The epic quest to redefine the second using the world's best clocks

A more precise definition of the second is crucial to all sorts of physical measurements – but to get there, scientists have to pack up their extraordinarily fragile optical clocks and take them on tour | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 4 hours ago

Plant skin grafts could result in new kinds of vegetables

A company in the Netherlands says it has perfected a way to create "graft chimeras" with the skin of one plant and the innards of another | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 hours ago

The best new science fiction books of April 2025

From robot rights to ageing and climate change, this month’s science fiction squares up to the big topics, with new titles from authors including Nick Harkaway and Eve Smith | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 hours ago

Weekend workouts can be as valuable as exercising throughout the week

Squeezing exercise into one or two days a week seems to have similar health benefits as doing the same amount of physical activity spread out throughout the week | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 10 hours ago

US government fired researchers running a crucial drug use survey

A termination letter obtained by New Scientist reveals that the Trump administration has gutted the office that runs the country’s only nationwide survey on drug use and mental health | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 21 hours ago

How nothing could destroy the universe

The concept of nothing once sparked a 1000-year-long war, today it might explain dark energy and nothingness even has the potential to destroy the universe, explains physicist Antonio Padilla | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

NASA cut $420 million for climate science, moon modelling and more

Under pressure from Elon Musk’s DOGE task force, NASA is cancelling grants and contracts for everything from lunar dust research to educational programmes | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

The animals revealing why human culture isn't as special as we thought

Even animals with very small brains turn out to have cultural traditions, which poses a puzzler for biologists wondering what makes human culture unique | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

Do Ozempic and Wegovy really cause hair loss?

As semaglutide-based weight loss treatments, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, become more popular, new side effects are emerging - and one is hair loss | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

Aged human urine is a pungent pesticide as well as a fertiliser

Urine that has sat in the sun for a while seems to fertilise crops while warding off pests, without affecting the produce's taste | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

Monkeys use crafty techniques to get junk food from tourists

At the Dakshineswar temple complex in India, Hanuman langurs beg for food by grabbing visitors’ legs or tugging on their clothes – and they don’t stop until they get their favourite snacks | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

US bridges are at risk of catastrophic ship collisions every few years

After a container ship struck and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, researchers began calculating the risks of similar catastrophic incidents for other US bridges – and they’re surprisingly high | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 1 day ago

Cave spiders use their webs in a way that hasn't been seen before

Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

A revolutionary new understanding of autism in girls

By studying the brains of autistic girls, we now know the condition presents differently in them than in boys, suggesting that huge numbers of women have gone undiagnosed | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

Quantum eavesdropping could work even from inside a black hole

An eavesdropper hiding inside a black hole could still obtain information about quantum objects on its outside, a finding that reveals how effectively black holes destroy the quantum states near their event horizons | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

Unusually tiny hominin deepens mystery of our Paranthropus cousin

Paranthropus was an ape-like hominin that survived alongside early humans for more than a million years. A fossilised leg belonging to a strikingly small member of the group raises questions about how it did so | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming

The rate at which the planet is warming has sped up since 2010, and now researchers say that China's efforts to clean up air pollution are inadvertently responsible for the majority of this extra warming | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

Does aspirin have potential as an anti-cancer drug?

Taking aspirin was first linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancer in 1988, but the research into its anti-tumour potential has been full of twists and turns since then | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 2 days ago

Are Trump's cuts to science the end of the endless frontier?

Since the second world war, US economic prosperity and major technological developments have hinged upon the government’s commitment to funding scientific research. The Trump administration is ending that | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 4 days ago

Measles is spreading across the US – here is what you need to know

The US has confirmed more than 480 measles cases across 19 states, the highest total since an outbreak in 2019 sickened more than 1200 people | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 4 days ago

Asteroid 2024 YR4 could still hit the moon, JWST observations reveal

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year seemed to be at risk of hitting Earth in 2032. Earth is now safe, but astronomers are cheering on a possible collision with the moon | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 days ago

The anus may have evolved from a hole originally used to release sperm

The long-standing question of how animals came to have an anus may have been solved by studies of which genes are active during development in various animals | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 days ago

Could a new kind of carbon budget ensure top emitters pay their dues?

Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 days ago

Distracted by your phone? Putting it out of reach may not help

When researchers asked people to work on a computer with their phones 1.5 metres away, the amount of time they spent on their phone went down – but they just scrolled social media on their laptop instead | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 5 days ago

Little red dots seen by JWST might be a kind of black hole 'star'

Red specks in the early universe are puzzling astronomers, but a proposed explanation suggests they are the progenitors of supermassive black holes | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

Flourishing microalgae could offset emissions as the planet heats up

Photosynthesising microbes in soil may increase their activity as temperatures rise, offsetting some of the carbon emissions expected to be released from peatland and permafrost | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

We've spotted auroras on Neptune for the first time

After 34 years of searching, astronomers have finally confirmed Neptune has auroras, thanks to data from the James Webb Space Telescope | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

Quantum computers are on track to solve knotty mathematical problems

A quantum algorithm for solving mathematical problems related to knots could give us the first example of a quantum computer tackling a genuinely useful problem that would otherwise be impossible for a classical computer | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

What is vibe coding, should you be doing it, and does it matter?

The rise of large language models like ChatGPT that can churn out computer code has led to a new term - vibe coding - for people who create software by asking AI to do it for them | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

Ancient wasp may have used its rear end to trap flies

Bizarre parasitic wasps preserved in amber about 99 million years ago had trap-like abdomens that they may have used to immobilise other insects | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 6 days ago

Pregnancy’s lasting effects on different parts of the body revealed

An "unprecedented view" of how the body changes during and after pregnancy has revealed many long-lasting impacts on the liver, kidneys and more | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

The Ozempic era is only just beginning

In the past year, treatments such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have become household names. But there are many questions left to answer, not least what the future holds for weight-loss medications and society at large | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

A controversial book about human diversity shows how biology unites us

From race and IQ to sex and gender, Herman Pontzer's new book Adaptable is an ambitious and enjoyable exploration of how understanding ourselves better can help us bridge divides | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

How toilet waste is being rebranded as a valuable resource

From useful nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to cellulose for construction, there is treasure to be mined in our sewage, says Graham Lawton | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

In the city, anyone can be a naturalist-explorer

By opening their eyes and hearts to the many distinctive – but overlooked – urban habitats, city dwellers can reconnect with nature, says Menno Schilthuizen | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Rats come one step closer to becoming snobby and pretentious

Feedback is pleased to discover the latest research into the wine-identifying abilities of rats, but feels the rodents still have a long way to go before they are truly obnoxious to be around | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Camera trap spots endangered elephant mother and calf on the move

A weatherproof box and motion-trigger camera help photographer Will Burrard-Lucas capture images of rarely seen African elephants | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Stunning new animated series tells the story of a cure-all mushroom

A naturalist finds a hallucinogenic mushroom with the power to cure all ailments in the animated series Common Side Effects. Big Pharma is hot on his trail in this beautifully made show, says Bethan Ackerley | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

What the research says about the benefits of low-intensity cardio

Low-intensity steady-state cardio has been touted as a way to lose weight and put less strain on your body while exercising. Science of exercise columnist Grace Wade looks into whether it works | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Mike Berners-Lee's solution for the polycrisis may be just too hard

A Climate of Truth is a penetrating and enlightening analysis of the many crises we face. But it demands impossible standards of flawed human beings, finds Graham Lawton | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Why do giraffes have spots? Not for the reason you might think

The size and shape of a giraffe’s spots seem to influence how well the animals survive when temperatures get hotter or colder than normal | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy

A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Mathematician wins 2025 Abel prize for tools to solve tricky equations

Masaki Kashiwara has won the 2025 Abel prize, seen by some as the Nobel of mathematics, for his contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Microdosing GLP-1 drugs is on the rise – but does it work?

There are many claims about the benefits of microdosing weight-loss drugs, from anti-inflammatory effects to extending longevity. Do any of them stack up? | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

The unexpected impacts of a society transformed by weight-loss drugs

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have the power to block the forces driving obesity, but the knock-on societal effects may not necessarily be so positive | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

Microdosing weight-loss drugs is on the rise – but does it work?

There are many claims about the benefits of microdosing weight-loss drugs, from anti-inflammatory effects to extending longevity. Do any of them stack up? | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

GLP-1 drugs are only the start – the powerful drugs to expect next

The race is under way to make faster, cheaper and better GLP-1 drugs that will go beyond reducing obesity levels to treating some of our most difficult conditions | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago

What do GLP-1 drugs really tell us about the brain's reward system?

Anecdotal reports suggest drugs like Ozempic may curb not just appetite but also impulsive or addictive behaviour, hinting at links between metabolic health and our brains | Continue reading


@newscientist.com | 7 days ago