Subscribe now

This week's magazine

23 July 2011

Issue 2822

New Scientist issue 2822 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Existence special: Cosmic mysteries, human questions

Existence special: Cosmic mysteries, human questions

Features
Existence: Why is there a universe?

Space

Existence: Why is there a universe?

Features
Existence: Are we alone in the universe?

Life

Existence: Are we alone in the universe?

Features
Existence: Am I a hologram?

Space

Existence: Am I a hologram?

Features
Existence: Where did my consciousness come from?

Life

Existence: Where did my consciousness come from?

Features
Existence: Why is the universe just right for us?

Life

Existence: Why is the universe just right for us?

Features
Existence: Am I a zombie?

Life

Existence: Am I a zombie?

Features
Existence: Is there more than one me?

Space

Existence: Is there more than one me?

Features
Existence: Will we die out?

Life

Existence: Will we die out?

Features
Existence: What happens when computers overtake us?

Life

Existence: What happens when computers overtake us?

Features
Existence: What is the self?

Life

Existence: What is the self?

Features
Existence: How will it all end?

Space

Existence: How will it all end?

Features

Table of contents

News

E. coli's genetic code has been hacked

Life

E. coli's genetic code has been hacked

Rewriting life The genetic code common to all life is not set in stone. We can change it at its most fundamental level for our own purposes. Genetic engineers have invented a new way to quickly, precisely and thoroughly rewrite the genome of living bacteria. The technique could make drug-producing bacteria immune to viruses, prevent …

News

Space

Probe's targets cloud 'crystal ball' for solar system

News

Space

Space telescope to create radio 'eye' larger than Earth

News

Earth

Where did the Gulf's spilt oil and gas go?

News

Life

Grappling hooks help bacteria slingshot forward

News

Physics

How to make quantum entanglement last

News

Physics

How to be in two places at the same time

News

Earth

Shipping industry agrees CO2 emission standards

News

Health

Close your eyes to win at rock, paper, scissors

News

Technology

Lax security makes it easy to hack News International

News

Earth

Japanese power cuts linked to heatstroke deaths

News

Life

Could 'Caylee's law' on reporting child death work?

News

Earth

Is Europe in for a summer of E. coli poisoning?

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Daily pill can end HIV epidemic

News

Earth

Paying our respects at a CO2 graveyard

News

Life

Self-tidying molecules could have kick-started life

News

Space

Snowstorms on Mars may dwarf those on Earth

News

Life

Age no excuse for failing to learn a new language

News

Life

Chimp nest architecture has lasting foundations

News

Space

Sun's death rattle may hurl comets out of solar system

News

Health

Lack of testes gave castrato superstar headaches

News

Health

Drug driving test at your fingertips

News

Good-looking sperm lead to female embryos

News

Technology

Crowdsourced online learning gives robots human skills

News

Technology

Fingerprint scanner to spot the living dead

News

Technology

Chaos radar uses messy signals to see through walls

News

Technology

Will Li-Fi be the new Wi-Fi?

News

Technology

Stegobot steals passwords from your Facebook photos

News

Opinion

Stephen Hawking

Space

Existence: Where did we come from?

Are we alone? WHY are we here? Where did we come from? According to the Boshongo people of central Africa, before us there was only darkness, water and the great god Bumba. One day Bumba, in pain from a stomach ache, vomited up the sun. The sun evaporated some of the water, leaving land. Still …

Opinion

US science cuts pay for war – and we all suffer

Opinion

Life

Read all about it: Why we have an appetite for gossip

Opinion

Technology

Internet activist: The dark side of web personalisation

Opinion

Life

Gould's skulls: Is bias inevitable in science?

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.

Existence: Bright lights of our galaxy's downtown

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science WELCOME to the most intriguing location in our galaxy, one that makes our spot appear a quiet backwater by comparison. The Milky Way is a disc some 100,000 light years across that …

Regulars

Portrait of a bog man

Regulars

Features

Existence special: Cosmic mysteries, human questions

Existence special: Cosmic mysteries, human questions

A lot of why's It's lucky you're here.                 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was born in a cosmic fireball. Roughly 10 billion years later, the planet we call Earth gave birth to life, which eventually led to you. The probability of that sequence of events is absolutely minuscule, and yet it still happened. Take …

Features

Space

Existence: Why is there a universe?

Features

Life

Existence: Are we alone in the universe?

Features

Space

Existence: Am I a hologram?

Features

Life

Existence: Where did my consciousness come from?

Features

Life

Existence: Why is the universe just right for us?

Features

Life

Existence: Am I a zombie?

Features

Space

Existence: Is there more than one me?

Features

Life

Existence: Will we die out?

Features

Life

Existence: What happens when computers overtake us?

Features

Life

Existence: What is the self?

Features

Space

Existence: How will it all end?

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.

Stelarc: Pushing the body's boundaries

The Australian performance artist with an ear on his arm discusses his work challenging what it is to be human As an artist, what is your role in shaping technology? It's a very modest one. Each new technology generates novel information and unexpected images of the body and the world, which often destabilises our paradigms …

CultureLab

Is reading fiction good for you?

CultureLab

The importance of Darwin's prose

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 1656

Five integers I have written down five single-digit positive integers. The sum of the five integers is divisible by the fifth integer, but not by any of the first four. The sum of the first four integers is divisible by the fourth but not by any of the first three. The sum of the first …

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: Bulls, bears and candlesticks

Bulls, bears and candlesticks FEEDBACK is indebted to James Newton-Thomas for his assistance in elucidating the "bearish Dark Cloud Cover candlestick pattern" that so puzzled us when we read of it in the "Forex analyst picks" column of a free newspaper aimed at London's financial folk ( 14 May and 25 June ). James sends …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop