Today on New Scientist: 15 June 2012

Friday Illusion: How a cheetah can hide its spots

See how an arrangement of moving dots can be perceived in different ways

Baby robot learns first words from human teacher

A robot that begins by babbling nonsense can produce real words by interacting with a teacher, just like a human child

Breast milk seems to kill HIV

HIV can get into breast milk, but surprisingly few babies exposed to the virus this way contract it - perhaps because the milk has antiviral properties

Astrophile: Runaway is star of cosmic whodunnit

A m?nage ? trois gone horribly wrong, an innocent bystander and a fleeing fugitive: these all helped solve the mystery of the Becklin-Neugebauer object

The joys and perils of oversharing at NXNE

This year's NXNE festival highlights how much cheap cameras and video sharing has changed our world - for better and worse

KERS set to give Le Mans 24-hour endurance cars a kick

Supercapacitor and flywheel energy storage systems will be fielded in the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race this weekend

Computer AI makes sense of psychedelic trips

Artificial intelligence could give insights into the effects of drugs by analysing the stream-of-consciousness reports written by users during trips

Feedback: Not-so-warm invitations

Dubious expenses-paid conferences, invisible ginseng claims, shaving cream that can't make up its mind, and more

Girl receives pioneering vein transplant

A leg vein from a dead donor is re-coated with stem cells and implanted into a 10-year-old as a liver portal vein

Phantom hand mapped for the first time

The brain perceives the shape of a phantom limb as being similar to that of a real one - showing that such images are not built on sensory feedback alone

Wireless medicine: Turn on, tune in, control life

Cells, drugs and even animals can now be made to respond to wireless signals. Meet the pioneers of remote-controlled medicine

Triple-bonded boron opens new chemical world

A new element has joined the exclusive list of atoms capable of forming triple-strength chemical bonds

Oldest confirmed cave art is a single red dot

A symbol on the wall of a Spanish cave is over 40,000 years old, meaning it could have been drawn by Neanderthals, or by the very first humans to come out of Africa

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