A report warns that 2°C of global warming would mean losing most of the world’s ice sheets and glaciers, leading to catastrophic sea level rise ⌘ Read more
A report warns that 2°C of global warming would mean losing most of the world’s ice sheets and glaciers, leading to catastrophic sea level rise ⌘ Read more
When most people are asked to name a river, they often reach for the Amazon or Nile, but these aren’t the only remarkable rivers out there. Here are 10 more from around the world – and solar system ⌘ Read more
Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the second ever launch of its massive Starship rocket on 17 November ⌘ Read more
The approval of a CRISPR treatment, for sickle cell and beta thalassemia, is just the start for a technology still in its infancy ⌘ Read more
Shining light on bubbles made from soapy water mixed with a fluorescent dye turns them into tiny lasers that can work as pressure sensors ⌘ Read more
Researchers have found nine markers in blood that are associated with adolescents experiencing more severe symptoms of depression months later ⌘ Read more
Needles and catheters can irritate the body and may pose a risk to others if not properly disposed of, but a flexible alternative made from gallium solves both problems ⌘ Read more
There is growing evidence that cannabis use may disrupt adolescent brain development, but in older adults it seems to lead to more neural connections in brain regions associated with memory and learning ⌘ Read more
An artificial intelligence capable of beating humans at a variety of games is an important step towards a more general intelligence, says Google DeepMind ⌘ Read more
A set of tracks made over 120 million years ago push back the earliest known appearance of birds in the southern continents ⌘ Read more
Potassium and rubidium atoms aboard the International Space Station have been cooled almost to absolute zero to put a fundamental principle of Einstein’s general theory of relativity to the ultimate test ⌘ Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope has let us peer into the atmosphere of gas giant planet WASP-107b, and it has clouds made of sand and an atmosphere of sulphur dioxide and water vapour ⌘ Read more
A blow to the head may suppress the brain's waste disposal system, leading to a dangerous build-up of fluid. Now, a study in mice suggests a drug cocktail can get the system working again ⌘ Read more
The ability to 3D print using bendy and rigid materials at the same time could open up new possibilities for robotics ⌘ Read more
We used to trace the origins of art to Stone Age Europe. Now we have evidence of artistic sensibility in earlier hominins, from Neanderthals to Homo erectus and beyond ⌘ Read more
An exoskeleton that moves the wrists up and down and side to side could help people recover from injuries to the joints ⌘ Read more
The AI that powers ChatGPT could save doctors' time when responding to cancer-related queries, but also gives potentially harmful recommendations in around 7 per cent of cases ⌘ Read more
Comets may be a key source for the building blocks of life, but the only planetary systems where those ingredients could survive impact may be ones with large stars or lots of neighbouring worlds ⌘ Read more
Silky ants with a fungal infection favour food containing aphids, which are a source of hydrogen peroxide, and this increases their chances of survival ⌘ Read more
Snakelocks anemones are the first known “heliotropic” animals – their tentacles point towards the sun, tracking its movements like plants do ⌘ Read more
Covid-19 rebound, when the virus increases in the body after initially decreasing, affected just under 21 per cent of people after they took Paxlovid in a trial, compared with fewer than 2 per cent not on the treatment ⌘ Read more
Companies are now offering chatbots that appear to come from beyond the veil. But psychologists say this "grief tech" may interfere with the patterns of brain activity through which we adapt to loss ⌘ Read more
A 15-kilometre-long mass of lava has formed underneath the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland and could erupt at any time ⌘ Read more
By using artificial intelligence to spot patterns in weather data, Google DeepMind says it can beat existing weather forecasts up to 99.7 per cent of the time, but data issues mean the approach is limited for now ⌘ Read more
Artificial intelligence can work out what someone is privately typing in VR meetings in Meta Horizon Workrooms by looking at the way their avatar's hands move ⌘ Read more
A small trial of a cholesterol-lowering treatment based on CRISPR gene editing has produced promising results, but there are questions over safety ⌘ Read more
The tail of comet Erasmus swung back and forth during its closest approach to the sun, probably because of a cloud of plasma spat out during a solar storm ⌘ Read more
A chemistry robot analysed meteorite samples and tested a range of catalysts, demonstrating a possible approach for producing oxygen at a Martian colony ⌘ Read more
Men are living shorter lives than women in the US, a widening gap largely driven by deaths due to covid-19, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide ⌘ Read more
Simply allowing existing trees to grow to maturity could theoretically suck billions of tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere ⌘ Read more
We are finally working out what happens to the skin and gut microbiome when someone gets acne, giving us new targets for treatments ⌘ Read more
This chilling extract is from Sandra Newman's retelling of George Orwell's dystopian classic, 1984, the latest pick for our New Scientist Book Club. It takes place as Newman's protagonist Julia sets off for the Two Minutes Hate ⌘ Read more
The UK's Automated Vehicles Bill would make it a criminal offence for car-makers to use certain marketing terms unless their vehicles are fully self-driving, with a punishment of up to two years in prison and a fine ⌘ Read more
Some sea turtle populations have become skewed towards females because of climate change, and now it appears that chemical pollution might be adding to the problem ⌘ Read more
