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This week's magazine

9 July 2016

Issue 3081

New Scientist issue 3081 cover
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Editor's picks

Girls walking

Health

The unknown effect of the pill on teenage bones and brains

News
Adult and baby gibbon in tree

Life

Trying to save 'doomed' species isn't futile if we learn from it

News
big head

Humans

All about me: How to be a successful narcissist

Features
gibbon

Life

Too cute to lose: Saving the rarest mammal from extinction

Features
Trou au Natron volcano

Earth

Nomad’s land: Journey into the rugged heart of the Sahara

Features
Row of feet with one person wearing bright socks

Humans

How to bring out your best to beat narcissistic jobseekers

Features
space

Space

Cosmic carve-up: Law and plunder on the final frontier

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

MP childbirth

Health

Doctors should warn women about the real risks of childbirth

Vaginal births carry unique risks that caesarean sections can avoid. Obstetricians’ leaders should be open about that

News

Life

Trying to save 'doomed' species isn't futile if we learn from it

News

News

Illusion makes people ‘feel’ force field around their body

Humans

Illusion makes people ‘feel’ force field around their body

There's something in the air Our brains are aware not just of our bodies but also the immediate space around us. Now, a twist on the classic rubber hand illusion can make people “feel” this space – a sensation they liken to perceiving a “force field”. Neuroscientists have known for decades that our brains contain …

News

Humans

Prehistoric tombs may have doubled as star-gazing observatories

News

Technology

Robot eyes and humans fix on different things to decode a scene

News

Life

Wonder what your plants are ‘saying’? Device lets you listen in

News

Life

Roller-coasting birds soar for months and may snooze while aloft

News

Health

Gene editing could destroy herpes viruses living inside you

News

Technology

Tesla driver dies in first fatal autonomous car crash in US

News

Technology

Virtual reality lets you stroll around a breast cancer cell

News

Life

Gut bacteria spotted eating brain chemicals for the first time

News

Humans

First evidence that synaesthesia gives colour to sign language

News

Space

Impossible vanishing stars could be signs of advanced alien life

News

Space

Fiery exoplanet may see a trillion lightning flashes in an hour

News

Space

Up close with the awesome power of NASA's biggest ever rocket

News

Physics

Neutrinos hint at why antimatter didn't blow up the universe

News

Life

Turtle herpes outbreak hints at Great Barrier Reef contamination

News

Space

China builds world’s largest radio telescope to hunt for aliens

News

Life

DNA sequencing turns rivers into ecosystem surveillance systems

News

One Per Cent

News

Health

It’s safe to prescribe fewer antibiotics for coughs and colds

News

NASA’s Juno probe enters near-perfect orbit around Jupiter

News

Life

Zambia to push ahead with controversial plan to cull 2000 hippos

News

Earth

Deep-sea alliance set to probe Earth’s final frontier

News

Life

Bears turn into couch potatoes thanks to fast food binges

News

Life

Rafting allowed this sea slug to conquer the world’s oceans

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

UK doctors may officially warn women of vaginal birth risks

News

Analysis

A field of wheat

Earth

Green lining? Five ways Brexit could be good for the environment

Where's the variety? Brexit may be bad in many ways, but here’s a very faint glimmer of a silver lining. If the UK leaves the European Union, it might not necessarily be a disaster for the environment. Anyone in the country who feels strongly about air pollution or carbon emissions is likely to have voted …

News

Life

Rip up the rule book and let NASA's Mars rover check 'life' zone

News

Technology

Googly-eyed robots rule: Why it's vital to make us like them

News

Health

The unknown effect of the pill on teenage bones and brains

News

Aperture

Voltage Lab

Physics

Shocking beauty: The unexpected charms of the high-voltage lab

TALK about sparking someone's interest. The hazards of the High Voltage Lab at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby held a certain charm for photographer Alastair Philip Wiper. "It's full of devices that to me looked like sculpture," he says. "You could be in a modern art museum." The lab runs tests on commercial …

Regulars

Features

big head

Humans

All about me: How to be a successful narcissist

Self-love is a gift that keeps giving in our competitive world – if it’s the right sort. The good news is that we can all learn to blow our own trumpet

Features

Life

Too cute to lose: Saving the rarest mammal from extinction

Features

Space

Cosmic carve-up: Law and plunder on the final frontier

Features

Earth

Nomad’s land: Journey into the rugged heart of the Sahara

Features

Humans

How to bring out your best to beat narcissistic jobseekers

Features

Culture

An exotic, colourful buffet arrangement

Earth

Pests for dinner: Taking down invasive species a bite at a time

Hors d'oeuvre with a difference One evening this spring, on the Upper East Side of New York City, I had my first and last taste of iguana. I was at the Explorers Club , an institution more than a century old, devoted to "the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space". Its membership rolls …

Culture

Health

Antidepressants on trial: Are they a wonder or a danger?

Culture

Life

The 100-Year Life: How to make longevity a blessing, not a curse

Culture

Regulars

zika cartoon

Feedback: Zika fears unleash a plague of dubious deterrents

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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