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This week's magazine

11 September 2021

Issue 3351

New Scientist issue 3351 cover
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Editor's picks

woman sleeping on beanbags

Health

Recommended daily health targets can save us from ourselves

News
Stephon Alexander interview: Is the universe a self-learning AI?

Physics

Stephon Alexander interview: Is the universe a self-learning AI?

Features
The world is running out of microchips – here’s the solution

Technology

The world is running out of microchips – here’s the solution

Features
5 fruit and veg, 8 hours’ sleep: Should we trust daily health targets?

Humans

5 fruit and veg, 8 hours’ sleep: Should we trust daily health targets?

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

woman sleeping on beanbags

Health

Recommended daily health targets can save us from ourselves

LIVING to a ripe old age owes a fair amount to luck, but if science can tell us anything about health, it is that our judgement matters, too. The way we live our lives and the way we treat our bodies can make a huge difference to our chances of having a long and healthy …

News

News

Collisions recorded by the CMS detector

Technology

Large Hadron Collider sticks with reels of tape for vast storage needs

Collisions recorded by the CMS detector, part of the LHC The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) wakes from a three-year shutdown next month when beam tests begin ahead of experimental work. During the downtime, upgrades were made to the computer centres that handle the vast amounts of data produced when particles smash into each other close …

News

Technology

Wooden floors laced with silicon generate electricity from footsteps

News

Humans

Humans reached Arabia in at least five waves thanks to wetter climates

News

Life

Wild cockatoos make utensils out of tree branches to open fruit pits

News

Environment

Amazon fires have affected almost all the region's endangered species

News

Life

Scorpions have strange joints that can simultaneously bend and twist

News

Space

We have spotted a new kind of supernova triggered by cosmic collisions

News

Environment

Illegal cannabis farms on the US west coast are poisoning wildlife

News

Physics

Stingrays’ bulging eyes and mouths make them much faster swimmers

News

Technology

Call centre workers can use AI to mimic your accent on the phone

News

Health

Mix-and-match antibiotic prescriptions may help lower resistance risk

News

Environment

Texas cold crisis early this year linked to melting Arctic sea ice

News

Health

Men fart more when eating a plant-based diet due to good gut bacteria

News

Environment

Will plans for new UK coal mine scupper net-zero ambitions at COP26?

News

Life

Zebras rolling in pits help give life to the Namib desert in Africa

News

Environment

High-res carbon emission maps reveal climate impact of commuting

News

Life

First full survey of Peru and Chile’s threatened fog island ecosystems

News

Health

Will the Texas abortion ban spread across the US?

News

Environment

58 per cent of oil must stay in the ground to meet 1.5°C climate goal

News

Health

Warning over coronavirus measures in England's schools

News

Health

What we know so far about booster shots and the covid-19 vaccines

News

Space

SpaceX is about to send the first ever all-amateur mission into orbit

News

Analysis

container ship Maersk Murcia

Technology

Shipping has made slow progress on climate change – can methanol help?

The container ship Murcia Maersk Shipping is a bigger contributor to climate change than aviation , and remains one of the few sectors where emissions are growing instead of falling. It has yet to find a sure-fire way to decarbonise. Last week might mark the beginning of a turning point. On 24 August, Maersk, the …

News

Space

Should we ban space weapons to stop the huge space junk problem?

News

Health

No, there's nothing wrong with seedless fruits

News

Environment

The toxic error at the heart of efforts to curb heavy metal pollution

News

Aperture

Bolivian black-capped squirrel monkeys are weighed at ZSL London Zoo (c) ZSL

Life

Animals at London zoo get their annual weigh-in

https://youtu.be/TJpnDMFWOpA Photographer Brett Cove/ZSL THESE charming residents of London Zoo, run by the Zoological Society of London, are just a few of the 20,000 animals that are being weighed and measured as part of its annual weigh-in . Recording heights and weights helps zookeepers keep tabs on each animal's health and well-being, such as whether …

Regulars

Features

The world is running out of microchips – here’s the solution

Technology

The world is running out of microchips – here’s the solution

The chips at the heart of our digital devices are manufactured by a few large companies, but an open-source approach to design could end their dominance - with implications for everyone

Features

Physics

Stephon Alexander interview: Is the universe a self-learning AI?

Features

Humans

5 fruit and veg, 8 hours’ sleep: Should we trust daily health targets?

Features

Culture

PU'ER, CHINA - AUGUST 07: A herd of wild Asian elephants strolls through a village at Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County on August 7, 2021 in Pu'er, Yunnan Province of China. (Photo by Wang Zhengpeng/VCG via Getty Images)

Humans

Fuzz review: Witty and amusing science writing at its best

A herd of wild Asian elephants strolls through a village in China Book Fuzz: When nature breaks the law Mary Roach WW Norton MARY ROACH has a knack for choosing subjects for her books that won't have necessarily crossed your mind and convincing you that you must now know everything about them. She has covered …

Culture

Humans

In the Watchful City review: An impressive debut filled with folklore

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: The Dinosaurs – New Visions of a Lost World

Culture

Humans

A New World Order review: A powerful sci-fi movie without dialogue

Culture

More

2BWXN9F Cardboard, weighed down with bricks, fitted over soil in bottom of fruit cage to suppress weeds.

Humans

Why cutting down on digging the garden can actually be good for soil

OF ALL my garden tools, the one I have used most must be my trusty spade, a lovely small and light one with a comfortable wooden handle. But recently, it has been getting less action because I have been stepping up on the "no-dig" approach to gardening. All gardeners need to dig sometimes, of course, …

Regulars

Puzzle #130: Can you solve this civilisation’s sum?

Regulars

Tom Gauld spots a sticky situation

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on the reality of 21st century fashion

Regulars

Regulars

When two grown men squared off over the size of their trajectories

Humans

When two grown men squared off over the size of their trajectories

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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