If another star passed close to our solar system, there is a small chance that Earth could crash into another planet, get stolen by the interloping star or even be sent hurtling towards the Oort cloud | Continue reading
OpenAI’s developer tool for its GPT-4 large language model can be misused to trick the AI into providing information to aid would-be terrorists, and fixing the problem won’t be easy | Continue reading
People found a nasal spray painkiller more effective when it caused a slight burning sensation. This suggests that deliberately increasing some drugs' unwanted side effects could enhance their therapeutic benefits | Continue reading
Edibles, vapes and spliffs all contain the same psychoactive compounds, but the effects they have on the body vary | Continue reading
It looks likely that the world will pass 1.5°C of warming in the 2030s, but current climate definitions would only make this failure official 10 years later, which could waste time in bringing temperatures back down | Continue reading
With climate change driving more intense dry spells, the world must invest in early warning systems and measures to conserve water, a UN report says | Continue reading
A novelisation of Zack Snyder’s film Rebel Moon, a new Star Wars novel and the much-anticipated second spy thriller from Terry Hayes are among the great science fiction reads out in December | Continue reading
Tests with an eel-inspired robot show that the unusual fish may swim most efficiently by reducing their speed | Continue reading
The Andromedid meteor shower is normally a quiet affair, but very occasionally it puts on an intense show - which may happen on 2 December | Continue reading
Most marmosets have non-identical twins or triplets, which exchange blood cells while in the uterus - and now it seems they also swap certain brain cells | Continue reading
Without more international support, the transition away from fossil fuels could have disastrous effects for low-income countries reliant on their oil and gas industries | Continue reading
Without more international support, the transition away from fossil fuels could have disastrous effects for low-income countries reliant on their oil and gas industries | Continue reading
Like platypuses and some sharks, bottlenose dolphins have an electric sense which they may use to navigate and search for food | Continue reading
While incubating their eggs, chinstrap penguins need to stay vigilant for predators – so they only sleep for a few seconds at a time | Continue reading
Researchers have worked out how a protein called photolyase repairs DNA using light, and their discoveries could guide the development of light-based manufacturing technologies | Continue reading
An enormous planet has been spotted orbiting a small star, and it could not have formed under either of our existing models of the birth of planets | Continue reading
A 17th century hospital crypt in Milan, Italy has yielded the first archaeological evidence of cannabis' psychoactive components in human bones | Continue reading
It is easier to focus on conversations when background music is playing if the song is unfamiliar to you, according to brain activity data | Continue reading
The sound of pouring water into a cup can be tamped down by changing the height of the pour or the diameter of the spout, but physicists have found another variable that helps silence it even more | Continue reading
The COP28 climate summit kicked off with a report on the many records broken in 2023, including unprecedented rises in greenhouse gases, global temperatures and sea level | Continue reading
The reintroduction of beavers has already transformed parts of the Scottish landscape and provided much-needed habitats for many animals, delighting conservationists but alarming some landowners | Continue reading
Many people take cannabis to help them sleep, but there is little evidence that the drug makes a difference | Continue reading
Ancient footprints found in Lesotho resemble those left by birds, but they were made around 60 million years before the ancestors of birds split from other dinosaurs | Continue reading
Lingering symptoms after a covid-19 infection remain a problem for millions of people. Nations need to renew efforts to find treatments for them and help prevent yet more cases | Continue reading
Feedback is greatly taken by a new study into the ethics of pigeon racing from researchers at Newcastle University in the UK | Continue reading
Photographer Kristina Varaksina has documented the lot of people living near what was once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world, the Aral Sea, much of which has become a barren desert | Continue reading
From the glorious Wildlife Photographer of the Year tome to a breathtaking collection of images captured from the International Space Station, this is New Scientist's pick of the best photography books of the year | Continue reading
From a dystopian future with Naomi Alderman to climate fiction with Christopher Priest, this is New Scientist's guide to the best science fiction of the year | Continue reading
Reduce wastage and enjoy deeply satisfying neat folds by applying a little geometry to your gift-wrapping, says Katie Steckles | Continue reading
From Carlo Rovelli on white holes to Fei-Fei Li on AI and Alison Pouliot on remarkable mushrooms, here is New Scientist's selection of the best non-fiction of the year | Continue reading
Despite pessimism over global warming, the agreed target of keeping it well below 2°C is actually looking increasingly likely to be met, says Jakob Thomäe | Continue reading
There is a surprisingly close link between the flow of nutrient-rich soil around the ancient world and growing biodiversity - which could be a problem now, as human activity is disrupting and degrading soil | Continue reading
We know of around 48,000 inorganic crystal structures, which provide materials with a range of properties. Now, an AI created by Google DeepMind has predicted over 2 million more possibilities | Continue reading
The environmental impact of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is increasingly being scrutinised, due to the vast amounts of electricity they consume. Now it seems that water use is also a big problem | Continue reading
The orbits of six planets around the star HD 110067 have been in a fixed pattern for billions of years, giving astronomers clues about how they formed | Continue reading
Physicists are coming to realise that hypothetical particles called axions could explain not only dark matter, but dark energy too, and more besides. Now there is fresh impetus to detect them | Continue reading
Momentum is building for an agreement at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to triple renewable energy capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency gains by 2030 | Continue reading
Some scientists suspect that amino acids were transported to Earth by meteorites. A team has now found that an amino acid called carbamic acid forms at extreme cold temperatures, suggesting that it may have been created on clumps of ice in deep space | Continue reading
Billions of dollars are pouring into the carbon dioxide removal industry, which aims to clean up emissions and slow global warming, but few companies have delivered results. Is the technology a planetary saviour or a risky bet? | Continue reading
What we pay for food and other goods doesn’t reflect the environmental and social damage they cause. But a radical new approach to economics could change that | Continue reading
Cannabis attitudes are undergoing a seismic shift but what do really know about the drug? Our three-part special podcast series is uncovering the science of marijuana | Continue reading
Rather than assuming medical conditions happen because something in the body has “gone wrong”, considering evolutionary explanations for illnesses and symptoms may help us better understand how to treat them | Continue reading
A study comparing weather records with climate model projections suggests that the latest models are underestimating how often future rainfall extremes will occur | Continue reading
Some countries are pushing for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels at the COP28 summit in Dubai, but others argue that such a deal wouldn't be fair | Continue reading
The maximum lifespan of mammalian species such as humans can be estimated from so-called epigenetic markers - and altering those might extend our longevity | Continue reading
The Tiangong space station, China’s orbiting laboratory, was completed last year – now it has been photographed in full for the first time | Continue reading
A fundamental trade-off between the resolution of a clock and its accuracy could have important implications for quantum computers, which must measure short timescales accurately | Continue reading
Almost every element in the universe, including those that make up our bodies, was created by a process that began when the earliest stars exploded - and now the James Webb Space Telescope may have seen signs of those supernovae | Continue reading