Subscribe now

This week's magazine

13 February 2016

Issue 3060

New Scientist issue 3060 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

projects

Space

Can big money make big dreams come true?

Opinion
sun energy

Space

Space solar: The global race to tap the sun's energy from orbit

Features
roosting bats

Life

Super bats: What doesn’t kill them, could make us stronger

Features
decay main

Physics

Making antimatter matter: A particle that could be both at once

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

projects

Space

Can big money make big dreams come true?

"Moonshots" – grand projects with slim chances of success – are all the rage in Silicon Valley right now. Are they worth it?

Opinion

News

A patient-looking giraffe mother allowing five young giraffes of varying sizes to suckle

Life

Baby giraffes steal milk, and adults let them do it

Who's the mummy? Baby giraffes have got some cheek. They seem to use stealth to steal milk from giraffes that are not their mothers, at least in zoos. About 40 per cent of their suckling is from non-mothers, which is the highest rate recorded in any non-domesticated mammal. This is unexpected since milk is costly …

News

Life

Mice live 25 per cent longer when worn-out cells are cleared

News

Technology

Shortest ever pulse of visible light spots photons fleeing atoms

News

Life

Three-parent babies may get US go-ahead, but only for sons

News

Life

First case of lethal female aggression seen in orangutans

News

Humans

Mystery invaders conquered Europe at the end of last ice age

News

Space

Nowhere to hide - invisibility cloaks fail near light speed

News

Technology

First flight of hydrogen-powered drone with water vapour exhaust

News

Earth

Australia's plan to make a digital representation of everything

News

Health

Umbilical blood cells kill cancer quicker than adult cells

News

Technology

Homebrew biology kit brings synthetic biology to the masses

News

Technology

3D-printed display lets blind people explore images by touch

News

Health

Your brain activity for memory tasks changes with the seasons

News

Earth

125-year mini ice age linked to the plague and fall of empires

News

Health

Sleep deprivation linked to false confession in milestone study

News

Physics

Latest rumour of gravitational waves is probably true this time

News

Technology

Our photo uploads give scientists billions of eyes on the world

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Earth

Planets with too much carbon dioxide could lose oceans to space

News

Life

Iberian lynx beats extinction as cats are released to the wild

News

Space

'Dark sunshine' could illuminate the search for dark matter

News

Health

Zika virus found in saliva but kissing risk likely to be low

News

Space

60 Seconds

News

Health

First fully approved 'off the shelf' stem cells launch in Japan

News

Opinion

Donald Trump

Life

Trump's primate-like posturing got him to poll position in Iowa

How to explain Donald Trump's lead over Republican rivals? Like an alpha chimp, he knows how to dominate by noisy intimidation, says Christopher Boehm

Opinion

Life

So long, suckers: Would it be safe to wipe out mosquitoes?

Opinion

Life

Why does semen make female fruit flies more aggressive?

Opinion

Life

The mushroom man who wants the world to take fungi seriously

Opinion

Analysis

Two dogs with their heads looking out of the tops of a row of cubicles. They are both clones of the same black-and-tan German Shepherd dog, and their only difference is that the left ear of one of them points upwards

Earth

Inside the cloning factory that creates 500 new animals a day

A controversial Korean lab led by Woosuk Hwang is moving from cloning pets to endangered animals. But will cloning help or hurt these species?

News

Aperture

salt

Life

India’s salt harvesters toil for crystals under the baking sun

TOILING outdoors when it is super hot and dry won't appeal to most, but for these workers in Gujarat, India, it is their lifeline. From October to April – the dry season – the agariyas , as they are called, labour from before dawn until dusk at the salt pan known as the Little Rann …

Regulars

Features

decay main

Physics

Making antimatter matter: A particle that could be both at once

A hunt for the rarest of events could reveal why matter dominates the universe – if we can spot something that happens once every 100 trillion trillion years

Features

Life

Super bats: What doesn’t kill them, could make us stronger

Features

Space

Space solar: The global race to tap the sun's energy from orbit

Features

Culturelab

driving

Humans

NeuroLogic: The enthralling story of the unconscious mind

We may have a complex, scientific take on the unconscious mind, but as Eliexer Sternberg's new book shows, explanations demand a nuance befitting the subject

CultureLab

Life

A Crude Look at the Whole: Complexity is still outsmarting us

CultureLab

Humans

The End of Average tells us why we should discard a mean idea

CultureLab

More

Food additives are obesity suspects

Surge in obesity and diabetes could be linked to food additives

Additive alert Ice cream lovers, look away now. Studies on a simulated human gut have added further evidence that emulsifiers, found in most processed foods, might be linked to obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disorders. Emulsifiers are used to improve a food’s texture and to prevent mixtures from separating, particularly in ice cream. Last year , …

Regulars

baby moon

Space

Feedback: Mars is blue, says chronicler of space oddities

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Space oddities THE aliens have landed – though you would be forgiven for missing them, because these ones are invisible. Daily Express journalist Jon Austin ("covering science, nature, and the paranormal") reports the scoop of the century with the news …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop