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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves ⌘ Read more
By studying the brains of autistic girls, we now know the condition presents differently in them than in boys, suggesting that huge numbers of women have gone undiagnosed ⌘ Read more
Paranthropus was an ape-like hominin that survived alongside early humans for more than a million years. A fossilised leg belonging to a strikingly small member of the group raises questions about how it did so ⌘ Read more
The rate at which the planet is warming has sped up since 2010, and now researchers say that China's efforts to clean up air pollution are inadvertently responsible for the majority of this extra warming ⌘ Read more
Taking aspirin was first linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancer in 1988, but the research into its anti-tumour potential has been full of twists and turns since then ⌘ Read more
Since the second world war, US economic prosperity and major technological developments have hinged upon the government’s commitment to funding scientific research. The Trump administration is ending that ⌘ Read more
The US has confirmed more than 480 measles cases across 19 states, the highest total since an outbreak in 2019 sickened more than 1200 people ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Red specks in the early universe are puzzling astronomers, but a proposed explanation suggests they are the progenitors of supermassive black holes ⌘ Read more
Photosynthesising microbes in soil may increase their activity as temperatures rise, offsetting some of the carbon emissions expected to be released from peatland and permafrost ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Bizarre parasitic wasps preserved in amber about 99 million years ago had trap-like abdomens that they may have used to immobilise other insects ⌘ Read more
An "unprecedented view" of how the body changes during and after pregnancy has revealed many long-lasting impacts on the liver, kidneys and more ⌘ Read more
In the past year, treatments such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have become household names. But there are many questions left to answer, not least what the future holds for weight-loss medications and society at large ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang ⌘ Read more
Masaki Kashiwara has won the 2025 Abel prize, seen by some as the Nobel of mathematics, for his contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory ⌘ Read more
Anecdotal reports suggest drugs like Ozempic may curb not just appetite but also impulsive or addictive behaviour, hinting at links between metabolic health and our brains ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Transparent wood, made by stripping organic polymers and replacing them with a mixture of egg whites and rice extract, could be used as windows and smartphone screens ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Women with premenstrual syndrome reported big improvements in their symptoms after taking placebo pills, despite knowing they did not contain any active ingredients ⌘ Read more
Scientists have replicated the luxurious mouthfeel of foie gras using the liver and fat of ducks reared and slaughtered normally, avoiding the controversial techniques involved in traditional production ⌘ Read more
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. ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Floating platforms of wood could draw up seawater and help it to freeze, seeding the formation of new sea ice ⌘ Read more
There's a small chance of very high warming even with moderate future emissions, according to a computer model exploring what could happen in the next thousand years ⌘ Read more
We’ve pumped huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that needs to be paid back. Large animals like wolves, bison and whales may already be tackling the problem ⌘ Read more
Simulations suggest that water can become a superacid under extremely high heat and pressure conditions. This may also explain how planets like Uranus and Neptune get diamond rain ⌘ Read more
Melting ice is revealing new coastal zones in the Arctic, but while this new landscape might fuel speculation about natural resources, it is vulnerable to rockfalls and landslides that can cause dangerous tsunamis ⌘ Read more
It's not a just a revolutionary and safe vaccine technology – mRNA could help make the best and most expensive drugs in the world affordable for everyone ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Spending a lot of time outdoors may be the best way to prevent myopia, or delay its progression, but this isn't always practical. Now, research suggests that bringing the outside in may be a valid workaround ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Stone tools are considered the first form of technology devised by ancient humans – but they might not have been invented from scratch ⌘ Read more
Many of us have a brain that is older than our years. But there are plenty of things you can do to counteract this, says neuroscience columnist Helen Thomson ⌘ Read more
Young female black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys often want to hold other females’ infants, but mothers are much more permissive of experienced caregivers ⌘ Read more
Lithium-6 is a crucial material for nuclear fusion reactors, but isolating it is challenging – now researchers have found a way to do this without using toxic mercury ⌘ Read more
A dinosaur fossil discovered in Mongolia boasts the largest ever complete claw, but the herbivorous species only used it to grasp vegetation ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
The hormonal upheaval in the run-up to menopause can cause cognitive difficulties. But researchers are also finding that this can be a critical window for protecting long-term brain health ⌘ Read more
At the largest gathering of physicists in the world, the American Physical Society says it won’t back down in the face of executive orders to limit diversity programmes ⌘ Read more
Weather Girl, a play in London's Soho Theatre about a weather forecaster who finally snaps as the climate apocalypse looms, is frantic and funny ⌘ Read more
Having a tattoo has been linked to a higher risk of conditions like lymphoma and skin cancer, but the situation isn't clear-cut ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
The top 100 videos about ADHD on TikTok feature many claims that psychologists consider inaccurate, but students often identify misleading videos as helpful ⌘ Read more
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. ⌘ Read more
The first randomised controlled trial of microdosing LSD as a treatment for ADHD found the psychedelic drug wasn’t any more effective than a placebo in alleviating symptoms ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
A World Meteorological Organization report details a long list of grim records for everything from CO2 levels and temperature to sea ice loss and sea level rise ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Speedy new chargers from Chinese automaker BYD take just 5 minutes to restore 400 kilometres of an electric car’s range ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Money is a deeply emotive subject, our attitudes to it vary wildly and we are reluctant to bring it up in conversation. Could new research help us to be less weird about it? ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
A new way of estimating rural populations has found that we may be undercounting people who live in these areas, potentially inflating the global population beyond the official count of 8.2 billion - but not everyone agrees ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
A private moon mission planned for 2027 will be the first step towards commercial lunar mining of rare and expensive helium-3 ⌘ Read more
Surveys that ask thousands of people how they spend their time have revealed some surprising activities that seem to make any given day a good one ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Can one single mathematical framework describe the motion of a fluid and the individual particles within it? This question, first asked in 1900, now has a solution that could help us understand the complex behaviour of the atmosphere and ocean. ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
It can be difficult to recall exactly when a specific event happened, and now it seems our memory can be tricked into pushing occurrences back in time, making us think they happened earlier than in reality ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
These brilliant images show how researchers in Switzerland are using weather-modification techniques to understand how ice crystals form in clouds, an important and poorly understood factor in climate and weather models ⌘ Read more
An analysis of changes to global ecosystems has revealed that almost nowhere is untouched by the influence of humanity, with more than 50 per cent of the planet's land mass experiencing "novel" conditions ⌘ Read more
Building the full value of pi has been a project thousands of years in the making, but just how much of this infinite number do we actually need, asks our maths columnist Jacob Aron ⌘ Read more
Shifting your focus could help you overcome the trickery of optical illusions ⌘ Read more
The health problems associated with ultra-processed foods may be explained by the way the products encourage overeating. Adding more protein to the foods might help people limit their intake – but it isn’t a complete solution ⌘ Read more
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it is discontinuing its regular update calls due to staffing problems, but its researchers may also fear political retaliation for discussing climate change ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
The 2023 breach of the Kakhovka dam drained a huge reservoir and exposed a vast area of toxic sediment, creating a debate about how best to rebuild after the Russia-Ukraine war ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Bones dating back 25,000 years suggest that humans lived in extremely icy conditions in Tibet, which were previously thought to be uninhabitable ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
To reduce the growing risk of intense wildfires, California is cutting and burning the areas that fuel them – but these efforts may be moving too slowly ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Bone fragments from a cave in northern Spain suggest there were multiple hominin species living in western Europe around a million years ago ⌘ Read more
Scientists have struggled to explain why global temperatures have shot up in recent years, but ocean cloud cover has now emerged as a crucial piece of the puzzle ⌘ Read more
Sheets of bismuth, gallium, indium, tin and lead can now be made just a few atoms thick by crushing them at a high temperature and pressure between two sapphires ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Radical new insights from the science of interoception – how the body senses its internal state – explain the real reasons we feel tired all the time, and how to re-energise ⌘ Read more
Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a type of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease, in 2007 – but an analysis of his Discworld books suggests there were signs of the condition a decade earlier ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
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? ⌘ Read more
Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic ⌘ Read more
Linguists, psychologists and experts in cultural evolution are discovering why we tell stories, how ancient the oldest ones are and why some tales run and run ⌘ Read more
A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds ⌘ Read more
Men who had given blood more than 100 times in their life were more likely to have blood cells carrying certain beneficial mutations, suggesting that donating blood promotes the growth of these cells ⌘ Read more
A cargo ship carrying sodium cyanide collided with a tanker transporting jet fuel – scientists are warning of potentially severe environmental impacts ⌘ Read more
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 ⌘ Read more
Some male octopuses tend to get eaten by their sexual partners, but male blue-lined octopuses avoid this fate with help from one of nature’s most potent venoms ⌘ Read more