51¶¯Âþ

This week's magazine

10 February 2007

Issue 2590

New Scientist issue 2590 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

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

Histories: When men were gods

Features
Why are girls growing up so fast?

Life

Why are girls growing up so fast?

Features
Nice talking to you, machine

Life

Nice talking to you, machine

Features
What's your poison?

Earth

What's your poison?

Features
Gravity: Ultimate free fall

Physics

Gravity: Ultimate free fall

Features

Table of contents

51¶¯Âþ

Robot Asimo learns how to jaywalk

Technology

Robot Asimo learns how to jaywalk

Better watch where you step What do the classic computer game Frogger and the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark have in common? They are both being used to demonstrate software that tells humanoid robots where to plant their feet. At Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, James Kuffner and his team have …

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

How green is my country?

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Lasers best for flood predictions

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Prosthetics arms, now with real feelings

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Gizmo

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Improving the search for intelligence

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Pig cell rejection overcome with seaweed

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Salamander trumps toad as Mr Universe

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Here's a more cerebral reason to lower your cholesterol

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Keep Earth cool with Moon dust

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Stressed cows rally with a sports drink

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Slowed-down light stores data for longer

51¶¯Âþ

Space

New universes will be born from ours

51¶¯Âþ

This week 50 years ago

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Can a brain scan prove you're telling the truth?

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Hurricane history is written in stalagmites

51¶¯Âþ

Health

No more needles into the womb?

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Earth's magnetic core revealed in the lab

51¶¯Âþ

Soundbites

51¶¯Âþ

Criminal justice: are you ready for the science bit?

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Climate change predictions go from bad to worse

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Europe must get to grips with bird flu

51¶¯Âþ

60 Seconds

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Climate change: What the IPCC didn't tell us

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Christian faith in the other good book

51¶¯Âþ

Life

New rules for stem cell research

51¶¯Âþ

Boost to US federal DNA-collecting powers

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Vaginal gel fails HIV test

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Space-junk-trapping satellite scrapped

51¶¯Âþ

Space

A-list space probe unveiled at Cannes

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Carbon cut will mean cleaner cars

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.

Earth

How not to save wildlife

Fouryears ago, I watched a scrum of wildlife experts, pest controllers, animal lovers and journalists come together on the Uist islands in the Outer Hebrides, far off the north-west coast of Scotland, to witness the beginning of an unlikely, unpopular and expensive cull. The cullers were targeting hedgehogs, introduced to the islands in the mid-1970s …

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: Climate consensus is not enough

Opinion

Life

Interview: Nobody's children

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.

Life

Histories: When men were gods

In 427 BC, the Greek city-state of Athens crushed a revolt in Mytilene on the Aegean island of Lesbos. The Athenian assembly decided that all men in Mytilene should be killed in punishment and dispatched the order by the fastest means it knew – a trireme, the classic oared warship of the ancient Mediterranean. The …

Features

Life

Why are girls growing up so fast?

Features

Life

Nice talking to you, machine

Features

Earth

What's your poison?

Features

Physics

Gravity: Ultimate free fall

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.

Review: The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century, by Will Hutton

CHINA'S rapid economic growth over the past two decades has made it one of the world's largest economies and an export powerhouse that has caused alarm from Asia to Europe to the US. The reason for this alarm is simple: by rapidly turning economic success into political clout, China is poised to become a 21st-century …

Books & Arts

Physics

The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead, by Marcus Chown

Books & Arts

The Cult of Pharmacology, by Richard DeGrandpre

Books & Arts

The word: Astroturfing

Regulars

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

The way we understand the way we understand WRITING in response to Stan Courtney's comment on repeated phrases that make sense, such as "the way we understand the way we understand" (20 January), Stewart Haywood tells us: "I watched my daughter standing in front of a mirror this morning, looking at herself looking at herself." …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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