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This week's magazine

15 February 2014

Issue 2956

New Scientist issue 2956 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.

Space

Ill-fated Jade Rabbit was still a big hop for China

Opinion
Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal

Earth

Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal

Features
The world's weirdest whale: Hunt for the sea unicorn

Life

The world's weirdest whale: Hunt for the sea unicorn

Features
Cure for love: Chemical cures for the lovesick

Life

Cure for love: Chemical cures for the lovesick

Features
Red star rising: China's ascent to space superpower

Space

Red star rising: China's ascent to space superpower

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

Ancient genome won't heal rifts with Native Americans

The divide between geneticists and Native Americans in the US will only be bridged when everyone accepts that identity is about more than genetics

Opinion

Technology

Cure for love: Should people be able to marry robots?

Opinion

Space

Ill-fated Jade Rabbit was still a big hop for China

Opinion

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Natural sense of touch restored with bionic hand

Technology

Natural sense of touch restored with bionic hand

Dennis Aabo Sørensen wearing the prosthetic hand that enabled him to feel with his left hand once again Video: Bionic hand gives lifelike sense of touch We have the world at our fingertips. A sense of touch can sometimes be as important as sight, helping us to avoid crushing delicate objects or ensuring that we …

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Life

Zoologger: Punk Amazon pheasant is a European emigrant

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Space

NASA's revived exoplanet-hunter sees its first world

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Earth

Climate slowdown? Just wait until the wind changes

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Technology

Sculpted skate suits debut at Sochi

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Life

Why so munchy? Cannabis shown to ramp up sense of smell

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Physics

Matrix villain spawns 177,000 ways to knot a tie

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Earth

US 'climate hubs' to save farms from extreme weather

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Earth

El Niño may make 2014 the hottest year on record

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Earth

Dredging would not have stopped massive UK floods

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Life

Seeds of life can sprout in moon's icy pockets

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Health

Kids miss out on cancer drugs because of lack of trials

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Physics

Ghostly neutrinos caught shape-shifting in the night

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Health

UK's car smoking ban may cut passive smoking by a third

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60 Seconds

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Life

Ancestry of first Americans revealed by a boy's genome

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Space

Urban supernova-spotting at London's hidden observatory

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Health

Autoimmune attack behind some cases of schizophrenia

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Coral bleaching makes fish behave recklessly

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Ant squatters help feed the trees they call home

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Environment

Lifespan predicted from flashes in worm cells

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Technology

Fitbit for the mind: Eye-tracker watches your reading

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Technology

Ancient structures rebuilt using 3D-printed bricks

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Technology

Elephants and rhinos benefit from drone surveillance

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Technology

Covert projector necklace writes messages on your hand

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Space

India bids to hunt Einstein's space-time ripples

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Life

Cure for love: Fall for a robot to fend off heartache

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Opinion

Strengthening Europe's patent laws will weaken them

Strengthening Europe's patent laws will weaken them

Europe's high-tech firms are threatened by patent reforms that will expose them to one of the worst features of the US system, says a patent expert

Opinion

Life

Tribal healing: Anzick child genome changed my life

Opinion

Health

'Prostate cancer test has been misused for money'

Opinion

Life

Cure for love: Should we take anti-love drugs?

Opinion

Analysis

Laser-sparked fusion power passes key milestone

Technology

Laser-sparked fusion power passes key milestone

Fuel's gold chamber CLEAN energy inspired by the stars is the dream of scientists pursuing nuclear fusion, in which atomic nuclei fuse together and release energy. In a first for laser-driven fusion, scientists at a US lab say they have reached a key milestone called fuel gain: they are producing more energy than the fuel …

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Life

Creationists turn to robot for ethical guidance

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Aperture

Cure for love: Sex with a mantis ends in dinner

Life

Cure for love: Sex with a mantis ends in dinner

Video: Female praying mantis eats her lover during sex If our " Cure for love " special hasn't completely put you off love, this may finish the job. This luckless male praying mantis is being eaten alive by the female he is mating with. Female praying mantises are famous for devouring their lovers, but they …

Regulars

Features

Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal

Earth

Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal

(Image: Simon Pemberton) Setting fire to coal underground could answer our energy prayers, or start an environmental disaster on a bigger scale than ever before IF YOU thought shale gas was a nightmare, you ain't seen nothing yet. A subterranean world of previously ignored reserves is about to be opened up. These are the vast …

Features

Space

Red star rising: China's ascent to space superpower

Features

Life

The world's weirdest whale: Hunt for the sea unicorn

Features

Life

Cure for love: Chemical cures for the lovesick

Features

Culturelab

Flights of fancy: An enchanting history of ornithology

Life

Flights of fancy: An enchanting history of ornithology

Watch the birdie: ornithology has been a major shaper of zoology (Image: Alex Badyaev/tenbestphotos.com) The excellent Ten Thousand Birds takes us from the obsessive bird collectors of Darwin's time to the fully fledged scientists of today MY GRANDDAD had a card series of flags of all nations, all under glass. As a child I was …

CultureLab

More

Time well spent: Get the most from your postdoc

Time well spent: Get the most from your postdoc

The Postdoc Survival Guide: Part 2

In a three-part series, 51¶¯Âþ serves up all you need to know about bagging a postdoc, making the most of your experience, and successfully transitioning to the tenure track

Postdocs have a brief window to accomplish career-changing results. Focusing on a few key goals can help you maximize the rewards

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Mars attacks sore throats

Feedback: Mars attacks sore throats

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Mars attacks sore throats FEEDBACK was rather surprised, on opening a press release entitled "Mysterious rock on Mars identified", to discover a new interpretation of a "doughnut-like" rock that appeared in front of the rover Opportunity. It was, we were …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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