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This week's magazine

12 April 2014

Issue 2964

New Scientist issue 2964 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.

Space

Einstein's waves would make a cosmic overture

Opinion
Pharma to fork: How we'll swallow synthetic biology

Life

Pharma to fork: How we'll swallow synthetic biology

Features
Einstein's silence: Listening for space-time ripples

Space

Einstein's silence: Listening for space-time ripples

Features
Killing with kindness: Conservation's cautionary tale

Life

Killing with kindness: Conservation's cautionary tale

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

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

Parental guidance advised over virtual embryos

The ability to create simulations of unconceived children by virtually shuffling the prospective parents' genomes poses questions for us all

Opinion

Earth

Synthetic biology can supplement traditional farmers

Opinion

Space

Einstein's waves would make a cosmic overture

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

Gaggle of dwarf planets found by dark energy camera

Our solar system just got a little more crowded, thanks to discoveries from a huge digital camera designed to study dark energy . Last week astronomers reported the discovery of 2012 VP113 – nicknamed "Joe Biden" after the vice president, or VP, of the US. This potential dwarf planet was spotted on the outer fringes …

News

Earth

UN's safe drinking water target was never really met

News

Earth

Redesigned crops could produce far more fuel

News

Earth

Flimsy rocks allowed Earth's plates to start moving

News

Life

Zoologger: The blind fish that sucks it and 'sees'

News

Space

Best dark matter signal yet hints at heftier particles

News

Earth

Almost half of new electricity is now clean and green

News

Health

Harsh world makes kids' chromosomes look middle-aged

News

Technology

Pro violinists fail to spot Stradivarius in blind test

News

Life

Global plan to shush ships for the sake of whales

News

Space

Volcanic blasts hint that Mercury is a migrant planet

News

Space

Cold war in space? What NASA's Russia boycott means

News

Technology

Pioneering implant revives legs of paralysed men

News

Earth

Indian election speaks to internet, nukes and climate

News

Space

Squirting moons face off in race to find alien life

News

60 Seconds

News

Life

Meet your unborn child – before it's even conceived

News

DNA nanobots deliver drugs in living cockroaches

News

Life

Human 'missing link' fossils may be jumble of species

News

Technology

Online army helps map Guinea's Ebola outbreak

News

Technology

Digitising cave art will prevent it being lost forever

News

Technology

Ghostly glasses let you learn through a teacher's eyes

News

Life

Wire up hives to keep bees happy and healthy

News

Technology

One per cent

News

Technology

Ultrasonic 'pings' now strongest clue in MH370 hunt

News

Space

Dark matter hunters turn to nano-blasts and enzyme ice

News

Life

Dysentery parasite attacks gut by eating cells alive

News

Health

Shared trial data may identify at-risk cancer patients

News

Space

Ringed asteroid will make a star blink out over Africa

News

Opinion

Cuts and red tape are gagging US and Canadian science

Cuts and red tape are gagging US and Canadian science

Politicians in the US and Canada are undermining scientific freedom through cuts, shutdowns and media policies

Opinion

Earth

We're offering $2m for the best ocean acidity mapping

Opinion

Life

The fourth state of matter: Consciousness

Opinion

Analysis

Start-ups fuel boom in small-scale nuclear power

Technology

Start-ups fuel boom in small-scale nuclear power

A new wave of nuclear scientists aim​s to build small-scale reactors that provide carbon-free power more cheaply and safely than today’s huge power plants

News

Aperture

The white walker: Longest horse trek crosses icy lake

Earth

The white walker: Longest horse trek crosses icy lake

(Image: Matthieu Paly/paleyphoto.com) THERE are horse lovers – people with a special fondness for all things Equus – and then there is Cossack officer Dmitri Peshkov. In 1889, when he was 17, Peshkov rode his pony across Siberia. For 9000 kilometres. In winter. He did it, says photographer Matthieu Paley , to show Tsar Alexander …

Regulars

Features

Pharma to fork: How we'll swallow synthetic biology

Life

Pharma to fork: How we'll swallow synthetic biology

Anything plants can grow… (Image: Good Wives and Warriors) Our best antimalarial drug comes from a plant, but now modified microbes are brewing it in a factory. Synthetic biology has got real – and food may be next A REVOLUTION is brewing in Bulgaria – quite literally. In vats similar to those used to ferment …

Features

Space

Einstein's silence: Listening for space-time ripples

Features

Life

Killing with kindness: Conservation's cautionary tale

Features

Culturelab

We turn brainwaves into sound for music and medicine

Technology

We turn brainwaves into sound for music and medicine

Will we soon be dancing to the rhythms of our brains? (Image: James Lange/pymca.co) A neuroscientist and a musician explain how they built the Brain Stethoscope, which is both brain scanner and musical instrument Why is a cellist and sound artist collaborating with someone who deals with brain disorders? Chris Chafe: I am working with …

CultureLab

Earth

What climate change has done to Walden's woods

CultureLab

Life

How ancient needs still drive our weird ways

CultureLab

More

Get a job with the real IT crowd

Get a job with the real IT crowd

Computing jobs needn't mean sitting silently in a dark room. A degree in computer science can lead to some of the most promising and exciting careers out there

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Fenestration fun

Feedback: Fenestration fun

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Fenestration fun FEEDBACK is delighted to discover the US National Fenestration Rating Council, which rates the energy performance of windows. You can visit it at nfrc.org – and its UK counterpart, the British Fenestration Rating Council, at bfrc.org , and …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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