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This week's magazine

8 August 2015

Issue 3033

New Scientist issue 3033 cover
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Editor's picks

When it comes to science, do sweat the small stuff

Life

When it comes to science, do sweat the small stuff

Opinion
What if ... We have no free will?

Life

What if ... We have no free will?

Features
What if … We discover we can see the future?

Physics

What if … We discover we can see the future?

Features
What if … The universe is an illusion?

Space

What if … The universe is an illusion?

Features
What if … We don't need bodies?

Life

What if … We don't need bodies?

Features
What if … We all decide that God exists?

Life

What if … We all decide that God exists?

Features
What if … We came from space?

Life

What if … We came from space?

Features
What if… We find ET?

Life

What if… We find ET?

Features
What if … We learn to talk to animals?

Life

What if … We learn to talk to animals?

Features
What if … Most of reality is hidden?

Technology

What if … Most of reality is hidden?

Features
Girl eating jam sandwich

Life

Fine flavours: The unsuspected talents of your taste buds

Features
What if … Intelligence is a dead end?

Life

What if … Intelligence is a dead end?

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

When it comes to science, do sweat the small stuff

Life

When it comes to science, do sweat the small stuff

Those eureka moments... (Image: Bence Mate/Nature Picture Library/Corbis) THE lore of science is built around moments of revelation – from the stories of Copernicus to Darwin to Einstein. What will be next? For this special issue of 51¶¯Âþ , we asked our editors to pick those discoveries that would most dramatically reshape our ideas …

Opinion

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Humans accidentally created hidden carbon sink in the desert

Earth

Humans accidentally created hidden carbon sink in the desert

Huge stores of carbon might lie beneath the deserts Since the dawn of farming , humans have been accidentally creating a huge carbon sink that by now may store more carbon than all of the world's living plants. But this sink is in the last place that you'd expect to find huge amounts of carbon …

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Life

Zoologger: The giant sea spider that sucks life out of its prey

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Earth

Ancient crystals show Earth's magnetic field switched on early

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Space

#RosettaWatch: Philae lander reveals comet 67P's fluffy surface

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Life

Caterpillar drugs ants to turn them into zombie bodyguards

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Earth

Nemo seems to thrive in waters warmed by climate change

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Technology

The cyber-mechanics who protect your car from hackers

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Space

Giant old galaxies, not Milky Ways, are best for life to thrive

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Health

Ebola vaccine success: Race is now on to protect those at risk

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Health

Mix fish secretions with shrimp shells to make super sunscreen

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Earth

Brazil's resettlement of farmers has driven Amazon deforestation

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Earth

UN puts wildlife crime on a par with drug and people trafficking

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Technology

Cyber attack: How easy is it to take out a smart city?

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Earth

Obama's clean power plan will cut emissions – but is it enough?

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Health

‘Dipstick' in the brain could predict damage just in time

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Technology

Facebook unveils drone for beaming internet access from the sky

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Technology

Vapourised superglue helps lift fingerprint from gun trigger

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Earth

Backwards sundial finds true north better than magnets or GPS

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Physics

Earth may have a hairy mane of dark matter flowing around it

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Earth

UK to build world's first power plant with negative emissions

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The linguistic tricks that hint at how we first created language

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Life

Software checks if your brain is busy before it interrupts you

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Space

Hawaii astronomy meeting glosses over telescope controversy

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Earth

Secret ecosystem found on hills deep beneath the ocean's surface

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Life

Why music makes us feel good: It releases brain's painkillers

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Mutation alert halts stem cell trial to cure blindness

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Environment

60 Seconds

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Opinion

Killing of lion Cecil should spark ban on US trophy hunt imports

Environment

Killing of lion Cecil should spark ban on US trophy hunt imports

Walter Palmer (left) poses with an earlier lion kill (Image: REX_Shutterstock) The debate over trophy hunting has been well and truly reignited after the killing of one of Africa's most famous lions – Cecil – just outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Reports suggest that Cecil was lured out of a Protected Area by a …

Opinion

Earth

Calais migrant chaos is a taste of what a warmer world may bring

Opinion

Earth

Cocaine is bad for Colombia's forests but big farming is worse

Opinion

Health

Doing CPR is hard for older people so I teach them to use a foot

Opinion

Aperture

The Sahara desert has a giant eye and it's staring out to space

Earth

The Sahara desert has a giant eye and it's staring out to space

(Image: Landsat 7/GSFC/NASA) IF YOU ever find yourself in orbit, you may notice a giant eye staring back at you from Earth: the Eye of the Sahara. Located near Ouadane in Mauritania and also called the Richat structure, it was captured here by the Landsat 7 satellite. A landmark for space travellers since the early …

Regulars

Features

Girl eating jam sandwich

Life

Fine flavours: The unsuspected talents of your taste buds

Japanese flavour sensation kokumi shows that our favourite sense goes way beyond salt, sweet, bitter and sour. We've even found taste sensors in the lungs and testicles

Features

Life

What if … We all decide that God exists?

Features

Space

What if … The universe is an illusion?

Features

Technology

What if … Most of reality is hidden?

Features

Physics

What if … We discover we can see the future?

Features

Life

What if … We learn to talk to animals?

Features

Life

What if… We find ET?

Features

Life

What if … We don't need bodies?

Features

Life

What if ... We have no free will?

Features

Life

What if … We came from space?

Features

Life

What if … Intelligence is a dead end?

Features

Culturelab

<i>Kabbalah</i>: Mystical lessons for modern neuroscience

Life

Kabbalah: Mystical lessons for modern neuroscience

The mind-boggling experiences of some ancient mystics may have important lessons for modern neuroscience, argues a book about ecstatic Kabbalah

CultureLab

Life

How to save the wild, one local patch at a time

CultureLab

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.

Life

Feedback: as thick as two short planks

(Image: Paul McDevitt) Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more A cutting riposte IT IS a situation that many readers will relate to. Howard Bobry writes to say, "I find myself in need of a phrase that concisely says 'this is so incredibly stupid that it's difficult …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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