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This week's magazine

15 August 2015

Issue 3034

New Scientist issue 3034 cover
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Editor's picks

We should accept that accidents will happen

We should accept that accidents will happen

Opinion
Meet the Lazarus toads that bring hope for amphibians

Life

Meet the Lazarus toads that bring hope for amphibians

Features
Forget fracking, microwave zaps could clean up the oil business

Earth

Forget fracking, microwave zaps could clean up the oil business

Features
7 mind slips that cause catastrophe – and how we can avoid them

Life

7 mind slips that cause catastrophe – and how we can avoid them

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

We should accept that accidents will happen

We should accept that accidents will happen

It’s getting ever easier to pin the blame for every accident on somebody, somewhere. We should resist that urge

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.

Life

Distant worlds could be sheltering in a bubble around their star

Distant planets may be swaddled in a protective bubble of magnetism and charged particles, courtesy of their parent star. The first study to scrutinise these so-called astrospheres shows that some exoplanets are more well shielded than Earth, others not so lucky – and that their protection can be fickle. Within our solar system, the sun's …

News

Space

NASA buys $490 million Russian rides to ISS as funds fall short

News

Space

Spacecraft could use sat-nav for directions to the moon

News

Space

Kepler sees hints of asteroids pursuing planets near other stars

News

Life

Bird flies 16,000-kilometre Pacific circuit for no clear reason

News

Space

Neutrinos from inside Earth and deep space illuminate the cosmos

News

Life

Russian doll disease is a virus inside a parasite inside a fly

News

Life

Zoologger: World's first venomous frog has the kiss of death

News

Life

Iron-age Britons engaged in mysterious pig trotter festivals

News

Health

Iodine supplements might raise the UK's IQ, but jury still out

News

Earth

Australia criticised over emissions cuts that defy 2 °C target

News

Health

Fish oil pills may help teenagers stave off schizophrenia

News

Life

Darting eyes in REM sleep are seeing objects in your dreams

News

Health

Trans fats, not saturated fat, linked to heart disease risk

News

Technology

Think you're punny? Computer that can tell how good a joke is

News

Technology

Computer-human hybrids could be best at scanning for danger

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

The office where the lights talk – to your smartphone

News

Life

Birds' love of cigarette butts in nests has two sides for chicks

News

Life

Sniff out alien life with giant library of weird chemicals

News

Life

Hornless cattle will herald a gene-editing revolution on farms

News

Life

Early pregnancy test may predict miscarriage and chance of twins

News

60 Seconds

News

Space

Space-grown lettuce tastes like salad rocket

News

Earth

Japan reboots nuclear power despite protests and no waste plan

News

Earth

On the trail of the Arctic's carbon time bomb

News

Earth

Why Scotland will use new EU rule to ban the growing of GM crops

News

Opinion

Consciousness evolved for the greater good, not just the self

Humans

Consciousness evolved for the greater good, not just the self

The unconscious mind tricks you into believing in a sense of self, argue two psychologists. And it does this for an unexpected reason

Opinion

Earth

Critics of ban on bee-harming pesticides are sowing confusion

Opinion

Earth

Conservation tech spells game over for grouse hunting

Opinion

Technology

My cacti could generate electricity and help curb climate change

Opinion

Aperture

See eye to eye with the pig that had a beard before it was cool

Life

See eye to eye with the pig that had a beard before it was cool

(Image: Edwin Giesbers/NaturePL) THIS guy had a hipster beard long before it was cool. Taken by nature enthusiast Edwin Giesbers at the Bako National Park in Malaysia, this close-up of a bearded pig's khaki-coloured eye and leaf-shaped ear also shows off its rather unkempt facial hair. Bearded pigs ( Sus barbatus ) live in the …

Regulars

Features

Meet the Lazarus toads that bring hope for amphibians

Life

Meet the Lazarus toads that bring hope for amphibians

Climate change, habitat loss and the deadly chytrid fungus are wiping out frogs and toads worldwide. But in Central America some species are fighting back

Features

Earth

Forget fracking, microwave zaps could clean up the oil business

Features

Life

7 mind slips that cause catastrophe – and how we can avoid them

Features

Culturelab

Technology of the future needs to be designed with a heart

Technology

Technology of the future needs to be designed with a heart

The future is tech-shaped. But are the creators embedding our systems into their designs? Two new books look at why we need to act

CultureLab

Earth

The Science of Open Spaces: Saving ecosystems the collective way

CultureLab

Regulars

Feedback: Our fruitloopery bowl runneth over

Feedback: Our fruitloopery bowl runneth over

(Image: Paul McDevitt) Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Snack food with good vibrations PERHAPS hoping to broaden Feedback's diet of fruitloopery, Stacey Falls calls our attention to a flavour of New Age reverie we've not sampled before. "On a recent family vacation, I noticed a …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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