A supermassive black hole is hurtling away from its home galaxy

For the first time, researchers have spotted what appears to be a supermassive black hole flying away from its home galaxy at incredible speeds, trailing bursts of star formation behind it | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Climate change may drive more hurricanes towards the US east coast

Warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean may change wind patterns above the Gulf of Mexico, leading to more hurricanes making landfall in the eastern US | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Vertical farm cuts energy use 75 per cent by using sunlight

A vertical farm built inside a greenhouse in Texas can produce hundreds of thousands of heads of lettuce with significantly less energy than usual | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Higher temperatures are leading to more home runs in baseball

Since 2010, around 500 home runs in Major League Baseball can be attributed to the lowering of air density on hotter days | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

An AI dedicated to drawing hands could help all the other AIs improve

Weird hands have become a well-known way to identify an image generated by artificial intelligence, but that could be set to change | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Mysterious deep-sea holes may be burrows of tiny shrimp-like creatures

Shrimp-like amphipods may be the architects of lines of holes at the bottom of the Bering Sea, which serve as a habitat to a wide range of fauna roaming the abyss | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Are there planets that are better for life than Earth?

Philosophers have long debated whether Earth is the best of all worlds. More powerful telescopes are finally giving us a better chance of answering this question, writes astronomer Chris Impey | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Male crazy ants have two different sets of DNA in their bodies

A bizarre mode of reproduction discovered in yellow crazy ants results in males that have two separate sets of DNA in different parts of their body | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Breathtaking JWST image of Uranus shows rings, clouds and a polar cap

We only have a few images of the rings around Uranus, but now the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a startling view | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Neural engineering rewires the brain using light to change behaviour

Existing methods for manipulating neurons with light require invasive surgical procedures, but a new technique can link neurons without the need for surgery | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Solar flares made in the lab could teach us about the real thing

We don't fully understand how the sun spits out high-energy particles during a solar flare, so researchers have created a miniature version in the lab | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Three species of extremely primitive spider discovered in China

Mesothelean spiders diverged from all other spiders long before the first dinosaurs – three species of these living fossils have just been identified in western Hunan province | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Ancient droppings may help save kakapo parrots from extinction

The kakapo, a flightless parrot, only survives on a few predator-free islands in New Zealand – but preserved faeces could inform the search for new habitats | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Record-breaking sea temperatures set to bring supercharged storms

The global average sea surface temperature has hit a record high of 21.1°C, which could lead to fiercer hurricanes and typhoons | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Probiotics shield corals from deadly tissue loss disease

A bacterial treatment for coral stopped or slowed 68 per cent of infections with stony coral tissue loss disease in the lab, and it prevented the spread of the disease as well | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Should more countries vaccinate children against chickenpox?

Latest figures show that some of the concerns about the vaccine may have been misfounded | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Apps that identify plants can be as little as 4 per cent accurate

There are many smartphone apps that aim to identify plants from photographs, but tests have found that most are not very accurate | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Your short-term memory can be unreliable after just a few seconds

We know that long-term memory is fallible, and now it seems short-term memory can't be relied on either, if you are trying to recall an event that doesn't match your expectations | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

We don't have any viable way of countering conspiracy theories

Beliefs in conspiracy theories can damage societies and individuals, but the only effective ways to counter them are impractical, according to a review | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Famous Benin Bronzes from West Africa used metal sourced in Germany

Chemical analysis of metal sculptures made in West Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries provides evidence that may reshape the understanding of Germany’s involvement with the Benin Bronzes | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Divided review: Why we must eliminate racism from Western healthcare

A legacy of racism in Western medicine means healthcare is badly in need of decolonising. Annabel Sowemimo's book sets out why | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

How comedy could help save the planet

Climate scientists are being paired with top comedians in a new initiative aiming to drive home the message about the climate crisis. Here's why it just might work, says Bill McGuire (with help from Kiri Pritchard-McLean) | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Europe's first Wild River National Park is great, except for one thing

The new status of Albania's river Vjosa is a major conservation milestone. But plans to open an airport on the river's delta next year soured the celebrations, says Graham Lawton | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Alien Worlds review: Celebrating Earth's insects – as they disappear

From diving ants to jewel beetles, there are millions of insect species on Earth. A wonderful new guide from entomologist Steve Nicholls celebrates some of the smallest lives and details the strain they are under | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Dazzlingly detailed photo of a record solar tornado '14 Earths tall'

Astrophotographers Jason Guenzel and Andrew McCarthy took more than 90,000 separate images and five days to create this unique composite view of the sun | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

The Forest Cathedral review: Can Silent Spring work as a game?

