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This week's magazine

20 August 2022

Issue 3400

New Scientist issue 3400 cover
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Editor's picks

Scientists hands experimenting with water quality at wastewater treatment system. select focus; Shutterstock ID 1520973440; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Health

The promise – and pitfalls – of monitoring our excrement

News
Aerial image showing swirling water patterns at a waste management facility, Arizona, United States of America

Health

The secrets in our sewers helping protect us from infectious diseases

Features
Octonions: The strange maths that could unite the laws of nature

Mathematics

Octonions: The strange maths that could unite the laws of nature

Features
Why masses of new species have been staring us in the face all along

Life

Why masses of new species have been staring us in the face all along

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Scientists hands experimenting with water quality at wastewater treatment system. select focus; Shutterstock ID 1520973440; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Health

The promise – and pitfalls – of monitoring our excrement

What we flush down the toilet is becoming a valuable resource for tracking diseases, including monkeypox and polio, but there are important questions over who gets to use it and what for

News

News

underwater robot

Technology

Underwater robot scans seabed to seek out the most harmful pollution

A robot equipped with AI image recognition can identify and map rubbish on the seafloor to help prioritise clean-up operations towards the most toxic materials

News

Technology

Big Tech and Civil War enthusiasts clash over historic US battlefields

News

Life

Bats show fewer signs of ageing while they are hibernating

News

Environment

US government ramps up effort to put in place 'too hot to work' rules

News

Space

Shredded dwarf galaxies may lack dark matter to hold them together

News

Environment

Drought in England: Dry rivers and stressed plants hit wildlife hard

News

Life

Sponges can ‘sneeze’ and other sea creatures eat their mucus

News

Health

Vegetarian women have 33 per cent higher risk of breaking a hip

News

Mind

Why thinking hard for several hours can leave you mentally exhausted

News

Humans

Losing parts of our voice box may have helped humans evolve to speak

News

Health

Cornea made from pig collagen gives people who were blind 20/20 vision

News

Space

Mars astronauts would get unsafe radiation doses even with shielding

News

Health

Covid-19 vaccines in pregnancy not linked to miscarriage or stillbirth

News

Physics

Ignition confirmed in a nuclear fusion experiment for the first time

News

Society

US CO2 shortage worsened by contaminated gas from an extinct volcano

News

Technology

Zephyr solar-powered drone smashes record with 2-month-long flight

News

Space

Interstellar meteorite may be awaiting discovery on the sea floor

News

Life

Saiga antelopes have increased 10-fold after mass die-off in 2015

News

Space

Faint distant galaxies spotted by JWST may be closer than they appear

News

Society

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant 'not designed to withstand fighting'

News

Health

People with half a brain removed do well at face and word recognition

News

Health

AI that recommends diets based on the microbiome relieves constipation

News

Environment

Europe’s extreme drought is exacerbating food and energy crises

News

Analysis

People sitting on parched grass in Greenwich Park, London

Environment

With drought in England more frequent, how can it keep water flowing?

Climate change and a growing population mean England needs long-term solutions like new reservoirs and desalination plants, not just short-term fixes like hosepipe bans

News

Technology

What hackers get up to when left on an island in the Pacific

Comment

Mind

UK schools are teaching teenagers about mental health in the wrong way

News

Aperture

FEATURE IMAGE - Alzheimer's Society research - brain stem cells. Researchers like Dr Charlie Arber use stem cells - cells which don't have a?special function yet - to grow human brain cells in a dish. This can help to understand how dementia starts. This flower-like picture shows a neural rosette - a group of cells which are half way to becoming a brain cells. The green strands are cells turning into brain cells around the edges of the rosette. Copyright: Dr Charlie Arber, UCL.

Humans

Amazing Bed of Rosettes photo captures beauty of dementia research

An incredible view of biological research has won the Alzheimer's Society's new competition, with a photo by Charlie Arber that shows a group of "blue" stem cells as they start to turn into "green" brain cell

Regulars

Features

Aerial image showing swirling water patterns at a waste management facility, Arizona, United States of America

Health

The secrets in our sewers helping protect us from infectious diseases

Waste water contains a treasure trove of data on our health, well-being and inequality, and can be used to head off epidemics, track pandemics and even spot new designer drugs before their effects show up in the population. But how much information are we willing to flush down the toilet?

Features

Mathematics

Octonions: The strange maths that could unite the laws of nature

Features

Life

Why masses of new species have been staring us in the face all along

Features

Culture

When Animals Dream review: Making the case for 'animalhood'

Life

When Animals Dream review: Making the case for 'animalhood'

In his new book, David Peña-Guzmán argues that animals that can dream have a sense of self, and therefore a far more complex kind of "animalhood" than we thought possible

Culture

Humans

Scent review: How fragrant plants weave their magic

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: Final season of dystopian fantasy See comes to Apple TV+

Culture

Humans

Stray review: A game that lets you live your best cat life

Culture

More

Puzzle #181: Can you work out how many word games Wendy needs to win?

Puzzle #181: Can you work out how many word games Wendy needs to win?

  #181 A loss for words set by Alison Kiddle Wendy Wordsmith prides herself on her prowess at all the latest online word games. In fact, she hadn't lost a single game since she started playing her latest obsession a couple of months ago. But after being caught out by an alternative spelling, she was …

Regulars

Humans

How to dry the seeds from your garden to plant next spring

Regulars

Tom Gauld on Bob's arrival in the geology department

Regulars

Twisteddoodles photographs the moon

Regulars

Regulars

Did Mayan game use ashes of dead rulers to make the balls?

Humans

Did Mayan game use ashes of dead rulers to make the balls?

Feedback explores a shocking Mayan game in Mexico, while discovering the true nature of Amazon and trying to avoid autonomous cars

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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