2011 PReView The big stories to look out for next year
December 25, 2010 - January 7, 2011
Holiday special
Robothespians
The roast of Christmas future Victorian science tales Sozzled superconductors Sequence my Stilton Extreme beer Horror lizards Steampunk Lego Booze myths busted Secret Santa’s secret Jingle hells Electric elk Plus much, much more...
US$5.95 CAN$5.95 No2792/93
Science and technology news www.NewScientist.com US jobs in science
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True PDF release: storemags & fantamag
storemags & fantamag - magazines for all
True PDF release: storemags & fantamag
storemags & fantamag - magazines for all
CoNteNtS
Volume 208 No 2792/2793
This issue online www.newscientist.com/issue/2792
News
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THIS WEEK Your environment matters more than your genes. Dog masters 1000-word vocabulary. No black holes found at the LHC – yet. Microwave map hints at other universes 12 IN BRIEF Google’s fossil record of 5 million books. Chimp juveniles “play mother”. Black holes saved by superhero move. on the origin of earth’s oxygen
Stories to look out for in the coming year, plus a look back at 2010
De MALGLAIVe etIeNNe/ABACA/PA
Goodbye 2010, hello 2011
Technology 15 Photo editing enters the third dimension. Protecting trappist beer from imitations
Features
40 Holiday features 40 Sozzled superconductors 42 Once upon a time 45 Botanical ballistics 48 Steampunk Lego 50 Wherefore art thou robot? 53 Booze truths 56 The gunpowder gang 58 Santa strategy 60 No accounting for taste 63 Attack me if you dare 66 Alive, alive o! 68 The roast of Christmas future 70 Jingle hells 73 Big bird 76 Bambi bites back
Brett rYDer
40 See left
Opinion 5
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34 36
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Culturelab 78 2010 FlaSH FICTION COMpETITION Science fiction author Neil Gaiman picks the winners from stories set in worlds where discarded science turned out be true 80 INTERvIEW Neurologist Kevin Nelson on his fresh take on near-death in The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain REvIEWS 81 Gruff Davies’s thriller poses deep questions 82 the “Scientist Pope” is given his due by Nancy Marie Brown
GreGG SeGAL/CorBIS outLINe
Ray Kurzweil vs mortality He wants to live forever, so how fit is he now?
EdITORIal Ask the right questions and you can predict the future Strife on Mars Don’t wreck the search for et, pleads Barry e. DiGregorio One minute with… Apollo 13’s crew Listen in to the astronauts before and after the explosion that almost took their lives lETTERS Holiday fun, with number puzzles, atomic limericks and robots hands The real me New year, new diary. But what do you really want to record about yourself, asks Alun Anderson Ray Kurzweil vs mortality (see left)
Regulars
Coming next week… Fuzzy evolution Life is even more random than anyone thought
34 ENIGMa 88 FEEdBaCK Interesting lives 89 ENd OF yEaR quIz test your recall of 2010’s events and advances 84 JOBS & CaREERS
Instant expert: Metamaterials How the invisibility cloak became a reality
25 December 2010/1 January 2011 | NewScientist | 3
True PDF release: storemags & fantamag
storemags & fantamag - magazines for all
EDITORIAL
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