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This week's magazine

8 March 2014

Issue 2959

New Scientist issue 2959 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

The secrets of success begin with equal opportunities

Opinion
A black hole in a bath: Big physics on a bench-top

Space

A black hole in a bath: Big physics on a bench-top

Features
High as a Kiwi: Inside the nation saying yes to drugs

Life

High as a Kiwi: Inside the nation saying yes to drugs

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.

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Will NZ drug reform bring high times or a comedown?

New Zealand's abandonment of prohibition is a pivotal moment in the global debate over how to control recreational drugs

Opinion

Life

The secrets of success begin with equal opportunities

Opinion

News

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.

Space

Hundreds of mini solar systems found in the Milky Way

Our galaxy is brimming with small solar system lookalikes. More than 300 planetary systems reminiscent of our own have been found in data collected by NASA's premiere planet-hunter, the Kepler space telescope . The discoveries add to the unexpected diversity of exoplanets that exist in the Milky Way. "The planets are small, they have circular …

News

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Europe's law on e-cigarettes sets global benchmark

News

Space

Spacesuit future looks sleek, speedy and commercial

News

Space

Rule-breaking black hole blows weirdly powerful winds

News

Earth

Crime rates could rise as climate change bites

News

Earth

Super-rice defies triple whammy of stresses

News

Earth

Double flood trouble for Europe in the next 40 years

News

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Girls may be more resilient to autism-linked mutations

News

Earth

Biggest-ever virus revived from Stone Age permafrost

News

Russian aggression unstoppable in interconnected world

News

Technology

Silk screws are strong enough to mend broken bones

News

Space

Moon's radio glow could keep Muslim calendars in sync

News

Earth

Big firms could make a mint from sustainable practices

News

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I can has cheezburger? Protein cancer risk overblown

News

Space

Daring Mars fly-by in limbo after US Congress hearing

News

60 Seconds

News

Earth

Trailblazing power plant is first to bury its carbon

News

Earth

Don't waste CO2, turn it into bottles and glue

News

Physics

Watch stocks do the jitterbug to cut the risk of trading

News

Technology

Huge Mexican pyramid could collapse like a sandcastle

News

Superfemale mice have secret male DNA

News

Technology

Feeling sad? Computer knows by looking at how you move

News

Technology

We'd rather 'like' a Facebook cause than donate to it

News

Life

Perjurers and fake reviews train software to spot lies

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Technology

Bionic arm gives cyborg drummer superhuman skills

News

Physics

'Angry alien' in packing puzzle shocks mathematicians

News

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Long-lasting contraceptive also defends women from HIV

News

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Mouse vaccine could protect humans from Lyme disease

News

Opinion

Online university courses can't change the world alone

Technology

Online university courses can't change the world alone

They promise equality of access to higher learning, but online courses will only succeed with better general education in place first, say two educationalists

Opinion

Space

'I'd give new Kepler mission a 150 per cent chance'

Opinion

Space

We need philosophers to tackle the big cosmic puzzles

Opinion

Analysis

Some breastfeeding benefits questioned by US study

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Some breastfeeding benefits questioned by US study

Still the best SOME of the common claims about the long-term benefits of breastfeeding – that it can boost IQ and protect against health conditions in later life – have been cast into doubt by a new study. Unsurprisingly, considering how contentious the issue of whether women should breastfeed is, the work has already been …

News

Earth

Batteries of ice, iron and glass store renewable power

News

Aperture

Peering through the ice at a key Antarctic species

Earth

Peering through the ice at a key Antarctic species

(Image: Enrico Sacchetti) ANTARCTIC silverfish aren't really silver – at least not while they are alive. They start off pink with a silver shimmer that only darkens into the metallic hue they are known for after death. Living in such frigid conditions, silverfish ( Pleuragramma antarcticum ) have some neat survival tricks, for example, they …

Regulars

Features

A black hole in a bath: Big physics on a bench-top

Space

A black hole in a bath: Big physics on a bench-top

If you haven't got a CERN budget, don't despair: find the magic formula and you can recreate the most exotic cosmic objects in surprisingly humble settings IN MANY an unassuming corner of the globe, you might come across an attic, shed or spare room with a table-top railway. To the uninitiated, these model train sets, …

Features

Life

High as a Kiwi: Inside the nation saying yes to drugs

Features

Culturelab

Hot on the trail of consciousness in brain and machine

Life

Hot on the trail of consciousness in brain and machine

Consciousness may be the brain sharing information with itself (Image: Gebhardt/Neuebildanstalt/Plainpicture) From brain-scanning experiments to self-aware robots, two books explain how far we've really come in the quest to crack consciousness "NOWHERE in science have so many devoted so much to create so little consensus," writes physicist, author and TV presenter Michio Kaku of consciousness …

CultureLab

Life

How to be human: The laws that governed your growth

CultureLab

More

The science of success: Blood, or sweat and tears?

Earth

The science of success: Blood, or sweat and tears?

Obama is far from happy about falling social mobility (Image: Jewel Samad/Getty) Everyone has a pet theory about why people do well in life, but what does the evidence say – and what can we do to help ourselves and our children? "WHILE we don't promise equal outcomes, we have strived to deliver equal opportunity …

Careers

Technology

Tinder-style matchmaking helps you bag your next job

Careers

Regulars

Feedback: Lashings of lakes

Feedback: Lashings of lakes

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Lashings of lakes FEEDBACK sincerely hopes that readers in flood-prone parts of the UK are over the worst of it now. The huge quantities of water that have been sloshing around inevitably generated a surge of strange similes. Three readers …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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