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This week's magazine

7 June 2014

Issue 2972

New Scientist issue 2972 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.

Earth

Time to chow down on à la carte chemicals

Opinion
Memory implants: Chips to fix broken brains

Technology

Memory implants: Chips to fix broken brains

Features
Extreme evolution: How snakes became the über-eater

Life

Extreme evolution: How snakes became the über-eater

Features
Race to read the H-bomb timestamp that marks all cells

Race to read the H-bomb timestamp that marks all cells

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

Open your mind to the gene-modified American chestnut

The American chestnut tree is on the brink of a genetically engineered comeback. Evidence, not fear, must decide the US public debate

Opinion

Earth

Time to chow down on à la carte chemicals

Opinion

News

We are killing species at 1000 times the natural rate

Earth

We are killing species at 1000 times the natural rate

Birds from Brazil: let get more threatened species in the red zone First the bad news. Humans are driving species to extinction at around 1000 times the natural rate, at the top of the range of an earlier estimate. We also don't know how many species we can afford to lose. Now the good news. …

News

Health

Forget the dentist's drill, use lasers to heal teeth

News

Earth

Europe's eagles under threat from vulture-killing drug

News

Life

Teen growth spurt left Richard III with crooked spine

News

Space

SpaceX unveils sleek, reusable Dragon crew capsule

News

Life

American chestnut set for genetically modified revival

News

Earth

Global warming may quintuple summer downpours in UK

News

Life

3000-year-old trousers were cut like Justin Bieber's

News

Health

School food fight rages on in the US

News

Space

Impossibly heavy planet is the first 'mega-Earth'

News

Earth

The US plan to cut emissions: What you need to know

News

Space

Fireball meteors emit unique radio wave signals

News

Technology

UK government tried 3D-printing guns to assess threat

News

Health

Learn a second language to slow ageing brain's decline

News

Health

Unravelling taste genes could help us eat healthily

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Venus death dive to unlock secrets of Earth's evil twin

News

Earth

Chemical cuisine poised to shake up food chain

News

Earth

Convert waste CO2 and chicken feathers into fertiliser

News

Pluto and its moon snuggle under a shared atmosphere

News

Technology

Wearable submarine to hunt for 2000-year-old computer

News

Technology

Methane leak? Robot sniffer dog is on the case

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Smart subtitles help you learn a second language

News

Health

Violence threatens bid to eradicate guinea worm

News

Opinion

Making science cool won't win over the denialists

Earth

Making science cool won't win over the denialists

US pop culture now celebrates science – but that doesn't stop science deniers dismissing inconvenient truths. Showbiz can help

Opinion

Life

How I conjure a social illusion with ventriloquism

Opinion

Earth

Why cities shouldn't lose their distinctive stinks

Opinion

Analysis

Twitch turns bedroom gamers into internet superstars

Technology

Twitch turns bedroom gamers into internet superstars

A website that lets you live-stream your gameplay is creating celebrity players as well as fresh ways of generating games

News

Aperture

The idyllic tropical island – now covered in concrete

Earth

The idyllic tropical island – now covered in concrete

(Image: Jason Larkin/Panos) WHEN Charles Darwin visited Ascension Island in 1836, he wasn't very impressed. It was little more than a barren volcanic rock, and this rankled him because he felt everything in the British Empire should be productive. So he asked his botanist friend Joseph Dalton Hooker to help carpet the rock with plants. …

Regulars

Features

Memory implants: Chips to fix broken brains

Technology

Memory implants: Chips to fix broken brains

Bridging the brain gaps (Image: Raymond Beisinger) Transplanted memories and mind-controlled wheelchairs are real – now implants are on the horizon that will repair brain damage and maybe even patch dementia SAM DEADWYLER's work sounded a little too much like something from The Matrix – and that was a big problem. In the same way …

Features

Life

Extreme evolution: How snakes became the über-eater

Features

Race to read the H-bomb timestamp that marks all cells

Features

Culturelab

Information famine at the centre of the infosphere

Life

Information famine at the centre of the infosphere

Where's Bert? The muppet became an accidental ally of bin Laden (Image: Reuters) Two new books explore how the internet is changing us and our world – but it's too soon to tell which of the changes really matter WE LIVE in revolutionary times. Information moves around the world at the speed of light and …

CultureLab

Life

When trilobites ruled the seas

CultureLab

More

How further education can propel your career

How further education can propel your career

There are a growing number of back-to-school options for boosting your scientific knowledge and career potential – whatever your background

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Kitchen disaster trumps

Feedback: Kitchen disaster trumps

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Kitchen disaster trumps PRESSURE cookers: should they be allowed? Feedback mentioned the occasion when "an ill-advised release of steam left rice embedded in the kitchen ceiling" (24 May) . Just as we were sending that issue to the printers, Bruce …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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