Issue 2053 | Magazine cover date: 26 October 1996

This week's magazine

26 October 1996

Issue 2053

Previous issue Next issue

On the cover

Features

A suitable survey

51��

research: in the field : Heavy weather

Opinion

Editorial : Get tough with piracy on the CFCs - NOT before time, governments are starting to talk tough about the smuggling of Russian-made CFCs and the growing black market in the outlawed chemicals among suppliers of coolants for air-conditioning and re

View in the app

Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app

Find a previous edition online

Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

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.

A suitable survey

Features

Born to trade

Features

When volcanoes get violent - Some volcanoes explode dramatically while others are content merely to spew their lava down the hillside. Erik Stokstad visited the Greek island of Santorini to find out why

Features

Plastic's power play - It's recyclable, it contains no heavy metals and it can be moulded into all kinds of shapes. The plastic battery has arrived

Features

51��

research: in the field : Heavy weather

51��s from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Japan have gathered in the South Island of New Zealand in search of bad weather. They are part of a huge field experiment to measure how mountains influence weather and climate. The project involves the CSIRO research aircraft, weather radar, meteorological balloons and a network of automatic weather …

51��

research: in the lab : Smart fibres direct light

51��

Scan : John Rice ...downloaded

51��

Scan : insect world

51��

Scan : greenhouse collection

51��

Scan : critical mass

51��

bytes : Deakin puts course on the line

51��

bytes : changing places

51��

Technology

Technology : When a sketch tells a thousand words

51��

Technology

Technology : Pioneering TV girls dance again

51��

Technology

Patents : The trouble with trademarks

51��

Technology

Patents : Mirror, mirror

51��

Technology

Patents : What goes up...

51��

Technology

Patents : Smart watches

51��

Technology

Patents : Liquid test

51��

Technology

Patents : Fast ball?

51��

Science : Unwanted DNA goes into the garbage disposal

51��

Technology

Technology : Machine minds your language

51��

Technology

Technology : Naked fruit for lazy shoppers

51��

Technology

Netropolitan :

51��

Ebola outbreak

51��

Passive risk

51��

Pirates in the garden of India

51��

Science : Does dope block pregnancy?

51��

Science : Mystery asteroid was eaten by fire

51��

Science : Viral assassin turns on cancer cells

51��

Science : Why crickets love a steady male

51��

Science : Tumbling gas may cause starquakes

51��

Science : Water `rains' on the ringed planet

51��

Science : Knotty problem emerges from the looking glass

51��

Contamination fears linger as French quit Mururoa

51��

Pneumonia runs riot in Brazil's crèches

51��

Drivers risk cancer in the cab

51��

Superwheat to feed the world

51��

If you must drink, take up jogging

51��

Radioactive forests will bring power to the people

51��

Dengue fever outbreak angers Indian judges

51��

Star Wars returns to haunt tomorrow's battlefields

51��

Tough gestation for virtual embryo

51��

Smoking gun

51��

Smile, you're in a beauty contest

51��

Horse killer found

51��

Sea birds' friends

51��

Technology jackpot

51��

Breathtaking ozone

51��

Congress pulls the plug on Gulf Stream maps

51��

…but NASA promises not to hide its face

51��

Life on Mars may be too hot to handle…

51��

Words alone will not clear smog

51��

Smart smugglers outwit the CFC cops

51��

Opinion

Editorial : Get tough with piracy on the CFCs - NOT before time, governments are starting to talk tough about the smuggling of Russian-made CFCs and the growing black market in the outlawed chemicals among suppliers of coolants for air-conditioning and re

As we reveal (see p 4 ), the smugglers have already got smart, hiding the gases inside dummy cylinders of legal chemicals, and doctoring them to mimic legal substitutes or recycled CFCs, which can be traded legally. In the US, customs authorities have already responded with more sophisticated ways of searching for disguised consignments of …

Opinion

Editorial : New Age on Mars - BACK in 1976 when someone at NASA's news center in Pasadena decided that they needed to generate more press interest in the pictures the Viking orbiter was taking of the Martian surface, they probably didn't realise quite wha

Opinion

Features

A suitable survey

WHAT the inhabitants of North Sentinel island in the Bay of Bengal call themselves is a mystery. Their beliefs, the language they speak and even the exact number in their community are also unknown. But these questions are closer to being answered since a team of Indian scientists and government officials made the first friendly …

Features

Born to trade

Features

When volcanoes get violent - Some volcanoes explode dramatically while others are content merely to spew their lava down the hillside. Erik Stokstad visited the Greek island of Santorini to find out why

Features

Plastic's power play - It's recyclable, it contains no heavy metals and it can be moulded into all kinds of shapes. The plastic battery has arrived

Features

AustralAsian : Time to tally Asian student contribution - Bob Johnstone talks to a university administrator about enrolment trends

LIKE it or not, the future of science and technology in Australia will depend a great deal on students from overseas and local students born overseas, most of them Asians. According to Fred Smith from La Trobe University, who has just written a paper on the topic, it's time to take stock and work out …

Forum

Forum : You've got to give a little - Vincent Kiernan learns how to hammer out an agreement

Forum

Washington diary : War wounds and publicity eruptions - Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

Forum

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Review : Creepy collection

Books & Arts

Review : Prairie politics

Books & Arts

Review : The brain's big bang

Books & Arts

Forum : Don't let them hog the limelight

Forum

Bestsellers : from San Francisco

Books & Arts

Review : Down but not out

Books & Arts

Review : At death's door

Books & Arts

Review : Body of evidence

Books & Arts

Review : Quantum comeback

Books & Arts

Review : Blue story

Books & Arts

Review : Speaking from the other side

Books & Arts

Review : Acceptable risk?

Books & Arts

Review : Geek history

Books & Arts

Review : A universe of one's own

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

WE LEARN from a recent news release that shock absorbers may one day be made of chocolate. The idea is inspired by a curious discovery that comes, so we are told, from Michigan State University. A graduate student in engineering, Christopher R. Daubert, and his professor, James Steffe, found that when a strong enough electric …

51����

This week's magazine

26 October 1996

On the cover

A suitable survey

Born to trade

When volcanoes get violent - Some volcanoes explode dramatically while others are content merely to spew their lava down the hillside. Erik Stokstad visited the Greek island of Santorini to find out why

Plastic's power play - It's recyclable, it contains no heavy metals and it can be moulded into all kinds of shapes. The plastic battery has arrived

Table of contents

51����

research: in the field : Heavy weather

research: in the lab : Smart fibres direct light

Scan : John Rice ...downloaded

Scan : insect world

Scan : greenhouse collection

Scan : critical mass

bytes : Deakin puts course on the line

bytes : changing places

Technology

Technology : When a sketch tells a thousand words

Technology

Technology : Pioneering TV girls dance again

Technology

Patents : The trouble with trademarks

Technology

Patents : Mirror, mirror

Technology

Patents : What goes up...

Technology

Patents : Smart watches

Technology

Patents : Liquid test

Technology

Patents : Fast ball?

Science : Unwanted DNA goes into the garbage disposal

Technology

Technology : Machine minds your language

Technology

Technology : Naked fruit for lazy shoppers

Technology

Netropolitan :

Ebola outbreak

Passive risk

Pirates in the garden of India

Science : Does dope block pregnancy?

Science : Mystery asteroid was eaten by fire

Science : Viral assassin turns on cancer cells

Science : Why crickets love a steady male

Science : Tumbling gas may cause starquakes

Science : Water `rains' on the ringed planet

Science : Knotty problem emerges from the looking glass

Contamination fears linger as French quit Mururoa

Pneumonia runs riot in Brazil's crèches

Drivers risk cancer in the cab

Superwheat to feed the world

If you must drink, take up jogging

Radioactive forests will bring power to the people

Dengue fever outbreak angers Indian judges

Star Wars returns to haunt tomorrow's battlefields

Tough gestation for virtual embryo

Smoking gun

Smile, you're in a beauty contest

Horse killer found

Sea birds' friends

Technology jackpot

Breathtaking ozone

Congress pulls the plug on Gulf Stream maps

…but NASA promises not to hide its face

Life on Mars may be too hot to handle…

Words alone will not clear smog

Smart smugglers outwit the CFC cops

Opinion

Editorial : Get tough with piracy on the CFCs - NOT before time, governments are starting to talk tough about the smuggling of Russian-made CFCs and the growing black market in the outlawed chemicals among suppliers of coolants for air-conditioning and re

Editorial : New Age on Mars - BACK in 1976 when someone at NASA's news center in Pasadena decided that they needed to generate more press interest in the pictures the Viking orbiter was taking of the Martian surface, they probably didn't realise quite wha

Features

A suitable survey

Born to trade

When volcanoes get violent - Some volcanoes explode dramatically while others are content merely to spew their lava down the hillside. Erik Stokstad visited the Greek island of Santorini to find out why

Plastic's power play - It's recyclable, it contains no heavy metals and it can be moulded into all kinds of shapes. The plastic battery has arrived

More

51��

51��