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This week's magazine

27 February 2010

Issue 2749

New Scientist issue 2749 cover
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Editor's picks

From ocean to ozone: Earth's nine life-support systems

From ocean to ozone: Earth's nine life-support systems

Features
Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race

Life

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race

Features
Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history

Earth

Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history

Features
Spamdemic: Tracking the plague of junk mail

Technology

Spamdemic: Tracking the plague of junk mail

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Acid oceans

Earth's nine life-support systems: Acid oceans

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Ozone depletion

Earth's nine life-support systems: Ozone depletion

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Fresh water

Earth's nine life-support systems: Fresh water

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Biodiversity

Earth's nine life-support systems: Biodiversity

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles

Earth's nine life-support systems: Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Land use

Earth's nine life-support systems: Land use

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Climate change

Earth's nine life-support systems: Climate change

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Aerosol loading

Earth's nine life-support systems: Aerosol loading

Features
Earth's nine life-support systems: Chemical pollution

Earth's nine life-support systems: Chemical pollution

Features

Table of contents

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Fight HIV with HIV: 'safe' virus proposed as vaccine

Health

Fight HIV with HIV: 'safe' virus proposed as vaccine

HIV is the cure A company is planning to inject people with an HIV vaccine made of the deadly virus itself, albeit a deactivated version. Vaccines against many viruses, including flu, are made from deactivated versions of those viruses, but such an approach was previously dismissed as too risky in the case of HIV. Now …

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Earth

Warmer seas may rob corals and rainforests of clouds

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Life

Memory-melting protein is key to fly forgetfulness

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Life

Cellphone traces reveal you're so predictable

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Technology

Back to the drawing board with missile-beating laser

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Life

The secret of long life is up in the trees

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Technology

Magnet magic puts phone control in the air

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Health

Stop funding homeopathy, say British MPs

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Physics

Mathematicians offer tip-offs to LAPD

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Health

US menu of eligible stem cells set to lengthen

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Space

NASA sets sights on inflatable space stations

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Space

Planet-hunting space telescope makes ESA shortlist

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60 Seconds

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Earth

Can we trust the IPCC on the big stuff?

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Earth

The real Avatar: ocean bacteria act as 'superorganism'

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Space

Dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth

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Earth

Arctic arch failure leads to sea-ice exodus

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Health

Disease gene blocker sneaks past cell defences

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Giant quake coming? Feel for Earth tides

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Space

Star fattens planet and then devours it

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Health

Mouse grows human liver

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Earth

A quiet sun won't save us from global warming

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Health

Ten days to save hearing after deafening sound

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Technology

Robots to rescue soldiers

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Technology

Smart CCTV raises bush-fire alarm

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Technology

Wireless speed freaks set to leave Wi-Fi standing

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Technology

Legal team hack Xbox memory for defence evidence

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Health

Drug laws are painful for cancer patients

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Earth

Utah alleges conspiracy on climate change data

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Opinion

There's no war to fight over global warming

Earth

There's no war to fight over global warming

Under scrutiny WHAT is it like being a climate scientist at the moment? Not much fun. It's a bit like your next-door neighbour being accused of a crime and everyone in the city you live in, including yourself, being told they are under suspicion as well. Accusations about lack of integrity, deceit and bias are …

Opinion

Life

Paul Raffaele: Meeting (almost) every great ape

Opinion

Life

The pheromone myth: Sniffing out the truth

Opinion

Earth

Honesty is the best policy for climate scientists

Opinion

Bringing dark matter down to Earth

Opinion

The joke's on spam

Opinion

Features

From ocean to ozone: Earth's nine life-support systems

From ocean to ozone: Earth's nine life-support systems

Editorial: Honesty is the best policy for climate scientists UP TO now, the Earth has been very kind to us. Most of our achievements in the past 10,000 years – farming, culture, cities, industrialisation and the raising of our numbers from a million or so to almost 7 billion – happened during an unusually benign …

Features

Life

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race

Features

Earth

Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history

Features

Technology

Spamdemic: Tracking the plague of junk mail

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Acid oceans

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Ozone depletion

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Fresh water

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Biodiversity

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Land use

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Climate change

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Aerosol loading

Features

Earth's nine life-support systems: Chemical pollution

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.

Enigma Number 1584

Trisquare I invite you to place a digit in each of the nine spaces in a 3 × 3 array so that each digit occurs its own number of times (e.g. if 3 occurs it must occur exactly three times). You can then read eight numbers: three across, three down, and two diagonals read from …

Regulars

The mystery of the silent aliens

Books & Arts

Humans

Words set to music, with a few notes missing

Books & Arts

Explosive vomit and skin eruptions: arsenic's heyday

Books & Arts

A gigantic, muddled, jigsaw-puzzle view of science

Books & Arts

What's hot on New51¶¯Âþ.com

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.

Grand Unified Fruitloop Theory

YET more fruitloopery arrives in our inbox as Pranav Lal alerts us to Scalar Wave Lasers – though it may be unfair to judge the product entirely by the first testimonial on scalarwavelasers.com : "My vision of healing with the sacred union of light, color and vibration is now manifest." What do the promoters themselves …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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