Micrometeorites are thought to shower down on planets throughout the universe, so the discovery that they help protocells form could tell us something about the chances of life elsewhere

Eggs and embryos from people with polycystic ovary syndrome have altered patterns of so-called epigenetic tags, which could explain how the condition is inherited

Eggs and embryos from people with polycystic ovary syndrome have altered patterns of so-called epigenetic tags, which could explain how the condition is inherited

AI models change their medical recommendations when people ask them questions that include colourful language, typos, odd formatting and even gender-neutral pronouns

AI models change their medical recommendations when people ask them questions that include colourful language, typos, odd formatting and even gender-neutral pronouns

Researchers have documented orcas seemingly gifting rays, seals and fish to scientists and divers, which could suggest they have theory of mind and engage in altruism – even across species

Researchers have documented orcas seemingly gifting rays, seals and fish to scientists and divers, which could suggest they have theory of mind and engage in altruism – even across species

A long-lasting formulation of an antiviral drug greatly reduced people’s risk of a symptomatic flu infection in a trial, and should even be effective against new strains

A long-lasting formulation of an antiviral drug greatly reduced people’s risk of a symptomatic flu infection in a trial, and should even be effective against new strains

People with PCOS who struggle to conceive tend to have lower levels of a gut microbe that has been linked to endometrial function

People with PCOS who struggle to conceive tend to have lower levels of a gut microbe that has been linked to endometrial function

A flexible fabric called X-Wear could replace some parts of medical scanners, which would make taking X-rays and CT scans far more comfortable and convenient

A flexible fabric called X-Wear could replace some parts of medical scanners, which would make taking X-rays and CT scans far more comfortable and convenient

With the help of powerful computers, researchers discovered a four-sided shape that naturally rests on one side, and built a real-life version from carbon fibre and tungsten

Large sea anchors could be used to drag water under a bold plan to keep the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation moving – but some experts are sceptical

In this passage from near the opening of Lake of Darkness, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are given an insight into how deep-space travel works in Adam Roberts’s universe

There have been hundreds of reports of sightings of a “fireball” in the skies over the southern US – it may have been a meteor breaking up as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere

There have been hundreds of reports of sightings of a “fireball” in the skies over the southern US – it may have been a meteor breaking up as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere

Geologists have long debated whether a stony formation in Canada contains the world’s oldest rocks – new measurements make a compelling case that it does

DNA sequencing shows young trees are more likely to have gene variants that confer partial resistance to a fungus that has been wiping out ash trees across Europe

After a nap, people who entered the second stage of sleep were more likely to spot a solution to a problem than those who slept lightly or not at all

DNA sequencing shows young trees are more likely to have gene variants that confer partial resistance to a fungus that has been wiping out ash trees across Europe

A newly discovered species of dinosaur is now on display at London’s Natural History Museum . Researchers have named this new species Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, a speedy, two-legged herbivore, 64 centimetres tall and 180 cm long that lived about 145 million to 150 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period. New Scientist spoke to  Susannah …

With their country threatened by sea level rise, the people of Tuvalu have been offered an escape route through an agreement with Australia, and many are contemplating leaving their home

The recent erratic behaviour of the polar jet stream isn't out of the ordinary, researchers have found by compiling data from the past 125 years

A study based on household surveys suggests that from October 2023 to January 2025, around 75,000 people in Gaza died violent deaths, while Gaza's health ministry estimates 46,000 for the same period

A boomerang discovered in a Polish cave was originally dated as 18,000 years old, but it may have been contaminated by preservation materials. A new estimate suggests the mammoth-ivory artefact is 40,000 years old

Weight-loss surgery seems to lower the risk of colorectal cancer by changing where bile acids enter the small intestine, raising the possibility of developing treatments that mimic these effects

Weight-loss surgery seems to lower the risk of colorectal cancer by changing where bile acids enter the small intestine, raising the possibility of developing treatments that mimic these effects

It is uncanny how human fears about robots mirror those about immigrants. But maybe they aren't out to take our jobs or destroy us all, says Annalee Newitz

Mice created using genetic material from two sperm cells have gone on to have offspring off their own, but the prospect of one day using the technique in humans has potential to cause controversy

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Natural history museums teach us about our world, but they aren’t telling us the whole story, writes curator Jack Ashby in Nature's Memory

Cancer cells can acquire energy-generating structures called mitochondria from nearby nerve cells, which seems to aid their spread, a discovery that could lead to new treatments

Cancer cells can acquire energy-generating structures called mitochondria from nearby nerve cells, which seems to aid their spread, a discovery that could lead to new treatments

After decades of planning and construction, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to begin a 10-year survey of the southern sky . This enormous telescope has already produced stunning new images of the heavens and discovered thousands of new asteroids . New Scientist got a behind-the-scenes look at the telescope during the first few …

Adults and AI models fail to recognise messages with harmful intent expressed with Gen Alpha slang or memes, raising concerns about youngsters’ online safety

Adults and AI models fail to recognise messages with harmful intent expressed with Gen Alpha slang or memes, raising concerns about youngsters’ online safety

Since 1970, heart attack deaths have fallen almost 90 per cent in the US, though deaths from chronic heart conditions have significantly risen

Since 1970, heart attack deaths have fallen almost 90 per cent in the US, though deaths from chronic heart conditions have significantly risen

Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton is now on display in London’s Natural History Museum

The night lizards may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the region of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs

Enigmacursor darted around North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago and its skeleton is now on display in London’s Natural History Museum

The night lizards may have been the only terrestrial vertebrates that survived in the region of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs

Over the past 150 years, the rise in Caesarean sections and changes in diet could have led to smaller pelvises among women – which may make vaginal birth more difficult but could also reduce common conditions associated with childbirth

Over the past 150 years, the rise in Caesarean sections and changes in diet could have led to smaller pelvises among women – which may make vaginal birth more difficult but could also reduce common conditions associated with childbirth

A simulation of the "aerial screw" designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 suggests it would use less power than modern drone rotors to generate the same lift, and make less noise too

A simulation of the "aerial screw" designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 suggests it would use less power than modern drone rotors to generate the same lift, and make less noise too

A high-speed crash between two dwarf galaxies might explain a unique feature in space – and provide useful information on dark matter

A high-speed crash between two dwarf galaxies might explain a unique feature in space – and provide useful information on dark matter

Our climate seems to be more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions than some researchers had hoped, meaning the world will have to up its decarbonisation efforts

Humans established a wild population of brown forest wallabies in the Raja Ampat Islands thousands of years ago for their meat and fur in one of the earliest known species translocations

Humans established a wild population of brown forest wallabies in the Raja Ampat Islands thousands of years ago for their meat and fur in one of the earliest known species translocations

We're a step closer to two men being able to have genetic children of their own after the creation of fertile mice by putting two sperm cells in an empty egg

We're a step closer to two men being able to have genetic children of their own after the creation of fertile mice by putting two sperm cells in an empty egg

In just 10 hours of observing the night sky, the powerful new telescope detected more than 2000 new asteroids, including a few that will pass near Earth

In just 10 hours of observing the night sky, the powerful new telescope detected more than 2000 new asteroids, including a few that will pass near Earth

Drone footage has captured killer whales breaking off stalks of kelp and rubbing the pieces on other orcas, a rare case of tool use in marine animals

Drone footage has captured killer whales breaking off stalks of kelp and rubbing the pieces on other orcas, a rare case of tool use in marine animals

Astronomers have been trying to detect atmospheres on planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, but bursts of radiation from the star make this challenging

We have discovered legions of strange particles that seem to only have a ghostly existence inside materials. Even so, they are the basis of much modern technology - so are they actually real?

What are quantum particles doing before we measure them? Getting to grips with this century-old debate takes us to the heart of whether there is an objective reality

Quantum computers have been hyped as machines that can solve almost any problem. Yet it is becoming clearer that their near-term utility will be narrower

All of us hold metaphysical beliefs, whether we realise it or not. Learning to question them is spurring progress on some of the hardest questions in physics

Conditions in our little pocket of the universe seem to be just right for life - and the much-debated anthropic principle forces us to wonder why

Astronomers have been trying to detect atmospheres on planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, but bursts of radiation from the star make this challenging

Two life forms living together helped spark the evolution of all complex life. By learning to appreciate this process more fully, we might be able to harness it to heal our planet too

There is mounting evidence that even surprisingly simple animals, like invertebrates, have a level of consciousness - but not in the way you might think

The huge market for stolen smartphones means that thieves will continue to snatch them, but is there anything we can do to put a stop to this crime wave?

The huge market for stolen smartphones means that thieves will continue to snatch them, but is there anything we can do to put a stop to this crime wave?

A powerful new telescope in Chile is set to transform astronomy, and its first pictures of stellar nurseries and galaxies have just been unveiled

A powerful new telescope in Chile is set to transform astronomy, and its first pictures of stellar nurseries and galaxies have just been unveiled

Scary dreams disrupt our sleep and elevate our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which may have serious consequences for our health over time

Scary dreams disrupt our sleep and elevate our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which may have serious consequences for our health over time

Sea spiders living near deep-sea methane seeps appear to cultivate and eat bacteria on their exoskeletons

Sea spiders living near deep-sea methane seeps appear to cultivate and eat bacteria on their exoskeletons

Attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities have already triggered at least one internal radiation leak, but should we be concerned that Israeli bombing could cause a larger nuclear accident?

Attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities have already triggered at least one internal radiation leak, but should we be concerned that Israeli bombing could cause a larger nuclear accident?

Technology reporter Matthew Sparkes thought his passwords and personal data were safe, but a tour of the murkier sides of the internet revealed otherwise

Technology reporter Matthew Sparkes thought his passwords and personal data were safe, but a tour of the murkier sides of the internet revealed otherwise

We’ve known for nearly a century that UV radiation is linked to skin cancer, but modern advice about sunburn can be confusing. To understand what works, you need to know what UV really does to your skin

Astronomers are puzzled by a strong burst of radio waves traced back to a NASA satellite that had been inactive since the 1960s

Astronomers are puzzled by a strong burst of radio waves traced back to a NASA satellite that had been inactive since the 1960s

Unlike other primates, humans are exposed to high levels of placental sex hormones in the womb, which may have shaped our evolutionary brain development

A newly identified brain circuit in mice may explain why we sleep longer and deeper after being sleep deprived – and lead to new treatments for sleep conditions

Treating types of cancer with CAR T-cell therapy is expensive and inconvenient, but a streamlined approach that creates the therapy within the body could make the intervention cheaper and easier

A newly identified brain circuit in mice may explain why we sleep longer and deeper after being sleep deprived – and lead to new treatments for sleep conditions

Treating types of cancer with CAR T-cell therapy is expensive and inconvenient, but a streamlined approach that creates the therapy within the body could make the intervention cheaper and easier

Trees would have to be planted on a vast proportion of global land mass to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from burning the world’s fossil fuel reserves

The herpes virus that commonly causes cold sores affects how tightly coiled our DNA is and makes it shrink, all to help itself grow

The herpes virus that commonly causes cold sores affects how tightly coiled our DNA is and makes it shrink, all to help itself grow

Restricting calories has been linked to living longer in many studies, and now it seems that the drug rapamycin has nearly the same effect, at least in animals

Restricting calories has been linked to living longer in many studies, and now it seems that the drug rapamycin has nearly the same effect, at least in animals

Rocks in some parts of the UK have the potential to produce natural hydrogen, but it remains unclear whether the gas is present in economically viable quantities

Knee osteoarthritis is often treated via non-drug therapies, and now we have an idea of which ones work best

Knee osteoarthritis is often treated via non-drug therapies, and now we have an idea of which ones work best

Milky Way viewing is at its best right now, especially if you’re in the southern hemisphere. Here's what to look out for, says Abigail Beall

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

The "immersive entertainment" boom takes user-centred experiences to new heights, but isn't it making culture a little insular, asks Arwa Haider

Tech CEOs and politicians alike are preparing for the day that superintelligent AI takes over, whilst failing to deal with the issues in front of them – from copyright to autonomous killing machines

This photo series capturing efforts to save the Chinook salmon of the Klamath river in the western US won the New Scientist Editors Award at the Earth Photo 2025 competition

From spiders to scorpions, some 1000 different invertebrate species are traded globally as pets. This is bad for biodiversity – but there is an upside, says Graham Lawton

A skull from China has been identified as Denisovan using molecular evidence – so ancient humans once known solely from their DNA finally have a face

Bogong moths are the first invertebrates known to navigate using the night sky during annual migrations to highland caves

Assigning certain sizes, shapes and positions of bubbles to characters within Morse and binary codes means messages could be stored in ice

Even if agricultural practices adapt in response to higher temperatures, five of the world's six main staple crops will suffer severe losses due to climate change

Assigning certain sizes, shapes and positions of bubbles to characters within Morse and binary codes means messages could be stored in ice

Ticks are spreading globally and bringing familiar conditions such as Lyme disease with them, as well as totally new ones. Now research is revealing how to prevent and treat the diseases they carry

Bogong moths are the first invertebrates known to navigate using the night sky during annual migrations to highland caves

Earth is no longer at risk of a direct collision with the asteroid 2024 YR4, but an impact on the moon in 2032 could send debris hurtling towards our planet that could take out orbiting satellites

Earth is no longer at risk of a direct collision with the asteroid 2024 YR4, but an impact on the moon in 2032 could send debris hurtling towards our planet that could take out orbiting satellites

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is releasing its first images on 23 June, showing us galaxies as we’ve never seen them before. Here’s how you can join a party to see those shots in full definition

Meteorologists say that in the next decade, summer daytime temperatures above 28°C could persist for more than a month, with spikes as high as 46.6°C possible under today’s climate conditions

The discovery of a prehistoric tail-shedding reptile reveals more about large lizard life and lineage during the Late Cretaceous Epoch

The discovery of a prehistoric tail-shedding reptile reveals more about large lizard life and lineage during the Late Cretaceous Epoch

Injecting aerosols into the atmosphere – but at higher altitudes than planes can reach – could cool the climate while avoiding some of the downsides of lower-altitude solar geoengineering

A UK biotech firm spent years gathering genetic data that has uncovered 1 million previously unknown microbial species and billions of newly identified genes – but even this trove of data may not be enough to train an AI biologist

A UK biotech firm spent years gathering genetic data that has uncovered 1 million previously unknown microbial species and billions of newly identified genes – but even this trove of data may not be enough to train an AI biologist

Sea star larvae have been stored at -200°C and thawed for the first time, a step towards restoring populations that have been ravaged by disease

Sea star larvae have been stored at -200°C and thawed for the first time, a step towards restoring populations that have been ravaged by disease

We might not think we remember something, but attempting to recall it still fires up activity in our brain linked to memory, which seems to direct our behaviours

The workings of the small intestine have long been a mystery, but now we are discovering the hidden roles this organ plays in appetite, metabolism and the microbiome – and how to look after it better

According to scientific legend, quantum mechanics was born on the island of Helgoland in 1925. A hundred years later, physicists are still debating the true nature of this strange theory - and recently returned to the island to discuss its future

According to scientific legend, quantum mechanics was born on the island of Helgoland in 1925. A hundred years later, physicists are still debating the true nature of this strange theory - and recently returned to the island to discuss its future

A gaggle of companies are searching the US Midwest for underground hydrogen fuel produced by a billion-year-old split in the continent – New Scientist visited one of the first to start drilling

Using machine learning to analyse data from the Event Horizon Telescope, researchers found the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is spinning almost as fast as possible

Using machine learning to analyse data from the Event Horizon Telescope, researchers found the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is spinning almost as fast as possible

There are new hints that the fabric of space-time may be made of "memory cells" that record the whole history of the universe. If true, it could explain the nature of dark matter and much more

The Proba-3 mission, consisting of two spacecraft that fly in close formation to study the sun, has returned images of the first ever artificial solar eclipse

The Proba-3 mission, consisting of two spacecraft that fly in close formation to study the sun, has returned images of the first ever artificial solar eclipse

Amidst an ongoing outbreak of a deadly bird flu virus in livestock, the US Department of Agriculture is doing more to prevent the spread than public health agencies are

Amidst an ongoing outbreak of a deadly bird flu virus in livestock, the US Department of Agriculture is doing more to prevent the spread than public health agencies are

A ‘ghost plume’ identified deep in the mantle beneath Oman suggests there may be more heat flowing out of Earth’s core than previously thought

Putting unusually large atoms in a box with cold copper sides helped researchers control them for an unprecedented 50 minutes at room-temperature, an improvement necessary for building more powerful quantum computers and simulators

Putting unusually large atoms in a box with cold copper sides helped researchers control them for an unprecedented 50 minutes at room-temperature, an improvement necessary for building more powerful quantum computers and simulators

There appears to be a volcano near Jezero crater on Mars and the Perseverance rover might already have samples from it that we could use to precisely date the activity of another planet's volcano for the first time

There appears to be a volcano near Jezero crater on Mars and the Perseverance rover might already have samples from it that we could use to precisely date the activity of another planet's volcano for the first time

Almost a decade ago, researchers calculated that microwaves can seemingly spend an imaginary amount of time within a material – now an experiment reveals how the phenomenon is perfectly real

Almost a decade ago, researchers calculated that microwaves can seemingly spend an imaginary amount of time within a material – now an experiment reveals how the phenomenon is perfectly real

Blood vessels grown in the lab in just five days could quickly prevent the tissue damage that can occur after an accident

Blood vessels grown in the lab in just five days could quickly prevent the tissue damage that can occur after an accident

Tech CEOs are promising increasingly outlandish visions of the 2030s, powered by "superintelligence", but the reality is that even the most advanced AI models can still struggle with simple puzzles

Tech CEOs are promising increasingly outlandish visions of the 2030s, powered by "superintelligence", but the reality is that even the most advanced AI models can still struggle with simple puzzles

The “Bell test” was devised in the 1960s to uncover what’s going on in the quantum world, but it continues to be relevant today, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

The “Bell test” was devised in the 1960s to uncover what’s going on in the quantum world, but it continues to be relevant today, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Artificial organ transplants have been held back by the difficulty of making networks of blood vessels - a problem scientists are now taking steps to overcome

