New Scientist - 21.09.2019

(Brent) #1
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 1

On the
cover

7 Speaking chimp
Do we share an ancestral
sign language with our
ape cousins?

12 Visitor from deep space
Second-ever interstellar
comet is heading our way

6 Ringing black holes
Einstein proved right
(yet again)

News


Views


Features


8 Our melting planet
A special report on the world’s
shrinking glaciers

12 Interstellar visitor
A second object from
a different solar system
may be coming this way

15 Circadian rhythms
Light therapy may relieve
perinatal depression

21 Comment
Adults should join the climate
strikes, argues Alice Bell

22 The columnist
Annalee Newitz on tech firms’
union confusion

26 Letters
There are several approaches
to saving the Arctic Ocean

28 Aperture
Rival mudskippers tussle for
territory in Japan

30 Culture
Inside the anti-science world
of The Testaments

51 Stargazing at home
Make a model of Earth’s orbit
around the sun

52 Puzzles
Cryptic crossword and a quick quiz

53 Feedback
Elongated eels and naming
names: the week in weird

54 Almost the last word
Lightning effects and biscuit/cake
duality: readers respond

56 The Q&A
xkcd creator Randall Munroe
on the inventive use of science

34 Creating consciousness
We have identified the four
essential elements that make
a conscious mind

38 Richard Dawkins’s mission
The evolutionary biologist
wants to break the cycle
of superstition

42 An untold Amazon tragedy
As huge parts of the rainforest
burn, other areas are drowning

The back pages


Vol 243 No 3248
Cover image: Oska

34 The true nature of
consciousness
We’re finally cracking the
greatest mystery of you

38 ‘We are all irrational’
Richard Dawkins on God,
evolution and Islamophobia

MARY TURNER, THE TIMES

16 First watery exoplanet found 16 Crabs that growl
8 Our vanishing glaciers 13  Infinite maths problem solved

This week’s issue


3 weeks to go!
Discover why engineering
is everywhere at our
four-day festival of
science. Find out more
at newscientistlive.com

Interview


38 Richard Dawkins


“ We really need to push


the beauty of science”

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