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This week's magazine

2 December 2023

Issue 3467

New Scientist issue 3467 cover
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Editor's picks

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto/Shutterstock (13403526q) Demonstrators with the Millions Missing organization gather outside of the White House on September 19, 2022 to call for urgent governmental action for the millions of people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, long-term COVID, and other infection-associated, complex- chronic diseases. Civil Disobedience Health Care Protest At White House, Washington, d.c., United States - 19 Sep 2022

Governments must stay in it for the long haul on long covid research

News
Long covid: What we now know about its causes and possible treatments

Health

Long covid: What we now know about its causes and possible treatments

Features
The wonder particle: How axions could solve more than just dark matter

Physics

The wonder particle: How axions could solve more than just dark matter

Features
How counting the true cost of cheap food could make a better world

Environment

How counting the true cost of cheap food could make a better world

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto/Shutterstock (13403526q) Demonstrators with the Millions Missing organization gather outside of the White House on September 19, 2022 to call for urgent governmental action for the millions of people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, long-term COVID, and other infection-associated, complex- chronic diseases. Civil Disobedience Health Care Protest At White House, Washington, d.c., United States - 19 Sep 2022

Governments must stay in it for the long haul on long covid research

Lingering symptoms after a covid-19 infection remain a problem for millions of people. Nations need to renew efforts to find treatments for them and help prevent yet more cases

News

News

The TRACEPaw robotic foot

Technology

Robots with squidgy paws could navigate uneven terrain

A robot paw made from half a silicone ball could help robots keep their footing, thanks to an internal camera that monitors how its shape deforms

News

Technology

AIs can trick each other into doing things they aren't supposed to

News

Environment

Abandoned coal mines could store wind energy

News

Health

Space flight may increase erectile dysfunction among astronauts

News

Space

Strange way black holes lose energy could help solve cosmic puzzle

News

Health

Not sleeping enough before surgery may increase pain during recovery

News

Life

African penguins recognise their partners by the spots on their chest

News

Health

Nutrient found in beef and milk shows promise against several cancers

News

Mind

Babies may start to learn language before they are born

News

Technology

AI can figure out sewing patterns from a single photo of clothing

News

Humans

Did Homo naledi bury its dead? Debate rages over human relative

News

Health

Drone delivers defibrillators for cardiac arrest faster than ambulance

News

Physics

A mysterious, incredibly energetic cosmic ray has smashed into Earth

News

Health

A new way to estimate our maximum lifespan could help us extend it

News

Technology

‘Insect-eye’ compass can navigate by the sun even on a cloudy day

News

Chemistry

Crystal-hunting DeepMind AI could help discover new wonder materials

News

Space

Glimpse of the earliest supernovae could reveal our cosmic origins

News

Physics

Physicists find ultimate limit for how accurate clocks can be

News

Space

Majestic photo shows China's Tiangong space station in all its glory

News

Environment

Will carbon dioxide removal tech help or hinder climate targets?

News

Analysis

Health

Why it's healthy for older people to be slightly overweight

UK dietitians say people over 65 need more fat reserves, but why are they going against most other healthy weight guidelines?

News

Life

The battle to bring beavers back to Scotland

Comment

Environment

Paris climate goal of less than 2°C of warming is within our grasp

News

Aperture

Quat is an artemia collector. Artemia is a primitive arthropod also known as brine shrimp, it is used as a rapidly growing food source for farm fish. The salinity level of the water in the Aral Sea does not allow any other life to exist in or near it. A tiny creature you can?t see with the naked eye is all the sea is willing to give.

Environment

Picturing life in the dust bowl remains of the once mighty Aral Sea

Photographer Kristina Varaksina has documented the lot of people living near what was once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world, the Aral Sea, much of which has become a barren desert

Regulars

Features

The wonder particle: How axions could solve more than just dark matter

Physics

The wonder particle: How axions could solve more than just dark matter

Physicists are coming to realise that hypothetical particles called axions could explain not only dark matter, but dark energy too, and more besides. Now there is fresh impetus to detect them

Features

Health

Long covid: What we now know about its causes and possible treatments

Features

Environment

How counting the true cost of cheap food could make a better world

Features

Culture

2F3WH8B Book of the universe - opened magic book with planets and galaxies. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

Comment

The 22 best non-fiction and popular science books of 2023

From Carlo Rovelli on white holes to Fei-Fei Li on AI and Alison Pouliot on remarkable mushrooms, here is New Scientist's selection of the best non-fiction of the year

Culture

Comment

The best science picture books for your coffee table in 2023

Culture

Comment

The 13 best new science fiction books of 2023

Culture

More

For Maker 2nd Dec

Mathematics

How to perfectly wrap gifts of all shapes and sizes using maths

Reduce wastage and enjoy deeply satisfying neat folds by applying a little geometry to your gift-wrapping, says Katie Steckles

Regulars

Puzzle #250: Can you work out how long it will take us to arrive?

Regulars

Tom Gauld on some useful new tech terms

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on commonly confused words

Regulars

Regulars

Killing pigeons 'not in their best interests', find pigeon ethicists

Killing pigeons 'not in their best interests', find pigeon ethicists

Feedback is greatly taken by a new study into the ethics of pigeon racing from researchers at Newcastle University in the UK

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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