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This week's magazine

9 February 2013

Issue 2903

New Scientist issue 2903 cover
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Editor's picks

Mind maths: The elements of thought

Humans

Mind maths: The elements of thought

Features
Mind maths: Small world with big connections

Humans

Mind maths: Small world with big connections

Features
Mind maths: Your brain teeters on the edge of chaos

Humans

Mind maths: Your brain teeters on the edge of chaos

Features
Mind maths: Your personal prediction machine

Humans

Mind maths: Your personal prediction machine

Features
Mind maths: Battles for attention fought in the brain

Humans

Mind maths: Battles for attention fought in the brain

Features
Mind maths: The sum of consciousness

Humans

Mind maths: The sum of consciousness

Features
Withering heights: Why animals are shrinking

Earth

Withering heights: Why animals are shrinking

Features
The quantum Sims: Matter's deepest mysteries recreated

Physics

The quantum Sims: Matter's deepest mysteries recreated

Features
Do get mad: The upside of anger

Life

Do get mad: The upside of anger

Features

Table of contents

News

Fluorescent protein lets us read a fish's thoughts

Life

Fluorescent protein lets us read a fish's thoughts

Fluorescent protein is a bright idea brightcove.createExperiences(); Video: Glowing protein lets us see into a fish's brain The zebrafish spots its lunch. What goes through its brain? Now, for the first time, we can see exactly what it is thinking, thanks to a new way of studying single neurons that lets researchers track patterns of …

News

Life

Zoologger: How to eat without a digestive system

News

Life

Swarm-mongering: Brainless blobs flock together

News

Life

Dinosaur-killing asteroid was a twin terror

News

Life

Abnormal gut bacteria linked to severe malnutrition

News

Health

Evoking fear in the fearless reveals new ways to panic

News

Life

Bug protects itself by turning its environment to gold

News

Space

Astrophile: A scorched world with snow black and smoky

News

Health

Need an organ? Just print some stem cells in 3D

News

Earth

Nobel-winning US energy secretary steps down

News

Technology

China gets the blame for media hacking spree

News

Space

NASA spy telescopes won't be looking at Earth

News

Health

Baby boomers' health worse than their parents

News

Earth

Nuclear knock-backs on UK's new reactors and old waste

News

Doubts remain that the Leicester body is Richard III

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Choking China: The struggle to clear Beijing's air

News

Health

Life savings: Inside London's brain bank

News

Earth

New map pinpoints cities to avoid as sea levels rise

News

Life

Universal bug sensor takes guesswork out of diagnosis

News

Earth

Sooty ships may be geoengineering by accident

News

Extreme life might be visible on colourful exoplanets

News

Life

Robot inquisition keeps witnesses on the right track

News

Technology

Crowdsourcing grows up as online workers unite

News

Technology

Crowds prowl Google Street View to speed road repairs

News

Technology

Time to rinse! AI assistant helps clean your teeth

News

Life

Musical brains smash audio algorithm limits

News

Space

Closest Earth-like planet may be 13 light years away

News

Opinion

A computer cosmos will never explain quantum physics

Humans

A computer cosmos will never explain quantum physics

Ever since Isaac Newton, we have relied on the notion that the universe works like a computer. It’s time to question this assumption

Opinion

Technology

Time to focus on the welfare of online workers

Opinion

Life

Open Richard III DNA evidence for peer review

Opinion

Life

Considering the art of anger management

Opinion

Technology

Grounded: Where the Boeing Dreamliner went wrong

Opinion

Life

Why we're building a €1 billion model of a human brain

Opinion

Analysis

Webcam and CCTV security flaw shows us to prying eyes

Technology

Webcam and CCTV security flaw shows us to prying eyes

A networking loophole has made it easy to have a peek at what everyone else is doing by accessing cameras connected to the internet

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.

Snow falling on red squirrels in Scotland

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science IN A fight between Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin and Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, who would win? Or to put it another way, how long would it take a dynamic, can-do, environment-damaging American …

Regulars

Features

Mind maths: The elements of thought

Humans

Mind maths: The elements of thought

Equations can describe everything from the brain’s structure to the generation of thoughts and feelings – and may even help us understand consciousness itself

Features

Humans

Mind maths: Small world with big connections

Features

Humans

Mind maths: Your brain teeters on the edge of chaos

Features

Humans

Mind maths: Your personal prediction machine

Features

Humans

Mind maths: Battles for attention fought in the brain

Features

Humans

Mind maths: The sum of consciousness

Features

Earth

Withering heights: Why animals are shrinking

Features

Physics

The quantum Sims: Matter's deepest mysteries recreated

Features

Life

Do get mad: The upside of anger

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.

Can the internet revive US democracy?

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

CultureLab

Humans

What we really know about human courtship

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 1735

A pile of coloured cubes I have several boxes, each containing a number of cubes. Each cube has black and white faces (at least one of each colour per cube), and each box contains all possible different cubes, with no duplicates. My three nephews opened the first box and each tried to assemble their own …

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: What makes cells despondent?

Feedback: What makes cells despondent?

What makes cells despondent? "THE next time someone asks me whether I'm unwell, I'll be sure to say that my cells are despondent," Su Chiang informs us, after receiving an email from E. A. Martinez of LinearDynamics-Energy.com. The email, entitled "Radioactive Particulate Deflection Technology", is addressed to "Predominant Medical Community". In it, Martinez announces: "We …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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