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This week's magazine

5 December 2015

Issue 3050

New Scientist issue 3050 cover
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Editor's picks

Why banning CRISPR gene editing would be unnecessarily cautious

Life

Why banning CRISPR gene editing would be unnecessarily cautious

Opinion
Should we be worried that genes can be edited so easily?

Life

Should we be worried that genes can be edited so easily?

Features
Meet the weird amphibian that rules the underworld

Life

Meet the weird amphibian that rules the underworld

Features
Want a computer that never crashes? Don't let bugs freak it out

Technology

Want a computer that never crashes? Don't let bugs freak it out

Features
New Scientist logo

Life

Have we found the key to eradicating viruses like HIV or herpes?

Features
Is a new dawn of widespread gene therapy on the horizon?

Life

Is a new dawn of widespread gene therapy on the horizon?

Features
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

Will CRISPR gene-editing technology lead to designer babies?

Features
Is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think?

Life

Is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think?

Features
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

Editing life: A guide to the genetic revolution on our doorstep

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Why banning CRISPR gene editing would be unnecessarily cautious

Life

Why banning CRISPR gene editing would be unnecessarily cautious

ALL eyes may be on the Paris climate talks, but there is another high-level meeting this week that will influence our future. The International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Washington DC is spending three days discussing the science, ethics and governance of a revolutionary genetic engineering technique called CRISPR – specifically its application to …

Opinion

News

Weirdly tilted planet knocks formation theory out of line

Space

Weirdly tilted planet knocks formation theory out of line

A freshly discovered off-kilter exoplanet is knocking our best theory on how such beasts form out of line. In our solar system, the planets all orbit the sun in the same plane, perpendicular to the axis around which the sun spins. But for half a decade, we've known that big planets close to other stars …

News

Technology

Computers learn to create photos of bedrooms and faces on demand

News

Earth

Sword and dagger arachnid fights may explain weapon evolution

News

Space

A threesome may explain behaviour of galaxy's most bizarre star

News

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Cancer's genetic tipping point reveals who'd benefit from chemo

News

Life

Hundreds of giant dinosaur footprints found in Scottish lagoon

News

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Having trouble giving up smoking? Blame your genes

News

Life

Ultra-marathon runners' brains shrank while racing across Europe

News

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Opinion split over ‘on demand' drug that reduces risk of HIV

News

Earth

Massive crevasse in the ice forces early move for Antarctic base

News

Earth

Critical Paris climate summit kicks off – but can it deliver?

News

A welcome blow to the myth of distinct male and female brains

News

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Northern Ireland abortion laws deemed to breach human rights

News

Space

Chinese satellite to shine a light on mysterious dark matter

News

Life

UK must curb 2-for-1 food promotions to crack obesity epidemic

News

Earth

UK scraps carbon-storage plans, making green targets unreachable

News

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Why has Peter Sutcliffe been in Broadmoor for so long?

News

Earth

60 seconds

News

Scans prove there's no such thing as a ‘male' or ‘female' brain

News

Space

How to encrypt a message in the afterglow of the big bang

News

Technology

Blood gushes from virtual leg injury to help train combat medics

News

Physics

LHC might soon see hints of new quark dark matter particle

News

Technology

Man with no limbs controls robotic hand using muscle whispers

News

Technology

Are jetpacks about to finally break into the mainstream?

News

Technology

One Per Cent

News

Life

Stone Age Picasso made oldest known drawing of human settlement

News

Opinion

Climate as a cause of Syria's conflict? It's far from settled

Earth

Climate as a cause of Syria's conflict? It's far from settled

World leaders and commentators including Prince Charles talk up climate change as a factor in Syria's war, but its role is debatable, finds Fred Pearce

Opinion

Life

We have a duty to use my gene-editing technology responsibly

Opinion

Earth

Why I'm climbing to Earth's doomed equatorial glaciers

Opinion

Letters: Open minds and quantum boxes

Opinion

Aperture

LISA Pathfinder spacecraft ready for lift-off

Space

LISA Pathfinder spacecraft ready for lift-off

BUCKLE up. The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft prepares to be enclosed within two half-shells of a Vega rocket fairing at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, 16 days before launch. Due to blast off on 2 December at 0415 GMT, the rocket will carry LISA Pathfinder on the first leg of its journey into a …

Regulars

Features

Is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think?

Life

Is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think?

From consciousness to long-term memories, the human brain has some peculiar computing abilities – and they could be explained by quantum fuzziness

Features

Life

Editing life: A guide to the genetic revolution on our doorstep

Features

Life

Will CRISPR gene-editing technology lead to designer babies?

Features

Life

Is a new dawn of widespread gene therapy on the horizon?

Features

Life

Have we found the key to eradicating viruses like HIV or herpes?

Features

Life

Should we be worried that genes can be edited so easily?

Features

Life

Meet the weird amphibian that rules the underworld

Features

Technology

Want a computer that never crashes? Don't let bugs freak it out

Features

Culturelab

The surprising value of viewing traumatic experiences

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The surprising value of viewing traumatic experiences

I am standing on a bustling street corner in Aleppo, Syria. At one side, a group of people chat; above, a young girl's voice carries a song. Until a bang stops her melody dead. Smoke and chaos pour into the street – a barrel bomb has exploded metres away. Suddenly, I'm in a refugee camp, …

CultureLab

Humans

How do we learn to be citizens of a smart info-state?

CultureLab

Life

Exploring the world of parrots that dazzle and delight

CultureLab

More

How virtual wards will pave the way for stay-at-home hospitals

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How virtual wards will pave the way for stay-at-home hospitals

The topics in this series were developed by New Scientist in conjunction with Philips , which paid for them to be produced IF YOU have ever had to stay on a hospital ward, you will know how stressful it can be, no matter how caring and professional the medical staff. Besides the boredom and loneliness, …

philips

Regulars

Feedback: a calling card for water fruitloopery

Feedback: a calling card for water fruitloopery

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Off-label prescriptions JUST the thing for card-carrying members of the alternative-medicine scene: Richard Cote was recently given a "very special" piece of card, with instructions to tape it to the outside of a clear bottle of water. The water would …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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