Subscribe now

This week's magazine

21 July 2012

Issue 2874

New Scientist issue 2874 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

Are these the brain cells that give us consciousness?

Life

Are these the brain cells that give us consciousness?

Features
Daredevil descents: Free-falling from space

Space

Daredevil descents: Free-falling from space

Features
The true faces of emotion

Life

The true faces of emotion

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.

Olympic extremes: The winning formulas for London 2012

Features
Olympic extremes: Blood sport

Humans

Olympic extremes: Blood sport

Features
Olympic extremes: Thought control

Humans

Olympic extremes: Thought control

Features
Olympic extremes: Freezer therapy

Humans

Olympic extremes: Freezer therapy

Features
Olympic extremes: Lucid dreaming

Humans

Olympic extremes: Lucid dreaming

Features
Olympic extremes: A winning genome

Humans

Olympic extremes: A winning genome

Features
Olympic extremes: Breakfast of champions

Humans

Olympic extremes: Breakfast of champions

Features
Olympic extremes: Peak performers

Humans

Olympic extremes: Peak performers

Features
Olympic extremes: Contagion alert

Health

Olympic extremes: Contagion alert

Features

Table of contents

News

Peter Higgs: Boson discovery like being hit by a wave

Technology

Peter Higgs: Boson discovery like being hit by a wave

Read more: " Higgsteria: Hunting the world's most wanted particle " He thinks the name 'H boson' will take over The last week must have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for you. Did the announcement at CERN of what looks like the Higgs boson take you by surprise? The week before all this …

News

Space

Discovery of fifth moon reignites Pluto planet debate

News

Life

Was America first colonised by two cultures at once?

News

Life

Autumn babies more likely to hit 100

News

FBI forensic review could free thousands of prisoners

News

Technology

Glasses-free 3D screens let you see the wider picture

News

Space

Asteroid miners to hitch a ride with Virgin Galactic

News

Life

Vaccines team up to generate lethal new chicken virus

News

Space

Earth's water piggybacked on asteroids, not comets

News

Life

Zoologger: Inbred wandering albatrosses sleep around

News

Life

Old folks' stomach bacteria are secret to their health

News

Health

Panel questions location of US bio-defence lab

News

Life

How dolphins may use a mathematical trick to find fish

News

Open access promised for publicly funded research

News

Space

Antarctic neutron detectors predict solar storms

News

Health

Fukushima increases risk of cancer – but not by much

News

Life

Australian sharks' protected status is under threat

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Record-breaking mice return to Earth to aid health

News

Physics

Pharaoh's playground revealed by missing fractals

News

Health

Brain satnav helps surgeons travel to a tumour

News

Technology

The password you can use without knowing it

News

Earth

Belch of laughing gas could heat up our planet

News

Earth

Geoengineering with iron might work after all

News

Earth

Ethanol levels in the air over US cities on the rise

News

Shapely spiral galaxy is cosmic aberration

News

Technology

Micro-drones: The new face of cutting-edge warfare

News

Technology

Crowdsourcing serves up the subtitles to your life

News

Technology

The scramble to avoid home broadband metering

News

Technology

Flickering lights help smartphones keep time

News

Opinion

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.

Earth

We can't afford to neglect ways to halt global warming

If we must research climate engineering, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air ought to be higher up our list of priorities

Opinion

Technology

Tale of two runners exposes flawed Olympic thinking

Opinion

Space

Pluto's not a planet – it's much odder than that

Opinion

Health

Rip up new Olympic sex test rules

Opinion

We are all susceptible to delusions

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

Gorgeous snub-nosed monkey with the face of a god

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science A GORGEOUS flash of gold against a black and white backdrop, you'd think this golden snub-nosed monkey would be hard to miss. Unfortunately, it is rare to spot Rhinopithecus roxellana in its …

Regulars

Features

Are these the brain cells that give us consciousness?

Life

Are these the brain cells that give us consciousness?

The brainiest creatures share a secret – an odd kind of brain cell involved in emotions and empathy that may have accidentally made us conscious

Features

Space

Daredevil descents: Free-falling from space

Features

Life

The true faces of emotion

Features

Olympic extremes: The winning formulas for London 2012

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Blood sport

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Thought control

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Freezer therapy

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Lucid dreaming

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: A winning genome

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Breakfast of champions

Features

Humans

Olympic extremes: Peak performers

Features

Health

Olympic extremes: Contagion alert

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.

Innovation made waves in physics photography

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog Berenice Abbott Photography and Science: An Essential Unity at the MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, until 31 December I AM mesmerised by Berenice Abbott's wave and interference images. Not only are they visually …

CultureLab

Why a dogged virus simply won't go away

CultureLab

False memories, false convictions

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 1707

Making progress I was teaching my nephew about arithmetic progressions – sequences like 17, 23, 29,... 677,... in which the common difference between successive terms is a constant. In this one the difference is 6 and the 111th term is 677. Later, he devised his own progression, but consistently replaced digits with capital letters, with …

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Rich seam of Higgs metaphors

Feedback: Rich seam of Higgs metaphors

An hypothesised gauge particle vamp RARELY does news about physics make such a splash as has the probable discovery of that "goddam particle" often named after Peter Higgs (25 February) . And rarely is the object of the news as abstract as the gauge particle for a hypothesised field. Journalistic attempts at a description for …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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