New Scientist magazine - 10 November 2012

Issue number 2890

New York is degrading from beneath. We will see failures of infrastructure

Previous issue All issues from 2012 | Subscribe

• Don't let the Big Apple rot

  Editorialp3

  After the devastation of superstorm Sandy New York City needs a rescue plan – and it should include abandonment of areas that cannot be protected

• Is telepresence the next big thing?

  Editorialp3

  Telepresence may soon give us all a physical presence in a remote location. Expect the unexpected

• Time to think beyond the Large Hadron Collider

  Editorialp3

  To truly understand the Higgs we will need yet another massive particle accelerator – physicists are starting to dream, and now's a good time to start

• Journalist and psychiatrist awarded prize for bravery

  News > Upfrontp4

  The new John Maddox Prize goes to two men who upheld sound science in the face of physical violence or personal attack

• Lab mice and radar among the scientific victims of Sandy

  News > Upfrontp4

  Not content with battering New York and much of the east coast, superstorm Sandy has taken its toll on vital research and equipment

• Orang-utans infected by mystery Ebola-like virus

  News > Upfrontp4

  The orang-utans of Borneo and Sumatra have antibodies to a host of dangerous African viruses, including Ebola and Marburg

• NASA rover adds new twist to Mars methane mystery

  News > Upfrontpp4-5

  The first test for the gas from within the Martian atmosphere came up essentially empty, but Curiosity scientists say the hunt has just begun

• 60 Seconds

  News > Upfrontp5

  Catfish catastrophe in the Mekong river, world's rarest whale identified, and Superman's home star found in the real universe, almost

• Climate blindness risked as satellites lose their eyes

  News > Upfrontp5

  By 2020, three-quarters of the US satellite instruments used to monitor Earth's weather and climate could be out of action. We need to launch more, and fast

• Theory of everything says universe is a transformer

  News > Upfrontp5

  Oxford visionary David Deutsch has posted a glimpse of his long-awaited theory for why the universe is just so – possibly spawning a new branch of physics

• Yosemite's long-lost twin could be resurrected

  News > Upfrontp5

  A San Francisco ballot could lead to Hetch Hetchy reservoir being drained and restored to a wilderness to match its iconic neighbour

• Sandy aftermath: New York City is rotting at the core

  News > Special Reportpp6-8

  Beneath the destruction brought by superstorm Sandy lies a more insidious problem. Rising sea levels are corroding the very foundations of the Big Apple

• Protecting New York City from the next big storm

  News > Special Reportpp8-9

  Some favour the erection of massive flood barriers, others prefer a soft approach that would engineer the natural environment, but which would work best?

• Entangle Schrödinger's cat to up its quantum weirdness

  News > This Weekp10

  Two doubly quantum experiments serve as a rare experimental example of just how strange the quantum world is

• Sperm stem cells restore male fertility

  News > This Weekp10

  A study in monkeys suggests that boys left infertile after chemotherapy may one day reproduce naturally after an injection of sperm stem cells

• Mathematical proof reveals magic of Ramanujan's genius

  News > This Weekp12

  A complex new proof that the genius mathematician seemed to grasp intuitively may teach us about black holes

• Diabetes link to flu in vulnerable people

  News > This Weekp14

  The flu virus can grow within the pancreas and may trigger an immune response that leads to diabetes

• Doubt cast on Fermi's dark matter smoking gun

  News > This Weekp15

  The strongest sign yet of dark matter interactions at the centre of our galaxy may have just faded into statistical insignificance

• Elephant uses mystery move to speak Korean

  News > In Briefp17

  An elephant mimics human speech by putting its trunk in its mouth

• First stars' light seen through extragalactic fog

  News > In Briefp17

  Like headlights piercing the gloom, the bright cores of distant active galaxies have helped us glimpse how the first stars formed

• Lethal chemicals mean mole rats never get cancer

  News > In Briefp17

  If the cells of blind mole rats start to multiply too fast, they automatically commit mass suicide, ensuring the animal never gets cancer

• The great white shark cattle market

  News > In Briefp17

  Males hanging out in the White Shark Café in the eastern Pacific showcase their diving skills to choosy females

• Abdominal porthole reveals how tumours come together

  News > In Briefp18

  The way in which cancer cells spread to new sites has been glimpsed through glass windows implanted in the sides of mice

• Coral autopsy reveals Great Barrier Reef collapse

  News > In Briefp18

  The ecosystem was ravaged from the 1920s onwards, coral cores reveal, and European settlers were to blame

• Encrypted fabric to thwart fashion fakes

  News > In Briefp18

  A new type of thread that's visible only when lit with polarised light may combat counterfeiting – and could lead to colour-changing fashion

• Twenty-year-old drug 'best yet' for multiple sclerosis

  News > In Briefp18

  A drug developed to treat leukaemia has outperformed current drugs for MS, reducing brain lesions by 50 per cent and halting accelerated brain shrinkage

• Customise your favourite TV show

  Technology > Newsp21

  Plot-deconstructing software lets you make your own episodes of favourite shows

• Saving the stuff of history with 3D laser scanners

  Technology > Newspp22-23

  Vandals and natural disasters constantly threaten historical sites – but they can live on in virtual models created by laser scanners and high-res photography

• India's thorium-based nuclear dream inches closer

  Technology > Insightp24

  It's taken 60 years, but India finally appears poised to capitalise on its abundance of thorium, by using it to power an upcoming nuclear facility

• OK, app, what should I wear to this wedding?

  Technology > Newsp24

  A clothing-recommending app catalogues everything in your wardrobe, then offers suggestions on what outfits to wear for a range of occasions

• Weirdly human armadillo in samurai armour

  Aperturepp26-27

  The southern three-banded armadillo can protect itself pretty well in a ball of armour, but it is nevertheless a near-threatened species

• Beta blockers are busted – what happens next?

  Opinion > Comment and Analysispp28-29

  They have treated heart disease for 40 years, but it now seems that beta blockers don't work. Josh Bloom explains what went wrong

• 'Palaeo-porn': we've got it all wrong

  Opinion > Interviewp29

  The idea that curvaceous figurines are prehistoric pornography is an excuse to legitimise modern behaviour as having ancient roots, says archaeologist April Nowell

• Is schizophrenia more than one disease?

  Opinion > The Big Ideapp30-31

  Schizophrenia wrecks the lives of millions worldwide – and has defeated researchers looking for a single cause. Time for complex new thinking, says Aiden Corvin

• No traveller returns

  Lettersp32

  Shelly Kagan takes the Stoic view of death, epitomised by Shakespeare's Caesar: "cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of"...

• Enigma Number 1723

  Opinion > Enigmap32

• Force against Caesar

  Letterspp32-33

  Laura Spinney quotes theorists' idea that since our closest relatives are chimpanzees, early humans probably had similar strength-based hierarchical social organisation and practices (13...

• A toxin's toll

  Lettersp33

  Jessica Hamzelou reports that 80 per cent of older people's brain cells are vulnerable to developing DNA damage (29 September, p 6). Could this...

• Eat your words

  Lettersp33

  Feedback hints at the problem faced by those with toilet systems that clog easily in phrasing delicately what may be placed in the pan (20...

• Evolving morals

  Lettersp33

  I share Susan Hall's irritation with assertions that because infidelity is normal in humans it must be acceptable (13 October, p 31). But I...

• For the record

  Lettersp33

  • It would have been better if we had mentioned that the photo of Kelly Richardson's video installation Mariner 9 (25 August, p 50) was...

• Not perpetual fuel

  Lettersp33

  Unless someone has repealed the second law of thermodynamics, there is no prospect whatsoever of producing fuel from air without using more energy than that...

• So much food

  Lettersp33

  In his review of One Billion Hungry, Fred Pearce says: "Of course, everyone should put their shoulder to the wheel to double global food production"...

• Particle headache: Why the Higgs could spell disaster

  Features > Cover Storypp34-37

  If the particle discovered at CERN this July is all we think it is, there are good reasons to want it to be something else

• Body down a wire: Living your life in remote-control

  Features > Featurepp38-41

  Transmitting our senses into machines is set to change the way we live, says Helen Thomson, but it's the unintended consequences we should care about

• Homo virtuous: The evolution of good and evil

  Features > Featurepp42-45

  Might the same forces have driven the evolution of our best and worst natures, asks Kate Douglas

• Space repair enters the robotic age

  Features > Featurepp46-49

  Super-smart next-generation spacebots will fix or salvage spacecraft on the fly

• Will we ever understand how our brains work?

  Opinion > CultureLabp50

  Several projects are trying to reverse-engineer the brain. In How to Create a Mind, futurist Ray Kurzweil champions their cause

• The true story of alchemy

  Opinion > CultureLabp51

  Too readily dismissed as the practice of charlatans, alchemy is actually the predecessor of chemistry, argues Lawrence Principe in The Secrets of Alchemy

• What smells with its feet and pees with its head?

  Opinion > CultureLabp51

  In Walking Sideways, biologist Judith Weis explores the bizarre world of crabs – including one so averse to water it throws its eggs off sea cliffs

• All aboard the oil behemoths of the sea

  Careers > The Insiderpp52-53

  Stormy seas, cramped conditions and constant noise – as Sean O'Neill finds out, working on an oil platform isn't your average 9-to-5 job

• Feedback: 'Treated' chocolate makes you happier

  Feedbackp64

  Chocolate imbued with good intentions, the all-new Poppleton University, and is your salary over 70,000k?

• Answer in depth

  The Last Word > Last Word Answerp65

• Juiced up

  The Last Word > Last Word Answerp65

• Pass the port

  The Last Word > Last Word Questionp65