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.

Christmas & New Year special

Elsewhere on New Scientist

A year of two stories • This year, the full impacts of AI became obvious, but the biggest story was still global warming

New Scientist

Santa fishes you a merry Christmas

A problem with cosmic clumps • Material in the nearby universe seems less clustered than we think it should be

Having children earlier in life is genetically linked to dying younger

Unusual hedgehog from eastern China is new to science

Tiny plastic balls confirm the best way to pack a few spheres is in a sausage

Jumping spiders seem to be able to recognise each other

Great Wall of China is protected by a coat of lichen and moss

The moon may enter a new geological period thanks to us

Removing zombie cells may help MS • Senolytic drugs can remove damaged cells, allowing degraded tissue around nerves to recover

Insects thrive on solar farms planted with native flowers

Giant stream of stars may reveal dark matter’s secrets

We now know why we find some jokes funny – thanks to Seinfeld

How the seams on a baseball can alter its trajectory

Gesturing as you talk may help you speak languages like a local

Honey-hunting birds answer human calls

Strange fungi look like Dune worms

AI can tell which chateau Bordeaux wines are from

Really brief

Extreme heat like we’ve never seen before • Greenhouse gas levels and the arrival of El Niño pushed the world’s climate into “uncharted territory” in 2023

The viral superconductor • A claimed breakthrough substance called LK-99 became an unlikely social media star

Covid-19 crisis phase ended but virus still lingers

The ultimate bathroom tile had mathematicians celebrating

India made history with low-budget moon landing

Obesity revolution • Demand for the drugs Wegovy and Ozempic led to restrictions on use and dangerous counterfeits

Clever chatbots launched AI boom • Highly versatile large language models have taken the world by storm

Rise of cancer in younger people sparked concern

Spy balloon saga inflated US-China political tensions

The year’s best space images • Stargazers and space telescopes stunned us with a wealth of wonders

Looking back at 2023 • New Scientist’s columnists look back at effective altruism, the state of the environment, a new human story and the hunt for universal truths

Star of the show

Lottie and the River • A short story for New Scientist by astrophysicist turned award-winning science fiction author Alastair Reynolds

Your letters

MYSTERIES OF THE MUSEUM

Yuletide yarns • Welcome to New Scientist’s festive features, a package always guaranteed to surprise and delight. This year, among other things, we ask why nature never invented flightless bats (page 50), hunt down the extreme life forms living in your kitchen (page 64) and raise a glass to celebrate the physics of cocktails (page 62). Happy holidays!

In their dreams • Do other animals dream? And if so, what do their unconscious minds conjure while they’re sleeping, asks Michael Marshall

The mystery of the quantum lentils • Are these humdrum pulses secretly communicating with quantum signals? Thomas Lewton listens in

Walking with bats • Our world is dotted with...