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This week's magazine

11 April 2009

Issue 2703

New Scientist issue 2703 cover
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Editor's picks

Listening to the Earth's deepest secrets

Earth

Listening to the Earth's deepest secrets

Features
Echo vision: The man who sees with sound

Life

Echo vision: The man who sees with sound

Features
Quantum lasers: Half light, half matter

Technology

Quantum lasers: Half light, half matter

Features
Driller thriller: Antarctica's tumultuous past revealed

Earth

Driller thriller: Antarctica's tumultuous past revealed

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.

Life

Sperm bank sued under product liability law

SPERM should be subject to the same product liability laws as car brakes, according to a US judge who has given a teenager with severe learning disabilities the go-ahead to sue the sperm bank that provided her with a biological father. Brittany Donovan, now 13 years old, was born with fragile X syndrome , a …

News

Life

'Evolution proof' agents give mosquitoes a slow death

News

Ebola accident puts vaccine to the test

News

Russia to usher in new space technology

News

Will Obama be able to deliver on his green promises?

News

Airlines call for stricter rules on emissions

News

Ice-bridge collapse leaves Wilkins ice shelf exposed

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Is dark energy getting weaker?

News

Earth

Will climate change spread disease?

News

'Why would small island states be happy with a level of ambition that is going to destroy their countries?'

News

Earth

Chocolate eggs under threat from witches' broom

News

Life

Praying to God is like talking to a friend

News

Brain renews link to transplanted hands

News

Is Alzheimer's the result of a burnt-out brain?

News

Space

Solar 'double vision' aids space weather warnings

News

Life

Early land visitors borrowed shells for protection

News

Life

How see-through wings repel unwelcome water

News

Lab-grown ear cells may help restore hearing

News

Earth

Hurricanes peak a day after lightning

News

Life

Slave ants keep a taste for revenge

News

Why a good scratch quells an itch

News

Medieval warming study is blow to climate change deniers

News

Health

Doctors tune in to the source of back pain

News

Largest megaripples on Earth discovered

News

Technology

Driving beats violence for emotional gaming

News

Technology

Airbus invents steer-by-fuel emergency system

News

Technology

Land-speed record attempt builds up steam

News

Life

Our ears may have built-in passwords

News

Technology

Robots take the drudgery out of science

News

Life

Batteries grown from 'armour-plated' viruses

News

Technology

Eyeball spy turns the tables on Big Brother

News

Physics

String theory: A beginner's guide

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.

Is donated sperm just another product?

BRITTANY DONOVAN was born 13 years ago in Pennsylvania. Her biological father was sperm donor G738. Unbeknownst to Brittany's mother, G738 carried a genetic defect known as fragile X – a mutation that all female children born from his sperm will inherit, and which causes mental impairment, behavioural problems and atypical social development. Last week, …

Opinion

We mustn't succumb to climate fatigue

Opinion

Who watches the watchers?

Opinion

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Opinion

Life

The battle for Turkey's soul

Opinion

Viewfinder

Opinion

Features

Listening to the Earth's deepest secrets

Earth

Listening to the Earth's deepest secrets

As the USArray moves east, details of America's rocky underbelly are emerging (Illustration: Joseba Elorza) GARY ANDERSON was not around to see a backhoe tear up the buffalo grass at his ranch near Akron, Colorado. But he was watching a few weeks later when the technicians came to dump instruments and insulation into their 2-metre-deep …

Features

Life

Echo vision: The man who sees with sound

Features

Technology

Quantum lasers: Half light, half matter

Features

Earth

Driller thriller: Antarctica's tumultuous past revealed

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 Number 1540

On the run On three days in each calendar week (Sunday to Saturday) I go for a run, but I never run on two consecutive days. In the last 12 years there was (a) a year when I went for two more runs in February than in March, (b) a year when I went for …

Regulars

Space

Galileo: Around the sun and back

Books & Arts

Review: The Open Laboratory edited by Jennifer Rohn

Books & Arts

Review: The End is Nigh by Henrik Svensen

Books & Arts

Review: Invented Knowledge by Ronald Fritze

Books & Arts

Life

The snow monkeys of Hell's Valley

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.

Self-belief can be measured in milliKans

Oh that this too, too solid liquid... IF YOU want to buy some "liquid" zeolite, the place to look, David Compton discovered, is www.liquid-zeolite.eu , where bottles of the stuff can be bought for as little as €20 each. Zeolite, the website tells us, is "nature's detoxifier protects you by actively removing the heavy metals …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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