Subscribe now

This week's magazine

10 May 2014

Issue 2968

New Scientist issue 2968 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

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

Historic breaking machine holds lessons for our times

Opinion
QBism: Is quantum uncertainty all in the mind?

Humans

QBism: Is quantum uncertainty all in the mind?

Features
Jumping Frog Jubilee: Secrets of amphibian Olympians

Life

Jumping Frog Jubilee: Secrets of amphibian Olympians

Features
Norse UFOs: What are the glowing orbs of Hessdalen?

Physics

Norse UFOs: What are the glowing orbs of Hessdalen?

Features
The Victorian monster destruction engine

Technology

The Victorian monster destruction engine

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.

Earth

El Niño forecasters must not repeat mistakes of 1997

The effects of the huge El Niño of the 1990s were all the worse because cautious forecasts didn’t allow people to prepare. It shouldn’t happen again

Opinion

Health

Rebirth of psychiatry will be slow and painful

Opinion

Technology

Historic breaking machine holds lessons for our times

Opinion

News

Astrophile: Dizzy exoplanet has a compact 8-hour day

Space

Astrophile: Dizzy exoplanet has a compact 8-hour day

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse

News

Life

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs now a global epidemic

News

Life

Zoologger: Deep-freeze maggot feeds on new form of fat

News

Technology

Smartphone sensors could give aircraft accident clues

News

Space

Pluto may be wearing a dark belt of moon dust

News

Health

Baboons with pig hearts pave way for human transplants

News

Health

Pregnancy hormone could offer simple treatment for MS

News

Physics

Elusive element 117 now closer to periodic table glory

News

Health

Global emergency declared as polio cases surge

News

Health

Hundreds of lives saved by universal healthcare in US

News

Space

Wannabe reality-TV Mars colonists are highly educated

News

Health

3D shape of genome could diagnose leukaemia type

News

Space

Tiny dark matter 'bullet' may be one among hundreds

News

Earth

US Supreme Court air pollution ruling will save lives

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

World is unprepared for major El Niño later this year

News

Life

Only known chimp war reveals how societies splinter

News

Life

Fire missiles at Mars to find deeply buried life

News

Technology

Silicon pill beams back body's response to medicines

News

Technology

Speech analyser monitors emotion for call centres

News

Technology

Flying 3D printer could seal off nuclear waste

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Health

Psychiatry's scientific reboot gets under way

News

Life

Itsy bitsy bacterium gets a bigger genetic code

News

Life

Terminator-style liquid metal connects severed nerves

News

Opinion

Seed saviour: I'm preserving our edible heirlooms

Life

Seed saviour: I'm preserving our edible heirlooms

Diane Ott-Whealy started her seed bank to save her grandparents' prized seeds, but more than 13,000 varieties later it has taken on a life of its own.

Opinion

Technology

Conform or fail: Social media's broken promise

Opinion

Technology

Lights out: The dark future of electric power

Opinion

Aperture

A visual time machine into US history

A visual time machine into US history

(Images: courtesy AMNH Special Collections images ) PHOTOGRAPHS are often described as windows into the past, and it couldn't be more true for these glass lantern slides. The five images are from a collection of more than 7000, amassed by staff of the American Museum of Natural History for more than 100 years. The collection …

Regulars

Features

QBism: Is quantum uncertainty all in the mind?

Humans

QBism: Is quantum uncertainty all in the mind?

It's not quantum theory that's uncertain (Image: Matt Murphy) The microscopic world described by quantum theory seems a strange, confusing place – but some physicists argue it's just us who are uncertain SNATCH a toy from the tiniest of infants, and the reaction is likely to disappoint you. Most seem to conclude that the object …

Features

Life

Jumping Frog Jubilee: Secrets of amphibian Olympians

Features

Physics

Norse UFOs: What are the glowing orbs of Hessdalen?

Features

Technology

The Victorian monster destruction engine

Features

Culturelab

Alex Bellos wanders in his mathematical wonderland

Physics

Alex Bellos wanders in his mathematical wonderland

Deep connections join up many mathematical fields (Image: Jan Michalko/Picturetank) From the appeal of seven to a shadowy textbook-writing cabal, Alex Through The Looking Glass is a whistle-stop tour of entertaining areas of mathematics WHAT is your favourite number? I don't have one, but if pressed I'd probably go for 7. I'm not exactly sure …

CultureLab

Life

The world's most beautiful birds' eggs

CultureLab

Regulars

Feedback: Is this a cornucopia of cures?

Feedback: Is this a cornucopia of cures?

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Cornucopia of cures? IMMEDIATELY after our appeal for information on the health effects of newspaper health advice (19 April) , we found a resource that will be invaluable for any such study: expressmiracles.tumblr.com . The site chronicles front pages of …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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