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This week's magazine

8 February 2014

Issue 2955

New Scientist issue 2955 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.

Technology

Bitcoin: The future of money is at stake

Opinion
Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs

Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs

Features
Talk is cheep: Do caged birds sing a key to language?

Life

Talk is cheep: Do caged birds sing a key to language?

Features
Black hole bombs: Are they dark matter in disguise?

Space

Black hole bombs: Are they dark matter in disguise?

Features
Reservoir bats: Spreading contagion on night's wings

Health

Reservoir bats: Spreading contagion on night's wings

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.

Health

Antipsychotic drugs are schizophrenia's hidden gulag

UNTIL shockingly recently, the mentally ill were routinely locked away and given a "chemical cosh" to keep them quiet. We no longer leave people to rot in asylums, but many are still drugged up to the eyeballs. To be discharged from hospital, people with schizophrenia often have to agree to take antipsychotic drugs for the …

Opinion

Technology

Bitcoin: The future of money is at stake

Opinion

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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.

Health

More harm than good? Antioxidants defend cancer in body

They may be marketed as a way to protect yourself against disease, but antioxidant supplements are increasingly thought of as more foe than friend. We now have an idea why: antioxidants may protect healthy cells from DNA damage but they also protect cancer cells from our bodies' defences. Antioxidants are chemicals such as beta-carotene and …

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Health

Peanut allergy cured in children using immunotherapy

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Life

Zoologger: Flying snake gets lift from UFO cross section

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Life

First brain map of speech units could aid mind-reading

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Technology

First graphene radio broadcast is a wireless wonder

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Health

Healthy-weight toddlers protected from later obesity

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Life

Star next door may host a 'superhabitable' world

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Health

Threatwatch: Mother virus of China's deadly bird flu

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Earth

Mud dump in Great Barrier Reef park could choke life

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Humans

Humanity's forgotten return to Africa revealed in DNA

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Earth

Organic produce could be worse for tropical wildlife

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Space

Dark halo around spiral galaxy poses stellar mystery

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Earth

Floods challenge UK to live with extreme weather

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Life

Pompeii-like volcanic ash kept dino remains fresh

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Life

Ouch! Pain threshold genes amplified by lifestyle

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60 Seconds

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Space

Fiery black hole debate creates cosmological Wild West

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Earth

Woolly mammoths died for want of a few herbs

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Technology

Bitcoin: How its core technology will change the world

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Technology

Bitcoin: A dummy's guide to buying and making your own

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Technology

Bitcoin: Three scenarios forecast the future of money

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Technology

Bitcoin: Can you live on virtual money for a day?

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Life

Brain zapping makes role of mirror neurons clearer

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Earth

Optical trick made Amazon seem to grow more when dry

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Health

Extraordinary stem cell method tested in human tissue

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Technology

Bitcoin: Problems already cloud the currency's future

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Opinion

Why I'm sure human stem cell trial will be safe

Life

Why I'm sure human stem cell trial will be safe

Masayo Takahashi wants to use stem cells to fight blindness The new kind of stem cell announced yesterday may be the future of regenerative medicine, but Masayo Takahashi 's pilot safety study using a type of stem cell to treat age-related blindness is at the cutting edge Later this year, you will make history when …

Opinion

Health

Global child vaccination needs a data boost

Opinion

Humans

'There is no DNA test to prove you're Native American'

Opinion

Analysis

Lunar law row hots up as NASA enters private moon rush

Space

Lunar law row hots up as NASA enters private moon rush

A model moon base designed by Bigelow Aerospace, with inflatable modules Fancy a mining trip to the moon? Talk to NASA. The US space agency is now offering a leg-up in the commercial race to the moon . Having enjoyed a series of successful partnerships with private companies, such as SpaceX, to send cargo to …

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Aperture

Light my fire? Male fireflies flash together for sex

Life

Light my fire? Male fireflies flash together for sex

(Image: Katrien Vermeire /Courtesy of Kahmann Gallery) WANT to know the difference between a firefly and a glow-worm? First, they aren't flies or worms – both of them are beetles. In some species, only the larvae or females glow, and these wingless individuals are known as glow-worms. In other species, males and females both have …

Regulars

Features

Talk is cheep: Do caged birds sing a key to language?

Life

Talk is cheep: Do caged birds sing a key to language?

Understand how the Bengalese finch acquired its virtuoso singing, and you can learn a lot about the forces that freed our own tongues WHEN you watch Kazuo Okanoya on stage, bobbing up and down, chirping, you know he is passionate about his work. His lab at the University of Tokyo is alive with the sound …

Features

Space

Black hole bombs: Are they dark matter in disguise?

Features

Health

Reservoir bats: Spreading contagion on night's wings

Features

Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs

Features

Culturelab

Worried sick: What's up with today's rampant anxiety?

Health

Worried sick: What's up with today's rampant anxiety?

Fearful days: anxiety disorders affect 1 in 5 Americans every year (Image: Andrew Ferguson/getty) Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness of our age, but it wasn't always so. Two books approach the topic from two different perspectives ANXIETY disorders are the most common mental illness today. Panic attacks, social anxiety and phobias afflict …

CultureLab

Technology

Perils and pleasures of mood-sensing technology

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 1780 Pure hedronism ENIGMA is 324125 The winner James Olson of Las Vegas, Nevada, US

Regulars

Regulars

Feedback: Dodging the Nutribullet

Feedback: Dodging the Nutribullet

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Dodging the Nutribullet THE Nutribullet "is the world's first Nutrition Extractor", claims the flyer that Barry Cash has. Earth's first life form would have something to say about that, were it to have a voice. The flyer exhorted Barry to …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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