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Blob intelligence is not unlike our own

Editorial p3

Intelligence is hard to define, and even harder to subject to reductionist science – but we know it must somehow arise from physics and chemistry

Hello ET, we come in peace

Editorial p3

The advantages of advertising our existence to the universe outweigh the risks

Taking gravity out of Newton's orchard

Editorial p3

A new explanation of where gravity comes from might seem exotic now, but to kids of the future it might be as familiar as falling apples

What's hot on NewScientist.com

Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.com p3

Alaska faces Exxon Valdez clean-up conundrum

News > Upfront p4

Two decades after one of the world's most devastating oil spills, doubts remain over whether to clean up the remaining pollution or leave well alone

Caribbean at risk of more large earthquakes

News > Upfront p4

Historical records suggest the tragedy in Haiti did not release all the energy that has built up in the faults that run through the Caribbean

Death tolls may loom too large in the fog of war

News > Upfront p4

The much-publicised claim that 5.4 million have died because of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be twice the true number

Space shuttles for sale

News > Upfront pp4-5

Space shuttle for sale, fully loaded, air conditioning, one careful owner

60 Seconds

News > 60 Seconds p5

Fact-checking at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a mysterious ribbon in the solar system, a pill for multiple sclerosis and more

America 'imports' pollution from Asia

News > Upfront p5

Asia may be shipping more to North America than consumer goods: the region's industrial hubs seem to be sending harmful ozone over the ocean

Ares 1 is 'safest choice' to replace shuttle

News > Upfront p5

An independent safety panel backed NASA's beleaguered Ares programme, because it has been designed with safe human travel in mind from the outset

Drug-resistant HIV set for rapid upsurge

News > Upfront p5

A model of the emergence of drug-resistant forms of the virus in gay San Franciscan men suggests they could surge across the world

The entropy force: a new direction for gravity

News > This Week pp6-7

Newton and Einstein described gravity, but not where it comes from. Has a physicist now found its root cause at last?

What a maze-solving oil drop tells us of intelligence

News > This Week pp8-9

A drop of oil doped with acid has been filmed "solving" a complex maze. But is it really intelligent?

Engineered maize toxicity claims roundly rebuffed

News > This Week p9

Monsanto's unprecedented release of toxicology data about its GM maize has led to claim and counter-claim about its safety

Hidden asteroids are stalking the Earth

News > This Week p10

A 10-metre rock that buzzed Earth last week is the 'poster child' for a small class of asteroids whose orbits make them nearly impossible to spot

Analysis: Swine flu is not just a hoax by big pharma

News > This Week p11

While firms will have boosted profits as a result of H1N1, the reality of the pandemic is more complicated than a simple revenue grab

Stay young on red wine drugs? Think again

News > This Week p11

Wine-inspired drugs that might cheat the biology of ageing are being tested, but new research questions whether they work as thought

Brain asymmetry eases hypnotic trance

News > This Week p12

People who are easily hypnotised may have one brain hemisphere that works more efficiently than the other

Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point'

News > This Week p12

A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point – it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres

Alcohol during pregnancy chemically alters fetal DNA

News > In Brief p14

If the discovery in mice holds in humans, this could explain the permanent physical and behavioural damage caused by fetal alcohol syndrome

Approaching Earth makes asteroids go pale

News > In Brief p14

Asteroids that venture too close to our planet suffer cataclysmic landslides, explaining why they look so fresh-faced

Pebble splashes break the speed of sound

News > In Brief p14

A pebble falling into a pond produces a jet of air that flies faster than a speeding bullet

Tentacled snakes feel their way to a midnight feast

News > In Brief p14

The mysterious moustache of an aquatic snake may help it "see" in murky waters by detecting subtle currents generated by its prey

Anxious or sexually competitive? Try God

News > In Brief p15

We may be able to turn our religious feelings on and off if the pressure is on to find a mate, an experimental study finds

Brain-cell grid gives references for mental maps

News > In Brief p15

A grid of brain cells that fire as we navigate through space may have been discovered – such grids had only been seen in rats before

Intense males have the best sperm

News > In Brief p15

Vibrant plumage is not only a sexual ornament for male great tits – it signals the quality of the birds' sperm

Zebrafish make good 'guinea pigs' for human drugs

News > In Brief p15

Zebrafish behaviour is a good indicator for how a drug will change chemistry in the human brain

Deep-sea snail shell could inspire next-gen armour

Technology > News p17

The layered shell, rich in iron-based nanoparticles, that protects snails living on deep-sea vents could inspire new types of body armour for humans

Embedded electronics bring pop-up books to life

Technology > News p17

Paint-on circuits are bringing lights and sounds to traditional pop-up books

Smart mud could be the new plastic

Technology > News p17

A mixture of clay and water produces a strong self-healing hydrogel that could help wean the world off oil

Internet backbone breaks the 100-gigabit barrier

Technology > Feature pp18-19

With video streaming and massive downloads clogging the net, smarts as well as scale are needed to keep the data flowing

