LATEST HEADLINES
Piezoelectronics gets green makeover
18:05 12 November 2009
Piezoelectric materials have traditionally been made from lead, but now there's a clean alternative that could soon perform just as well
Signature of consciousness captured in brain scans
19:00 12 November 2009 | 4 comments
Consistent patterns linked to awareness of particular images could be used to detect consciousness in brain-damaged people
Today on New Scientist: 12 November 2009
18:00 12 November 2009
Today's stories on newscientist.com, at a glance, including: the quest to tag the tigers of the sea, the promise and perils of solar sailing, and the peeriodic table of illusions
Quantum 'trampoline' to test gravity
17:42 12 November 2009 | 7 comments
A technique to bounce ultra-cold atoms provides a new way to test the strength of gravity with high accuracy
The Peeriodic Table of Illusions
ESSAY: 16:45 12 November 2009 | 2 comments
Illusions can tell us much about how our brains work, but first we need to know how each one works, says Richard L. Gregory
Common cold may hold off swine flu
THIS WEEK: 16:02 12 November 2009 | 5 comments
This intriguing idea would explain why swine flu's autumn wave has been slow to take off in some countries and point to new ways to fight flu
Noisy parties no problem for musical brains
12:41 12 November 2009 | 10 comments
Differences in brain activity may make musicians better at picking out speech from a noisy background
Tagging the tigers of the sea
FEATURE: 12:12 12 November 2009 | 1 comment
Beautiful, predatory and endangered, tuna are rapidly being hunted to extinction. Graham Lawton joins the high-tech anglers to save them
Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics
11:47 12 November 2009 | 27 comments
A contact lens fitted with an LED and the circuitry to harvest power from radio waves is the first step towards a new kind of head-up display
Tuna in peril as catches reach triple the limit
UPFRONT: 10:49 12 November 2009 | 8 comments
Times are tough for tuna as scientists' advice on managing stocks falls on deaf ears
Propelled by light: the promise and perils of solar sailing
21:30 11 November 2009 | 16 comments
Despite earlier failures, the Planetary Society is gearing up to test another solar sail in space in a year – executive director Louis Friedman explains why
FAVOURITE COMMENT
Giant crack in Earth's crust
"You're a real crack-up." lame_guy (continues)
FEEDBACK
Sports jocks library goes digital
The athletic benefits of digital books, the randomising effects of being really drunk, and some excellent news (not really) from Microsoft
CULTURELAB
2012 movie is truly disastrous
11:00 12 November 2009 - updated 11:29 12 November 2009
Blockbuster film 2012 takes creative licence with reality...and with science.
Masters of disguise
09:00 12 November 2009 - updated 11:30 12 November 2009
In Dazzled and Deceived, Peter Forbes highlights some of the most successful, and surprising, attempts at concealment
EXPLORING MARS
Mars rover Spirit battles for its life
NASA's veteran explorer Spirit faces its toughest challenge yet as it prepares to free itself from a sand trap where it has been mired for the past six months
SPACE
Will probe's fly-by unlock exotic physics?
All eyes will be on the Rosetta comet-chasing probe when it flies by Earth on Friday – a past fly-by revealed a mysterious speed boost that general relativity cannot explain
