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This week's magazine

27 May 2023

Issue 3440

New Scientist issue 3440 cover
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Editor's picks

Health

Do new Alzheimer's drugs signal the end of the condition?

News
Supermassive black hole. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.; Shutterstock ID 1756053335; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Lab imitations of the unobservable cosmos can be genuinely insightful

News
Can recreating black holes in the lab solve the puzzles of space-time?

Physics

Can recreating black holes in the lab solve the puzzles of space-time?

Features
How talking to your future self can improve your health and happiness

Life

How talking to your future self can improve your health and happiness

Features
Permet, Albania and surroundings taken in May 2022; Shutterstock ID 2247817573; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Environment

Inside the fight for Europe's first wild river national park

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Supermassive black hole. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.; Shutterstock ID 1756053335; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Lab imitations of the unobservable cosmos can be genuinely insightful

Despite the obvious caveats, physicists are right to use fluids and other physical analogues to search for fresh insights about extreme cosmic phenomena, from black holes to the big bang

News

News

Technology

Memcomputer chips could solve tasks that defeat conventional computers

An alternative form of computer chip called a memcomputer could offer benefits over existing machines, and now a proof-of-principle digital memcomputer shows how these devices could be scaled up

News

Environment

US desert grassland collapse is linked to changes in the Pacific Ocean

News

Technology

Ethereum closed a big security hole with its energy-saving update

News

Technology

Software update for world’s wind farms could power millions more homes

News

Health

‘Shin splints’ may not be caused by running up and down hills

News

Life

Octopuses may have nightmares about predators attacking them

News

Humans

Stone Age blueprints are the oldest architectural plans ever found

News

Chemistry

Octopus-inspired ink changes colour when exposed to light

News

Life

Wolves are scaring smaller predators into deadly conflict with humans

News

Life

Comb jellies, not sponges, might be the oldest animal group after all

News

Technology

This house is made from recycled diapers mixed into concrete

News

Technology

Stretchy electronic skin responds to touch and pressure like real skin

News

Humans

Humans were kissing at least 4500 years ago, reveal ancient texts

News

Health

CRISPR-edited cells could help people survive chronic heart failure

News

Earth

Tonga volcano eruption disrupted satellites halfway around the world

News

Life

Bowhead whales may resist cancer thanks to superior DNA repair ability

News

Mind

Racing drivers blink at the same points when going round a track

News

Health

Covid-19 booster vaccines should leave out original spike protein

News

Life

Rare plant turns carnivorous when it is low on a key nutrient

News

Life

Bat guano has been sculpting caves in Brazil for thousands of years

News

Physics

Fundamental law of physics demonstrated using quantum objects

News

Life

Hundreds of species new to science discovered in South-East Asia

News

Analysis

Health

Do new Alzheimer's drugs signal the end of the condition?

Antibody treatments that target amyloid plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's have shown promise in trials, but questions about their side effects and practicality remain

News

Space

Why sending messages to extraterrestrials is controversial

News

Space

Questions I dread: How did the universe begin, and what is space-time?

Comment

Aperture

P525 - Human femur, with a severe fracture united by new bone, prepared by John Hunter between 1760 and 1793

Life

See the Hunterian Museum's weird and wonderful anatomical curiosities

Open again after a five-year hiatus, the London museum, named after the 18th-century surgeon John Hunter, contains everything from a baby crocodile emerging from its egg, to a human femur

Regulars

Features

Can recreating black holes in the lab solve the puzzles of space-time?

Physics

Can recreating black holes in the lab solve the puzzles of space-time?

Researchers are building models of everything from black holes to the big bang in tanks of liquid. Now some claim these surprisingly simple models are showing us where our theories of space-time are wrong

Features

Life

How talking to your future self can improve your health and happiness

Features

Environment

Inside the fight for Europe's first wild river national park

Features

Culture

The Ferryman review: A profound new take on a sci-fi staple

Comment

The Ferryman review: A profound new take on a sci-fi staple

Justin Cronin's new science fiction novel transmutes the familiar trope of a utopia with a dark secret into a deep story with humanity at its centre. Read along with us at New Scientist's book club

Culture

Comment

Allergic review: A great guide explores a complex medical mystery

Culture

Comment

New Scientist recommends: Martin MacInnes's transcendent In Ascension

Culture

Comment

Titanium Noir review: Gripping, philosophical science fiction

Culture

More

Half length portrait of trendy female millennial in electronic spectacles looking at camera during time for listening audio book and walk in metropolitan downtown, generation z in earphones; Shutterstock ID 1722211435; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Mind

How listening to audiobooks may be making us more gullible

More and more of us are turning to audiobooks for our reading, but a new study suggests that when we listen to a text rather than read it, we may engage in less deliberative thinking, says David Robson

Regulars

Puzzle #223: Can you work out the correct proportions of paint needed?

Regulars

Tom Gauld: The temptation of Ada and Steve

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on each individual's contribution to the group project

Regulars

Regulars

Definitive answers sought on whether sugar should be added to tea

Definitive answers sought on whether sugar should be added to tea

Feedback ponders the meaning of a correction issued to a study on tea consumption, sugar and mortality, and reveals the latest insights into Canadians' preferences on bento box layouts

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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