New Scientist - 08.02.2020

(Wang) #1
8 February 2020 | New Scientist | 3

On the
cover

42 Spider consciousness
Inside the amazing mind
of an arachnid

16 Quantum freeze
Nanoparticle cooled to
nearly absolute zero

38 Sanity check
The flawed experiment that
shook psychiatry to its core

News


Views


Features


14 SpaceX Starlink
Astronomers want to sue
to protect the night sky

15 Smells like teen vaping?
Why concerns over e-cigarette
use may be overblown

20 Nuclear winter
Nuclear power was meant to
save us from climate change,
but it is on the way out

23 Comment
Andrew Barron on the
evolution of sexuality

24 The columnist
Graham Lawton on why
aiming for net zero could work

26 Letters
Ask an AI to explain how
an AI made a decision

28 Aperture
A swarm of locusts flies
through Kenya eating crops

30 Culture
How to fight back against
everyday racism

51 Science of cooking
How to temper chocolate

52 Puzzles
A quick crossword, a beetle
problem and the quick quiz

53 Feedback
Joy of the rovers and a puzzle
puzzle: the week in weird

54 Almost the last word
How can you get flu after
vaccination? Readers explain

56 The Q&A
Psychologist Suzi Gage
on saying why to drugs

34 First alphabet
Meet the inventors of our ABCs

38 Sanity check
Inside the iconic experiment
that devastated psychiatry

42 Spider consciousness
Arachnid intelligence is more
sophisticated than we thought

46 Wiki’s missing women
Why Jess Wade is writing history

The back pages


Vol 245 No 3268
Cover image: CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS.
Dan Higgins, MAM

7 Coronavirus
Understanding the
Wuhan outbreak
Zoonosis: when viruses
jump species
What happens next?

34 First alphabet
Untold story of a writing
revolution

12 Sinking seabed 14 Robots that
sweat 28 Locust plague 46 Wiki’s
missing women 18 Close-up of the
sun’s surface

This week’s issue


Instant Expert:
Human Evolution
Join six expert speakers
in London on 29 February
for a one-day masterclass.
Find out more at
newscientist.com/events

42 Spider intelligence The remarkable abilities of arachnids

LEFT: CFKAM/GETTY IMAGES; ABOVE: SHUTTERSTOCK

Feature


23 Comment


“ Sexuality could be influenced


by hundreds of genes and


there is no single gene for


same-sex attraction”

Free download pdf