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This week's magazine

11 January 2014

Issue 2951

New Scientist issue 2951 cover
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Editor's picks

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.

Technology

Is the unlogged life worth living?

Opinion
Defusing dementia: Why is risk of Alzheimer's falling?

Health

Defusing dementia: Why is risk of Alzheimer's falling?

Features
Defrosting history: Lost lives thaw from glaciers

Earth

Defrosting history: Lost lives thaw from glaciers

Features
Spin: The quantum twist coming to a computer near you

Technology

Spin: The quantum twist coming to a computer near you

Features
Squelch! The mystery of Britain's young bogs

Earth

Squelch! The mystery of Britain's young bogs

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Dementia: A silver lining but no room for complacency

Health

Dementia: A silver lining but no room for complacency

The proportion of people with dementia seems to have declined. That's good, but there could be a downside, says NHS England's dementia chief

Opinion

Technology

Is the unlogged life worth living?

Opinion

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.

Space

Second tiny asteroid spotted before it hit Earth

The first new asteroid identified this year didn't last long. Asteroid 2014 AA was spotted by a telescope early New Year's morning, and fizzled up over the Atlantic Ocean a day later. 2014 AA is only the second incoming object astronomers have tracked before it hit the Earth – and they almost missed it. The …

News

Earth

Buoyant magma behind calamitous supervolcano eruptions

News

Technology

Entangled spies: Why the NSA wants a quantum computer

News

Health

High-fibre diet may protect against allergic asthma

News

Space

Astrophile: Trio of dead stars could take on Einstein

News

Health

Ancient hunter-gatherers had rotten teeth

News

Technology

Flower-like liquid crystal lens grows like a pearl

News

Health

Breast cancer impersonates neurons to invade the brain

News

Space

India's hefty 'naughty boy' rocket comes in from cold

News

Earth

China steps up efforts to combat ivory smuggling

News

Space

Huge cosmic voids could probe dark energy

News

60 Seconds

News

Technology

Africa's road-building frenzy will transform continent

News

Space

Hunting wormholes in a Soviet-era science city

News

Sleepy sun spreads slow solar wind

News

Technology

Lifelogging: Digital locker looks after your stuff

News

Technology

Lifelogging: Take a stroll down a virtual memory lane

News

Technology

Lifelogging: Even your home appliances could do it

News

Life

Lifelogging: Crowdsourcing + life logs = big insights

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Life

Learning drugs reawaken grown-up brain's inner child

News

Life

Mantis shrimp's darting eyes ape the way primates see

News

Life

What Colorado's cannabis experiment will teach us

News

Life

Elephant shark takes record for slowest evolution

News

Space

Dark matter 'wind' may be warped by the sun

News

Life

Obesity epidemic becomes worldwide phenomenon

News

Health

Synthetic gene helps HIV vaccine hit shape-shifting foe

News

Health

Preparing students to meet their genes in the classroom

News

Opinion

Testing times for the consumer genetics revolution

Health

Testing times for the consumer genetics revolution

With the highest-profile seller of $99 genetic tests under fire, will public trust in personalised medicine suffer, an ethicist wonders

Opinion

Space

'Cosmic neutrinos are ready to take centre stage'

Opinion

Earth

Human meddling will spur the evolution of new species

Opinion

Technology

Lifelogging: What it's like to record your whole life

Opinion

Analysis

Japan's ageing population could actually be good news

Health

Japan's ageing population could actually be good news

Falling birth rates have put Japan's fertility at 1.4 children per woman Is a nation's destiny set by its fertility rates? The announcement that Japan's population fell by almost a quarter of a million in 2013 – the fifth consecutive annual fall – brought warnings that the country may be in terminal decline. "The stagnation …

News

Aperture

Ice-scapes from the air turn nature into a painting

Earth

Ice-scapes from the air turn nature into a painting

(Images: Kacper Kowalski/Panos Pictures) GAZING at these winter landscapes, do you see lines carved by nature or humans? It's hard to tell – which is exactly what aerial photographer Kacper Kowalski wants. "I love to see this border between nature and human activity," says Kowalski, who took the shots in Pomerania , north-west Poland, where …

Regulars

Features

Defusing dementia: Why is risk of Alzheimer's falling?

Health

Defusing dementia: Why is risk of Alzheimer's falling?

How well our minds function in old age is a major determinant of our quality of life Editorial: " Dementia: A silver lining but no room for complacency " MY PATERNAL grandfather died shortly before I was born. The man my father's stories conjured up was physically and mentally tough: a first world war veteran …

Features

Earth

Defrosting history: Lost lives thaw from glaciers

Features

Technology

Spin: The quantum twist coming to a computer near you

Features

Earth

Squelch! The mystery of Britain's young bogs

Features

Culturelab

Stonehenge Man: not just a pretty face

Life

Stonehenge Man: not just a pretty face

Video: Reconstruction gives Stonehenge man a face Stonehenge Man would have fitted in very well on a film set Forensic analysis of a prehistoric skull gives the UK's most iconic monument a human face TOURISTS entering English Heritage's new £27 million visitor centre at Stonehenge will quickly confront its most spectacular exhibit – a man …

CultureLab

Life

How far can a Buddhist approach to biology take us?

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

Answer to 1776 Elevenses The three numbers are 165, 308 and 792 The winner David Peterson of Port Royal, South Carolina, US

Regulars

Earth

Blame slow jet stream for US deep freeze

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: The future of the past

Feedback: The future of the past

The future of the past BROWSING a street market in London's East End, Feedback's eye was caught by two slim volumes entitled The World in 1984 . They turned out to contain predictions published in New Scientist , the first printed 50 years ago this week, about how the world might look 20 years on. …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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