Subscribe now

This week's magazine

8 December 2012

Issue 2894

New Scientist issue 2894 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

Biofuel that's better than carbon neutral

Earth

Biofuel that's better than carbon neutral

Features
War of words: The language paradox explained

Life

War of words: The language paradox explained

Features
Welcome to the personal drone revolution

Technology

Welcome to the personal drone revolution

Features
The last march of the emperor penguins

Earth

The last march of the emperor penguins

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.

Health

Zapping body and brain boosts movement in paralysed

A single session of nerve stimulation has improved the movement of people with spinal cord injuries. Mimicking the passage of nerve signals by stimulating a muscle as well as the brain has boosted recovery and helped people to regain better control of their movements. Voluntary movement requires a signal from the brain, which is passed …

News

Health

Risk of childhood obesity can be predicted at birth

News

Space

Saturn's rings may double up as a moon factory

News

Health

Personality disorder revamp ends in 'horrible waste'

News

Space

North Korean rocket launch will heighten missile fears

News

Earth

Leech cocoon preserves 200-million-year-old fossil

News

Health

Screening athletes for heart problems much too pricey

News

Health

When is a baby too premature to save?

News

Life

Kenyan elephant numbers plummet by 1000 in four years

News

Life

Gay 'conversion therapy' enters the courtroom

News

Pressure mounts for retraction of GM crop-cancer study

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Mars rover 'shake and bake' cooks up a carbon mystery

News

Health

BSE infected cattle have prions in saliva

News

Earth

Captured: the moment photosynthesis changed the world

News

Space

Space-time waves may be hiding in dead star pulses

News

Life

Sweet scent doubles as repellent for flower eaters

News

Life

Female lemurs avoid the wrong love in the dark

News

Technology

Your next boss could be a computer

News

Technology

Commute to work on the roller coaster train

News

Technology

Storytelling software learns how to tell a good tale

News

Technology

Cork structure makes graphene super-elastic

News

Life

Hagfish slime could slink to the height of fashion

News

Health

Gene switch found to help a heart heal itself

News

Earth

Dying aspen trees sound alarm for world's forests

News

Opinion

Looks like we've got allergies all wrong

Life

Looks like we've got allergies all wrong

From pollen to peanuts, we humans are an allergic lot. So could it be that allergies serve an evolutionary purpose?

Opinion

Health

Psychiatry is failing those with personality disorders

Opinion

Space

Space exploration for the history books

Opinion

Life

A deliberate language barrier

Opinion

Technology

Why the world is arguing over who runs the internet

Opinion

Life

'Biology is a manufacturing capability'

Opinion

Analysis

No sign of emissions letting up as climate talks begin

Earth

No sign of emissions letting up as climate talks begin

A deal limiting warming to 2 °C seems like a tall task FORGET the fire, it's the smoke that matters. In the lead-up to the climate change summit in Doha, Qatar – which wraps up at the end of this week – study after study painted a grim picture of our future, from permafrost melting …

News

Technology

Celebrities turn to encryption to keep phones private

News

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.

Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon

See more: this article was a Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science PICTURE the scene. It's late in the Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago. A group of dinosaurs have gathered at the rim of what will become known as the Grand Canyon. They're gawping over the edge, just as …

Regulars

Features

Biofuel that's better than carbon neutral

Earth

Biofuel that's better than carbon neutral

The race is on to create a biofuel that sucks carbon out of the sky and locks it away where it can't warm the planet

Features

Life

War of words: The language paradox explained

Features

Technology

Welcome to the personal drone revolution

Features

Earth

The last march of the emperor penguins

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.

The end of race history? Not yet

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

CultureLab

Space

Finding dangerous asteroids, before they find us

CultureLab

MoMath: Manhattan's Museum of Mathematics

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 1727

Common factors I have in mind three consecutive two-figure numbers and I have calculated their sum and their product. I have then listed those positive integers which divide exactly into both that sum and product. It turns out that there are just six numbers in that list and that the sum of the six numbers …

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Healthscare insurance

Feedback: Healthscare insurance

Healthscare insurance IN THE middle of the UK's autumn "conference season", in which political parties worry everyone with their policy pronouncements, or lack of them, a message arrived in Feedback's inbox addressed to someone called GILL. It has continued to arrive once a week or so ever since. Bearing in mind that a hot topic …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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