New Scientist - USA (2020-10-03)

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

NO

RB

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T^ W

U/M

IND

EN

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TU

RE

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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”