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• Omega-3: Best taken with a big pinch of salt

  Editorial p3

  Our appetite for "miracle" foods is insatiable – and food companies know it

• On NewScientist.com

  Editorial p3

• The lesson of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

  Editorial p3

  To ensure that it takes the risks of deep exploration seriously, the oil industry must be made to clear up its own mess

• Welcome to the human family, Neanderthals

  Editorial p3

  Is there any reason not to allow the squat, rugged, cold-loving apes into the fold with Homo sapiens?

• Newton's tree joins list of odd items to fly to space

  News > Upfront p4

  A fragment of the apple tree that inspired Newton will fly to the International Space Station and back

• Republicans won't be nudged into cutting home energy

  News > Upfront p4

  Feedback on energy consumption only seems to have positive effects with liberals - conservatives tend to ignore it

• Ultrasound 'snip' among offbeat Gates funding winners

  News > Upfront p4

  Could exposing testicles to ultrasound provide men in poor countries with a cheap, non-invasive alternative to a vasectomy?

• Stray grey whale navigates the North-West Passage

  News > Upfront pp4-5

  The whale was hunted to extinction outside the Pacific over 200 years ago – now a 13-metre-long specimen has been spotted in the Mediterranean

• 60 Seconds

  News > 60 Seconds p5

  Simulated Mars mission crews up, anti-ageing red wine drug trial stopped, US climate bill bounces back, and more

• Baby vaccine contaminated with pig virus

  News > Upfront p5

  Because the viruses aren't known to cause disease in humans, the vaccine's benefits still outweigh its risks, say US regulators

• Crumbling labs could clip NASA's wings

  News > Upfront p5

  The agency aims to develop new technologies for space flight, but years of neglect have left many of its labs in rough shape, says a new report

• Witness brain scan won't reveal whether the face fits

  News > Upfront p5

  Using fMRI to monitor brain activity of witnesses in court reveals no more than what they say they remember

• Cancer's sweet tooth becomes a target

  News > This Week pp6-7

  Killing cancer cells by blocking their tendency to guzzle sugar could be a gentler way to fight the disease

• Neanderthals not the only apes humans bred with

  News > This Week p8

  A growing body of evidence suggests that our ancestors got it on with extinct hominid species, including Neanderthals and other Homo species

• Quantum space monster leaps from a gravity well

  News > This Week p9

  Gravity could create a powerful runaway effect in quantum fluctuations in apparently empty space – this might influence the evolution of stars

• Maiden voyage for first true space sail

  News > This Week p10

  Next week Japan hopes to demonstrate the first sail to harness the sun for propulsion through space

• Venus orbiter to fly close to super-rotating wind

  News > This Week p10

  Japan will send its first spacecraft to another planet next week, to explore why winds race round Venus at such huge speeds

• Bahamas islands were giant labs for lizard experiment

  News > This Week p12

  One of the most ambitious ecological field experiments ever conducted has resolved a long-standing question about the evolution of lizards

• Weed resistance could mean herbicide is futile

  News > This Week p12

  More weeds are evolving resistance to glyphosate – aka Roundup – but the problem could have been forestalled by a better understanding of evolution

• Artificial skin graft promises to make you sweat

  News > This Week p14

  Skin containing sweat glands has been manufactured for the first time and tested in mice

• Pyramids are the best shape for packing

  News > This Week p14

  Tetrahedra – objects with four triangular faces – are the most efficient shape for randomly filling a container

• Bonding hormone helps men recognise emotions

  News > In Brief p16

  A nasal spray of the hormone vasopressin improves men's ability to recognise angry and happy faces, but not neutral ones

• Dents in Earth's gravitational field due to plumes

  News > In Brief p16

  Plumes of hot rock that form as slabs of crust fall through the Earth's mantle could explain the mysterious dips in our planet's gravitational field

• Eye-squint-cheek-bulge means 'ouch'

  News > In Brief p16

  The facial expressions of mice can be used to assess the pain they are in, thanks to a new "mouse grimace scale"

• Soft tissue remnants discovered in Archaeopteryx fossil

  News > In Brief p16

  Fossil of earliest known bird contains remnants of the soft tissue of the animal, preserved for 150 million years

• Bugs will give us free power while cleaning our sewage

  News > In Brief p17

  Anammox bacteria don't need the energy-hungry oxygen supply of conventional sewage plants, and even produce methane that we can use as fuel

• Cosmic 'dandruff' may have brought carbon to Earth

  News > In Brief p17

  Fluffy specks of carbon-rich dust found in Antarctica could help explain how the carbon needed for life wound up on Earth

• Gene switch rejuvenates failing mouse brains

  News > In Brief p17

  Flipping a genetic switch that causes memory impairment in old age could one day restore failing brains to a more youthful state

• Hand-washing wipes emotional baggage from decisions

  News > In Brief p17

  Long a metaphor for the desire to distance oneself from immoral acts, hand-washing does more than just wipe your conscience clean

• Infrared cameras could stop road tunnel fires

  Technology > News p19

  A new automated system could save lives by spotting overheating components in vehicles before they get into the tunnel

• Is water the key to cheaper nanoelectronics?

