This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Health

As climate crisis grows, vaccine push shows we can turn things around

A CRISIS urgently needs solving. Science can provide the tools to help, but we must be willing to change our lifestyles. Solutions will be very expensive, yet the cost of inaction is even higher. This isn't the first time we have drawn parallels between climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. We first did so in …

News

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News

Physics

Google researchers made a time crystal inside a quantum computer

A processor for Google's Sycamore quantum computer A unique phase of matter called a time crystal, which can in theory flip between two configurations forever with no energy input necessary, has been created inside a quantum computer built by Google. It is one of the first real-world problems solved by a quantum computer, and could …

News

Life

Harvestman genome helps explain how arachnids got grasping legs

News

Technology

US Navy is developing a solar-powered plane that can fly for 90 days

News

Humans

Babylonians calculated with triangles centuries before Pythagoras

News

Humans

Both boys and girls tend to write stories about boys

News

Space

The moon may never actually have had a strong magnetic field

News

Health

Study of how genes influence menopause may improve fertility treatment

News

Health

Asking processed food firms to cut calories voluntarily hasn't worked

News

Health

Scientists have worked out how to send viable mouse sperm on postcards

News

Life

Giant dinosaurs may have fasted like emperor penguins when laying eggs

News

Life

Organic blobs built in lab may be small step towards synthetic life

News

Life

Dolphins spotted trapping fish in mud rings in the Caribbean

News

Environment

Earth will hit 1.5°C climate limit within 20 years, says IPCC report

News

Health

Covid-19 vaccines: Everything you need to know about the leading shots

News

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Analysis

Humans

Why are so many records being broken at the Tokyo Olympics?

THE Tokyo Olympics have brought some of the fastest times ever seen on the athletics track. At an astonishing number of races, athletes are beating personal bests along with national, Olympic and world records. Elaine Thompson-Herah set a new Olympic record in the women’s 100 metres, breaking Florence Griffith Joyner’s record set over 33 years …

News

Health

Why is it so hard to say whether plants are toxic or safe?

News

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Aperture

Earth

Sea snot swirls in Turkey's Sea of Marmara reach record size

Photographer Muhammed Enes Yildirim Agency Anadolu Agency/Getty Images THE striking swirls in this shot of the Sea of Marmara, in north-west Turkey, represent one of the latest examples of the destructive effects of pollution. Last month, photographer Muhammed Enes Yildirim used a drone to capture these mesmerising patterns, which are formed by what is known …

Regulars

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Features

Humans

The surprising ways the place where you work affects your performance

Your brain is exquisitely sensitive to your surroundings, tuning into external cues and distractions whether you like it or not. Understanding how this happens could change the way we work

Features

Physics

States of matter: The unthinkable forms beyond solid, liquid and gas

Features

Technology

Real milk, no cows needed: Lab-made dairy products are now a reality

Features

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Culture

How astronomer Vera Rubin shone light on dark matter and fought sexism

Vera Rubin at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1965 Book Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond: The life of astronomer Vera Rubin Ashley Jean Yeager VERA RUBIN began her career at a time when women were denied access to telescopes at leading observatories. Eventually her work helped scientists rethink the content of the …

Culture

Humans

I'm Your Man review: How to fall in love with a robot – maybe

Culture

Don't Miss: Delightful Disney+ docuseries, Growing Up Animal

Culture

Journey to Infinity review: M. C. Escher's art of the impossible

Culture

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More

Puzzle #126: Which weighing machine is faulty?

#126 More chocs-a-weigh Quality Control at the WonderSnack chocolate factory used to have a problem with one of the six machines that produce 200 gram chocolate bars (see puzzle #109 Chocs-a-weigh, 17 April , p 52). That faulty machine has been scrapped, but Hazel Nutt, the new quality control manager, has discovered that the same …

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Environment

Here's how to spot invasive plants before they take over

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Tom Gauld's department of machine poetry research

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Twisteddoodles: Hey honey, how was work in the nervous system?

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What to do when sharing a golf course with a crocodile

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

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Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word