¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

This week's magazine

24 September 2011

Issue 2831

New Scientist issue 2831 cover
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

A brief history of the brain

Life

A brief history of the brain

Features
Electron cinema: the fastest story ever told

Physics

Electron cinema: the fastest story ever told

Features
Light of life: The hunt for another Earth

Space

Light of life: The hunt for another Earth

Features
Metamorphosis: Evolution's freak factory

Life

Metamorphosis: Evolution's freak factory

Features

Table of contents

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

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

Why you are identifiable after just a few steps

Airport security may soon have a new way to check your ID: watching the way you walk. It seems footsteps are as unique as fingerprints, and can identify people with 99.8 per cent accuracy. "For the first time, our results show that it probably is possible to use this in a real-world security application," says …

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Advanced birds lived alongside 'hairy' dinosaurs

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Space

Astrophile: The most surreal sunset in the universe

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Brainy molluscs evolved nervous systems four times

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Health

Surgeons make cancer cells fluoresce for removal

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Earth

Times Atlas grossly exaggerates Greenland ice loss

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Space

Hardy 6-tonne satellite falls to Earth

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Google Earth reveals Nazca-like structures in Arabia

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Astronomers break ranks over space telescope costs

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

US environment regulations swamped by tide of failures

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Apps in development promise to 'hack autism'

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

60 Seconds

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Space

Will the universe end in a big snap?

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

First anti-wrinkle pill shows signs of success

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Earth

Whales make new friends as warmer seas drive migration

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Health

Five easy mutations to make bird flu a lethal pandemic

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Earth

Groundwater greed driving sea level rises

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Resurrected ancient protein is a potent antibiotic

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Health

Gene associated with cancer might be beneficial

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Health

Colon identified as a seat of immune cell learning

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Light pulses keep heart cells beating

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Brain needs serotonin to restrain aggression

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Technology

Electron tennis plays well for quantum computing

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Technology

Rat cyborg gets digital cerebellum

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Technology

Dawn of motorsport's electric dream

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Technology

Electronic elections: One app, one vote

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Space

New doubts about 'poster child' of exoplanets

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Life

Habits form when brainwaves slow down

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

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

Don't blame Italian seismologists for quake deaths

There is no merit in prosecuting scientists for failing to predict an earthquake, but seismologists can still learn from this fiasco

Opinion

Health

Obesity expert: Sugar is toxic and should be regulated

Opinion

Life

Good leaders don't have to be bad people

Opinion

Gene foods: A wrinkle in food and drug regulation

Opinion

Health

The risk of an influenza pandemic is fact, not fiction

Opinion

Aperture

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.

Identified flying object: Space tech, disco style

See more: To see the image this article refers to, keep checking Picture of the Day on our news blog Short Sharp Science THIS beauty may look like the love child of a flying saucer and a disco ball, but is actually a key component of Europe's most powerful rocket launcher. The image was taken …

Regulars

Features

A brief history of the brain

Life

A brief history of the brain

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ tracks the evolution of our brain from its origin in ancient seas to its dramatic expansion in one ape – and asks why it is now shrinking

Features

Physics

Electron cinema: the fastest story ever told

Features

Space

Light of life: The hunt for another Earth

Features

Life

Metamorphosis: Evolution's freak factory

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.

An insider's guide to modern particle physics

In Knocking on Heaven's Door , Harvard physicist Lisa Randall gives a candid account of cutting-edge efforts to understand the universe LISA RANDALL first encountered the phrase "knocking on heaven's door" in 1987, at a concert featuring Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. She chose it as the title for this book because particle physicists …

CultureLab

The visit that changed history

CultureLab

Why put your personal info online?

CultureLab

Sculpting with fish skins

CultureLab

Tracking online fraud across the globe

CultureLab

More

Vaccines enjoy a healthy return

Vaccines enjoy a healthy return

Companies are making vaccines for diseases in the developing world See our interactive graphic: " What's in the pipeline? " IN THE 1967 film The Graduate , the young hero played by Dustin Hoffman gets a one-word piece of careers advice: "plastics". In 2011, that word could well be "vaccines". While the rest of the …

Careers

Enigma Number 1665

Regulars

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: Crackpot product with a very long name

Crackpot product with a very long name COULD this be the longest name ever for a crackpot product? Ian Fletcher draws our attention to the Orgone Protector Tachyon Pyramid Quartz Tesla Coil Orme, on sale on eBay for £14.99 at bit.ly/lotsofnames . Has the Guinness Book of Records been informed? You would expect a device …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop