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• Be careful with those stem cells

  Editorial p5

  Rigour and caution need to replace the culture of hype and haste that threatened to derail the promise of stem cell biology early in this decade

• The Einsteins of the avian world

  Editorial p5

  Tool-using crows' abilities show a level of abstract thinking that makes it tempting to wonder how their consciousness compares with ours

• The wonder of you

  Editorial p5

  Some of our strangest foibles, like blushing and nose-picking, still defy explanation, but they often have profound implications

• What's hot on NewScientist.com

  Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.com p5

• Bad spell for stem cells

  News > Upfront p6

  Untested treatments, withdrawn research papers and questions over irregularities in current research raise the alarm

• Clams could stem spread of bird flu

  News > Upfront p6

  A bivalve can filter flu viruses out of the water and deactivate them, offering a way to protect birds from infection

• Wheat plague threatens Afghans with starvation

  News > Upfront p6

  Having reaped the rewards of the decision not to eradicate poppy fields, the farmers now face an enemy potentially more dangerous than the US military

• Fisheries reap dividends of better management

  News > Upfront pp6-7

  Commercial fish stocks in many threatened ecosystems are on the mend, thanks to good stewardship – it's not all good news, though

• Return of El Niño, Vampires with SARS, and more

  News > 60 Seconds p7

• Asteroid visits could lead humans to Mars

  News > Upfront p7

  Many smaller missions – including visiting asteroids – would be needed before heading to Mars, concludes a NASA committee

• Could recession end cannabis ban?

  News > Upfront p7

  The historical link between economic cycles and attitudes to recreational drugs might mean that decriminalisation is near

• Research ship drills deep into seafloor

  News > Upfront p7

  A Japanese research ship has drilled the deepest hole ever in the seafloor while floating on 2 kilometres of water

• Found: A pocket guide to prehistoric Spain

  News > This Week pp8-9

  Engravings on a 14,000-year-old chunk of rock may be the oldest map in western Europe

• Can 'excited delirium' get cops off the hook?

  News > This Week p9

  The mechanisms that underlie a rare disorder might help to explain why some people die in police custody

• Fast-spinning black holes might reveal all

  News > This Week p10

  If a black hole is spun by surrounding matter in just the right way, it could shed its event horizon, exposing a naked singularity

• Why the debate over organic food is redundant

  News > This Week p10

  Organic farming doesn't provide more nutritional food and it may not even be more sustainable – but could the whole debate about organic versus non-organic be missing the point?

• Arctic Ocean may be polluted soup by 2070

  News > This Week p11

  Without drastic cuts in emissions, the Transpolar Drift, one of the Arctic's most powerful currents and a key disperser of pollutants, is likely to disappear because of global warming

• Defenceless rat proves knockout in lab

  News > This Week p11

  The creation of a rat with no functioning immune system is opening up the possibility of more realistic testing of cancer treatments, transplantation techniques and other therapies

• Doubts over stem cell images prompt new inquiry

  News > This Week p12

  A US university launches yet another inquiry into research after New Scientist raises further concerns about papers that seem to contain duplicated and manipulated images

• Dieting could lead to a positive test for cannabis

  News > This Week p13

  Cannabis smokers beware: stress or dieting might trigger "reintoxication", resulting in a positive drug test long after you last used the drug

• GM maize has built-in SOS chemical

  News > In Brief p14

  A genetically modified maize plant is genetically engineered to produce a chemical rallying cry that summons help against a damaging pests

• New strain of HIV from gorillas

  News > In Brief p14

  A woman has been infected with HIV in the Republic of Cameroon – wild gorillas are thought to be the source

• Stopping seizures with a simple injection

  News > In Brief p14

  Epilepsy may be sparked by a metal imbalance in the brain caused by a single gene mutation

• Supercomputer creates supernova images in glorious detail

  News > In Brief p14

  The extreme physics inside a supernova can now be visualised in minutes rather than weeks, thanks to supercomputer visualisations

• Alaska's tundra fire sparks climate warning

  News > In Brief p15

  A charred region of the Arctic is pumping large amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere, finds an ecological assessment, which warns more fires are to come

• Can crows plan their actions?

  News > In Brief p15

  New Caledonian crows can snag a treat by choosing a series of tools, however it isn't clear whether this means they can plan for the future

• Softening up tumours for the kill

  News > In Brief p15

  Contrary to belief, giving tumours a better blood supply could help to destroy them

• Vanishing Mars methane is a blow for alien life

  News > In Brief p15

  The rapid destruction of methane on Mars suggests that other organic material at the surface would face a similar fate

• Mini-magnet test makes things sticky for TB

  Technology > News p17

  Tuberculosis can now be diagnosed in just 30 minutes rather than weeks, using magnetic nanoparticles that adhere to the bacteria that cause the disease

• Virtual computer army takes on the botnets

  Technology > News p17

  More than 1 million virtual computers are set to provide insight into how networks of infected computers wreak havoc on the internet

• Wikipedia's quality under threat by territorial editors

  Technology > News p17

  Growing resistance to new contributors is causing worries that the online encyclopaedia will suffer a decline in the quality of its content

• Robots to get their own operating system

  Technology > Feature pp18-19

  At present, all robot software is designed uniquely, even for parts common to all robots – that could be about to change

• Miniature gravity detector could peer inside planets

  Technology > Feature p19

  A device designed from a single wafer of silicon could help planetary scientists study the gravitational fields of Mars and other planets in unprecedented detail

• How to digitally iron out chewed-up photos

  Technology > Feature p20

  A sophisticated imaging technique used to enhance fossils and ancient engravings may soon help you erase rips and creases from old photographs

