New Scientist magazine - 18 April 2009

Issue number 2704

A wind farm, a tidal barrage that turns a great river into a millstream, a carpet of solar panels on the Sahara... all are a desecration

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• Back to which future?

  Editorialp5

  Terminator, eat your heart out: evil machine intelligences of the future could use quantum mechanics to help them wipe out humanity

• It's a small world after all

  Editorialp5

  Only 10 per cent of the world is more than 48 hours travel by land from the nearest city. Is that a good thing?

• Silencing the voices isn't a cure for schizophrenia

  Editorialp5

  A new "brain training" approach might restore sufferers' cognitive abilities to health – but better public understanding of the condition is needed too

• What's hot on NewScientist.com

  Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.comp5

• Aerial bombs as deadly as suicide bombers

  News > Upfrontp6

  Aerial bombs aren't intended to kill civilians in Iraq – but when they do, they're just as lethal as deliberate suicide bombers on foot

• Melting Arctic may be poisoning its people

  News > Upfrontp6

  Mercury levels in seals and beluga whales eaten by the Inuit are reaching unsafe levels – and the problem is likely to get worse

• Stem cells free diabetics from insulin treatment

  News > Upfrontp6

  A controversial stem cell treatment tested in Brazil has, for the first time, freed most recipients from dependence on insulin, some continuously and some temporarily

• Stem-cell treatment for diabetes really does seem to work

  News > Upfrontp6

  Dazzling but controversial claims about the treatment have been borne out by long-term studies, confounding critics

• Tax on sweet drinks may fight obesity

  News > Upfrontp6

  Two US states are proposing a "penny-per-ounce" tax on sweet drinks to reduce consumption, but the measure may be hard to justify

• A reason to bee cheerful, Martian twin study, and more

  News > 60 Secondsp7

• Space station may win a new lease of life

  News > Upfrontp7

  The International Space Station may continue operating until at least 2020, saving planned research from the axe

• US to slash funding for 'exotic' missile defences

  News > Upfrontp7

  The Obama administration is scaling back research into anti-missile technologies such as airborne lasers or "kill vehicles"

• White House and Congress dither over climate

  News > Upfrontp7

  A bill to restrict carbon emissions in the US will be debated in a few days, but there may not be the political will to push it through

• Can oil from tar sands be cleaned up?

  News > This Weekpp8-9

  Canadian tar sands contain the world's second-largest reserves of oil, but extracting it is a filthy process. Bacteria and steam may help to clean it up

• 'People have spent the night in their bathtubs because they are so freaked out by bedbugs'

  News > Soundbitesp10

  Dini Miller, an entomologist, on the resurgence in bedbugs, which has prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency to host its first ever bedbug summit

• Are women born with a limited number of eggs?

  News > This Weekp10

  Stem cells in the ovaries of adult mice have given rise to fresh eggs and healthy offspring, reigniting the debate over whether women are born with a finite number of eggs

• Avoid a future cataclysm: Forget the past

  News > This Weekp11

  Intelligent machines could avoid disasters by resetting their memories and jumping into a parallel universe, according to one interpretation of quantum mechanics

• Sunbird learns to hover for sweet reward

  News > This Weekp11

  An African bird has mastered a hummingbird's trick that means it can collect nectar from an invasive New World plant

• Asteroids won't raise killer waves - but mind the splash

  News > This Weekp12

  New simulations suggest the monster waves created by an small asteroid impact would break before they reached land, but you still wouldn't want to be near one when it hit

• Magnetised stem cells could treat arthritis

  News > This Weekp12

  Magnets have been used to control the transformation of stem cells into cartilage, and could also be used to guide them to their target tissues

• Mind gym helps people live with schizophrenia

  News > This Weekp13

  "Brain training" software helps people with schizophrenia perform better in cognitive tests, an area where drugs offer little help

• Curved laser beams could help tame thunderclouds

  News > In Briefp14

  Ultra-short laser pulses can curve through the air, leaving plasma arcs in their wake – these could be used to guide lightning to the ground

• 'Failed stars' may be common in our galaxy

  News > In Briefp14

  Brown dwarfs may be abundant in our galaxy – and if they are, our models of star formation may be wrong

• Girl with Y chromosome sheds light on maleness

  News > In Briefp14

  The girl is physically a female, which may be possible because she has a mutation in a gene that may control male sexual development

• Quake rumbles give quick tsunami warnings

  News > In Briefp14

  A system that gauges how long an underwater earthquake rumbles could provide tsunami warnings within minutes

• Climate change may afflict Europe's pets with new diseases

  News > In Briefp15

  Rising temperatures will encourage ticks, fleas and mosquitoes to extend their ranges, exposing new populations of animals to unfamiliar infectious diseases

• Do aliens share our genetic code?

  News > In Briefp15

  Physicists claim there is evidence alien life forms will have at least the same fundamental building blocks as living things here on Earth, and perhaps the same genetic code

• Do 'vicious' dogs learn from their owners?

  News > In Briefp15

  Owners of vicious dogs are more likely to admit crimes such as vandalism, illegal drug use and fighting

• 'Fraction cells' found in human brain

  News > In Briefp15

  Children often dread fractions, but the discovery of neurons dedicated exclusively to them suggests that they could be taught more intuitively

• Pets may become latest victims of climate change

  News > In Briefp15

  Across Europe, increasing temperatures will expose pets to new infectious diseases spread by ticks, fleas and mosquitoes

• Attention-seeking objects will be hard to part with

  Technology > Newsp17

  Furniture that occasionally acts up to remind you it's there could be a useful counter to our throwaway culture

• Microwaves could defuse bombs from afar

  Technology > Newsp17

  The US army is developing a laser-guided microwave weapon designed to destroy explosives, missiles and vehicles

• SpaceX readies for first commercial launch

  Technology > Newsp17

  The private company aiming to slash the cost of access to space is preparing to launch its first satellite into orbit

• Transformers: Protecting pedestrians from killer cars

  Technology > Featurepp18-19

  Cars will soon be able to tell that they're about to hit a pedestrian and modify their shapes to minimise injury – but will manufacturers take up the technology?

