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This week's magazine

25 July 2015

Issue 3031

New Scientist issue 3031 cover
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Editor's picks

Total recharge: Better batteries will help us all

Technology

Total recharge: Better batteries will help us all

Opinion
After the crash, can biologists fix economics?

Humans

After the crash, can biologists fix economics?

Features
Time to ditch milk? Exploring the dairy dilemma

Health

Time to ditch milk? Exploring the dairy dilemma

Features
The battery revolution that will let us all be power brokers

Technology

The battery revolution that will let us all be power brokers

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

Is it time to accept that economic crashes are inevitable?

"THE only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable." Stanford University economist Ezra Solomon is far from the only person to make this comparison – and the two activities are by some measures quite similar. Both attempt to uncover patterns in human activity using models of dubious worth, both have proven incapable …

Opinion

Technology

Total recharge: Better batteries will help us all

Opinion

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Discovered: the unique feature that makes human screams so awful

Life

Discovered: the unique feature that makes human screams so awful

Nothing says anguish like a scream, as Edvard Munch knew What is it about a piercing shriek that makes your blood run cold? Screams have a distinct acoustic feature which grabs our attention and directly activates the brain's fear centre. The only other sounds found so far that share this property are manufactured sirens such …

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Health

Gene therapy cures blindness by healing eyes and brain together

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Earth

Chance of polar bears surviving food shortage recedes with ice

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Space

Vibrating stars could reveal elusive ripples in space-time

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Life

Can't get Kylie out of your head? Blame the shape of your brain

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Life

Universal plaque-busting drug could treat various brain diseases

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Life

$100m project uses world's best radio telescopes to find aliens

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Life

Archerfish up their game to outgun rivals stealing their catch

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Health

"Cured" woman is HIV-free for 12 years without taking drugs

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Space

Philae may have moved – and Rosetta will start to look south

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Earth

Fish flick genetic switch to dodge climate change disaster

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Earth

Garden of Eden dries as ISIS, Turkey and Iraq fight over water

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Space

Quantum of solace – information can be rescued from a black hole

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Life

Zoologger: Lizard's optical illusion makes its throat fan glow

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Technology

One Per Cent

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Life

Cyborg cockroach and drone teams can locate disaster survivors

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Life

Semen has controlling power over female genes and behaviour

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Genetic engineering creates rice strain that makes less methane

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Advice leaflet on whether to choose a caesarean accused of bias

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60 seconds

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Life

Two dolphin species band together to form unprecedented alliance

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Head and body lice splice their identical genes differently

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Technology

The rise of on-body cameras and how they will change how we live

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Technology

Glow-in-the-dark trucks use plasma to reduce drag and save fuel

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Space

Pluto's baffling surface reveals mysteries of an active world

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Technology

China spends big on nuclear fusion as French plan falls behind

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Opinion

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

Reddit row: The symbiosis of online sexism and tech's gender gap

Ellen Pao faced verbal attacks from online users at Reddit (Image: Jim Wilson/New York Times/Eyevine) Ugly trending hashtags, personal attacks, pornified images and death threats are not usually part and parcel of a corporate departure. But they were for Ellen Pao, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent women. She resigned as interim CEO of Reddit …

Opinion

Humans

Sexuality is fluid – it's time to get past 'born this way'

Opinion

Earth

UK is perfectly placed to use 100 per cent renewable power

Opinion

Technology

It'll take more than drones to win the war against Islamic State

Opinion

Aperture

Behind-the-scenes photos show the people that got us to Pluto

Space

Behind-the-scenes photos show the people that got us to Pluto

Back where it all began (Image: Michael Soluri/MichaelSoluri.com) Four and a half hours. That's all the time it took for NASA's New Horizons probe to send a signal across the void on 14 July, sharing news of its successful rendezvous with Pluto. And that's not the only mind-boggling number. New Horizons, seen here during a …

Regulars

Features

After the crash, can biologists fix economics?

Humans

After the crash, can biologists fix economics?

Orthodox economics is broken. Applying what we know about evolution, ecology and collective behaviour might help us avoid another catastrophe

Features

Health

Time to ditch milk? Exploring the dairy dilemma

Features

Technology

The battery revolution that will let us all be power brokers

Features

Culture

Rider in the sky stars in first cloud movie

Technology

Rider in the sky stars in first cloud movie

Video: Galloping horse the star of first cloud movie From the ground, the green and white lights hovering above the city of Nottingham probably resembled a distant storm, but from the window of a Cessna 172 aircraft, the shape of a man on horseback could clearly be seen galloping across the darkened troposphere. This green …

Culture

Culturelab

Pyrite power: Can we reinvent 'fool's gold'?

Earth

Pyrite power: Can we reinvent 'fool's gold'?

From solar power to mapping volcanic activity, a new account of pyrite argues we need to reinvent the mineral whose seductive glitter had us in thrall

CultureLab

Earth

Killers, kicks and cures: Our complex relationship with plants

CultureLab

Regulars

Feedback: burger bomber leaves a sour taste

Feedback: burger bomber leaves a sour taste

(Image: Paul McDevitt) Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Burger bomber LAST week Feedback asked readers for THISPs – Truly Horrible Ideas for Saving the Planet. Little did we know how soon our request would be fulfilled. Enter the "Whopper Dropper", the latest effort by the …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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