Issue 1940 | Magazine cover date: 27 August 1994

This week's magazine

27 August 1994

Issue 1940

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On the cover

Features

Outback oases

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Patents: Nose jobs

Opinion

Comment: New nightmare for old?

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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.

Outback oases

Features

Vermin of the skies: Astronomers used to curse asteroids for obscuring their view of the heavens. Now, as Ken Croswell discovers, scientists think they may hold the clues to the origin of the Solar System

Features

Witness for the deceased

Features

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Patents: Nose jobs

Shinjiro Sakai of Chiba-ken in Japan says that some Japanese people are so worried about the shape of their nose, that they are prepared to undergo plastic surgery to make it look more Western. Sakai has filed a British patent application (2 270 844) on a much cheaper way of making a flat nose look …

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Patents: Flashy caller

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Technology

Technology: Computer pioneer calculates cost of failure

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Patents: Games people play

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Patents: Super sound

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Patents: Climb every bathtub

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Technology

Technology: The culture that came from outer space

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Technology

Technology: Waiter, there's no fly in my cereal

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Technology

Technology: NHS takes first step down information superhighway

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Science: How ripening fruit invite fungal attack

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Science: Ants are smart enough to keep appointments

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Science: Is dark matter shadowed by dust?

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Science: Rogue protein may spread BSE throughout brain

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Technology

Technology: Satellite guide picks a way through the ice

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Ammonia appeal

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Ills of spills

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Call for coal

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Bungee monkey

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How safe if SAFE ?: A plan to upgrade two nuclear reactors in Solvakia may force Western governments to stop dithering over nuclear safety in Eastern Europe.

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Science: Martial arts students influence the past

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Dust settles on Jupiter after comet crash

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Hidden galaxy discovered on Earth's doorstep

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Brain drain goes into reverse

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Pests have field day in the heat

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'Dead insect' grounds Japan's rocket

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Fast words speed past dyslexics

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Some confusion over fusion in the US

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Fall in physics

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Hands under the sea

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A disaster in waiting

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A little plutonium goes a long way. . .

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Butterfly smugglers trapped in Delhi

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South African soap aids the health of the nation

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Seeds of hope for Rwanda's farmers

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'Wrong paddy fields' measured for methane

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Climate change threatens southern Asia

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Cairo row over teenager' right to choose

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Future quakes could rock world economy

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Opinion

Comment: New nightmare for old?

This decade may come to be remembered as the time humanity lost control of the atom. If so, then the fallen Soviet empire will not be blamed for plunging us into a dark age of nuclear terror. North America, Japan, and the rich nations of Europe will be judged guilty. A combination of political disarray …

Opinion

Features

Outback oases

The dusty outback of Australia is the last place you'd expect to find ducks swimming on lakes. Leigh Dayton explains what can be done to protect the desert wetlands and their inhabitants

Features

Vermin of the skies: Astronomers used to curse asteroids for obscuring their view of the heavens. Now, as Ken Croswell discovers, scientists think they may hold the clues to the origin of the Solar System

Features

Witness for the deceased

Features

Washington Diary: Cults of the inventor and other lively squawks - Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

It's a rare American who escapes childhood without being taught to celebrate Robert Fulton and his steamboat, Thomas Edison and his electric light, and Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone. That may explain why the US clings to its very own patent system, and any attempt to change it is dealt with severely. Just ask …

Forum

Review: Logoland for young learners

Books & Arts

Review: Rock art in a secret garden

Books & Arts

Forum: A harmonist of art and science - Robert Lamb on the life's work of a great Victorian synthesiser

Forum

Review: From Wales fo Madeira

Books & Arts

Forum: Have buckyballs lost their bounce? - Jim Baggott wonders why we are always so impatient with great discoveries

Forum

Review: In the trail of solar eclipses

Books & Arts

Review: Fame and folly in the frozen north

Books & Arts

Review: Nuclear innocents adrift in the Pacific

Books & Arts

Review: Biology for robots

Books & Arts

Review: Big science earns its keep

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

Public relations - the task of providing an acceptable gloss on the indefensible - can have fewer greater challenges. We refer, of course, to the now sadly tarnished image of that purveyor of motorways to the gentry, the Highways Agency. On April Fools' Day the agency took over from the Department of Transport the heavy …

Regulars

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This week's magazine

27 August 1994

On the cover

Outback oases

Vermin of the skies: Astronomers used to curse asteroids for obscuring their view of the heavens. Now, as Ken Croswell discovers, scientists think they may hold the clues to the origin of the Solar System

Witness for the deceased

Table of contents

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Patents: Nose jobs

Patents: Flashy caller

Technology

Technology: Computer pioneer calculates cost of failure

Patents: Games people play

Patents: Super sound

Patents: Climb every bathtub

Technology

Technology: The culture that came from outer space

Technology

Technology: Waiter, there's no fly in my cereal

Technology

Technology: NHS takes first step down information superhighway

Science: How ripening fruit invite fungal attack

Science: Ants are smart enough to keep appointments

Science: Is dark matter shadowed by dust?

Science: Rogue protein may spread BSE throughout brain

Technology

Technology: Satellite guide picks a way through the ice

Ammonia appeal

Ills of spills

Call for coal

Bungee monkey

How safe if SAFE ?: A plan to upgrade two nuclear reactors in Solvakia may force Western governments to stop dithering over nuclear safety in Eastern Europe.

Science: Martial arts students influence the past

Dust settles on Jupiter after comet crash

Hidden galaxy discovered on Earth's doorstep

Brain drain goes into reverse

Pests have field day in the heat

'Dead insect' grounds Japan's rocket

Fast words speed past dyslexics

Some confusion over fusion in the US

Fall in physics

Hands under the sea

A disaster in waiting

A little plutonium goes a long way. . .

Butterfly smugglers trapped in Delhi

South African soap aids the health of the nation

Seeds of hope for Rwanda's farmers

'Wrong paddy fields' measured for methane

Climate change threatens southern Asia

Cairo row over teenager' right to choose

Future quakes could rock world economy

Opinion

Comment: New nightmare for old?

Features

Outback oases

Vermin of the skies: Astronomers used to curse asteroids for obscuring their view of the heavens. Now, as Ken Croswell discovers, scientists think they may hold the clues to the origin of the Solar System

Witness for the deceased

More

Washington Diary: Cults of the inventor and other lively squawks - Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

Review: Logoland for young learners

Review: Rock art in a secret garden

Forum: A harmonist of art and science - Robert Lamb on the life's work of a great Victorian synthesiser

Review: From Wales fo Madeira

Forum: Have buckyballs lost their bounce? - Jim Baggott wonders why we are always so impatient with great discoveries

Review: In the trail of solar eclipses

Review: Fame and folly in the frozen north

Review: Nuclear innocents adrift in the Pacific

Review: Biology for robots

Review: Big science earns its keep

Regulars

Feedback

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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