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This week's magazine

21 June 2014

Issue 2974

New Scientist issue 2974 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.

Life

Me and my microbiome: Rethink bacteria to save lives

Opinion
Energy trilemma: Can power be cheap, clean and secure?

Earth

Energy trilemma: Can power be cheap, clean and secure?

Features
Manhunt to bug hunt: Cop skills track nature's killers

Life

Manhunt to bug hunt: Cop skills track nature's killers

Features
Whistling Wi-Fi: How gadgets sing data to each other

Technology

Whistling Wi-Fi: How gadgets sing data to each other

Features
This vast lake will die so millions can live better

Earth

This vast lake will die so millions can live better

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

Break electricity addiction to win the power struggle

Electricity suppliers are struggling to supply cheap, clean and reliable power - managing our contstant demand will help

Opinion

Technology

Hail hackers for reverse-engineering NSA bugs

Opinion

Life

Me and my microbiome: Rethink bacteria to save lives

Opinion

News

First predator fish crushed armoured prey in its jaws

Life

First predator fish crushed armoured prey in its jaws

Fish like us? Meet Megamastax , the oldest known fish that was a top predator. This hunting fish prowled the oceans 423 million years ago, 25 million years before our fishy ancestors wriggled onto the land. The discovery adds weight to the idea that animals like us, with backbones and jaws, first evolved in southern …

News

Health

Blood molecule predicts success of antidepressants

News

Earth

Oil works threaten health of people in Peruvian Amazon

News

Earth

Extremists in Iraq now control the country's rivers

News

Earth

Massive 'ocean' discovered towards Earth's core

News

Technology

Bionic pancreas frees people from shackles of diabetes

News

Physics

Create the ultimate world clock with a quantum link

News

Earth

Brazil's mega power line threatens Amazon's top reserve

News

Health

E-cig users are young, heavy smokers trying to quit

News

Earth

Bacterial suspects identified in Caribbean coral deaths

News

Life

Colonial borders not the problem in Syria-Iraq crisis

News

Earth

New European rules on biotech crops please no one

News

Environment

60 Seconds

News

Health

Human brain's ultimate barrier to open for first time

News

Life

Weird organisms emerge from the deep, dark biosphere

News

Space

First medical X-ray scanner heads for space station

News

Sound sieve lets you choose what to levitate

News

Clingy dark matter may slow corpse star spins

News

Technology

Hackers reverse-engineer NSA's leaked bugging devices

News

Technology

Spot-the-difference software maps city's mean streets

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Buzzing glove teaches Braille through good vibrations

News

Health

Our humming brains help us learn rapidly

News

Space

Saturn's largest moon was once a titanic snowball

News

Physics

Water that stays liquid below freezing probed by lasers

News

Technology

Next-generation hearing aids get some iPhone cool

News

Opinion

Compassion in conservation: Don't be cruel to be kind

Life

Compassion in conservation: Don't be cruel to be kind

Killing and harming animals in the name of conservation is not just unethical, it is counterproductive

Opinion

Life

Meaty puzzle: Did TB evolve to boost hungry brains?

Opinion

Space

Doubts about big bang breakthrough won't kill inflation

Opinion

Analysis

Harvey, the robot farmer fixing the US labour shortage

Technology

Harvey, the robot farmer fixing the US labour shortage

It's getting harder to find people to work on farms in the US – robo-farmers are shifting plants and could soon be picking strawberries in their place

News

Aperture

Tumbling weeds: The rolling invasion of the US

Earth

Tumbling weeds: The rolling invasion of the US

(Image: Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/cookjenshel.com) THIS is what an alien invasion looks like. Giant balls of tumbleweed are causing problems across the western US, where prolonged drought and high winds have led to a boom in their numbers. The most common tumbleweed, Kali tragus , isn't native to the US – it is an …

Regulars

Features

Energy trilemma: Can power be cheap, clean and secure?

Earth

Energy trilemma: Can power be cheap, clean and secure?

When it comes to electricity supply, we're caught in a vicious triangle. A bold scheme that pays big business to switch off could be part of the solution

Features

Life

Manhunt to bug hunt: Cop skills track nature's killers

Features

Technology

Whistling Wi-Fi: How gadgets sing data to each other

Features

Earth

This vast lake will die so millions can live better

Features

Culturelab

Logical armour: A primer in mathematical self-defence

Physics

Logical armour: A primer in mathematical self-defence

Decisions about armouring US war planes were easy to get wrong (Image: Photoquest/Getty Images) Can you spot a fake health crisis? Are politicians bamboozling you with numbers? Mathematics can open your eyes, says Jordan Ellenberg in How Not to Be Wrong IN 2008, about 66 per cent of the US population was overweight. Even more …

CultureLab

Earth

Heroic and humble quests for overlooked animals

CultureLab

Regulars

Feedback: Dolls of destiny

Feedback: Dolls of destiny

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Dolls of destiny BARBIE dolls: does playing with them discourage a future in research? Feedback suggested that it's more a matter of how you play, given a report of doll mummification (5 April) . Support for this thesis is provided …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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