  Technology > News p19

  The varying attraction of water to different materials could simplify the making of microscopic electronic components

• Rocket-assisted pills pack a punch to the gut

  Technology > News p19

  Tiny rocket motors could one day be used to fire drugs into the human gut

• Oil industry failed to heed blowout warnings

  Technology > News pp20-21

  The warnings were there a decade ago. Yet little has been done to address the risk of systems failure in deep-sea drilling operations

• New deep-sea cables needed to protect global economy

  Technology > News p22

  Engineers say we must diversify the worldwide networks on which the internet depends to secure them against attacks and accidents

• Scramjet with stamina ready for hypersonic test

  Technology > News p22

  An aero engine design tipped to make space flight affordable will soon try to set a new record by flying for several minutes at Mach 5

• Flab rats: Unfit animals are bad for experiments

  Comment and Analysis pp24-25

  Biomedical research needs to wake up to the fact that most laboratory rats and mice are not fit for the job, argues Mark Mattson

• UK election: did candidates with the right face win?

  Opinion > Commentary p25

  US elections are strongly influenced by the candidates' appearance – Richard Wiseman tested British voters to see if they are too

• Exodus twice

  Letters p26

  Kate Ravilious reports on the theory that a volcanic eruption was responsible for the collapse and disappearance of the human populations originating from the first...

• Preserve Hubble

  Letters p26

  In your article "Hubble? Phoenix, more like" (17 April, p 26), you mention that at the end of its useful life the space telescope will...

• Superplants

  Letters p26

  Michael Le Page suggests the release of genetically engineered "superphotosynthesising" plants to help kick-start evolution following a future mass extinction caused by human activity...

• Universal matrix

  Letters p26

  Mark Buchanan's otherwise admirable piece on random matrices (10 April, p 28) failed to cite the remarkable Tracy-Widom distributions, which, when applied to...

• Enigma Number 1595

  Opinion > Enigma p26

• Atheist oppression

  Letters p27

  John Ewing says that "almost every belief system has a history of stamping out non-believers" (24 April, p 24) but appears ignorant of the...

• Built on fear

  Letters p27

  Andy Coghlan's article on the possible link between an individual's fear of strangers and racial prejudice (17 April, p 9) reminded me of...

• Eclectic power

  Letters p27

  Hans van Haren makes the case against using tidal power because, as well as ecological damage, there is not much energy to be had anyway...

• For the record

  Letters p27

  • Sunspot numbers have been declining since the 1990s, not the 1920s as stated in our article on their impact on European winter temperatures (17 April...

• Polywrap compost

  Letters p27

  I wonder if the oxo-degradable polywrap in which some copies of New Scientist are delivered, and whose properties were recently discussed by Feedback (3...

• Scientific politics

  Letters p27

  I would certainly welcome a scientifically qualified person to represent me in Parliament (24 April, p 22), as a scientific approach to problems is far...

• Virtual glass houses

  Letters p27

  Jim Giles reports that analysts at the computer security company McAfee were instrumental in uncovering the scareware marketing ploys that got Innovative Marketing executives into...

• Did exploding stars shatter life's mirror?

  Features > Feature pp28-31

  The building blocks of life all twist the same way. Is that a quirk of Earthly biology, or have cosmic forces been at work?

• Omega-3: Fishy claims for fish oil

  Features > Feature pp32-34

  Claims that the famous fatty acids can fix innumerable health problems – and cut murder rates into the bargain – take some swallowing

• Special report: Living in denial

  Opinion > Special Report p35

  From climate change to vaccines, evolution to flu, denialists are on the march. Why do so many people refuse to accept the evidence?

• Living in denial: When a sceptic isn't a sceptic

  Opinion > Special Report pp36-37

  There are clear lines between scepticism and denial, but telling them apart can be tricky in the real world, says Michael Shermer

• Living in denial: Why sensible people reject the truth

  Opinion > Special Report pp38-41

  Denialism satisfies deep emotional needs. That makes it easy to encourage and hard to counter, says Debora MacKenzie

• Living in denial: How corporations manufacture doubt

  Opinion > Special Report p41

  If the truth is inconvenient, put up a smokescreen instead. It works wonders for big business, argues Richard Littlemore

• Living in denial: Unleashing a lie

  Opinion > Special Report pp42-43

  It's easy to send a lie flying around the world, and almost impossible to shoot it down, says Jim Giles

• Living in denial: Questioning science isn't blasphemy

  Opinion > Special Report p44

  Michael Fitzpatrick argues that calling an opponent a denier is illiberal, intolerant and ineffective

• Living in denial: The truth is our only weapon

  Opinion > Special Report p45

  We must let denialists be heard, and respond with patience, vigilance and tireless rebuttal, says Michael Shermer

• Where we're at with geoengineering

  Opinion > Books & Arts p46

  Two valuable new books explore the technological options for fixing climate change and introduce the colourful characters behind them

• How we get others to do what we want

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  If you can stand the bad jokes and the irritating title, Flipnosis by Kevin Dutton offers powerful insights into the art and science of persuasion

• Ten speculations on the solar system

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  In What if the Earth had Two Moons?, astronomer Neil Comins imagines tweaks that might make our cosmic neighbourhood subtly – or hugely – different

• The ant way to success

  Opinion > Books & Arts p47

  Adventures Among Ants by Mark Moffett examines the idea of ants as superorganisms and looks at how much their colonies resemble human societies

• It's raining elephants

  Feedback p64

  The giant elephants rampaging through our world, the power of the Quantumwave Laser, and how to avoid ever getting answerphone messages

• Freeze frames

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• Guilty as charged

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• Pod quandary

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65