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This week's magazine

7 July 2018

Issue 3185

New Scientist issue 3185 cover
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Editor's picks

GM protest

Life

It's ok that the public rejected GM food – after all, we did ask

51¶¯Âþ
People in park on deck chairs

Environment

Heatwaves show global warming is not just a future threat

51¶¯Âþ
skull

Humans

Asia’s mysterious role in the early origins of humanity

Features
Hayhoe

Environment

The climate change evangelist with God on her side

Features
radio mast

Technology

The forgotten navigation system that could show GPS the door

Features
The brain’s secret powerhouse that makes us who we are

Humans

The brain’s secret powerhouse that makes us who we are

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

People in park on deck chairs

Environment

Heatwaves show global warming is not just a future threat

Better climate models and fast computers are helping us see how our carbon emissions are already causing severe weather events

51¶¯Âþ

51¶¯Âþ

The surface of Mars

Space

Mars could have been habitable 100 million years before Earth

It's a funny old world The solid surface of Mars formed 100 million years before Earth’s – meaning life would have had a head start to evolve on the Red Planet. Early Mars, like the other rocky planets, was covered in a global magma ocean. The top of that sea of molten rock eventually hardened …

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Bumblebees in cities are healthier than those in the countryside

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Enceladus is spewing out organic molecules necessary for life

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua may be a comet, not an asteroid

51¶¯Âþ

Health

People who keep seeing the same doctor have lower death rates

51¶¯Âþ

Life

You can tell how tall or strong a person is by hearing them roar

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Heroin users’ brains hint at a new treatment for narcolepsy

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Female velvet ants are so scary no other animal dares eat them

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Bacteria have even evolved to live in the venom glands of snakes

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Cuba has a hidden internet system based on trading USB sticks

51¶¯Âþ

Humans

How the weird scoring system in tennis gives underdogs a boost

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Some monkeys in Panama may have just stumbled into the Stone Age

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

The US has an anti-drone gun that shoots drones at other drones

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Polycystic ovary syndrome linked to mother's health in pregnancy

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Biggest study of vaginas shows there's no such thing as 'normal'

51¶¯Âþ

Chemistry

New form of gold is much golder than normal gold

51¶¯Âþ

Life

Freak accident created a massive army of super-fertile clones

51¶¯Âþ

Health

First attempt to get CRISPR gene editing working in sperm

51¶¯Âþ

Humans

DNA reveals Romans helped spread TB across three continents

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

First commercial DNA data storage service set to launch in 2019

51¶¯Âþ

Environment

Smoke from moorland wildfires may hold toxic blast from the past

51¶¯Âþ

Health

NHS England considers plans to cut some surgeries

51¶¯Âþ

Boys and football coach in Thai cave are medically stable

51¶¯Âþ

Technology

Facebook apologises after bug unblocks people who were blocked

51¶¯Âþ

Space

Trio of stars shows Einstein is still right about relativity

51¶¯Âþ

Analysis

A large ship on the ocean firing a purple laser beam at a drone

Technology

A new arms race threatens to unleash laser warfare in the skies

The increasing use of military lasers that can damage the eyes of pilots has opened a fresh front in low-level international conflict, says David Hambling

51¶¯Âþ

Humans

How old could humans get? We probably haven't hit the limit yet

51¶¯Âþ

Health

Is an AI chatbot really better than a human doctor?

51¶¯Âþ

Life

The second great battle for the future of our food is underway

51¶¯Âþ

Life

It's ok that the public rejected GM food – after all, we did ask

51¶¯Âþ

Aperture

volcano oasis

Earth

The tiny oasis spared wrath of Hawaii's volcano

IT LOOKS like a minor miracle. A tiny stretch of road has escaped the lava flows from the latest eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which is still menacing a corner of Big Island two months after it began. So frequent are such scenes in a place regularly scorched by volcanic activity that they have a …

Regulars

Features

skull

Humans

Asia’s mysterious role in the early origins of humanity

Bizarre fossils from China are revealing our species' Asian origins and rewriting the story of human evolution

Features

Technology

The forgotten navigation system that could show GPS the door

Features

Humans

The brain’s secret powerhouse that makes us who we are

Features

Environment

The climate change evangelist with God on her side

Features

Culture

Zhang Yanzi's Wishing Capsules

Health

Art that brings meaning to medicine

Edinburgh's Surgeons' Museums have launched their new art programme with a show by Chinese artist Zhang Yanzi that's at once sincere and spectacular

Culture

Earth

Globetrotting film sends scientists on "relay race" of inquiry

Culture

Life

Don't miss: immortality in New York, sulphur and science comedy

Culture

Technology

A friendly introduction to AI proves oddly unnerving

Culture

More

ATCs

Technology

Old 51¶¯Âþ: Glancing at ads from the past

AS A great resource for those trying to find a career in science, 51¶¯Âþ runs job recruitment pages every week. Some are a big deal. On 14 July 1966, we carried an advert for air traffic control officers. Around a million civil aircraft carrying 21 million passengers had overflown the UK in 1965, and …

Regulars

Regulars

plane cartoon

Feedback: Airflow test shows the force is not with X Wing pilots

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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