51¶¯Âþ

This week's magazine

16 October 2010

Issue 2782

New Scientist issue 2782 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

Competition: 50 ideas to change science forever

Competition: 50 ideas to change science forever

Features
The chaos theory of evolution

Life

The chaos theory of evolution

Features
50 ideas to change science forever: Computing

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Computing

Features
50 ideas to change science forever: Cosmology

Space

50 ideas to change science forever: Cosmology

Features
50 ideas to change science forever: Light and matter

Physics

50 ideas to change science forever: Light and matter

Features
50 ideas to change science forever: Nanotechnology

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Nanotechnology

Features
50 ideas to change science forever: Engineering

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Engineering

Features

Table of contents

51¶¯Âþ

Exoskeleton helps the paralysed walk again

Technology

Exoskeleton helps the paralysed walk again

eLEGS is put through its paces brightcove.createExperiences(); Video: Exoskeleton helps the paralysed walk again Amanda Boxtel, a wheelchair user, is about to stand up. A skiing accident 18 years ago partially severed her spinal cord leaving her paralysed from the waist down. She slowly pushes herself out of the chair with crutches, teeters backward for …

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Body organs can send status updates to your cellphone

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Ancient tattoos linked to healing ritual

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Too much screen time is bad for active kids too

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Hunter-gatherers cared for first known ancient invalid

51¶¯Âþ

Health

First person treated in milestone stem cell trial

51¶¯Âþ

Physics

Giant Antarctic balloon sees surprise cosmic rays

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Changes caused by smoking block tumour-fighting genes

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Jaundice at birth may be linked to autism

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Love yourself to stay healthy

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

How much would you pay for planet Earth?

51¶¯Âþ

Space

NASA 'intrusions' may deter rocket scientists

51¶¯Âþ

Health

People with ME banned from giving blood in UK

51¶¯Âþ

Phoenix delivers trapped miners to safety

51¶¯Âþ

Hey! Osborne! Leave our geeks alone

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Five-year 'Jesus box' trial comes to an end

51¶¯Âþ

60 Seconds

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Curious mathematical law is rife in nature

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Cellphones reveal emerging disease outbreaks

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Men beware: moving country could affect your libido

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

A warming world could leave cities flattened

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Big bounce cosmos makes inflation a sure thing

51¶¯Âþ

Water cycle goes bust as the world gets warmer

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Grisly death forecast for planet found spiralling into star

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Grey whales took to high seas to survive the ice ages

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

A 3D model of the ultimate ear

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Gliding spaceship brings space tourism closer

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Google's text translator aims for poetic licence

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Airwolf 2010: The race to build superfast choppers

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Robot arm punches human to obey Asimov's rules

51¶¯Âþ

Opinion

Chemistry Nobel winner: My work is not done

Chemistry Nobel winner: My work is not done

Giving his knowledge away Not content with winning a Nobel prize for his work on palladium catalysts, Ei-ichi Negishi says he still has a lot left to do Congratulations! What was it like after you heard you had won a Nobel prize? It's just been days of interviews and celebrations. I slept only 4 hours …

Opinion

Life

Morality: Don't be afraid – science can make us better

Opinion

Life

Morality: Beyond intuition

Opinion

Life

Morality: Infant origins of human kindness

Opinion

Life

Morality: Our hidden judgements

Opinion

Life

Morality: 'We can send religion to the scrap heap'

Opinion

Life

Morality: Do your worst, virtually

Opinion

Life

Morality: Brain roots of right and wrong

Opinion

Life

Morality: My brain made me do it

Opinion

End the carnage decimating the natural world

Opinion

Health

When big pharma breaks the law, prosecute the CEO

Opinion

Features

The chaos theory of evolution

Life

The chaos theory of evolution

Evolution is chaotic Forget finding the laws of evolution. The history of life is just one damn thing after another IN 1856, geologist Charles Lyell wrote to Charles Darwin with a question about fossils. Puzzled by types of mollusc that abruptly disappeared from the British fossil record, apparently in response to a glaciation, only to …

Features

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Computing

Features

Space

50 ideas to change science forever: Cosmology

Features

Physics

50 ideas to change science forever: Light and matter

Features

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Nanotechnology

Features

Technology

50 ideas to change science forever: Engineering

Features

Competition: 50 ideas to change science forever

Features

Culturelab

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.

Film festival: Movies that tell the stories of science

THE third annual Imagine Science Film Festival (ISFF) starts in New York City this week, celebrating science through film. From some 350 submissions the festival has chosen 38 films to show at venues across the city between 15 and 22 October. The festival includes everything from animated shorts to feature-length documentaries. The science in some …

CultureLab

Film festival: Can monkeys make films?

CultureLab

Film festival: Visions of the not-so-distant US future

CultureLab

Film festival: The humble beginnings of a genius

CultureLab

Film festival: Questioning our nuclear responsibility

CultureLab

Film festival: Are RFID tags the mark of the beast?

CultureLab

Film festival: 'A well-trained monkey could do my job'

CultureLab

Quantum mechanics: A tale fit for a superhero

CultureLab

Finding Britain's butterflies

CultureLab

A tasty dynner for language lovers

CultureLab

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 1617

More wanted I have written down a three-by-three magic square containing the digits 1 to 9. I have then substituted letters for digits so that two of the rows of the square look like ROW and SUM. Furthermore, taking six digits from the square to form a six-figure perfect square, and then using the same …

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.

Enjoyable cabbages get lost in translation

Enjoyable cabbages get lost in translation DO YOU enjoy eating cabbages? We're not sure whether the teenager known online as binarypigeon does, but her mother tells us that when she wanted to test the limitations of online automatic translation systems, she typed the phrase "I enjoy eating cabbages" into one. She told it to translate …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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