Working with robots can make humans put in less effort

Robots that do their job reliably can cause humans who work alongside them to be less diligent because of a phenomenon called social loafing | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Scientists prefer feedback from ChatGPT to judgement by peers

Scientific research must be reviewed by other scientists before it is published, but some researchers say they find feedback from ChatGPT more useful | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Mega penguins: These are the largest penguins to have ever lived

No penguin alive today can compare with some of the extinct giants that once roamed the planet, including Kumimanu fordycei, Petradyptes stonehousei and Palaeeudyptes klekowskii | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Hitting the snooze button on your alarm doesn't make you more tired

Snoozing your alarm doesn't make you sleepier, moodier or less cognitively sharp during the day than getting up straight away | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Pepper X: The world has a new hottest chilli

Pepper X scorches the previous record holder, the Carolina Reaper, by a million Scoville heat units | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Why the Gaza water crisis is decades in the making

The UN says approximately 2 million people in Gaza may soon run out of water because Israel has shut off supplies. Here's why the region is so vulnerable to water crises | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Scientists can communicate with people while they are asleep

This is the first such communication method to be established with people who are not lucid dreamers | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

People around Europe have eaten seaweed for thousands of years

Traces of algae on teeth found at archaeological sites suggest that seaweeds may have been a staple part of European diets from the Mesolithic until the Middle Ages | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Tiny generator uses the motion of molecules to produce electricity

Generating electricity from the movements of molecules in a fluid could one day power devices like tiny medical implants or household appliances | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

The trees in our cities are dying — a sick microbiome may be to blame

Efforts to expand urban green spaces are undermined by street trees dying prematurely. Restoring their root microbiomes could help them live longer | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Coin flips don't truly have a 50/50 chance of being heads or tails

Researchers who flipped coins 350,757 times have confirmed that the chance of landing the coin the same way up as it started is around 51 per cent | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Largest quake ever seen on Mars points to surprising seismic activity

Mars is generally thought of as being geologically dead, but a huge marsquake measured by NASA's InSight lander suggests otherwise | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Prize-winning photos highlight the impact of climate change on nature

A glacier under covers, a fish in danger of losing its home and threatened African penguins feature in the best entries to the Royal Society of Biology Photography Competition | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Stunning photo of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io is our best in decades

NASA's Juno spacecraft has swooped close to Jupiter's moon Io, capturing this amazing photo of the surface – and even better ones will come soon | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Dung beetles' feeding habits can be used to track endangered lemurs

Biologists identified DNA from six species of lemurs in the guts of dung beetles collected in Madagascar, demonstrating a possible way to monitor endangered wildlife | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Could nuclear weapons testing resume as global tensions rise?

Only North Korea has detonated nuclear weapons during the 21st century, but recent indications suggest Russia, the US and China are preparing to resume tests | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Cannabis has a shocking environmental cost – here's how to fix it

Growing cannabis can consume astonishingly large amounts of electricity and water, as well as damage ecosystems, but it doesn't have to be that way | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

It takes just 108 milliseconds for our brains to spot food

When you look at an object, it takes just 108 to 116 milliseconds for your brain to decide if it is food     | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Seven wonders of the Milky Way: An astronomer’s guide to the galaxy

Join us on an exhilarating tour of the Milky Way’s most spectacular sights – from a monstrous black hole and a river of dark matter to a diamond planet, primordial stars and a cosmic hall of mirrors | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Paris's bedbug problem is probably no worse than other major cities

An apparent resurgence of bedbugs has incited panic in France, but there is no scientific evidence of any increase in infestation rates this year | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

High-dose vitamin D may lower your risk of going to hospital

Taking a higher-than-recommended dose of vitamin D every day may reduce the risk of being hospitalised due to any cause, according to a relatively short, small study | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Under 18s who drive independently develop a better sense of direction

People who drove by themselves before they turned 18 are better at navigating than those who first drove solo at an older age | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

What ancient Earth tells us about surviving the climate crisis

Climate scientist and author Michael Mann explains why it’s not too late to prevent the worst impacts of climate change | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Student uses AI to decipher word in ancient scroll from Herculaneum

A computer science student has discovered the first decipherable word in unopened scrolls from Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Dusting and vacuuming reduce wildfire air pollution inside homes

Pollutants from wildfire smoke can remain inside homes for weeks, but vacuuming, mopping and dusting result in lower levels of volatile compounds in the air | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Furry-clawed Chinese mitten crabs are spreading across the UK

