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This week's magazine

24 October 2015

Issue 3044

New Scientist issue 3044 cover
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Editor's picks

Lifting the gloom over depression and deep brain stimulation

Health

Lifting the gloom over depression and deep brain stimulation

Opinion
How chemical weapons from the first world war never went away

Earth

How chemical weapons from the first world war never went away

Features
Deep brain stimulation: A wonder treatment pushed too far?

Health

Deep brain stimulation: A wonder treatment pushed too far?

Features
Could cosmic megastructures be intruders from another world?

Space

Could cosmic megastructures be intruders from another world?

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Canada sees reason – time for others to follow

Earth

Canada sees reason – time for others to follow

SO FAREWELL then Stephen Harper, the now ex-prime minister of Canada. Under his 10-year premiership a country that once enjoyed a deserved reputation as a scientific and environmental leader became something of a pariah. It tore up its climate pledges , cut science spending and notoriously tried to silence scientists employed by the federal government. …

Opinion

Health

Lifting the gloom over depression and deep brain stimulation

Opinion

News

Sauropod dinosaur may have whipped its tail like Indiana Jones

Life

Sauropod dinosaur may have whipped its tail like Indiana Jones

A sound that hasn't been heard for at least 66 million years – the supersonic crack of the tail tip of a giant sauropod dinosaur, is now recreated in the lab. "They were the first living things to have at least part of themselves exceed the sound barrier," says computer scientist and dinosaur enthusiast Nathan …

News

Life

Plants spike nectar with caffeine and give bees a buzz

News

Space

Icy plains and snakeskin terrain among Pluto's lingering puzzles

News

Health

Schizophrenia and inflammation link could lead to new treatments

News

Technology

3D printed teeth to keep your mouth free of bacteria

News

Technology

Footage of balloons bursting reveals best way to break

News

Earth

Slow typhoon Koppu to drop one metre of rain on the Philippines

News

Life

First domestication of dogs took place in Asia, not Europe

News

Technology

Super-dark chameleon material shifts colour to boost solar power

News

Earth

Climate models may be wrong as fires cancel forest carbon sinks

News

Life

Babies better than adults at knowing where they're being touched

News

Health

Should babies be given solids earlier to prevent food allergies?

News

Earth

Life may have begun 300 million years earlier than we thought

News

Health

Is the UN about to recommend decriminalisation of all drugs?

News

Health

World Health Organization may approve first malaria vaccine

News

Earth

Canada's new government heralds freedom of speech for scientists

News

Earth

Carbon nanotubes found in children's lungs for the first time

News

Life

Inside GCHQ: Is the secret agency misusing Alan Turing's legacy?

News

Life

Inside the massive plan to track the lives of 10,000 New Yorkers

News

Life

New species of giant tortoise brings Galapagos tally to eleven

News

Life

What will it take for humans to take advice from a robot?

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Environment

60 Seconds

News

Space

Russia starts moon base collaboration with European Space Agency

News

Opinion

Too much stuff: What should we keep to show future generations?

Life

Too much stuff: What should we keep to show future generations?

The present is awash with the flotsam of consumerism. Should we keep it all as a record of our times? If not, what do we save, asks Sharon MacDonald

Opinion

Earth

Australian rice to the rescue as Asian staple is threatened

Opinion

Health

Health inequality kills – and now is the time to close the gap

Opinion

Aperture

The greenhouses hiding in the snow of Spain's Sierra Nevada

Earth

The greenhouses hiding in the snow of Spain's Sierra Nevada

THIS is not the typical view of the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain. As the snow covering the peaks (the name means "snowy range") retreats in spring, it melts from above and below, forming a honeycomb of tunnels. The thinning blanket of snow acts as a greenhouse, letting light through and reviving grass that …

Regulars

Features

How chemical weapons from the first world war never went away

Earth

How chemical weapons from the first world war never went away

A century on, deadly chemical shells are still being dug up – and the mission to destroy them is a daunting one

Features

Health

Deep brain stimulation: A wonder treatment pushed too far?

Features

Space

Could cosmic megastructures be intruders from another world?

Features

Culturelab

How the matsutake mushroom lets us balance ecology and economics

Earth

How the matsutake mushroom lets us balance ecology and economics

The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing shows how people worldwide make a living from mushrooms given as prized gifts in Japan

CultureLab

Life

What To Think About Machines That Think gets you thinking

CultureLab

Life

How a creationist instinct stops us seeing evolution everywhere

CultureLab

More

Power to the patients

Health

Power to the patients

Patients are about to gain unprecedented control over their data and their health, thanks to a fundamental change in the way health services exploit technology

philips

Regulars

Feedback: dogs tagged by canine facial recognition

Feedback: dogs tagged by canine facial recognition

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Dog tags IT'S a feat that will set tails wagging: facial recognition software that works on dogs. Thierry Moreira at the University of Campinas in Brazil and his colleagues have developed not one but two such systems – named WOOF …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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