EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE:-14:00 HRS ET US (19:00 HRS British Summertime)WEDNESDAY,8 AUGUST 2001
RACE TO THE DEATHAs athletes fight for medals at the World Championships in Edmonton this week, the drugs tester's job of weeding out the cheats just gets harder. New Scientist has learned that insulin, used by athletes to build muscle and boost energy, is almost impossible to detect using dope tests. Worse still, insulin can kill if wrongly administered. Page 4
SHOCK TACTICSThe Metropolitan Police is aiming to have electro-shock guns on London's street by Christmas. A New Scientist reporter braved the shock and survived to tell us what it's like to be shot by a Taser gun. Page 11
*See full Special Report on Non-Lethal Weapons on pages 10-13
READ ALL ABOUT ITJournalists beware. In just a few years' time, a piece of software could make you obsolete. An American intelligent system will soon be capable of writing newspaper stories and scanning news wires for stories. Page 20
BOTS KNOCK THE SOCKS OFF CITY SLICKERSRobots can make more money than people when they trade commodities, according to IBM researchers. They go on to say that robotic trading agents will in the future replace people in making financial decisions on behalf of companies. Page 21
BORN UNDER A THIN STARAnorexic women are more likely to be born in the spring or early summer. A Scottish researcher says the findings point to a seasonally fluctuating cause of anorexia such as winter flu during pregnancy. Page 6
PHANTOM TRUCKERSSee-through traffic could prevent car crashes at busy junctions, say Japanese researchers. The team has developed a system that can be displayed on a screen inside a car which makes closer traffic look transparent, allowing you to see hidden motorcycles and cars. Page 18
MISSING IN ACTIONAmerica's spy satellites are not in the orbits that Pentagon says they are. According to a respected space analyst there are several discrepancies in the data held by the UN - who maintains a registry of all objects launched into outer space. Page 5
CHEF'S SPECIALDespite conservation efforts, thousands of sea turtles are being eaten every year. When San Diego-based conservationists lost the satellite signal tracking a 50-year old turtle, they thought the transmitter had fallen off. They soon found out that the turtle had ended up on a village barbecue. Page 17
SHORT STORY - LOYAL LUGGAGESick of lugging suitcases around airports? A British patent has come to the rescue - a case on wheels driven by a battery-powered motor that follows its owner like an obedient dog. Page 19
INFINITE SENSATIONEveryone has five distinct senses, and it has long been assumed that each sense feeds a dedicated brain area to handle that sense only. But why do people born blind use the visual cortex to read Braille? Recent experiments reveal that everyone has the capacity to swap senses if they have to. Pages 24-28
LOOK WHO'S TALKINGDeep inside the headquarters of the Israeli company Artificial Intelligence lives a small infant called Hal. Except Hal is not a real boy he's a computer program that understands spoken language. Duncan Graham-Rowe was allowed to talk to him. Pages 35-37
DEAD MAN WALKINGIt has been blamed for 70 per cent of all gastric ulcers and 60 per cent of stomach cancers - and development of a vaccine against it is underway. However, doubts are now emerging about whether Helicobacter pylori is really the evil bug everyone thinks it is. Pages 31-33
THE LOGGER OF THE LAKEWhat kind of a lumberjack can chop down forests and have environmentalists cheer him on? The kind that chops underwater trees down. A Canadian engineer plans to rescue perfectly preserved dead timber from an entire forest which was flooded when Brazil decided to build a dam on the Amazon. Pages 39-41
INTERVIEW - AGAINST THE ODDSThe Virunga forest in Central Africa which straddles Rwanda, Uganda and Congo, has sheltered refuges and militia and is surrounded by people desperate for land and food. But it is also one of the last refuges of the mountain gorilla, and so is off limits to people. The Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme explains why protecting the gorillas is also vital for the area and it's people. Pages 43-45
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ISSUE DATE: 11 AUGUST 2001
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