Issue 2061 | Magazine cover date: 21 December 1996

This week's magazine

21 December 1996

Issue 2061

On the cover

Features

One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. <IT>Rosie Mestel</IT> sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

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Patents : Icy stare

Opinion

Editorial : One small step for worldkind - IT WOULD be wonderful to be celebrating Christmas in the knowledge that those amazing claims of life on Mars were about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, it now looks certain that this is one present that Santa Cla

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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.

One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. Rosie Mestel sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

Features

Christmas Quiz

Features

Not cooking but warming - Serious researchers are turning themselves into living radiators by walking into giant microwave ovens. Pete Moore wonders why

Features

1996 and all that - Sometimes only a picture will do. Ben Crystall chooses the images behind some of the top science stories of the year

Features

Hold the turkey... - Forget the Christmas roast, get out and round up those yummy little mopane worms, says Our Woman in the Veld, Ellen Bartlett

Features

Skipping Christmas

Features

Physics

The Ultimate trip

Features

my best friend's a Brussels sprout - Of course your mother was right about those evil-smelling greens being good for you. But it's not just because of vitamins and minerals, says a hungry Gail Vines

Features

Vile body - Why, oh why, do our animal natures always make themselves felt or smelt only at the most embarrassing moments, ponders our agony aunt Jess Toppit

Features

Mush! Mush! You tekkies!

Features

Beastly discoveries - From a pickled frog to a rat on a stick, 1996 has seen a fine crop of new species

Features

Tragedy in toytown - Teddy's gone gooey, Barbie's broken out in green blotches and there's snow all over your favourite videos. What's going on, asks a traumatised Andy Coghlan

Features

Here's one we blew up earlier...

Features

Heavenly visions - Are Jesuits astronomers? Is the Pope Catholic? Hazel Muir discovers one of the Vatican's intellectual treasures

Features

Think trivial - You may have been told that only Big Questions can lead to Big Answers. But it ain't necessarily so, says Robert Matthews

Features

Multimedia is the message

Features

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Technology

Patents : Icy stare

TEMPERATURE sensors in cars measure the external air temperature, but Christopher Shields of Northumberland warns that this cannot reliably detect patches of ice on the road. He suggests putting a temperature sensor inside Catseye road studs (UK application 2 299 358). The sensor is a thermochromic dye called Chromicolour, which changes colour at 1 °C. …

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Technology

Patents : Diminishing returns

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Technology

Patents : Drug dilemma

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Technology

Technology : White Christmas for blue diodes

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Technology

Technology : Coming soon, the musclebound nerd

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Technology

Patents : Kiss of life

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Technology

Patents : Quiet tyres

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Technology

Patents : On target?

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Technology

Netropolitan :

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Technology

Netropolitan :

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Science : The secret of ice's slippery character

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Technology

Technology : Green cars go farther with graphite

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Technology

Technology : Up, up and around the world

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Science : We've looked at clouds from both sides now

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Science : How a restless Sun fuels the solar wind

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Science : Oxygen is the stuff of memories

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Science : Even worker bees do it in summer

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Science : Ancient humans found refuge in Java

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Science : One sniff and you're in chocolate heaven

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River timeshare

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Crumbling away – Is dredging the villain in the drama of Britain's eroding coasts?

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Judge pulls plug on polluting shrimp farms

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Sun worshippers pay with their skin…

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…but could low-fat food keep tumours at bay?

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Bumper crop of sons at Sellafield

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Tomatoes menaced by alien insects

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Court victory for keyboard victims

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Self-portrait leads to cancer diagnosis

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Smokers' sperm

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Tribal cells

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Eggs for sale

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Waste stays put

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Space wheat

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Dirty business

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Death knell for Martian life

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Simple E. coli test shows red for danger

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No peace on Earth near London's airports

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Hope springs from the Sea of Galilee

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Europe pushes to ban antibiotic down on the farm

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Strapped for cash at the final frontier

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Gulf War studies may be too late

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Opinion

Editorial : One small step for worldkind - IT WOULD be wonderful to be celebrating Christmas in the knowledge that those amazing claims of life on Mars were about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, it now looks certain that this is one present that Santa Cla

IT WOULD be wonderful to be celebrating Christmas in the knowledge that those amazing claims of life on Mars were about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, it now looks certain that this is one present that Santa Claus will not be bringing us. The evidence that meteorite ALH84001 carries signs of ancient alien life is vanishing …

Opinion

Features

One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. Rosie Mestel sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

WHETHER it's Christmas or some other celebration, choosing the right present for a person is important. For loved ones, a suitably sentimental message can also make all the difference. So it was that Paul Brindle, then a graduate student at the University of California at Davis, put down his test tubes of proteins one February …

Features

Christmas Quiz

Features

Not cooking but warming - Serious researchers are turning themselves into living radiators by walking into giant microwave ovens. Pete Moore wonders why

Features

1996 and all that - Sometimes only a picture will do. Ben Crystall chooses the images behind some of the top science stories of the year

Features

Hold the turkey... - Forget the Christmas roast, get out and round up those yummy little mopane worms, says Our Woman in the Veld, Ellen Bartlett

Features

Skipping Christmas

Features

Physics

The Ultimate trip

Features

my best friend's a Brussels sprout - Of course your mother was right about those evil-smelling greens being good for you. But it's not just because of vitamins and minerals, says a hungry Gail Vines

Features

Vile body - Why, oh why, do our animal natures always make themselves felt or smelt only at the most embarrassing moments, ponders our agony aunt Jess Toppit

Features

Mush! Mush! You tekkies!

