This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Health

Genome technology is transforming healthcare but what should we allow?

From mice with two fathers to cures for debilitating diseases, the transformative power of genomic technology requires some big decisions on what we want to do with it

News

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News

Health

Emotions like disgust and fear linked to more acidic stomach pH

People who reported feeling the most disgusted or frightened after watching a series of videos had a more acidic stomach pH compared with other study participants. It is unclear if these emotions cause the acidity or if an acidic pH makes people feel emotions more intensely

News

Health

Covid-19 vaccines during pregnancy protect newborns from infection

News

Health

Rapid genome sequencing helps save hundreds of critically ill babies

News

Health

Drunk mice sober up twice as fast when given hormone injection

News

Life

Bumblebees can teach each other how to open a puzzle box

News

Environment

How smoke from Australia’s megafires ate away at the ozone

News

Life

Orca seen foster parenting a pilot whale calf for first time

News

Physics

'Red matter' superconductor could transform electronics – if it works

News

Health

Sickle cell disease is now curable, but the treatment is unaffordable

News

Life

Fossil thought to be earliest bryozoan animal may actually be seaweed

News

Chemistry

Soil bacteria enzyme generates electricity from hydrogen in the air

News

Environment

We can suck CO2 from the air and store it in the ocean as baking soda

News

Health

Mice have been born from eggs derived from male cells

News

Environment

World’s largest office building with 'passive house' design to open

News

Life

Brown widow spiders are killing off black widows in the southern US

News

Life

Stone flakes made by monkeys cast doubt on ancient human 'tools'

News

Life

Ecologists are infecting trees with fungi to make them age prematurely

News

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Analysis

Health

A common and treatable cause of heart attacks is being overlooked

Research suggests inflammation may be just as important as cholesterol as a cause of heart attacks, suggesting different treatments should be considered for prevention

News

Technology

Is the chatbotpocalypse looming? Some people would like us to think so

Comment

Technology

Why fears around children playing video games are counterproductive

News

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Aperture

Comment

See pictures documenting the magnificent Padma river

These images give an insight into the Padma, a major river flowing through Bangladesh that makes up the last leg of the journey of the river Ganges

Regulars

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Features

Humans

Cave paintings of mutilated hands could be a Stone Age sign language

Palaeolithic hand stencils with missing fingers could indicate ritual mutilation or frostbite – but new research suggests they might be trying to tell us something

Features

Physics

The physicist betting that space-time isn't quantum after all

Features

Health

New DNA tests predict your disease risk – are we ready for them?

Features

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Culture

Comment

Saving Time review: We need a longer sense of time – based on nature

Why do we have clocks? An ambitious new book from Jenny Odell deconstructs their origins and argues for more nature-based measures

Culture

Comment

Bot Love review: Are you ready to have a relationship with an AI?

Culture

Comment

Still Life With Bones review: Harrowing account of exposing genocide

Culture

Comment

Don’t Miss: Extrapolations, a star-studded new climate change drama

Culture

Comment

Wild Isles review: David Attenborough turns focus to UK and Ireland

Culture

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More

Health

Become a citizen scientist in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Sign up to a project called Infection Inspection and help researchers confront the rogue microbes that threaten to unleash an apocalypse of untreatable disease

Regulars

Puzzle #213: Can you work out how to partition my garden fairly?

Regulars

Tom Gauld on caution signs at the science park

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on a bad smell

Regulars

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Regulars

What happened to the male mice that drank lots of cola? Big things

Feedback looks into a swell tale about mice testes and fizzy beverages, is puzzled by a diagram of a bicycle and brings you all the latest nominative determinism news

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word