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This week's magazine

28 January 2012

Issue 2849

New Scientist issue 2849 cover
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Editor's picks

Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever

Earth

Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever

Features
Big trees in trouble: How the mighty are falling

Life

Big trees in trouble: How the mighty are falling

Features
Orchid children: How bad-news genes came good

Life

Orchid children: How bad-news genes came good

Features
Spaced out: Clearing astronauts' mental fog

Space

Spaced out: Clearing astronauts' mental fog

Features

Table of contents

News

Disrupted body clock may prime you for schizophrenia

Health

Disrupted body clock may prime you for schizophrenia

When the brain's clock runs amok, expect mental problems ( Image: Bill Longcore/Science Photo Library ) Schizophrenia could be a profound form of jetlag in which the brain's central clock runs out of kilter with peripheral clocks around the rest of the body. People with the illness often complain of sleeping difficulties , and last …

News

Technology

Better mathematics boosts image-processing algorithm

News

Technology

First secure quantum computer is blind to its own bits

News

Space

First subliming planet foreshadows Mercury's fate

News

Life

Pupils constrict at the thought of brightness

News

Life

Egyptians gave ibis birds a packed lunch for the afterlife

News

Health

Immune system may help to trigger the menopause

News

Health

Erectile function restored with stem cells

News

Space

Hyperactive sun clears space junk – for now

News

'Newt Skywalker' wins South Carolina primary

News

Bird flu researchers stand down for 60 days

News

Earth

White House pressure on Gulf oil leak figures alleged

News

Life

Arsenic life does not exist after all

News

Health

DIY smear test works for cervical cancer

News

Blindness eased by historic stem cell treatment

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Superbugs spied off the Antarctic coast

News

Earth

Repeated drought in east Africa may prompt aid rethink

News

Health

Can't find your keys? Your brain's out of sync

News

Physics

First quantum jiggles detected in solid object

News

Technology

What your online friends reveal about where you are

News

Technology

Virtual trees sway in wind just like the real thing

News

Technology

AR goggles make crime scene investigation a desk job

News

Technology

Phase-change materials can fix machine memory crunch

News

Technology

Pinch-screen puts all your fingers in control

News

Earth

Fracking health risks: Drilling into the unknown

News

Life

World's only iridescent mammal is a shiny accident

News

Life

Sleeping sickness tests may identify better therapies

News

Space

Fight over changing constants reaches stalemate

News

Opinion

Weak will comes from tired mental muscles

Health

Weak will comes from tired mental muscles

Self-controlled people have better lives – but for the rest, lack of willpower is more like physical fatigue than moral failure

Opinion

Earth

Taking the long view on the world's energy supplies

Opinion

Antarctic superbugs should alert people everywhere

Opinion

Earth

Frack responsibly and risks – and quakes – are small

Opinion

Health

Unite to fight bird flu

Opinion

What makes scientists tick?

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.

Gold-coated ant caught wielding a microcog

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science DON'T fear, ants haven't started constructing micromachines, though I wouldn't put it past them. Perhaps the most impressive of all insects – no mean feat when there are some 3 million species …

Regulars

Features

Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever

Earth

Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever

As energy demand grows, even alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear fusion could begin to affect the climate

Features

Life

Big trees in trouble: How the mighty are falling

Features

Life

Orchid children: How bad-news genes came good

Features

Space

Spaced out: Clearing astronauts' mental fog

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.

Capturing the heart of the disappearing Arctic

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog

CultureLab

Humans

Psychology of a musical mid-life crisis

CultureLab

The yuck factor explained

CultureLab

Rotblat's pursuit of nuclear peace

CultureLab

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: Babes of steel

Babes of steel THE BBC has gone a step further than Feedback ever dared in its use of strange units of comparison. A column by Michael Blastland posted on 24 November 2011 on the BBC News website, entitled "Go Figure" ( bbc.in/steelbirth ), invites us to imagine "that every year, every one of us gave …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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