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This week's magazine

4 August 2012

Issue 2876

New Scientist issue 2876 cover
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Editor's picks

Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?

Earth

Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?

Features
Sweeping up the mystery of cosmic dust

Space

Sweeping up the mystery of cosmic dust

Features
Quantify thyself: Tracking your life from food to mood

Technology

Quantify thyself: Tracking your life from food to mood

Features
Fossils: Signs of early life

Fossils: Signs of early life

Features
Fossils: Not just bones and stones

Fossils: Not just bones and stones

Features
Fossils: The tales they tell

Fossils: The tales they tell

Features
Fossils: New answers from old DNA

Fossils: New answers from old DNA

Features

Table of contents

News

97% of Greenland surface ice turns to slush

Earth

97% of Greenland surface ice turns to slush

Total thaw The surface of Greenland has turned to slush. Satellite data shows that a warm spell earlier this month melted nearly the entire surface of the nation's ice cap. The melt is unusual: normally about half of the ice sheet melts at the surface during summer, mostly at low elevations. This year the thaw …

News

Space

Massive stars avoid the single life

News

Health

Gene fusion is behind deadly brain cancer

News

Life

Suicidal termites use chemical weapons to defend colony

News

Health

Light-activated brain cells boost monkey skills

News

Space

Astrophile: Glitch boosts value of already rare star

News

Health

Ugandans urged to avoid contact as Ebola spreads

News

Health

Prostate cancer blood test causes controversy

News

Life

Ye Shiwen's Olympic gold-medal swim 'not impossible'

News

Earth

Ex-sceptic says humans to blame for global warming

News

Health

Malaria vaccines could make the disease worse

News

Ruling frees FDA to crack down on stem cell clinics

News

Space

Armadillo's reusable rocket licensed for launch

News

African eye opens on the high-energy sky

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Curiosity rover is turning point for Mars exploration

News

Earth

Lost world of dinosaurs threatened by gas industry

News

Earth

Japan could become second biggest solar power nation

News

Health

Daily caffeine improves Parkinson's mobility problems

News

Earth

First skin cancer found in wild fish

News

Technology

The intelligent textbook that helps students learn

News

Technology

Hypersonic engines promise new era of spaceplanes

News

Technology

Unused inventions get a crowdsourced creative spark

News

Technology

Gaze-tracking illusion lets you draw with your eyes

News

Earth

Geologists to gather data for Danish North Pole claim

News

Life

Meteorite's left-handed molecules a blow to ET search

News

Opinion

Sinking the Titanic 'women and children first' myth

Life

Sinking the Titanic 'women and children first' myth

"We found a lower survival rate for women on British ships than on ships of other nations" Forget "women and children first" – it might have worked on the Titanic, but it's usually every man for himself, says Mikael Elinder Where does the notion arise that, when a ship sinks, women and children come first? …

Opinion

Health

No need to panic over kids' sleep

Opinion

Space

Future Mars missions: Faster, better, cheaper?

Opinion

Health

The trouble with health-tracking gadgets

Opinion

Earth

The price of preserving fossils for the future

Opinion

Earth

Searching for species that keep us healthy

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.

Z, the diamond-melting machine with lightning veins

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science

Regulars

Features

Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?

Earth

Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?

War and unrest, and the collapse of many mighty empires, often followed changes in local climes. Is this more than a coincidence?

Features

Space

Sweeping up the mystery of cosmic dust

Features

Technology

Quantify thyself: Tracking your life from food to mood

Features

Fossils: Signs of early life

Features

Fossils: Not just bones and stones

Features

Fossils: The tales they tell

Features

Fossils: New answers from old DNA

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.

Did black holes shape the evolution of the universe?

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

CultureLab

How to measure consciousness

CultureLab

Surveying North America's Arctic shores

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 1709

Not original Joe remembered a puzzle he solved years ago. In an alley, two ladders, each with their feet against the base of a wall, were leaning against the opposite wall. The distances (whole numbers of centimetres) above the ground where they touched the walls were given, and Joe had to calculate how high above …

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Just wait 50 years for result

Feedback: Just wait 50 years for result

Just wait 50 years for result READER Don Bradford was struck by a report in Australia's Canberra Times on the proposed Square Kilometre Array radio telescope. This informs us that "The giant radio telescope, with its 3000 antennas, will be so sensitive it would be able to detect an aircraft radar 50 light years away." …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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