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This week's magazine

2 October 2021

Issue 3354

New Scientist issue 3354 cover
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Editor's picks

HEFEI, CHINA - APRIL 18, 2021 - Aerial photo shows the Institute of Quantum Information and Quantum Technology Innovation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, Anhui province, April 18, 2021. (Photo credit should read Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Technology

Will the US or China win the race for global quantum dominance?

News
D1P5RK Solar system, artwork

Space

Our cosmic neighbourhood has so many more secrets for us to reveal

News
Secrets of a long and healthy life reside in your gut microbiome

Health

Secrets of a long and healthy life reside in your gut microbiome

Features
Gwen Adshead interview: Why ordinary people commit heinous crimes

Humans

Gwen Adshead interview: Why ordinary people commit heinous crimes

Features
Lunar craters could reveal past collisions with ancient black holes

Space

Lunar craters could reveal past collisions with ancient black holes

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

D1P5RK Solar system, artwork

Space

Our cosmic neighbourhood has so many more secrets for us to reveal

ABOUT 4.5 billion years ago, a gigantic cloud of dust and gas floating through space collapsed in on itself, going on to form the sun, the planets and everything else in our solar system. That we are reasonably certain of this fact is a triumph for science, but our cosmic neighbourhood has so many more …

News

News

carved statue

Humans

Story of epic human voyages across Polynesia revealed by genetics

Polynesian sacred idol statue on Raivavae island, Polynesia A genetic study has helped shine a light on how the Polynesian islands of the central and southern Pacific – some of which are thousands of kilometres apart – were populated over the past thousand years. Alexander Ioannidis at Stanford University in California and his colleagues analysed …

News

Life

How our ape ancestors suddenly lost their tails 25 million years ago

News

Technology

4D-printed robot self-assembles into a tube and rolls up hills

News

Environment

Tomato is first CRISPR-edited food to go on sale in the world

News

Life

Dinosaurs may have waggled their tails to help walk more efficiently

News

Life

Hyenas make faces at each other when they want to play-fight

News

Environment

Alok Sharma: COP26 is for ordinary people, not just climate warriors

News

Technology

Simple make-up tips can help you avoid face recognition software

News

Health

Parasite evolution is making it harder to detect and treat malaria

News

Technology

US army to 3D print concrete buildings and bridges in disaster areas

News

Health

Children with more books at home have less mental decline when older

News

Life

Antarctic seal numbers rose and fell with climate over 50,000 years

News

Technology

AI is helping US Air Force to decide which targets to strike

News

Environment

Germany’s new coalition government may boost climate change action

News

Space

Weird hybrid meteorite may be evidence of a chaotic early solar system

News

Space

Spacecraft could detect signs of life on Saturn's moon Enceladus

News

Life

57 per cent of elephants at Thai tourist facilities have nervous tics

News

Space

Life on Venus may have only been possible for its first billion years

News

Health

Should you get a covid vaccine booster shot if you're offered one?

News

Analysis

Someone holding two power cables

Technology

USB-C chargers: Will EU law cut down on e-waste or just anger Apple?

A Lightning cable (below) and USB-C cable (above) Update: The European Union will force smartphone makers to use a standard USB-C charging cable from 2024, which it claims will make life easier for consumers and slash the amount of electrical waste going to landfill. Proposals for the legislation have been approved and passing the new …

News

Technology

Will the US or China win the race for global quantum dominance?

News

Health

The stem cell revolution isn't what you think it is

News

Humans

The great land heist that helped form many US universities

News

Aperture

FEATURE ONLY The grow hall at Nordic Harvest close to Copenhagen, where a 14 storey high system grows salad leaves in water under UV lights.

Technology

Futuristic farm may use 250 times less water than normal

Photographer Alastair Philip Wiper THIS futuristic set-up looks like something out of a sci-fi film , but is in fact a simple way to grow some greens, albeit using different tools than usual. The impressive shot, taken by photographer Alastair Philip Wiper, shows the grow hall at Nordic Harvest, a 14-storey vertical farm on the …

Regulars

Features

Secrets of a long and healthy life reside in your gut microbiome

Health

Secrets of a long and healthy life reside in your gut microbiome

How long you live and how well you age rests on many factors beyond your control, but the discovery that gut microbes play a key role means what you eat can make a difference

Features

Space

Lunar craters could reveal past collisions with ancient black holes

Features

Humans

Gwen Adshead interview: Why ordinary people commit heinous crimes

Features

Culture

Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) in Foundation

Space

Foundation review: Isaac Asimov TV adaptation is imaginative reworking

Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) in Foundation WHAT would happen if we could predict the future? Not by using some kind of magic or clairvoyance, but by applying the rules of a new branch of science. This is the premise behind Foundation , a new series on Apple TV+ that is based on a set of …

Culture

Tomorrow Is Too Late review: Young activists speak out on the climate

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: A live event on patterns that explain the universe

Culture

Several People Are Typing review: The horrors of Slack and modern work

Culture

More

Puzzle #133: Can you work out the dimensions of Tina’s toy brick?

Puzzle #133: Can you work out the dimensions of Tina’s toy brick?

#133 Think tank Toddler Tina has noticed that Sticky, her stickleback, is struggling because the water in the slim fish tank is only 2 centimetres deep. She would like to top up the tank with water, but the tap is beyond her reach, so she has the bright idea of dropping one of her toy …

Regulars

Space

How to use the Cassiopeia constellation to spot Andromeda and Pegasus

Regulars

Tom Gauld: 'I'd like to make changes to our investment portfolio'

Regulars

Twisteddoodles detects a trip and fall

Regulars

Regulars

Scientists have finally worked out the effects of consuming red wine

Scientists have finally worked out the effects of consuming red wine

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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