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This week's magazine

4 June 2011

Issue 2815

New Scientist issue 2815 cover
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Editor's picks

The million-dollar puzzle that could change the world

Mathematics

The million-dollar puzzle that could change the world

Features
Dark earth: How humans enriched the rainforests

Earth

Dark earth: How humans enriched the rainforests

Features
Bipolar kids: Victims of the 'madness industry'?

Health

Bipolar kids: Victims of the 'madness industry'?

Features
Theory of everything: The big questions in physics

Space

Theory of everything: The big questions in physics

Features
Theory of everything: The road to unification

Space

Theory of everything: The road to unification

Features
Theory of everything: Have we now got one?

Space

Theory of everything: Have we now got one?

Features
Theory of everything: Answering the critics

Space

Theory of everything: Answering the critics

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

People in threatened societies are more conformist

Societies facing a host of dangers are more likely to have strict social norms and be intolerant of people who deviate from them. The more secure a society, the more liberal and tolerant its people. To find out how strict social norms are in different places, Michele Gelfand of the University of Maryland in College …

News

Health

Mind-reading scan identifies simple thoughts

News

Health

Common drug combo increases diabetes risk

News

Earth

Reindeer gained UV vision after moving to the Arctic

News

Earth

Fukushima was certified tsunami-proof

News

Earth

Record carbon emissions mean 2 °C rise ever closer

News

Earth

Death toll rising in cucumber bacteria outbreak

News

Health

Ratko Mladic health appeal rejected

News

Technology

Quantum computer sold to high-profile client

News

Health

US kids should avoid energy drinks

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

When the multiverse and many-worlds collide

News

Earth

Asphalt may have poisoned ancient Americans

News

Earth

Wave 'invisibility cloak' could shield coastlines

News

Earth

Californian dolphin gang caught killing porpoises

News

Space

Binary stars behind puffy exoplanet puzzle

News

Health

Positive feedback gives kids with ADHD a head start

News

Pacific shouldn't amplify climate change

News

Health

On a diet? Try mind over milkshake

News

Technology

Future of money: Virtual cash gets real

News

Technology

Future of money: A currency that's building community

News

Technology

Future of money: Crowdsourcing cash

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Gunshot echoes used to map caves' interior

News

Earth

A renewable energy generator for all seasons

News

Health

Sound waves can identify cancers that have spread

News

Technology

Pentagon may fight cyberwar with rockets

News

Opinion

Psychologist: On robot pets and video picture windows

Life

Psychologist: On robot pets and video picture windows

Does it matter that we often experience the natural world through technology? Peter Kahn untangles our tangled and evolving relationship with nature You study "technological nature". What do you mean by that? It's technology that mediates our experience of nature: TV wildlife programmes, online games such as FarmVille , in which players plant and harvest …

Opinion

Future of money: Back to a networked future

Opinion

God deserves a cosmological explanation

Opinion

Earth

The end is always nigh in the human mind

Opinion

Health

AIDS epidemiologist: We need a prevention revolution

Opinion

Aperture

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.

Polar bear molar check

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science I DON'T feel comfortable lying inches away from this polar bear, watching as its eyelids flicker and ice crystals dance on its breath. A helicopter pilot and mechanic stand behind me, flare …

Regulars

Features

The million-dollar puzzle that could change the world

Mathematics

The million-dollar puzzle that could change the world

Cracking this mathematical mystery will make someone rich, but its value to all of us could be incalculable. Jacob Aron explains why it matters if P = NP

Features

Earth

Dark earth: How humans enriched the rainforests

Features

Health

Bipolar kids: Victims of the 'madness industry'?

Features

Space

Theory of everything: The big questions in physics

Features

Space

Theory of everything: The road to unification

Features

Space

Theory of everything: Have we now got one?

Features

Space

Theory of everything: Answering the critics

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.

Where's my Holodeck? The latest interactive movie news

Now we are accustomed to the wonders of 3D, turning movies interactive might be the next step in cinema. But how will the technologists do it? IT IS time for cinema to take its next step. 3D technology now fills our screens with beautifully rendered characters and virtual environments, but we could have so much …

CultureLab

Environment

Going ape: Ultraviolence and our primate cousins

CultureLab

How hellish smoke gave Tennessee a poisoned desert

CultureLab

Volcanoes that shaped our world

CultureLab

Intrigue in the Amazon

CultureLab

The brave story of how smallpox was wiped out

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 1649

Joe was asked to arrange a lottery for a local charity. He made a pack of cards with one of just two numbers on each card. One could select to draw any number of cards from the pack. Prizes were awarded according to the total of the numbers on the cards drawn. Checking numbers which …

Regulars

Germany's Ivy League

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: Cancer risk doubled or halved

Cancer risk doubled or halved AFTER reading our feature on how Kate Middleton snared her mate, by Geoffrey Miller (23 April, p 37) , Karoline Schmidt was minded to contradict the statement that Prince William "possesses the good genes destined to make this a biologically beneficent union". She remembered having read that going bald early …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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