Artificial organ transplants have been held back by the difficulty of making networks of blood vessels - a problem scientists are now taking steps to overcome

With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Nine

With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Nine

Your breathing patterns are unique to you - and could be linked to your weight and mental health

Your breathing patterns are unique to you - and could be linked to your weight and mental health

By using light to emulate the structure of space-time, researchers can better understand black holes – and the exotic objects that mimic them

By using light to emulate the structure of space-time, researchers can better understand black holes – and the exotic objects that mimic them

Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb showed how small, cheap drones can be smuggled into a country and used against expensive military hardware. Now, there are concerns that nations like the US and UK aren't ready to defend against a similar attack

Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb showed how small, cheap drones can be smuggled into a country and used against expensive military hardware. Now, there are concerns that nations like the US and UK aren't ready to defend against a similar attack

Two huge movie studios are suing Midjourney, claiming the firm’s AI has been trained on their copyrighted material – the entrance of the Hollywood giants into this legal fight could be a watershed moment for AI and copyright

Two huge movie studios are suing Midjourney, claiming the firm’s AI has been trained on their copyrighted material – the entrance of the Hollywood giants into this legal fight could be a watershed moment for AI and copyright

In Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time, a young woman must help a naval commander snatched from death in 1847 adapt to the 21st century. Time travel thriller meets romance in this excellent novel

The story of the birth and growth of nuclear science is rebalanced in Destroyer of Worlds, which gives due prominence to the role of women

The universe will still be there to marvel at, despite brutal cuts set to hit NASA and the National Science Foundation's budgets. But the damage to future research will be long-lasting, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

From Fallopian tubes to the G-spot, long-dead men have left their mark on women's anatomy. It's time to turf them out, says Adam Taor

With rising cancer rates, we need more good news, and the latest finding that cancer interacts with the nervous system means cheap and readily available drugs could help

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Images from a jellyfish-breeding facility in Germany showcase the luminous invertebrates' environmental challenges and medical promise

Implants that monitor the neural activity of frog embryos as they grow into tadpoles and then adults could offer a window into the developing brain

A brain-computer interface has enabled a man with paralysis to have real-time conversations, without the usual delay in speech

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, is the first to venture into a tilted orbit around the sun, letting it take some unusual pictures

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, is the first to venture into a tilted orbit around the sun, letting it take some unusual pictures

With tech giants like Google developing ways for AI models to communicate and work together, there are fears that smaller players could get left behind in the rush to unleash AI agents on the internet

With tech giants like Google developing ways for AI models to communicate and work together, there are fears that smaller players could get left behind in the rush to unleash AI agents on the internet

We may already have had our first-ever encounter with dark matter, according to researchers who say a mysteriously high-energy particle detected in 2023 is not a neutrino after all, but something far stranger

We may already have had our first-ever encounter with dark matter, according to researchers who say a mysteriously high-energy particle detected in 2023 is not a neutrino after all, but something far stranger

An innovative device extracted a small glassful of water from the air of Death Valley desert over one day

An innovative device extracted a small glassful of water from the air of Death Valley desert over one day

Many AI models were trained on the text of books, but a new test found at least one model has directly memorised nearly the entirety of some books, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which could complicate ongoing legal battles over copyright infringement

Humans first arrived in South America through a series of extraordinary migrations – and genetic studies now reveal more about how they settled and then split into four distinct groups on the continent

Police crime procedurals are among the most popular genres on TV. Audiences around the world love a good whodunnit for a touch of gritty drama, good-vs-bad adventure and guess-along puzzle-solving. But how much do they reflect reality?  Often, argues Carol Rogers, who is the lead scientist for sexual offences at the Scottish Police Authority Forensic Services, …

Many AI models were trained on the text of books, but a new test found at least one model has directly memorised nearly the entirety of some books, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which could complicate ongoing legal battles over copyright infringement

Using CRISPR to correct the mutations behind polycystic kidney disease could counter some of the damage the condition causes

Using CRISPR to correct the mutations behind polycystic kidney disease could counter some of the damage the condition causes

The company has unveiled new innovations in quantum hardware and software that researchers hope will make quantum computing both error-proof and useful before the end of the decade

The company has unveiled new innovations in quantum hardware and software that researchers hope will make quantum computing both error-proof and useful before the end of the decade

Our ability to study faint radio signals from when the first stars began to form is being threatened by SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which seem to be unintentionally leaking radio signals that overpower astronomers' telescopes

Our ability to study faint radio signals from when the first stars began to form is being threatened by SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which seem to be unintentionally leaking radio signals that overpower astronomers' telescopes

A sauropod dinosaur fossil has been found with preserved stomach contents for the first time, providing insights into what they ate and how

A new understanding of how tumours exploit our nervous system is leading to new ways to treat cancer using familiar drugs like Botox and beta blockers

A sauropod dinosaur fossil has been found with preserved stomach contents for the first time, providing insights into what they ate and how

Extreme weather, pest outbreaks and overharvesting are turning forest carbon sinks into carbon sources across Europe, undermining a crucial part of countries’ net-zero plans

When Robert F Kennedy Jr announced that the US would stop recommending covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnancies, he bypassed standard protocols and set the stage for future vaccine rollbacks

When Robert F Kennedy Jr announced that the US would stop recommending covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnancies, he bypassed standard protocols and set the stage for future vaccine rollbacks

New mathematical work provides a way to identify when information has been changed by manipulating space-time – and it may form a foundation for future space-time computers

New mathematical work provides a way to identify when information has been changed by manipulating space-time – and it may form a foundation for future space-time computers

Across many cultures, both men and women rate female faces as more attractive, and women exhibit this preference even more strongly than men

An attempt to become the third successful private landing on the moon has ended in failure, as ispace's Resilience probe crashed due to a malfunctioning laser sensor

An attempt to become the third successful private landing on the moon has ended in failure, as ispace's Resilience probe crashed due to a malfunctioning laser sensor

Dark stars were first suggested in 2007, but now observations with the James Webb Space Telescope hint that we may have actually found some of these unusual cosmic objects

Dark stars were first suggested in 2007, but now observations with the James Webb Space Telescope hint that we may have actually found some of these unusual cosmic objects

Taurine supplements have previously been found to extend the lifespan of monkeys and mice, but a new study in humans shows that the amino acid doesn’t decline with age

Metallic nanoparticles injected into the retina partly restored vision in blind mice and could work as a treatment for conditions that damage light-sensitive cells in the eye

Taurine supplements have previously been found to extend the lifespan of monkeys and mice, but a new study in humans shows that the amino acid doesn’t decline with age

Metallic nanoparticles injected into the retina partly restored vision in blind mice and could work as a treatment for conditions that damage light-sensitive cells in the eye

Thousands of tiny nematode worms can join up to form tentacle-like towers that can straddle large gaps or hitch rides on larger animals

Nuclear fusion power will probably require vast quantities of enriched lithium – but we aren’t making nearly enough, and ramping up production will mean using toxic mercury

Two brain regions seem to work together to determine whether we are seeing something real, or merely a product of our imaginations - and understanding them further may help treat visual hallucinations

Thousands of tiny nematode worms can join up to form tentacle-like towers that can straddle large gaps or hitch rides on larger animals

As our ancestors developed more advanced tools and cultural practices, they also developed new ways of explaining concepts to others – culminating in the emergence of complex language

Despite reports of a recent surge in ADHD, a global analysis has found no reliable evidence of an increase in the number of children diagnosed with the condition since 2020

A new book on quantum physics is pleasingly full of cutting-edge topics. Yet it isn't the accessible work it promised to be

A new documentary sheds light on the extraordinary story of the US's first woman astronaut, Sally Ride, who defied all expectations in both her career and personal life

Exercise is one of the most effective ways to lower your blood pressure, but some workouts are more effective than others. Grace Wade investigates

Being accurate in the language we use to describe conditions like ADHD matters, and can lead to better outcomes for those affected. The words we choose to use are important, say Alex Conner and James Brown, hosts of podcast The ADHD Adults

Artist Clare Hewitt uses fallen oak leaves and sunlight to create her works of art before returning the leaves to the forest

Putting an end to a mass extinction sounds like an impossible task, but some researchers argue that doing so would be setting our ambitions too low

Computer simulations of high-energy particles are pushing the boundaries of what we can learn about the interactions that happen inside particle colliders

Once thought to have originated in cows and spread through dust, the surprising evolutionary story of tuberculosis reveals why it's so hard to stamp out this ancient disease, writes Carl Zimmer

Scientists have found a way to boost the brain's system to clear waste from the organ in mice, which could open treatment possibilities for neurodegenerative diseases

AI may be limited by a lack of taste, touch and smell which prevents it from fully understanding concepts in the same way as humans - suggesting that more advanced models may need to have a robot body

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are waiting in line at public drinking fountains in Sydney to have their daily drinks of water in the latest example of cultural evolution in urban birds

When an RSV vaccine became available for use during pregnancy, it offered a natural experiment between various countries to see how it compared to a one-time antibody injection

The Hubble constant, a set number that connects a galaxy’s speed to its distance from Earth and tells us how fast the universe is expanding, was first described more than a hundred years ago – but astronomers have debated it ever since

