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New Scientist

Issue: 12/02/2011

Ref: NS120211

Availability: 39 in stock.

No.2799

 

• A matter of life and brain death

  Editorial p5

  Studies of the dying brain can help tell us how to save a mind

• Hope and hype in the world of statistics

  Editorial p5

  More could be done to give the public a realistic picture of research findings

• Egypt, Tunisia: hit by the global food crisis

  News > Upfront p6

  Food and economic analysts are warning that these governments could be the first victims of the global food crisis, and others are similarly vulnerable

• US military promotes peace in space

  News > Upfront p6

  A new strategy backed by the US military and intelligence agencies could reduce the risk of satellite damage by encouraging nations to act responsibly in space

• US to curb 'rocket-fuel chemical' in water

  News > Upfront pp6-7

  Tougher regulations will hit perchlorate, which is found in drinking water and thought to affect infant development

• 60 Seconds

  News > 60 Seconds p7

  The flea that has more genes than you, the sun in stereo, the science that isn't, and more

• Lettuce is sucking California's fruit basket dry

  News > Upfront p7

  It may be a land of milk and honey, but California's Central valley – the most productive farmland in the US – is being sucked dry

• Shaken baby evidence shaken

  News > Upfront p7

  Evidence has emerged that suggests a leading British police officer has approved a policy of discrediting defence expert witnesses in shaken baby cases

• Temple conflict could spell malarial doom

  News > Upfront p7

  The Preah Vihear temple lies near a region of drug-resistant malaria – and fighting over who owns it could help the disease to spread

• Death rattle of a decapitated brain

  News > This Week pp8-9

  Chop off a rat's head, and a minute later a wave of electrical activity passes through their brain. Is this the boundary between life and death?

• Spaghetti junction bridges gaps in broken spines

  News > This Week p10

  Pasta-inspired implants have helped rats with spinal cord injuries move their hind legs again – the approach might one day help people with paraplegia

• Who ate all the planets? Blame the 'bloatars'

  News > This Week p10

  A group of mysteriously bloated stars may have grown fat by eating their own planets in a feeding frenzy

• Taste bud trickery needed to cut salt intake

  News > This Week p11

  Instead of encouraging people to cut the salt in their diet, we should consider using salt substitutes

• Vacuum has friction after all

  News > This Week p12

  A ball spinning in a vacuum should never slow down, right? Wrong. It turns out quantum effects can create a type of friction in the void

• Without language, numbers make no sense

  News > This Week p13

  The discovery that people need language to understand larger numbers may shed light on the way children acquire their number sense

• Giant archaeological trove found in Google Earth

  News > Fieldnotes p14

  Using detailed satellite imagery, Australian researchers have discovered tombs potentially 10,000 years old in remote stretches of Saudi Arabia

• Make or break time for Mali's fertile wetland

  News > Fieldnotes p14

  As well is supporting a million local people the inner Niger delta is home to a wealth of wildlife – including many of Europe's migratory birds

• A sweet tooth predicts success of alcoholism treatment

  News > In Brief p17

  People who prefer sweeter tastes are more likely to kick alcohol dependence using a common drug treatment

• Gushing flood formed giant Martian sinkhole

  News > In Brief p17

  Meltwater flowing through deep cracks in the Martian rock may explain the origins of the enormous Hebes Chasma canyon

• Neutron star seen forming exotic new state of matter

  News > In Brief p17

  Evidence is emerging for the existence of a superfluid neutron soup – a state of matter not achievable in laboratories on Earth

• Sex and aggression are bad bedfellows in the brain

  News > In Brief p17

  The cells responsible for aggression in mouse brains are suppressed during mating, which is probably a good thing

• After the birds vanish, plants are next to go

  News > In Brief p18

  The first evidence is in to confirm that plunging bird populations could lead to the slow decline of plant species

• Brain's 'constant gardener' discovered

  News > In Brief p18

  A protein that prunes away connections in the brain could shed light on diseases thought to result from misconnections during development

• HIV-like infection banished from mice

  News > In Brief p18

  A human protein ramps up the immune system of mice infected with an HIV-like virus, clearing infection

• Humans cheat chimps by knowing the rules

  News > In Brief p18

  Take away the rulebook and humans aren't much better than chimps at strategic games

• Augmented nose sniffs out illegal stenches

  Technology > Fieldnotes p21

  Chemical plants, landfills, oil refineries… odours so foul that they break the law are everywhere. Now we can keep them in check

• Clearing up space junk, one piece at a time

  Technology > News pp22-23

  As the cloud of orbiting junk shrouding the Earth grows ever denser, the most sophisticated garbage collectors of all time are taking shape

• Army wants rapid-fire rubber bullets for crowd control

  Technology > News p24

  Fired from an auto-fire grenade launcher, new plastic crowd control rounds have human rights activists up in arms

• Watch out, your lover may be cyberstalking you

  Technology > News p24

  While high-tech snooping is a boy thing, one-third of female students questioned said they had broken into their partner's email account

• Let's take better care of our rare earth elements

  Comment and Analysis pp26-27

  Despite their name, rare earth elements are not especially rare. So how come we are so worried about them running out, asks Mike Pitts

• Supercomputer creator: Our machine can win Jeopardy!

