Health Optimism over cancer treatments should always be cautious Efforts to turn everyday drugs into cancer treatments bring a glimmer of hope, but dangers of hype too News
Technology Google’s new NHS deal is start of machine learning marketplace Collecting valuable data DeepMind, Google’s London-based artificial intelligence company, has started training neural networks to recognise the signs of eye disease in medical images. A partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has given the company access to about a million anonymised retinal scans, which DeepMind will feed into its artificial intelligence software. The project … News
Health Put the butter knife down and step away from the 'sat fat' A major US study has undermined the increasingly vocal claims that saturated fat in food poses no risk to health, says Ian Johnson News
Life The exotic animals that bankrolled the forgotten evolutionist These are three of more than 100,000 specimens collected by biologist Alfred Russel Wallace in what is now Malaysia and Indonesia. His main interest was insects but he collected and sold striking animals like this Sulawesi hornbill (above) to support his research. Specimens like the orangutan (below) would have been gold dust for Wallace, says … Regulars
Physics Collapse: Has quantum theory's greatest mystery been solved? Our best theory of reality says things only become real when we look at them. Understanding how the universe came to be requires a better explanation Features
Life Listen to secrets of a honeybee hive in Kew’s latest sculpture Commune with the Hive I’m peering nervously into the hive: about 40,000 bees are clambering all over it. They are in a calm mood today, says Llyr Jones, a volunteer at London’s Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. You know you’re in for trouble, he says, when the hive gives off the smell of bananas, indicative … Culture
Space Tim Peake: Robots won’t replace me for 100 years Fresh from his mission on the International Space Station, British ESA astronaut Tim Peake will be at New Scientist Live to talk about his time in space. Here’s a taster New Scientist Promotions
Feedback: Things can only get better, claim UK politicians Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Regulars