Palaeontologists are finding more dinosaur remains than ever before, and with new technology they can now peer inside these creatures' brains, understand their sensory anatomy and reconstruct whole skeletons from fragmentary remains. Applying novel techniques to a single Spinosaurus skeleton discovered in Morocco, researchers have revealed that this dinosaur was perfectly adapted to an aquatic …

Two of the most destructive invasive termite species are interbreeding in the US – they can survive a wider range of temperatures and could easily spread across the globe

If successful, Resilience will be only the third private spacecraft to complete a landing on the moon, and the first operated by a non-US company

Mucus does far more than just act as a protective barrier. Emerging research reveals ways to harness its power and deliver treatments for everything from yeast infections to inflammatory bowel disease

Microwaves can control a single quantum bit more precisely than ever before, creating a device similar to a quantum transistor – and potentially making quantum computers more reliable

Mining craters on the moon could be more practical than extracting precious metals from asteroids, but it might also introduce new legal difficulties

Surprising new fossil evidence undermines the idea that there was ever a mass extinction on land – and may force us to reframe the current biodiversity crisis

Researchers have developed algorithms that reconstruct a hidden image from the scrambled light waves that bounce off a wall, making it possible to see things behind a corner

Artificial intelligence has removed many of the barriers to understanding a new language, but there are still good reasons to do things the old-fashioned way

Most 9/11 first responders experienced improvement in PTSD symptoms about 10 years after the traumatic event, but approximately 10 per cent saw symptoms worsen even two decades later

Millions of women and teenage girls use oral contraception, but we are only now getting an idea of what effect these drugs have on our brains

In this short extract from Kaliane Bradley's sci-fi novel, her protagonist makes a startling discovery about the nature of time

Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought

The failure of SpaceX’s ninth Starship launch has raised fresh concerns about the future of the rocket, but is there any alternative to Elon Musk’s approach to space?

City-sized droplets and twisting streams of plasma have been picked up by incredibly detailed images of the sun’s corona, showing our star as we’ve never seen it before

Quantum computers that correct their own errors usually require hundreds of thousands of qubits. Start-up Nord Quantique claims it can dramatically decrease that number – but many challenges remain

Antioxidants like cocoa flavanols may benefit heart health, brain ageing and the microbiome. Columnist Alexandra Thompson investigates whether it’s time to rethink chocolate

Murderbot fans will be thrilled to learn that the cyborg security unit that gains free will by hacking its governor module is now the star of a compelling adaptation. Bethan Ackerley has unexpectedly joined their ranks

New AI models from tech giants are set to revolutionise weather prediction. But as our climate becomes more extreme, we need to ensure broad public access to their forecasts, says Annalee Newitz

Helen Ball's How Babies Sleep draws on anthropology and biology to help babies (and their parents) get a better night's sleep. It has some fascinating insights, but is somewhat impractical

The belief that adding certain plants around crops will boost their growth is an old one, but will your tomatoes' yield and flavour really be improved by growing tasty herbs alongside them? James Wong investigates

The village of Cocullo celebrates a festa dei serpari every May – and scientists are getting in on the action

Whether or not we have partial free will could soon be resolved by experiments in quantum physics, with potential consequences for everything from religion to quantum computers

Thousands of fossils from the La Brea tar pits in California show no signs of mammals and birds evolving in response to shifting temperatures over the past 50,000 years

Life is thought to have begun when RNA began replicating itself, and researchers have got close to achieving this in the lab

The chance of a planet forming in the outer reaches of the solar system – a hypothetical Planet Nine – could be as high as 40 per cent, but it would have been a rough start

There have never been so many satellites orbiting Earth as there are today, thanks in part to the launch of mega constellations like SpaceX's Starlink internet service - and now we are learning just how the sun's activity can affect them

The pace of ageing accelerates as you get older, and it is linked to an individual's sex, ethnicity and level of education, according to studies of US and UK populations

Banking a baby’s umbilical cord blood was once seen as a reasonable way to protect their future health, but much of that potential has turned out to be mere hype

Results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) suggest that dark energy, a mysterious force in the universe, is changing over time. This would completely re-write our understanding of the cosmos - but now other physicists are challenging this view

The idea of a multiverse of universes is derived from a particular interpretation of quantum mechanics, but now a new twist on a classic experiment says it is time to put the idea to bed

US President Trump has proposed a Golden Dome defence system that includes missile interceptors in space. But the idea would cost hundreds of billions of dollars – and could accelerate the weaponisation of space

A quantum computer with a million qubits would be able to crack the vital RSA encryption algorithm, and while such machines don't yet exist, that estimate could still fall further

Many people are worried about the health effects of ultra-processed foods and microplastics, but could these two issues actually be linked?

Puzzlingly, many birds add human-made material to their nests with no obvious function – now there is evidence that these home improvements might ward off predators

Wildlife carers fostering some of Australia’s most precious animals have had to rescue them one by one from rising waters and are now racing to repair fencing that keeps feral predators away

The unusual orbit of a possible dwarf planet, known as 2017 OF201, makes it less likely that our solar system contains a hidden ninth “Planet X”

By exerting unprecedented control over extremely cold atoms, researchers have put them in a state with several simultaneously quantum-entangled properties

An analysis of the sloth family tree suggests three different groups of the animals evolved to gigantic sizes in response to cold and dry conditions

A declining ability to detect scents is linked to conditions including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But restoring sensitivity to smell might not only reduce cognitive decline – studies also show it could even reverse it. Our reporters put the latest scent training kits to the test and explored the research behind our our most neglected sense. …

Nanoparticle-infused contact lenses can transform infrared radiation into different colours of visible light, potentially enabling a new form of night vision – no batteries required

Huge colonies of penguins in Antarctica fill the air with ammonia, which boosts particles in the atmosphere that allow climate-cooling clouds to form

Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolves

Dense breast tissue can make tumours hard to spot on mammogram scans, but adding another step to this screening programme could help identify such cases

Social media is awash with videos claiming that taping your mouth closed will improve your sleep – but the evidence doesn't stack up

The premise of Grace Chan’s debut novel – that you can choose to upload yourself to a virtual reality – might sound dated, but this is a stunning big‑picture look at what might lie ahead for us, says Emily H. Wilson

After two decades of debate, research confirms that an odd binary star system has an equally odd planetary companion

People with incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries showed improvements to their hand and arm movements after receiving a targeted form of vagus nerve stimulation

Teeth are good for chewing and biting, but they are also sensitive – and that may have been their original function hundreds of millions of years ago

“Fragments” of West Nile virus have been detected in UK mosquitoes, suggesting that the virus is circulating in the country, probably as a result of the warming climate

China's ambitious Tianwen-2 mission will soon be heading to two extremely different space rocks, and should provide vital data to help us understand the nature of asteroids and comets

The enigmatic crustacean Alicella gigantea is the world’s largest amphipod, but like all deep-sea creatures it hasn’t proved easy to find

The world’s largest aircraft, called WindRunner, is being designed to carry huge wind turbine blades – but the US military is looking into its own applications for the proposed plane

The galaxy MoM-z14 dates back to 280 million years after the big bang, and the prevalence of such early galaxies is puzzling astronomers

A vaccine that helps people overcome cocaine addiction has shown signs of being safe and effective in a small trial

Are there aliens living on the exoplanet K2-18b? Some astronomers believe they have evidence for molecules on the planet that must have a biological origin, but others disagree

Many AI models fail to recognise negation words such as “no” and “not”, which means they can’t easily distinguish between medical images labelled as showing a disease and images labelled as not showing the disease

There are a range of competing views on whether smartphones and social media are harmful to adolescents, and an attempt to settle the debate has instead sparked more disagreement

The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna wants to expose the hype generated by large artificial intelligence companies, but it is a frustrating read

A declining ability to detect scents is linked to conditions including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But restoring our most neglected sense might not only reduce cognitive decline – studies also show it could even reverse it

A group of white-faced capuchins on a remote island have started stealing infants from another primate species, and researchers don’t know why

Using human cells, researchers were able to create a novel cervix-on-a-chip model to study how the vaginal microbiome affects pregnancy

Dark matter is thought to only interact through gravity, which is why it is so difficult to spot, but now evidence is growing for a type of dark matter that can also stick to itself

Inside Silke Weinfurtner's laboratory at the University of Nottingham in the UK, a giant water tank is helping her team better understand the complexity of the universe by standing in as an analogue for black holes. By introducing waves into a liquid and creating a vortex at the centre, the team mimics some of the …

Stars that pass close to the solar system could pull planets out of alignment, sending them hurtling into the sun or out into space

Several recent experiments showcase a sharp increase in the number of quantum bits that can be entangled, echoing Moore’s law for increasing computing power on traditional chips

An infant with a severe genetic condition has shown signs of improvement after receiving a gene-editing treatment tailored to his specific mutation

Slicing an onion releases tear-inducing chemicals into the air, but the sharpness of the knife and the speed of the cut can affect how these droplets are expelled

An oral vaccine reduced infection risk in a trial where people were deliberately exposed to high doses of norovirus, and could also slow the spread of the pathogen

