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This week's magazine

20 October 2012

Issue 2887

New Scientist issue 2887 cover
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Editor's picks

Death: The evolution of funerals

Life

Death: The evolution of funerals

Features
Death: The blurred line between dead and alive

Life

Death: The blurred line between dead and alive

Features
Death: Why we should be grateful for it

Life

Death: Why we should be grateful for it

Features
Death: The natural history of corpses

Life

Death: The natural history of corpses

Features
Death: Don't fear the reaper

Life

Death: Don't fear the reaper

Features
Confounded by Mars: Climate history thrown into doubt

Space

Confounded by Mars: Climate history thrown into doubt

Features

Table of contents

News

Zoologger: The turtle that urinates through its mouth

Life

Zoologger: The turtle that urinates through its mouth

Its mouth hygiene may leave something to be desired Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world Species: Pelodiscus sinensis Habitat: Throughout Southeast Asia , though demand for farmed turtles has impacted the wild population Everyone knows the feeling of desperately needing to go to …

News

Space

Black glass holds first Mars soil sample on Earth

News

Life

Fruit flies' eyes shrink a little to see

News

Earth

Run-off from Greenland may weaken carbon sink

News

Earth

Badger cull – the science behind the gamble

News

Physics

Existential blow for ghostly quantum supersolids

News

Health

Claim of first human stem cell trial unravels

News

Earth

Tidal records expose surge in hurricanes

News

Earth

Sierra Leone 'pirate' fishing boats sell catches in EU

News

Health

'Tired' fat cells might trigger obesity

News

Space

First planet found in star system next door

News

Skydiver goes supersonic in epic jump from edge of space

News

Cheap genome sequences demand new rules on privacy

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Phoenix universe could rebuild itself after cosmic rip

News

Health

Young blood really is the key to youth

News

Life

Building blocks of Angkor Wat were shipped in by canal

News

Life

Drugs in the Italian air are nothing to snort at

News

Technology

US military gets into the 3D printing business

News

Technology

Smart CCTV knows when you need shopping advice

News

Technology

Wireless meters tell snoopers when you are not home

News

Earth

Independent geoengineer's ocean field test condemned

News

Life

First life may have survived by cooperating

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.

Memento mori: it's time we reinvented death

The knowledge that we will die profoundly shapes our lives – but the nature of death itself is elusive and changeable

Opinion

Earth

Wake up to the death toll from killer landslides

Opinion

'I'm fortunate to survive': Nobel winners speak out

Opinion

50 years of Revolutions: A classic revisited

Opinion

Analysis

Destroying drug cartels, the mathematical way

Physics

Destroying drug cartels, the mathematical way

Killing drug lords gets headlines, but complexity analysis suggests they are the wrong people to target to bring down a cartel

News

Technology

Cassette tapes are the future of big data storage

News

Aperture

Endeavour comes to Inglewood: space shuttle tours LA

Endeavour comes to Inglewood: space shuttle tours LA

ADMIT it: you wish you were this guy. Sure, it's a bit sad that the space shuttle Endeavour has been on a funeral march for the past few weeks, albeit a long and beautiful one, but clearly it still has pulling power if people are willing to climb onto their rooftops to get one last …

Regulars

Features

Death: The evolution of funerals

Life

Death: The evolution of funerals

When did our ancestors become aware of their own mortality? The answer may help us understand the origin of our unique way of life, says Graham Lawton

Features

Life

Death: The blurred line between dead and alive

Features

Life

Death: Why we should be grateful for it

Features

Life

Death: The natural history of corpses

Features

Life

Death: Don't fear the reaper

Features

Space

Confounded by Mars: Climate history thrown into doubt

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.

A portrait of humanity in the purchases we make

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

CultureLab

Life

What should we fear more: snakes or sedans?

CultureLab

Humans

The upsides of being a psychopath

CultureLab

The molecular machines that make life

CultureLab

How mathematics became mainstream

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 1720

Tables seating four Russian peasants were said to perform multiplication knowing only how to add, and to multiply and divide by 2. I showed my niece how to multiply 25 by 31 by this method, as shown in the first box. In the left column, the numbers are divided by 2 successively, any resulting halves …

Regulars

Scaling great heights in Switzerland

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: United Nations 'plans to destroy US'

Environment

Feedback: United Nations 'plans to destroy US'

United Nations "plans to destroy US" DID you know that the United Nations has a "destructive and insidious" plan to "ultimately destroy the sovereignty of the United States of America"? So says the Board of Chosen Freeholders, legislators of Ocean County, New Jersey, in a resolution passed last February. This resolution, like others being promoted …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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