51¶¯Âþ

This week's magazine

16 August 2003

Issue 2408

New Scientist issue 2408 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Blasts from the past: Mr Babbage and the buskers

Technology

Blasts from the past: Mr Babbage and the buskers

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.

Gut feeling

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 modern obsession?

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.

Dangerous liaisons

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.

When you wish upon a star

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.

Star ratings

Features
Fabric of the final frontier

Fabric of the final frontier

Features

Table of contents

51¶¯Âþ

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.

Technology

Power to the people?

"YES, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it…will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light…Water will be the coal of the future." The words of Pencroft, Jules Verne's visionary engineer in his novel The Mysterious Island, were science fiction in 1874. …

51¶¯Âþ

Hybrids sow the seeds of new species

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

The clean green energy dream

51¶¯Âþ

Japan's blimp flies high

51¶¯Âþ

Dispatches

51¶¯Âþ

Count the dots

51¶¯Âþ

Sunny disposition

51¶¯Âþ

Repairing the mind

51¶¯Âþ

Squashed supernova

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Screen reversals

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Relief for dry eyes

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Green grows the grass

51¶¯Âþ

Magic mix makes movie masks

51¶¯Âþ

Order is bliss in the blogosphere

51¶¯Âþ

Will glossy watermarks conquer fraud?

51¶¯Âþ

A molecular memory to dye for

51¶¯Âþ

Death-defying cells mend broken hearts

51¶¯Âþ

Hot, dusty cities are ideal for lightning

51¶¯Âþ

And here is the local crime forecast…

51¶¯Âþ

Let's play hunt the particle

51¶¯Âþ

Winking star hints at early days of a planet

51¶¯Âþ

Soundbites

51¶¯Âþ

Sport supplement gives vegetarians brain boost

51¶¯Âþ

Weedkiller may encourage blight

51¶¯Âþ

Gamma-ray weapons could trigger next arms race

51¶¯Âþ

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.

Humans

Westminster diary

THIS magazine recently reported that the Pentagon is anxious about the European Space Agency's Galileo network of position-finding satellites (7 June, p 13) . It claims that Galileo could interfere with the US's own Global Positioning System. With Galileo promising to give more accurate navigational signals than GPS, I asked Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, …

Opinion

Come the revolution

Opinion

Going it alone

Opinion

Power struggle

Opinion

Fungus no bogeyman for modified wheat?

Opinion

Features

Blasts from the past: Mr Babbage and the buskers

Technology

Blasts from the past: Mr Babbage and the buskers

The hurdy-gurdy was just one of the instruments that drove Londoners mad in the 1860s To celebrate the launch of 51¶¯Âþ 's latest book, Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers , we've asked its editor, Stephanie Pain, to select four of her favourite blasts from the past, together with a brand new one Read more: " …

Features

Gut feeling

Features

A modern obsession?

Features

Dangerous liaisons

Features

When you wish upon a star

Features

Star ratings

Features

Fabric of the final frontier

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.

Screen flight

Winged Migration Feature film directed by Jacques Perrin, 89 minutes, Sony Pictures, selected cinemas Reviewed by Barry Fox FIVE crews – 450 people – spent four years filming birds on the wing in 40 countries, mainly using cameras mounted on remote-controlled aircraft that flew with the birds. On the ground, hidden cameras and long lenses …

Books & Arts

Bestsellers - Oxford

Books & Arts

Joined-up thinking

Careers

No small step for a woman

Books & Arts

Shore thing

Books & Arts

Pox: Genius, madness and the mysteries of syphilis by Deborah Hayden

Books & Arts

Secret Britain

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

TO most railway passengers in the UK the idea of saving time when travelling by train is laughable. You're much more likely to waste it, stuck on a sweltering train because of the rails buckling in the sun. Or waiting for hours on draughty autumnal platforms while hard-pressed railway staff remove leaves from the line …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop