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This week's magazine

1 January 2022

Issue 3367

New Scientist issue 3367 cover
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On the cover

Culture
Our pick of the best sci-fi and speculative fiction books for 2022
Features
How shifting your expectations about food can help you lose weight
Peatlands in peril: The race to save the bogs that slow climate change
What the thermodynamics of clocks tell us about the mysteries of time
News
2022 preview: High-voltage supergrids could power the world
2022 preview: mRNA tech behind covid-19 vaccines could get new uses
2022 preview: Large Hadron Collider will reach for the edge of physics
2022 preview: China to host crucial meeting in a bid to save nature
2022 preview: Quantum computers may finally become useful tools
2022 preview: What will the coronavirus do next?
2022 preview: A round-up of the year's most exciting space missions
Regulars
Find the most distant galaxy visible to the naked eye
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Editor's picks

A technician uses a multi-channel pipette dropper to dispense liquid material inside the Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines Ltd. laboratory facility in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday, July 12, 2021. The??World Health Organization announced it will establish its first-ever mRNA technology transfer hub in Cape Town in an agreement with??Afrigen??and the??Biovac Institute. Photographer: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Health

New Scientist's predictions for the big science stories of 2022

News
How shifting your expectations about food can help you lose weight

Health

How shifting your expectations about food can help you lose weight

Features
What the thermodynamics of clocks tell us about the mysteries of time

Physics

What the thermodynamics of clocks tell us about the mysteries of time

Features
Photo taken in Loppi, Finland

Environment

Peatlands in peril: The race to save the bogs that slow climate change

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

A technician uses a multi-channel pipette dropper to dispense liquid material inside the Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines Ltd. laboratory facility in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday, July 12, 2021. The??World Health Organization announced it will establish its first-ever mRNA technology transfer hub in Cape Town in an agreement with??Afrigen??and the??Biovac Institute. Photographer: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Health

New Scientist's predictions for the big science stories of 2022

HELLO and welcome to the first issue of 2022 – and our predictions of what the year ahead holds. This magazine went to press as the omicron variant of the coronavirus was on the rise. As the pandemic enters its third calendar year, we look at the likely evolution of further variants and the need …

News

News

Australia, Northern Territory. Solar reflectors which give power for the people of Hermannasburg in Northern Territory.

Technology

2022 preview: High-voltage supergrids could power the world

Solar reflectors in Australia’s Northern Territory generating power INDIA gained notoriety when it finished November's COP26 climate summit by weakening a move to end the use of coal. Less widely recognised is that the country also started the Glasgow summit in a more positive fashion, with a plan to massively expand the reach of solar …

News

Health

2022 preview: mRNA tech behind covid-19 vaccines could get new uses

News

Health

2022 preview: Expect a row over controversial Alzheimer's drug

News

Technology

2022 preview: Large Hadron Collider will reach for the edge of physics

News

Life

2022 preview: China to host crucial meeting in a bid to save nature

News

Technology

2022 preview: Quantum computers may finally become useful tools

News

Health

2022 preview: What will the coronavirus do next?

News

Space

2022 preview: A round-up of the year's most exciting space missions

News

Analysis

KUNMING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 30: A sign reading 'COP15' is set outside the Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center to welcome the upcoming 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) on September 30, 2021 in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China. (Photo by Yang Zheng/VCG via Getty Images)

Life

China must lead by example to make the 2022 biodiversity talks succeed

WHEN it comes to selecting venues for crunch talks on the future of the planet, the United Nations does a nice – if possibly unintentional – line in irony. Much was made of last year's decision to hold the COP26 climate talks in the UK , which as the cradle of the industrial revolution is …

News

Humans

We must capitalise on the public's renewed focus on climate change

News

Aperture

Planktonium photo series about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton Planktonic trochophore stage of the larva of a polychaete worm Photo Jan van IJken

Life

Mesmerising photos reveal the microscopic beauty of plankton

https://youtu.be/D3Me-I1RAV8 Photographer Jan van IJken THESE mesmerising shots reveal the microscopic beauty of plankton – and their predators. They are part of a film and photo project called Planktonium by photographer Jan van IJken , who captured this diverse array of species in various Dutch waters, including puddles, lakes and seas. A larva of a …

Regulars

Features

How shifting your expectations about food can help you lose weight

Health

How shifting your expectations about food can help you lose weight

The go-to advice for effective dieting is to choose food that is marketed as healthy and is low in calories, carbs and fat – but the way we think about such meals might actually cause us to gain weight

Features

Environment

Peatlands in peril: The race to save the bogs that slow climate change

Features

Physics

What the thermodynamics of clocks tell us about the mysteries of time

Features

Culture

Woman sitting on bench in flood

Humans

The best science books coming your way in 2022

If we can’t beat water, perhaps we should learn to go with the flow Explore and protect ACROSS the globe, water went wild in 2021. Floods hit everywhere from Afghanistan to New Zealand, and the UK was affected by flash floods in the summer. So, as we begin 2022, we should take heed of Erica …

Culture

Humans

Our pick of the best sci-fi and speculative fiction books for 2022

Culture

Humans

The best sci-fi TV shows and movies to look forward to in 2022

Culture

More

The Triangulum Galaxy, a.k.a., Messier 33, is a spiral galaxy about 3 million light years from Earth. It belongs to the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Chandra's X-ray data (pink) reveal a diverse range of objects including neutron stars and black holes that are pulling material from a companion star, and supernova remnants. An optical image from the Subaru telescope in Hawaii (red, green, and blue) shows the majestic arms of this spiral galaxy that in many ways is a cousin to our own Milky Way.

Space

Find the most distant galaxy visible to the naked eye

THE first week of the new year brings us a new moon, and the perfect time to hunt for the fainter objects in the night sky. I will be looking to spot a galaxy called Triangulum, or M33, which can be seen from anywhere in the world with dark skies this time of year. The …

Regulars

Puzzle #148: Muffin to get excited about

Regulars

Tom Gauld ticks umpteen things off the 2022 to-do list

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: Welcome to the Centre for Human Research

Regulars

Regulars

Do all Australian critters glow green under UV light, or is it borax?

Humans

Do all Australian critters glow green under UV light, or is it borax?

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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