LATEST HEADLINES
Head-mounted microscope sees brain beneath the skull
14:45 09 November 2009
A microscope fitted to rats' heads watched the animals' brains in action as they roved freely
Breath of fresh air transforms stem cells
14:32 09 November 2009 | 1 comment
Specialised lung tissue has been created by exposing stem cells to the open air
Stop selling out science to commerce
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: 14:08 09 November 2009 | 17 comments
Corporate might and commercial pressures are undermining research. It's time for scientists to blow the whistle, say Stuart Parkinson and Chris Langley
Gizmos allow artists to 'feel' their creations
FEATURE: 11:57 09 November 2009 | 1 comment
Artists are leaving keyboards and mice behind to work more intuitively with touch screens, input devices with physical feedback and air-drawing
Extraterrestrial rafting: Hunting off-world sea life
FEATURE: 10:46 09 November 2009 | 9 comments
Do the moons of Jupiter and Saturn harbour life in their chilly oceans? A flotilla of space probes is being lined up to haul anchor and find out
Spy-in-the-cab could improve teenage driving
FEATURE: 12:00 08 November 2009 | 25 comments
Novice drivers are responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents – now an in-car warning system has cut incidents of reckless driving by half
Evidence recovered from dirty DNA samples
IN BRIEF: 11:00 08 November 2009 | 5 comments
Contaminated DNA that would normally be written off can now provide evidence, thanks to amplification enzymes that tolerate pollution
Why did our species survive the Neanderthals?
BOOKS & ARTS: 10:00 08 November 2009 | 56 comments
According to Clive Finlayson in The Humans Who Went Extinct, we were just lucky
Malcolm Gladwell's miscellany of myths
BOOKS & ARTS: 11:00 07 November 2009 | 21 comments
Superstar writer Malcolm Gladwell teases out complexities behind the obvious and fun in the mundane in his collection of essays, What the Dog Saw
The music of Life on Earth
BOOKS & ARTS: 10:00 07 November 2009 | 1 comment
Edward Williams's music for Life on Earth is as atmospheric and innovative as the classic 1979 David Attenborough TV series it was composed for
'Space elevator' wins $900,000 NASA prize
23:37 06 November 2009 | 74 comments
A laser-powered robot climbed 900 metres up a cable suspended from a helicopter, winning a prize that had gone unclaimed since 2005
FAVOURITE COMMENT
Murderer with 'aggression genes' gets sentence cut
"Isn't there a thing called 'equality before the law'? Judgment should be according to what he did, not what he may have a higher probability to do." bartleby
CULTURELAB
Welcome to the CultureLab!
Announcing our new blog, a space where editors, authors, artists and readers can come together to talk about anything and everything that's perched on that fantastic intersection where books, arts and science collide.
SHORT SHARP SCIENCE BLOG
Today on New Scientist: 6 November 2009
18:00 06 November 2009 - updated 18:03 06 November 2009
Today's stories on newscientist.com, at a glance, including: how to end the epidemic of short-sightedness, the future of computer graphics, and why human microbes are total NIMBYs
Achtung baby! German babies say 'wäh', French say 'ouain'
12:50 06 November 2009 - updated 13:46 06 November 2009
A new study suggests that fetuses start grappling with the specifics of their mother tongue even when cocooned inside the womb, says Celeste Biever
TIMELINE
The secret history of swine flu
Six months ago, swine flu emerged as a massive threat to global health. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but our timeline explains how the origins of the H1N1 pandemic go back more than a century
PARANORMAL
Where do ghosts come from?
Some places spook even those who scoff at the supernatural. Our reporter braved a night in a haunted castle to find out why
