The supernova 1987A lies around 168,000 light years from Earth, and is the closest stellar explosion we have seen in hundreds of years. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is revealing new details | Continue reading
New Scientist Live is the highlight of our calendar. From the inner life of a dolphin to the future of AI, there is a lot to discover | Continue reading
Our round-up of the most interesting artificial intelligence news in August includes a job created by AI, the problem of racial bias in driverless cars and how robots are better at 'are you a robot?' tests than humans | Continue reading
Running shoes with an elevated heel may change the speed at which the feet hit the ground, raising the risk of injuries in the lower legs, according to a small study | Continue reading
It is easy to overlook the circumstances surrounding the discovery of ancient artefacts, but the insight this gives us into modern lives is just as valuable as the find itself | Continue reading
We instinctively know that relaxing feels good, but we are now figuring out what it does to the brain and uncovering the best ways to unwind to maximise its benefits | Continue reading
Clive Oppenheimer's intrepid scientific memoir not only takes us to the crater's edge, it shows how seriously the volcanologist takes the mystical meanings volcanoes hold for those who live nearby | Continue reading
There is more to where maths came from than the ancient Greeks. From calculus to the theorem we credit to Pythagoras, so much of our knowledge comes from other places, including ancient China, India and the Arabian peninsula, says Kate Kitagawa | Continue reading
We can't get life-saving drugs, but we can get dubious self-driving taxis, says Annalee Newitz | Continue reading
As labs study possible fragments of a meteor that might have been more than it seemed, we must keep looking for any signs of extraterrestrial life, argues astrophysicist Avi Loeb in his new book | Continue reading
At the heart of a new Netflix miniseries is the highly addictive pain drug OxyContin. But what can the show possibly add to a great series that told the same story less than two years ago? Bethan Ackerley explores | Continue reading
Whether you like yours fudgy or crisp, nothing beats a chocolate chip cookie. Sam Wong explains how to get your preferred texture | Continue reading
Environmental activist and photographer J Henry Fair took this mesmerising photograph of the Lambert's Point coal terminal in Virginia from a plane, to reveal its inner workings | Continue reading
An unprecedentedly heavy version of oxygen is significantly less stable than expected, which suggests a problem our understanding of the nuclear strong force | Continue reading
The Swift AI has beaten expert drone racers in high-speed races using an on-board computer that fuses artificial intelligence and classical algorithms – a method that could speed up delivery drones | Continue reading
Seismometers normally used to detect earthquakes are being used to identify the time and location of explosions during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine | Continue reading
The UK government has announced it will no longer require homebuilders to mitigate the water pollution created by new developments, a move that experts say will reduce transparency and is likely to harm rivers | Continue reading
Soaring US demand and high drug prices may be keeping the weight loss injections from other nations | Continue reading
A company called Synchron, backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, may become the first to commercialise a brain implant that lets people control touchscreen devices using brain signals | Continue reading
The discovery of Homo floresiensis revolutionised the study of human evolution, but it was rocked by accusations of theft. Twenty years on, here's the full story behind the episode | Continue reading
Mosquitoes can be drawn to your skin microbiome, suggesting that one day a spray that alters your bacteria could help ward off bites | Continue reading
A small proportion of people in the US are responsible for eating 50 per cent of the beef consumed in the country, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions | Continue reading
The latest generations of artificial intelligence models show little to no trace of 14 signs of self-awareness predicted by prominent theories of human consciousness | Continue reading
Drinking alcohol does not give people "beer goggles" that make others seem more attractive, but it may give them the confidence to approach those they already found attractive | Continue reading
What science and technology podcasts should you be listening to? Here are some of our favourites | Continue reading
A robotic laboratory that can run 50 experiments a day without human supervision has discovered the most energy-absorbing structure ever recorded, claim researchers | Continue reading
There are several reasonable ways to protect Earth from any potential asteroid threats, but in this episode of Dead Planets Society, reason loses out to the idea of a huge orbiting shield | Continue reading
ESA’s JUICE mission will help us better understand whether Jupiter’s icy moons are habitable. But we need to be open to their unexpected secrets, says principal investigator Michele Dougherty | Continue reading
The six-wheeled Pragyan rover had to change course to avoid a 4-metre-wide crater on the surface of the moon, as the Vikram lander has returned temperature readings from the lunar surface | Continue reading
An object in the Kuiper belt named 2002 MS4 has a depression 45 kilometres deep and 320 kilometres across, unlike anything seen before on such a small world | Continue reading
The dengue virus has four subtypes, which each circulate at different levels in different countries, regularly fluctuating in prevalence. Developing a vaccine that effectively targets all of these subtypes has been notoriously challenging | Continue reading
Three archaeological sites in South Africa feature impressions that might have been made by ancient footwear, but pinpointing when humans first wore shoes is challenging | Continue reading
Researchers manipulated thousands of extremely cold atoms to make a ring-like defect that can change the properties of quantum objects that pass through it | Continue reading
Genomic information for almost all of the 250 kakapos in New Zealand will help determine how best to move birds around to increase genetic diversity | Continue reading
Taller people may have longer gastrointestinal tracts that can house a broader array of microorganisms and could protect them against infections from bacteria such as Clostridium difficile | Continue reading
Proteins in the cell membranes of most organisms act like the hypothetical “demon” imagined by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867, which was thought to break the laws of physics | Continue reading
The supermassive black holes at the centre of many galaxies were suspected to quench the formation of new stars – now the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted evidence of this | Continue reading
Rates of cannabis and psychedelic use among adults in the US reached record highs in 2022, part of a decade-long upswing in the use of mind-altering drugs | Continue reading
The predatory Atlantic blue crab has invaded Italian waters and is killing off young clams, which could undermine the global supply for years to come | Continue reading
It can be time consuming to test food and drink for potentially harmful bacteria, but viruses that naturally attack the bacteria can be gene edited to speed up the process | Continue reading
After the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s historic landing on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s rover has begun researching the composition of the surface and investigating water ice near the lunar south pole | Continue reading
Satellite images show an increase in greenery at dog sledding locations in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, thanks to the fertilising effect of dog droppings | Continue reading
Previous studies have overestimated the impact of early environment on how long people stay in education by neglecting key factors, according to a new analysis | Continue reading
Some companies are hiring specialists to help them get the best out of generative AI – but if the tech gets better at understanding what users want, such skills may not be needed | Continue reading
What science and technology podcasts should you listen to? Here's a guide to some of the best | Continue reading
The source of the charged plasma that makes up the solar wind has long been debated, but new evidence suggests it could come from a barrage of tiny flares | Continue reading
Men typically throw objects with a greater velocity than women can – but with a spear-launching tool called an atlatl, men and women’s throwing velocity is indistinguishable | Continue reading
Four out of five emperor penguin colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea area suffered a total breeding failure in 2022 as a result of the record shrinking of sea ice | Continue reading