Subscribe now

This week's magazine

17 March 2012

Issue 2856

New Scientist issue 2856 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

11 particles for 11 physics puzzles

Physics

11 particles for 11 physics puzzles

Features
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.

The God issue: New science of religion

Features
The God issue: We are all born believers

The God issue: We are all born believers

Features
The God issue: Religion is the key to civilisation

The God issue: Religion is the key to civilisation

Features
The God issue: Science won't loosen religion's grip

The God issue: Science won't loosen religion's grip

Features
The God issue: God is a testable hypothesis

The God issue: God is a testable hypothesis

Features
The God issue: Alain de Botton's religion for atheists

The God issue: Alain de Botton's religion for atheists

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.

Health

Circumcision may cut risk of prostate cancer

Circumcision may help prevent prostate cancer, but only if the operation takes place before the person has sex for the first time. Jonathan Wright at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues asked 3000 men – around half of whom had prostate cancer – if they had been circumcised and when they first …

News

Health

Brain scans offer insight into Williams syndrome

News

Earth

Pacific island to buy piece of Fiji as climate plan

News

Life

Deadly frog disease spreads through tolerant species

News

Health

Soldiers on multiple deployment need monitoring

News

Space

Space is bad for astronauts' eyes

News

Many authors of psychiatry bible have industry ties

News

Revealed: How China censors its social networks

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Virtual reality for animals reveals secrets of working brain

News

Technology

Is the LHC throwing away too much data?

News

Earth

Sinking land shows East Antarctic ice sheet is stable

News

Life

Simple worms are closet brainiacs

News

Health

Blood tests won't stop gene cheats

News

Mario is hard, and that's mathematically official

News

Alcohol boosts ability to solve problems creatively

News

Microraptor's glossy black feather coat reconstructed

News

The rock that sprayed 'fairy dust' on moon

News

Life

Jonah snails travel the world inside bird guts

News

Health

Stem cell brain injections ease Parkinson's

News

Neutrinos could help explain missing antimatter

News

Technology

Fibre optics to connect Japan to the UK – via the Arctic

News

Technology

The next US president will be a social media expert

News

Technology

Was our interview with LulzSec hacker an FBI set-up?

News

Technology

Free apps eat up your phone battery just sending ads

News

Life

Chinese human fossils unlike any known species

News

Opinion

Noam Chomsky: Meet the universal man

Humans

Noam Chomsky: Meet the universal man

"Human nature is not totally fixed, but on any realistic scale evolutionary processes are much too slow to affect it." Why can everyone learn Portuguese? Are some aspects of our nature unknowable? Can you imagine Richard Nixon as a radical? Is Twitter a trivialiser? New Scientist takes a whistle-stop tour of our modern intellectual landscape …

Opinion

To rule out god, first get to know him

Opinion

Technology

A message from your presidential candidate

Opinion

Physics

Higgs is not the only particle in town

Opinion

Health

Don't compare Fukushima to Chernobyl

Opinion

Technology

Facebook's effects in a world of political turmoil

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.

Environment

Safari robot shoots big cats

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science THE low hum rumbling across Kenya's Masai Mara isn't the sound of a distant herd of wildebeest on their annual migration – it's the trundling motor of an armoured robot called Beetlecam …

Regulars

Features

11 particles for 11 physics puzzles

Physics

11 particles for 11 physics puzzles

What is dark matter? Or gravity? Why is the universe so smooth? There's a particle for every conundrum

Features

The God issue: New science of religion

Features

The God issue: We are all born believers

Features

The God issue: Religion is the key to civilisation

Features

The God issue: Science won't loosen religion's grip

Features

The God issue: God is a testable hypothesis

Features

The God issue: Alain de Botton's religion for atheists

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.

Challenges for first science museum in the Philippines

Creating a haven for science is no simple feat in the Philippines, a country where evolution and fossils are controversial topics

CultureLab

Designs are as flawed as their designers

CultureLab

The life and loves of Isaac Newton

CultureLab

Without free will, what do our choices mean?

CultureLab

A DIY guide to improving your brain

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 1689

What's my number? Three very logical friends, Amy, Bob and Carol, sat in a circle wearing hats. Each hat had a number on it so all three could see the others' numbers but not their own. They were told that the numbers were three different positive digits. They each made a statement in turn and …

Regulars

Leading lights of the low countries

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: Pet pendants, possibly

Pet pendants, possibly WOULD you like to offer your pet dog or cat some chemical-free flea and tick control? If you're a New Zealander, you're in luck. Just send the Pawtect company NZ$91 for a slim, lightweight protective pendant for your pet. You may, however, need to suspend your common sense while you read the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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