Issue 2059 | Magazine cover date: 7 December 1996

This week's magazine

7 December 1996

Issue 2059

Previous issue Next issue

On the cover

Features

Blue revolutionaries

51��

scan : dinosaur riches

Opinion

Editorial : Return to Brent Spar? - THE DUTCH love dredging. Keeping the Rhine waterways open and free from toxic sludge is almost as much a national pastime as building sea walls. Now, the Dutch government would like to clean up the oil drilling wastes s

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.

Earth

Blue revolutionaries

Features

Internet in the sky

Features

A fast rain's going to fall - They're unbelievably powerful and they seem to come from nowhere. Hazel Muir explores the weird world of high-energy cosmic rays

Features

Australia's date with destiny

Features

51��

scan : dinosaur riches

THE RICH family of Melbourne is into dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Pat Vickers-Rich is a professor of palaeontology at Monash University. Her husband, Tom, is a curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Museum of Victoria. Their daughter, Leaellyn, an arts/law student at Melbourne University, has had a dinosaur named after her and has been …

51��

scan : flow on effect

51��

Technology

Technology : Gelatine heals wombs after birth

51��

scan : hitting the net

51��

research: in the field : Canopy capers

51��

research: in the field : Cadmium overdose

51��

research: in the field : A planning exercise

51��

research: in the field : Sex change

51��

write of reply : Under the microscope

51��

write of reply : Nobel numbers

51��

Science : John Stocker...downloaded

51��

Technology

Technology : Budget CD will list all Britain's phone numbers

51��

Technology

Netropolitan :

51��

Technology

Netropolitan :

51��

Technology

Netropolitan :

51��

Technology

Technology : Laptop detective names John Doe

51��

Technology

Technology : Testicle cells save brain implants

51��

Technology

Technology : Say goodbye to the throwaway modem

51��

Science : Earless frogs get a skinful of sound

51��

Science : Do pulsars get their kicks from neutrinos?

51��

Technology

Technology : Can gene scissors chop up HIV?

51��

Technology

Technology : Help from the heavens

51��

Science : Cell heresy upsets AIDS theorists

51��

Science : Magnetic fields make morphine stronger

51��

Technology

Netropolitan :

51��

Science : High anxiety and lazy genes

51��

Science : Hold on tight for better drugs

51��

Science : Stress leaves the brain wide open to drugs

51��

Colliding galaxies leave wheel of fire

51��

Sale delayed

51��

Doctors off line

51��

Drink problem

51��

Watchdog reprieved

51��

Pine-fresh pork

51��

Health chief goes

51��

Steadying influence

51��

Ploughshares into swords - Can Brazil redistribute farmland to satisfy its landless peasants and still maintain its high levels of food production? The World Bank believes it can, but the rich landowners disagree

51��

You may be sweet and furry, but you're nicked

51��

NASA looks for water on the Moon

51��

Dope tests let athletes run free

51��

Budget buys face-lift for dilapidated labs

51��

Breast tissue traps cancer chemicals

51��

French pour cold water on Cluster revamp

51��

Ethics code spells disaster for Canadian psychologists

51��

`Easy targets' are sabotaging greenhouse goals

51��

X-rays expose secrets of the Elephant Man

51��

Toxic legacy of Britain's oil boom

51��

Early Dutch dam builders were plagued by lice

51��

Who will rule the digital airwaves?

51��

Europe agrees on novel food labels

51��

The smallest thing on four legs

51��

Gene test rules `lack teeth'

51��

Opinion

Editorial : Return to Brent Spar? - THE DUTCH love dredging. Keeping the Rhine waterways open and free from toxic sludge is almost as much a national pastime as building sea walls. Now, the Dutch government would like to clean up the oil drilling wastes s

THE DUTCH love dredging. Keeping the Rhine waterways open and free from toxic sludge is almost as much a national pastime as building sea walls. Now, the Dutch government would like to clean up the oil drilling wastes sitting in giant underwater slag heaps beneath production platforms all over the North Sea (see p 4 …

Opinion

Editorial : Learning to live with the past - EWEN CAMERON is long dead but his ghost appears to haunt Canada, where extraordinarily strict rules are being considered to protect the subjects of psychological research.

