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This week's magazine

1 February 2014

Issue 2954

New Scientist issue 2954 cover
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Editor's picks

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.

Health

Too much sugar in food? Follow the salt solution

Opinion
Sugar on trial: What you really need to know

Health

Sugar on trial: What you really need to know

Features
Green sky thinking: Astronomy's dirty little secret

Earth

Green sky thinking: Astronomy's dirty little secret

Features
The Borneo Hills diet: Pitcher plants' strange prey

Life

The Borneo Hills diet: Pitcher plants' strange prey

Features
Mind meld: The genius of swarm thinking

Life

Mind meld: The genius of swarm thinking

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

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.

Life

Stem cell breakthrough could reopen clone wars

The ability to easily reprogram any cell to an embryonic state will inevitably bring out maverick human cloners. We shouldn't let them set the agenda

Opinion

Health

Too much sugar in food? Follow the salt solution

Opinion

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Closest supernova in 27 years may reveal fate of cosmos

Space

Closest supernova in 27 years may reveal fate of cosmos

The M82 galaxy is the proud owner of this type Ia supernova, and right now all eyes are on it An elderly star has lit up a cosmic cigar. Images of the galaxy M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy , show the sudden appearance of a supernova, the brilliant explosion when a massive star …

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Life

Infectious cancer preserves dog genes for 11,000 years

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Life

Satellite-like eyes give mantis shrimp unique vision

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Technology

Squeeze light to teleport quantum energy

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Health

Scratch a mirror image of your itch to bring relief

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Space

Stephen Hawking's new theory offers black hole escape

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Health

Autism diagnosis change 'results in loss of treatment'

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Earth

Grand Canyon is a sprightly young 6-million-year-old

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Life

Neuroscience's most famous brain is reconstructed

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Technology

Google buys AI firm DeepMind to boost image search

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Health

Black Death may have scuppered Roman Empire

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Health

Deadly MERS virus could hold the key to its own cure

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Earth

Fancy tech will not solve massive land loss, says UN

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Earth

Dangerous rare elephants pose conservation conundrum

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Technology

Save ancient Chinese scrolls with anti-curl weapons

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Earth

Parched California hunts for water in unusual places

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Space

Astrophile: Jellyfish galaxies found spawning in clusters

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Health

Budgies may be behind latest spread of H7N9 bird flu

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Space

60 Seconds

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Health

Stem cell power unleashed after 30-minute dip in acid

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Life

Neanderthal-human sex bred light skins and infertility

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Space

Did newborn sun have weirdly weak solar wind?

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Technology

Beams of sound immerse you in music others can't hear

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Technology

Conversation app helps parents boost child's language

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Technology

Ploughable sensors help farmers get more crop per drop

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Earth

Cyclones hitting Australia plummet to 1500-year low

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Technology

Crowdsourcing Twitch app could turn swipes into cash

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Health

UK government to ban e-cigarettes for under-18s

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Opinion

Can water cannons cope with flash mob riots?

Technology

Can water cannons cope with flash mob riots?

After riots in 2011 and warnings of austerity protests to come, police in England and Wales are demanding water cannons. Are they the right tool for the job?

Opinion

Technology

Stuff symphony: Beautiful music makes better materials

Opinion

Earth

We're drilling back in time to tell a tale of the sea

Opinion

Analysis

Why you should care about the end of net neutrality

Technology

Why you should care about the end of net neutrality

Companies can now pay for their pages to be delivered faster in the US. Does this mean the end of the internet as we know it?

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Aperture

Smaug the dragon or frog with an eye to die for?

Life

Smaug the dragon or frog with an eye to die for?

(Image: Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch /eyevine) BENEATH the translucent gold vein-like structure lies what looks like the eye of Smaug. But this is no dragon's eye. It belongs to something much smaller: a teacup-sized frog having a nap in the trees of a tropical rainforest. The red-eyed tree frog ( Agalychnis callidryas ) lives all …

Regulars

Features

Sugar on trial: What you really need to know

Health

Sugar on trial: What you really need to know

It has been called toxic, addictive and deadly, the driving force behind obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Is sugar really so bad?

Features

Earth

Green sky thinking: Astronomy's dirty little secret

Features

Life

The Borneo Hills diet: Pitcher plants' strange prey

Features

Life

Mind meld: The genius of swarm thinking

Features

Culturelab

A new green Enlightenment will define our age

Earth

A new green Enlightenment will define our age

Deforestation is proving hard to counter, despite public concern (Image: Eduardo Martino) Far from being anti-science, environmentalism is the future in a world of finite resources and global perils, concludes Joachim Radkau in The Age of Ecology IT IS a new Enlightenment, a lodestar for our intellectual and political life in the 21st century. Far from being …

CultureLab

Earth

Sound's good! An adventurer hunts neglected sonic gems

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

Answer to 1779 Four triangles The sides are 9 mm and 97 mm The winner James Pointon of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Stick to the rules, worldwide

Feedback: Stick to the rules, worldwide

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Stick to the rules, worldwide REQUESTS to "adhere" to instructional signs are spreading. Hugh Carter was told in Toronto, Canada, that he "must adhere to traffic personnel" (14 December 2013) . Now Henry Shipley informs us that carriages run by …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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