15 December 2021
This year, we have taken on two massive existential threats: the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the climate emergency. Though we are a long way off solving these crises, there are reasons for rational optimism in 2022
15 December 2021
While teaching solar physics this year, I was once again drawn in by the mystery of why the sun's corona is so inexplicably hot, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
15 December 2021
Plants play a starring role in sci-fi films surprisingly often, but the botany in movies like The Martian, Sunshine and Prometheus doesn't always stack up, writes James Wong
15 December 2021
Rich nations largely created the climate crisis, but poorer nations are feeling the brunt of it. The lack of action on this injustice at COP26 was a historic failure, writes Graham Lawton
15 December 2021
Few of us have ever used cryptocurrencies, yet some of the schemes being dreamed up to tempt consumers are surreal and even alarming, writes Annalee Newitz
15 December 2021
Record-shattering fires, freezes and rainfall around the world made it all too clear that extreme weather is fast becoming the new normal
15 December 2021
Within days of the dramatic closing of November’s COP26 climate summit, the Glasgow Climate Pact was already having an impact
15 December 2021
October saw the RTS,S malaria vaccine given the go-ahead for use outside trials for the first time – a momentous decision, decades in the making
15 December 2021
The covid-19 pandemic has forced millions to participate in one of the biggest social experiments of our time. Nearly two years in, it’s time to take stock: what happens when workers abandon offices?
15 December 2021
In April, the Ingenuity helicopter became the first vehicle ever to attempt powered flight on another planet. Theodore Tzanetos tells New Scientist of the exhilaration he felt leading the team
