This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Environment

The 1.5°C target is dead, but climate action needn't be

For the first time, climate scientists have explicitly said it will be impossible to limit peak warming to 1.5°C. Now our focus should be on taking action, not meaningless platitudes and slogans

Comment

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News

Health

Is youth mental health really worse today than it was decades ago?

Young people's mental health is declining, statistics suggest, but some have questioned whether this is just due to increased awareness of such conditions and reduced stigma around seeking help

News

Life

Spiders use fireflies as flashing lures to catch more prey

News

Health

1 in 5 people in a coma may be aware of their surroundings

News

Life

Consumer insecticides are useless for fighting cockroach infestations

News

Humans

Stonehenge’s altar stone was brought all the way from Scotland

News

Life

How crocodiles were taught to stop eating deadly toxic cane toads

News

Life

The surprising way sunflowers work together to get enough light

News

Health

Why is mpox a global emergency again so soon?

News

Environment

Our efforts to cope with extreme temperatures are making them worse

News

Space

Lightning can make energy waves that travel shockingly far into space

News

Space

Hellish conditions have warped an Earth-like planet into an egg

News

Space

Strange meteorites have been traced to their source craters on Mars

News

Environment

Best-case scenario for climate change is now 1.6°C of warming

News

Mind

Astrology shown to be no better than random guessing

News

Health

Video games are good, actually, find scientists

News

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Analysis

Technology

Why the T in ChatGPT is AI's biggest breakthrough - and greatest risk

AI companies hope that feeding ever more data to their models will continue to boost performance, eventually leading to human-level intelligence. Behind this hope is the "transformer", a key breakthrough in AI, but what happens if it fails to deliver?

News

Society

Should Ukraine capture a Russian nuclear power plant?

News

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Aperture

Life

Stunning photos of life above and below water

See the incredible shots that have won this year's BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology Image Competition

Regulars

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Features

Life

Why the underground home of the world’s weirdest wildlife is in danger

Up to 100,000 extraordinary species, from spiders and beetles to salamanders and fish, live in subterranean caves and cracks. They aren’t as safe down there as we thought

Features

Space

Why NASA is sending a probe to Europa – and what it’s looking for

Features

Health

The surprising science of coffee and its effect on both body and mind

Features

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Culture

Earth

A dramatic twist to the Gaia hypothesis

James Lovelock's hypothesis that our planet is a living entity is well known. Ferris Jabr's new book Becoming Earth takes it a step further

Culture

Life

David Attenborough's latest explores the lives of an orangutan family

Culture

Space

New Scientist recommends multiverse thriller Dark Matter

Culture

Society

An unusual documentary follows a simulated attempted coup in the US

Culture

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More

Society

How shrinking populations could help to save our planet

Our ability to exert conscious control over our family sizes is unique – and can be transformational, says Christopher Wills

Comment

Space

Why we need to save the Chandra space telescope

Comment

Chemistry

The science behind tempering chocolate

Regulars

BrainTwister #34: Square dealing

Regulars

Tom Gauld on the way to deal with tardiness

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on difficult experiments

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Regulars

Looking for morbid romance? There's a study for that

A curious Feedback delves further into the invention of the Morbid Curiosity Scale and discovers how it might help with certain "short-term mating goals"

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Letters

Regulars

The last word