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This week's magazine

6 November 2010

Issue 2785

New Scientist issue 2785 cover
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Editor's picks

City vs country: The concrete jungle is greener

Earth

City vs country: The concrete jungle is greener

Features
Country vs city: Green spaces are better for you

Earth

Country vs city: Green spaces are better for you

Features
Army avatars join the battle for hearts and minds

Life

Army avatars join the battle for hearts and minds

Features
Electriflyers: Hybrids take to the sky

Electriflyers: Hybrids take to the sky

Features
Human origins: Search for roots that Darwin started

Human origins: Search for roots that Darwin started

Features
Human origins: It began in Africa

Human origins: It began in Africa

Features
Human origins: Rise of the modern mind

Human origins: Rise of the modern mind

Features
Human origins: Lessons from an African valley

Human origins: Lessons from an African valley

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

Prizewinning chatbot steers the conversation

Humans aren't the only ones who can steer a conversation to their own benefit. This year's winner of the Loebner prize for the most convincing chatbot used such a trick to fool a human judge, earning its creator a $3,000 prize. The Loebner prize is awarded for a version of the Turing Test , a …

News

Life

Sharp Stone Age spearheads were cooked then flaked

News

Space

Hints of lightweight dark matter particle found in space

News

Life

Adult flamingo: I'm ready for my close-up now

News

Earth

Arctic narwhals reveal climate-model errors

News

Earth

What the UN ban on geoengineering really means

News

Health

First whole human liver built in lab

News

Earth

Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose

News

Life

'Introspection' brain networks fully formed at birth

News

Technology

Motorpike: Mechanical fish pulls serious gs

News

Technology

Electronic implant allows the blind to see

News

Technology

Aircraft bomb finds may spell end for in-flight Wi-Fi

News

Life

US justice department raises doubt over gene patents

News

Life

Diwali is a dark time for India's owls

News

Health

Global pincer movement could eradicate malaria

News

Space

China plans space station by 2020

News

Earth

Airlines cancel Indonesia flights as eruptions continue

News

Silica deposits on Mars could entomb possible life

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Genes marked by stress make grandchildren mentally ill

News

Space

Why the early universe was free of charge

News

Earth

Earth may have had water from day one

News

Technology

Secret of ultra-hard graphite unlocked

News

Earth

Cold climates no bar to biogas production

News

Health

Track lactic acid to discover brain age

News

Buckyballs abound in space

News

Life

Super-Earths may be hostile to life

News

Technology

In New York, even the walls have USB

News

Technology

Part moth, part machine: Cyborgs are on the move

News

Technology

Automated traders eye up unlikely locations

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.

Epigenetics can take us towards a saner future

Inheritable genetic changes can help shape the mental health of coming generations THROUGHOUT human history, people have realised that many illnesses are "in the blood". More recently, we have established that there is a genetic contribution to psychiatric diseases too. The extent to which the environment acts with our genes to cause illness is still …

Opinion

Cyborgs walk like a lamprey, dance like a moth

Opinion

Technology

Why I set up an inventors' championship

Opinion

Iain M. Banks: Upload for everlasting life

Opinion

Health

Cats that cure: Pets' healing power put to the test

Opinion

Features

City vs country: The concrete jungle is greener

Earth

City vs country: The concrete jungle is greener

Escape to the city They may not have so many trees to hug, but city slickers lead more environmentally friendly lives than their country cousins ON THE Ordos plateau in north central China, shepherds can remember the grass being tall enough to hide a horse. No longer. It is now so short and sparse that …

Features

Earth

Country vs city: Green spaces are better for you

Features

Life

Army avatars join the battle for hearts and minds

Features

Electriflyers: Hybrids take to the sky

Features

Human origins: Search for roots that Darwin started

Features

Human origins: It began in Africa

Features

Human origins: Rise of the modern mind

Features

Human origins: Lessons from an African valley

Features

Culturelab

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.

Online law man: Virtual worlds need real laws

Tens of millions of people live, work and play in virtual worlds where anything goes. Greg Lastowka thinks we need to police these lawless frontiers What prompted you to write your new book, Virtual Justice ? I've always been interested in technology law, and the issues surrounding law in virtual worlds are like canaries in …

CultureLab

The exhibition is watching you

CultureLab

The material and meaning of quantum physics

CultureLab

The story of the little neutral ones

CultureLab

Galileo, the man and his times

CultureLab

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 1620

Pieces of eight Eight candidates, referred to as A, B, C,..., H are competing for a prize. They sit in a circle in alphabetical order, with H next to A. Each is allotted a whole number known only to the supervisor, who, for each person in turn, announces the sum of the numbers in the …

Regulars

How Switzerland punches above its weight

Careers

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.

Feedback: Apple stem cell fruitloopery

Apple stem cell fruitloopery A COMPANY going by the name of Fake Bake is promoting what Niall Goulding considers a "rather amusing" skin product. Featuring something called "apple stem cell technology", Fake Bake's Platinum Face Self-Tan is apparently a "breakthrough in anti-ageing" – for which you may read that it is a breakthrough in fruitloopery. …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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