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This week's magazine

19 March 2005

Issue 2491

New Scientist issue 2491 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.

Histories: Ungentlemanly conduct

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.

Health

The cure that came in from the cold

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.

Technology

Crazy about transistor crystals

Features
13 things that do not make sense

Life

13 things that do not make sense

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.

Life

Sequencing reveals origins of X chromosome

THE complete sequence of the human X chromosome was published in Nature this week. The work shows that large segments of it match parts of normal chromosomes in birds, confirming the X chromosome's "non–sex" origins. Despite the fact that X is much larger than the tiny Y, it seems that both evolved from a pair …

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Life

X chromosome activity different in every woman

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Technology

New photofit 'evolves' a suspect's face

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Technology

Chameleon-like smart phones do impressions

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Technology

Laptop designed to break in half

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Technology

Mouse smoothes out troublesome hand tremors

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Space

Black hole-like phenomenon created by collider

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Life

Vampire bats are champion sprinters

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Life

Flapping flags show how birds fly

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Life

Protein recovered from dinosaur eggs

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Health

Blindness risk is in your genes

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Life

Seven times lucky for the pig tamers

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Health

Alzheimer's plaques revealed in living brains

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Physics

Individual electrons line up to be counted

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Health

Rooting out arsenic in Bangladeshi wells

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Technology

Phase-change memory chips could win global jackpot

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Life

The new pioneers of map making

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Technology

Invention

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Technology

Classic Japanese clock to spring back to life

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Life

Pay up, you are being watched

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Health

The real reason for Atkins diet weight loss

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Life

Complete reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton revealed

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Life

Human embryonic stem cells grown animal-free

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Health

Better plane ventilation could cut spread of disease

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Health

Will low-fat foods sway biotech sceptics?

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Soundbites

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Space

Superflares could kill unprotected astronauts

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Earth

Asia primed for next big quake

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Health

US cancels Agent Orange study in Vietnam

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Health

Mapping the proteins that make up a human

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60 Seconds

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Earth

Imported plants threaten Australian flora

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Technology

Virus writers focus on Instant Messenger

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Earth

Global warming may dry up economies too

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French nuclear material may be easy target

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Earth

US mercury pollution more pervasive than realised

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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.

Science to offer hope to Africa

2005 is a big year for Africa. The continent is high on the list of priorities for the G8 leading industrialised countries and the European Union. Last week the Commission for Africa, a group of 17 world leaders and heads of UN agencies set up by the prime minister, Tony Blair, published a set of …

Opinion

Editorial: On the uptake of healthier GM foods

Opinion

Editorial: Turning scandal into success

Opinion

Life

Interview: The running man

Opinion

Humans

Westminster diary

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.

Histories: Ungentlemanly conduct

"The proprieties of the Association have been outraged." So wrote civil servant Arthur Munby in his diary on 1 July1860. And no wonder: the previous day, at the annual meetingof the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford, there had been a most ungentlemanly discussion. The topic was Charles Darwin's new – and …

Features

Health

The cure that came in from the cold

Features

Technology

Crazy about transistor crystals

Features

Life

13 things that do not make sense

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.

Physics

Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis: The quest to find the hidden law of numbers by Dan Rockmore

"THE riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all, then it can also be answered." Presumably this remark by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is a sick joke at the expense of mathematicians, who frequently spend their whole careers clawing at unyielding riddles. And who can blame them for persevering with exquisite torments …

Books & Arts

Being read by Virginia Zakian, professor of life sciences

Books & Arts

Being read by Harriet Ritvo, professor of history

Books & Arts

Trailblazing in Europe

Careers

Life

Assembling the Tree of Life edited by Joel Cracraft and Michael J Donoghue

Books & Arts

Earth

Keepers of the Spring: Reclaiming our water in an age of globalization by Fred Pearce

Books & Arts

The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge edited by Mary Archer and Christopher Haley

Books & Arts

Earth

The Disconnected Rivers by Ellen Woh

Books & Arts

Technology

Bicycle: The history by David V Herlihy

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

Tailored product warnings DO PRODUCT warnings reveal rather too much about how their authors see the punters? Alan Davison reports that the information leaflet on how to fold a Tesco baby stroller instructs English speakers with the classic: "Before attempting to fold the stroller, fold the hood, remove your baby from the seat..." But the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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