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This week's magazine

13 January 2001

Issue 2273

New Scientist issue 2273 cover

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On the cover

Features

Splendid isolation

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Disaster in the making

Opinion

The genie is out

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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.

Splendid isolation

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.

Walk like a pendulum

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.

Dinner with destiny

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.

Tall, dark and stranger

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 lost city

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.

Disaster in the making

A VIRUS that kills every one of its victims, by wiping out part of their immune system, has been accidentally created by an Australian research team. The virus, a modified mousepox, does not affect humans, but it is closely related to smallpox, raising fears that the technology could be used in biowarfare. The discovery highlights …

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Off target

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A firm start

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Primeval crystal

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Long-lasting qubits

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Herd mentality

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Don't drink the water... it's radioactive

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Fleet of foot

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Vaccine victory

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Mad calf

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Death by chocolate

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Dead seas

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Now where did I put it?

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Terrestrial tot

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Some like it hot

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Melting mountains on the skids

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Speed bumps give humpbacks a surprise boost

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Stuck on chips

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Magnets help ships repel all boarders

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All loved out

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The clearest beer

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Pay-as-you-go radio

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Skinny tellies

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Drilling for Martians

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There's no such time as the present

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Batten down the hatches

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Doomed tombs

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2001: end of an odyssey

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Pile 'em high

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Watch out for the bends

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Technology

Birthday suits

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Technology

Nowhere to hide

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Technology

Magical mystery sound

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Health

Idle hands

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Health

Shot puts an end to body's rash behaviour

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The man from down under

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Don't drink and fly

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Rights for trees

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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.

The genie is out

FIVE years ago, ��è��Ƶ asked biomedical researchers if they thought genetic engineering could make a virus or bacterium more virulent than nature's worst. They replied that it would be difficult if not impossible, and would need a colossal research effort. Now it's clear they forgot one thing—the unexpected. As part of a programme to …

Opinion

The right to choose

Opinion

Biological warfare

Opinion

Westminster Diary

Opinion

The peanut in your garden

Opinion

Out of this world

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.

Splendid isolation

As gifts go, this one's certainly different. Inside the neat presentation box stand five test tubes, each containing a smear of brownish-yellow goo dotted with small dark patches. At first glance you might think it a most unpleasant present. But for a microbiologist, it's the perfect choice. That unappealing goo contains the remains of cultures …

Features

Walk like a pendulum

Features

Dinner with destiny

Features

Tall, dark and stranger

Features

The lost city

Features

More

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.

Being there

Chasing Science by Fred Pohl, Tor, $23.95, ISBN 0312867115 SCIENCE fiction is Fred Pohl's day job. He's a prize-winning author, a great storyteller who excels at weaving science into his fiction. But for pleasure, he pursues science as a spectator sport. He begins the delightful Chasing Science by pointing out that this is no simple …

Books & Arts

Bestsellers from Melbourne

Books & Arts

Whispering sands

Books & Arts

Soak up the sunshine

Books & Arts

Sexual healing

Books & Arts

Hand over your keys

Books & Arts

Peak experiences

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

TECHNOLOGY journalists have lately been suffering from a corporate obsession with nondisclosure agreements. High-tech companies are hot to publicise their bright ideas—but they don't want anyone to tell the world exactly what it is they are. So an editor invited to a press briefing on a new product is likely to be told to sign …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word