4 April 2020 | New Scientist | 3
On the
cover
Focus on coronavirus
9 The hunt for patient zero
12 Choosing who to ventilate
8 Does ‘viral load’ matter?
44 The race for treatments
11 At-home testing
12 The virus on surfaces
News
Views
Features
14 Mind-reading
An AI can translate thoughts
into sentences
18 Code on ice
Arctic data bank to store cloud
software for 1000 years
19 Impossible predictions
Why we won’t ever be able to
predict some events that obey
the basic laws of physics
23 Comment
Christiana Figueres and Tom
Rivett-Carnac on tackling two
global crises at once
24 The columnist
Graham Lawton on getting
a nature fix in the pandemic
26 Letters
Who is footing the bill for
the covid-19 vaccine?
28 Aperture
Magnified nature in all its glory
30 Culture
David Attenborough’s new
film is a forceful rallying cry
51 Science of cooking
Perfect pork crackling
52 Puzzles
Cryptic crossword, an art gallery
challenge and the quiz
53 Feedback
Where to get free will, plus
lockdown tales: the week
in weird
54 Almost the last word
Any advantages of left-
handedness or having big ears?
56 The Q&A
James Danckert on the upsides
of boredom
34 How we became human
The story of the origin of our
species is being radically
rewritten
44 Inside the race
for treatments
Thousands of people are
searching for coronavirus
treatments. Which are the
most promising and when
will they be ready?
The back pages
10 Environmental impact How lockdown is changing where we live
Vol 246 No 3276
Cover image: Thirteen-Fifty/
Daboost/iStock
34 How we
became human
The epic new story
of our origins
AN
DR
EA
PA
TTA
RO
/AF
P^ V
IA^ G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
News
15 Hot springs on Mars
20 Steps benefits 18 Pluto’s lost
ocean 51 Perfect pork crackling
52 Lockdown special cryptic
crossword
This week’s issue
44 Features
“ We need
to focus on
developing
drugs that
will bring
the greatest
benefit to the
largest number
of patients”^