Subscribe now

This week's magazine

11 September 2010

Issue 2777

New Scientist issue 2777 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Zeros to heroes: What's the use of electricity?

Technology

Zeros to heroes: What's the use of electricity?

Features
Zeros to heroes: Bayes's probability puzzle

Space

Zeros to heroes: Bayes's probability puzzle

Features
Zeros to heroes: The invention that's best hidden

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The invention that's best hidden

Features
Zeros to heroes: How we almost missed the ozone hole

Earth

Zeros to heroes: How we almost missed the ozone hole

Features
Zeros to heroes: Putting the 'i' in iPods

Zeros to heroes: Putting the 'i' in iPods

Features
Zeros to heroes: The tragic fate of a genetic pioneer

Life

Zeros to heroes: The tragic fate of a genetic pioneer

Features
Zeros to heroes: The man who learned to fly

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The man who learned to fly

Features
Zeros to heroes: Tall tales or the truth of tiny life?

Life

Zeros to heroes: Tall tales or the truth of tiny life?

Features
Zeros to heroes: Rogue brain-killing proteins

Health

Zeros to heroes: Rogue brain-killing proteins

Features
Zeros to heroes: Ulcer truth was hard to stomach

Life

Zeros to heroes: Ulcer truth was hard to stomach

Features
Zeros to heroes: The long wait to speak in code

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The long wait to speak in code

Features
Receding gums: What ails Australia's iconic trees?

Earth

Receding gums: What ails Australia's iconic trees?

Features
Space junk: Hunting zombies in outer space

Space

Space junk: Hunting zombies in outer space

Features
Supercrops: Fixing the flaws in photosynthesis

Life

Supercrops: Fixing the flaws in photosynthesis

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.

Zeros to heroes: 11 unlikely ideas that changed the world

Features

Table of contents

News

Magnetic monopole deficit hints that hunt is futile

Physics

Magnetic monopole deficit hints that hunt is futile

Predicted by theory but never glimpsed, magnetic monopoles may be so rare that hunting them is futile: the upper limit on the number of these lone magnetic poles that can exist in our patch of the universe has been slashed. Unlike electric charges, which abound as individual positives and negatives, magnets seem always to have …

News

Technology

Laser-powered helicopter hovers for hours

News

Life

Why the 'sixth extinction' will be unpredictable

News

Earth

Pakistan's flood weather eased Atlantic hurricanes

News

Technology

Edible crystals could store hydrogen fuel

News

Health

Locust brains could thwart superbug plagues

News

Health

Magic mushrooms reduce anxiety over cancer

News

Health

Losing weight may pollute the blood

News

Technology

Innovation: CERN collides with a patent reality

News

Life

Money can buy you happiness – up to a point

News

Technology

Immortal signals promise perfect web video

News

Life

First Irish genome sequenced

News

Earth

Bees and climate change cleared in pollination mystery

News

Bird flu found in pigs

News

Health

Ghostwriting probe into HRT articles

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Brain imaging monitors effect of movie magic

News

Life

Thank the ur-worm for Shakespeare's brain

News

Earth

Civil war in Africa has no link to climate change

News

Technology

Exotic matter could show up in the LHC this year

News

Space

Ancient Greeks spotted Halley's comet

News

Life

Do Egyptian mummies have a right to privacy?

News

Earth

Cane toads aren't quite the bad guys we thought

News

Life

Dinosaur with a mysterious fin found

News

Health

Iron overload may accelerate Alzheimer's

News

Technology

Born-again solar cells are more efficient

News

Technology

Navigation app gives you freedom to explore

News

Life

CrackBerries and games addicts: Beware an internet hit

News

Technology

US navy seeks 'safer' bomb

News

Technology

Escher-like internet map could speed online traffic

News

Space

Laws of physics may change across the universe

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.

Unlikely ideas prove how damaging science cuts will be

SCIENCE abounds with tales of serendipity – those fortunate discoveries that were made while a researcher looked for something quite unrelated. Everyone can recall examples of these happy accidents, from the discovery of the antibiotic penicillin by Alexander Fleming to the detection of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. For …

Opinion

Hawking's faith in M-theory

Opinion

Earth

Your role in wildlife crime

Opinion

Technology

Hendrix's soundman: How I invented Jimi's guitar sound

Opinion

Space

Nobel physicist: Building Hubble's heir in deep space

Opinion

Features

Zeros to heroes: What's the use of electricity?

Technology

Zeros to heroes: What's the use of electricity?

Hard drives wouldn't exist without electromagnetics Michael Faraday built an electric motor in 1821 and a rudimentary generator a decade later – but half a century passed before electric power took off OF THE many stories of how unlikely discoveries can change the world, this is the best known and remains the most relevant. Whether …

Features

Space

Zeros to heroes: Bayes's probability puzzle

Features

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The invention that's best hidden

Features

Earth

Zeros to heroes: How we almost missed the ozone hole

Features

Zeros to heroes: Putting the 'i' in iPods

Features

Life

Zeros to heroes: The tragic fate of a genetic pioneer

Features

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The man who learned to fly

Features

Life

Zeros to heroes: Tall tales or the truth of tiny life?

Features

Health

Zeros to heroes: Rogue brain-killing proteins

Features

Life

Zeros to heroes: Ulcer truth was hard to stomach

Features

Technology

Zeros to heroes: The long wait to speak in code

Features

Earth

Receding gums: What ails Australia's iconic trees?

Features

Space

Space junk: Hunting zombies in outer space

Features

Life

Supercrops: Fixing the flaws in photosynthesis

Features

Zeros to heroes: 11 unlikely ideas that changed the world

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 1612

So logical Joe has 16 small square cards, eight black and eight white. On each card is one of the numbers 1 2 3 or 4. There is a 1 on four white cards (W1), a 1 on six black cards (B1), a 2 on two white cards (W2), a 2 on two black cards …

Regulars

Stephen Hawking says there's no theory of everything

Books & Arts

Eureka! How moments of genius happen

Books & Arts

We, the colony: Democracy, the bee way

Books & Arts

To err is human – luckily for us

Books & Arts

Freak waves: Surfer's dream, insurer's nightmare

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.

Terror of the targeted army bands

Terror of the targeted army bands THE field manual for the US army's music bands has been leaked to Secrecy News , the blog by Steven Aftergood published by the Federation of American Scientists as part of its Project on Government Secrecy. Army bands, which Aftergood says are known to some as "music performance teams", …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop