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This week's magazine

18 January 2014

Issue 2952

New Scientist issue 2952 cover
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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

Can trophy hunting help conservation?

Opinion
42nd St paradox: Cull the best to make things better

Physics

42nd St paradox: Cull the best to make things better

Features
AD 536: The year that winter never ended

Earth

AD 536: The year that winter never ended

Features
Talent for prejudice: Why humans dehumanise others

Life

Talent for prejudice: Why humans dehumanise others

Features
Wake up and smell the comet: Rousing the Rosetta probe

Space

Wake up and smell the comet: Rousing the Rosetta probe

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

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 urge to dehumanise others is itself all too human

Recognising dehumanisation as part of human nature helps us guard against its darkest consequences

Opinion

Technology

Fruit and veg, fresh from the skyscraper

Opinion

Life

Can trophy hunting help conservation?

Opinion

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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.

Space

Gas blob comes late to black hole supper

Our Milky Way galaxy is a secretive snacker. A huge blob of gas is falling towards the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, but so far the predicted feeding frenzy has been a quiet affair. The main meal will come a bit later than previously expected, with the bulk of the cloud …

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Life

Prehistoric sharks were earliest animals to migrate

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Space

Cygnus launch sparks science boom in low Earth orbit

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Life

Soup-up your immune cells to tackle drug-resistant TB

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Technology

First light-bending calculator designed with metamaterials

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Space

Sand dunes serve as 'windsocks' on distant planets

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Health

Drink two espressos to enhance long-term memory

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Technology

Clever cars with Android keep you online as you drive

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Life

Mindscapes: The first recording of hallucinated music

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Life

Sluggish metabolisms are key to primates' long lives

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Earth

Real King Kong may have been brought down by fruit

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Earth

UK fracking frenzy could breach emissions targets

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Health

Cutting sugar is a different challenge to slashing salt

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Technology

NSA's snooping dragnet has little impact on terrorism

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Life

Get friendly with sharks and bears on Facebook

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Life

Conservation group backs killing rare rhino for cash

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Health

Recycled wombs could nurture child and grandchild

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Earth

Australia dithers as another heatwave strikes

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60 Seconds

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Earth

Volcanic mayhem drove major burst of evolution

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Earth

The seven deadly sinners driving global warming

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Behemoth of virus world may trigger arthritis

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Technology

Vertical farms sprouting all over the world

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Technology

Moth drone stays rock steady in gale-force winds

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Life

Star-aligned temples hint at Pompeii's religious mix

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Health

Diet can explain half of racial blood pressure puzzle

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Opinion

Politics is key to saving Africa's forest elephants

Earth

Politics is key to saving Africa's forest elephants

"We have lost 60 per cent of forest elephants in the Congo basin to poaching during the first decade of this century. At that rate, they could go extinct within 10 years" Violent unrest in the Central African Republic is the latest blow to efforts to save the region's forest elephants, says biologist Andrea Turkalo …

Opinion

Health

The physicist fighting cancer's social network

Opinion

Earth

Spare Africa the ravages of its native oil palm

Opinion

Analysis

Why ultra high-definition TVs are about to take off

Technology

Why ultra high-definition TVs are about to take off

Firms like Netflix and YouTube have all announced support for 4K –- the next generation of high-definition TV

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Life

Astronaut gut reaction: The microbiome in space

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Aperture

The architecture of density: Life in a megacity

Earth

The architecture of density: Life in a megacity

(Image: Michael Wolf ) YOU could be fooled into thinking this image had been digitally altered, as row upon row of apartments seem to stretch to infinity. But these are real tower blocks in Hong Kong, documented by photographer Michael Wolf in his series Architecture of Density. "This image is beautiful and harrowing at the …

Regulars

Features

42nd St paradox: Cull the best to make things better

Physics

42nd St paradox: Cull the best to make things better

Dropping one route can boost a network's overall performance by emphasising better options (Image: Bruno Barbey/Magnum) Bench your best player to win the series. Close roads to get everyone home faster. Can we harness the power of Braess's paradox? IT IS the second game of the 1999 US National Basketball Association play-offs – the New …

Features

Earth

AD 536: The year that winter never ended

Features

Life

Talent for prejudice: Why humans dehumanise others

Features

Space

Wake up and smell the comet: Rousing the Rosetta probe

Features

Culturelab

When does multiverse speculation cross into fantasy?

When does multiverse speculation cross into fantasy?

Does the idea of parallel universes really describe reality? (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech) In Our Mathematical Universe Max Tegmark tries hard to make the seemingly outlandish theories of multiverses sound almost obvious and unavoidable SOME years ago, the philosopher David Hull wrote a book entitled Science as a Process , in which he …

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

Answer to 1777 Powerful tombola 15,000 tickets were printed The winner James Smith of Longfield, Kent, UK

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: You too can be licensed not to drive

Health

Feedback: You too can be licensed not to drive

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Licensed not to drive BUYING some cake in a late-opening shop recently, Feedback encountered a pile of leaflets encouraging young people to apply for a "Validate UK" card to prove their age. Inside, we made the interesting discovery that in …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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