• Shedding old light on archaeological artefacts

  Technology > Feature p20

  Modern lighting is bright and harsh compared with the lamps of antiquity, but computer reconstructions are letting us see archaeological sites as their creators did

• Comment: Why China needs help cutting its emissions

  Comment and Analysis pp22-23

  With the economy its top priority, China sees the task of curbing climate change differently from the West – but there is a way through, says Julian Hunt

• Comment: Translate the medical 'bibles' into plain English

  Comment and Analysis pp22-23

  Medical journals need to stop acting like the medieval church and give the masses access to research on health issues, argues Stephen Strauss

• Interview: The life-saving shot

  Opinion > Interview p23

  A vaccine invented 40 years ago by Baruch Blumberg has prevented millions of deaths from hepatitis B and liver cancer

• Methane matters

  Letters p24

  Kirk Smith does a great job of explaining the importance of addressing emissions of all greenhouse gases rather than focusing exclusively on carbon dioxide...

• Enigma Number 1557

  Opinion > Enigma p24

• Virtual security

  Letters pp24-25

  Bennett Daviss reported on how the OpenFlow system can be used to reprogram routers remotely, which would protect against network collapses due to trawlers cutting...

• Celebrate copyright

  Letters p25

  Peter Eckersley argues, that rather than cling to the old model of scarcity and strict copyright laws, we need to refocus on disseminating knowledge...

• Fetching waves

  Letters p25

  In his article on forecasting oceanic waves, Rick Lovett says that surfers don't know why waves come in groups of different sizes...

• For the record

  Letters p25

  The total costs for the purchase and ongoing management of land in Sabah, Malaysia, that would link fragments of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is over...

• Fusion out in the cold

  Letters p25

  I do not think that your editors and contributors fully understand the damage you are doing to your reputation by continuing to take "cold fusion"...

• Giant minutiae

  Letters p25

  In your interview with James Dyson, he is quoted as saying: "We wanted a quantum leap, not just tiny changes"...

• Law of evolution

  Letters p25

  Peter Household questions whether evolution is better described as a law or a theory...

• Opinion: Do you believe in miracles?

  Opinion > Essay pp26-27

  Miracles are heresy in a scientific age, and prominent thinkers have railed against them – but what if their arguments don't stack up, asks Hugh McLachlan

• 10 Mysteries of you

  Features > Cover Story p28

  Some of our strangest foibles still defy explanation, but it is becoming clear that behaviours and attributes that sometimes seem frivolous often go to the heart of what it means to be human

• 10 Mysteries of you: Blushing

  Features > Cover Story p28

  Even Darwin struggled to explain why we would evolve a response that puts us at a social disadvantage by letting others know that we have cheated or lied

• 10 Mysteries of you: Laughter

  Features > Cover Story pp28-29

  The discovery that laughter is more often produced at banal comments than jokes prompts the question, what did it evolve for?

• 10 Mysteries of you: Pubic hair

  Features > Cover Story p29

  Scent radiator, warmth provider, or chafe protection? The answer to why humans have clumps of hair in private places is still open for debate

• 10 Mysteries of you: Dreams

  Features > Cover Story p30

  Today, most researchers reject Freud's belief that dreams are expressions of our unconscious desires – but if that's the case, what are they for?

• 10 Mysteries of you: Teenagers

  Features > Cover Story pp30-31

  Even our closest relatives, the great apes, move smoothly from their juvenile to adult life phases – so why do humans spend an agonising decade skulking around in hoodies?

• 10 Mysteries of you: Altruism

  Features > Cover Story pp31-32

  People still debate whether humans are genuinely altruistic by nature, but if we are, most agree it doesn't make evolutionary sense

• 10 Mysteries of you: Art

  Features > Cover Story pp32-33

  Sexual display, learning tool or form of social glue? Art still refuses to be pinned down

• 10 Mysteries of you: Superstition

  Features > Cover Story p33

  Many of us have superstitions – odd, reassuring habits that make no rational sense – but there may be an underlying reason for such behaviour

• 10 Mysteries of you: Kissing

  Features > Cover Story p34

  The urge to kiss is not brought about by genes, so why do we find it so pleasurable to share saliva?

• 10 Mysteries of you: Nose-picking

  Features > Cover Story p34

  Many of us do it, but eating bogeys offers little nutritional reward – could there be a health reason for the unappealing habit?

• What's luck got to do with it? The math of gambling

  Features > Feature pp35-39

  Even if you can't beat the system, there are some cunning ways to tilt the odds in your favour

• How to cure diseases before they have even evolved

  Features > Feature pp40-43

  It could be the biggest breakthrough since the discovery of penicillin: a new generation of antivirals that work against a huge range of viruses, including ones that don't exist yet

• How the moving walkway nearly overtook the Metro

  Histories pp44-45

  In 1900, Paris became the first city to have a moving walkway running around the city centre – then New York took up the idea…

• Review: Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum

  Opinion > Books & Arts p46

  Scientific illiteracy is a real problem in the US, but its roots run deeper than science itself

• Review: Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age

  Opinion > Book & Arts p47

  An inspiring tale of the woman who conquered a man's industry and helped lead the computer revolution

• Review: The Invisible Kingdom by Idan Ben-Barak

  Opinion > Book & Arts p47

  A rapid-fire tour through the bizarre world of microorganisms leaves little space for in-depth discussion

• Review: Seasons of Life by Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  A tour-de-force exploration of the mysteries of biological rhythms

• Gunner Herbert's final rest

  Feedback p64

  This week's Feedback reveals why iPhone owners have to die at 75, how to pass through a closed door, and the time when time stopped for a short time...

• Apple melt

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• Jump start

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• On the line

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65