Numbers of invasive Chinese mitten crabs are believed to be growing in the UK, causing damage to river beds and competing with native wildlife | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Israel's demand for Gaza evacuation will lead to deaths, experts warn

As part of its ongoing conflict with Hamas, Israel has issued a warning for 1.1 million people to leave northern Gaza. The United Nations says such a rapid mass evacuation is impossible without "devastating humanitarian consequences" | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Ukrainian AI attack drones may be killing without human oversight

Ukraine is using drones equipped with artificial intelligence that can identify and attack targets without any human control, in the first battlefield use of autonomous weapons or "killer robots" | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Win $13k by rediscovering the secret phrases that secure the internet

Five secret phrases used to create the encryption algorithms that secure everything from online banking to email have been lost to history - but now cryptographers are offering a bounty to rediscover them | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Win $12k by rediscovering the secret phrases that secure the internet

Five secret phrases used to create the encryption algorithms that secure everything from online banking to email have been lost to history - but now cryptographers are offering a bounty to rediscover them | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

AI is helping mathematicians build a periodic table of shapes

Atomic shapes are so simple that they can't be broken down any further. Mathematicians are trying to build a "periodic table" of these shapes, and they hope artificial intelligence can help | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Lessons in Chemistry review: TV show delivers – just stay with it

When Lessons in Chemistry, the story of a woman scientist frustrated by the times she lives in, finally finds its stride, it is a reminder that things can come together with patience | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Early humans lived in Ethiopian highlands 2 million years ago

A child’s jawbone found in Ethiopia is one of the earliest fossils identified as Homo erectus, and shows ancient hominins settled in high-altitude areas | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

We now have the most detailed description of the human brain ever

The tool, which charts the distribution of over a hundred different brain areas in genetic and cellular detail, may shed more light on neurological and mental health conditions | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Energy-efficient transistor could allow smartwatches to use AI

A prototype transistor built from molybdenum disulphide and carbon nanotubes rather than silicon could allow power-hungry AIs to run on smartwatches without rapidly draining the battery | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Simple blood test tweak could make intensive care treatment safer

Taking less blood for intensive care tests reduces the risk of transfusions, which can cause allergic reactions or infections | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

We could make roads on the moon by melting lunar dust

Lunar dust can be melted with a laser to make a strong, glassy material – and a similar effect could be achieved by focusing sunlight with a lens | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Neanderthals hunted cave lions with spears and made use of their pelts

Fossilised remains of extinct big cats called cave lions display evidence of butchery, showing that Neanderthals had the skills to take on top predators | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Inventions based on threatened animals like rhinos are on the rise

An analysis of patent records suggests there is growing commercial interest in products derived from rhinos and other threatened wildlife | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Toys produce far more electronic waste than vapes

Over 3 billion kilograms of valuable electronics inside children’s toys are thrown away each year, and very few people are aware of this hidden e-waste | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Samples from asteroid Bennu contain the key ingredients of life

The asteroid Bennu was sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission, which returned to Earth last month. Researchers have already begun studying the samples, and say they contain key ingredients of life | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Earth’s core is oddly squishy and we may now know why

Earth’s iron-rich inner core may owe some of its surprising softness to the motion of atoms, suggest experiments with iron at high temperature and pressure coupled to AI simulations | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Of Time and Turtles review: What can we learn from turtles?

Turtles have existed for around 250 million years. Sy Montgomery's new book shows us that these ancient reptiles have much to teach us about the nature of time | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Let's stop making lab-grown meat weird

The lab-grown meat industry needs to perfect and normalise the staples, like chicken and beef, before jumping to exotic alternatives like mammoth, argues Brian Kateman | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

How the balloon analogy for an expanding universe is almost perfect

If space-time is expanding, then why does gravity seem to pull things together? Physics can be weird, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Extremely Online review: A vital look at the creator economy

Taylor Lorenz goes behind the scenes of the multibillion-dollar influencer industry to trace its meteoric rise in this fascinating book | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

New Scientist Live: Inside the world's best science and tech festival

From a huge revolving planet Mars to cuddles with a robot, as well as talks by Alice Roberts and Hamza Yassin, find out what went down at this year's New Scientist Live | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Can a single therapy session nudge us towards better mental health?

A new book says that single-session interventions can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and disordered eating. David Robson explores a new approach | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago