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This week's magazine

3 June 2017

Issue 3128

New Scientist issue 3128 cover
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Editor's picks

drug treatment

Health

The drug rebellion fighting big pharma to save the NHS millions

News
supermarket obesity

Health

Collective rather than individual action can beat obesity

News
Kasparov

Technology

We don't need to lose out to machines, says the man who did

Features
playing

Humans

First words: The surprisingly simple foundation of language

Features
listening artwork 1

Life

Send an ear: Listening for sounds of life in the solar system

Features
cake slice

Humans

The appetite genes: Why some of us are born to eat too much

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

supermarket obesity

Health

Collective rather than individual action can beat obesity

The more we learn about the drivers of obesity, the clearer it becomes that willpower alone won't work. Governments need to act

News

News

A pair of cowpea seed beetles mating

Life

Traumatic beetle sex causes rapid evolutionary arms race

Forget Fifty Shades of Grey ... Ever wondered what constitutes extreme sex ? Cowpea seed beetles certainly know – their sexual act is brutal, and it also seems to encourage a rapid evolutionary arms race between spiked penises and shielding tissue in females. Extreme genital co-evolution happens in many types of animal, including ducks, fish …

News

Technology

App lets stadium crowds display giant messages with their phones

News

Technology

Waltzing robot teaches beginners how to dance like a pro

News

Health

Learning to read and write rewires adult brain in six months

News

Earth

Newly-evolved microbes may be breaking down ocean plastics

News

Life

See-through frog has heart you can see beating through its chest

News

Earth

Trump’s budget jettisons ‘irreplaceable’ marine mammals agency

News

Space

Strange cosmic radio burst pinned down to giant stellar nursery

News

Life

Monkey mafia steal your stuff, then sell it back for a cracker

News

Life

Tree-climbing goats spit out and disperse valuable argan seeds

News

Space

Amazing pictures show cyclones swirling above Jupiter’s poles

News

Earth

Nowcasting may help forecast big earthquakes in 53 major cities

News

Earth

Hot, sleepless nights will get more common with climate change

News

Space

Saturn’s moons could reassemble after a cosmic smash-up

News

Technology

Curious AI learns by exploring game worlds and making mistakes

News

Physics

Game theory says you should charge your friends to borrow things

News

Earth

Governments sued over climate change, with banks and firms next

News

Life

Sea stars filmed hunting squid and squabbling over eating it

News

Life

Gene tweak in gut bacteria could turn faeces blue if you’re ill

News

Health

Boom in human gene editing as 20 CRISPR trials gear up

News

Space

New Zealand joins the space race with Electron rocket launch

News

Health

Tumour-tracking drug that kills cancer approved in the US

News

60 Seconds

News

Health

Is ADHD a sleep disorder? Stimulant drug improves symptoms

News

Technology

Underwater drones use sound to send snaps of the ocean floor

News

Huge impact could have smashed early Earth into a doughnut shape

News

Health

Could cannabis help crack cocaine addicts kick the habit?

News

Life

Floating in microgravity gives bacteria permanent genetic boost

News

Analysis

Care for people over the age of 65 is direly underfunded

Health

Think the UK has a social care crisis now? Just wait until 2025

The demographic crystal ball shows elderly care is a crisis set to deepen, fast. No wonder UK politicians are grasping for solutions, says James Bloodworth

News

Health

The drug rebellion fighting big pharma to save the NHS millions

News

Life

How to get scientists and politicians talking the same language

News

Health

Diseases are global, so it's time for global emergency response

News

Aperture

SPIDER reactor

Physics

Inside the SPIDER facility, preparing for nuclear fusion tests

THIS may resemble a distillery, but what it will generate isn't for drinking. It will serve up streams of atoms and ions to make the energy of the sun right here on Earth through nuclear fusion. Called SPIDER and due for completion next year, this facility in Padua, Italy, will help fine-tune what will become …

Regulars

Features

listening artwork 1

Life

Send an ear: Listening for sounds of life in the solar system

The seismic echoes of Jupiter’s icy moons could teach us more about their hidden oceans than any picture – and help us gauge their potential for life

Features

Humans

First words: The surprisingly simple foundation of language

Features

Technology

We don't need to lose out to machines, says the man who did

Features

Humans

The appetite genes: Why some of us are born to eat too much

Features

Culture

robot

Technology

Hello, Robot: The show that braves the future

Our future is full of tricky, disruptive possibilities. But a bold and innovative touring show is robust enough to pose the hard questions

Culture

Humans

Your Brain Is a Time Machine: Why we need to talk about time

Culture

More

apollo 11 launch

Space

Old Scientist: Space travel? Waste of money

WE TRY never to be naive. We know that ideology, not technology, dictates trends in space travel. In 1961, New Scientist was actually calling for a halt to the moon race, driven as it was by cold war rivalry. Nobody at that point knew how to reach the finish line, but both the Soviet Union …

Regulars

Regulars

Frisbee plate

Feedback: Scentless perfumes and houses that last forever

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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