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This week's magazine

7 May 2011

Issue 2811

New Scientist issue 2811 cover
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Editor's picks

The limits of knowledge: Things we'll never understand

Life

The limits of knowledge: Things we'll never understand

Features
Out with a bang: The Tevatron's deathbed revelation

Physics

Out with a bang: The Tevatron's deathbed revelation

Features
Blue alert: The dark side of night light

Health

Blue alert: The dark side of night light

Features
Astrobiology: Are we alone in the universe?

Life

Astrobiology: Are we alone in the universe?

Features
Astrobiology: The hunt for alien life

Life

Astrobiology: The hunt for alien life

Features
Astrobiology: Hot topics in the search for ET

Life

Astrobiology: Hot topics in the search for ET

Features
Astrobiology: Are we unique?

Life

Astrobiology: Are we unique?

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.

Space

The universe's first stars were whirling dervishes

The universe's first stars were fast-rotating "spinstars", suggests a study of the chemical signature they left behind. Their fast spins may have made them especially prone to dying in spectacular explosions called gamma-ray bursts. Today's telescopes are not powerful enough to directly observe the universe's first stars , which formed and died just a few …

News

Earth

Brainless box jellyfish know which way is up

News

Earth

Monkeys show signs of advanced memory powers

News

Earth

Deadly weather in US could become the norm

News

Space

Second experiment hints at seasonal dark matter signal

News

Physics

Fleeting antimatter trapped for a quarter of an hour

News

Osama bin Laden: how DNA identified his body

News

Strange cosmic ray hotspots stalk southern skies

News

Earth

Milk miles show why it's hard to go locavore

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Evolutionary push could help crops self-fertilise

News

Physics

How to build the global mathematics brain

News

Earth

Asteroids make life's raw materials

News

Technology

Drug pacemaker relieves hassle of daily shots

News

Life

Why do we remember some dreams but not others?

News

Life

Out-of-Africa migration selected novelty-seeking genes

News

Space

'Dwarf' black holes might help explain dark matter

News

Life

A sideways look suggests leaning tower will topple

News

Health

Heart attacks are more dangerous in the morning

News

Life

Talk with a dolphin via underwater translation machine

News

Technology

In-car projection for drive-by advertising

News

Earth

Know where the wind blows to boost power grid capacity

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Toughening up vulnerable networks one link at a time

News

Health

Painkillers need clearer warnings to prevent liver damage

News

Technology

Elusive Higgs slips from sight again

News

Life

How sickle-cell carriers fend off malaria

News

Space

Ghostly nebulae show mysterious alignment

News

Opinion

Time to put weather forecasters on the spot

Earth

Time to put weather forecasters on the spot

Best keep an umbrella handy The reliability of weather forecasts is surprisingly hard to measure. The BBC's Weather Test will make amends DO I need an umbrella today? When can I harvest my crops? When shall we display the winter clothing range? Is it safe to put up that offshore wind turbine? Can we set …

Opinion

Earth

US navy chief: I'm on a mission to stop using oil

Opinion

Technology

Five roboethical principles – for humans

Opinion

We need another green revolution

Opinion

Mathematics becomes more sociable

Opinion

The implications of interspecies communication

Opinion

Features

The limits of knowledge: Things we'll never understand

Life

The limits of knowledge: Things we'll never understand

What we'll never know (Image: Andy Potts From the machinery of life to the fate of the cosmos, what can't science explain? YOU might not expect the UK's Astronomer Royal to make too many pronouncements about what chimpanzees think, but that is one of Martin Rees's favourite topics. He reckons we can learn a lesson …

Features

Physics

Out with a bang: The Tevatron's deathbed revelation

Features

Health

Blue alert: The dark side of night light

Features

Life

Astrobiology: Are we alone in the universe?

Features

Life

Astrobiology: The hunt for alien life

Features

Life

Astrobiology: Hot topics in the search for ET

Features

Life

Astrobiology: Are we unique?

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.

Exploring animals' emotional experiences

Jonathan Balcombe's The Exultant Ark is an exploration of the nascent research into animal pleasure, replete with emotive photographs AS ANIMAL behaviourist Jonathan Balcombe sees it, too often the animal kingdom is portrayed solely as a realm of dire and perpetual struggle for survival. He argues that observations of playfulness or expressions of pleasure by …

CultureLab

Cool viruses from pox to pandemics

CultureLab

The birth and rise of batteries

CultureLab

The modern marvel of magnetic levitation

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 1645

Neighbourhood watch In my street the odd-numbered houses are on the left and the even-numbered houses are on the right. The first house on the left, number 1, is immediately opposite number 2, then number 3 is opposite number 4, and so on. Each house has its number on the gate. On a recent walk …

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: Redundant gestures get the thumbs up

Redundant gestures get the thumbs up READER Anita Gait recently noted the phenomenon of people using gestures that no longer represent the idea they are intended to convey (9 April) . She cited the "air scribble" used to request the bill in a restaurant, even though bills these days are often generated electronically and don't …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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