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

A road ill-travelled • Countries such as the UK are choosing a dangerous way out of the pandemic

New Scientist

UK covid-19 cases fall • Coronavirus infections have fallen for seven days in a row, but whether it is a genuine drop remains to be seen, reports Graham Lawton

The variant race is upon us • Several countries are at a point in their vaccination drives where immunity-escaping covid-19 variants are most likely to emerge, reports Michael Le Page

Is an exit wave a real thing?

Is the climate becoming too extreme to predict? • A string of record-shattering weather events has shocked scientists, but climate models continue to improve, says Adam Vaughan

Full human genome put to work • Most detailed human genome sequence reveals hidden variation between people

Termite bacteria could chomp wood waste into biofuel

Russian science lab launched to expand ISS

Dogs will ignore you if they know you are lying, unlike children

DeepMind AI reveals shape of 98.5 per cent of human proteins

Cosmic collisions could outshine supernovae

Who gets to be an astronaut? • Commercial space travellers will have to work harder to get their US astronaut wings, reports Leah Crane

Sucking DNA out of the air reveals which animals live nearby

Keeping tabs on kelp • Marine surveys off England’s south coast are hoping to find regrowth of this key climate defence following a trawler ban, reports Adam Vaughan

Clove and thyme oils stop invasive beetles eating palm trees

Birth of an alien moon glimpsed for first time

Male and female mammals kill for different reasons

Unravelling the causes of migraine

Mummified man’s last meal discovered

Really brief

Tomatoes’ inbuilt attack warning

Sharks’ spiral intestines resemble a Tesla invention

Flexible processor most powerful yet

Spineless legislation • A new animal welfare law is a step in the right direction, but it should include invertebrates too, say Alexandra Schnell and Nicola Clayton

There’s another way • The culture wars in the UK are heating up, but as most people haven’t yet picked a side, there is still room to find common understanding, writes Graham Lawton

Your letters

Life in extremis • Wellcome Photography Prize 2021

Can AI make us less binary? • 12 Bytes is Jeanette Winterson’s witty take on AI, women and a binary world. Her essays provide a fresh dose of optimism, says Laura Grace Simpkins

Living on another planet • Survival is all in Settlers, a powerful and realistic sci-fi movie reminiscent of classic westerns, says Linda Marric

Don’t miss

The Red Planet beckons • Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have now both flown aboard their own spacecraft. Using a simulator called Mars Horizon, anyone can try their hand at entering the space race. Jacob Aron finds out how hard it can get

The cave art conundrum • Fresh discoveries are forcing a rethink on everything we thought we knew about Stone Age art, not least what it means and where else it might be hiding, finds Alison George

DATING AUSTRALIAN ROCK ART

THE FIRST SELFIE

Thin-air therapy • Our organs and cells die without enough oxygen, but there may be times when limiting it could actually help us heal. Ute Eberle...