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This week's magazine

16 June 2012

Issue 2869

New Scientist issue 2869 cover
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Editor's picks

Why haven't bald men gone extinct?

Life

Why haven't bald men gone extinct?

Features
Daydream your way to creativity

Life

Daydream your way to creativity

Features
Positive switch for body electronics

Technology

Positive switch for body electronics

Features
Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?

Earth

Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?

Features

Table of contents

News

Antidepressants in water trigger autism genes in fish

Earth

Antidepressants in water trigger autism genes in fish

Is there something in the water? Low levels of antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs in water supplies can trigger the expression of genes associated with autism – in fish at least. The use of antidepressants has increased dramatically over the past 25 years, says Michael Thomas of Idaho State University in Pocatello. Around 80 per …

News

Life

Zoologger: Shrimp wields strongest club in the world

News

Earth

Plankton under sea ice may disrupt Arctic food chain

News

Technology

Qubits live long, silicon quantum computers prosper

News

Space

Neutrinos don't outpace light, but they do shape-shift

News

Earth

Renewable energy's growing pains

News

Health

Mutilated women rediscover sexual pleasure

News

Life

WHO demands action on drug-resistant gonorrhoea

News

Space

Small, cheap black-hole hunter could be new NASA model

News

Space

First crew to head for China's heavenly space palace

News

Health

Rare brain samples lost in freezer failure

News

Genetically modified crops encourage beneficial bugs

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

China leads the march for the green economy

News

Earth

US fails on Happy Planet Index

News

Space

Black holes could act as cosmic Rosetta stones

News

Low-metal stars may nurture many Earth-like worlds

News

Life

You may carry cells from siblings, aunts and uncles

News

Health

Phantom hand mapped for the first time

News

Earth

Space mirrors will dry out US and Eurasia

News

Space

Titan's tropical lake hints at hydrocarbon wells

News

Technology

Tablet PCs preserve indigenous knowledge

News

Technology

Turn any room into a camera obscura to help forensics

News

Technology

Pollen-coated sticky bullets track a gunman's DNA

News

Technology

Big Brother is watching Facebook and Twitter

News

Life

Gut bugs confined to quarters by special immune cells

News

Technology

Algorithm beats jigsaw-solving record

News

Health

Computer AI makes sense of psychedelic trips

News

Opinion

Fossil bounty hunters' days may be numbered

Life

Fossil bounty hunters' days may be numbered

There's fresh hope in the battle to curb poaching of important dinosaur fossils in Mongolia

Opinion

Health

Listen to the bowel cancer warnings

Opinion

Life

The wasteful quest for immortality

Opinion

Humans

How much cheating is alright?

Opinion

Earth

All eyes on China's green leap forward

Opinion

Small sparks of creativity are worth celebrating too

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.

Enterprise makes a voyage into history

IT WASN'T capable of reaching Earth orbit, but the NASA prototype shuttle Enterprise has a special place in the hearts of space fans. Pictured here on 6 June, wending its way up the Hudson River towards the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, it was the atmospheric test vehicle for the …

Regulars

Features

Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?

Earth

Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?

Some say humanity's ever-rising environmental impact is about to go into reverse. Fact or just fantasy?

Features

Life

Daydream your way to creativity

Features

Life

Why haven't bald men gone extinct?

Features

Technology

Positive switch for body electronics

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.

Arresting creations of biodiversity

Whimsical and surreal works of art aim to explore interdependence in nature in the exhibition Nature's Toolbox , in Chicago Nature's Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art and Invention , The Field Museum, Chicago, until 2 December THE giant bat heads look like idols that might line the walls of a macabre cathedral. Yet at the same time, …

CultureLab

Identical twins show the malleability of our genes

CultureLab

In the shadow of radiation and decay

CultureLab

On the origin of evolution

CultureLab

Animal disease, human cure

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 1702

All the sixes I have before me six different six-digit numbers, whose sum also contains six digits. Each of the 42 digits has one of only two values. If I told you the sum, you would be able to identify all six numbers. What is the sum? WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender …

Regulars

Break into the biotech industry

Careers

Small is beautiful

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Not so holy brew

Feedback: Not so holy brew

What makes monks blow their tops TRAPPIST monks are getting angry. A special edition of the Trappist Newsletter , dated 24 April 2012, bewails: "Commercial breweries in the US... use the word 'Trappist', or some variant thereof, to name or describe certain beers that they produce. This worries the Trappist monasteries that brew beer, as …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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