A newly described poison dart frog, which is about the size of a thumbnail, has been found in the forests of the Juruá river basin in Brazil

The discovery of the cosmic acceleration problem truly inspired me as a teenage physics nerd. Recent, related revelations about dark energy will hopefully capture the interest of today’s young science geeks, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Most of us can spot the group of stars known as the Plough or the Big Dipper. But there’s more to explore here, says Abigail Beall

In highly politicised times, is living off-world something we should entertain, let alone do? Adriana Marais's futurist dream Out of This World and Into the Next feels tone deaf

There are serious issues with new proposals to use artificial intelligence to predict future crimes, says Yu Xiong, chair of the advisory board to the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Metaverse and Web 3.0

Women were historically excluded from health studies on the grounds that hormone fluctuations introduced "noise" into the data, and this has left us with a lack of understanding about a range of conditions

Acclaimed photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier showcase a changing planet as part of the Photo London photography fair

In Rise of the Zombie Bugs, Mindy Weisberger zooms in on how parasites hijack the brains of their tiny host animals

Anomalies in the moon’s gravitational field suggest our satellite’s insides are warmer on one side than the other – which means that its interior is asymmetric

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder can cause monthly cycles of rage, depression, anxiety and self-harm. Treatments are limited, but new ideas about the condition could change that

The footprints of a reptile-like creature appear to have been laid down around 356 million years ago, pushing back the earliest known instance of animals emerging from the water to live on land

Not knowing how much milk a baby consumes when breastfeeding can cause anxiety for parents, but an innovative device seems to provide objective measurements

The world's most famous shipwreck, the RMS Titanic, sits around 3800 metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and is currently a protected site due to an agreement between the UK and US. Its remote location makes the wreck difficult and expensive to study. Now, a team from deep-sea mapping company Magellan has created …

A lunchbox-sized radar system could help the FBI detect moving or stationary people by peering through walls via radio waves

Growing evidence suggests a source of nutrition might be right under our noses. But how important are such aeronutrients – and can we harness them to better treat deficiencies?

The pitch and hoarseness of a person's voice often changes if they have Parkinson's disease, suggesting there could be a non-invasive way of screening for the condition

Experiments with hydrogen atoms could soon reveal whether particles that were long thought to be forbidden by physics actually do exist

Finding out whether gravity – and therefore space-time itself – is quantum in nature has long been thought impossible. But innovative new ideas might be about to help answer this crucial question

The drug ubrogepant doesn't just ease the headache of a migraine, but also relieves symptoms like neck stiffness and fatigue if taken early enough

The drug rizatriptan is often recommended for vestibular migraines, which cause vertigo as well as headache, but doesn't actually seem to be effective

Dyson spheres, a type of huge megastructure designed to capture the energy output of a star, would be a sign of an alien civilisation – if we can find one before they disappear

While intermittent fasting may be growing in popularity, relatively little is known about how it impacts our gut microbiome – for better or for worse

An AI leaderboard suggests the newest reasoning models used in chatbots are producing less accurate results because of higher hallucination rates. Experts say the problem is bigger than that

Kepler's Supernova, seen in 1604, is one of the most famous exploding stars ever seen, and now astronomers think it may have been an interloper from another galaxy

Just like humans, chimps have rhythm when drumming, which suggests that the trait evolved in our common ancestor

Our bodies emit a stream of low-energy photons, and now experiments in mice have revealed that this ghostly glow is cut off when we die

With season 2 unfolding, the science of the fungal horror drama is becoming shakier. It is a pity that the creators haven’t thought about terrifying scenarios of real-life infection, says Corrado Nai

Kosmos 482, a Soviet spacecraft that never made it beyond Earth’s orbit on its way to Venus, is due to come crashing down on 9 or 10 May

Cases of dementia doubled worldwide between 1990 and 2021, but more than quadrupled in China during the same period

Kevin Tracey's authoritative look at the vagus nerve and its healing potential is comprehensive and compelling, cutting through the hype

In this latest instalment of our speculative column Future Chronicles, an imagined history of future inventions, Rowan Hooper explores the pros (and cons) of networking our brains with those of other animals

The average human brain contains around 7 grams of plastic, but it’s unclear how this affects us. Now animal studies are revealing links to poor cognition and weird behaviour

Superb starlings appear to swap between parent and ‘nanny’ roles to help raise chicks over their lifetimes, even when they aren’t related to them

The origin of complex eukaryotic cells, of the type found in all plants and animals, is shrouded in mystery. Now, strange microbes from wetlands in China are helping us to understand when they first emerged, and what they were like

The makers of an AI model called Foresight say it could help predict disease or hospitalisation rates, but others have expressed concern about the fact it is trained on millions of health records

A UK parliamentary committee has greenlit gene-edited plants. This is great news, as it will boost food production and reduce waste, says Michael Le Page

The mathematics of graphs has helped reveal a principle that limits the strength of quantum correlations – and explains why physicists have never measured any stronger connections in some post-quantum realm

Physicists are trying to ditch the concept of space-time – the supposed fabric of physical reality. Quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan explains why

An adaptation of cognitive behavioural therapy that focuses on mindfulness and tolerating distress has shown promise for relieving chronic pain

Shingles is associated with an increased chance of health problems like strokes and heart attacks, but receiving a shingles jab seems to curb the risk of such cardiovascular problems

Under the Trump administration, multiple US government agencies are using AI and other tools to broadly track the social media of tourists and immigrants – and potentially to watch US citizens as well

To create useful randomness in a quantum computer, you could add more quantum bits, but using quantum chaos does the trick too

Scientists have created an antivenom that has shown promise against some of the world's deadliest snakes after collecting antibodies from a hyperimmune man who exposed himself to their toxins

While dolphins are known to transmit information in their whistles, until now it hasn't been clear whether the marine mammals used the same sounds to indicate a shared understanding of a concept

‘Shocking’ results from a major astronomical study have raised doubts about the standard model of cosmology, forcing scientists to consider new ways of understanding dark energy and gravity

Knowing someone's position on a contentious topic can allow you to predict their views in other areas, thanks to an artificial intelligence that maps patterns between beliefs

Knowing someone's position on a contentious topic can allow you to predict their views in other areas, thanks to an artificial intelligence that maps patterns between beliefs

We have known for years that the gut microbiome can alter brain function, but now research in mice is suggesting that the opposite is also true – that the brain modifies gut bacteria

A different kind of human cell division could improve our understanding of cancer and help us grow specific tissues

From sundials to atomic clocks, our understanding of time has become a lot more accurate as technological developments allowed us to measure it more precisely. Much more than helping us arrive on time, clocks permit us to discern our location. Longitude, for example, is determined by measuring the difference in time from a set position, …

Cicadas can be turned into living speakers and made to play music such as Pachelbel’s Canon

A test of AI model performance across the industry is being gamed by technology giants, making objective scientific comparison impossible, researchers have claimed

Greenland sharks show no signs of retinal degeneration despite living for up to 400 years, and scientists have identified genetic adaptations that may explain how

A chemical that is mainly found in dark chocolate seems to slow our rate of biological ageing, but it isn't clear if eating chocolate is good for us overall

Robots often struggle to carry out tasks in places where they haven’t been trained, but a new AI model helps them clean up a mess or make a bed in unfamiliar settings

Semaglutide, a drug commonly taken for weight loss, showed marked benefits for most patients in a trial for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)

Washing your clothing on high temperature cycles may not completely disinfect it, researchers have found, because washing machines don't necessarily sustain high enough temperatures

There’s no doubt that doing some long-distance running improves our fitness, but at what point does it become too much, asks Grace Wade

We should protect Earth's rivers and forests with laws. But it is another matter to claim them as living beings, as Robert Macfarlane does in his new book Is a River Alive?

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Max Telford's new book, The Tree of Life, is a millennia-spanning exploration of the history – and future – of evolutionary relationships

Several recent scientific findings, including signs of life on an exoplanet and 'de-extinction' of the dire wolf have caused a stir but when a claim seems too good to be true it probably is

AI-powered deepfake videos with altered facial expressions can display realistic heartbeats through skin colour changes, which may hinder one deepfake detection method

Human wounds take almost three times as long to heal as those of other primates, which may come down to our lack of fur

Users of the r/ChangeMyView subreddit have expressed outrage at the revelation that researchers at the University of Zurich were secretly using the site for an AI-powered experiment in persuasion

The enigmatic Y chromosome has a tendency to disappear from cells with age. Now, research is revealing the long-term impacts this can have on disease risk and life expectancy

One of the most famous findings in physics could be wrong – the double-slit experiment was long thought to confirm that light can be a wave, but its results can be fully explained using only quantum particles

Putting air filters in classrooms seems to boost student attendance, which may be due to them reducing levels of air pollution, pollen, pathogens or all three

Neutrinos have always been hard to explain – and now the detection of one so energetic it shouldn't exist may help illuminate the strangest corners of the cosmos

The UK government's Redbox AI chatbot is being used by thousands of civil servants, but a lack of transparency about exactly how they are using it has experts concerned

The US National Science Foundation cancelled funding for research on misinformation, disinformation and AI-generated deepfakes, even as misleading information runs rampant on social media

Text-generating AIs such as ChatGPT can be used to hide encrypted messages inside fake conversations, which could help people living under oppressive regimes communicate secretly

Hackers may be able to garble the output of programs running on quantum computers, leaving other people with unknowingly incorrect results - but thankfully, there is a fix

A black hole bomb – an idea first proposed in 1969 – has now been realised in the lab as a toy model made from a rotating cylinder and magnetic coils. Studying the bomb could help us better understand real black holes.

