Stephen Hawking's new book is the biggest science news story of the day. Has he suddenly given up a religious belief, asks bRoger Highfield/bimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5cd3d5/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Hawking+hasn%27t+changed+his+mind+about+Godlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19391-hawking-hasnt-changed-his-mind-about-god.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Hawking+hasn%27t+changed+his+mind+about+Godlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19391-hawking-hasnt-changed-his-mind-about-god.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869401276/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187349/kg/65/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869401276/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224187349/kg/65/a2.img" border="0"//a

A potentially revolutionary circuit component, once a laboratory curiosity, is to be mass-produced for the first time.

A rare Chinese tree has flowered for the first time in 23 years at Kew's country estate in West Sussex.

Congress could find a way around the shock court ruling that has frozen US government support for work on human embryonic stem cellsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5c2278/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Can+US+Congress+overturn+stem-cell+funding+freeze%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.600-can-us-congress-overturn-stemcell-funding-freeze.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Can+US+Congress+overturn+stem-cell+funding+freeze%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.600-can-us-congress-overturn-stemcell-funding-freeze.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869392964/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224141944/kg/43/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869392964/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224141944/kg/43/a2.img" border="0"//a

Dr Andy Harland of Loughborough University analyses what new free-kick trajectory findings mean for footballers.

In his new book, The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking argues that there is no single theory of reality because there is no single realityimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5bfff0/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Stephen+Hawking+says+there%27s+no+theory+of+everythinglink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Fstephen-hawking-says-theres-no-theory-of-everything.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Stephen+Hawking+says+there%27s+no+theory+of+everythinglink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Fstephen-hawking-says-theres-no-theory-of-everything.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868418935/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224133104/kg/31/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78868418935/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224133104/kg/31/a2.img" border="0"//a

A form of water deep within Uranus and Neptune may behave like a liquid and a solid simultaneously, explaining the planets' bizarre magnetic fieldsimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5bb906/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Weird+water+lurking+inside+giant+planetslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.500-weird-water-lurking-inside-giant-planets.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Weird+water+lurking+inside+giant+planetslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.500-weird-water-lurking-inside-giant-planets.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869389405/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224114950/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869389405/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224114950/a2.img" border="0"//a

Throughout September bNew Scientist/b is running a photo competition ndash; we want your photos on the theme of movement and scienceimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5c670e/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Photo+competition%3A+Science+in+motionlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19390-photo-competition-science-in-motion.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Photo+competition%3A+Science+in+motionlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19390-photo-competition-science-in-motion.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/div

Lasers can bring down remote-piloted aircraft ndash; but a new demo shows they can also keep the craft airborneimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5ac291/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Laser-powered+helicopter+hovers+for+hourslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19389-laserpowered-helicopter-hovers-for-hours.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Laser-powered+helicopter+hovers+for+hourslink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fdn19389-laserpowered-helicopter-hovers-for-hours.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869376414/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224051857/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869376414/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224051857/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

Fifteen children in Finland were diagnosed with narcolepsy after receiving swine flu vaccine ndash; but it could have occurred by chanceimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5a54d8/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Swine+flu+drug+in+narcolepsy+probelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.500-swine-flu-drug-in-narcolepsy-probe.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Swine+flu+drug+in+narcolepsy+probelink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727763.500-swine-flu-drug-in-narcolepsy-probe.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869447755/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224023768/kg/45-63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869447755/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224023768/kg/45-63/a2.img" border="0"//a

In the last of his posts about photographing the eclipse, Dan Falk compares his analogue and digital images. But which does he think is best?img width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5a54d9/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Ultimate+eclipse+photo%3A+The+film+has+been+developedlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Fultimate-eclipse-photo-the-film-has-been-developed.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Ultimate+eclipse+photo%3A+The+film+has+been+developedlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fculturelab%2F2010%2F09%2Fultimate-eclipse-photo-the-film-has-been-developed.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869447754/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224023769/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869447754/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224023769/a2.img" border="0"//a

The first advert for medicinal cannabis was aired on television this week in California. Is this a sign of things to come, asks Catherine de Langeimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5a303d/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=%27Medical+marijuana%27+hits+the+small+screenlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fmedical-marijuana-hits-the-sma.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=%27Medical+marijuana%27+hits+the+small+screenlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Fblogs%2Fshortsharpscience%2F2010%2F09%2Fmedical-marijuana-hits-the-sma.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869444912/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224014397/kg/170/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869444912/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/224014397/kg/170/a2.img" border="0"//a

It's a staple of cop shows, but the jury's still out on claims that a criminal's identity can be deduced from their modus operandiimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d59966a/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Is+criminal+profiling+flawed+and+disorderly%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727751.500-is-criminal-profiling-flawed-and-disorderly.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Is+criminal+profiling+flawed+and+disorderly%3Flink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727751.500-is-criminal-profiling-flawed-and-disorderly.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869364018/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223975018/kg/63/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869364018/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223975018/kg/63/a2.img" border="0"//a

A metal detecting enthusiast finds what is believed to be the only intact Roman lantern made out of bronze ever discovered in Britain.

An island off Peru is making money from selling bird poo to use as organic fertiliser.

Rare weather events caused last winter's freak snow storms

Physicists explain one of football's most spectacular free-kicks, showing that Roberto Carlos's 1997 "impossible goal" was not a fluke.

People who engage in mental challenges may stave off symptoms of Alzheimer's, but decline more quickly if subsequently diagnosedimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d5530d5/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=%27Brain+training%27+may+just+hide+symptoms+of+dementialink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.900-brain-training-may-just-hide-symptoms-of-dementia.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=%27Brain+training%27+may+just+hide+symptoms+of+dementialink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.900-brain-training-may-just-hide-symptoms-of-dementia.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869311885/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223686869/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869311885/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223686869/a2.img" border="0"//a

Europe's Herschel space telescope spies an aging star that has surrounded itself in hot water vapour.

With trials showing positive results from the treatment of cancer to alcohol addiction, could illegal drugs be heading for the medical mainstream?img width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/d53bac0/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Psychoactive+drugs%3A+From+recreation+to+medicationlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.000-psychoactive-drugs-from-recreation-to-medication.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Psychoactive+drugs%3A+From+recreation+to+medicationlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg20727764.000-psychoactive-drugs-from-recreation-to-medication.html%3FDCMP%3DOTC-rss%26nsref%3Donline-news" target="_blank"img src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869374514/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223591104/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/78869374514/u/60/f/10897/c/749/s/223591104/a2.img" border="0"//a