concerns

News

Physics

Human rights plea fails to shut down particle smasher

News

Earth

New Orleans passes easy hurricane test

News

Opinion

Perspectives: Still a question of black vs white?

Life

Perspectives: Still a question of black vs white?

IN 2008, African Americans face a mainstream white culture which tells them they have "worse" genes for IQ than white Americans – and that "irresponsible" sexual behaviour dooms well over half of their children to live in single-parent homes and poverty. In other words, black Americans hear that their current position is their own fault. …

Opinion

Health

Comment: Out-of-date drug laws are hurting people

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: What next for New Orleans?

Opinion

Commentary: Humanity is fragile, not the Earth

Opinion

Features

Can the Red Sea raise the Dead Sea?

Earth

Can the Red Sea raise the Dead Sea?

IT HAS been a hot, dry summer in the Middle East, and as water levels have plunged, political tensions have risen. In early July, Israel's Water Authority unveiled plans to combat what it called "the worst water crisis in the nation's history". Environmental campaigners responded by slating the Water Authority for not doing enough to …

Features

Environment

The world's biggest whopper

Features

Health

Is the common cold becoming a killer?

Features

Life

Was sound the secret weapon of the Andean elites?

Features

Earth

The ice age that never was

Features

More

Gallery: Beauty flowers from human remains

Gallery: Beauty flowers from human remains

This copper canister (see photo, right) is sitting on a shelf in a storage room of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, along with more than 3000 others. Each contains the cremated remains of a psychiatric patient. Stamped on the lid of this can are the digits 1470 – a clue to the identity of …

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

Are you sitting precisely? BUYING a Verilux HappyLite Sunshine Simulator , reader Humphrey Evans hoped it would make him... well, happy. The idea is that on dark mornings you sit close to what is essentially a small array of daylight-spectrum fluorescent tubes for up to 2 hours. He has, however, instead become somewhat distressed by …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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