Issue 2712 | Magazine cover date: 13 June 2009

This week's Feedback reveals the oldest physicist in the world and explains why Hollywood's next big biopic won't be about Bernard Madoff. Plus: enter our new competition to win a piece of rock from the moon鈥�

This Week鈥檚 Letters

Letters

Pint of the usual

Last Word

Bird on a wire

Last Word

Leaf me alone

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Wet wind

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杏吧原创

This week's magazine

13 June 2009

On the cover

Editor's picks

Gravity mysteries: Why does gravity only pull?

Seven things that don’t make sense about gravity

Gravity mysteries: What is gravity?

Gravity mysteries: Why is gravity so weak?

Gravity mysteries: Why is gravity fine-tuned?

Gravity mysteries: Does life need gravity?

Gravity mysteries: Can we counter gravity?

Gravity mysteries: Will we ever have a quantum theory of gravity?

Health

Like a hole in the head: The return of trepanation

Technology

The inside story of the Conficker worm

Humans

Has the mystery of sex been explained at last?

Health

How the world’s greatest golfer lost his game

Table of contents

News

Coral reefs ‘flattened’ over just 40 years

First Twitter experiment probes belief in the paranormal

Poor countries could be paid to go nuclear

Train can be worse for climate than plane

Smash and stare, Shrinking star, and more

Health

Women under-represented in cancer drug trials

Health treaties are ‘window dressing’ to many nations

Life

Cause of Hudson plane crash confirmed

Health

Can smoking ever be made safe?

Earth

Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens

‘The deeply embedded view is that Christ is returning soon, so why should we care about the environment?’

Secret of snake slithering found in weights and scales

Physics

Solar system’s planets could spin out of control

Earth

Poor farmers to guard Earth’s crop riches

Health

Premature babies’ posture points to IQ

Space

Lunar astronauts get neighbourhood watch

Earth

Sweet spray opens termites up for attack

Humans

Men prefer averagely shaped women

Physics

Even brown dwarfs have grey days

Tangled proteins make Alzheimer’s spread

Oxidative stress may be to blame for Down’s symptoms

Newborn babies know what counts

‘Ladybug taint’ disappears in boxed wine

Earth

Typhoons take the pressure off earthquake zones

Life

Human ear inspires universal radio chip

Technology

Virtual war spills into real world

Technology

‘Indoor GPS’ means your phone can always find you

Technology

Barcodes could reveal your food’s credentials

Technology

Airbus disaster raises fears for aviation’s future

Physics

Magic carpets hide objects in plain sight

Health

Lung-on-a-chip could replace countless lab rats

Opinion

The case for ‘safer’ cigarettes

Seeking out the engineers of terror

Pandemic worms

Space

Why we still love Star Trek

Health