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This week's magazine

9 April 2005

Issue 2494

New Scientist issue 2494 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.

Health

Welcome to the immortals' club

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

Taking snapshots of a light wave

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

Life's top 10 greatest inventions

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

Will machines ever understand us?

IF YOU have ever called a directory enquiries or flight information service, the chances are that you have spent a few happy minutes speaking to a computer. And according to some business analysts, talking to a computer in this way will soon become an everyday experience, one that changes the way we live and work. …

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Technology

Invention

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Technology

Recharging a battery in three minutes flat

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Technology

Blow to massive musical-ringtone industry

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Technology

Non-acoustic sensors detect speech without sound

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Technology

Internet Domain Name System working fine

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Technology

World's most sensitive scales unveiled

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Health

Brass pots polish off food-poisoning bugs

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Earth

Aussie birds do not like it hot

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Life

Strong competition leads naturally to class structure

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Earth

Dandruff may contribute to world climate

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Space

Cosmic 'smoke ring' floats into view

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Health

Human guinea pigs speed up drug development

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Health

Malaria-fighting gene may speed cancer growth

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Life

Winning is great but losing is safer

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Technology

Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

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Space

Shape-shifting tetrabots tumble into action

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Soundbites

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Life

Look out for giant triangles in space

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Humans

Will DNA profiling fuel prejudice?

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Technology

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix

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Technology

Fuel cell squeezes more from petrol

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Life

Early toolmakers cast off rock-banger image

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Health

Pandemic bug may make a comeback

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Health

Is a horrific new killer emerging?

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Technology

Hope for portable MRI scanners

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FBI suspends bullet-matching technique

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Earth

Pipeline diverted around whale feeding ground

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Technology

Finger chopped off to beat car security

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Earth

UK's nuclear waste to be buried

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Health

UK may consider legalising assisted suicide

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Earth

Weedkiller may cause amphibian loss

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60 Seconds

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Technology

Fire risk on ageing aircraft

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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 power to choose a baby's sex

IT IS almost inevitable in the UK that anyone who encourages the use of technology to help people choose the sex of their baby, or to make any other intervention in the "natural" reproductive process, is accused of playing Frankenstein – or, perhaps, God. And so it was with the recent report on reproductive technologies …

Opinion

Editorial: Your DNA in their hands

Opinion

Humans

Westminster diary

Opinion

Health

Interview: Eat for your lives!

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.

Health

Welcome to the immortals' club

MY BRUSH with immortality began almost by accident. Late last year, rumours began to drift through my email inbox that some of the entrepreneurs who had backed the Ansari X prize – which I had been writing about for years – were working on a new project. They were helping to develop and fund an …

Features

Physics

Taking snapshots of a light wave

Features

Life

Life's top 10 greatest inventions

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

The Math Instinct by Keith Devlin

CAN dogs do calculus? Well no, not the way college students do it. For one thing, dogs usually get the right answer. When chasing a ball thrown into a lake, dogs run along the beach and then choose just the right point to jump into the water to reach the ball in the shortest time. …

Books & Arts

Physics

The Scientific Legacy of Fred Hoyle by Douglas Gough

Books & Arts

Space

On the Shores of the Unknown by Joseph Silk

Books & Arts

Bestselling science books in Berkeley, California

Books & Arts

Life

Four books on human origins and evolution

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

Bleep-a-doodle-do ALIVE, ALIVE-O! Inverclyde council in Scotland is proud of the bird life to be found in the inner Clyde estuary, which has been designated a site of special scientific interest. The council devotes a page of its website to the birds that live there or pass through. The Clyde, it tells us, is the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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