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This week's magazine

28 May 2022

Issue 3388

New Scientist issue 3388 cover
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Editor's picks

Man carrying grain

Environment

Global food crisis is leaving millions hungry, but there are solutions

News
R1GHPD Nuclear power station cooling tower low poly. 3d render ecology pollution save planet environment concept triangle polygonal. Radioactive nuclear reactor electricity vector illustration

Environment

Nuclear power can help us reach net zero, but what is its true cost?

News
Do we need nuclear power in the energy mix to stop climate change?

Environment

Do we need nuclear power in the energy mix to stop climate change?

Features
G15D0M Allegorical representation of the Demon of the Plague, from H. von Gersdorf's Feldtbuch der Wundarzney, printed by Johann Schott, Strasbourg, 1540. The Black Death (1340-1400) was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the de

Health

How many people died due to the Black Death in Europe?

Features
wild rat

Health

Plague never went away – now it could re-emerge in drug-resistant form

Features
A rethink of cause and effect could help when things get complicated

Mathematics

A rethink of cause and effect could help when things get complicated

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

R1GHPD Nuclear power station cooling tower low poly. 3d render ecology pollution save planet environment concept triangle polygonal. Radioactive nuclear reactor electricity vector illustration

Environment

Nuclear power can help us reach net zero, but what is its true cost?

ON PAPER, nuclear power is a brilliant way to tackle climate change. Yet the reality of this technology, which promises a steady supply of low-carbon power to cope with wind-free days, frequently disappoints, as Michael Brooks reports . Take the news that the UK's first new nuclear power station in a generation may be two …

News

News

Drone with fish-inspired suction disc

Technology

Robot can fly, swim or hitch a ride by sticking to other objects

An amphibious drone that can attach itself to other objects with a suction cup could be used to track marine animals such as whales

News

Space

Astronomers question if the first picture of a black hole is accurate

News

Environment

UK expects to produce more electricity than it needs by 2030

News

Technology

Is DeepMind's Gato AI really a human-level intelligence breakthrough?

News

Space

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft launches to ISS despite thruster issue

News

Health

Climate change means people are losing 44 hours of sleep per year

News

Environment

Priceless samples from Ukraine's seed bank destroyed in bomb attack

News

Health

Covid-19 vaccines may ward off long covid even if given post-infection

News

Life

Young wasps routinely eat their own siblings in the nest

News

Technology

Waste wood chemically recycled to produce material stronger than steel

News

Life

Tree plantations with diverse species grow better than monocultures

News

Health

Could monkeypox become a pandemic? Here's everything you need to know

News

Life

Female mice release banana-scented urine when pregnant to deter males

News

Life

Bottlenose dolphins can identify friends by tasting their urine

News

Life

Noisy boats over the Great Barrier Reef are cutting fish lives short

News

Environment

Australia votes for stronger climate action in 'greenslide' election

News

Environment

Gene-edited tomato offers new plant-based source of vitamin D

News

Health

Monkeypox cases are continuing to rise around the world

News

Analysis

Man carrying grain

Environment

Global food crisis is leaving millions hungry, but there are solutions

A storm of events is pushing food prices higher, exacerbating the hunger and malnutrition already experienced by hundreds of millions of people around the world

News

Comment

Twitter and the dangers of the US myth of free speech

Comment

Society

Science shows that dogs feel things like us. Legislation must catch up

News

Aperture

Polar bears caught feeding on a whale carcass in breathtaking photos

Life

Polar bears caught feeding on a whale carcass in breathtaking photos

With an enormous sperm whale to feast on, Svalbard polar bears gain access to more than just the bear necessities

Regulars

Features

A rethink of cause and effect could help when things get complicated

Mathematics

A rethink of cause and effect could help when things get complicated

Some scientists insist that the cause of all things exists at the most fundamental level, even in systems as complex as brains and people. What if it isn't so?

Features

Health

Plague never went away – now it could re-emerge in drug-resistant form

Features

Environment

Do we need nuclear power in the energy mix to stop climate change?

Features

Health

How many people died due to the Black Death in Europe?

Features

Culture

Citizen Sleeper is a lo-fi cyberpunk RPG set aboard a decaying space station called Erlin’s Eye

Comment

Citizen Sleeper review: A cyberpunk RPG with an emotional core

This lo-fi role-playing game set aboard a decaying space station sees you play as a Sleeper, a human mind in a robot body. Multiple storylines to explore create a fantastic sci-fi tapestry, finds Jacob Aron

Culture

Life

Endless Forms review: Let's hear it for wasps, says a lively new book

Culture

Humans

The Dolittle Machine review: What if we really could talk to animals?

Culture

Humans

Buried review: Did the Anglo-Saxons really invade Britain?

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: Star Trek parody The Orville is back for a third season

Culture

More

Puzzle #169: Can you work out where the dominoes were placed?

Puzzle #169: Can you work out where the dominoes were placed?

#169 A Domino Piazza Some town squares are designed as giant chessboards, but urban planner Dominica has paved her town's new piazza with giant dominoes instead. Picking different dominoes at random from a set, she laid them down flat to form a 7x7 square of numbers (pictured, below), leaving one space in the centre for …

Regulars

Humans

How to analyse your garden soil and choose the plants to suit it

Regulars

Tom Gauld on how far a telescope can see

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: A cat's observations on birds

Regulars

Regulars

Benjamin Franklin's quest to make farts less malodorous

Humans

Benjamin Franklin's quest to make farts less malodorous

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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