New Scientist magazine - 21 December 1996

Issue number 2061/62

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• Editorial : One small step for worldkind - IT WOULD be wonderful to be celebrating Christmas in the knowledge that those amazing claims of life on Mars were about to be confirmed. Unfortunately, it now looks certain that this is one present that Santa Cla

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• Death knell for Martian life

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• No peace on Earth near London's airports

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• Simple E. coli test shows red for danger

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• Europe pushes to ban antibiotic down on the farm

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• Hope springs from the Sea of Galilee

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• Gulf War studies may be too late

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• Strapped for cash at the final frontier

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• Judge pulls plug on polluting shrimp farms

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• …but could low-fat food keep tumours at bay?

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• Sun worshippers pay with their skin…

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• Bumper crop of sons at Sellafield

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• Court victory for keyboard victims

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• Tomatoes menaced by alien insects

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• Dirty business

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• Eggs for sale

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• River timeshare

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• Self-portrait leads to cancer diagnosis

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• Smokers' sperm

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• Space wheat

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• Tribal cells

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• Waste stays put

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• Crumbling away – Is dredging the villain in the drama of Britain's eroding coasts?

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• Science : Ancient humans found refuge in Java

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• Science : One sniff and you're in chocolate heaven

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• Science : How a restless Sun fuels the solar wind

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• Science : We've looked at clouds from both sides now

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• Science : Even worker bees do it in summer

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• Science : Oxygen is the stuff of memories

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• Science : The secret of ice's slippery character

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• Technology : Green cars go farther with graphite

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• Netropolitan :

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• Netropolitan :

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• Technology : Up, up and around the world

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• Technology : Coming soon, the musclebound nerd

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• Technology : White Christmas for blue diodes

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• Patents : Diminishing returns

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• Patents : Drug dilemma

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• Patents : Icy stare

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• Patents : Kiss of life

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• Patents : On target?

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• Patents : Quiet tyres

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• Heavenly visions - Are Jesuits astronomers? Is the Pope Catholic? Hazel Muir discovers one of the Vatican's intellectual treasures

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• Think trivial - You may have been told that only Big Questions can lead to Big Answers. But it ain't necessarily so, says Robert Matthews

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• Beastly discoveries - From a pickled frog to a rat on a stick, 1996 has seen a fine crop of new species

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• Here's one we blew up earlier...

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• Tragedy in toytown - Teddy's gone gooey, Barbie's broken out in green blotches and there's snow all over your favourite videos. What's going on, asks a traumatised Andy Coghlan

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• Vile body - Why, oh why, do our animal natures always make themselves felt or smelt only at the most embarrassing moments, ponders our agony aunt Jess Toppit

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• Mush! Mush! You tekkies! - Time was when all you needed to get around in the chilly North was a fur coat, a wooden sled and a good team of dogs. Today an old Alaskan would recognise only the dogs, says a nostalgic Alison Motluk

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• my best friend's a Brussels sprout - Of course your mother was right about those evil-smelling greens being good for you. But it's not just because of vitamins and minerals, says a hungry Gail Vines

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• The Ultimate trip

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• Christmas Quiz

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• Not cooking but warming - Serious researchers are turning themselves into living radiators by walking into giant microwave ovens. Pete Moore wonders why

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• Skipping Christmas

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  Whether you're a workaholic or on the run from a drunken father-in-law, working over Christmas can be an attractive option. New Scientist has one foot out of the door

• Hold the turkey... - Forget the Christmas roast, get out and round up those yummy little mopane worms, says Our Woman in the Veld, Ellen Bartlett

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• 1996 and all that - Sometimes only a picture will do. Ben Crystall chooses the images behind some of the top science stories of the year

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• One from the heart - Genuine four-leafed clovers and a paperweight with your own DNA in it. Rosie Mestel sifts through the daft presents dreamt up by people who should be grappling with universal truths

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• Feedback

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• The Last Word

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• Review : Aerial acrobatics

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• Review : Essays for all occasions

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• Review : Ireland's own

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• Review : Lively planet

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• Review : Out in the woods

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• Review : Bestiary

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• Review : Confessions of a brain surgeon

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• Review : Humble origins

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• Review : Soul destroying

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• Review : All shook up

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• Review : Come together

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• Review : Sir Polymath

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• Review : Body art

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• Review : Genetically challenged

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• Review : Social Darwinism

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• Review : Are you sitting safely?

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• Review : Complex made simple

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• Review : Dead famous

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• Review : Escape from reality

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• Review : Talking bestseller

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• Review : Bag a dino today

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• Review : Collected works

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• Review : Fine fungi

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• Review : Right values

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• Review : Roach dinner

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• Review : Sayings of Uncle Albert

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• Bestsellers : from Melbourne

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• Forum : Strutting their way to power

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• Forum : Surplus to requirements...

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• Forum : A case of angry reactions

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• Washington diary : Rumours and whispers on the way to the Moon - Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : Aliens `R' us

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : Alive and kicking

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• Letters : Andean accident

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• Letters : Mind or chemistry?

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : . . .

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• Letters : A bridge too new

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• Letters : Eye on safety

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• Letters : Paws for thought

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• Letters : Short on silliness

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• Multimedia is the message

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