This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Space

Alien life may exist on Venus but intelligence could be harder to find

SCIENTISTS and science journalists often share a weary refrain whenever a story with a whiff of the extraterrestrial raises its head: it isn't aliens. It is never aliens. https://youtu.be/6XJcqqnZEjA While firm evidence of life beyond Earth would be the discovery of the century, we have been burned too many times before – most notably in …

News

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News

Technology

A robot called Curly beat top-ranked athletes at curling

Two Curly robots, which are designed to play the game of curling A curling robot has beaten humans at their own game. Klaus-Robert Müller at the Berlin Institute of Technology in Germany and his colleagues have developed a robot powered by artificial intelligence, called Curly, that beat teams of expert human athletes in curling matches. …

News

Life

Young bats accept reality of climate change before older generations

News

Life

The longest whale dive ever recorded clocks in at almost 4 hours

News

Technology

Device can harvest wind energy from the breeze made when you walk

News

Health

Blood test could reveal if you will experience the placebo effect

News

Life

Rapid evolution due to extreme climate events could lead to extinction

News

Space

Astronomers may have found the first planet in another galaxy

News

Technology

Carbon ribbons a few atoms wide could help make powerful computers

News

Life

New species of tiny ‘fairy shrimp’ found in the world’s hottest desert

News

Space

Radiation exposure on the moon is nearly three times that on the ISS

News

Health

The paleo diet may make your biological age older than your real age

News

Health

Europe's second covid-19 wave is here but is it bigger than the first?

News

Health

Let the coronavirus spread among young people? It’s not a good idea

News

Health

Inside one of Australia's super-strict coronavirus quarantine hotels

News

Health

What should a second coronavirus lockdown look like in Europe?

News

Space

To understand signs of life on Venus we must do chemistry on Earth

News

Life

Missions to confirm signs of life on Venus are already in the works

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Analysis

Environment

China's 2060 carbon neutral pledge is a big deal but is it big enough?

Chinese president Xi Jinping addresses the United Nations general assembly on 22 September China surprised the world yesterday when president Xi Jinping told the United Nations general assembly that the country would “achieve carbon neutrality before 2060”. Until now, 2020 has been an underwhelming year for action on climate change, with a major UN climate …

News

Environment

We're heading to court to try to stop an avian apocalypse

News

Technology

Why monocultures aren't nearly as bad as you may think

News

Environment

World leaders pledge to protect nature – will it make a difference?

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Aperture

Life

Superstrong sea sponge could help build better spacecraft

The intricate structure of this marine sponge is already mimicked in engineering and architecture, and now we know we were missing a trick that can make our designs even stronger

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Features

Life

Why we're in for a long wait to hear from intelligent aliens

Hints of bacteria on Venus are encouraging, but finding life beyond Earth is the easy part. A new analysis suggests the evolution of human-like intelligence on another planet is more improbable than we like to imagine

Features

Humans

Ruby Wax interview: We are addicted to bad news but we can break free

Features

Life

The endangered giants that still lurk in the world’s biggest rivers

Features

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Culture

Space

Space Dogs review: A dog's-eye view of how Laika could have lived

A Russian street dog named Laika was the first living creature to orbit Earth . This is so well known a fact as to scarcely need stating – but in becoming trivia, the ambition and brutality of the Soviet experiment she was part of in November 1957 has been lost. Space Dogs , a documentary …

Culture

Technology

How drones are waging a stealth war on the way we think about society

Culture

Humans

Don’t Miss: Connected – an animated family road trip with wayward tech

Culture

Health

Raised by Wolves review: Stunning sci-fi set on a real exoplanet

Culture

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More

Health

How your computer can help defeat the coronavirus while you sleep

Thanks to the Folding@home project, millions of people are helping scientists understand the structure of proteins in the new coronavirus, finds Layal Liverpool

Regulars

Puzzle#79: Marathon Relay

Regulars

Tom Gauld asks how would you describe your research?

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Twisteddoodles designs science books for children

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Regulars

Why you should be cautious about clothing yourself in photons

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

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Letters

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The last word