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New Scientist puzzle #46: Pi-thagoras

12 February 2020

Tap your memories of Pythagoras's theorem to solve this circle-in-a-triangle conundrum. Plus answers to puzzle #45

Umami: How to maximise the savoury taste that makes food so satisfying

12 February 2020

Food tastes satisfying thanks to the amino acid glutamate, which stimulates the umami taste. Sam Wong explains how to boost it in your recipes

When a smile is not a smile – what our facial expressions really mean

12 February 2020

Smiling and other facial expressions aren't displays of feelings that transcend cultures but turn out to be full of hidden meaning

The smuggled Mongolian dinosaur fossil that seemed too good to be true

12 February 2020

When a bizarre fossil appeared for sale in Europe, it looked so odd it had to be fake. But a high-tech investigation introduced us to Halzkaraptor escullei – part velociraptor, part penguin

Color Out of Space: Another Nicolas Cage film that's so bad it's good

12 February 2020

Nicolas Cage grapples with a weird luminous alien presence in the movie Color Out of Space. It's a story that has roots in a late-19th-century obsession with new forms of radiation, says Simon Ings

Don't miss: Emotional veg, antique innovations and spooky maths

12 February 2020

This week, hide behind the sofa from mind-altering plants, listen and learn from technologies past and find out how the world is underpinned by numbers

Sci-fi podcast Down asks what's really in the deepest holes on Earth

12 February 2020

Down is a sci-fi podcast about a crewed mission into a mysterious Antarctic hole that has opened up as a result of climate change, what will the crew find?