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This week's magazine

2 July 2011

Issue 2819

New Scientist issue 2819 cover
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Editor's picks

Specs that see right through you

Life

Specs that see right through you

Features
Simple minds: How animals think

Life

Simple minds: How animals think

Features
Intelligence: What is it?

Mind

Intelligence: What is it?

Features
Intelligence: What makes someone smart?

Mind

Intelligence: What makes someone smart?

Features
Intelligence: Boosting brainpower

Mind

Intelligence: Boosting brainpower

Features
Intelligence: Are we getting smarter?

Mind

Intelligence: Are we getting smarter?

Features
Dying stars hold the promise of alien life

Life

Dying stars hold the promise of alien life

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

Infants take a rational response to 'broken' toys

Any adult who has ever tried and failed to get a gadget to work can usually work out whether the problem is down to a dubious piece of kit or a personal lack of technical know-how. New research suggests that even infants can work out where the fault lies – they reason in the same …

News

Life

First evidence that birds tweet using grammar

News

Health

Unzipped chromosomes pass on parental stress

News

Life

The first advertising campaign for non-human primates

News

Earth

Tasmanian devils were sitting ducks for deadly cancer

News

Space

Asteroid protoplanet may hold clues to Earth formation

News

Life

Rover may tackle Kilimanjaro-sized mound on Mars

News

Life

Brain trades off illusion-spotting and introspection

News

Life

5000 Christchurch quake homes will not be rebuilt

News

Radioactive urine in Fukushima poses small health risk

News

Earth

Economic benefits of shale-gas extraction unclear

News

Life

Recession puts babies on hold

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Deep sea gold rush: Mining hydrothermal vents

News

Technology

Why skin is a better lens than glass

News

Physics

One step closer to a nuclear timekeeper

News

Space

Famous black hole divulges its vital statistics

News

Ecotourists put macaques under stress

News

Health

Skin cream slows down snake venom

News

Python genes get frantic after meals

News

Life

Yeast gene makes old cells young again

News

Life

Jet-setting lab worm has first-class DNA

News

Technology

Personal helicopters to learn traffic rules

News

Technology

Control your home with thought alone

News

Technology

Robo-paparazzi learn how to take the perfect photo

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Life

Protecting protestors with photos that never existed

News

Technology

Mining social networks to predict your app choices

News

Opinion

Meteorite hunter: My two months in an Omani jail

Space

Meteorite hunter: My two months in an Omani jail

Troublesome rock Michael Farmer tells the tale of his quest for extraterrestrial geology and how it landed him in prison, and explains why he eats bits of the moon and Mars Why did you head to Oman in the first place? On 31 December last year I went on my 20th meteorite hunting expedition in …

Opinion

New dawn for mining at the seabed

Opinion

Genotyping is the future of conservation

Opinion

Citizen scientists, name that planet

Opinion

Technology

How computers can cure cultural diabetes

Opinion

Life

The man leading the fight against anti-girl abortions

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.

Japan emerges from megaquake's wreckage

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science THE extraordinary efforts to clear up the aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake can be seen here in the town of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, in north-east Japan. The left-hand image was taken following …

Regulars

Features

Specs that see right through you

Life

Specs that see right through you

Seventh sense Boring conversation? Accessories that decipher emotional cues could save your social life – or reveal that you're a jerk ROSALIND PICARD'S eyes were wide open. I couldn't blame her. We were sitting in her office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and my questions were stunningly incisive. In fact, I began …

Features

Life

Simple minds: How animals think

Features

Mind

Intelligence: What is it?

Features

Mind

Intelligence: What makes someone smart?

Features

Mind

Intelligence: Boosting brainpower

Features

Mind

Intelligence: Are we getting smarter?

Features

Life

Dying stars hold the promise of alien life

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.

Humans

Musical life of Elizabethan mathematician and magician

In a new opera, Damon Albarn explores the life of Dr John Dee, 16th-century mathematician and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I Dr Dee Palace Theatre, Manchester International Festival, until 9 July JOHN DEE, the 16th-century mathematician and occultist at the centre of Queen Elizabeth I's court, has inspired some of the world's greatest minds. Shakespeare …

CultureLab

Bayes's rule: a statistical thriller

CultureLab

What does consciousness feel like?

CultureLab

The pioneers of Antarctic research

CultureLab

Inheritance that's not just in the genes

CultureLab

What happened to hysteria?

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 1653

Cut-free The image, right, shows six dominoes forming a rectangle. The dotted line shows how the rectangle can be cut into two rectangles without cutting through a domino. I started again with a standard set of 28 dominoes and used some of them to make another rectangle. This time it was impossible to find a …

Regulars

Mining your data for cancer clues

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: Greetings, Mars! I bring you gifts!

Greetings, Mars! I bring you gifts! NEW SCIENTIST has a piece of Mars, but not for much longer. In May we offered readers the chance to win a genuine scrap of the Red Planet: 1.7 grams of meteorite NWA 2975, to be precise. All you had to do was tell us in 140 characters or …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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