The latest set of heart disease results seen with using Wegovy to treat obesity could help swing medical opinion in its favour ⌘ Read more
Spraying a stretchy and conductive polymer onto any store-bought garment turns it into a sensor for monitoring body movement during physical therapy ⌘ Read more
Cannabis is more popular in North America than anywhere else and its use continues to grow – but, somewhat surprisingly, not among adolescents ⌘ Read more
Divers often struggle to communicate because radio waves can’t travel far through water, but a way to send the waves up and across the surface before dropping back down again could change that ⌘ Read more
The moon lacks the nutrients that plants need to grow, but adding three types of bacteria to a simulation of lunar soil enabled tobacco plants to flourish in lab experiments ⌘ Read more
Fusion reactors could be used to produce radioactive isotopes for hospitals way before they become useful power generators ⌘ Read more
An echidna named after David Attenborough that hadn't been seen by scientists in more than 60 years has been caught on camera for the first time ⌘ Read more
Altering the gut bacteria of both mice and people either induced or relieved the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia ⌘ Read more
With fewer than 150 left in the wild, the Malayan tiger is rarely seen – but images from camera traps provide hope that conservation efforts are paying off ⌘ Read more
A composite image made from two faces can fool humans and AI, but unusually smooth eyebrows, which are an effect of image morphing, provide a way to detect them ⌘ Read more
The quantum realm is full of strange effects, but there’s a reason why everything looks normal from our point of view, writes physicist Sebastian Deffner ⌘ Read more
People who socialise regularly with friends or family live longer than those who never do, according to a study in more than 450,000 people in the UK ⌘ Read more
Ten sea cucumber species have been found to emit light for the first time, and researchers predict 200 more deep-sea species in this group could be bioluminescent ⌘ Read more
The longest actors’ strike in Hollywood history ended with an agreement that requires studios to get consent and pay performers for using AI-created digital replicas – but AI could still drastically change the industry ⌘ Read more
The most distant supermassive black hole confirmed is more than 31 billion light years away, and it could be the key to figuring out how these behemoths grew so big so fast ⌘ Read more
An analysis of archive photographs shows that the retreat rate of hundreds of glaciers around the coast of Greenland has accelerated dramatically due to global warming ⌘ Read more
A toothpaste that contains peanut proteins did not cause any serious side effects in people with an allergy to the food and showed early signs of preventing dangerous reactions ⌘ Read more
Aaron James received the first ever eyeball transplant during a 21-hour-long surgical procedure – and five months later, his new eyeball is healthy ⌘ Read more
A drug called tirzepatide and sold under the name Zepbound has been approved in the US and the UK for use as a weight-loss medication ⌘ Read more
We’ve long struggled to explain why sea spray contains so many tiny water droplets – now, experiments suggest the droplets may be created underwater when bubbles collide and merge ⌘ Read more
The prediction stems from a project to translate tests currently used in research into aids for routine diagnosis in hospitals ⌘ Read more
A drug called tirzepatide and sold under the name Zepbound has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as a weight-loss medication ⌘ Read more
We can now synthesise THC, CBD and other cannabinoids in bioreactors – these could be used to make new therapeutic compounds with a lower environmental cost ⌘ Read more
The most distant Milky Way-like galaxy ever seen – a barred spiral galaxy – has been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope and it is more than 11 billion years old ⌘ Read more
Solvation is the complicated process through which a dissolved substance like salt interacts with a solvent like water – and we are closer to understanding how it unfolds at the atomic level ⌘ Read more
A team aiming to produce the first complex cell with an entirely synthetic genome has created a strain of yeast with half of its chromosomes designed from scratch ⌘ Read more
Chronic pain can outlast inflammation, the usual driver of pain in the body – a study in mice suggests a vitamin supplement could help relieve it ⌘ Read more
Climate models suggest that deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia will cause feedback loops that contribute to longer El Niño and La Niña events, bringing more extreme impacts around the world ⌘ Read more
The enduring mystery of dark matter has led some physicists to propose that it was forged in a distinct moment of cosmic creation, potentially transforming our view of the early universe ⌘ Read more
Nature has retracted the scientific paper that claimed earlier this year that the wonder material known as “red matter” was the world’s first room-temperature superconductor ⌘ Read more
Medically assisted dying was behind more than 4 per cent of Canada's deaths last year, but uptake is lower in other parts of the world that allow such fatalities ⌘ Read more
From the Great Red Spot to the extreme jet stream, Jupiter’s weather is intense, but that's nothing compared to the extraordinary storms and winds on other gas giants in the universe ⌘ Read more
A few minutes a day of intense physical activity, which can come from everyday chores, is linked with a lower rate of heart attacks, particularly in female non-exercisers ⌘ Read more
Venus will vanish behind the moon for about an hour in the morning of 9 November in Europe, western Russia and some of northern Africa – here’s how to watch it happen ⌘ Read more
When NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew past the asteroid Dinkinesh, it found an unexpected satellite – but further images revealed that it’s actually two rocks tenuously connected together ⌘ Read more
Over the past 40 years, rising humidity means the atmospheric conditions that trigger severe storms are now more likely to occur – but there might not necessarily be more tornadoes as a result ⌘ Read more
Orcas have been damaging or sinking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar for the past few years and we don’t know why ⌘ Read more
An oral medicine called anastrozole has been approved by the UK's drug regulatory agency for reducing the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women at moderate-to-high risk of the condition ⌘ Read more
Rats emit a high-pitched squeak when around another rat, seemingly just to express a positive emotion ⌘ Read more
Low-calorie sweeteners such as aspartame have become common in all our diets. With concerns over their health impacts, should you turn to new plant-based alternatives to get your sweet hit? ⌘ Read more
The asteroid belt is messy and sometimes a threat to our solar system’s planet, so on this episode of Dead Planets Society it’s time to tidy it up into a single asteroid world ⌘ Read more
The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has released five of its first science images, including an iconic nebula and glistening galaxies ⌘ Read more
Measurements of sound waves passing through the sun seem to confirm that it isn’t as big as we thought and we don’t fully understand its interior ⌘ Read more
A group of small, simple robots can make a collective decision by exchanging infrared light signals in a process inspired by how bees decide where to build their nests ⌘ Read more
An old idea to use ocean heat to generate clean electricity has long failed to gain traction, but the technology – known as ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) – is seeing a resurgence of interest from islands dependent on fossil fuels ⌘ Read more
Unlike most other animal groups that left the sea behind, crabs have done it many times throughout their evolutionary history – and some crab lineages have even reversed course back to the ocean ⌘ Read more
A strong El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is coinciding with a similarly strong climate pattern in the Indian Ocean, suggesting South-East Asia and Australia will soon experience heat, drought and wildfires ⌘ Read more
A man with Parkinson's disease who fell up to six times a day can now walk several kilometres without falling due to a device that electrically stimulates his spinal cord ⌘ Read more
The antiquity, stability and weird chemistry of oases have made them cradles of evolution, yet humanity's need for water is putting these unique habitats in peril ⌘ Read more
DNA vaccines would be much easier to store than mRNA alternatives and should be as effective as conventional vaccines that contain live viruses ⌘ Read more
Not smoking, exercising regularly and keeping your cholesterol in check could make your biological age younger than your chronological age ⌘ Read more
Taking advantage of a quantum phenomenon called indefinite causal order could make quantum batteries charge more efficiently ⌘ Read more
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, the largest lake in South America, has been captured in detail by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission ⌘ Read more
It’s not Black Swan or The Wrestler. Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth is visually stunning with ultra high-res canyons and wildlife but as a movie, it is cheesy and simplistic ⌘ Read more
In the future, some industrial processes may be powered by hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. If the hydrogen leaks into the atmosphere before it is burned it can contribute to climate change – but not much ⌘ Read more
A chat about AI between US tech mogul Elon Musk and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak focused heavily on utopian futures and theoretical risks of superhuman intelligence instead of actual harms caused by AI systems already deployed by tech companies ⌘ Read more
NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past its first asteroid, Dinkinesh, on 1 November, and the first images have shown that Dinkinesh has a second, even tinier, asteroid orbiting it ⌘ Read more
Speaking at the end of the UK's AI Safety Summit, prime minister Rishi Sunak said that we don't yet understand enough about AI models to regulate them properly, but work to do so must happen faster ⌘ Read more
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak's much-publicised AI summit at Bletchley Park has come to an end, and the result seems to be a promise to hold more summits. At this rate, legislation will struggle to keep pace with the development of AI ⌘ Read more
The replacement of cow pastures with soya plantations in parts of Brazil has corresponded with an increase in leukaemia deaths among children, possibly due to pesticide exposure ⌘ Read more
Hundreds of human remains from one burial site hint at a prolonged conflict between Stone Age people, long before the formation of powerful states ⌘ Read more
The UK prime minister and US tech mogul are set to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, in a conversation streamed on Musk's X platform. Here are some topics they might touch on ⌘ Read more
Nations are vying to see who can sign up the most countries to their AI safety agreements, with a surprise US announcement threatening to overshadow the UK's declaration ⌘ Read more
A growing number of heavy cannabis users – especially young people – are showing up in emergency rooms with prolonged vomiting due to cannabis hyperemesis syndrome ⌘ Read more
The strongest winds from Storm Ciaran are expected to hit south England on the morning of 2 November, and the storm may set a record for the lowest air pressure recorded in 200 years ⌘ Read more
Tall 10-year-olds may be more at risk of developing an irregular heart rate in later life than their shorter counterparts, but less at risk of having a stroke ⌘ Read more