Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death
Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatments
Apple's patents under fire at US patent office
The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against Samsung
Himalayan dam-building threatens endemic species
The world's highest mountains look set to become home to a huge number of dams - good news for clean energy but bad news for biodiversity
Astrophile: Black hole exposed as a dwarf in disguise
A white dwarf star caught mimicking a black hole's X-ray flashes may be the first in a new class of binary star systems
Blind juggling robot keeps a ball in the air for hours
The robot, which has no visual sensors, can juggle a ball flawlessly by analysing its trajectory
Studio sessions show how Bengalese finch stays in tune
This songbird doesn't need technological aids to stay in tune - and it's smart enough to not worry when it hears notes that are too far off to be true
Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur
A lone tooth found in Argentina may have belonged to a dinosaur even larger than those we know of, but what to call it?
Avian flu virus learns to fly without wings
A strain of bird flu that hit the Netherlands in 2003 travelled by air, a hitherto suspected by unproven route of transmission
Feedback: Are wind turbines really fans?
A tale of "disease-spreading" wind farms, the trouble with quantifying "don't know", the death of parody in the UK, and more
The link between devaluing animals and discrimination
Our feelings about other animals have important consequences for how we treat humans, say prejudice researchers Gordon Hodson and Kimberly Costello
Best videos of 2012: First motion MRI of unborn twins
Watch twins fight for space in the womb, as we reach number 6 in our countdown of the top videos of the year
2012 Flash Fiction winner: Sleep by Richard Clarke
Congratulations to Richard Clarke, who won the 2012 New Scientist Flash Fiction competition with a clever work of satire
Urban Byzantine monks gave in to temptation
They were supposed to live on an ascetic diet of mainly bread and water, but the monks in 6th-century Jerusalem were tucking into animal products
The pregnant promise of fetal medicine
As prenatal diagnosis and treatment advance, we are entering difficult ethical territory
2013 Smart Guide: Searching for human origins in Asia
Africa is where humanity began, where we took our first steps, but those interested in the latest cool stuff on our origins should now look to Asia instead
The end of the world is an opportunity, not a threat
Don't waste time bemoaning the demise of the old order; get on with building the new one
Victorian counting device gets speedy quantum makeover
A photon-based version of a 19th-century mechanical device could bring quantum computers a step closer
Did learning to fly give bats super-immunity?
When bats first took to the air, something changed in their DNA which may have triggered their incredible immunity to viruses
Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball
Fragments from a meteor that exploded over California in April are unusually low in amino acids, putting a twist on one theory of how life on Earth began
Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012
This article
Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012
can be opened in url
http://newssugarplum.blogspot.com/2012/12/today-on-new-scientist-21-december-2012.html
Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012
