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This week's magazine

12 July 1997

Issue 2090

New Scientist issue 2090 cover
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Editor's picks

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.

Blossoming talent

Features
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 pattern emerges

Features
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.

Cosmic cannibals

Features
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.

Not a snowball's chance...

Features

Table of contents

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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.

Tall story

THE gene responsible for the tall peas grown by Gregor Mendel, who laid the foundations of modern genetics in the 19th century, has been isolated by researchers in Australia. This is the second of the seven pea traits he studied for which a gene has been isolated. James Reid and his colleagues at the University …

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Warning lights

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Signature tune

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Radio eye

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Due south

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Is this the end of the world?

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Time's up for the Greenwich observatory

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Legal moves

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Free spirits

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Core concerns

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Deadly combination

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Dial R for radioactive

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The scent of a tiger

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Fromage with breeding

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Nuclear export ban

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Cataract caution

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Zone of the free

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Zinc to think

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Beach bugs make for a cooler world

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The Janus effect

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Walking wounded

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Nuclear pipe cleaner

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Now feed the cat

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Artificial eye

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Human harvest festival

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The lightness of being Mathilde

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Safe domain

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A very close shave

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Wanna be an alien watcher?

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Shutdown in space

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Border alert against virus smugglers

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Train delays to go online

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Some like it spiky

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Mad cows in disguise

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Giant gas bags save the day

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Juice on the loose

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Speak now…

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Tooth delay banished

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Send in the claws

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Welcome to fractal country

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Word workout

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The ups and downs of life on Mir

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Rover heads for the rocks

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Space

Against the odds, it worked

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Opinion

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.

Editorial : Hard cases, bad laws - Is patching human genes any more immoral than patenting nerve gases?

NO legislation is framed to edify or entertain, but the European Biotechnology Patent Directive-4000 words that have been nine tortuous years in the making-has a decidedly serious feel to it. Next week in Strasbourg, MEPs will bravely consider its fate, while Greens and others opposed to virtually anything with the word genetic in it will …

Opinion

Features

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.

Blossoming talent

York GEORGE COUPLAND has green fingers. With a little genetic tinkering, he has produced plants that flower to order. Doused with the correct chemical trigger, they spring into bloom within days. Unfortunately, the chemical is a steroid—not the sort of thing you'd want to spread liberally on your roses. But, with a few modifications, the …

Features

A pattern emerges

Features

Cosmic cannibals

Features

Not a snowball's chance...

Features

More

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.

Antipodes : Solar advances provide a shower of benefits

THROUGH regular innovation and new technology, a West Australian company has become a world leader in solar hot water heating. The company, Solahart, has just unveiled a new hot water system so reliable that it carries a 12-year warranty on performance. This compares with the industry norm of five years. The durability of the new …

Forum

Forum : Hold the front page

Forum

Thistle diary :

Forum

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Bestsellers : from San Francisco

Books & Arts

Forum : Wired in the underworld

Forum

Review : Could try harder

Books & Arts

Review : Well versed

Books & Arts

Review : Mental barriers

Books & Arts

Review : Guilty parties

Books & Arts

Working on a Miracle by Mahlon Johnson

Books & Arts

Review : Gold making

Books & Arts

Review : Play time

Books & Arts

Review : The accidental physicist

Books & Arts

Review : All systems not go

Books & Arts

Regulars

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.

Feedback

HOW MANY Britons are aware that a proportion of their taxes is used to subsidise the European tobacco industry? In the House of Lords last month, Lord Reay, referring to The EC Tobacco Regime, a report by the Lords select committee on the European Union, made the revelation that production of tobacco is sustained by …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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