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This week's magazine

8 May 2010

Issue 2759

New Scientist issue 2759 cover
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Editor's picks

Harmonious minds: The hunt for universal music

Life

Harmonious minds: The hunt for universal music

Features
Trig shots: The secret of perfect pool

Physics

Trig shots: The secret of perfect pool

Features
Seven wonders of the quantum world

Seven wonders of the quantum world

Features
Quantum wonders: Corpuscles and buckyballs

Physics

Quantum wonders: Corpuscles and buckyballs

Features
Quantum wonders: The Hamlet effect

Physics

Quantum wonders: The Hamlet effect

Features
Quantum wonders: Something for nothing

Physics

Quantum wonders: Something for nothing

Features
Quantum wonders: The Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-tester

Physics

Quantum wonders: The Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-tester

Features
Quantum wonders: Spooky action at a distance

Physics

Quantum wonders: Spooky action at a distance

Features
Quantum wonders: The field that isn't there

Physics

Quantum wonders: The field that isn't there

Features
Quantum wonders: Superfluids and supersolids

Physics

Quantum wonders: Superfluids and supersolids

Features
Quantum wonders: Nobody understands

Physics

Quantum wonders: Nobody understands

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.

Space

Dark matter claims thrown into doubt by new data

Previous claims that dark matter had been detected are being called into doubt now that a powerful new experiment has failed to see any of the elusive particles. For years, scientists running the DAMA experiment beneath a mountain in Italy have reported a seasonal variation in the number of light flashes seen in their sodium …

News

Earth

Melting icebergs boost sea-level rise

News

Space

Moon fountains could answer astronauts' watery wishes

News

Technology

Innovation: The Wi-Fi database that shamed Google

News

Earth

Oil slick fight continues with robots and fire

News

Life

'Mirror gene' clue to brain's right-to-left links

News

Life

Resurrected: woolly mammoth blood protein

News

Space

What would it take to put a walking robot on the moon?

News

Earth

Deepwater Horizon: scrutiny falls on blowout preventer

News

Technology

Elusive tetraquark spotted in a data forest

News

Earth

UN peacekeepers stage great ape escape in Congo

News

Earth

Overfishing began with the Victorians

News

Health

First cancer vaccine approved for use in people

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Designing leaves for a warmer, crowded world

News

Life

Did we evolve a special ability for catching cheats?

News

Life

The deep roots of genetic disorders uncovered

News

Space

Baffling quasar alignment hints at cosmic strings

News

Evolution gave flawed eye better vision

News

Space

Is Halley's comet an alien interloper?

News

Earth

Rumbles hint that Mount Fuji is getting angry

News

Space

Earth's twisted heart changes the length of the day

News

Technology

Artificial muscle material springs forth

News

Health

Turbocharge stem cells to repair bone

News

Health

Cell social network reveals rogue cancer switches

News

Life

Even silent videos excite the listening brain

News

Technology

Face-saving software rescues bad snaps

News

Technology

Become a wage slave to software

News

Technology

Web science: Exploring the network without guesswork

News

Technology

Cuddly robots aim to make social networks child-safe

News

Earth

Plenty of wave energy to be harvested close to shore

News

Opinion

The imperfect universe: Goodbye, theory of everything

Space

The imperfect universe: Goodbye, theory of everything

Could an untidy universe have helped complex life emerge? FIFTEEN years ago, I was a physicist hard at work hunting for a theory of nature that would unify the very big and the very small. There was good reason to hope. The great and the good were committed. Even Einstein, who recognised that our understanding …

Opinion

The eye was evolution's great invention

Opinion

Closing the art-science culture gap in a digital world

Opinion

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Opinion

Life

Economic recovery needs psychological recovery

Opinion

Technology

Bertrand Piccard: Flying around the world on sunlight

Opinion

Features

Harmonious minds: The hunt for universal music

Life

Harmonious minds: The hunt for universal music

Music from unfamiliar cultures can often sound disharmonious and odd WHEN Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and his ensemble played at Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1971, the audience broke into rapturous applause at the first short pause. "Thank you," said Shankar. "If you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy …

Features

Physics

Trig shots: The secret of perfect pool

Features

Seven wonders of the quantum world

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: Corpuscles and buckyballs

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: The Hamlet effect

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: Something for nothing

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: The Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-tester

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: Spooky action at a distance

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: The field that isn't there

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: Superfluids and supersolids

Features

Physics

Quantum wonders: Nobody understands

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 1594

Four points I drew a square whose sides were an integral number (less than 80) of centimetres long. Within the top left-hand quarter of the square I marked four points, each of which was an integral number of centimetres, not only from each side of the square but also from both the top left-hand corner …

Regulars

Art meets science: Reuniting the severed cultures

Books & Arts

Art meets science: A curator who wants to open windows

Books & Arts

Art meets science: Aesthetics, politics and metaphysics

Books & Arts

Art meets science: Physicist in a cultural landscape

Books & Arts

Art meets science: Speaking a lingua digica

Books & Arts

Art meets science: Catch up with the state of the art

Books & Arts

Art meets science: When worlds collaborate

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.

When Alan met Alan

When Alan met Alan READERS looking up the paper "On the revision of radiometric albedos and diameters of asteroids" ( Icarus , vol 126, p 450 ) may be puzzled to find the authors listed as Alan W. Harris and Alan W. Harris. The natural suspicion that this is a typo and that these are …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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