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.

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AI meets policy • Government use of chatbots challenges whether we can think of the tools as “smart”

A close-up look at far-away galaxies

Our best understanding of the universe may be wrong…

…or it may be too right • The finest ever map of the cosmic microwave background suggests our best model of the universe works just fine, making it hard to know where cosmologists go next, finds Matthew Sparkes

UK politician used AI for policy advice • In what is believed to be a world first, New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of the UK’s technology secretary, says Chris Stokel-Walker

We may have discovered how ‘dark oxygen’ is being made in the deep sea

Century-old maths puzzle solved • A challenge, first set in 1900, to bring together equations relating to particles and fluids under one mathematical framework has been solved, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Memory trick makes you think events occurred earlier than they did

Mysterious summer marsquakes shake the Red Planet

Surprising skeletons prompt a rethink of Egyptian pyramids

Early mammals had dull fur to prevent them being eaten

Giant rocks roll on surface of Titan • The wind on Saturn’s largest moon could make things tricky for an upcoming NASA mission

You could train your brain to be less easily tricked by illusions

Face bones hint at first humans in Europe

Asteroid Bennu is even stranger than we thought

Can forests soak up our extra CO₂? • A patch of old oak trees in the UK is helping scientists predict how the world’s forests will respond to higher levels of carbon dioxide, finds Madeleine Cuff

A selfish reason to give blood • People who regularly donate blood may see a boost in the growth of healthy blood cells

Metals squeezed into sheets just a few atoms thick

How to have a good day, according to science

Wildlife under threat as bird flu reaches Antarctica

No crystal ball needed • Creating an early-warning system for climate “tipping points” is wrong on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin, says Bill McGuire

Field notes from space-time • Full of energy Last month’s discovery of a record-breaking neutrino is incredibly exciting for us particle physicists – but it also raises many questions, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Clay lore

Getting it right-ish • In a sea of fake news and misinformation, Jacob Aron welcomes a great guide to the nature of proof. But don’t just take his word for it…

Tune yourself up • Can you really change your personality? Elle Hunt enjoys the story of one woman who found out on a year-long experiment

New Scientist recommends

The sci-fi column • Learning to live Abigail has been created as a replacement for her owner’s dead wife. But the law is about to change, granting her full human rights – what will she do? Emily H. Wilson explores the latest addition to “robo-rights” literature

Your letters

Living on the edge • Some thought string theory was dead because it couldn’t describe a universe like ours. But perhaps it can – if we can accept our cosmos is just the boundary of a wilder expanse of reality, says Jon Cartwright

“Animals have evolved all these fascinating ways to deal with infections” • The...