New Scientist - USA (2020-09-26)

26 September 2020 | New Scientist | 1

On the

cover

10 Coronavirus

myths busted

Why the virus isn’t from

a lab, and why you didn’t

have it in December

32 Nuclear batteries

The forgotten power

source that could fuel

an energy revolution

News

Views

Features

8 Testing times

How the UK could get a

grip on coronavirus testing

12 Venus fly-by

The BepiColombo probe will

have a chance to hunt for life

18 Apple Watch

The latest Apple gadget can

monitor your blood oxygen

level, but why?

21 Comment

Let’s focus on Venus and

search for life, says Peter Gao

22 The columnist

Annalee Newitz takes the long

view amid a year of disasters

24 Aperture

California’s wildfires

caught on camera

26 Letters

Views on the “fuzzi-verse”,

the pandemic and much more

28 Culture

Incredible stories of the

human brain’s ability to adapt

51 The science of gardening

Green your home by growing ivy

52 Puzzles

A quick crossword, a page-count

conundrum and the quiz

54 Almost the last word

How people in the Arctic

learned to cope with little sun

56 Feedback

The weird science that won

this year’s Ig Nobel prizes

56 Twisteddoodles

for New Scientist

Picturing the lighter side of life

32 Nuclear batteries

A forgotten kind of nuclear

power could create amazingly

long-lasting batteries

38 Evolving evolution

Charles Darwin laid the

foundations of evolution.

Then came genes, which

explained how it worked.

Now our greatest theory

of nature is changing

once again

The back pages

16 ’Massive failure’ World falls short on biodiversity targets

Vol 247 No 3301

Cover image: Tim McDonagh

38 Evolution special issue

The changing face of our

greatest theory of nature

GE

RR

Y^ E

LL

IS/M

IND

EN

/N

ATU

RE

PL

.CO

M

News

21 Pivot to Venus

13 Halloween allergies

18 Fish that grab crabs

51 The science of gardening

19 Giraffes hit by lightning

This week’s issue

32 Features

“ A forgotten

type of

nuclear

power

could be safe,

powerful and

long-lasting”