3 October 2020 | New Scientist | 1
On the
cover
41 Last of the mega fish
Earth’s vanishing
river monsters
46 Reasons to be cheerful
Ruby Wax on mindfulness
and mental health
18 China’s climate surprise
Can it really go carbon
neutral by 2060?
News
Views
Features
16 The problem with paleo
Certain diets may increase
your biological age
17 In a galaxy far, far away...
We may have seen the first
planet beyond the Milky Way
18 China leads the world
China’s pledge to go carbon
neutral by 2060 may spur
other countries to do the same
23 Comment
We’re heading to court to try
to stop an avian apocalypse
24 The columnist
James Wong sees the upsides
in farming monocultures
26 Aperture
The sea sponge that could
help us build better spacecraft
28 Letters
Views on the possible signs
of life on Venus
32 Culture
A dog’s-eye take on the story
of canine cosmonauts
51 Citizen science
How you can help the coronavirus
fight using your own computer
52 Puzzles
A cryptic crossword, the quick quiz
and a relay running puzzle
54 Almost the last word
Why does milk spill over when it
boils? Readers have the answer
55 Tom Gauld for New Scientist
A cartoonist’s take on the world
56 Feedback
Why you should be cautious
about clothing yourself in photons
36 Alone in the cosmos
Why we’re probably in for a
very long wait to hear from
intelligent aliens
41 Water monsters
The race is on to save the
world’s giant river species
from extinction
46 Ruby Wax interview
We are addicted to bad news,
but we can break free
The back pages
41 Mega threat Paddlefish are among giant river species in deep trouble
Vol 248 No 3302
Cover image: Tobias Roetsch
gtgraphics.de
Life beyond Earth special
12 The discovery on Venus,
and the race to understand it
14 Have we been looking for
life in all the wrong places?
36 Why we will (probably) never
make contact with intelligent aliens
10 Lockdown or let it rip?
Difficult decisions as
European coronavirus
cases rise once more
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Features
34 Raised by Wolves 16 The
problem with the paleo diet
17 First extragalactic exoplanet?
21 A whale diving record
This week’s issue
36 Features
“ If there are
thinking
things out
there, we
are probably
never going
to make
contact”