Turning a legendary environmental non-fiction book into a video game is an ambitious project. It opens as a ladybird dies in a fog of DDT, but goes downhill after that, finds Jacob Aron | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

How to grow asparagus - and why it takes so long

Planting asparagus is a long-term investment in good eating, but your patience will eventually be rewarded with a crop that is tastier than anything available in shops, says Clare Wilson | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Come explore the quantum realm – it isn’t as confusing as it seems

Quantum theory, and the world of subatomic particles and forces it describes, has a daunting reputation for strangeness. And yet, with the right guidance, anyone can enjoy its many wonders | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

The quantum world: A concise guide to the particles that make reality

Get to grips with the deepest layer of reality we know of with our inventory of the subatomic realm, from known particles like quarks and the Higgs boson to hypotheticals including the fifth force and strings in 11 dimensions | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Polar ice sheets may retreat much faster than previously thought

Traces on the sea floor suggest an ancient ice sheet retreated at more than 600 metres per day at the end of the last glaciation, raising concern about the fate of modern ice sheets | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Snakes have been seen doing somersaults when they’re scared

Researchers filmed a dwarf reed snake doing an armless cartwheel to escape from danger by repeatedly launching its body forward in a coil | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Socially isolated animals seem to be better at solving problems

A study in 13 species of ungulates, including horses, sheep, deer and llamas, found that the most innovative individuals were also less integrated in social groups | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Animals that are social outliers seem to be better at solving problems

A study in 13 species of ungulates, including horses, sheep, deer and llamas, found that the most innovative individuals were also less integrated in social groups | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Monkeys with human-like hands can be fooled by sleight-of-hand magic

Capuchins, which have hands similar to ours, are deceived by a sleight-of-hand trick. But marmosets, which lack opposable thumbs, aren’t fooled | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

My Amazon family’s gut microbes may help us fight inflammatory disease

The Yanomami people of the Amazon have the world’s most diverse gut microbiome – and David Good, who is half Yanomami, thinks it might hold the clues to better health | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Invasive Burmese python in Florida lays a record 96 eggs in one go

A female Burmese python – an invasive species in the US – has laid a clutch of 96 eggs in one go, almost double the average for these snakes | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Crystal impervious to radiation could be used in spaceship computers

Putting two forms of semiconductor material called gallium oxide together seems to make it completely resistant to radiation | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Australia’s detention of child asylum seekers has harmed their health

Since 2012, Australia has detained hundreds of children seeking asylum, often for years. Now a review has revealed the lasting physical and mental health impacts of this policy | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Wild African elephants may have domesticated themselves

African savannah elephants play, care for their young and show social behaviours associated with domestic animals, despite never being domesticated by humans | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

NASA announced the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission

NASA has selected four crew members to travel around the moon in its Artemis II mission, planned for late 2024: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

NASA announces four astronauts for Artemis II mission around the moon

NASA has selected four crew members to travel around the moon in its Artemis II mission, planned for late 2024: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Light interacts with its past self in twist on double-slit experiment

The double-slit experiment consists of light passing through two slits separated by a small space – now researchers have performed it with small gaps in time instead | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Genetic conflict with the fetus influences when women give birth

Pregnancies that last longer lead to larger babies and riskier births, but some genes have let mothers and fetuses find a middle ground | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Ozone-destroying CFC chemicals are on the rise again despite ban

The production of CFCs was banned globally in 2010, but researchers have detected rising levels of five CFC chemicals from unknown sources | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Plagiarism tool gets a ChatGPT detector – some schools don’t want it

Popular plagiarism detection software used by many schools and universities worldwide is set to get an AI-detecting component in the wake of the release of ChatGPT | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Ukraine is building an AI to help triage shrapnel injuries

With Russia's invasion ongoing, Ukraine is looking for ways that artificial intelligence can help treat the wounded | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Stunning image shows the developing nervous system in a chick embryo

A visualisation of nerve development and migrating stem cells in a 2-day-old chick embryo may help us understand how some congenital diseases occur in humans | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago

Honeybees benefit from strips of native plants embedded in farmland

Prairie strips, areas of wild vegetation within intensive farms, are associated with bee colonies collecting more pollen, growing larger and having better winter survival rates | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 year ago