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This week's magazine

21 April 2012

Issue 2861

New Scientist issue 2861 cover
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Editor's picks

Human nature: Being playful

Humans

Human nature: Being playful

Features
Human nature: Being scientific

Humans

Human nature: Being scientific

Features
Human nature: Being legislative

Humans

Human nature: Being legislative

Features
Human nature: Being clandestine

Humans

Human nature: Being clandestine

Features
Human nature: Being epicurean

Humans

Human nature: Being epicurean

Features
Human nature: Being gossipy

Humans

Human nature: Being gossipy

Features
Network your stuff: Amateurs inventing a new internet

Technology

Network your stuff: Amateurs inventing a new internet

Features
Mini-moons orbiting Earth could bring asteroid mining closer to reality

Space

Earth's secret mini moons could reveal the history of the solar system

Features
Poor little rich minds: The price of wealth

Poor little rich minds: The price of wealth

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.

Physics

Controversial quantum computer beats factoring record

Is this a record for a quantum computer ? A group of physicists in China have used a process called adiabatic computing to find the prime factors of the number 143, beating the previous record for a quantum computer of 21. However, there are doubts about the quantum nature of this method, and its potential …

News

Health

Drug-free therapy makes addicts 'forget' addiction

News

Earth

Crucial environment satellite falls silent

News

Technology

Make your own drugs with a 3D printer

News

Death penalty deterrent studies are flawed

News

Texas passes controversial stem cell regulations

News

US to export gas as glut slashes prices

News

Earth

In tornado season, words save lives

News

US board calls for biosecurity censorship rules

News

NASA turns to the public for ideas about Mars mission

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

First glimpse at the viral birth of DNA

News

Element factory tests properties of ephemeral atoms

News

Health

‘Cocktail party effect' identified in the brain

News

Best evidence yet that a single gene can affect IQ

News

Earth

Ocean's toxic alkalisation spurred animal evolution

News

Life

Dino-bird had oldest known case of osteoarthritis

News

Blood test could diagnose teen depression

News

Baboons and 4-letter words point to origins of reading

News

Physics

Sound waves help quantum computers scale up

News

Technology

Wearable muscle suit makes heavy lifting a cinch

News

Earth

Real-time GPS sensor could give earlier quake warning

News

Technology

AI graders get top marks for scoring essay questions

News

Technology

New hacktivist sect emerges from Anonymous

News

Technology

Invent a balloon shape, print it, then just blow

News

Environment

Mini labs reveal sea life's secrets

News

Technology

Undersea network opens up the ocean to all

News

Technology

Solar-powered yacht conquers the globe

News

Environment

Touchy-feely robot takes on the darkness

News

Technology

Seawater battery sparks sub dreams

News

Life

Hand paralysis reversed in monkeys

News

Opinion

E. O. Wilson: from altruism to a new Enlightenment

E. O. Wilson: from altruism to a new Enlightenment

Groundbreaking sociobiologist E. O. Wilson argues that group selection is the main driver of evolution and explains why we need a new intellectual revolution

Opinion

Chemical 3D printing takes apps beyond the digital

Opinion

Rich suffer as well as the poor in unequal society

Opinion

Earth

The Arab Spring puts a strain on Jordan's ecology

Opinion

Matchmaking scientists with adventurers

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.

Photo exhibition brings new light to ocean depths

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science ON 17 January 1978, this tropical hatchetfish was minding its own business about 850 metres below the surface of the North Pacific Ocean when it was captured, killed and taken to become …

Regulars

Features

Human nature: Being playful

Humans

Human nature: Being playful

Playful (adj) Full of high spirits and fun Read more: Human nature: Six things we all do Humans are not nature's only funsters. All mammals play, as do some birds and a few other animals. But no other species pursues such a wide variety of entertainment or spends so much time enjoying themselves. The list …

Features

Humans

Human nature: Being scientific

Features

Humans

Human nature: Being legislative

Features

Humans

Human nature: Being clandestine

Features

Humans

Human nature: Being epicurean

Features

Humans

Human nature: Being gossipy

Features

Technology

Network your stuff: Amateurs inventing a new internet

Features

Space

Earth's secret mini moons could reveal the history of the solar system

Features

Poor little rich minds: The price of wealth

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.

Luminous life on show

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog A new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York celebrates luminescent wildlife – and may introduce the first known biofluorescent eel Creatures of Light: Nature's bioluminescence, American Museum …

CultureLab

Missions to Mars: The story so far

CultureLab

Celebrating the new unconscious

CultureLab

Cartoon rebuttals of conspiracy theories

CultureLab

How to win a Nobel for someone else's work

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 1694

The town clock prank Our town clock has a standard 12-hour face, divided into 60 minute marks. The hands do not move smoothly: the minute hand moves sharply on to the next minute mark at the end of each minute, and the hour hand moves at the end of each 12 minutes. The other day, …

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: Do hairpieces reduce vitamin D?

Do hairpieces reduce vitamin D? THE feature in New Scientist on glorious middle age (10 March, p 48) prompted reader Roger Brook to speculate that baldness in middle-aged men might be an evolved characteristic to increase vitamin D production, since the vitamin forms in skin exposed to sunlight. The idea might seem far-fetched, but a …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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