This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Health

We are still trying to understand how dangerous Wuhan coronavirus is

For those of us who turn to science for answers, our lack of knowledge about the Wuhan coronavirus is unsettling, but it doesn't mean we are helpless to fight it

News

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News

Health

AI is being used to select embryos for women undergoing IVF

An AI is choosing human embryos Artificial intelligence is being used in IVF to select embryos with the highest chance of resulting in a successful pregnancy. The AI algorithm, called Ivy, analyses time-lapse videos of embryos as they are incubated after being fertilised, and identifies which ones have the highest likelihood of successful development. It …

News

Life

Male moths genetically modified to kill females released in the wild

News

Space

Two stars with an odd wobble are stretching space and time around them

News

Technology

Soft finger-like robots can sweat to cool down just like humans

News

Environment

Climate forecast says we may break the record for warmest year by 2025

News

Environment

The seabed is sinking under the weight of water from melting ice caps

News

Health

Vegetarians may have a lower risk of urinary tract infections

News

Health

Pill with tiny needle for painless injections passes first human trial

News

Space

The best picture ever taken of the sun reveals its bizarre surface

News

Physics

This tiny glass bead has been quantum chilled to near absolute zero

News

Humans

Neanderthals never lived in Africa, but their genes got there anyway

News

Space

Legal action could be used to stop Starlink affecting telescope images

News

Health

Privacy of hundreds of thousands of genetic volunteers may be at risk

News

Health

What life is like in Wuhan during the coronavirus lockdown

News

Health

Will the coronavirus become a pandemic - and what happens if it does?

News

Health

Coronavirus: Why infections from animals are such a deadly problem

News

Health

The three things we really need to know about the Wuhan coronavirus

News

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Analysis

Health

New coronavirus: How soon will a treatment be ready and will it work?

Pharmacy employees in Shanghai, China, during the coronavirus outbreak So far, around a quarter of people infected during the outbreak of a new coronavirus have developed severe respiratory infections, and about 3 per cent have died. With the numbers still climbing alarmingly fast , many groups are already rushing to try to find treatments for …

News

Health

Why concerns of a teenage vaping epidemic may be overblown

News

Environment

We need nuclear power to fight climate change, but is it doomed?

News

Environment

Net zero goals are galvanising action on climate change at long last

News

Humans

Same-sex attraction isn't an evolutionary paradox - here's why

News

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Aperture

Life

Hundreds of millions of locusts are forming swarms bigger than cities

The worst invasion by desert locusts in decades has hit Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. The swarms are destroying crops and could cost millions of dollars to contain

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Features

Humans

Who invented the alphabet? The untold story of a linguistic revolution

One of civilisation’s most revolutionary inventions was long thought to be the brainchild of ancient Egyptian scribes. But its true creators may have been far less glamorous

Features

Humans

The flawed experiment that destroyed the world's faith in psychiatry

Features

Humans

Jess Wade's one-woman mission to diversify Wikipedia's science stories

Features

Life

Spiders think with their webs, challenging our ideas of intelligence

Features

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Culture

Star Trek: Picard explores what happens when robots go rogue

Patrick Stewart returns in triumphant new Star Trek spin-off Picard, but the Federation's robots are missing, discontinued, and for a very good reason

Culture

Humans

How to Argue with a Racist smashes race myths that plague society

Culture

Humans

Don't miss: Maternal artworks, blooming islands and rewarding maths

Culture

Technology

What would our lives be like if Amazon or Tinder ran an entire city?

Culture

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More

Humans

How tempering chocolate hacks its crystalline structure

Here's how to use chocolate's crystalline structure to your advantage to make delicious tempered chocolate

Regulars

New Scientist puzzle #45: Beetles on a clothes line

Regulars

Health

From alcohol to ketamine, what's the truth about recreational drugs?

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on the best scientific greetings cards

Regulars

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Regulars

Stockbrokers take on cows in a battle of investment strategy

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word