New Scientist magazine - 28 November 2009

Issue number 2736

emission of a six-a-day coffee habit. Equivalent to a single flight between London and Rome

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• Researchers must stay on the moral high ground

  Editorialp5

  The release of hundreds of personal emails sent by climate researchers has proved extremely embarrassing

• Sleepwalking into a legal quagmire

  Editorialp5

  Science and scepticism are invaluable when a defendant says, "I did it in my sleep"

• Unthinkable to build a black-hole starship? Never

  Editorialp5

  Spending time and money on harnessing the power of black holes and dark matter would not be a waste

• What's hot on NewScientist.com

  Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.comp5

• Katrina court victory paves way for billion-dollar payouts

  News > Upfrontp6

  A judge has ruled that the US federal government was to blame for much of the flooding caused by hurricane Katrina in 2005

• US mammogram battles are the start of fights to come

  News > Upfrontpp6-7

  Unnecessary tests and treatments need to be eliminated, but convincing the public that this can mean better outcomes will be tough

• 60 Seconds

  News > 60 Secondsp7

  How a snail shell gets its twist, how breast milk gives immunity, fears over new-found huge gorilla colony and more

• Decode's demise sparks privacy fears

  News > Upfrontp7

  A personal genomics firm has gone bust, prompting fears about what will become of customers' genetic and medical data

• New space telescope to hunt for stealth asteroids

  News > Upfrontp7

  NASA's WISE infrared telescope will be able to find hundreds of near-Earth objects and maybe even a faint Jupiter-sized object lurking in deep space

• Repaired Hayabusa probe heads home

  News > Upfrontp7

  The ill-fated Japanese probe, which landed on an asteroid but failed to dislodge any material for collection, is on its way back to Earth

• Race is on to use embryonic stem cells in humans

  News > This Weekpp8-9

  After years of wrangling, several therapies using human embryonic stem cells are nearly ready to be tried in people. Which will be first?

• Nuclear fuel: are we heading for a uranium crunch?

  News > This Weekp10

  Fears of the warming effect of fossil fuels have pushed governments to reconsider nuclear power – but could a uranium shortage scupper their plans?

• Hacked archive provides fodder for climate sceptics

  News > This Weekp11

  Climate scientists are reeling from the discovery that someone has hacked into the email archive of one of their most prestigious research centres

• Bizarre deep-sea denizens make their debut

  News > This Weekp12

  From an octopus with ears to a worm that feasts on crude oil, The Census of Marine Life has found still more weird animals in the deep darkness

• Can you be blamed for sleepwalking crimes?

  News > This Weekp12

  Research on the causes of sleepwalking may make it easier to identify whether those who commit crimes in their sleep should bear the responsibility

• African conflicts spurred by warming

  News > This Weekp14

  Africa is set to experience a surge in civil wars, causing nearly 400,000 additional battle deaths by 2030 – all as a direct result of rising temperatures, a study suggests

• The world looks different if you're depressed

  News > This Weekp14

  People with the condition find it easy to interpret large images or scenes, but struggle to "spot the difference" in fine detail

• Their breath on your skin helps you hear

  News > This Weekp16

  The feeling of someone's breath on your neck may help you understand what they're saying – so future hearing aids may puff

• Was there a Stone Age apocalypse or not?

  News > This Weekp16

  A comet blasted North America 13,000 years ago, wiping out its megafauna and early settlers, one group insists. Not a bit of it, the sceptics cry

• Early Snowball Earth may have melted to a mudball

  News > In Briefp19

  If the icy tropics of 700 million years ago were covered in dust, this could have helped melt the ice

• Guapa, it's your genetic ancestry I love

  News > In Briefp19

  In Latino populations, love unites people with similar mix of ancestries

• Rare star smash may explain mystery outburst

  News > In Briefp19

  A star that brightened dramatically in 2002 may have been sent into a spin by another star, X-ray observations suggest

• Superconductors can come in from the cold

  News > In Briefp19

  Calculations suggest that a wire can be an electrical superconductor even if some sections are at room temperature

• Brain scanner can tell a Dali from a Picasso

  News > In Briefp20

  The brain seems to have a code for different artistic styles, which could one day be used to classify art

• Gene change in cannibals reveals evolution in action

  News > In Briefp20

  Devastating brain disease caused by human cannibalism promoted protective gene mutation to emerge just 200 years ago

• Milky Way's building blocks still sparkle in the sky

  News > In Briefp20

  Globular clusters may be the leftovers of small galaxies that merged to form the Milky Way

• Skin bacteria that help keep us healthy

  News > In Briefp20

  Being caked in germs sounds unpleasant, but bacteria living on our skin may play a vital role in keeping inflammation from running amok

• Best of Twitter tunes album released

  Technology > Newsp23

  Musical twitterers have found a way to condense entire compositions to fit in single, 140-character tweets

• Cellphones team up to make Wi-Fi where you want it

  Technology > Newsp23

  Microsoft software allows cellphones to pool connections and create a mobile wireless hotspot for nearby computers

• Shrink-to-fit spacesuit eases astronauts' workload

  Technology > Newsp23

  Astronauts will one day get suited and booted in seconds by stepping into an overlarge, part-robotic spacesuit that contracts to fit them

