CONTENTS
NEWS
5 EDITORIAL Evolutionary theory is evolving
6 UPFRONT Gourmet frogs. Stroke therapy
8 SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Who is testing your DNA? (see right)
12 THIS WEEK
Mountain gorillas in dire straits. Has the moon
performed an about-face? Blood to the brain
doesn’t always signal cognition. Spinning black
holes are the ultimate batteries. Making a
prosthetic hand feel real
18 IN BRIEF Mars methane. Cunning crooks
21 TECHNOLOGY
Spying on the spy satellites. Morphing winglets
make aircraft more efficient. Brain-boring probe.
Controlling nanowires. Lunar dust-busting
OPINION
26 Nicholas Stern reckons the economic crisis
offers an opportunity to tackle climate change
27 Lawrence Krauss on nuclear disarmament
28 LETTERS Social moods. Hydrogen fuels
30 James Lovelock With his 90th birthday
looming, plus a space trip and a new book, 2009
is a big year for the author of the Gaia theory
32 Hidden risk Mark Buchanan on why we can
never be sure the LHC won’t swallow the world
FEATURES
34 Uprooting Darwin’s tree (see right)
40 When numbers don’t add up
What makes otherwise intelligent people
useless at simple arithmetic?
44 You’ll want one of these (see right)
50 Another universe comes calling
The phenomenon dubbed “dark flow” could
be a signal from beyond the cosmic horizon
REGULARS
28 ENIGMA
54 HISTORIES The Mouse Man of Maine
56 BOOKS & ARTS
Reviews The Rise and Fall of Pluto by Neil
deGrasse Tyson. Robotic warfare’s chilling allure.
A natural history of teenagers
58 Gallery Peter Wasilewski’s paintings with ice
84 FEEDBACK
85 THE LAST WORD
60 JOBS
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Who is testing your DNA?
Covert DNA analysis can destroy
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but the law has yet to catch up
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Solar system mysteries
The six biggest puzzles
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PLUS One man’s plan
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© 2009 Reed Business
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Volume 201 No 2692
COVER STORY
Uprooting
Darwin’s tree
An icon of
evolution turns
out to be more
fantasy than fact
Cover image
Yulia Brodskaya
You’ll want
one of these
10 gizmos you
won’t be able
to do without —
once someone
gets round to
inventing them
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24 January 2009 | NewScientist | 3
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