A carnivorous caterpillar species camouflages itself with dead insects so it can live safely alongside spiders, stalking their webs and stealing their prey

Last week astronomers reported hints of biological activity on a distant planet, but a re-analysis of their data suggests the claimed molecules may not be there at all

A fossilised 113-million-year-old hell ant from Brazil adds to the evidence that the first ants evolved in the southern hemisphere before moving north – and beyond

Exposing children with peanut allergy to proteins from the legume is an approved treatment to reduce the risk of allergic reactions, and now we have evidence it also works in adults

Mice overcame a Lyme disease infection after being given an antibiotic that is often used for pneumonia, and its effect on their gut microbiomes was negligible

A collection of images from Imperial College London's photography competition uncovers the visual splendor of scientific discovery

There's a fierce debate raging in the horticulture world over whether adding ice cubes to your orchid is beneficial or damaging for this tropical plant. James Wong investigates

Intertidal is Yuvan Aves's extraordinary, personal exploration of the rich wildlife offsetting the urbanity of Chennai, India. While its focus is a small strip of Indian coast, its issues are global

The attempted creation of dire wolves could undermine conservation efforts by making people think extinct species can be revived, says the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Two commercial telecommunications facilities have been connected by a secure quantum network that used existing fibre optic cables at room temperature – a key step towards a feasible quantum internet

As humanity prepares to return to the moon, scientists also have ideas for huge lunar experiments that could revolutionise astrophysics

Greater mouse-tailed bats crawl backwards over cave walls, and it seems they use their long tails to help feel their way

Unusual signals called quasi periodic eruptions appear to come from black holes, but we don't know what creates them. Now astronomers have seen the most powerful one of these signals ever, and have a new idea about their cause

Machine learning helped show how harnessing the weird effects of Einstein’s special relativity could enable a new kind of quantum computer – and it could also lead to new insights into the quantum realm

The game, called StarStarter, rewards players for directing their attention away from negative stimuli and towards positive ones

A huge colony of Pavona coral near the coast of Saudi Arabia is thought to be the largest living example found in the Red Sea

An aerodynamic material that mimics shark skin helps planes fly with less drag – and it can be added to existing aircraft like a decal

Powering quantum computers with quantum batteries would reduce the energy needed for cooling and enable machines to pack in more qubits

Laboratory experiments have coaxed simple molecules into states that naturally become more complex, hinting at the origins of evolution itself

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider found evidence of an unprecedentedly heavy and exotic form of antimatter in the aftermath of a collision between extremely fast lead ions

A daily pill developed by the US pharmaceutical company Lilly may become a convenient alternative to injectable drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. In phase III trials it significantly lowered blood sugar and body weight in people with type 2 diabetes

Mounting evidence suggests there might be two separate types of the world’s fastest-growing neurological condition. Can this fresh understanding lead to much-needed new treatments?

Common medications for keeping blood pressure down, including ACE inhibitors, diuretics and calcium channel blockers, also lower the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment

A nearly complete skeleton found in a cave in France belonged to a group known as the Palaeolithic dogs and its skeleton suggests it had a confusing relationship with humans

Whenever there’s even a slight chance that an exoplanet shows signs of biological activity, people understandably get excited – but it’s never been aliens, and we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, not this time or the next, says Chris Lintott

A quantum sensor using Earth's magnetic fields outperformed standard GPS backups in test flights. This technology could help commercial aircraft stay on course amid a rise in GPS jamming and spoofing attacks

A network of Earth's best clocks will be synchronised with the most accurate one ever sent into space. But the device has a short shelf life: it will burn up in the atmosphere at the end of the decade as the ISS deorbits

Water filters made from untreated wood can remove more than 99 per cent of particles, taking out many harmful bacteria and microplastics

The report of possible biosignatures on the exoplanet K2-18b is exciting, but we are a long way from establishing beyond doubt that there is life on such a distant world

Two independent research teams have developed methods for hacking noisy quantum computers based on a row-hammer attack, a type of interference used to infiltrate traditional computers

A century since Werner Heisenberg changed the course of physics, five of the world's leading physicists examine the greatest achievements of quantum mechanics and look forward to the next 100 years, in which experiments might finally answer some of the theory's biggest mysteries: is gravity quantum? Can classical and quantum physics be unified? And where …

The idea of varying your lifestyle throughout your menstrual cycle to help relieve PMS or period pain seems intuitive, but the evidence reveals a nuanced picture, finds columnist Alexandra Thompson

On a faraway planet, the James Webb Space Telescope has picked up signs of molecules that, on Earth, are produced only by living organisms – but researchers say we must interpret the results cautiously

It is rare to find brown dwarf stars orbiting in pairs, and this pair has an even more unusual exoplanet companion

It is harder for our bodies to absorb key nutrients from plant-based foods, so some vegans may be short on essential amino acids for healthy muscles and bones despite eating plenty of protein

General relativity is an astonishingly beautiful theory, and grappling with why it disagrees with quantum mechanics is a joy, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Quantum theory started with a bout of hay fever, and went on to transform our view of the universe – but its legacy isn't complete

Space agencies from the US, Europe and Japan are all making plans to visit the asteroid Apophis when it makes an extremely close flyby in 2029 to learn how to deflect others like it

Exposing the origins of the improbable – and at times scary – plans of tech billionaires makes Adam Becker's More Everything Forever a disturbing but important book

Photographer Mitch Epstein's years-long project highlights the majesty and vulnerability of old growth forests across the US

Researchers have used a fungus and bacteria to create rigid, living structures similar to bone and coral, which could one day be used as a self-repairing building material

There were hints that the world may be quantum long before the development of quantum mechanics in 1925 – could we have come up with this revolutionary theory hundreds or even thousands of years earlier?

As quantum computers mature, they will be transformational. But there are good reasons why we don’t yet know exactly which problems they will excel at – and that makes them all the more exciting

Quantum effects like superposition and entanglement have long been seen in single particles, but physicists are on a quest to find out just how big an object can be before it loses its quantumness

The colossal squid is the largest invertebrate on the planet, but it is also surprisingly elusive. An image of a 30-centimetre-long juvenile is our first glimpse of the animal in its natural habitat

In an early-stage trial, a single dose of a CRISPR treatment lowered cholesterol levels, possibly permanently

The Lyrids and Eta Aquarids meteor showers can both be seen starting in late April, with viewing opportunities in both the northern and southern hemispheres

Conventional accounts of the birth of quantum theory often overlook the pivotal role of one of its luminaries – and this has led to a persistent misunderstanding of what it really means, argues physicist Carlo Rovelli

For 100 years, quantum theory has painted the subatomic world as strange beyond words. But bold new interpretations and experiments may help us to finally grasp its true meaning

Explore the key moments in the history of quantum theory, from the early ideas of Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg to the discovery of phenomena like superposition and entanglement – and today’s quantum computers

Tests show that when people hear recordings of real voices and AI-created ones, they mostly fail to spot the fakes – raising concerns about scams involving counterfeit voices

Puppies’ performance in cognitive tests at 3 to 7 months old can give a strong indication of their personalities and trainability as adults

Using smartphones, computers and the internet seems to slow cognitive decline in people aged over 50

An antibiotic that is commonly used for urinary tract infections effectively treated gonorrhoea, and may even work against drug-resistant cases

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to know which of the quantum computers now in development have the best chance of being game-changing technologies

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are commonly found in the bodies of short-beaked common dolphins that get stranded on UK beaches, and are linked to the animals’ risk of infectious diseases

In this extract from the classic science fiction novel, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet Ringworld’s protagonist Louis Wu, as he travels a future Earth

Wider hips may make childbirth easier, but increase the risk of other health issues

Schrödinger called his metaphorical cat “quite ridiculous” but the quantum weirdness it represents has become a useful benchmark for the quantum computing industry, finds our quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

A machine controlled by AI that sprays bears with the chilli pepper chemical capsaicin could reduce dangerous confrontations with people

Solvej Balle's newly translated speculative novel, On the Calculation of Volume (parts I and II), examines the numbing effects of time through the old trope of being stuck in a single day. It is an effective meditation

There have been several claims of quantum computers performing at a level impossible to match with a classical computer – most of which have been refuted. Could there be a mathematical reason why this keeps happening?

