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This week's magazine

5 December 2009

Issue 2737

New Scientist issue 2737 cover
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Editor's picks

Five ways to revolutionise computer memory

Technology

Five ways to revolutionise computer memory

Features
The electronic fink that will squeal if you drink

Technology

The electronic fink that will squeal if you drink

Features
Homosexual selection: The power of same-sex liaisons

Life

Homosexual selection: The power of same-sex liaisons

Features
Extreme oil: Scraping the bottom of Earth's barrel

Earth

Extreme oil: Scraping the bottom of Earth's barrel

Features

Table of contents

News

'Fat fingers' can become dainty for touch screens

Technology

'Fat fingers' can become dainty for touch screens

How to get out of a tight spot. Christian Holz and Patrick Baudisch's system takes orientation into account to improve accuracy Why are the latest touch-screen devices often larger than the push-button gadgets they replace? It has long been assumed the culprit is the so-called "fat finger" problem – when touch targets are packed too …

News

Space

Energetic gamma rays spotted from 'microquasar'

News

Earth

First osmosis power plant goes on stream in Norway

News

Technology

Rainbow trapped for the first time

News

Life

'Simple' bacterium shows surprising complexity

News

Life

Why the hammerhead shark got its hammer

News

Technology

Proper use of English could get a virus past security

News

Space

LHC becomes most powerful accelerator of all time

News

Life

Dear God, please confirm what I already believe

News

Technology

Safety flaws in US next-gen nuclear reactors

News

Health

Treating toddlers for autism boosts IQ later

News

Technology

Split-personality home routers can cut net energy use

News

Earth

US and China emissions pledges won't stop 2 °C warming

News

Climate warning system could be scuppered by pirates

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Low-carbon future: We can afford to go green

News

Health

Personalised vaccines could protect all children

News

Knox murder trial evidence 'flawed', say DNA experts

News

Life

Watery niche may foster life on Mars

News

Space

Transparent universe reveals hidden galaxies

News

Soundbites

News

Life

French immigrants founded first British farms

News

Death of rare giant star sheds light on cosmic past

News

British bird-feeders may be splitting species

News

Technology

Solar plane ready for its first hop

News

Technology

Net piracy: The people vs the entertainment industry

News

Earth

Climate control for your desk

News

Health

Autism and schizophrenia could be genetic opposites

News

Health

WHO changes advice on HIV therapy

News

Opinion

How our brains build social worlds

Life

How our brains build social worlds

Subconscious imitation is just one of the ways that we socially interact YOU know how it works. A student volunteer sits alone in a soundproof booth, watching a computer screen and waiting for moving dots to appear. When they do, he or she has to decide whether there is a walking man hidden somewhere in …

Opinion

Plenty more oil, but use it wisely

Opinion

Homosexuality in nature is no guide to morality

Opinion

What would you do with a terabyte memory chip?

Opinion

Technology

Computers top poll of modern discoveries

Opinion

Space

Why we shouldn't release all we know about the cosmos

Opinion

Belle de Jour: On science and prostitution

Opinion

Features

Five ways to revolutionise computer memory

Technology

Five ways to revolutionise computer memory

Digital memory is getting smaller and smaller Editorial: Writ small, huge recall Once upon a time, not so long ago, the idea that you might store your entire music collection on a single hand-held device would have been greeted with disbelief. Ditto backing up all your essential computer files using a memory stick key ring, …

Features

Technology

The electronic fink that will squeal if you drink

Features

Life

Homosexual selection: The power of same-sex liaisons

Features

Earth

Extreme oil: Scraping the bottom of Earth's barrel

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 1574

Doubly square dates 4 April 2001 was the first doubly square date of the century because whether written in the order day.month.year or in the order month.day.year (in each instance with two digits for each element) it comes out as 04.04.01, and 40401 is 201 2 . Still with two digits for each element, there …

Regulars

Coffee tables have never looked so good

Books & Arts

A box full of Einstein

Books & Arts

Crystal ball for star intellectuals

Books & Arts

Bertrand Russell framed in the investigation of proof

Books & Arts

The Large Hadron Collider pop-up book

Books & Arts

Writing from science to fiction

Books & Arts

Hero of revolutions in science and the states

Books & Arts

Hard truths distilled in verse

Books & Arts

Godlessness for the good-humoured

Books & Arts

Video games reheat the cold war

Books & Arts

E-readers round-up

Books & Arts

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Regulars

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.

Entities hidden by philosophical carpet

Experimental and theoretical housekeeping WILLIAM of Occam (or Ockham) provided one of the most powerful – or at the very least the most cited – tools in the box of methodological instruments: his famous razor. Feedback last translated this dictum as "Do not introduce entities without necessity" (7 June 2008) . As an example of …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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