New Scientist Int 4.04.2020

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

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EA

PA

TTA

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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”^