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This week's magazine

19 July 2014

Issue 2978

New Scientist issue 2978 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.

Life

Spark of life revisited thanks to electric bacteria

Opinion
Turing's oracle: The computer that goes beyond logic

Technology

Turing's oracle: The computer that goes beyond logic

Features
Sorry, tiger: Why we should save weird species first

Life

Sorry, tiger: Why we should save weird species first

Features
White holes: Hunting the other side of a black hole

Space

White holes: Hunting the other side of a black hole

Features
Kelp wanted: Pioneering the seaweed farm of the future

Earth

Kelp wanted: Pioneering the seaweed farm of the future

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

What will hypercomputers let us do? Good question

Technology

What will hypercomputers let us do? Good question

Machines that go beyond human logic could help us understand how we think – if we can only figure out what to ask them

Opinion

Life

Spark of life revisited thanks to electric bacteria

Opinion

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Exoplanet names will be put to public vote

Space

Exoplanet names will be put to public vote

Who gets a planet next? Planet-lovers, cast your votes. For the first time, the international organisation in charge of naming cosmic objects is asking the public to name planets found outside our solar system. This week the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the NameExoWorlds contest, which will attempt to crowd-source official names for 20 to …

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Life

Chimpanzee brain power is strongly heritable

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Space

Disco-era spacecraft not dead, just out of gas

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Life

Food influences body clock and may ease jet lag

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Health

Famine puts next two generations at risk of obesity

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Life

Marine microbes march to the beat of the same drum

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Space

Spaceport UK: Government plan to launch spaceplanes

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Technology

First boron buckyballs roll out of the lab

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Health

Detroit water shut-offs condemned as threat to health

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Life

Amphibians' swim stroke has lasted 270 million years

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Physics

High-precision hydrogen clock to hunt for new physics

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Earth

Will UK reshuffle boost science and environment?

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Health

US admits security breaches with deadly virus samples

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60 Seconds

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Space

Strange dark stuff is making the universe too bright

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Space

Panning for dark matter in an Australian gold mine

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Technology

Waste paper turned into a super-spongy battery

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Technology

Books out, 3D printers in for reinvented US libraries

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Technology

Sensor-laden smart bandages to monitor vital signs

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Life

Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy

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Earth

Church takes 'important' long-term view on fossil fuel

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Space

Largest laser gives diamond a record-setting squeeze

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Life

Electrifying feet help geckos keep their grip

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Technology

Meet Jibo, the cute social robot that knows the family

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Health

Arthritis drug shows potential to stall Alzheimer's

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Opinion

We're growing living walls to save lions

Earth

We're growing living walls to save lions

"A lion came up to the mesh screen of my tent. She was just curious. I didn't feel like I was her next meal" Masai people in Tanzania kill lions that kill their livestock – so conservationist Laly Lichtenfeld is helping them make corrals to keep all the animals safe To protect Masai livestock from …

Opinion

Earth

We've locked up carbon dioxide by turning it to stone

Opinion

Life

Defending the grand vision of the Human Brain Project

Opinion

Analysis

Ethical 3D printing begins with plastic waste pickers

Technology

Ethical 3D printing begins with plastic waste pickers

Pick the right plastic off a refuse tip, then shred, melt and convert it into feedstock for 3D printers – it's a living for some of India's poorest people

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Aperture

Cycling is a drag act in virtual wind tunnel

Technology

Cycling is a drag act in virtual wind tunnel

(Image: John Hart, Centre for Sports Engineering Research Sheffield Hallam University) IF YOU'RE a keen cyclist, chances are your helmet and bike have been designed to reduce drag. If you're a professional racer, you – or your team – will want to know the aerodynamic impact of everything, from the frame to the quick-release nuts …

Regulars

Features

Turing's oracle: The computer that goes beyond logic

Technology

Turing's oracle: The computer that goes beyond logic

For 75 years, computers have worked within limits defined by Alan Turing. Now work has begun to fulfil his prophecy of a machine that can solve the unsolvable

Features

Life

Sorry, tiger: Why we should save weird species first

Features

Space

White holes: Hunting the other side of a black hole

Features

Earth

Kelp wanted: Pioneering the seaweed farm of the future

Features

Culturelab

Beyond the bones: The archaeology of human networks

Life

Beyond the bones: The archaeology of human networks

Did a focus on local life leave Neanderthals perilously isolated? (Image: Elisabeth Daynes/SPL) The idea of human as networker is fast replacing the idea of human as toolmaker in the story of the human brain, claim two new books on our evolution "HELL is other people," goes Jean-Paul Sartre's famous line. It is a hell …

CultureLab

Life

A bird in the hand: The tale of one woman and her hawk

CultureLab

Regulars

Feedback: Bringing dark to our lightness

Feedback: Bringing dark to our lightness

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Bringing dark to our lightness BEING a candidate in a local council election must be demoralising, if only for hearing so many excuses for being ignored while door-knocking: "I donate by direct debit", "we're atheists" and so on. But Frank …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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