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This week's magazine

11 December 2010

Issue 2790

New Scientist issue 2790 cover
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Editor's picks

Living dinosaurs: Why did modern birds survive?

Life

Living dinosaurs: Why did modern birds survive?

Features
Living dinosaurs: When did modern birds evolve?

Life

Living dinosaurs: When did modern birds evolve?

Features
Living dinosaurs: How did feathers and flight evolve?

Life

Living dinosaurs: How did feathers and flight evolve?

Features
Living dinosaurs: Was archaeopteryx really a bird?

Life

Living dinosaurs: Was archaeopteryx really a bird?

Features
Living dinosaurs: Are we sure birds are dinos?

Life

Living dinosaurs: Are we sure birds are dinos?

Features
Light diet: Animals that eat sunshine

Earth

Light diet: Animals that eat sunshine

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.

Living dinosaurs: How birds took over the world

Features
Foreign aid on trial

Earth

Foreign aid on trial

Features
Wonder walls: Taking home decor to another dimension

Physics

Wonder walls: Taking home decor to another dimension

Features

Table of contents

News

Mathematical immortality? Name that theorem

Physics

Mathematical immortality? Name that theorem

This theorem is mine During my time as an eager undergraduate mathematician, I'd often wonder what it would feel like to prove a truly new result and have my name immortalised in the mathematical history books. I thought that dream had died when I gave up maths to become a science writer, but Aron's theorem …

News

Technology

Info pirates seek an alternative internet

News

Space

'Lightfoil' soars on a stream of photons

News

Life

Bigger brains tricked by optical illusion

News

Life

Implanted foreign object? Pee it out

News

Earth

Ecologists desert Cancún's sinking ship

News

Technology

E-cigarettes are poorly labelled and under-regulated

News

Health

Surrogate mothers need better protection

News

US public asked to play judge and jury for science funding

News

Secret US space plane lands itself

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

The poison eaters: alternative life forms

News

Technology

Quantum links let computers understand language

News

Life

To erase a bad memory, first become a child

News

Earth

Fungus out! The frog resistance is here

News

Health

Human brain stem cells grown in rats

News

Life

Scorpions glow in the dark to detect moonlight

News

Health

Had flu? The next pandemic could hit you harder

News

Life

Skin was the first organ to evolve

News

Health

Stem cells in TB protection racket

News

Earth

Salty solar plant stores sun's heat

News

Technology

Wireless at the speed of plasma

News

Technology

Magnetic nano-hedgehogs produce 'lab-on-a-track'

News

Space

Cosmic 'enlightenment' dawned slowly

News

Space

Quartet of giant planets puzzles astronomers

News

Technology

Infrared add-on could let standard cameras see cancer

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.

Curb your enthusiasm for aliens, NASA

The latest revelations about "alien life" suggest the agency should focus more astrobiology and less on publicity "IT'S life, but not as we know it," trumpeted one headline. "Alien life may have been discovered – right here on Earth," gasped another. Even The New York Times declared "Microbe Finds Arsenic Tasty; Redefines Life". The breathless …

Opinion

Troops need to remember

Opinion

WikiLeaks raises temperature in Cancún

Opinion

Time to democratise science

Opinion

Earth

Calestous Juma: Why I'm optimistic about Africa

Opinion

Health

Getting wise to the real power of placebos

Opinion

Features

Light diet: Animals that eat sunshine

Earth

Light diet: Animals that eat sunshine

Elysia chlorotica steals the ability to turn light into food from algae Gallery: Sunshine-eating animals in pictures From sea slugs to salamanders, many animals can naturally tap into solar power – and we're learning how to make more IT WAS a long shot," says Christina Agapakis . "We just wondered what would happen." She has …

Features

Living dinosaurs: How birds took over the world

Features

Earth

Foreign aid on trial

Features

Physics

Wonder walls: Taking home decor to another dimension

Features

Life

Living dinosaurs: Are we sure birds are dinos?

Features

Life

Living dinosaurs: Was archaeopteryx really a bird?

Features

Life

Living dinosaurs: How did feathers and flight evolve?

Features

Life

Living dinosaurs: When did modern birds evolve?

Features

Life

Living dinosaurs: Why did modern birds survive?

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.

What were the best popular science books of 2010?

J. Craig Venter Biologist and entrepreneur I have two favourites that I would like to highly recommend. The first is Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (W. W. Norton). This book provides a significant new look at the biology of human space-flight in an entertaining and very readable format. A must-read for anyone who has …

CultureLab

The best video games of 2010

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 1625

Diagonal diversion A niece, Amy, asks me to help her revise some arithmetic, her favourite subject, so we make 25 cards numbered consecutively from 1 to 25, which we shuffle and deal out in a 5-by-5 grid. She then multiplies together the numbers in each row and writes the product at the end of the …

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.

Feedback: British Airways's retro resurrection

British Airways resurrects forgotten format war BRITISH AIRWAYS recently offered customers the chance to earn credits for free flights by taking part in online surveys based on their special interests. A colleague of Feedback signed up, citing consumer and home electronics as his favoured field. A survey arrived by email, which our colleague dutifully took …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

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