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This week's magazine

25 September 2010

Issue 2779

New Scientist issue 2779 cover
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Editor's picks

How to be happy (but not too much)

Life

How to be happy (but not too much)

Features
Emission control: Turning carbon trash into treasure

Earth

Emission control: Turning carbon trash into treasure

Features
Cosmic accidents: How we avoided the void

Space

Cosmic accidents: How we avoided the void

Features
Cosmic accidents: Tipping the antimatter balance

Space

Cosmic accidents: Tipping the antimatter balance

Features
Cosmic accidents: Sparking up our star

Space

Cosmic accidents: Sparking up our star

Features
Cosmic accidents: Mars attacks

Space

Cosmic accidents: Mars attacks

Features
Cosmic accidents: Blasting the Earth into life

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Blasting the Earth into life

Features
Cosmic accidents: One giant leap for a single cell

Life

Cosmic accidents: One giant leap for a single cell

Features
Cosmic accidents: The age of heroic lichen

Cosmic accidents: The age of heroic lichen

Features
Cosmic accidents: Killer asteroid with a silver lining

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Killer asteroid with a silver lining

Features
Cosmic accidents: Brains or brawn – which was best?

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Brains or brawn – which was best?

Features
Cosmic accidents: Inventing language, the easy way

Life

Cosmic accidents: Inventing language, the easy way

Features
Cosmic accidents: The certainty of chance

Cosmic accidents: The certainty of chance

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.

Technology

Nokia developing 3D rival to Google Street View

Cellphone maker Nokia and its mapping division Navteq are developing a rival to Google's Street View, one that offers full three-dimensional computer models of villages, towns and cities, and could one day allow those urban centres to form the backdrop to realistic computer games. Street View was launched in 2007 and has transformed online mapping …

News

Life

Cousin virus suggests HIV may be deadly for millennia

News

Life

City-dwelling helped us evolve resistance to disease

News

Life

Brain's grey matter helps you introspect

News

Technology

Volcano breath test promises eruption early warning

News

Earth

Transgenic Indian superspuds pack more protein

News

Life

Arctic bugs may have the longest life-cycle on Earth

News

Health

Anxious stem cell scientists await ruling

News

Health

Retinal cone cells transplanted into blind mice

News

Life

Time to rebrand the stegosaur?

News

Health

Whooping cough epidemic suggests bacteria are adapting

News

Large Hadron Collider spies hints of infant universe

News

Is there a Moore's law for science?

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Brain scans may help fix criminal responsibility

News

Earth

The sun joins the climate club

News

Earth

Crunch time ahead for Gulf oyster fisheries

News

Physics

Dimensions vanish in quantum gravity

News

Physics

Large proton halo sparks devilish row

News

Desirable daisies lure male flies with offer of sex

News

Life

Ape dung reveals gorilla origin of malaria

News

Random number generator creates something from nothing

News

Space

Solved: mystery of the meteor-shedding asteroid

News

Health

A little aspirin may prevent bowel cancer

News

Earth

Kilimanjaro's vanishing ice due to tree-felling

News

Technology

Oil company to build longest floating vessel ever

News

Technology

Progressive Automotive X Prize: the winners

News

Life

Deceptive robots hint at machine self-awareness

News

Technology

Out-of-this-world proposal for solar wind power

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.

Can brain scanners judge age of criminal liability?

AT WHAT age should children be held criminally liable for their actions? It depends where they live. In England and Wales, children under 10 are not considered capable of committing a crime and cannot be tried, no matter what they might have done. In Scotland the age is 8, though it will soon to be …

Opinion

The sun's activity has a place in climate science

Opinion

Don't get too happy

Opinion

Life

Reports of miracle drugs are no substitute for trials

Opinion

Technology

Foursquare founder: Privacy fears are exaggerated

Opinion

Beyond God and atheism: Why I am a 'possibilian'

Opinion

Features

How to be happy (but not too much)

Life

How to be happy (but not too much)

Read more: " How to be happy: Putting well-being on the agenda " Positive feelings change the way our brain works (Image: Shutterstock Editorial: Don't get too happy It's good for your health, it makes you smarter – and our brains are hard-wired for it. New Scientist counts our reasons to be cheerful DOOM and …

Features

Earth

Emission control: Turning carbon trash into treasure

Features

Space

Cosmic accidents: How we avoided the void

Features

Space

Cosmic accidents: Tipping the antimatter balance

Features

Space

Cosmic accidents: Sparking up our star

Features

Space

Cosmic accidents: Mars attacks

Features

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Blasting the Earth into life

Features

Life

Cosmic accidents: One giant leap for a single cell

Features

Cosmic accidents: The age of heroic lichen

Features

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Killer asteroid with a silver lining

Features

Earth

Cosmic accidents: Brains or brawn – which was best?

Features

Life

Cosmic accidents: Inventing language, the easy way

Features

Cosmic accidents: The certainty of chance

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 1614

Letters & products Six is the product of two primes; one of those primes is the number of letters that the product contains when written as a word in English. (6 = 3x2, and SIX has 3 letters.) (1) Which 2-digit integer is likewise the product of two primes, one of which is the number …

Regulars

The geometric pedestal of string theory

Books & Arts

Now we can all be philosophers

Books & Arts

The A-Z of genetics, and then some

Books & Arts

Triumph of the north or technological salvation?

Books & Arts

Spin doctors: How PR trumps trust in modern medicine

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.

High-tech herbs on an astral plane

High-tech herbs on an astral plane FEEDBACK'S quest to classify fruitloop "remedies" appears to have uncovered a new genus: high-tech plants. Why market a boring old herbal remedy containing something related to the weed milk-vetch when you can squint sideways at the Linnaean name of its family of plants, Astragalus , ignore the fact that …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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