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This week's magazine

24 September 2016

Issue 3092

New Scientist issue 3092 cover
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Editor's picks

wood

Earth

Revealed: The renewable energy scam making global warming worse

News
X-ray of a broken neck

Health

It’s time for a serious debate about head transplants

News
A black hole swallowing a star

Space

Reality guide: Six problems physics can't explain

Features
Reality guide: A poster of how everything fits together

Physics

Reality guide: A poster of how everything fits together

Features
A stream of information flowing down a screen

Space

Reality guide: Six radical ideas to change physics

Features
Ripples

Space

Reality guide: The essential laws of quantum physics

Features
A simulation of the structure of the galaxy

Space

Reality guide: The essential laws of cosmology

Features
Tejada

Health

I slice up human brains for a living

Features
wall picture

Humans

Wistful thinking: Why we are wired to dwell on the past

Features
evolution artwork

Life

Evolution evolves: Beyond the selfish gene

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

X-ray of a broken neck

Health

It’s time for a serious debate about head transplants

Many are reluctant to engage with the claims of head transplant pioneers, fearing that any comment will be seen as an endorsement. The time for silence is over

News

News

Asteroid assault on early planets was more like a gentle massage

Earth

Asteroid assault on early planets was more like a gentle massage

A figment of our imagination? Maybe the early solar system was a pleasant place A proposed period of intense asteroid and comet strikes on the inner solar system might be a fiction. Simulations suggest that the purported spike in impacts about 3.9 billion years ago could merely be an artefact of limited samples. "It's been …

News

Life

Hawaiian crows can use sticks as tools but are nearly extinct

News

Space

Gaia’s map of 1 billion stars is the clearest view of our galaxy

News

Health

Travellers warned of fatal tick-borne disease in Western Europe

News

Space

China launches a space station and wants an even bigger one

News

Space

Kamikaze galaxy explodes after diving into the Milky Way 

News

Humans

Building blocks of memories seen in brains for the first time

News

Space

Saturn’s rings may be from the whirl of a passing icy rock

News

Life

Snub-nosed monkeys are so inbred they may struggle to survive

News

Life

Rattlesnakes silently shook their tails before evolving rattles

News

Humans

Blind people use brain's visual cortex to help do maths

News

Health

Grand project to unify global efforts to understand the brain

News

Physics

Quantum teleportation over 7 kilometres of cables smashes record

News

Space

‘Alien megastructure’ star may be explained by interstellar junk

News

Life

China’s fancy for ‘aquatic cocaine’ could wipe out rare porpoise

News

Health

Head transplant team's new animal tests fail to convince critics

News

Space

New NASA budget could put asteroid-grabbing mission in jeopardy

News

Technology

Gene-reading software to cut TB diagnosis from months to minutes

News

Technology

Send secret messages hidden in the DNA of bacterial spores

News

Technology

Germany to create world's first highway code for driverless cars

News

One Per Cent

News

Life

World's hardiest animal has evolved radiation shield for its DNA

News

Earth

Oil pipeline leak threatens Alabama river rich in unique species

News

Earth

Arctic ice melt is killing birds and will leave caribou stranded

News

Space

60 Seconds

News

Opinion

3 people napping outside on the grass

Health

Don't lose sleep over the claim that long naps may make you ill

Despite the suggestion that longer naps may raise the risk of diabetes, we are probably seeing the impact of obesity-related sleep disorders instead, says Jim Horne

Opinion

Analysis

Ted Cruz appears on multiple TV screens with Google banner in background

Technology

The US isn’t giving away the internet – it never had control

Senator Ted Cruz claims imminent changes will mean the US government losing control over the internet. That just doesn't grasp the real problems, says Hal Hodson

News

Earth

Revealed: The renewable energy scam making global warming worse

News

Space

Farewell to Rosetta, the comet mission that captivated the world

News

Aperture

brain slicing

Humans

Immortalising human brains at the world's largest brain bank

IT'S the ultimate "hurry up and wait". Only fresh brains can be used for medical research, so when a donor dies somewhere in the US, their brain must arrive at the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center within 24 hours. Yet when Jorge Tejada and his team have finished, it is effectively frozen in time. It …

Regulars

Features

Reality guide: A poster of how everything fits together

Physics

Reality guide: A poster of how everything fits together

Our ultimate user’s guide to fundamental physics – all on one spectacular poster for you to download for free

Features

Humans

Wistful thinking: Why we are wired to dwell on the past

Features

Life

Evolution evolves: Beyond the selfish gene

Features

Health

I slice up human brains for a living

Features

Space

Reality guide: The essential laws of cosmology

Features

Space

Reality guide: The essential laws of quantum physics

Features

Space

Reality guide: Six radical ideas to change physics

Features

Space

Reality guide: Six problems physics can't explain

Features

Culture

Optic Cloak

Technology

The Optic Cloak: Meet the chimney that isn't there

Artist Conrad Shawcross's moiré-surfaced flues on the Greenwich Peninsula are a shimmering mirage that delights the eye and turns an eyesore into a work of art

Culture

Life

The paradox of play: Real fun should be terrifying

Culture

Regulars

cartoon shower

Feedback: Power shower is a nutri-shake you don't have to drink

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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