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This week's magazine

5 February 2011

Issue 2798

New Scientist issue 2798 cover
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Editor's picks

Mind's circuit diagram to be revealed by mammoth map

Earth

Mind's circuit diagram to be revealed by mammoth map

Features
Polar nomads: Ghost foxes of the Arctic

Earth

Polar nomads: Ghost foxes of the Arctic

Features
To boldly sow: Seeding the galaxy with Earthly life

Life

To boldly sow: Seeding the galaxy with Earthly life

Features
Dark matter: The evidence

Space

Dark matter: The evidence

Features
Dark matter: What is it?

Space

Dark matter: What is it?

Features
Dark matter: The hunt

Space

Dark matter: The hunt

Features
Dark matter: What happens next?

Space

Dark matter: What happens next?

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.

Life

Even young babies know who's boss

brightcove.createExperiences(); Video: Babies know who's boss In many species, bigger is better. Birds puff their plumage to inflate their perceived size, humans talk about the "big man" on campus, and are even more likely to vote for the tallest candidate in an election. Now, it seems that children as young as 10 months use size …

News

Earth

Darwin Gap quake will shake Chile again

News

Physics

Atomic disguise makes helium look like hydrogen

News

Physics

How to cook up 'foamy' space-time in the lab

News

Life

Vikings' crystal clear method of navigation

News

Life

Protein predicts which cancers will spread

News

Life

Sleeping enhances memory – but only the important stuff

News

Health

Patent truce boosts stem cell medicine

News

Life

Plant prepares for pathogens at dawn

News

How Egypt is getting online without the internet

News

Yes and no to modified alfalfa in US

News

Health

Undiagnosed Diseases Program finds rare new disorder

News

Mangroves may get growth spurt from Queensland floods

News

LHC's planned upgrade delayed by a year

News

60 Seconds

News

Technology

Smart knife could revolutionise surgery

News

Space

First humans set to land on Mars, sort of

News

Earth

You'd beat a Neanderthal in a race

News

Earth

Cassava packs a protein punch with bean genes

News

Nabokov was right about butterflies

News

Health

Abnormalities discovered in stem cells from adults

News

Space

Smash rocks to test how planets form

News

Technology

Sniffer mice have a nose for explosives

News

Technology

Silicon supervisor gets the job done online

News

Technology

Ancient buildings brought to life from historic maps

News

Technology

Breath sensor predicts an asthma attack the day before

News

Space

Alien solar system packs its planets like sardines

News

Life

Woodpecker's head inspires shock absorbers

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.

To boldly sow: why we should fertilise the galaxy

Our 5-million-year mission: to send life to strange new worlds IF LIFE on Earth is a wondrous thing, then how much more wondrous would life be on 100 Earth-like worlds? This is more than idle speculation. We may have the power to turn that fecund dream into reality. Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University in …

Opinion

Egypt: the message still gets through

Opinion

Earth

Will intensified farming save the rainforests?

Opinion

Religion no excuse for promoting scientific ignorance

Opinion

Earth

Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst

Opinion

Space

Bestselling string theorist: Betting on the multiverse

Opinion

Features

Mind's circuit diagram to be revealed by mammoth map

Earth

Mind's circuit diagram to be revealed by mammoth map

The greatest map of all Our brain is the most complex object in the known universe – so we'll need to map it in formidable detail to track down memory, thought and identity A STRANGE contraption, a cross between a deli meat slicer and a reel-to-reel film projector, sits in a windowless room in Cambridge, …

Features

Earth

Polar nomads: Ghost foxes of the Arctic

Features

Life

To boldly sow: Seeding the galaxy with Earthly life

Features

Space

Dark matter: The evidence

Features

Space

Dark matter: What is it?

Features

Space

Dark matter: The hunt

Features

Space

Dark matter: What happens next?

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.

Data artists: Visualisation as a gateway drug

From erogenous zones to sock drawers, gurus of data visualisation Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viégas tell Peter Aldhous about the science and art of democratising data You present data sets in a variety of visual ways. Is your work art, information science, design or something else? Martin Wattenberg: We don't stress about labels. Sometimes what …

CultureLab

The physicist who knew too much

CultureLab

Reasons to be cheerful about the future

CultureLab

Beyond the five stages of grief

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 1632

Foiled by a fold I started with a rectangular piece of paper, the longer side of which was 24 centimetres in length. I then folded the paper with one straight fold so that one corner of the rectangle was touching the diagonally opposite corner. This created a folded piece that was a pentagon, and 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: Sex, lies and scientific papers

Sex, lies and scientific papers COULD a spaghetti western be scientists' favourite movie? Reto Schneider believes it is and reckons he can prove it. Writing in his blog at weirdexperiments.com , he points out that: "No other movie title pops up more often in the heading of a scientific paper than The Good, the Bad …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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