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This week's magazine

2 April 2011

Issue 2806

New Scientist issue 2806 cover
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Editor's picks

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

Memory sticks: When is it too late to bother?

Features
Why evolution is going nowhere fast

Life

Why evolution is going nowhere fast

Features
Empty universe: Cosmology in the year 100 billion

Space

Empty universe: Cosmology in the year 100 billion

Features
Memory sticks: Seven ways to remember anything

Life

Memory sticks: Seven ways to remember anything

Features
Carbon capture: Why we need it

Carbon capture: Why we need it

Features
Carbon capture: How to trap a gas

Carbon capture: How to trap a gas

Features
Carbon capture: Transport and storage

Carbon capture: Transport and storage

Features
Carbon capture: An unprecedented challenge

Carbon capture: An unprecedented challenge

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.

Life

Memory sticks: How do the champions do it?

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.

Life

Memory sticks: Do mnemonics work?

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.

Life

Memory sticks: How should I bone up for a test?

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.

Life

Memory sticks: Can I learn subliminally?

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.

Life

Memory sticks: Does it matter when I study?

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.

Life

Memory sticks: Can I expand my short-term memory?

Features

Table of contents

News

Beach beetle reinvents the wheel

Life

Beach beetle reinvents the wheel

Freewheeling fun (Image: Alan Cressler brightcove.createExperiences(); Video: Beetle rolls like a wheel to escape danger Prod the larva of Cicindela dorsalis media , and it will elegantly leap into the air, curve its body into a perfect spinning hoop and roll away from danger across the sand, propelled by the wind. This surprising talent makes …

News

Technology

Stuxnet analysis finds more holes in critical software

News

Health

Stress hormone combats fear of heights

News

Life

Blood test rescues failing transplant organ

News

Life

Evolution of cognition might be down to brain chemistry

News

Earth

Contrails warm the world more than aviation emissions

News

Life

Zoologger: The only primate that eats its dinner twice

News

Earth

North and South Korea meet to discuss volcano threat

News

Caesium fallout from Fukushima rivals Chernobyl

News

Deepwater Horizon wildlife deaths understated

News

Health

Wandering to be classed a medical symptom in the US

News

Health

China tries again to stop smoking

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Wind and wave farms could affect Earth's energy balance

News

Life

Bot shows signs of consciousness

News

Earth

Salty tombs could contain nuclear waste

News

Life

Stretchy patch could help repair skin and arteries

News

Technology

Computer network model finds Parkinson's tipping point

News

Physicists create heaviest form of antimatter ever seen

News

Space

Backward stars point to galactic cannibalism

News

Space

Lunar potholes may be ideal water traps

News

Health

Dye slows ageing and Alzheimer's protein formation

News

Technology

Ear implants for the deaf with no strings attached

News

Technology

Engraved plastic panels cast image in light and shade

News

Earth

Garbage-sorting robot gets its hands dirty

News

Technology

Not in my backyard! App to spot eyesores in the making

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Airborne radar will map the ground in 3D

News

Opinion

The fight for a fair libel law in England is not over

The fight for a fair libel law in England is not over

Time for change The long-overdue reform of English libel law and its chilling effect on free speech has begun, but the battle isn't won yet BETWEEN 2008 and 2010, I found myself defending an eventually unsuccessful libel suit brought against me by the British Chiropractic Association. Other scientists, science journalists and journals have also been …

Opinion

Earth

Population expert: The 11-billion-person planet

Opinion

When should we give rights to robots?

Opinion

The sun is our only truly renewable energy source

Opinion

Life

Surfing the data flood: Why omniscience is a curse

Opinion

Features

Why evolution is going nowhere fast

Life

Why evolution is going nowhere fast

Evolution in the fast lane Slow and steady wins the evolutionary race? Not a bit of it: it's a sprint – one in which the runners might change direction at any minute MICHAEL BELL has his children to thank for his discovery. Back in 1990, they were getting restless as he was driving past Loberg …

Features

Space

Empty universe: Cosmology in the year 100 billion

Features

Life

Memory sticks: Seven ways to remember anything

Features

Carbon capture: Why we need it

Features

Carbon capture: How to trap a gas

Features

Carbon capture: Transport and storage

Features

Carbon capture: An unprecedented challenge

Features

Life

Memory sticks: How do the champions do it?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: Do mnemonics work?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: How should I bone up for a test?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: Can I learn subliminally?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: Does it matter when I study?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: Can I expand my short-term memory?

Features

Life

Memory sticks: When is it too late to bother?

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.

How will you cope, living with your avatar?

In Infinite Reality , Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson map the exciting possibilities and daunting downsides of ever more realistic virtual worlds HELLO, future. Gaming systems that drop you into another world, such as Microsoft's Kinect or Nintendo's Wii, are just the beginning of what virtual-reality technology has to offer. Get ready for virtual immortality, …

CultureLab

Feynman the fearless, an adventurer in physics

CultureLab

Biology's new mathematical revolution

CultureLab

Star wars of the 17th century

CultureLab

A bad workman blames his digital technology

CultureLab

The moral compass built into social animals' brains

CultureLab

Sleuthing stories from the metamorphosis files

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 1640

Four-cast Fill each of the 16 boxes with a digit so that the same four consecutive digits appear in each row and in each column. In this way you can then read four 4-figure numbers across the rows and four 4-figure numbers down the columns. You must choose your digits so all eight 4-figure numbers …

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: What fell on the Krypton Street post office?

What fell on the Krypton Street post office? HAS space junk been falling on Holland? According to a report in the newsletter of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, a 3-kilogram metallic object fell from the sky on the village of Ede, the Netherlands, on 4 March, piercing the ceiling of a …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

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