Quartz rods could provide instant bomb detector

Technology > Feature p19

New technique promises a quick and cheap way to protect public transport from an explosive commonly used in home-made bombs

To beat spam, turn its own weapons against it

Technology > Feature p20

Spammers' own trickery has been used to develop an "effectively perfect" method for blocking the most common kind of spam

Panic walking gets robot out of sticky situations

Technology > News p20

A six-legged robot learns different walking styles, which it can then use to adapt to tricky terrain or even flee from the first signs of trouble

It's lack of balance that makes skunk cannabis do harm

Comment and Analysis pp22-23

Street cannabis has been made stronger by breeding out a compound that seems to have antipsychotic powers, argue Amanda Feilding and Paul Morrison

Newton Jibunoh: Fighting the Sahara

Opinion > Interview p23

The soil engineer has created a reality television show, Desert Warriors, to highlight the dangers of desertification in Nigeria and Niger

Appropriate religion

Letters p24

Kate Douglas's article discussing the use and importance of rituals in different types of religion (19 December 2009, p 62) reminded me of a...

Diverge from IQ

Letters p24

Dave Boothman notes that factors that could be regarded as strong indicators of intelligence, such as the number of patents awarded and performance at university...

Presence of presents

Letters p24

In his article on gift-giving, Robert Rowland Smith states that the tradition is based on the Christian nativity story describing the gifts given to...

Enigma Number 1579

Opinion > Enigma p24

Mite-y foe

Letters pp24-25

Paul Monaghan criticised negative comments about the film Vanishing of the Bees, but his calls for research into the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on colonies...

Breeding the beasts

Letters p25

In his letter, Collyn Rivers informed us of his experiences of tame cheetahs, to which Henry Nicholls replied that attempts to breed them in captivity...

Dementia treatment

Letters p25

Arran Frood's article on the use of trepanation to treat dementia (13 June 2009, p 33) made me think back to 2001 when my...

For the record

Letters p25

• The correct reference for the study which compared the incidence of heart attacks in London bus drivers and conductors is The Lancet, vol 262, p...

Managers manage?

Letters p25

Mark Buchanan's article discussing strategies for selecting staff for promotion mentioned the idea of choosing unsuccessful people so as to ensure that they are...

Reassigned phrasing

Letters p25

Your generally well-written piece about the concerns many people have with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders mentions its effect on transgender...

Skilled cleaning

Letters p25

In his article on the science of slipping, Michael Brooks states: "It's a funny old world, where PhD scientists teach restaurant cleaners how to"...

How the US exports its mental illnesses

Opinion > The Big Idea pp26-27

Western notions of mental illness are one of the US's most insidious exports - and they are spreading around the world like a contagion, says Ethan Watters

Exolanguage: do you speak alien?

Features > Cover Story pp28-31

We've tried messaging extraterrestrials in geek speak – but we've had no replies. Maybe we should stop trying to make sense and just gabble

The face of first contact: What aliens look like

Features > Cover Story pp31-33

Will they be super-smart predators, glass-veined acid-dwellers or giant microbial blobs? We asked astrobiologists for their best guesses

Horizontal and vertical: The evolution of evolution

Features > Feature pp34-37

Darwinian selection cannot explain why all life on Earth shares the same genetic code – it looks like another form of evolution came first

Spasers set to sum: A new dawn for optical computing

Features > Feature pp38-41

Ultra-fast computers running on light could be built after all, thanks to the new field of nanoplasmonics – and the tiniest lasers ever made

Zap that fat: Can lasers make you slimmer in minutes?

Features > Feature pp42-45

A lunchtime laser treatment promises to make fat go away – it seems to work, but some tricky questions remain

About time, too: Your questions answered

Opinion > Books & Arts p46

Readers posed their questions about the nature of time to physicist Sean Carroll – now check out his answers

A leap too far in this multiverse explanation of time

Opinion > Books & Arts pp46-47

Time moves only one way, but why? Craig Callender thinks Sean Carroll overreaches himself as he tries to find an answer in From Eternity to Here

Intellectual adventure worthy of a very big birthday

Opinion > Books & Arts p47

A book to mark the Royal Society's 350th anniversary, edited by Bill Bryson, lives up to its "boundlessness" billing

Rival theories transmuted into a Parisian intrigue

Opinion > Books & Arts p47

Science historian Rebecca Stott's new novel The Coral Thief is a well-researched yarn set during a time of intellectual debate over the origin of species

Understanding fear in brain and body

Opinion > Books & Arts p47

Can knowing how fear works make it easier to manage? In Extreme Fear, Jeff Wise uses real experiences to show that it can

Riddle of the quantum potato

Feedback p64

The evil powers of the potato, the Tiger Woods time warp, and the railway station that has combined relativity and quantum mechanics

Aerial glue

The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

Oi, Big nose!

The Last Word > Last Word Question p65