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This week's magazine

17 May 2014

Issue 2969

New Scientist issue 2969 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

Wake up – we need to know more about insomnia

Opinion
Awake asleep: Insomniac brains that can't switch off

Health

Awake asleep: Insomniac brains that can't switch off

Features
I was there at the birth of the big bang

Space

I was there at the birth of the big bang

Features
How to speak Neanderthal: Perhaps we do already

Life

How to speak Neanderthal: Perhaps we do already

Features
How to be a good mayor of your body's microbe city

Life

How to be a good mayor of your body's microbe city

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.

Earth

How wildlife crime links us all to conflicts in Africa

The funding of Boko Haram’s atrocities by the illegal ivory trade show that poaching is not just a problem for conservationists, but for all of us

Opinion

Health

Wake up – we need to know more about insomnia

Opinion

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Zoologger: Polar bears evolved to eat junk food

Earth

Zoologger: Polar bears evolved to eat junk food

The original Super Size Me? Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world Species: Ursus maritimus Habitat: The defrosting wastes of the Arctic, from Alaska and Canada to Russia Morgan Spurlock, eat your heart out. For his film Super Size Me , he ate McDonald's …

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Life

How your ancestors' farms shaped your thinking

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Technology

Self-healing plastic oozes fluids to mimic blood clots

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Health

Real-life Inception: Zap your brain to control dreams

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Technology

Cheap gadget lets you steer a wheelchair with your eyes

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Earth

Antarctic wind vortex is strongest for 1000 years

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Life

Nigerian schoolgirls could be exchanged for prisoners

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Health

Bullying raises risk of cardiovascular disease

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Life

Stolen dinosaur head reveals weird hybrid species

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Earth

Collapse of Antarctic glaciers seems to be unstoppable

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Space

Rumours swirl over credibility of big bang ripple find

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Health

Twisted brain lobes could make depression more likely

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Earth

Delays on climate change have cost us $8 trillion

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Space

When to watch out for spectacular new meteor shower

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Technology

UN discusses whether robots should shoot to kill

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60 Seconds

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Space

Quantum twist could kill off the multiverse

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Earth

Ivory poaching funds most war and terrorism in Africa

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Health

A squeeze on the arm could save lives in heart surgery

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Exploding stars spit cement into space

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Technology

Quantum positioning system steps in when GPS fails

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Technology

Kindergarten bots teach language to tots

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Technology

3D printer makes a teddy bear with needle and thread

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Technology

Skywalker-style prosthetic arm cleared for sale by FDA

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Space

Milky Way's fringe stars show our galaxy's flare

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Life

Sentient robots? Not possible if you do the maths

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Opinion

Treat violence like a plague – then we can cure it

Life

Treat violence like a plague – then we can cure it

"On a map, violence looks the same as outbreaks of cholera or malaria" Two shocking street killings by children inspired Gary Slutkin to apply the tools of epidemiology to violence – and discover how to immunise against it You began your career working on infectious diseases. What was your focus? I began to understand how …

Opinion

Health

Let's finally condemn the smallpox virus to extinction

Opinion

Analysis

Drone law: Flying into a legal twilight zone

Technology

Drone law: Flying into a legal twilight zone

You can buy a drone in a toy store and they're all over YouTube – but US law still doesn't know what to do with them

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Aperture

Robo-camera snaps coastal brown bear on Alaskan beach

Life

Robo-camera snaps coastal brown bear on Alaskan beach

(Image: Ingo Arndt) "SHE is a massive and well-fed mama bear," says Ingo Arndt, the award-winning German photographer who captured this powerful beast in a moment of curious investigation. The female lives on the south coast of Alaska in Lake Clark National Park. She is one of hundreds of resident brown bears ( Ursus arctos …

Regulars

Features

Awake asleep: Insomniac brains that can't switch off

Health

Awake asleep: Insomniac brains that can't switch off

(Image: Richard Wilkinson) They say they haven't slept a wink, but tests show they were asleep all night. Figuring out this bizarre insomnia could tell us more about waking brains too CHRIS RENNIK walked into the sleep clinic with a familiar complaint: he couldn't sleep, his nights were terrible, he was going nuts. Michael Bonnet …

Features

Space

I was there at the birth of the big bang

Features

Life

How to speak Neanderthal: Perhaps we do already

Features

Life

How to be a good mayor of your body's microbe city

Features

Culturelab

Insider's story of Higgs hunt doesn't cut to the chase

Physics

Insider's story of Higgs hunt doesn't cut to the chase

ATLAS helped make history with the discovery of the Higgs boson (Image: Valerio Mezzanotti /The New York / eye vine) Smashing Physics , Jon Butterworth's memoir of the most thrilling scientific event in decades, gets bogged down in the mundane detail of a physicist's life FINALLY! An insider's account of the most thrilling scientific event …

CultureLab

Life

Has social living shrunk our brains?

CultureLab

More

A lot on their plate: Ensuring there's enough to go around

Environment

A lot on their plate: Ensuring there's enough to go around

How do you feed an extra 2 billion people within the next 35 years? AS THE world's population grows, so does its appetite. By 2050, there will be an estimated 9.6 billion mouths to feed around the globe – but we may not have the resources to meet that need. Current intensive farming practices rely …

Careers

Be a player, hate the game: Beating sex discrimination

Careers

Technology

My Duolingo learning app can reshape education

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Detecting a dubious detection

Feedback: Detecting a dubious detection

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Detecting a dubious detection GEORESONANCE? What would that be? Feedback's fruitloop-detector pinged when we read that, on 28 April, a firm by that name claimed to have found the wreckage of tragically missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Although inexpert in …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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