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This week's magazine

7 September 1996

Issue 2046

New Scientist issue 2046 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.

Digital Diva - Ken Lomax is teaching his synthesiser to sing. He reckons that in a few years, with a little fine-tuning, it will be possible to create a duet between Kiri Te Kanawa and Edith Piaf. Claire Neesham reports

Features
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.

Back to basics - Engineers knew all about it until they were seduced by computer control. Now, as Barbara Moran explains, simple mechanics is making a comeback

Features
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.

Crafty metalwork - Armed with teapots, asparagus steamers and a few tips from the worlds of nuclear and aircraft engineering, one artist has taken an ancient Japanese craft to new heights. Hazel Muir reports

Features
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.

The sweet smell of death

Features

Table of contents

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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.

Technology

Netropolitan :

ONE of the reasons the Net is so popular also explains why sex shops and strip joints are found in cities rather than small towns: anonymity. The chances of meeting someone you know in a city are far lower than in a small town and many people use the opportunity to do the things they …

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Technology

Netropolitan :

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Technology

Technology : Cool cats mean cleaner diesels

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Technology

Technology : Perfect sound from thin air

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Technology

Technology : Fractals set the pattern for online video

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Technology

Technology : Fantasy landscapes look just like the real thing

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Technology

Technology : Solid prospect for 3D images

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Science : Not so fast, little spinning molecule . . .

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Science : Smog-busters get radical over pollution

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Science : The alarm clock that rings every spring

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Science : Young jays save themselves for the right bird

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Science : Younger than they look

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Science : Men respond to the scent of a woman

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Science : Green plastic goes supercritical

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Science : Two catalysts are better than one

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HIV drug scare

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There's no place like home... - Can South Africa's homeless hope for anything better than shantytowns with sewers?

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Technology

Technology : T cell trickery transforms transplants

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Lead in water

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R&D scrooge

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Mutant fish

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Nerve gas leak

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Antimalarial fears

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Microwaves peer beneath the clouds

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Acid test for rotting heirlooms

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How green is our economy?

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Briny bacteria pose radiation risk

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Chlamydia piles on the pressure

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Heart fears plague healthy women

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Court clamps down on anonymous e-mails

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If you're not an American, get out of the class

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Salmon farmers win licence to kill

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Please beware the cassowary…

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Space agency should keep its feet on the ground

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Australia's rabbits face all-out viral attack

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Opinion

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.

Editorial : What price progress? - A RAPID increase in GDP is a sign of a healthy, booming economy, a source of national pride and envy by others. Right? After all, graphs showing GDP always decorate reports from governments and big international agencies

A RAPID increase in GDP is a sign of a healthy, booming economy, a source of national pride and envy by others. Right? After all, graphs showing GDP always decorate reports from governments and big international agencies where they paint a vivid picture of economies on the slippery slope or heading exuberantly upwards. And there …

Opinion

Features

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.

Digital Diva - Ken Lomax is teaching his synthesiser to sing. He reckons that in a few years, with a little fine-tuning, it will be possible to create a duet between Kiri Te Kanawa and Edith Piaf. Claire Neesham reports

EMOTIONS are running high. It's half-past ten at night and the heroine is preparing for one of the most intense and demanding arias of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde. Tristan has just died, and Isolde will sing of his soul floating above the water. After three and a half hours of drama, Isolde must …

Features

Back to basics - Engineers knew all about it until they were seduced by computer control. Now, as Barbara Moran explains, simple mechanics is making a comeback

Features

Crafty metalwork - Armed with teapots, asparagus steamers and a few tips from the worlds of nuclear and aircraft engineering, one artist has taken an ancient Japanese craft to new heights. Hazel Muir reports

Features

The sweet smell of death

Features

More

Scratching the surface

Scratching the surface

"THE SURFACE was invented by the devil," said the Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli, and most people who study surfaces would agree. Surfaces and the way they behave invade all aspects of our everyday life. It is at the surface of objects that rust and other types of corrosion form, causing millions of pounds worth of …

Inside Science

Antipodes : Make way for the sensitive new-age engineer - Ian Lowe investigates a review of university engineering courses

Forum

: Teenage chemists from hell - Mike Holderness wonders where we would be without our rebel geeks

Forum

Thistle diary : Time for some capital improvements - More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Forum

Forum : Failing the comprehension test

Forum

Review : Lives of the stars

Books & Arts

Review : Body blows

Books & Arts

Review : Elephant passions

Books & Arts

Review : Back to the future

Books & Arts

Review : Nylon and cyanide

Books & Arts

Review : Grounded

Books & Arts

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Bestsellers : from London

Books & Arts

Review : Savage stereotypes

Books & Arts

Review : Diversions ahead

Books & Arts

Review : Politics on the line

Books & Arts

Review : Order a scoop

Books & Arts

Review : Getting to grips with altered states

Books & Arts

Review : Don't touch anything

Books & Arts

Review : Castaway

Books & Arts

Review : Farewell Florence

Books & Arts

Review : Orchestral manoeuvres

Books & Arts

Review : Going for the jugular

Books & Arts

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.

Feedback

READERS continue to beguile us with accounts of bizarre error messages they have been given by computers. "This should never happen!" Jan-Olav Styrvold's Norsk Data machine once told him after failing to bring back some data he had asked for. "If it does," the machine added uselessly, "something is wrong." Patrick Evans used a system …

Regulars

The Last Word

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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