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This week's magazine

14 March 2009

Issue 2699

New Scientist issue 2699 cover
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Editor's picks

Second Genesis: Life, but not as we know it

Life

Second Genesis: Life, but not as we know it

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

Second Genesis: Making new life

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

Second Genesis: The search for shadow life

Features
Gravity may venture where matter fears to tread

Space

Gravity may venture where matter fears to tread

Features
From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids

Earth

From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids

Features
Seven ways to fool your sense of touch

Humans

Seven ways to fool your sense of touch

Features
Tactile illusions 1: The Aristotle illusion

Life

Tactile illusions 1: The Aristotle illusion

Features
Tactile illusions 2: Perceptual rivalry

Life

Tactile illusions 2: Perceptual rivalry

Features
Tactile illusions 3: Boxing clever

Life

Tactile illusions 3: Boxing clever

Features
Tactile illusions 4: I feel it in my fingers

Life

Tactile illusions 4: I feel it in my fingers

Features
Tactile illusions 5: Change numbness

Life

Tactile illusions 5: Change numbness

Features
Tactile illusions 6: Motion after-effects

Life

Tactile illusions 6: Motion after-effects

Features
Tactile illusions 7: Parchment skin

Life

Tactile illusions 7: Parchment skin

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.

Stem cell research returns to cash bonanza

Read our related editorial: US stem-cell debate is far from over PRESIDENT Barack Obama couldn't have picked a better moment to lift George Bush's restrictions on the federal funding of research on human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The move comes as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the financial engine behind much US biomedical research, …

News

Fish study holds hope for CJD drug

News

DNA test for eye colour could help fight crime

News

'Magic' pea hybrid could help feed the world

News

US court rules against legal immunity for Big Pharma

News

Lab investigated over cruelty to chimps

News

Climate scientists issue sea level warning

News

Mars probe reboot, Cholera on the wane, and more

News

Earth

'Flawed' Red List putting species at risk

News

Zoo chimp plans its attacks

News

Earth

Solar power schemes could protect nature reserves

News

"My initial thought ... was: it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window."

News

Our sophisticated minds gave us religion

News

Protein switch controls blood clotting

News

Life

High-speed brains are in the genes

News

Space

Gravity ripples may reveal traces of supersymmetry

News

Space

Moon hides scars of a violent past

News

Mind

Children of older dads pay IQ price

News

Virus paves the way for diabetes vaccine

News

Horse-human relationship goes back further than thought

News

'Dead' gene comes back to life

News

Fetal exposure removes alcohol's bitter tang

News

Space

How to find the Sun's long-lost siblings

News

Earth

Children come with a high carbon cost

News

Technology

Realistic avatars created in the blink of an eye

News

Technology

US patent bill a 'chill on innovation'

News

Technology

Shocking cancer treatment may also yield weapon

News

Technology

Pentagon readies its cyberwar defences

News

Earth

'Nanoball' batteries could recharge car in minutes

News

Life

DNA cages guide nanoparticle self-assembly

News

Technology

Time to shrink the atomic clock

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.

US stem-cell debate is far from over

YOU could be forgiven for thinking that the stem-cell debate is over in the US. President Barack Obama has made good on his campaign promise to lift his predecessor's restrictions on federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Advocates of stem cell research are celebrating (see "Stem cell go ahead comes at …

Opinion

We need the whole truth on endangered species

Opinion

The toaster did it

Opinion

Europe plays catch-up to Obama's science drive

Opinion

Will democracy bring the demise of the hangman?

Opinion

Pakistan to battle fundamentalism with science

Opinion

Health

Mind over body?

Opinion

Features

Second Genesis: Life, but not as we know it

Life

Second Genesis: Life, but not as we know it

We could soon discover a new kind of life on Earth - and if not we'll make it Part 1: Making new life Part 2: The search for shadow life Gallery: What might shadow life be like? WHEN the Nobel prizewinning physicist Richard Feynman died in 1988, his blackboard carried the inscription, "What I cannot …

Features

Life

Second Genesis: Making new life

Features

Life

Second Genesis: The search for shadow life

Features

Space

Gravity may venture where matter fears to tread

Features

Earth

From AC to DC: Going green with supergrids

Features

Humans

Seven ways to fool your sense of touch

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 1: The Aristotle illusion

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 2: Perceptual rivalry

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 3: Boxing clever

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 4: I feel it in my fingers

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 5: Change numbness

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 6: Motion after-effects

Features

Life

Tactile illusions 7: Parchment skin

Features

More

Why pets give us warm and fuzzy feelings

Life

Why pets give us warm and fuzzy feelings

WHY and how do we bond with other beings? The rapidly growing field of anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships, is attracting scholars from a wide range of disciplines who want to answer this question. To this end, Meg Daley Olmert has written a fascinating, wide-ranging and easy read about the biology of the human-animal …

Books & Arts

Review: Living at Microscale by David B Dusenbery and Nanoscale by Kenneth S Deffeyes and Stephen E Deffeyes

Books & Arts

Review: The Crowded Universe by Alan Boss

Books & Arts

Earth

Film review: The Age of Stupid

Books & Arts

The happiest place on earth

Careers

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Regulars

Enigma Number 1536

Regulars

Technology

Creating modern music from vintage computers

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

A little bit of salt makes the crisps go down WE WANT to pose a question to Walkers, the firm that dominates those aisles of UK supermarkets that are piled high with giant packets of what the rest of the world knows as potato chips but the British call crisps. It's a simple question: what …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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