A baby has been born after being conceived via IVF performed by a machine, with a medical professional merely overseeing the process

Pluto isn’t the only dwarf planet in our solar system's outer reaches. Now is an ideal time to look for the egg-shaped Haumea, says Abigail Beall

In the latest instalment of our Future Chronicles column, which explores an imagined history of inventions yet to come, Rowan Hooper reveals how brain-computer interface let us travel to Mars via robot avatars in the late 2020s

Nafis Hasan's Metastasis is a deep dive into the economics and politics of cancer treatment. This makes for a dense and difficult read, but one that is well worth the effort

Bed rest is commonly prescribed for high-risk pregnancies. It can't hurt and might help, right? Wrong, says Jacqueline Sears

A new understanding of why some animals evolved to be loners, and the benefits that brings, shows that a social lifestyle isn’t necessarily superior

Amazon is aiming to launch its first operational satellites today to provide speedy internet connections in remote regions, but it will still take some time to catch up with its main competitor, SpaceX's Starlink  

Computers that use photons rather than electrons to manipulate data promise greater speed and energy efficiency, and the technology is developing rapidly

An investigation of the changing behaviour of a single quantum bit through time has uncovered a tantalising similarity to the geometry of three-dimensional space

Physicists have determined that the ideal technique for pour-over coffee can use up to 10 per cent fewer beans to make a cup just as flavoursome

The number of dinosaurs may have been stable before the asteroid impact, despite evidence that species were getting less diverse

A moth antenna can be integrated into the electronics of a drone to create a smell-seeking bio-hybrid – but it only detects the smell of a female moth

A powerful enough quantum computer could crack the encryption methods currently used to protect data around the world, but the solution might be a quantum algorithm once thought to be completely useless

A blood test can accurately determine whether someone without known risk factors for preeclampsia may be at risk of developing the potentially fatal hypertensive pregnancy condition

Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we now know that a day on Uranus lasts for 28 seconds longer than previously thought – a difference that could be crucial in planning future missions to the gas giant

Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species

A recently developed medication encourages people with cocaine use disorder to reduce their intake of the stimulant – a step towards the first approved drugs to treat the problem

Space is a favourite setting for many Hollywood films, but just how accurate are their portrayals? Patricia Skelton, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, sheds some light on the scientific rigour of her favourite movies. For example, during an explosive space battle scene in Star Trek, a crew member is tossed out into space …

President Trump's DOGE team, headed by Elon Musk, claims to have saved $1 million by ditching 70-year-old tape data storage. But experts say the move will likely end up costing more in the long term and could put data at risk

An underwater drone with long, spinning arms like the flagella of bacteria could survey the seas without endangering marine life, its creators claim

From dampening inflammation to boosting mental health, the many types of dietary fibre have a surprisingly large impact throughout the body. Here's how to get your fill

Dozens of trials testing GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide, the medicine in Ozempic and Wegovy, against a placebo suggest that they really could protect against dementia

A framework inspired by evolution may demonstrate why two observers see the same non-quantum world emerge from the many fuzzy probabilities of the quantum realm

As AI developers harvest Wikipedia content to train their models, the resulting surge in automated traffic is driving up costs for the non-profit that runs the popular crowdsourced encyclopaedia

A spider species eat their siblings as soon as they die but tolerate each other when they are alive, suggesting a mysterious signal helps them to determine when to dine on a nest mate

Beekeepers often experience some seasonal losses, but this past winter, more than half of all US honeybee colonies died off, potentially the largest loss in US history

In order to keep time accurately, we have always had to set our clocks by the ticks of a better one. Until the 1950s, the best were those set by astronomers based on the position of the sun in the sky. Back then, the most reliable clock was the one at the Royal Observatory in …

The way bonobos combine vocal sounds to create new meanings suggests the evolutionary building blocks of human language are shared with our closest relatives

A widely used artificial sweetener increases brain activity in regions involved in appetite, suggesting it makes people hungrier

Researchers used a synthetic version of moon dust to build working solar panels, which could eventually be created within – and used to power – a moon base of the future

People seem to be less impressed when others lose weight with the drug Ozempic than when they achieve it via lifestyle changes

Atomic clocks record time using microwaves at a frequency matched to electron transitions in certain atoms. They are the basis upon which a second is defined. But there is a new kid on the block, the optical clock, which boasts even higher accuracy. Is it time to redefine the second? Optical clocks can reach accuracies …

A cost-cutting initiative in the world of passenger aviation could see flight-deck staff reduced to just a captain, with their co-pilot replaced by AI. It may save money, but it's a risk too far, argues Paul Marks

Drug trials are vital to medicine, but what of those taking part? Jennie Erin Smith's moving new book about what happened in a rural community hit by early-onset Alzheimer's disease gives them a voice

A more precise definition of the second is crucial to all sorts of physical measurements – but to get there, scientists have to pack up their extraordinarily fragile optical clocks and take them on tour

A company in the Netherlands says it has perfected a way to create "graft chimeras" with the skin of one plant and the innards of another

Squeezing exercise into one or two days a week seems to have similar health benefits as doing the same amount of physical activity spread out throughout the week

A termination letter obtained by New Scientist reveals that the Trump administration has gutted the office that runs the country’s only nationwide survey on drug use and mental health

The concept of nothing once sparked a 1000-year-long war, today it might explain dark energy and nothingness even has the potential to destroy the universe, explains physicist Antonio Padilla

Under pressure from Elon Musk’s DOGE task force, NASA is cancelling grants and contracts for everything from lunar dust research to educational programmes

Even animals with very small brains turn out to have cultural traditions, which poses a puzzler for biologists wondering what makes human culture unique

At the Dakshineswar temple complex in India, Hanuman langurs beg for food by grabbing visitors’ legs or tugging on their clothes – and they don’t stop until they get their favourite snacks

After a container ship struck and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, researchers began calculating the risks of similar catastrophic incidents for other US bridges – and they’re surprisingly high

Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves

An eavesdropper hiding inside a black hole could still obtain information about quantum objects on its outside, a finding that reveals how effectively black holes destroy the quantum states near their event horizons

On 29 March, a partial solar eclipse will pass over Canada and parts of northern Europe, including London.  Thanks to our friends at the Royal Observatory in London, we can experience this celestial event guided by their astronomers. Want to see a total eclipse? Why not join one of our Discover eclipse tours

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon

The long-standing question of how animals came to have an anus may have been solved by studies of which genes are active during development in various animals

When researchers asked people to work on a computer with their phones 1.5 metres away, the amount of time they spent on their phone went down – but they just scrolled social media on their laptop instead

Red specks in the early universe are puzzling astronomers, but a proposed explanation suggests they are the progenitors of supermassive black holes

After nearly 36 years of searching, astronomers have finally confirmed Neptune has auroras, thanks to data from the James Webb Space Telescope

A quantum algorithm for solving mathematical problems related to knots could give us the first example of a quantum computer tackling a genuinely useful problem that would otherwise be impossible for a classical computer

The rise of large language models like ChatGPT that can churn out computer code has led to a new term - vibe coding - for people who create software by asking AI to do it for them

Bizarre parasitic wasps preserved in amber about 99 million years ago had trap-like abdomens that they may have used to immobilise other insects

A naturalist finds a hallucinogenic mushroom with the power to cure all ailments in the animated series Common Side Effects. Big Pharma is hot on his trail in this beautifully made show, says Bethan Ackerley

A weatherproof box and motion-trigger camera help photographer Will Burrard-Lucas capture images of rarely seen African elephants

The size and shape of a giraffe’s spots seem to influence how well the animals survive when temperatures get hotter or colder than normal

A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang

Researchers have identified the border between quantum physics and some as-yet-unknown post-quantum realm by mathematically analysing all possible measurements of simple quantum systems

A species of houndshark called Mustelus lenticulatus makes sharp clicking noises when handled. Until now, sharks as a group were thought to be universally quiet

A new test of AI capabilities consists of puzzles that humans are able to solve without too much trouble, but which all leading AI models struggle with. To improve and pass the test, AI companies will need to balance problem-solving abilities with cost.

Ciaran Martin, the former head of cyber security at GCHQ, says the UK government was "naive" to expect a request for Apple to weaken its encryption services to remain secret. He thinks governments must come to terms with the fact that uncrackable encryption is here to stay.

In the ongoing debate over the benefits and harms of smartphone use in children, initial data from a US survey suggests the devices can actually improve well-being and social connections, but social media use may be more harmful

Chemical analysis suggests the 400-million-year-old fossil Prototaxites was neither plant, animal or fungus – hinting at a mysterious life form that went extinct long ago

The Odysseus spacecraft made a rough landing on the moon last year, toppling over and rendering much of its equipment unusable, but an onboard NASA radio telescope called ROLSES-1  was able to make some observations

Isar Aerospace is preparing to launch its Spectrum rocket from a base in Norway, which would make it the first orbital launch from continental Europe outside Russia

Young female black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys often want to hold other females’ infants, but mothers are much more permissive of experienced caregivers

While earlier weather-forecasting AIs have replaced some tasks done by traditional models, new research uses machine learning to replace the entire process, making it much faster

A dinosaur fossil discovered in Mongolia boasts the largest ever complete claw, but the herbivorous species only used it to grasp vegetation

Our current best theories of the universe suggest that dark energy is making it expand faster and faster, but new observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument suggest this mysterious force is actually growing weaker

Last month's discovery of the most energetic neutrino yet detected is incredibly exciting for us particle physicists – but it also raises many questions, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Abigail is created to replace her owner's dead wife, just as robots are set to gain rights. Emily H. Wilson explores Lucy Lapinska's Some Body Like Me, the latest addition to "robo-rights" literature

Traditional advice tells us to only move growing plants to a pot one size larger. The science shows that you don't need to bother with this slow transition, says James Wong

After weeks of criticism, Microsoft promised to show new data about its Majorana 1 quantum computer at the biggest meeting of the world's physicists. Researchers in the room tell New Scientist they were not impressed with what they saw.

