New Scientist

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

Elsewhere on New Scientist

The fossil fuel-free state • South Australia’s push to net zero offers lessons – and hope – for the world

New Scientist

Glittering life of the Panama Canal

Farming linked to disease spike • An analysis of DNA from human remains shows that more diseases jumped to people after we started domesticating other animals, finds Michael Le Page

Why birds’ eyes can be blue, green, pink or orange

Odd cosmic explosion may break our understanding of space

Field notes Puerto Nariño, Colombia • Amazon’s pink dolphins are feeling the heat Months of extreme temperatures and low rainfall are taking a toll on wildlife and people in the rainforest, finds Luke Taylor

Mysterious rotation trick makes magnets float in the air

The moon is 40 million years older than we thought

Farming may expand to wilderness • As the world warms, vast wild areas in the north will become more suitable for farming

Fermenting vegan cheese could make it more like dairy

Brain-inspired chip could be the fastest at running AI

Air filters cut covid-19 sick days in schools

We forget details when our brain picks the wrong thing to remember

Sperm caught breaking Newton’s third law of motion

Hundreds of chatbots could show us how to make social media less toxic

Emergence of cicada generation led to a caterpillar boom

Sleepers respond to words they hear • People seem to be able to reply to speech with pre-arranged facial expressions while napping

Upwards lightning shoots out X-rays as it rises to the clouds

Particle accelerator is so small it could fit inside a pen tip

The bird flu sweeping the world evolved in Europe and Africa

Blast of radio waves is 8 billion years old

Hitting snooze won’t make you more tired

Warm seas blamed for disappearance of snow crabs

Really brief

Building our future • Let’s lose old stereotypes about engineering, because attracting new talent is crucial to meeting net-zero goals, says Dr Hayaatun Sillem

This changes everything • Don’t click on the war Online celebrity culture, such as the saga of movie stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is the ultimate counterprogramming in a time of conflict, says Annalee Newitz

On the run

The ascent of woman • Was culture made by mothers? What is menopause? Did sexism help women? Alexandra Thompson reads an account of women as evolutionary agents

From black to white holes • Carlo Rovelli’s latest book takes us on a journey into the centre of a black hole – and back out again, discovers Abigail Beall

New Scientist recommends

The TV column • Cooking up a storm Lessons in Chemistry is the story of a woman scientist frustrated by her times who becomes the host of a TV cooking show. The series takes a while to find its stride, but patience will be rewarded, says Bethan Ackerley

Your letters

In search of quantum gravity • The question of what space-time is made of, and whether it is quantum or classical, is among the biggest in physics. These experiments could finally crack it, says Lyndie Chiou

Can we conjure space-time from scratch?

Electric dreams • South Australia is a solar and wind energy champion and now plans a truly fossil fuel-free grid. How did it make such a remarkable...