New Scientist: The Collection, Volume 3

An incredible journey
60 years ago, no human artefact had ever left Earth's atmosphere. Since then, we've played golf on the moon, sent robots to Mars, piloted probes to the edge of the solar system and hitched a ride on a passing comet. But in terms of space exploration, we've barely made it out of the driveway.
Our solar system is just a tiny atom in a vast galaxy, itself one of many billions we can see from Earth and countless more beyond the cosmic horizon. It might be another 60 years or more before we leave our own cosmic driveway. But human curiosity knows no such bounds.
The Wonders of Space, the latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection is dedicated to our growing understanding of space, both from exploration and observation. It takes a tour of the known cosmos and beyond, to the profound mysteries that future missions might one day solve.

How did life begin?
All cultures have a creation story, but modern science has the best one of all – a near-complete account of how our planet went from a barren lump of rock to one covered in a rich diversity of plants, animals and microbes.
Out of Earth's primordial chemicals arose an entity capable of replicating itself. Life was born and the rest, as they say, is prehistory. The forces of evolution worked on this simple life form and its descendants to create all manner of useful adaptations. We will probably never know exactly how this first life arose or what it was like, but there are many other mysteries we can hope to solve.
These questions are tackled in Life on Earth: Origins, Evolution, Extinction, the latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection. It tells the epic story of the only living planet we know of in the universe, from life's origins to the watershed moments in its history.

The Quantum World
Quantum physics has always been a source of mystery and delight. It is mysterious because it defies common sense: a world where atoms exist in two places at once, cats are simultaneously dead and alive, and particles exhibit a strange kind of telepathy. It is a delight because we have learned to manipulate these strange phenomena. We can perform experiments and build technologies that seem fantastical and impossible, but allow us to explore the very roots of reality.
The Quantum World, the latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection, will lay out the ideas, the unresolved paradoxes and puzzles, and the myriad uses of quantum theory. From parallel universes to photosynthesis, from entanglement to encryption, from computing to cats, the quantum world offers an unparalleled universe of phenomena to explore and enjoy.

Where the wild things are
Life on Earth, Charles Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species, is full of "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful". Anyone who has visited a rainforest, a coral reef or even an English meadow knows what he was talking about. Life is dazzling, fecund, diverse and yet fragile. Earth is the only planet we know where it exists, and we are right to exult in it.
Wild Planet, the latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection, is dedicated to Earth's stunning, fascinating and most fragile wildlife. From the tropics to the poles, the depths of the oceans to the peaks of the Himalayas, life is everywhere. You will encounter the most interesting organisms the planet has to offer complemented with stunning wildlife photography.

Expand your mind
Travel, it is said, broadens the mind. It certainly does, but not quite as much as science. To find proof of that, take a mindexpanding journey through the latest issue of New Scientist: The Collection - a compilation of classic articles from New Scientist, featuring some of the best science writers and thinkers discussing concepts that will make you think twice, if not thrice, and then walk away enlightened.
In Mind-Expanding Ideas you'll encounter some of the world's biggest and boldest ideas. Did life originate light years away? Could we ever change the laws of physics? Could we travel through space-time? Do the multiverse - and an infinite number of other yous - exist? Or would you just be happy to be able to talk to your dog?