Subscribe now

This week's magazine

2 November 2013

Issue 2941

New Scientist issue 2941 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

Cell tails: A surprising number

Life

Cell tails: A surprising number

Features
Cell tails: Lines of communication

Life

Cell tails: Lines of communication

Features
Cell tails: The tale has only just begun

Life

Cell tails: The tale has only just begun

Features
Cell tails: A cause of common diseases?

Health

Cell tails: A cause of common diseases?

Features
Saving time: Physics killed it. Do we need it back?

Physics

Saving time: Physics killed it. Do we need it back?

Features
Waste away: Nuclear power's eternal problem

Earth

Waste away: Nuclear power's eternal problem

Features
The Halloween trick that conjures ghosts of the mind

Life

The Halloween trick that conjures ghosts of the mind

Features

Table of contents

News

Scans pinpoint moment anaesthetic puts brain under

Life

Scans pinpoint moment anaesthetic puts brain under

How much do you need? Anaesthetics usually knock you out like a light. But by slowing the process down so that it takes 45 minutes to become totally unresponsive, researchers have discovered a new signature for unconsciousness. The discovery could lead to more personalised methods for administering anaesthetics and cut the risks associated with being …

News

Space

Milky Way galaxy is fluttering like a flag

News

Physics

Entangled toy universe shows time may be an illusion

News

Life

Zoologger: Whip-wielding micro-scorpion ain't so tough

News

Technology

Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test

News

Space

UN sets up asteroid peacekeepers to defend Earth

News

Technology

Sticky memory may turn Post-it notes into flash drives

News

Technology

Skittering water droplets spin tiny sponges of gold

News

Life

Scramble the brain's timekeepers to banish jet lag

News

Earth

Ethiopia switches on Africa's largest wind farm

News

Life

First fungal farmers found harvesting bacteria

News

Space

Mini space shuttle crash-lands after free-flight test

News

Life

Exoplanet hunters may find ET by glut of alien corpses

News

Health divide widens between Europe's rich and poor

News

Life

Ohio to execute prisoner using untested drug combo

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

'Bubble kid' success puts gene therapy back on track

News

Life

Earth's first life may have sprung up in ice

News

Earth

Geoengineers are free to legally hack the climate

News

Health

Brain stimulation boosts social skills in autism

News

Your face may have been sculpted by junk DNA

News

Technology

Sewer sensors sniff out signs of bombs and drugs

News

Technology

Ditch the pedometer – the AI in your phone is better

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Parking app can predict when a spot will open up

News

Space

Dark matter no-show puts WIMPs in a bind

News

Earth

Ancient mural may be first picture of volcanic blast

News

Earth

Sardine disappearance was foreseen but ignored

News

Technology

Iron 'nano-ants' made to haul huge loads with light

News

Earth

Emission admission: New Zealand to fail carbon target

News

Health

Zapping your brain enhances your love of classic art

News

Opinion

Golden Rice creator wants to live to see it save lives

Earth

Golden Rice creator wants to live to see it save lives

Ingo Potrykus developed Golden Rice genetically engineered to combat blindness and death in children by supplying 60 per cent of the vitamin A they need in a typical daily helping of rice. His project has been opposed from the outset by environmental groups, a stance described this week as wicked by UK environment minister, Owen Paterson. Andy Coghlan asks the inventor of the rice what he makes of it all.

Opinion

Health

Gene therapy needs a hero to live up to the hype

Opinion

Earth

Should we give the green light to geoengineers?

Opinion

Physics

Solving the eternal mystery that is time

Opinion

Earth

An oil crash is on its way and we should be ready

Opinion

Technology

Can Nairobi be the next Silicon Valley?

Opinion

Analysis

Wanted: a country to destroy Syria's chemical weapons

Technology

Wanted: a country to destroy Syria's chemical weapons

Still looking for somewhere peaceful to destroy the weapons It looks as if Syria will be launching no more deadly gas attacks . Its government made a formal, confidential declaration of the country's chemical weapons to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on 24 October. The OPCW says that Syria's equipment for making …

News

Technology

Get round internet censors using a friend's connection

News

Aperture

Cuckoo bee feasts on the larvae of its cousins

Life

Cuckoo bee feasts on the larvae of its cousins

(Image: Sam Droege/USGS) WITH its huge doe-like eyes and cuddly exterior, this beast sure looks cute. But we all know how looks can be deceptive. Holcopasites heliopsis is a cuckoo bee – an egg-munching, larva-killing parasite of the nests of other bees. This specimen was found in a sandpit in Maryland, and photographed by US …

Regulars

Features

Cell tails: A surprising number

Life

Cell tails: A surprising number

More than 99 per cent of human cell types have tails. We now know they play a major role in everything from development to learning and vision

Features

Life

Cell tails: Lines of communication

Features

Life

Cell tails: The tale has only just begun

Features

Health

Cell tails: A cause of common diseases?

Features

Physics

Saving time: Physics killed it. Do we need it back?

Features

Earth

Waste away: Nuclear power's eternal problem

Features

Life

The Halloween trick that conjures ghosts of the mind

Features

Culturelab

The edge of reason: When logic fails us

Life

The edge of reason: When logic fails us

The shortest route between cities must be crunchable, right? Wrong (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images) There are inherent limits to logic that can't be resolved, and they bedevil our minds too, says Noson Yanofsky in The Outer Limits of Reason "THIS sentence is false." This sentence is also where the problems start. If true, it …

CultureLab

Life

Memory loss and memories found in ageing brains

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 1773

Cutting corners Penny knows how to construct a triangle when given the lengths of three sides, but doesn't know how to construct a triangle given the heights of the triangle from two sides and the length of the third side. Joe suggested that with a ruler and a pair of scissors she might just find …

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Good news everyone, Fry is immune

Feedback: Good news everyone, Fry is immune

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Fry is immune SERIOUS gaps in Feedback's cultural corpus are filled by a reader who informs us that the QuWave Defender (31 August) brings to mind "a theme in the animated TV show Futurama ". The device's promoters ask potential …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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