Features

Beastly discoveries - From a pickled frog to a rat on a stick, 1996 has seen a fine crop of new species

Features

Tragedy in toytown - Teddy's gone gooey, Barbie's broken out in green blotches and there's snow all over your favourite videos. What's going on, asks a traumatised Andy Coghlan

Features

Here's one we blew up earlier...

Features

Heavenly visions - Are Jesuits astronomers? Is the Pope Catholic? Hazel Muir discovers one of the Vatican's intellectual treasures

Features

Think trivial - You may have been told that only Big Questions can lead to Big Answers. But it ain't necessarily so, says Robert Matthews

Features

Multimedia is the message

Features

Washington diary : Rumours and whispers on the way to the Moon - Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

SINCE last month's Presidential election, if you ask senior government officials whether they are planning to resign and they say no, it also means one of three things. (1) they aren't planning to resign; (2) they are planning to resign, but aren't about to tell you—at least not yet; or (3) they understood the question …

Forum

Forum : A case of angry reactions

Forum

Bestsellers : from Melbourne

Books & Arts

Forum : Strutting their way to power

Forum

Forum : Surplus to requirements...

Forum

Review : Collected works

Books & Arts

Review : All shook up

Books & Arts

Review : Social Darwinism

Books & Arts

Review : Genetically challenged

Books & Arts

Review : Body art

Books & Arts

Review : Talking bestseller

Books & Arts

Review : Complex made simple

Books & Arts

Review : Dead famous

Books & Arts

Review : Escape from reality

Books & Arts

Review : Are you sitting safely?

Books & Arts

Review : Fine fungi

Books & Arts

Review : Right values

Books & Arts

Review : Roach dinner

Books & Arts

Review : Bag a dino today

Books & Arts

Review : Sayings of Uncle Albert

Books & Arts

Review : Ireland's own

Books & Arts

Review : Lively planet

Books & Arts

Review : Out in the woods

Books & Arts

Review : Bestiary

Books & Arts

Review : Soul destroying

Books & Arts

Review : Humble origins

Books & Arts

Review : Confessions of a brain surgeon

Books & Arts

Review : Come together

Books & Arts

Review : Sir Polymath

Books & Arts

Review : Essays for all occasions

Books & Arts

Review : Aerial acrobatics

Books & Arts

Regulars

Feedback

WHAT 10 questions would you ask an alien if you met one? This was the challenge of our Christmas competition, and hundreds of readers responded to it. Inevitably, many wanted to know the same things. "Do you come here often?" was one of the most popular questions, closely followed by "What took you so long?". …

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This week's magazine

21 December 1996

On the cover

One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. Rosie Mestel sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

Christmas Quiz

Not cooking but warming - Serious researchers are turning themselves into living radiators by walking into giant microwave ovens. Pete Moore wonders why

1996 and all that - Sometimes only a picture will do. Ben Crystall chooses the images behind some of the top science stories of the year

Hold the turkey... - Forget the Christmas roast, get out and round up those yummy little mopane worms, says Our Woman in the Veld, Ellen Bartlett

Skipping Christmas

Physics

The Ultimate trip

my best friend's a Brussels sprout - Of course your mother was right about those evil-smelling greens being good for you. But it's not just because of vitamins and minerals, says a hungry Gail Vines

Vile body - Why, oh why, do our animal natures always make themselves felt or smelt only at the most embarrassing moments, ponders our agony aunt Jess Toppit

Mush! Mush! You tekkies!

Beastly discoveries - From a pickled frog to a rat on a stick, 1996 has seen a fine crop of new species

Tragedy in toytown - Teddy's gone gooey, Barbie's broken out in green blotches and there's snow all over your favourite videos. What's going on, asks a traumatised Andy Coghlan

Here's one we blew up earlier...

Heavenly visions - Are Jesuits astronomers? Is the Pope Catholic? Hazel Muir discovers one of the Vatican's intellectual treasures

Think trivial - You may have been told that only Big Questions can lead to Big Answers. But it ain't necessarily so, says Robert Matthews

Multimedia is the message

Table of contents

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Technology

Patents : Icy stare

Technology

Patents : Diminishing returns

Technology

Patents : Drug dilemma

Technology

Technology : White Christmas for blue diodes

Technology

Technology : Coming soon, the musclebound nerd

Technology

Patents : Kiss of life

Technology

Patents : Quiet tyres

Technology

Patents : On target?

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Netropolitan :

Science : The secret of ice's slippery character

Technology

Technology : Green cars go farther with graphite

Technology

Technology : Up, up and around the world

Science : We've looked at clouds from both sides now

Science : How a restless Sun fuels the solar wind

Science : Oxygen is the stuff of memories

Science : Even worker bees do it in summer

Science : Ancient humans found refuge in Java

Science : One sniff and you're in chocolate heaven

River timeshare

Crumbling away – Is dredging the villain in the drama of Britain's eroding coasts?

Judge pulls plug on polluting shrimp farms

Sun worshippers pay with their skin…

…but could low-fat food keep tumours at bay?

Bumper crop of sons at Sellafield

Tomatoes menaced by alien insects

Court victory for keyboard victims

Self-portrait leads to cancer diagnosis

Smokers' sperm

Tribal cells

Eggs for sale

Waste stays put

Space wheat

Dirty business

Death knell for Martian life

Simple E. coli test shows red for danger

No peace on Earth near London's airports

Hope springs from the Sea of Galilee

Europe pushes to ban antibiotic down on the farm

Strapped for cash at the final frontier

Gulf War studies may be too late

Opinion

Editorial : One small step for worldkind - IT WOULD be wonderful to be celebrating Christmas in the knowledge that those amazing claims of life on Mars were about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, it now looks certain that this is one present that Santa Cla

Features

One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. Rosie Mestel sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

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