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This week's magazine

14 November 2015

Issue 3047

New Scientist issue 3047 cover
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Editor's picks

Cutting science funding would damage UK economic security

Cutting science funding would damage UK economic security

Opinion
Let Australian science shine to create a truly prosperous future

Let Australian science shine to create a truly prosperous future

Opinion
Journeys of a lifetime: Once your blood was dinosaur pee

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: Once your blood was dinosaur pee

Features
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

Is evil a disease? ISIS and the neuroscience of brutality

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: Why to look at a star is to touch it

Space

Journeys of a lifetime: Why to look at a star is to touch it

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: Events in a far galaxy tweak your DNA

Space

Journeys of a lifetime: Events in a far galaxy tweak your DNA

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: To the depths of Earth and back again

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: To the depths of Earth and back again

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: A mosasaurus breathes into your stove

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: A mosasaurus breathes into your stove

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: A sandwich's energy becomes a scream

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: A sandwich's energy becomes a scream

Features
The Higgs mass mystery: Why is everything so light?

Physics

The Higgs mass mystery: Why is everything so light?

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: How your bones began in a star's core

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: How your bones began in a star's core

Features
Journeys of a lifetime: 7 stories of how the cosmos made you

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: 7 stories of how the cosmos made you

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

UK spending cuts must spare science, our key to prosperity

UK spending cuts must spare science, our key to prosperity

Research is central to 21st-century prosperity and must be boosted, not butchered, in the upcoming UK spending review, says Royal Society president Paul Nurse

Opinion

Unshackle science to let the US address global problems

Opinion

Let Australian science shine to create a truly prosperous future

Opinion

News

Most of Earth's mass extinctions caused by… mineral deficiencies

Earth

Most of Earth's mass extinctions caused by… mineral deficiencies

Are you getting enough minerals ? A new theory suggests most of Earth's mass extinction events could have been caused by a lack of essential trace elements in the world's oceans, causing fatal deficiencies in marine animals, from plankton to reptiles. Earth has been hit with five mass extinction events . The two most dramatic …

News

Space

NASA probe shows how solar burps may have stripped Mars of water

News

Health

Gut bacteria may affect the success of cancer treatments

News

Technology

Microscopic cage for light traps photons but lets fluids through

News

Life

Venomous pseudoscorpions use huge pincers to hitchhike on bats

News

Space

Hot Jupiters may have formed through planetary billiards

News

Technology

3D print extra bits for old objects to help extend their life

News

Earth

US oil industry and green lobby together brought down Keystone

News

Earth

ExxonMobil faces inquiry on what it knew about climate change

News

Life

‘Death clock' in cells could tell you when you'll get cancer

News

Health

Alzheimer's drug found to cause harm to mouse brain cells

News

Earth

Carbon levels hit new high and temperature rise soars to 1 °C

News

Space

Pluto surprises with ice volcanoes and alien weather

News

Humans

Russia faces ban from athletics over doping scandal

News

Health

Smoking weed is now a human right in Mexico

News

Health

Gene editing beat a baby's leukaemia. Are other cancers next?

News

Technology

UK spying rules may drive criminals to use stronger encryption

News

Technology

Text detective can unmask the secret influencers behind US laws

News

Life

Mystery microbes in our gut could be a whole new form of life

News

Life

Free-diver enlisted to help tag twitchy hammerhead sharks

News

Space

Coming soon: first weather report from super-Venus exoplanet

News

Growing corals turn water more acidic without suffering damage

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Environment

60 Seconds

News

Environment

Pope's call for action on climate change has shifted US views

News

Opinion

Breakthrough prize billionaire wants scientists to be heroes

Breakthrough prize billionaire wants scientists to be heroes

Twenty-five per cent of global GDP originates from quantum mechanics, says Yuri Milner – that's why he wants scientists to become household names

Opinion

Earth

Those who slam the Paris climate talks are missing the point

Opinion

Earth

Dangerous climate change is avoidable with the right approach

Opinion

Cutting science funding would damage UK economic security

Opinion

Analysis

Quantum dilemma: We have too many options for explaining reality

Physics

Quantum dilemma: We have too many options for explaining reality

IT'S time to put all the quantum cards on the table. That's the view of a group of physicists who assembled in Vienna last month to present a variety of ideas, results and plans for future experiments that might help find an explanation for the weirdness of quantum theory. Quantum physics is well known for …

News

Aperture

See Soviet tech survivors of the cold war abandoned in the snow

Space

See Soviet tech survivors of the cold war abandoned in the snow

THE cold war forgot about these relics. These images, taken by photographer Danila Tkachenko in Russia and Kazakhstan, show bold attempts at technological progress that were abandoned. Tkachenko ventures out into the snowy wastes to document the deserted remains. The main image shows a Bartini Beriev VVA-14, an aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in …

Regulars

Features

Journeys of a lifetime: 7 stories of how the cosmos made you

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: 7 stories of how the cosmos made you

From distant galaxies to deep inside your cells, and a dinosaur’s breath to your kitchen stove, join us for seven of the most surprising voyages in the universe

Features

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: How your bones began in a star's core

Features

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: Once your blood was dinosaur pee

Features

Life

Is evil a disease? ISIS and the neuroscience of brutality

Features

Space

Journeys of a lifetime: Why to look at a star is to touch it

Features

Space

Journeys of a lifetime: Events in a far galaxy tweak your DNA

Features

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: To the depths of Earth and back again

Features

Earth

Journeys of a lifetime: A mosasaurus breathes into your stove

Features

Life

Journeys of a lifetime: A sandwich's energy becomes a scream

Features

Physics

The Higgs mass mystery: Why is everything so light?

Features

Culturelab

How the past's ecological lessons can save Earth's future

Earth

How the past's ecological lessons can save Earth's future

Killing the Koala and Poisoning the Prairie tells the troubled environmental history of Australia and the US – giving us important lessons for a greener future

CultureLab

Humans

The neuroscience of interrogation: Why torture doesn’t work

CultureLab

More

The future of healthcare: Using big data to stay well

The future of healthcare: Using big data to stay well

The topics in this series were developed by New Scientist in conjunction with Philips , which paid for them to be produced IF you often find yourself reaching for a chocolate eclair rather than your running shoes, you're not alone. It seems that human nature makes us prone to taking our well-being for granted. "We …

philips

Regulars

Feedback: Making a hash of drugs legislation

Feedback: Making a hash of drugs legislation

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more An over-egged pudding FACED with an ever-growing list of substances its citizens are ingesting to get high, the UK government has decided it would be easier to ban every psychoactive substance by default, and instead create a list of mind-altering …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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