  Opinion > Interview p27

  When the IBM supercomputer Watson competes on the US quiz show Jeopardy! tonight, it will be a pinnacle in artificial intelligence, says David Ferrucci, one of its creators

• Ape versus dog

  Letters p28

  You say that Chaser the border collie knows the names of 1022 items, more than any other animal (25 December 2010, p 8). Koko, a...

• Credible theories

  Letters p28

  I must object to the idea put forward in your feature on climate models that "it is the differences between [climate] models that help to"...

• Economic evolution

  Letters p28

  There are many interesting parallels between the global financial system and natural ecosystems (22 January, p 6). It is not entirely surprising, given that financial...

• Faecal phages

  Letters p28

  Given that "poo is a zoo", it seems surprising that the report on the use of faecal transplantation to combat Clostridium difficile infections left out...

• Local ecology

  Letters p28

  Garry Hamilton's argument that invasive species could be beneficial to ecosystems pertains more to continents than to islands (15 January, p 34...

• Enigma Number 1633

  Opinion > Enigma p28

• Seeing is believing

  Letters pp28-29

  We should not be surprised by the strength of the anti-immunisation lobby (15 January, p 46). In rich nations, the majority of the population...

• A sticky end

  Letters p29

  Kevin Scott asks if anybody can tell him which is the wrong end of a stick (22 January, p 27). On a trip to Trim...

• Bitter beer

  Letters p29

  The drinking of "extreme" beers, as discussed by Lizzie Buchen, has interesting historical precedents (25 December 2010, p 60). Analysis of historic recipes indicates that...

• Christmas P's

  Letters p29

  I looked into the "P versus NP problem" on Christmas Day (25 December 2010, p 24), and am happy to confirm that Presents (P) most...

• Fat on the brain

  Letters p29

  You suggest that having a fat tummy may shrivel your brain (8 January, p 14). But an alternative explanation could flip this theory on its...

• For the record

  Letters p29

  • We incorrectly stated that Charles Derby was affiliated to the University of Georgia (22 January, p 14). He is actually based at Georgia State University...

• Middle-planet spread

  Letters p29

  In "Tales from an alternate Earth", Hazel Muir suggests that if our planet stopped rotating, the oceans would settle in bands around the poles because...

• Frankenstein syndrome: Why do we fear making humans?

  Opinion > The Big Idea pp30-31

  From IVF to artificial wombs, why does each advance in reproductive technology still conjure up visions of monsters or Hitler clones, asks Philip Ball

• Evolution's X factor: Shuffling up new species

  Features > Cover Story pp32-35

  Darwin described the creation of new species as the "mystery of mysteries". Could the solution be found in a single gene, asks Bob Holmes

• Darwinian dating: Baby, I'm your natural selection

  Features > Feature pp36-39

  Looking for love? Sharpen up your game with a little evolutionary cunning. Helen Thomson plays Cupid to test the rules of attraction

• Spin doctors: The truth behind health scare headlines

  Features > Feature p40

  TV kills, and so does socialised healthcare – that's what the statistics say. Or do they? New Scientist explains how numbers can be turned into nonsense

• Spin doctors: Your number's up

  Features > Feature p41

  What would worry you more: being told that cancer kills 25 people out of 100, or that it kills 250 people out of 1000?

• Spin doctors: More harm than good

  Features > Feature p42

  Hot cups of tea, grapefruit and bacon sandwiches have all been alleged to cause cancer – better learn to read the risks right

• Spin doctors: Size matters

  Features > Feature p43

  Curing six out of 10 patients is promising. Curing 300 out of 500 is far more convincing

• Spin doctors: TV kills

  Features > Feature p43

  People who watched more than 4 hours of TV a day were more likely to die than those who watched less than 2, a study found – should TV addicts be worried?

• Spin doctors: Die another day

  Features > Feature p44

  Rudy Giuliani claimed you were only half as likely to survive prostate cancer in the UK as in the US. He was right – but also wrong

• Mind reading: The science of storytelling

  Features > Feature pp45-47

  You may think you can tell fact from fiction, but your brain doesn't know the difference

• Inventing modern science over eggs and bacon

  Opinion > CultureLab p48

  In The Philosophical Breakfast Club, Laura Snyder pins the rise of science as we know it on the weekly meetings of four great 19th-century thinkers

• A tour of the multiverses

  Opinion > CultureLab p49

  In The Hidden Reality, Brian Greene's effortless prose wraps up a fascinating feast of multiverses, complete with the profound questions they raise

• How going online messes with your head

  Opinion > CultureLab p49

  John Brockman's Is The Internet Changing the Way You Think? offers a compilation of answers to the Edge's question for 2010

• The thrill of the alien planet chase

  Opinion > CultureLab p49

  Strange New Worlds by astronomer Ray Jayawardhana tells the story of two decades of exoplanet searches

• Feedback: Quantum shift in woo-woo nonsense

  Feedback p64

  Positive Vibrational Change and Sacred Geometry Infusion, the Journal of Universal Rejection, 70,000 cold years to come, and more

• Piles of reason

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• Tyre strategy

  The Last Word > Last Word Answer p65

• Don't call me ginger

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65

• Happy feet

  The Last Word > Last Word Question p65