String theory may be our best attempt at a theory of everything, except that it can't describe an expanding universe like ours. Now a radical new twist on the idea could finally fix that – but it requires us to completely reimagine reality

A record-setting test of quantum communication used a microsatellite to connect ground stations in China and South Africa, bringing a global quantum internet closer to reality

Recordings of brain activity in budgerigars reveal sets of brain cells that represent different sounds like keys on a keyboard – a structure never seen before in any bird brain

The European Space Agency has released the first batch of large-scale images from the Euclid space telescope, which astronomers have already used to find hundreds of strong gravitational lenses

A meteorite discovered in north-west Africa in 2023 didn’t come from a large asteroid or any of the known planets of the solar system – but it might have formed on a planet that was destroyed long ago

Speedy new chargers from Chinese automaker BYD take just 5 minutes to restore 400 kilometres of an electric car’s range, but will they be widely used?

The finest ever map of the cosmic microwave background - the faint evidence of the universe's early form - has yielded precise confirmation of the age of the cosmos and its rate of expansion. But for some scientists, the findings offer a frustrating lack of clues to major cosmological mysteries

There are a couple potential explanations for distinctive markings found on a Martian rock, but new evidence suggests they are most likely to be related to microbial activity

NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded unusual sounds as a Martian dust devil passed directly over the robotic vehicle in 2021, and we now know they came from electrical activity in the storm

NASA’s InSight lander recorded surprisingly large quakes that indicate Mars is more seismically active than we first thought. Mysteriously, they only happen during Martian summers

Analysing the aftermath of particle collisions has revealed two new instances of “CP violation”, a process that explains why our universe contains more matter than antimatter

Birds do it, chimps do it, even monarch butterflies do it – and by paying more attention to how animals self-medicate, we can find new treatments for ourselves

The wind on Saturn's largest moon is strong enough to blow around rocks of up to half a metre in diameter, which could put NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission at risk

A private moon mission planned for 2027 will be the first step towards commercial lunar mining of rare and expensive helium-3

Scientists have long sought the particle that carries the force of gravity, but a new theoretical model tosses out that idea entirely – and shows how it could be tested in experiments

The Big Wheel, discovered using the James Webb Space Telescope, formed just 2 billion years after the big bang - surprisingly early for a spiral galaxy of a similar size to our Milky Way

For many, art and science are still seen as distinct approaches to understanding the world around us. While qualities like intuition or creativity are integral to both practices, the rules they play by are quite different. Artists tend to ask subjective, open-ended questions whose answers depend on your perspective. On the other hand, scientists combine …

We may be starting to get a grasp on what kick-started life on Earth – and it could help us search for it on other planets

A newly discovered mechanism could explain the shock finding last year that oxygen is produced by metallic nodules on the seafloor – and it might be happening on other planets, too

A failed launch left a batch of Starlink satellites in the wrong orbit last year, and it appears that a fragment of one fell to Earth and hit a farm in Canada. Thankfully, no one was injured

New Scientist's revelation that a UK minister is asking ChatGPT for advice raises the question of what role these new AI tools should play in government – and whether we should really think of them as intelligent

In a survey of AI researchers, most say current AI models are unlikely to lead to artificial general intelligence with human-level capabilities, even as companies invest billions of dollars in this goal

A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they were all greyish-brown in colour, which would have helped them hide from dinosaurs

Potential cuts of up to 50 per cent of NASA's science budget could mean cancelling missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probes

New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of Peter Kyle, the UK's technology secretary, in what is believed to be a world-first use of such legislation

A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos

NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water

In his Atomic series, artist James Stanford showcases "the spectacle and the horror" of growing up near a nuclear bomb testing site

Cosmic Titans, a new exhibition at the University of Nottingham, UK, is a powerful collaboration of artists and quantum physicists that sets out to make the intangible tangible

Whether social media sites police their platforms using humans or algorithms, content moderation isn't keeping users safe, says Jess Brough

As a step towards a useful and ultra-secure quantum internet, researchers have created an operating system that coordinates connected quantum computers, no matter what hardware they use

D-Wave's claim that its quantum computers can solve problems that would take hundreds of years on classical machines have been undermined by two separate research groups showing that even an ordinary laptop can perform similar calculations

Palaeontologists have discovered 66 three-toed dinosaur footprints in a slab of rock that has been on display for 20 years at a school in Queensland

Saturn has dozens of new moons, bringing it to a total of 274. All of the new moons are between 2 and 4 kilometres wide, but at what point is a rock too small to be a moon?

Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic

A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds

A 12-passenger “seaglider” that is part boat and part aircraft harnesses cold war-era technology to fly just above the waves using only electric power

Quantum fridges, batteries and clocks are brilliant inventions but still limited in power. Now physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern is charting a path to take them to the next level

Researchers have criticised Microsoft's new Majorana 1 quantum computer, saying the company has made claims about the way it works that aren't fully backed up by scientific evidence

A star has been spotted shooting away from the heart of our galaxy at around 500 kilometres per second, giving astronomers clues about a group of stellar objects that are hard to observe directly

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), developed at the University of Cambridge, is one of the world's earliest general-purpose computers. Volunteers at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, UK, have been constructing a working replica of an EDSAC machine. Once complete, it will be able to run EDSAC software that was published …

Intuitive Machines's Athena spacecraft has landed on the surface of the moon, but it seems to have fallen over and we don't yet know if it will be able to drill for ice

Flying commercially in the US remains low risk despite a recent mid-air collision, near misses and job cuts at the Federal Aviation Administration. But aviation safety experts and former FAA employees identify warning signs that would stop them from flying in the future

In a record-breaking test, researchers remotely detected radioactive material by shooting it with infrared laser pulses and analysing how the light scattered

A supermassive black hole that doesn't appear to be where we would expect seems to be travelling at more than a thousand kilometres per second – the result of a giant cosmic collision

A new understanding of how an observer can change the disorder, or entropy, of a quantum object could help us probe how gravity interacts with the quantum realm

This photograph of a Soyuz rocket bathed in mist was selected as a finalist for the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 competition

Back in the 1960s, it seemed like better communications could solve all our problems. Don’t blame the technology for the failure of that dream, says Annalee Newitz

Supersolids are strange materials that behave like both a solid and a fluid due to quantum effects – and now researchers have created an intriguing new type of supersolid from laser light

Software used by banks and the space industry may still rely on archaic code. We went in search of the oldest code in use and asked, what happens when it glitches?

The stars as seen from Earth would have looked dimmer 14 million years ago, as the solar system was in the middle of passing through clouds of dust and gas

The Turing award, often considered the Nobel prize of computing, has gone to two computer scientists for their work on reinforcement learning, a key technique in training artificial intelligence models

A strange new conception of how time warps across the universe does away with cosmology's most mysterious entity, dark energy

Water is an essential part of life on Earth, and possibly elsewhere – and now it we know it may have formed not long after the start of the universe

We can describe the quantum realm using straightforward mathematics – but once we try to translate these ideas into the real world, things get weird. Our quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan explains why

The second-ever commercial landing on the moon comes amid a flurry of lunar exploration activity that will see around a dozen missions this year alone

There may be logic in keeping spacecraft as sterile as possible, but this could inadvertently be affecting astronauts' health

For a few evenings around 28 February, every planet in the solar system will be visible in the night sky, thanks to a rare great planetary alignment. Here's how to make sure you don't miss this planetary parade.

While experimenting with waves, researchers discovered that vibrating a container of liquid would cause bubble to "gallop" across its surface

The electrons in a twisted piece of graphene show a strange repeating pattern first predicted in 1976, but never directly measured until now

Varda, a US firm planning to manufacture pharmaceuticals in low Earth orbit, is expecting its second capsule to return to Earth this week

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to launch a number of missions, including a private lunar lander, a lunar satellite for NASA and a prospecting probe for an asteroid-mining company

Physicists use mathematical assumptions in many situations that forbid time from moving backwards – but that isn’t necessarily a reflection of quantum reality

We need to think more carefully about how we categorise the universe, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Our estimates of the size of a neutrino span from smaller than an atomic nucleus to as large as a few metres, but now we are starting to narrow down its true value

A neutrino with more energy than we've ever seen before was picked up by a detector on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, and it seems to have a distant cosmic origin

Unexpected epochs of stillness that punctuate the cosmic timeline could offer a natural explanation for dark matter and many other unsolved astronomical mysteries

If you have the patience to repeatedly switch an egg between a hot and a colder pan, you'll be rewarded with an amazing taste and texture, say physicists

The odd superconductivity found in layered graphene may bring us closer to understanding room-temperature superconductors

Emmy Noether was hailed as a mathematical genius in her own time. And her theorem on symmetry is still driving new discoveries in particle physics and quantum computing today