Subscribe now

This week's magazine

18 October 2008

Issue 2678

New Scientist issue 2678 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Time to wake up to the facts about sleep

Life

Time to wake up to the facts about sleep

Features
Mission implausible: Extreme schemes to save the reefs

Earth

Mission implausible: Extreme schemes to save the reefs

Features
Fundamental secrets are tied up in knots

Physics

Fundamental secrets are tied up in knots

Features

Table of contents

News

'Quackers' tarnish quantum secrecy's halo of invincibility

Technology

'Quackers' tarnish quantum secrecy's halo of invincibility

EVE, the world's most famous eavesdropper, passed away last week after a long illness. She had been the victim of a condition known as quantum cryptography, which gradually starves its victims of their basic fodder – insecure messages. Her passing was mourned by her long-time adversaries, Alice the sender and Bob the receiver. "Eve was …

News

Technology

Online 'passports' to make Chinese foods safer

News

Life

Baritone smoke alarms wake the deepest sleepers

News

Earth

Revamped lead-acid battery could slash cost of hybrids

News

Technology

Gecko sticking power outclassed by nanotubes

News

Technology

Gizmo

News

Technology

Roving brain implant bypasses damaged nerves

News

Life

Short heels make the best distance runners

News

Life

The disease legacy of our distant ancestors

News

Earth

US elections: Who will avert the energy crisis?

News

Space

Speedy stars may be galactic immigrants

News

Earth

DNA of gold-mine bug may be key to alien life

News

Space

Jupiter produced greatest pounding in Earth's history

News

Life

Most lifeforms dance to the same metabolic beat

News

Earth

Wildfire ozone exceeds safety limits

News

Life

People with autism know the odds

News

'Internet space has become the wall of a public toilet'

News

Space

Swiss-cheese model of the cosmos is full of holes

News

Health

Skull-flexing blasts may explain puzzling brain injuries

News

Soundbites

News

Life

Free-love bonobos are vicious hunters

News

Life

Grammar tool could help unpick alien messages

News

Earth

Coastal wetlands 'a washout' against storm surges

News

Life

Human immune cells grown in pigs

News

Health

Man 'roused from coma' by a magnetic field

News

Health

New killer virus makes an appearance

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Financial crisis a chance for change, says UN

News

Life

Will knowing your genes change your behaviour?

News

Space

China 'needs space debris law'

News

Earth

Nanotubes worm their way into harmful places

News

Space

McCain singles out planetarium for wasteful spending

News

Earth

Snow leopard numbers can be read in their scat

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.

Earth

Special report: Interview – The environmental activist

What makes us fool ourselves that things have never been better? Why do we fail to live within the constraints that our planet and biology have set for us, when future generations will pay the price? As Canadian campaigner and activist David Suzuki tells Jo Marchant , those are the questions that keep him awake …

Opinion

Earth

Special report: Why politicians dare not limit economic growth

Opinion

Earth

Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth

Opinion

Health

Comment: Hypnosis is good for more than stage tricks

Opinion

Earth

Time to banish the god of growth

Opinion

Improving the lot of coma patients

Opinion

Life

Special report: Nothing to fear from curbing growth

Opinion

Humans

Special report: Life in a land without growth

Opinion

Humans

Special report: Economics blind spot is a disaster for the planet

Opinion

Earth

Special report: Want to read more about sustainable growth?

Opinion

Earth

Special report: How to do your bit for the planet

Opinion

Earth

Interview: Champion for green growth

Opinion

Humans

Special report: Does growth really help the poor?

Opinion

Humans

Special report: We must think big to fight environmental disaster

Opinion

Features

Time to wake up to the facts about sleep

Life

Time to wake up to the facts about sleep

ASK people whether they would like more sleep, and most will say yes. Does that mean they are not sleeping enough? The apparent desire for more shut-eye, together with oft-repeated assertions that our grandparents slept longer, all too easily leads to the conclusion that we in the west are chronically sleep-deprived. Adding to these concerns …

Features

Earth

Mission implausible: Extreme schemes to save the reefs

Features

Physics

Fundamental secrets are tied up in knots

Features

Regulars

Feedback

Feedback

Vicarious placebo effect AN EMAIL from Andrew Rankine raises concerns about Dr Frank's Pet Pain Spray, a homeopathic treatment for cats and dogs suffering from arthritis. It set us ferreting around, and we soon found a discussion of the spray on James Randi's quack-busting website. Here we came across a notion that hadn't previously occurred …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop