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This week's magazine

23 August 2014

Issue 2983

New Scientist issue 2983 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.

Mind

It would be stupid to ignore a drop in human intellect

Opinion
Brain drain: Are we evolving stupidity?

Life

Brain drain: Are we evolving stupidity?

Features
Meet the lodgers: Wildlife in the great indoors

Earth

Meet the lodgers: Wildlife in the great indoors

Features
Earth electric: Harnessing our planet's low glow

Earth

Earth electric: Harnessing our planet's low glow

Features
Trippy tots: How to see the world as a baby

Life

Trippy tots: How to see the world as a baby

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.

Mind

It would be stupid to ignore a drop in human intellect

The long-term rise in IQ scores might be coming to a halt, but we should focus on improving social conditions rather than worrying about idiocracy

Opinion

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Origin of Egyptian mummies pushed back 2000 years

Humans

Origin of Egyptian mummies pushed back 2000 years

These funerary wrappings were involved in a mummification This 51¶¯Âþ article, usually accessible only to subscribers, is made available for free by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, Australia Mummies are old. No, really: the ancient Egyptians were deliberately mummifying their dead as many as 2000 years earlier than previously thought. …

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Space

Stardust team reveals first specks of interstellar dust

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Technology

Watch a swarm of 1000 mini-robots assemble into shapes

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Health

Hints of epigenetic role in Alzheimer's disease

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Earth

Vanishing river gorge shows geology in fast forward

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Life

Zoologger: The secret hop of the Californian flea seed

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Life

African pygmies evolved their short stature twice

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Life

Bacteria battle cancer cells to shrink human tumours

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Life

Third Michael Brown autopsy unlikely to solve mystery

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Earth

Floods in India and Nepal will only become more common

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Health

Echo of Soviet Union's fall in nations' heart health

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Earth

African elephants are being poached to extinction

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Health

Ebola fight hindered by rumours and bogus cures online

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Health

Young blood to be used in ultimate rejuvenation trial

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Life

Spot ET's waste heat for chance to find alien life

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Health

Seals, not Spaniards, first brought TB to Americas

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Space

Nearby galaxy may be victim of dark matter hit-and-run

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Technology

Digital textbooks adapt to your level as you learn

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Technology

Google's fact-checking bots build vast knowledge bank

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Technology

One Per Cent

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60 Seconds

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Life

First samples of Antarctic lake reveal thriving life

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Health

Non-fatal diseases increasingly drive assisted suicide

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Life

How the human brain folds itself up

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Earth

Inside California's $7.5 billion drought-survival plan

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Life

Neanderthal demise traced in unprecedented detail

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Opinion

Will death of Robin Williams herald spike in suicides?

Health

Will death of Robin Williams herald spike in suicides?

Copycat deaths are likely in the wake of the suicide of Robin Williams. More restrained reporting could help

Opinion

Health

Can we consciously control our immune system?

Opinion

Life

I'm exploring the health toll of firstborn favouritism

Opinion

Analysis

Race to electrify rural Africa could help the West too

Technology

Race to electrify rural Africa could help the West too

Investments in mini grid systems aimed at powering up remote parts of Africa may provide a test bed for rural energy infrastructure elsewhere in the world

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Aperture

Avast! It's a gas-filled blob with a sting in the tail

Life

Avast! It's a gas-filled blob with a sting in the tail

(Image: Peter Parks/ Norbert Wu Productions ) APART from its wondrously alien look, the coolest thing about the Portuguese man-of-war is that it is not an individual animal at all. Nor is it a jellyfish. It is a siphonophore – an entity formed of a colony of tiny animals called zooids. These creatures are so …

Regulars

Features

Brain drain: Are we evolving stupidity?

Life

Brain drain: Are we evolving stupidity?

IN DENMARK, every man is liable for military service at the age of 18. Nowadays, only a few thousand get conscripted but all have to be assessed, and that includes doing an IQ test. Until recently, the same one had been used since the 1950s. "We actually have the same test being administered to 25 …

Features

Earth

Meet the lodgers: Wildlife in the great indoors

Features

Earth

Earth electric: Harnessing our planet's low glow

Features

Life

Trippy tots: How to see the world as a baby

Features

Culturelab

Perfect harmonies: How music was built into science

Physics

Perfect harmonies: How music was built into science

Ernst Chladni's figures capture the patterns created by sound waves (Image: King's College London/Science Photo Library) Music was key to Western teaching, from Plato up to the 18th century. In Music and the Making of Modern Science , Peter Pesic claims it shaped today's science IGOR STRAVINSKY commented that music is certainly related "to something …

CultureLab

Life

A glorious, comprehensive A to Z of living birds

CultureLab

More

Can open access publishing be a smart career move?

Can open access publishing be a smart career move?

It can seem like a magic word is needed to get published in the top academic journals. Is open access a genuine alternative?

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Tipping the quantum scales

Feedback: Tipping the quantum scales

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Tipping the quantum scales INSPIRED by reports of experiments that show ever-bigger objects demonstrating quantum properties, Andrew Scott would like to propose some further research. The largest object that Feedback is aware of having gone through two points "at once" …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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