Subscribe now
Closeup on smartphone in the back pocket of a womans jeans, blank screen with clipping path for you to add your own message or design. On the background of the beach and the sea; Shutterstock ID 453083140; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Your smartphone could be used to estimate your risk of dying

20 October 2022

A study of more than 100,000 adults found that motion sensor data from just 6 minutes of walking was enough to predict five-year mortality risk as accurately as other leading methods


A member of the Ukrainian territorial defence units talks on their phone during observation of Russian troops movements around the village of Velyka Dymerka, 40km east of Kyiv, on 9 March

Russia and Ukraine are both weaponising mobile phones to track troops

11 April 2022

Mobile phones ping signals to nearby communications towers, allowing both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers to track the movement of opposition forces


How a rural Mexican village built its own phone network

How a rural Mexican village built its own phone network

14 October 2020

When nobody else would build a phone network in the rural Mexican community of Talea de Castro, they decided to go it alone. Connected tells their story and makes for fascinating reading


SIM cards

Phone number theft through SIM-jacking is on the rise in the UK

3 January 2020

There have been more than 300 cases since April 2019 of attackers trying to gain control of UK mobile phone numbers by obtaining porting authorisation codes (PACs)


Teenager on smartphone

Teens aren't addicted to their phones - but we like to think they are

29 November 2019

A review of previous studies finds that one in four teenagers have problematic level of phone use, but other papers that found lower levels may have been ignored


person on mobile phone

From the archives 20 years ago: the great phone cancer scare

16 April 2019

In April 1999, New Scientist decided to test 'radiation protection devices' against the harmful effects of mobile phones


5G

Your 5G guide: Will we all benefit from super-quick mobile internet?

6 March 2019

We're told that switching phone networks to the fifth-generation of wireless tech will give us blistering speeds, but it's not clear anyone actually needs an upgrade


No, mobile phones still won’t give you brain cancer

No, mobile phones still won’t give you brain cancer

18 July 2018

We are so glued to our phones that people can't seem to stop worrying that they give you cancer – but if they did, we would have seen a massive increase in tumours


A family using a web cam

No more bad, blocky video calls thanks to smart AI compression

13 April 2018

An AI that compresses images by simply throwing bits away and making up what should be there instead could make blocky video calls a thing of the past


smartphone

Old Scientist: The rise of the machines from railway timetables

28 February 2018

On their way to world domination, computers practised on boring jobs we were glad to give them, as a scan through March issues of New Scientist show


Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop