51¶¯Âþ

This week's magazine

5 November 2011

Issue 2837

New Scientist issue 2837 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

Superconductors: Cold beginnings

Physics

Superconductors: Cold beginnings

Features
Superconductors: Getting warmer

Physics

Superconductors: Getting warmer

Features
Superconductors: What they're good for

Physics

Superconductors: What they're good for

Features
Superconductors: 100 years on

Physics

Superconductors: 100 years on

Features
Mental problems gave early humans an edge

Life

Mental problems gave early humans an edge

Features
The beetle plague devastating North America's forests

Earth

The beetle plague devastating North America's forests

Features
The underhand ape: Why corruption is normal

The underhand ape: Why corruption is normal

Features

Table of contents

51¶¯Âþ

Dreams read by brain scanner for the first time

Life

Dreams read by brain scanner for the first time

Now we can recognise what's inside The secret world of dreams could soon be cracked open. Innovative neuroscientists have already begun to figure out the thoughts of awake people – now, a team reckon they can use similar methods to tap into dreams. To find out whether dreams could be read in the same way …

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Shuttle's last spacewalker: 'Gravity is an option'

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Zoologger: Slime killer hagfish feasts in rotten flesh

51¶¯Âþ

Health

A shot of snake blood makes the heart grow

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Most pristine known asteroid is denser than granite

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Stem-cell find breathes new life into lung repair

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Astrophile: Undead stars rise again as supernovae

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Spider play sex isn't all fun and games

51¶¯Âþ

Health

ADHD drugs do not cause sudden death

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

World unites to discuss internet freedoms and dangers

51¶¯Âþ

Space

China launches spacecraft to test automated docking

51¶¯Âþ

Health

US drug shortages blamed on foreign suppliers

51¶¯Âþ

Life

US to test anthrax vaccine in children... maybe

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Sabre-toothed squirrel scurried at dinosaurs' feet

51¶¯Âþ

Space

'Astronauts' to emerge from 520-day mock Mars mission

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Everyday drugs could stop cancers before they hit

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Row over plans to mine Grand Canyon

51¶¯Âþ

60 Seconds

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Visit to the coral gardeners' seabed lab

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Seaways across Antarctica could open in 1000 years

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Most common stars are more life-friendly than thought

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Nuclear clock could steal atomic clock's crown

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Green tea and red laser attack Alzheimer's plaques

51¶¯Âþ

Earth

Trade war looms over Europe's aircraft carbon tax

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Cat's eye irises don't need brain to adapt to the dark

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Blood platelets get a new job: fighting invaders

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Casino cheats snared by smart camera system

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Artificial intelligence joins the fossil hunt

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Cotton transistors weave comfort into electronics

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Report questions long-term safety of composite planes

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Military robots can leave operators at home

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Tough astronaut bugs to blast off for Martian moon

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.

Aspirin, the cancer wonder drug

If there was a daily pill you could take to reduce your risk of developing cancer, would you take it? At the very least, you would want to know the downside. Such a drug does exist, has few side effects, and can be purchased for peanuts in any pharmacy. That wonder drug is aspirin. Evidence …

Opinion

Beyond sanity and madness

Opinion

'Nudge' policies are another name for coercion

Opinion

Life

The origin of sex was interaction, not reproduction

Opinion

Aperture

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.

See gull take on eagle in mid-air piggyback attack

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science GULLS are utterly fearless, as shown by this remarkable image of a white-tailed eagle under attack. Herring gulls dive-bomb predatory birds at a steep angle from above and behind, as they make …

Regulars

Features

Superconductors: Cold beginnings

Physics

Superconductors: Cold beginnings

The Meissner effect is responsible for the incredible ability of superconductors to levitate above magnets - or indeed for magnets to levitate above superconductors. Read more: " Instant Expert: Superconductors " Exactly 100 years ago, a Dutch physicist called Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his team made a remarkable and completely unexpected discovery. They found that …

Features

Physics

Superconductors: Getting warmer

Features

Physics

Superconductors: What they're good for

Features

Physics

Superconductors: 100 years on

Features

Life

Mental problems gave early humans an edge

Features

Earth

The beetle plague devastating North America's forests

Features

The underhand ape: Why corruption is normal

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.

So you want to design your baby?

Bart Fauser and Paul Devroey provide an authoritative tour of the intricacies, pitfalls and ethical labyrinths of assisted conception in Baby-Making THERE are few areas in medicine that strike such a chord as assisted reproduction, probably because so many of us have, at some time, engaged in the baby-making process, either through careful planning and …

CultureLab

A tour through our self-delusions

CultureLab

Quantum mechanics difficult to grasp? Too bad

CultureLab

The best science tattoos and the stories behind them

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 1671

Power Engineering Read from left to right, the different digits in the number ENIGMA are in descending order, and not necessarily consecutive. Given that E 6 + NI 3 + GMA 2 = EENNGG, find ENIGMA. WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 7 December. The …

Regulars

Switzerland's medtech prowess

Careers

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: Don't believe your eyes

Don't believe your eyes FIRST impressions can get things so wrong. Bruce Skinner tells us about a caravan parked on the edge of a public sporting ground just outside Adelaide, South Australia. In two lines of large letters on the side of the caravan were the words "ARKS, GARDENS & CREATION". Bruce's first thought was …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

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