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This week's magazine

21 December 2013

Issue 2948

New Scientist issue 2948 cover
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Editor's picks

Sleeping daredevil: The first dream hacker

Life

Sleeping daredevil: The first dream hacker

Features
Rudolph to the rescue: Reindeer geoengineering

Earth

Rudolph to the rescue: Reindeer geoengineering

Features
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.

Life

Chocolab: The secret recipe for low-fat chocolate

Features
How to train your Komodo dragon

Life

How to train your Komodo dragon

Features
Kissing by numbers: Party like it's <i>n</i> = 1999

Physics

Kissing by numbers: Party like it's n = 1999

Features
Goodwill hunting: Random ants of kindness

Life

Goodwill hunting: Random ants of kindness

Features
Kalahari trackers who read ice-age life in footprints

Life

Kalahari trackers who read ice-age life in footprints

Features
Why whisky makes you frisky (and gin makes you sin)

Humans

Why whisky makes you frisky (and gin makes you sin)

Features
All spruced up: Breeding a better Christmas tree

Life

All spruced up: Breeding a better Christmas tree

Features
The great white lie: What snowflakes really look like

Earth

The great white lie: What snowflakes really look like

Features
Rude awakenings: How swearing made us human

Life

Rude awakenings: How swearing made us human

Features
Improvise! Shoestring solutions to big physics

Technology

Improvise! Shoestring solutions to big physics

Features
Wired Wild West: Cowpokes chatted on fence-wire phones

Technology

Wired Wild West: Cowpokes chatted on fence-wire phones

Features
Armpit cheese: The sweeter side of bacteria

Life

Armpit cheese: The sweeter side of bacteria

Features

Table of contents

News

Weird object hints at Saturn's moon-making skill

Space

Weird object hints at Saturn's moon-making skill

The thin, outermost ring shown in this picture from the Cassini probe is Saturn's F ring, and the bright dot near it is the moon Prometheus. The thicker white band is the A ring, and the smudge near what looks like the tip of that ring was caused by Peggy A rebellious moon might have …

News

Space

First water plume seen firing from Jupiter moon Europa

News

Life

Nature more than nurture determines exam success

News

Life

US to phase out antibiotics for fattening livestock

News

Life

Duck-billed dinosaur had rooster-like cock comb

News

Life

Zoologger: Alligators use tools to lure in bird prey

News

Life

First ever animals were made of jelly, not sponge

News

2013 review: The year's biggest news at a glance

News

Earth

Earth's poles are shifting because of climate change

News

Health

Threatwatch: Chikungunya virus spreads in the Americas

News

Physics

Higgs Nobel bash: I was at the party of the universe

News

Space

China lands on moon, kicks off next lunar space race

News

Life

'Baby illusion' makes mums see youngest as too short

News

Life

Start-stop traffic helps penguin huddles grow

News

Technology

The mystery of Google's sudden robotics splurge

News

Life

Early Polynesians used binary to ease mental arithmetic

News

Life

Mind-reading light helps you stay in the zone

News

Technology

Bigfoot found? AI tool sifts fact from myth on Twitter

News

Space

2014 preview: First touchdown on a speeding comet

News

Space

2014 preview: The ships that could take us to Mars

News

Life

2014 preview: First million-year-old genome

News

Earth

2014 preview: Lost world under Antarctica uncovered

News

Earth

2014 preview: The key to surviving climate change

News

Earth

2014 preview: Hydrogen SUV ready to hit the road

News

Technology

2014 preview: Private internet to beat the spooks

News

Technology

2014 preview: Google Glass for the masses

News

Life

2014 preview: Three-parent babies close to conception

News

Technology

2014 preview: Paralysed teen scores in Brazil

News

Opinion

Dawkins: 'I'd rather be remembered for science'

Life

Dawkins: 'I'd rather be remembered for science'

"People hate their religion being criticised. It's as if you said they had an ugly face" Richard Dawkins has inspired millions with his popular science books, yet also drawn fire for controversial remarks – particularly on religion. Rowan Hooper wanted to know how he feels about his public image and if, at 72, he worries …

Opinion

Life

Forgotten aliens: We should hunt for viruses in space

Opinion

Life

There's no resting place for the human race

Opinion

Humans

Invest in minds not maths to boost the economy

Opinion

Physics

The great ideas hiding under the invisibility cloak

Opinion

Aperture

Snow monkey leaps into hell

Life

Snow monkey leaps into hell

(Image: Diane McAllister/naturepl.com) WELCOME to hell. This is the Jigokudani monkey park in Nagano prefecture, Japan. "Jigokudani" means "hell valley" – so called because of the rocky terrain and volcanic springs – although it is actually a rather heavenly place for monkeys. Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata fuscata ) are the only monkeys native to …

Regulars

Features

Sleeping daredevil: The first dream hacker

Life

Sleeping daredevil: The first dream hacker

Awareness soon stirred in his sleeping mind (Image: Ronald Kurniawan) Modern dream research has a lot to learn from the century-old exploits of an eccentric French marquis IT WAS a dangerous undertaking, but the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was nothing if not daring. Walking along the street, he entered the tallest building he could find, …

Features

Earth

Rudolph to the rescue: Reindeer geoengineering

Features

Life

Chocolab: The secret recipe for low-fat chocolate

Features

Life

How to train your Komodo dragon

Features

Physics

Kissing by numbers: Party like it's n = 1999

Features

Life

Goodwill hunting: Random ants of kindness

Features

Life

Kalahari trackers who read ice-age life in footprints

Features

Humans

Why whisky makes you frisky (and gin makes you sin)

Features

Life

All spruced up: Breeding a better Christmas tree

Features

Earth

The great white lie: What snowflakes really look like

Features

Life

Rude awakenings: How swearing made us human

Features

Technology

Improvise! Shoestring solutions to big physics

Features

Technology

Wired Wild West: Cowpokes chatted on fence-wire phones

Features

Life

Armpit cheese: The sweeter side of bacteria

Features

Culturelab

Short story: Images of Undiluted Love

Short story: Images of Undiluted Love

(Image: Darren Hopes) In the bunker is an unsettling world, where we must face our past, present and future selves. A short story by Joanna Kavenna When I received the invitation, I thought, well, so that's what happened to Guy Matthias. He had retreated, back to his bunker. It was a long story. The invitation …

CultureLab

Life

Magical giant: The story of a much-loved museum whale

CultureLab

Life

Elvis vs Jesus: PageRank for people says who's bigger

CultureLab

Win glory with your science-themed Lego creation

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 1780

Pure hedronism Joe's problem for Penny this week was to number each triangle of an icosahedron with one of the digits 1 to 5 so that each of the five triangles meeting at a point was numbered differently. Some of the digits in Penny's solution are shown in the diagram of an icosahedron dissected and …

Regulars

New Scientist 2013 holiday quiz

Regulars

We bid a fond farewell to Enigma

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Positive beauty of laboratory tests

Feedback: Positive beauty of laboratory tests

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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