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This week's magazine

1 December 2007

Issue 2632

New Scientist issue 2632 cover
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Editor's picks

Bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe

Earth

Bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe

Features
Turbulence: Finding order in chaos

Physics

Turbulence: Finding order in chaos

Features
Orion: NASA returns to the rocket

Space

Orion: NASA returns to the rocket

Features
The subconscious mind: Your unsung hero

Life

The subconscious mind: Your unsung hero

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

Composite aircraft tests need urgent overhaul

Tests designed to reveal potentially catastrophic damage to aircraft can be dangerously ineffective. In March 2005, passengers on board an Air Transat Airbus A310 flying from Varadero, Cuba, to Quebec City in Canada, had a nasty scare when a loud bang was followed by the plane rolling violently from side to side. It landed safely, …

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Technology

Organic transistor improves with age

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Space

Thank the cows for Europe's satnav

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Technology

Gizmo

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Life

Computer simulations advance beyond Hollywood

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Life

Monitoring email could spot insider threats

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This week 50 years ago

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Life

Subliminal flag-waving discourages extreme ideas

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Life

'Blind' fish offers insight into vertebrate vision

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Earth

Volcanoes give sea level a temporary boost

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Health

Modified mice get no kick from cocaine

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Life

Female alley cats call the shots at mealtime

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Earth

Space particles give Earth a slow 'X-ray'

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Space

Is Mercury's magnetic field sapped by solar wind?

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Life

Evolutionary 'big bang' gave rise to flowering plants

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Life

'Intelligence genes' reveal their complexity

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Technology

Russian nuclear security is 'disturbing'

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Earth

Insight: Overfishing is creating a jellyfish plague

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Life

The caring side of cannibalism

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Space

How Earth's twin became so hellishly hot

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Earth

Economics says we should act on climate change

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Earth

Bulgarian nuclear plant on shaky ground

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Earth

Drought-hit Australia votes to go green

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60 Seconds

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Health

Pay-by-results pricing opens up better cancer drugs

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Earth

Winter storms are now double the trouble

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Life

Anti-smoking drug linked to violent behaviour

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Earth

Heatwave is a hell for threatened bats

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Life

Whale's diet revealed in its doo-doo

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Earth

Plants do emit methane after all

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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.

Bottom of the science class

GOOD school science education is expensive. It requires specialist teachers, laboratories, equipment, technicians and consumables. Many countries have made a substantial investment in school science, yet there is growing evidence that by the time students get to the age of 15, most of them have been turned off science. The most striking findings come from …

Opinion

Earth

Editorial: Can we tackle climate change and still be fair?

Opinion

Space

Arthur C Clarke: Still looking at the stars

Opinion

Features

Bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe

Earth

Bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe

I AM standing in the heart of the world's second largest tropical peat swamp, the Kampar bog in central Sumatra, watching the swamp's water drain away along a small canal. Across the western side of the bog there are dozens more drains. The peat bog is bleeding to death before me. Until five years ago, …

Features

Physics

Turbulence: Finding order in chaos

Features

Space

Orion: NASA returns to the rocket

Features

Life

The subconscious mind: Your unsung hero

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

The word: Cupertino effect

IF YOU have ever received a document containing off-putting expressions such as "At your desecration" or "Sorry for the incontinence", then you have witnessed the havoc that can be wreaked by placing unthinking trust in spellcheckers. The problem is widespread enough to have acquired a name: the Cupertino effect. Cupertino, a city in northern California …

Regulars

Review: What Are You Optimistic About? edited by John Brockman

Books & Arts

Physics

Review: Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You by Marcus Chown

Books & Arts

Review: Different Engines by Mark Brake and Neil Hook

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

Nominative determinism goes respectable... AS READERS know all too well, this column has extensively documented the phenomenon of nominative determinism, the tendency of people to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their surname. Now new areas of nominative investigation have been opened up in a paper entitled "Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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