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Editor's picks

Humans

Death: The evolution of funerals

Health

Death: The blurred line between dead and alive

Humans

Death: Why we should be grateful for it

Life

Death: The natural history of corpses

Humans

Death: Don’t fear the reaper

Space

Confounded by Mars: Climate history thrown into doubt

Table of contents

News

Skydiver goes supersonic in epic jump from edge of space

Felix Baumgartner has landed safely after a daring freefall that saw him dive from about 39 kilometres, higher than anyone else in history

Earth

Independent geoengineer’s ocean field test condemned

Earth

Tidal records expose surge in hurricanes

Health

Claim of first human stem cell trial unravels

60 Seconds

Cheap genome sequences demand new rules on privacy

Space

First planet found in star system next door

Earth

Sierra Leone ‘pirate’ fishing boats sell catches in EU

Physics

Phoenix universe could rebuild itself after cosmic rip

Earth

Badger cull – the science behind the gamble

Health

Young blood really is the key to youth

Life

First life may have survived by cooperating

Life

Building blocks of Angkor Wat were shipped in by canal

Environment

Drugs in the Italian air are nothing to snort at

Health

‘Tired’ fat cells might trigger obesity

Life

Fruit flies’ eyes shrink a little to see

Physics

Existential blow for ghostly quantum supersolids

Space

Black glass holds first Mars soil sample on Earth

Earth

Run-off from Greenland may weaken carbon sink

Life

Zoologger: The turtle that urinates through its mouth

Technology

US military gets into the 3D printing business

Technology

Smart CCTV knows when you need shopping advice

Technology

Wireless meters tell snoopers when you are not home

Opinion

Memento mori: it’s time we reinvented death

The knowledge that we will die profoundly shapes our lives – but the nature of death itself is elusive and changeable

Earth

Wake up to the death toll from killer landslides

‘I’m fortunate to survive’: Nobel winners speak out

50 years of Revolutions: A classic revisited

Analysis

Mind

Destroying drug cartels, the mathematical way

Killing drug lords gets headlines, but complexity analysis suggests they are the wrong people to target to bring down a cartel

Technology

Cassette tapes are the future of big data storage

Aperture

Endeavour comes to Inglewood: space shuttle tours LA

So long, Endeavour… the shuttle has soared 197 million kilometres through space and finally back down to Earth and past this guy's house in Inglewood, LA

Features

Humans

Death: The evolution of funerals

When did our ancestors become aware of their own mortality? The answer may help us understand the origin of our unique way of life, says Graham Lawton

Health

Death: The blurred line between dead and alive

Humans

Death: Why we should be grateful for it

Life

Death: The natural history of corpses

Humans

Death: Don’t fear the reaper

Space

Confounded by Mars: Climate history thrown into doubt

Culture

A portrait of humanity in the purchases we make

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog

Humans

What should we fear more: snakes or sedans?

Humans

The upsides of being a psychopath

The molecular machines that make life

How mathematics became mainstream

More

Enigma Number 1720

Scaling great heights in Switzerland

Regulars

Environment

Feedback: United Nations ‘plans to destroy US’

Totally insidious agendas, self-conflicting signs, time-travelling emails and more

This Week’s Letters

Blind as a cat

Dairy division

Free falling

Hot metal

Browse past issues

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13 October 2012

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15 September 2012

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