This week's magazine
2 May 2015
Issue 3019
On the cover
Editor's picks
Humans
The human universe: Does consciousness create reality?
Humans
The human universe: Exploring our place in space
Humans
The human universe: Was the cosmos made for us?
Humans
The human universe: Can we understand everything?
Humans
The human universe: Could we destroy the fabric of the cosmos?
Humans
The human universe: If aliens exist, do they know we’re here?
Humans
The human universe: Could we colonise the stars?
Space
The human universe: Could we engineer the galaxy?
Humans
The human universe: Could we become gods?
Life
Birds do impressions – it’s time to take them seriously
Table of contents
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Nepal earthquake: How to prevent thousands more deaths
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake taught us that managing and preventing landslides could save thousands of lives in Nepal over the coming weeks
Space
NASA’s Messenger spacecraft to crash into Mercury this week
Environment
UK’s political parties offer little on climate and renewables
60 Seconds
World’s first malaria vaccine could be rolled out by end of year
UK people happy to cut energy use, but wary of smart meters
US farms hit by bird flu – but a vaccine might make things worse
Health
Human gene editing has arrived – here’s why it matters
Illusion allows people to feel what it is like to be invisible
Space
ExoMars rover’s Martian-hunting camera takes test run in Iceland
Space
Milky Way’s quiet life leaves it with no dark matter skeleton
The first complex life on Earth got eaten to extinction
Microbes play villainous role in Arctic climate change
Health
Weird dream? Your brain won’t even try to make sense of it
Environment
Antarctica’s Blood Falls are a sign of life below ground
Vast magma reservoir found hiding beneath Yellowstone park
Technology
Paper turned into an eco-friendly light-emitting display
Freakiest dinosaur ever found is a vegetarian relative of T. rex
Injectable lab finds your best cancer drug by trying many at once
Zoologger: Kinky frogs build secret underwater sex chambers
Police can now tell identical twins apart – just melt their DNA
Mind
Direct probing of brain reveals multiple regions cause tinnitus
Humans
Copy your rivals if you want to win the World Cup or become CEO
Technology
Could smart search for votes swing the UK general election?
Technology
One Per Cent
Technology
The no-drone zone: How to stop UAVs spying on us from above
Opinion
Science will suffer after general election – no matter who wins
With neither Labour nor Conservatives pledging to protect research budgets, public-spending cuts could hit labs around the UK, says the founder and chair of Science is Vital
Claiming sexism in science is over is just wishful thinking
I asked FBI to validate forensic hair analysis – they couldn’t
Space
Flying in a spaceplane is like a magic carpet ride
Features
Humans
The human universe: Exploring our place in space
We're masters of Earth, but how do we measure up against the cosmos? From colonising stars to destroying the universe, we explore humans' role beyond our world
Humans
The human universe: Was the cosmos made for us?
Humans
The human universe: Does consciousness create reality?
Humans
The human universe: Can we understand everything?
Humans
The human universe: Could we destroy the fabric of the cosmos?
Humans
The human universe: If aliens exist, do they know we’re here?
Humans
The human universe: Could we colonise the stars?
Space
The human universe: Could we engineer the galaxy?
Humans
The human universe: Could we become gods?
Life
Birds do impressions – it’s time to take them seriously
Culture
Scientific Babel: Why English rules
English is now the language we all use to communicate science. But while it may feel inevitable, the domination of English is very recent and may be down to geopolitics and other accidents, argues a new book
Life
The Least Likely Man celebrates a genetic-code-breaking genius
Regulars
Feedback: Cosmic signals lunched out by microwave
The way of the homophobe is strait, black swans are common as muck and joyous, monetarist-geometrist tinkering with the currency and more