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This week's magazine

22 January 2005

Issue 2483

New Scientist issue 2483 cover
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Editor's picks

Black holes, but not as we know them

Space

Black holes, but not as we know them

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.

Life

The curious lifestyle of the burrowing owl

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.

Histories: The birth of weather forecasting

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.

Earth

Returning war-torn farmland to productivity

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.

Physics

Harnessing bubbles to trigger nuclear fusion

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.

Technology

Wireless boom is hackers' heaven

SETTING up a wireless computer network at home has never been easier or cheaper. But the freedom to access the internet from anywhere in or around the house comes at a cost: Wi-Fi networks leave home computer users open to unprecedented levels of security breaches. Wi-Fi's radio signals carry up to 100 metres, and anyone …

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Technology

Invention

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Technology

New cellphone controlled by movement

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Technology

Does Apple have designs on the TV market?

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Space

Lunar colony to run on moon dust and robots

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Technology

One charging pad could power up all gadgets

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Life

Why a lucky few escape bug bites

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Earth

Earth dries up as temperatures rise

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Technology

Virtual bushfire experience could save lives

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Technology

Stuffed buckyballs could mean clearer MRI scans

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Life

Ultra-Orthodox Jews more likely to jaywalk

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Life

People adjust their generosity to fit in

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Health

Spider silk could be used for surgical stitching

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Health

Gene with common link to Parkinson's discovered

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Health

Mystery compound in beer fights cancer

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Space

Asteroids reveal secrets of evolving solar system

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Life

Shoddy ships sank invasion of Japan

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Life

Pompeii's bars not so seedy after all

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Life

Hanging gardens were a living carpet

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Health

Epilepsy drugs may extend life

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Life

Gladiators fought for thrills, not kills

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Space

Difficult times for heavy-lift rockets

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Earth

Biotech companies enjoy global growth in GM crops

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Earth

Excess tsunami warning systems risk confusion

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Health

African herb yields its anti-addiction secret

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Soundbites

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Health

Active brain cells observed in real time

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Physics

Are there two types of gravity?

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Life

Did early Europeans break the big taboo?

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60 Seconds

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Space

One hour on Titan, forever bathed in glory

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Life

Indians in Peru regain potato rights

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Wrecked ship could trigger massive explosion

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Earth

Tetanus strikes survivors of Asian tsunami

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Earth

Permission given to hunt endangered wolves

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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.

The best defence

THE relationship between science and the military goes back a long way. Even Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci had their ideas pilfered by military strategists – Galileo's telescopes, da Vinci's submarines, catapults and parachutes. But the relationship really took off with the second world war, when weapons research became a primary scientific aim in industrialised …

Opinion

Space

Editorial: ESA triumph as probe reveals Titan's secrets

Opinion

Editorial: Thames time bomb is still ticking

Opinion

Health

Interview: The virus hunter

Opinion

Humans

Westminster diary

Opinion

Features

Black holes, but not as we know them

Space

Black holes, but not as we know them

THEY are the most fearsome objects in the universe. They swallow and destroy everything that crosses their path. Everyone knows that falling into a black hole spells doom. Or does it? In the past few years, cracks have started to appear in the conventional picture. Researchers on the quest for a more complete understanding of …

Features

Life

The curious lifestyle of the burrowing owl

Features

Histories: The birth of weather forecasting

Features

Earth

Returning war-torn farmland to productivity

Features

Physics

Harnessing bubbles to trigger nuclear fusion

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.

Life

There's Something About Mary, edited by Peter Ludlow

That familiar phrase "define your terms" can halt seminars, end tedious argument, and buy you thinking time. It is also a serious imperative for our times, particularly when trying to marry the two halves of scientific enquiry: broad narrative and detailed evidence. The narrative and the evidence for the relationship between the mind and the …

Books & Arts

Out now in paperback

Books & Arts

Innovation and Its Discontents by Adam B Jaffe and Josh Lerner

Books & Arts

Health

Lesser Harms: The morality of risk in medical research by Sydney A Halpern

Books & Arts

Life

Jungle smartAmong Orangutans: Red apes and the rise of human culture by Carel van Schaik

Books & Arts

Life

The Lichen Hunters by Oliver Gilbert

Books & Arts

Earth

A land of Ghosts by David Campbell

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

From Dumb to Rabid OUR item about textonyms (27 November 2004) has inspired numerous readers who appear to have far too much time on their thumbs. Textonyms, you will remember, are the sets of words that a mobile phone with predictive texting would suggest for given sequences of key presses. Thus we find Duncan Simpson …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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