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This week's magazine

8 May 2021

Issue 3333

New Scientist issue 3333 cover
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Editor's picks

India's plight could be repeated elsewhere if rising cases are ignored

Health

India's plight could be repeated elsewhere if rising cases are ignored

News
The platypus: What nature’s weirdest mammal says about our origins

Life

The platypus: What nature’s weirdest mammal says about our origins

Features
Alien plants: The search for photosynthesis on other worlds

Life

Alien plants: The search for photosynthesis on other worlds

Features
How to boost your self-awareness and make better decisions

Humans

How to boost your self-awareness and make better decisions

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

India's plight could be repeated elsewhere if rising cases are ignored

Health

India's plight could be repeated elsewhere if rising cases are ignored

A woman waits to get tested for coronavirus at a COVID-19 testing centre in Srinagar. THE situation in India continues to worsen, with more than 20 million cases of covid-19 recorded and health systems overwhelmed. But there is nothing unique about India that means it alone could face such a crisis. Around the world, country …

News

News

A nurse vaccinates a 16-year-old with the Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine in the Mercantile Center in Worcester, Massachusetts

Health

Covid-19 vaccine side-effects: Here’s everything you need to know

A nurse vaccinates a 16-year-old with the Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine in the Mercantile Centre in Worcester, Massachusetts As growing numbers of younger adults get vaccinated against covid-19, social media is awash with conversation about side effects, which appear to be more common in young people. What kind of side effects can people expect, how can …

News

Health

One in four people in England exercised less during and after lockdown

News

Health

Air pollution halved in first UK lockdown but fell less in the third

News

Health

Multiple negative events before birth could lead to poor mental health

News

Life

Billion-year-old microbe had taken first step towards internal organs

News

Health

'Smart' immune cells kill tumours and stop them regrowing in mice

News

Physics

Frozen cloud of molecules acts as a single quantum object

News

Life

Female black widow spider mates with and eats multiple males

News

Life

White noise could warn birds to avoid colliding with tall structures

News

Life

New species of 'pumpkin toadlet' poisonous frog found in Brazil

News

Space

We’ve measured the size of Venus’s planetary core for the first time

News

Health

A baby’s first poo reveals if they are at risk of allergies and asthma

News

Earth

Japanese bay full of fish scales could mark start of the Anthropocene

News

Humans

Arabian cult may have built 1000 monuments older than Stonehenge

News

Environment

Driftwood could be recycled into cleaner electric car batteries

News

Space

Why billionaires are fighting over who gets to land humans on the moon

News

Life

Mice on opposite North American coasts evolved the same way

News

Humans

Indigenous people may have left the Amazon before Europeans arrived

News

Technology

Smart sensor measures how itchy you are by how much you scratch

News

Physics

Your finger can feel the change of a single atom in a material

News

Life

A species of yeast produces near-identical clones when it has sex

News

Humans

Remains of a 3-year-old child are the oldest known burial in Africa

News

Humans

Discrimination is still a problem in STEM

News

Health

India's covid-19 crisis: What happens next and how long will it last?

News

Analysis

I lived under a glacier for two weeks looking for life

Life

I lived under a glacier for two weeks looking for life

CHISELLED, grey rock walls loom on all sides, brought to life by the faint beam of my headlamp. Tiny rivulets of groundwater form a tangle of silver threads around me. As I inhale, I smell the heavy scent of cold, damp, stale air, which clings to my face like an invisible cloth. Slowly, I drag …

News

Environment

Ecocide may be on its way to becoming a new international crime

News

Aperture

Siberian flying squirrel caught mid-body-slam in rare photo

Life

Siberian flying squirrel caught mid-body-slam in rare photo

Photographer Tony Wu Agency NaturePL.com THE image above shows one of Japan's most charismatic and rarely seen residents as it glides through its Hokkaido habitat: Pteromys volans orii , a subspecies of the Siberian flying squirrel. It and the other squirrels below were captured by photographer Tony Wu , who spent several weeks in their …

Regulars

Features

How to boost your self-awareness and make better decisions

Humans

How to boost your self-awareness and make better decisions

Having good metacognition - the ability to think about our own thoughts - is key to success in many aspects of life. Fortunately, there are things we can all do to get to know ourselves better

Features

Life

The platypus: What nature’s weirdest mammal says about our origins

Features

Life

Alien plants: The search for photosynthesis on other worlds

Features

Culture

Sisters with Transistors explores the history of electronic music

Technology

Sisters with Transistors review: Brilliant electronic music pioneers

Sisters with Transistors explores the history of electronic music “How do you exorcise the canon of classical music of misogyny?” asks narrator Laurie Anderson in Sisters with Transistors . “With two oscillators, a turntable and tape delay.” Directed by Lisa Rovner, this archival documentary celebrates the women whose breakthroughs in early electronic music laid the …

Culture

Life

Lucy, the Human Chimp review: The ape that was raised like a human

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: Netflix's Oxygen, a sci-fi thriller with a shocking twist

Culture

Humans

Disco Elysium examines the mystery of how we construct our identity

Culture

More

What to cook if covid-19 has affected your sense of smell and taste

Humans

What to cook if covid-19 has affected your sense of smell and taste

FOR many of us, food has been one of the most dependable pleasures in a year when so many normal activities have been put on hold. It seems particularly cruel that a common, lingering symptom of covid-19 is an altered sense of taste and smell, with studies finding that between 40 and 85 per cent …

Regulars

Puzzle #112: What is the diameter of the third barrel?

Regulars

Twisteddoodles tunes in for the late night show with DJ subconscious

Regulars

Tom Gauld's true tales of everyday science

Regulars

Regulars

The world is hot enough: MI6 has started spying on climate polluters

Technology

The world is hot enough: MI6 has started spying on climate polluters

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

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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