New Scientist magazine - 28 November 2009
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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
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Sleepwalking into a legal quagmire
Editorialp5
Science and scepticism are invaluable when a defendant says, "I did it in my sleep"
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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
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What's hot on NewScientist.com
Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.comp5
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Guapa, it's your genetic ancestry I love
News > In Briefp19
In Latino populations, love unites people with similar mix of ancestries
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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...
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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...
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Enigma Number 1573
Opinion > Enigmap30
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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
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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
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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
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Herakleion and Eastern Canopus, Egypt
Features > Featurep39
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Port Royal, Jamaica
Features > Featurep40
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Atlit-Yam, Israel
Features > Featurepp40-41
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Yonaguni, Japan
Features > Featurep41
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Atlantis
Features > Featurep42
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Dunwich, UK
Features > Featurep42
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Pavlopetri, Greece
Features > Featurep42
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Get your skates on
The Last Word > Last Word Answerp73
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The right path
The Last Word > Last Word Answerp73
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On the bounce
The Last Word > Last Word Questionp73
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Simply red
The Last Word > Last Word Questionp73