Opinion

Features

Earth

Blue revolutionaries

No one would mistake John Tucker's laboratory for the spray-soaked deck of a heaving North Sea trawler. But in a modest way he is beginning to take the place of a deep sea fishing operation. In four fibreglass tanks, each about the size of an office-worker's cubicle, thousands of tiny hatchling snook – a gourmet's …

Features

Internet in the sky

Features

A fast rain's going to fall - They're unbelievably powerful and they seem to come from nowhere. Hazel Muir explores the weird world of high-energy cosmic rays

Features

Australia's date with destiny

Features

Antipodes : 51��s to learn their ABCs - Ian Lowe investigates a surprise windfall for the national broadcaster

SCIENTISTS working for a short stint in the media so that they can hone their communication skills and get some idea of what it's like to face constant deadlines...l'd like to see that. Well, it's about to happen at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Against the trend of "Aunty's" budgets being cut, the ABC Science Unit …

Forum

Forum : No Porsches for the professor

Forum

Forum : A sea of indifference

Forum

Thistle diary : Economic truths and oceanic iron - More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Forum

Review : Natural touch

Books & Arts

Review : Girls on top

Books & Arts

Review : Sexual subjects

Books & Arts

Review : At close range

Books & Arts

Review : Believing is believing

Books & Arts

Review : Travels with a neurologist

Books & Arts

Review : Voyage round Darwin

Books & Arts

Review : Mendel and the mixed up moggie

Books & Arts

Review : Doctor, doctor

Books & Arts

Review : A case of the yips

Books & Arts

Review : Late delivery

Books & Arts

Bestsellers : from San Francisco

Books & Arts

Impure Science by Steven Epstein and other AIDS books

Books & Arts

Review : Pocket Dawkins

Books & Arts

Review : Thunderbirds are yawn

Books & Arts

Review : Weedy wonders

Books & Arts

Review : Make a splash

Books & Arts

Review : Hang the reductionists

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

A LITTLE bird tells us that London's Natural History Museum committed an embarrassing goof during the summer. Visitors to the museum will undoubtedly remember the splendid 340-million-year-old fossil tree, recovered from the Craig Leith sandstone in Edinburgh, that stands imposingly outside the building. A few months ago, a new metal plaque suddenly appeared on the …

51����

This week's magazine

7 December 1996

On the cover

Earth

Blue revolutionaries

Internet in the sky

A fast rain's going to fall - They're unbelievably powerful and they seem to come from nowhere. Hazel Muir explores the weird world of high-energy cosmic rays

Australia's date with destiny

Table of contents

51����

scan : dinosaur riches

scan : flow on effect

Technology

Technology : Gelatine heals wombs after birth

scan : hitting the net

research: in the field : Canopy capers

research: in the field : Cadmium overdose

research: in the field : A planning exercise

research: in the field : Sex change

write of reply : Under the microscope

write of reply : Nobel numbers

Science : John Stocker...downloaded

Technology

Technology : Budget CD will list all Britain's phone numbers

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Technology : Laptop detective names John Doe

Technology

Technology : Testicle cells save brain implants

Technology

Technology : Say goodbye to the throwaway modem

Science : Earless frogs get a skinful of sound

Science : Do pulsars get their kicks from neutrinos?

Technology

Technology : Can gene scissors chop up HIV?

Technology

Technology : Help from the heavens

Science : Cell heresy upsets AIDS theorists

Science : Magnetic fields make morphine stronger

Technology

Netropolitan :

Science : High anxiety and lazy genes

Science : Hold on tight for better drugs

Science : Stress leaves the brain wide open to drugs

Colliding galaxies leave wheel of fire

Sale delayed

Doctors off line

Drink problem

Watchdog reprieved

Pine-fresh pork

Health chief goes

Steadying influence

Ploughshares into swords - Can Brazil redistribute farmland to satisfy its landless peasants and still maintain its high levels of food production? The World Bank believes it can, but the rich landowners disagree

You may be sweet and furry, but you're nicked

NASA looks for water on the Moon

Dope tests let athletes run free

Budget buys face-lift for dilapidated labs

Breast tissue traps cancer chemicals

French pour cold water on Cluster revamp

Ethics code spells disaster for Canadian psychologists

`Easy targets' are sabotaging greenhouse goals

X-rays expose secrets of the Elephant Man

Toxic legacy of Britain's oil boom

Early Dutch dam builders were plagued by lice

Who will rule the digital airwaves?

Europe agrees on novel food labels

The smallest thing on four legs

Gene test rules `lack teeth'

Opinion

Editorial : Return to Brent Spar? - THE DUTCH love dredging. Keeping the Rhine waterways open and free from toxic sludge is almost as much a national pastime as building sea walls. Now, the Dutch government would like to clean up the oil drilling wastes s

Editorial : Learning to live with the past - EWEN CAMERON is long dead but his ghost appears to haunt Canada, where extraordinarily strict rules are being considered to protect the subjects of psychological research.

Features

Earth

Blue revolutionaries

51��

51��

Antipodes : 51��s to learn their ABCs - Ian Lowe investigates a surprise windfall for the national broadcaster