The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to know which of the quantum computers now in development have the best chance of being game-changing technologies | Continue reading
Proposed cuts would wipe out NOAA’s Ocean and Atmospheric Research office among a raft of other reductions to one of the main scientific agencies of the US | Continue reading
Roman ships equipped with bronze rams sank dozens of Carthaginian ships during a major naval battle in 241 BCE – now we know how the rams were made | Continue reading
Bioreactors housing methane-eating bacteria could offer a portable, off-grid solution for soaking up methane leaks from sites like landfills and coal mines | Continue reading
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are commonly found in the bodies of short-beaked common dolphins that get stranded on UK beaches, and are linked to the animals’ risk of infectious diseases | Continue reading
Culture editor Alison Flood rounds up the book club’s thoughts on our latest read, the weird and wild Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva. Warning: spoilers ahead | Continue reading
The author of the award-winning classic science fiction novel, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, on the science behind his creation | Continue reading
In this extract from the classic science fiction novel, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet Ringworld’s protagonist Louis Wu, as he travels a future Earth | Continue reading
Diamonds formed in Earth’s lower mantle contain tiny flecks of minerals that are helping us understand the inner workings of our planet | Continue reading
Wider hips may make childbirth easier, but increase the risk of other health issues | Continue reading
A fossil jawbone found by fishers in the Taiwan Strait has extended the known range of ancient Denisovan people thousands of kilometres to the east | Continue reading
Schrödinger called his metaphorical cat “quite ridiculous” but the quantum weirdness it represents has become a useful benchmark for the quantum computing industry, finds our quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan | Continue reading
Globally, only 14 per cent of the plastic we use is recycled – but some countries achieve higher rates and new technologies could change the picture drastically | Continue reading
A machine controlled by AI that sprays bears with the chilli pepper chemical capsaicin could reduce dangerous confrontations with people | Continue reading
A newly discovered settlement in the north-western Nile delta was built by the Egyptian New Kingdom perhaps 3500 years ago and included a temple dedicated to pharaoh Ramesses II | Continue reading
Solvej Balle's newly translated speculative novel, On the Calculation of Volume (parts I and II), examines the numbing effects of time through the old trope of being stuck in a single day. It is an effective meditation | Continue reading
An AI analysis finds that since the 1970s, speeches by US Congress members have shifted to favour language such as “fake news” and “mislead” over words such as “science” and “statistics” | Continue reading
There have been several claims of quantum computers performing at a level impossible to match with a classical computer – most of which have been refuted. Could there be a mathematical reason why this keeps happening? | Continue reading
A baby has been born after being conceived via IVF performed by a machine, with a medical professional merely overseeing the process | Continue reading
Cellulose, the main component of paper, can be turned into clear, waterproof objects such as cups that are almost indistinguishable from plastic, but break down more quickly | Continue reading
Cuneiform, the oldest identified writing system, defied deciphering – until 1857. What happened then makes a terrific read, in Joshua Hammer's The Mesopotamian Riddle | Continue reading
Nafis Hasan's Metastasis is a deep dive into the economics and politics of cancer treatment. This makes for a dense and difficult read, but one that is well worth the effort | Continue reading
With a background in maths and design, Rebecca Kaya uses data to make sense of the natural world | Continue reading
Governments love asking what scientific research will bring society, but the most important discoveries come from wondering without direction | Continue reading
Feedback is delighted to hear from a reader who proposes an ingenious new unit of data – but we have some quibbles with the maths | Continue reading
Bed rest is commonly prescribed for high-risk pregnancies. It can't hurt and might help, right? Wrong, says Jacqueline Sears | Continue reading
In the latest instalment of our Future Chronicles column, which explores an imagined history of inventions yet to come, Rowan Hooper reveals how brain-computer interface let us travel to Mars via robot avatars in the late 2020s | Continue reading
Pluto isn’t the only dwarf planet in our solar system's outer reaches. Now is an ideal time to look for the egg-shaped Haumea, says Abigail Beall | Continue reading
Larry Niven's Ringworld won him the Hugo and Nebula awards when it was published 55 years ago. As the New Scientist Book Club embarks on a reread, Emily H. Wilson looks at how it holds up | Continue reading
A new understanding of why some animals evolved to be loners, and the benefits that brings, shows that a social lifestyle isn’t necessarily superior | Continue reading
A new understanding of why some animals evolved to be loners, and the benefits that brings, shows that a social lifestyle isn’t necessarily superior | Continue reading
Amazon is aiming to launch its first operational satellites today to provide speedy internet connections in remote regions, but it will still take some time to catch up with its main competitor, SpaceX's Starlink | Continue reading
A map of part of a mouse brain, which is expected to be generalisable to people, could help scientists understand behaviours, consciousness and even what it means to be human | Continue reading
Ancient rocks reveal there were several humid spells in Arabia’s past, which might have given early hominins a route out of Africa long before our genus migrated | Continue reading
Computers that use photons rather than electrons to manipulate data promise greater speed and energy efficiency, and the technology is developing rapidly | Continue reading
An investigation of the changing behaviour of a single quantum bit through time has uncovered a tantalising similarity to the geometry of three-dimensional space | Continue reading
It’s incredibly tricky to pin down the origin of the language that led to the words spoken everywhere between Spain and India – and it’ll be even harder to be sure we’ve got it right | Continue reading
Unusual rocks on an Icelandic beach were dropped there by icebergs, adding to evidence that an unusually cool period preceded the collapse of the Roman Empire | Continue reading
Physicists have determined that the ideal technique for pour-over coffee can use up to 10 per cent fewer beans to make a cup just as flavoursome | Continue reading
The number of dinosaurs may have been stable before the asteroid impact, despite evidence that species were getting less diverse | Continue reading
Magicians have long exploited quirks in our perception of the world to make us experience the impossible. Now, cognitive psychology is exploring how they do it and revealing fresh insights into how our minds work | Continue reading
A moth antenna can be integrated into the electronics of a drone to create a smell-seeking bio-hybrid – but it only detects the smell of a female moth | Continue reading
A blood test can accurately predict whether someone without a known risk of preeclampsia is likely to develop the potentially fatal hypertensive pregnancy condition | Continue reading
A blood test can accurately determine whether someone without known risk factors for preeclampsia is at risk of developing the potentially fatal hypertensive pregnancy condition | Continue reading
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we now know that a day on Uranus lasts for 28 seconds longer than previously thought - a difference that could be crucial in planning future missions to the gas giant | Continue reading
Mercury pollution accumulating in trees could offer a new way to monitor destructive gold mining operations | Continue reading
Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species | Continue reading
A recently developed medication encourages people with cocaine use disorder to reduce their intake of the stimulant – a step towards the first approved drugs to treat the problem | Continue reading