• Space sail could bring used rockets back to Earth

  Technology > Featurep19

  A sail that increases atmospheric drag could force rocket stages out of orbit more quickly, reducing the problem of space debris

• Sporty software reveals where blurred balls are heading

  Technology > Featurep20

  Line calls could be made easier using software that can read the spin and direction of a fast-moving ball from a single, blurred image

• Straw house beats the shakes in earthquake test

  Technology > Featurep20

  Cheap houses built from straw bales could be a boon in earthquake zones

• Carbon trading won't stop climate change

  Comment and Analysispp22-23

  Selling permits to emit carbon dioxide is fine in theory, but there's a fatal flaw that means it can never avert climate catastrophe, says Andrew Simms

• Viewfinder

  Opinion > Viewfinderp23

• Action on climate

  Lettersp24

  Gaia Vince discusses how we will cope if the Earth's temperature rises (28 February, p 28). It's time to face facts...

• Cold fusion

  Lettersp24

  The article "Many happy returns for cold fusion" contained a subtle but significant ambiguity (28 March, p 10). The article mentions my scepticism...

• No smoke without

  Lettersp24

  Michael Siegel's claim of censorship as described in David Robson's article on tobacco policy (4 April, p 34) effectively casts him as the...

• Saltwater power

  Lettersp24

  Peter Fournier writes that proposals to produce electricity in Norway by osmosis of fresh water into seawater are impractical...

• Enigma Number 1541

  Opinion > Enigmap24

• Converting Dawkins

  Letterspp24-25

  Mary Midgley states that "many are anticipating [Richard Dawkins's] conversion with some interest" (21 March, p 22). I think it very likely that...

• Get knitted

  Lettersp25

  Keith Tritton's suggestion of knitting patterns as a metaphor for DNA are indeed a much better analogy than a blueprint (21 March, p 22)...

• Illness and the mind

  Lettersp25

  Simon Wessely's interpretation of certain medical conditions as having a psychological component makes perfect sense to me (14 March, p 26). We cannot blame...

• Natural-born belief

  Lettersp25

  M. Bell argues that science is independent of great names while religion is not (7 March, p 24). Certainly, other intelligent beings would develop science...

• Relativity rage

  Lettersp25

  "I didn't notice hordes of physicists in a frothing rage when the line 'Why Einstein was wrong about relativity' appeared on your cover"...

• Super power

  Lettersp25

  I'd like to say "no thanks" to the intercontinental electrical supergrids discussed in the "Green grid" feature (14 March, p 42). Adopting them would...

• We need lab animals

  Lettersp25

  Vicky Robinson claims that common ground can be found between scientists and opponents of animal research through the three Rs: the replacement, reduction and refinement of...

• Choice blindness: You don't know what you want

  Opinion > Essaypp26-27

  When asked to defend a choice, most of us will justify it in great detail - even if our original choice has been covertly exchanged for something else

• Does gravity change with the seasons?

  Features > Cover Storypp28-31

  Isaac Newton wondered why apples fall downwards, not sideways. He didn't think to ask if they'd fall faster in the spring – but now today's theoreticians are doing just that

• Green and mean: The downside of clean energy

  Features > Featurepp32-35

  How do you choose between a wilderness and a power station? The tough choices associated with large-scale renewable energy projects are dividing the green movement

• Why some people sneeze when the sun comes out

  Features > Featurepp36-39

  The strange phenomenon of "photic sneezing" might shed light on just how muddled our brains can be

• Where's the remotest place on Earth?

  Features > Featurepp40-43

  Getting away from it all is easier said than done, as new maps of the world's transport networks reveal

• Online gaming the Victorian way

  Historiespp44-45

  Frittering the time away against an unseen opponent is nothing new: nineteenth-century gamers used the telegraph to play trans-Atlantic chess

• Quantum gods don't deserve your faith

  Opinion > Books & Artsp46

  Anyone tempted to swap religion for fuzzy notions about quantum mechanics should read this robust debunker, says Amanda Gefter

• Review: Life Ascending by Nick Lane

  Opinion > Books & Artsp47

  A brilliant new take on how life evolved on earth looks at 10 of evolution's greatest inventions, from sex to photosynthesis

• Review: Mindfield by Lone Frank

  Opinion > Books & Artsp47

  A tour of the most intriguing current brain experiments reveals how our perceptions of everything from happiness to religion will be revolutionised by our understanding of the brain

• Review: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

  Opinion > Books & Artsp47

  What is the secret to acquiring talent? It seems to boil down to little more than "practice makes perfect"

• Review: The Wikipedia Revolution by Andrew Lih

  Opinion > Books & Artsp47

  An occasionally encyclopaedic description of how Wikipedia became one of the world's 10 most popular websites – and the only one that belongs to a community rather than a corporation

• Cancer treatments get personal

  Careers > The Insiderpp48-49

  Chemotherapy and whole-body treatments are falling out of favour and new techniques are being used to track, trick and outwit tumours. Helen Thomson discovers how life is about to change for cancer researchers

• Feedback is appalled, don't you know

  Feedbackp68

  Why Google doesn't understand the English, what, plus why houses in Oxfordshire don't have doors and our new competition celebrating Wallace and Gromit

• Surround sound

  The Last Word > Last Word Answerp69

• Get your skates on

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp69

• High ball cocktail

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp69

• Horsing about

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp69