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This week's magazine

17 December 2011

Issue 2843

New Scientist issue 2843 cover
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Editor's picks

Light tricks: Quantum throttling and space-time waves

Physics

Light tricks: Quantum throttling and space-time waves

Features
Light tricks: From optical tweezers to solar sails

Light tricks: From optical tweezers to solar sails

Features
Light tricks: Thank Einstein for the new super-photons

Light tricks: Thank Einstein for the new super-photons

Features
Light tricks: Brakes for the universal speedster

Light tricks: Brakes for the universal speedster

Features
Light tricks: How it can travel faster than itself

Light tricks: How it can travel faster than itself

Features
Light tricks: Weaving an invisibility cloak

Light tricks: Weaving an invisibility cloak

Features
Light tricks: Spooky quantum secrets stay super-safe

Light tricks: Spooky quantum secrets stay super-safe

Features
Light tricks: Quantum cats and computers

Light tricks: Quantum cats and computers

Features
Light tricks: Conjuring photons out of thin air

Light tricks: Conjuring photons out of thin air

Features
The disease that turns you to stone

Health

The disease that turns you to stone

Features
Snowmageddon: What's behind extreme winter weather

Earth

Snowmageddon: What's behind extreme winter weather

Features
I'll put millions of people on Mars, says Elon Musk

Space

I'll put millions of people on Mars, says Elon Musk

Features

Table of contents

News

Satellite images of city lights used to track measles

Space

Satellite images of city lights used to track measles

Vaccine signal Niger by night, as seen from space Measles strikes where migrating people crowd together. The good news is that you can tell exactly where that is – and where to aim your vaccination – by looking from space for the glow of the migrants' lights. Measles kills around 164,000 unvaccinated children per year. …

News

Technology

Single particle is the smallest Stirling engine yet

News

Earth

Call for Arctic geoengineering as soon as possible

News

Life

Fish may have started walking underwater

News

Technology

LHC sees hint of lightweight Higgs boson

News

Earth

Dangerous decade: What follows the Durban climate deal

News

Life

Ultra-flat cells give buttercup its yellow glow

News

Space

NASA blasted for losing space samples in the mail

News

Life

Orang-utans digest their own muscles to survive

News

SpaceX to launch first docking mission to the ISS

News

Earth

Carbon capture and storage gets a clean bill of health

News

Health

Bone marrow transplant best for boosting blood cells

News

Health

Supreme Court to judge on patents for treating disease

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Ice hockey's hard knocks may not lead to brain injury

News

Health

High-fat diet leaves its mark on sperm

News

Life

Catching condors in Grand Canyon country

News

Health

A spoonful of sugar helps your skin age prematurely

News

Earliest human bedding didn't let the bedbugs bite

News

Life

Bedbugs owe their success to inbreeding

News

Earth

Braving Etna with the airborne volcano ash trackers

News

Earth

Big ships go green with retro technology

News

Technology

Inside search engines' war on bad results

News

Technology

Merge two of your fingerprints to protect your data

News

Space

Cloud suicide will wake black hole sleeping giant

News

Opinion

'My brain made me do it' – a legitimate defence?

'My brain made me do it' – a legitimate defence?

Neuroscience is becoming increasingly relevant to the law. Can brain scans ever prove whether you are guilty or innocent?

Opinion

Space

Time to ditch astronomical time

Opinion

Earth

We can still avoid a 'lost decade' on climate change

Opinion

Earth

To save the planet, let's find out how much we agree

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.

World's largest river dolphin looks pretty in pink

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science MEET the Amazon river dolphin ( Inia geoffrensis ), also known as the boto, or, if you believe Amazonian folklore, dad. Legend has it that the dolphin can transform itself into a …

Regulars

Features

Light tricks: Quantum throttling and space-time waves

Physics

Light tricks: Quantum throttling and space-time waves

Squeezing the uncertainty out of light will bring better optical communications and could flush out Einstein's elusive gravitational waves

Features

Light tricks: From optical tweezers to solar sails

Features

Light tricks: Thank Einstein for the new super-photons

Features

Light tricks: Brakes for the universal speedster

Features

Light tricks: How it can travel faster than itself

Features

Light tricks: Weaving an invisibility cloak

Features

Light tricks: Spooky quantum secrets stay super-safe

Features

Light tricks: Quantum cats and computers

Features

Light tricks: Conjuring photons out of thin air

Features

Health

The disease that turns you to stone

Features

Earth

Snowmageddon: What's behind extreme winter weather

Features

Space

I'll put millions of people on Mars, says Elon Musk

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.

Swimming around the statues

Artist Jason deCaires Taylor makes artificial reefs from cement casts of real people What are you trying to convey with your underwater statues? My work highlights the critical time we're living in, where we can influence the direction of our environment. I use sculpture to portray humans living in symbiosis with nature; to show how …

CultureLab

Earth, life's only home

CultureLab

Why psychoanalysis never existed

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 1677

Six of one Albion, Borough, City, Rangers and United have played a tournament in which each team played each of the other teams once. Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. In the final table the teams finished in alphabetical order, Albion with most points and United with fewest, no …

Regulars

Careers going global

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: Extreme pre-prints in law

Extreme pre-prints in law FOR marvellous reasons, which unfortunately this column is too narrow to contain, Feedback has been reading the Republic of Ghana's 2005 Copyright Act . It is wonderfully clear and concise, probably fitting more content into 34 pages than the UK's law manages in 324 (though we didn't like the answer we …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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