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This week's magazine

14 February 2009

Issue 2695

New Scientist issue 2695 cover
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Editor's picks

Electronic cigarettes: A safe substitute?

Technology

Electronic cigarettes: A safe substitute?

Features
Mathematics: The only true universal language

Space

Mathematics: The only true universal language

Features
Valentine's Day Special: The dating game

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: The dating game

Features
Valentine's Day Special: Say it with flowers

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: Say it with flowers

Features
Valentine's Day Special: Making an impression

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: Making an impression

Features
Valentine's Day Special: K*I*S*S*I*N*G

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: K*I*S*S*I*N*G

Features
Valentine's Day special: Together forever

Humans

Valentine's Day special: Together forever

Features
How your looks betray your personality

Life

How your looks betray your personality

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.

Earth

Climate models predicted Australian bushfires

Read our related editorial: How to cope with bush fires AUSTRALIA may have just had a horrifying preview of what climate change has in store for its people. Even early warning couldn't stop last weekend's bush fires in Victoria claiming 170 lives and over 700 homes. Climate models based on figures from the Intergovernmental Panel …

News

Fresh controversy about Iraqi death estimate

News

Conflict brews over science in US stimulus package

News

Ditch meat, save the Earth?

News

Cost of DNA sequencing falls to record low

News

Earth

Protected mangroves face petroleum threat

News

Space

Autumn restart lands LHC with huge electricity bill

News

Anti-HIV hope, Tainted baby syrup, and more

News

Health

Ecstasy's long-term effects revealed

News

Earth

Honeybees under attack on all fronts

News

'I brought some mosquitoes...'

News

Space

'Dark' comets may pose threat to Earth

News

Climate history flags up biological hotspots

News

Just how advanced is Iran's space programme?

News

Gene caps may turn viruses cancerous

News

Health

Hypnosis used to induce 'synaesthesia'

News

Earth

African fisheries hit hardest by climate change

News

Earth

North Atlantic is world's 'climate superpower'

News

Earth

Why females lead the pack

News

Life

Subliminal messages really do affect your decisions

News

Space

What's painting dark streaks on Mars?

News

Green tea blocks cancer drug in mice

News

Parasitic butterflies dupe hosts with ant music

News

Health

Injection boosts memory in Alzheimer's animals

News

Antarctic bulge could flood Washington DC

News

Chemical drink breathes life into damaged hearts

News

Technology

Apple raises two fingers in battle over multi-touch screens

News

Earth

Solar cells feel the butterfly effect

News

Technology

Life's no beach for robot rovers

News

Technology

Cellphones tap wisdom of the crowds

News

Technology

How yo-yoing in the dark teaches robots to walk

News

Technology

Nanotubes outshine costly platinum as fuel-cell catalyst

News

Technology

Trapped rainbows could make optical computing a reality

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.

Editorial: Drugs drive politicians out of their minds

IMAGINE you are seated at a table with two bowls in front of you. One contains peanuts, the other tablets of the illegal recreational drug MDMA (ecstasy). A stranger joins you, and you have to decide whether to give them a peanut or a pill. Which is safest? “Say you have to decide whether to …

Opinion

Editorial: Australian bushfire policy needs review

Opinion

Editorial: What's in a kiss?

Opinion

Life

When eight children is seven too many

Opinion

Life

Alien hunt is too exciting to ignore

Opinion

Commentary: The world needs a slogan for climate change

Opinion

Features

Electronic cigarettes: A safe substitute?

Technology

Electronic cigarettes: A safe substitute?

I HAVE never been a smoker, so as I sit at the bar, chin resting on one hand, I try to remember how Audrey Hepburn did it. I take a gentle drag and exhale. A white mist wafts around my face as I wait for the rush of nicotine hitting my brain. People start to …

Features

Space

Mathematics: The only true universal language

Features

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: The dating game

Features

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: Say it with flowers

Features

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: Making an impression

Features

Humans

Valentine's Day Special: K*I*S*S*I*N*G

Features

Humans

Valentine's Day special: Together forever

Features

Life

How your looks betray your personality

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.

Enigma No. 1532

Just reflecting Joe has been showing Penny a few optical experiments. In one experiment he placed six mirrors vertically to form a regular hexagon with small gaps between the mirrors. Through one gap he shone a laser beam so it emerged straight from the gap diametrically opposite. Penny then had to work out the smallest …

Regulars

Humans

Review: The 10,000 Year Explosion by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending

Books & Arts

Review: Beyond Uncertainty by David C Cassidy

Books & Arts

Valentine's day gallery: Love is in the air

Books & Arts

Review: Sex, Drugs and Chocolate: The Science of pleasure by Paul Martin

Books & Arts

Review: The Pleasure Center: Trust your animal instincts by Morten Kringelach

Books & Arts

Humans

Review: Love By Numbers by Luisa Dillner

Books & Arts

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Regulars

Life

Darwin 200: Planting the seeds of an idea

Books & Arts

Life

Darwin 200: Eight experiments you can try at home

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.

Soap star 'counts to infinity', and more

Soap star "counts to infinity" THERE is a group on Facebook called "Dr Karl Kennedy: Gynaecologist, Psychiatrist, GP, Master of the Universe," which you can visit via www.karlkennedy.notlong.com . For reasons that we would not presume to question, it is dedicated, so Jonathan Burton tells us, to a character in the Australian soap opera Neighbours …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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