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This week's magazine

19 March 2011

Issue 2804

New Scientist issue 2804 cover
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Editor's picks

Modern bodies: Our 10,000-year makeover

Life

Modern bodies: Our 10,000-year makeover

Features
Move over, Einstein: Machines will take it from here

Physics

Move over, Einstein: Machines will take it from here

Features
Flood of floods: Here comes the rain

Earth

Flood of floods: Here comes the rain

Features
Kindergarten co-op: How babysitting made us brainy

Life

Kindergarten co-op: How babysitting made us brainy

Features

Table of contents

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First wearable brain scanner lets rats run free

Life

First wearable brain scanner lets rats run free

They know what you're thinking A miniature brain scanner small enough for rats to wear is enabling researchers to watch how the brain influences behaviour for the first time. Animals usually have to be anaesthetised before they can be scanned, so the "ratCAP" makes it possible to see in real time how sexual , addictive …

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Earth

Sea level's rise and rise is down to melting ice sheets

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Technology

Pre-emptive drug could prevent breast cancer

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Life

Fire did not spark human colonisation of cold Europe

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Technology

Implantable sensor tracks cancer in the body

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Space

What if supersymmetry is wrong?

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Earth

The megaquake connection: Are huge earthquakes linked?

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Earth

Fukushima throws spotlight on quake zone nuclear power

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Earth

How not to change a climate sceptic's mind

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Life

How human eggs woo sperm

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Earth

Botanic gardens blamed for spreading plant invaders

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Space

Giant 'quasi-stars' spawned early black holes

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Technology

Black hole's burps may blow bubbles around Milky Way

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Technology

Sticky cars could save lives

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Life

Nematode study identifies a gene for staying or going

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Life

Low testosterone linked with financial risk-taking

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Baboons fall prey to domestic violence

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Technology

Surveillance robots know when to hide

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Technology

CT scans help recreate sniper attack

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Technology

Mosquito needle helps take sting out of injections

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Technology

Fake tweets by 'socialbot' fool hundreds of followers

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Technology

Building shelters that can withstand a tsunami

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Opinion

Banking cheats will always prosper

Life

Banking cheats will always prosper

Still paying out Clever schemes to make bankers earn their bonuses look good on paper, but economics proves they won't work IF YOU feel a sense of injustice over bonuses paid to the bankers who all but collapsed the global economy in 2008, look away now. Wall Street is about to pay out around $20 …

Opinion

Life

Egyptologist: The west is driving looting

Opinion

There's more to fear from nature than nuclear power

Opinion

Life

The mathematics of being nice

Opinion

Features

Modern bodies: Our 10,000-year makeover

Life

Modern bodies: Our 10,000-year makeover

Modern takeover Civilised living has transformed our bodies, from deep within our bones to the tips of our fingers IN A basement storeroom at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, rows of cardboard boxes are stacked tidily on metal shelves. Although they are stamped with the logo of a banana import company, they contain, not …

Features

Physics

Move over, Einstein: Machines will take it from here

Features

Earth

Flood of floods: Here comes the rain

Features

Life

Kindergarten co-op: How babysitting made us brainy

Features

Culturelab

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.

'We are not primarily rational creatures'

Emotion, not rationality, rules our world – something policymakers should learn. So says David Brooks , who uses fiction to illustrate cognitive science Where did the idea for your book The Social Animal come from? It came from covering policy failures as a journalist. For example, one factor in the financial crisis were regulations that …

CultureLab

Murder, medicine and the first blood transfusions

CultureLab

Data of life's rhythms of life replayed in art

CultureLab

To be or not to be: the science of existence

CultureLab

How today's technologies will shape the world in 2100

CultureLab

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.

Enigma Number 1638

Same five digits I have written down three different 5-digit perfect squares, which between them use five different digits. Each of the five digits is used a different number of times, the five numbers of times being the same as the five digits of the perfect squares. No digit is used its own number of …

Regulars

Taking drug trials to the limit

Careers

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: Conversing with a robot

Conversing with a robot HERE is the transcript of a conversation by text that Lew Hunt had with a well-known cellphone company that we will call CellCorp (CC) in order not to upset any lawyers. The first text came out of the blue from CC. CC : Hello, thanks for contacting CC yesterday. We'll text …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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