• 3D mash-up maps let you 'edit' the world

  Technology > Featurepp24-25

  Accurate, large-scale 3D maps could soon change the way we design, manage and relate to our urban environments

• Lotus leaf effect ramps up the power of solar cells

  Technology > Featurep25

  Peppering the cells' surface with nanoscale domes could cut reflections and improve efficiency by as much as 25 per cent

• Optical pressure sensors give robots the human touch

  Technology > Featurep26

  Sensors that work with light rather than mechanical signals could distinguish more subtle variations in pressure

• Radiator roads too hot for ice to handle

  Technology > Featurep26

  Roads made from concrete with a nanofibre layer that heats up when fed with electricity could stay ice-free without the corrosive effects of salt

• Great and good share hopes and fears for Copenhagen

  Comment and Analysispp28-29

  New Scientist asked leading scientists, politicians and business people to tell us if the imminent climate change talks can deliver

• Charles Darwin: Writing Origin 'like confessing a murder'

  Opinion > Interviewp29

  Death is no barrier to New Scientist. 150 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, we have obtained an interview with its author

• Engineered nutrition

  Lettersp30

  Your editorial made a laudable public stand in support of genetic modification as a way to produce nutritionally enhanced crops (31 October, p 5). But...

• Pets cost the Earth

  Lettersp30

  Your editorial on the environmental impact of pets comes at a poignant time in the autumn of my veterinary career (24 October, p 5). I...

• Enigma Number 1573

  Opinion > Enigmap30

• Crash time

  Letterspp30-31

  Douglas Fox relates how researcher David Eagleman asked volunteers to endure 30 metres of free fall into a safety net while wearing an LED device...

• Cleaner killing

  Lettersp31

  Andy Coghlan discussed the possibility that calves may feel pain after Jewish or Muslim ritual slaughter (17 October, p 11), and the suggestion that stunning...

• Engender ambition

  Lettersp31

  It was disappointing to read a gender assumption in Michael Bond's article on interview techniques. He explains that you are more likely to get...

• For the record

  Lettersp31

  • In our article on supersymmetry, we should have stated that Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten work at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (14 November...

• Naked nerves

  Lettersp31

  I read with interest Elaine Morgan's explanation for human hairlessness (19 September, p 28) and I would like to propose my own alternative: our...

• P. Z. Myers: Mild-mannered scourge of creationists

  Interviewpp32-33

  His tirades against religion have provoked millions of readers, but the force behind the science blog Pharyngula turns out to be a rather genial firebrand

• Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel

  Features > Cover Storypp34-37

  We could reach the stars if we built a black hole starship or a dark matter rocket – we've got the physics to do it

• Drowned cities: Myths and secrets of the deep

  Features > Featurepp38-39

  Atlantis was just a story, but other ancient civilisations really have sunk beneath the waves – complete with their temples, megaliths and pirate headquarters

• Herakleion and Eastern Canopus, Egypt

  Features > Featurep39

• Port Royal, Jamaica

  Features > Featurep40

• Atlit-Yam, Israel

  Features > Featurepp40-41

• Yonaguni, Japan

  Features > Featurep41

• Atlantis

  Features > Featurep42

• Dunwich, UK

  Features > Featurep42

• Pavlopetri, Greece

  Features > Featurep42

• Five eco-crimes we commit every day

  Features > Featurepp43-47

  If you really want to save the planet, you should rethink how you clean your clothes – and your bottom

• Welcome to the high-carbon future

  Features > Featurepp48-51

  From coal, soot and pencils to electronics, nanoribbons and atom-thick semiconductors – carbon is turning out to be even more talented than we thought

• Chanee Brulé: Last night a DJ saved a gibbon

  Opinion > Books & Artsp52

  The Borneo-based DJ is rescuing the apes, playing matchmaker and releasing them to sing in the wild

• Dinosaurs in the web of life

  Opinion > Books & Artsp53

  Palaeontologist Scott Sampson's Dinosaur Odyssey brings dinosaurs back to life as living, breathing parts of their long-vanished ecosystems

• Hypocritical or apolitical? Von Braun deconstructed

  Opinion > Books & Artsp53

  The reputation of Wernher von Braun, the Nazi-to-NASA rocket genius, is revisited in Dark Side of the Moon by Wayne Biddle

• On the origin of gods

  Opinion > Books & Artsp53

  In The Faith Instinct, Nicholas Wade argues that in early human societies religion evolved as the best solution to lawlessness and warfare

• Organising struggle: Structures of religious violence

  Opinion > Books & Artsp53

  In Radical, Religious and Violent, economist Eli Berman examines the sociology and economics of effective and resilient terrorist groups

• The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous fractal

  Opinion > Galleryp54

  A group of fractal image makers claim to have made the best three-dimensional portrayal to date of the Mandelbrot set, the most famous fractal equation

• Great thinkers or feckless nobodies? You decide

  Feedbackp72

  The fruitloopy world of quantum psychology, evidence that rock band Slade visited Venus and why you can't order half a light bulb

• Get your skates on

  The Last Word > Last Word Answerp73

• The right path

  The Last Word > Last Word Answerp73

• On the bounce

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp73

• Simply red

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp73