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• Let's put an end to biosentimentality

  Editorial p3

  The state of biodiversity is so grim that we need to be pragmatic about the future, not sentimental about the past

• Mephedrone: We should ban later, ask questions first

  Editorial p3

  Traditional knee-jerk reactions to new legal highs are increasingly misplaced in the internet age

• Watch out, there's a black elephant in the air

  Editorial p3

  Some rare, disruptive events are not just harmless curiosities – a volcanic ash cloud over Europe, for one

• What's hot on NewScientist.com

  Editorial > What's hot on NewScientist.com p3

• Blame the volcano trouble on sun and global warming

  News > Upfront p4

  Altered weather patterns may have made the disruption caused by volcanic ash from Iceland worse – climate change could be partly to blame

• Nuclear security push bleeding cryogenic science dry

  News > Upfront p4

  This week, members of the US Congress will mull how to fix the shortage of helium-3 caused by demand for nuclear contraband detectors

• Obama: Asteroid is NASA's next stop in space

  News > Upfront pp4-5

  But NASA's astronauts had better tread carefully, because of the weak gravity and exposure to space radiation

• 60 Seconds

  News > 60 Seconds p5

  Chinese earthquake toll, halting hepatitis C, sunbed addiction and more

• New law claims a fetus can feel pain

  News > Upfront p5

  Nebraska's new law is the first to restrict abortion based on alleged fetal pain – but is there any science behind it?

• Tug of war rages over world's third-largest dam

  News > Upfront p5

  The Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river in the Brazilian Amazon could power as many as 23 million homes, but it's the subject of a bitter battle

• World grabs more and more toilet paper

  News > Upfront p5

  Every day, 60 million rolls of toilet paper are flushed in Europe, and their use is rising in developing nations – but there's a simple solution

• Self-starter: Life got going all on its own

  News > This Week pp6-7

  Given the right chemical ingredients, self-replication and the genetic code were all but inevitable

• Bacterial mat the size of Greece found on Pacific floor

  News > This Week p8

  The Census of Marine Life is forcing a radical reassessment of how many species there are on Earth

• Sense of smell makes flies' time fly

  News > This Week p8

  Female flies deprived of the ability to smell food outlive their peers, suggesting that smells may be linked to the ageing process in people too

• Brain shuts off in response to healer's prayer

  News > This Week p9

  Under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active in devout Christians

• Can we keep tabs on stockpiles of nuclear fuel?

  News > This Week p9

  To keep fissile materials from falling into the wrong hands, governments need to turn to safer reactor fuels and smarter detection technology

• Brain training gains modest outside the mind gym

  News > This Week p10

  People who played "mind-boosting" games made the same modest cognitive gains as those who spent a similar amount of time surfing the web

• Martian tubes could be home for 'cavenauts'

  News > This Week p12

  Lava tubes on Mars may contain water ice, simulations show, providing protection from radiation and a water source for astronauts

• Miscarriage blamed on non-fussy uterus

  News > This Week p12

  Women with less picky uteruses may conceive more quickly but be more likely to miscarry – a finding that could lead to new drugs for the complication

• Warped stars feed black holes to fatten them up

  News > This Week p13

  A mysterious starry disc at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy may explain how supermassive black holes gobble enough to bulk up to their huge sizes

• Be a good dog and you'll live a long, healthy life

  News > In Brief p14

  Live fast, die young: the adage applies to dog breeds too, suggesting that personality and longevity co-evolved

• Bubble-blowing black holes explain stellar dearth

  News > In Brief p14

  A puzzling lack of stars in the centre of galaxy clusters could be down to the "bubbles" of hot gas blown by a black hole

• Rats on junk food pass cancer down the generations

  News > In Brief p14

  Feeding pregnant rats a fatty diet puts even granddaughters at greater risk of breast cancer

• Secrets of egg-and-sperm race revealed

  News > In Brief p14

  Who said sex chromosomes were genetic backwaters? They can become a hotbed of sexual evolution, as two algae show

• Acupuncture aids spinal recovery

  News > In Brief p15

  Rats with damaged spines can walk again thanks to acupuncture, which seems to halt nerve death

• 'Fatness' gene may thin your brain

  News > In Brief p15

  A gene variant that helps us put on pounds may also shrink brain regions involved in problem-solving and perception

• Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy

  News > In Brief p15

  An unknown object in a nearby galaxy is emitting radio waves unlike anything seen before, and it's baffling astronomers

• Toxic asphalt sludge is home to hardy microbes

  News > In Brief p15

  A natural asphalt lake in Trinidad harbours a thriving ecosystem – so could hydrocarbon lakes elsewhere in the solar system harbour alien organisms?

• Carbon flakes brush up for cheap solar cells

  Technology > News p17

  A photosensitive dye made from a tweaked form of graphene has been used to make a solar cell – more work could make these cells super-efficient

• NASA's android astronaut assistant prepares for launch

  Technology > News p17

  Robonaut has a ticket for the last space shuttle mission, but can humans safely work alongside the legless droid?

