New Scientist 09May2020

52 Pages·2020·20.27 MB·English

21 May 2020 6pm BST/1pm EST
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CORONAV I RUS

PLUS OUR OUIET SUN / BAT SOCIAL DISTANCING / DRUNK ANIMALS /
THE ROCKETS THAT WILL RETURN NASA TO THE MOON

WHY SOME PEOPLE GET
SICK AND SOME DON’T

NUDGE EFFECT

The urgent mystery at the heart of covid-19

Persuading humans to follow the rules

AN EXPLOSION OF
RESEARCH...
But how much of the science can we trust?

SPACE ENIGMA SOLVED?

Milky Way clues to origin
of strange radio bursts

MONSTER OF THE DEEP
New theory on one of the
weirdest fossils ever found

AUGMENTED AUDIO

Your music is about to
sound better than ever

WEEKLY May 9–15, 2020

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9 May 2020 | New Scientist | 3

On the
cover

16 Space enigma solved?
Milky Way clues to origin
of strange radio bursts

18 Monster of the deep
New theory on one of the
weirdest fossils ever found

34 Augmented audio
Your music is about to
sound better than ever

News

Views

Features

16 Fast radio bursts
Strange signals seen in
Milky Way for the first time

18 What on Earth?
A new origin for the uniquely
strange Tully Monster

18 Blurred lines
Psychiatric diagnoses
may be misguided as
they change over time

21 The columnist
Annalee Newitz on retreating
from tech during lockdown

22 Letters
Growing your own veg during
the coronavirus pandemic

24 Aperture
Shot of a European hare takes
nature photography prize

26 Culture TV
In Devs, a strange firm develops
a powerful quantum computer

27 Culture film
Code 8 is a cracking caper and
a shrewd comment on society

45 Puzzles
Cryptic crossword and the quiz

46 More puzzles
Grapple with Lego blocks
to solve a maths problem

46 Cartoons
The lighter side of life with
Tom Gauld and Twisteddoodles

47 Feedback
Keep a coffin-length apart;
fries for all: the week in weird

48 The last word
How do lizards walk upside
down? Readers respond

28 Why some people
get sick and some don’t
How can we tell who will be
vulnerable to covid-19 – and
how do we protect them?

34 Augmented audio
Music production technology
gets a sweeping upgrade

38 Nudge effect
When behavioural scientists get
the pandemic response wrong

The back pages

17 Lunar landing SpaceX’s Starship could land on the moon in 2024

Vol 246 No 3281
Cover image: Nadia Snopek

28 Why some people get
sick and some don’t
The urgent mystery at
the heart of covid-19

12 An explosion
of research…
But how much of the
science can we trust?

38 Nudge effect
Persuading humans
to follow the rules

SPACEX

News

19 Our quiet sun
16 Bat social distancing
19 Drunk animals
17 The rockets that will
return NASA to the moon

This week’s issue

28 Features
“ Patients
that look
similar on the
outside can be
very different
when it
comes to
their immune
response”

4 | New Scientist | 9 May 2020

In my last editor’s note,
written when the full scale of
the pandemic was becoming clear,
I talked about the possibility that
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one or more issues of the
magazine during the crisis.
The good news is that this hasn’t
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with all New Scientist staff working
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Other than widening digital
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journalistic model in order to best
serve you during the pandemic.
A large chunk of our reporting
is now on the coronavirus. We aim
to offer you coverage that stands
apart from the cacophony of noise
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Our mission is to be as
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where possible, a historical and
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A note from
the editor

Emily Wilson
New Scientist editor

Elsewhere
on New Scientist

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