This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Health

Stop criticising Ozempic - it could be a solution to more than obesity

Weight-loss drugs are proving their worth against addiction, high blood pressure and even depression, so let’s stop criticising them as a quick fix and start exploring their true potential

News

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News

Technology

Dutch police trial AI-powered robot dog to safely inspect drug labs

The Dutch police force is already using a remotely controlled Spot robot dog made by Boston Dynamics to examine drug labs in raids, and now it wants to make the robot fully autonomous

News

Technology

Diet-monitoring AI tracks your each and every spoonful

News

Mathematics

Mathematicians can't agree what 'equals' means, and that's a problem

News

Technology

Tiny brain sensor implanted without surgery dissolves after weeks

News

Life

How bats pick out their own calls when flying in enormous swarms

News

Physics

Atoms at temperatures beyond absolute zero may be a new form of matter

News

Health

Gene therapy enables five children who were born deaf to hear

News

Space

An already dead star is dying for a second time

News

Environment

Earth’s atmosphere is trapping twice as much heat as it did in 1993

News

Technology

Writers accept lower pay when they use AI to help with their work

News

Space

Physicists want to drill a 5-kilometre-deep hole on the moon

News

Life

Male lemurs grow bigger testicles when there are other males around

News

Life

Origins of modern horses traced to breeding revolution 4200 years ago

News

Life

Tiny great ape fossils identified as new species from Europe

News

Space

Starliner and Starship launches propel space industry into a new era

News

Space

Cosmic cloud exposed Earth to interstellar space 3 million years ago

News

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Analysis

Health

Does coming off antidepressants really cause withdrawal symptoms?

A review of 79 studies suggests that 1 in 3 people who stop taking antidepressants get mental and physical symptoms, but what does that actually mean when these can also occur when you discontinue a placebo?

News

Humans

Evidence of consciousness in newborns has implications for their care

News

Technology

What everyone gets wrong about the 2015 Ashley Madison scandal

Comment

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Aperture

Space

Spellbinding shots capture the Milky Way in all its glory

These stunning photographs are some of the winners of this year’s Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition

Regulars

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Features

Physics

What "naked" singularities are revealing about quantum space-time

Are points of infinite curvature, where general relativity breaks down, always hidden inside black holes? An audacious attempt to find out is shedding light on the mystery of quantum gravity

Features

Environment

How dodo de-extinction is helping rescue the extraordinary pink pigeon

Features

Health

The surprising mental health and brain benefits of weight-loss drugs

Features

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Culture

Comment

It's a decade old, but The Leftovers is still painfully resonant today

The Leftovers follows those left behind after 140 million people vanish, unaccountably, in The Departure. The parallels with the covid-19 pandemic are obvious in this jewel of a TV show, says Bethan Ackerley

Culture

Comment

Immersive new exhibition explores the pitfalls of defying old age

Culture

Comment

Documentary explores a geneticist's motivation to understand the past

Culture

Comment

New Scientist recommends David Runciman's podcast Past Present Future

Culture

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More

Chemistry

The science behind making perfect puff pastry

After a lifetime of avoidance, avid baker Catherine de Lange discovers that puff pastry isn't hard to make –you just need a bit of time

Regulars

BrainTwister #24: Coin flips

Regulars

Tom Gauld on the neuroscience mob

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on a first year PhD student's project

Regulars

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Regulars

Why scientists are dropping fake birds onto fake planes

Feedback looks into new research into whether air passengers need to worry about collisions with birds, and is relieved to discover no real animals were used in the experiments

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word