• Quantum broadband becomes reality

  Technology > News p17

  The first high-speed network link that is so secure it is theoretically unbreakable has been created, thanks to quantum physics

• Putting the touch into touchscreens

  Technology > Feature pp18-19

  A featureless flat screen can be made to feel like a proper keyboard by haptic tricks that fool our sense of touch

• Tireless diving robot feeds on the ocean's heat

  Technology > News p19

  NASA's new toy never needs a new battery thanks to a system that generates power using changes in water temperature

• Bright future projected for hand-held games

  Technology > News p20

  A shoulder projector shines onto a flexible screen that controls computer games by being bent, shaken and tapped

• Cactus gum could make clean water cheap for millions

  Technology > News p20

  The prickly pear cactus, which grows all over the world, contains gum that can clear sediment and some bacteria from water

• Why the science candidate is standing for Parliament

  Comment and Analysis pp22-23

  The UK parliament is dominated by scientific illiterates. That's why I'm standing as a candidate in the general election, says Michael Brooks

• Anil Seth: How we'll find out what consciousness is

  Opinion > Interview p23

  The co-director of a new centre for studying consciousness talks about the essence of redness, the dimensions of experience – and feeling unreal

• Humanity's cradle

  Letters p24

  While reading the many elaborate schemes discussed by Jim Giles for mitigating our effect on the climate (3 April, p 6), I was struck by...

• Multiversal mirror

  Letters p24

  If I read Amanda Gefter's fascinating article right, for observers outside a black hole all information about stuff that has been sucked through the...

• No-brainer

  Letters p24

  As part of your "Nine big brain questions" special (3 April, p 26), Celeste Biever made a reference to the familiar problem that we "have"...

• Enigma Number 1592

  Opinion > Enigma p24

• Atheist selection

  Letters pp24-25

  Your editorial "Time to accept that atheism, not god, is odd" makes the case that since atheists are a minority group, they should be considered...

• Convection conviction

  Letters p25

  Scott Turner and Rupert Soar suggest that the circulation of air in termite nests is driven by wind blowing across the mounds rather than by...

• For the record

  Letters p25

  • We mistakenly illustrated a story about "pointillist graphics" for computers (3 April, p 18) with a standard polygon image; had it been pointillist it would...

• Glass flowing over

  Letters p25

  In his article about persistent observations and the sometimes slow pace of science (19 December 2009, p 58), Stephen Battersby suggests that "a carefully controlled"...

• Sugaring the pill

  Letters p25

  Colin Jacobson's letter on homeopathy (20 March, p 25) annoyed me...

• Wonderful water

  Letters p25

  Marcus Chown reports on James Brownridge's theory that the reason hot water freezes faster than cold - the Mpemba effect - is a consequence of supercooling...

• The secrets of intelligence lie within a single cell

  Opinion > The Big Idea pp26-27

  How come a cell can behave like a tiny computer or build a complex shell? Because it's smarter than the sum of its parts, says Brian J. Ford

• Blingtronics: Diamonds are a geek's best friend

  Features > Feature pp28-30

  Gold, silver and diamonds may not be your thing but your gadgets will soon be filled with them – and you might be persuaded to wear them too

• Living world: Why the tropics are hotbeds of evolution

  Features > Cover Story pp32-35

  The tropics are home to far more species than cooler climes. What makes them so lush?

• Living world: How to save an island

  Features > Cover Story pp36-37

  Humans can boost biodiversity as well as destroy it – as proved by the plantation-to-paradise tale of one island in the Seychelles

• Living world: The shape of life to come

  Features > Cover Story pp38-41

  Humans are rapidly causing Earth's sixth mass extinction – and the ecosystem that comes next is ours to design

• Miaow-miaow on trial: Truth or trumped-up charges?

  Features > Feature pp42-45

  With the UK government rushing to ban the "legal high" mephedrone, our reporter sorts fact from fiction – and tries it for himself

• Extraordinary secrets of our linked-up senses

  Opinion > Books & Arts p46

  The senses interact in fascinating and surprising ways – See What I'm Saying by Lawrence Rosenblum has some tales to tell you how

• Big numbers, brilliant minds, mind-boggling concepts

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos is a page-turner about humanity's strange, never easy and never dull relationship with numbers

• Leonardo da Vinci, the untaught genius

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  Stefan Klein's new book outlines a life of study and speculation about anatomy, flying machines, weapons and hydrodynamics – all without long division

• Nature vs nurture: hard facts and strong stories

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  In The Temperamental Thread, Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan deploys extraordinary data with skill and eloquence to tease biology apart from destiny

• Does not contain seaweed

  Feedback p64

  Why nut products don't have to contain nuts, how to go up to infinitely fast, and what happens to a countdown after it hits zero

• On the line

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• A Wing and a prayer

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65

• Flower power

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65

• Pigment pattern

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65

• Three's a crowd

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65