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This week's magazine

29 September 2007

Issue 2623

New Scientist issue 2623 cover
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Editor's picks

Rocks could be novel store for wind energy

Earth

Rocks could be novel store for wind energy

Features
The great escape: Ending period pain

Life

The great escape: Ending period pain

Features
Superbugs: Scare in the community

Life

Superbugs: Scare in the community

Features
Weird worlds: Planets that defy convention

Space

Weird worlds: Planets that defy convention

Features

Table of contents

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Digital critters shed light on human sleep

Life

Digital critters shed light on human sleep

DIGITAL "organisms" that learn to sleep when energy is scarce and harvest it when it's abundant could help explain why sleep evolved in animals. The lifelike programs might also make gadgets more energy efficient. To simulate early life forms, Benjamin Beckman and colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing created 3600 self-replicating digital organisms …

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Space

'Self-aware' space rovers would be speedy explorers

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Technology

Superconducting bus heralds quantum chip

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Technology

Gizmo

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Technology

Internet volunteers transform search and rescue

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Technology

Unravelled: The mystery of why strings tangle

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Physics

Quantum transport poses a dilemma for philosophers

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Health

Brain clue could provide anti-obesity drugs

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Life

Being left-handed isn't the kiss of death

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Technology

Carbon nanotube plucked by nano-tweezers

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Health

Magnets could help spot bird flu in humans

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Life

Strenuous exercise can raise risk of miscarriage

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Life

'Hobbit' wrist bones suggest a distinct species

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This week 50 years ago

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Life

Diving polar bear confirms Inuit observations

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Life

Mutant space bugs a threat to astronauts

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Space

Rival theory fights back against dark matter

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Life

Flirting makes up for antisocial tendencies

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Health

Discussions over drug critic included company CEO

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Health

'Re-plumbing' the liver helps beat cancer

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Soundbites

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60 Seconds

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Technology

Concerns raised over Taser safety

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Space

Mars Society seeks to rescue crewed mission

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Health

US laws tightened to improve drug safety

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Health

Controversial drug DCA to get first human trials

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Life

Illegal steroid racket busted

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Earth

Gaia scientist endorses plan to halt climate change

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Health

UK considers organ donation by default

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Earth

Invading bullfrogs spread deadly fungus

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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.

Earth

Comment: Unwitting accomplices in interrogation abuse

AT ITS annual meeting last month, the American Psychological Association (APA) adopted a resolution reaffirming its position against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Among those whom psychologists must protect, the organisation included "enemy combatants" – the term the US administration uses for suspected terrorists. It said that neither war, political …

Opinion

Technology

Comment: Bluffing over anti-missile defence?

Opinion

Technology

Why police should show restraint with the Taser

Opinion

Life

Slaughtering animals is no way to stop disease

Opinion

Health

Interview: Clinical trials of life

Opinion

Features

Rocks could be novel store for wind energy

Earth

Rocks could be novel store for wind energy

JUST A SHORT drive west out of Des Moines, Iowa, amid fields of corn and soya, there's a dip in Route 44. Here, near the small community of Dallas Center, a short gravel road runs north to a cluster of houses and across the street there's a farm machinery dealer's yard. It seems to be …

Features

Life

The great escape: Ending period pain

Features

Life

Superbugs: Scare in the community

Features

Space

Weird worlds: Planets that defy convention

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.

Review: Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream by Jennifer Ackerman

MOST of us are far too busy racing through life to pay much attention to what our bodies are up to. Jennifer Ackerman has paused to take a closer look and charts the journey of your body – an "ark of skin and blood and bones" – as it ferries you through a typical day. …

Books & Arts

Review: Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf

Books & Arts

How postdocs can give their careers a boost

Careers

Space

The word: Radio-quiet reserve

Regulars

Life

Second Sight: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

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

Fantasy "facts" ON opening his bottle of Snapple, Ben Haller discovered the following "Real Fact" on the inside of the cap: "Broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower." "Cauliflower?" Haller thought. "Artichoke?" In a spirit of outrage that any Feedback reader would share, he went to snapple.com , where his bottle cap proclaimed …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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