Space
Should SpaceX be allowed to contaminate Mars with Earth microbes?
News
This week's magazine
14 December 2019
Issue 3260
On the cover
Editor's picks
Life
Scientific truth doesn’t exist 鈥� but we must still strive for answers
News
Physics
Dark energy: Understanding the mystery force that rules the universe
Features
Humans
Why it鈥檚 time to call time on the 鈥榥ature vs nurture鈥� debate
Features
Life
Alien life could be weirder than our Earthling brains can ever imagine
Features
Life
No more goody two shoes: Why true altruism can鈥檛 exist
Features
Life
Extinction is a fact of life. Could we stop it 鈥� or even reverse it?
Features
Humans
D鈥檕h! Why human beings aren鈥檛 as intelligent as we think
Features
Humans
Firms and governments use the internet to spy on us. Should we care?
Features
Physics
Big bang retold: The weird twists in the story of the universe’s birth
Features
Life
We’re beginning to question the idea of species 鈥� including our own
Features
Humans
Who do you think you are? Why your sense of self is an illusion
Features
Physics
Why information could be our route to the universe鈥檚 deepest secrets
Features
Humans
Think you understand how evolution works? You’re probably wrong
Features
Physics
In the quantum world, uncertainty reigns 鈥� or is it all in the mind?
Features
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Technology
DNA site GEDmatch sold to firm helping US police solve crime
One of the world鈥檚 biggest genealogy websites has been bought by a company that provides law enforcement agencies with genomic sequencing technology for forensic DNA work
News
Environment
At least five dead after White Island volcano eruption in New Zealand
News
Humans
44,000-year-old hunting scene is earliest painted 鈥榮tory鈥� ever found
News
Technology
Concerns raised over Indian government’s plan for face recognition
News
Space
We finally know how whole planets grow from tiny clumps of dust
News
Physics
North America鈥檚 first English settlers were unlucky scientists
News
Life
African swine fever helps drive world food prices to two-year high
News
Environment
快猫短视频s issue wake-up call on dangerous loss of oxygen from oceans
News
Health
Exclusive: Two pigs engineered to have monkey cells born in China
News
Environment
Young people can’t remember how much more wildlife there used to be
News
Space
NASA is quietly helping satellite firms avoid catastrophic collisions
News
Environment
A vital project for monitoring ocean currents has been saved – for now
News
Technology
Number-crunchers set new record for cracking online encryption keys
News
Space
Black holes formed from dark matter could be making dead stars explode
News
Mathematics
AI is helping tackle one of the biggest unsolved problems in maths
News
Life
Recordings reveal that plants make ultrasonic squeals when stressed
News
Life
Cretaceous fossils are missing link in mammal ear evolution
News
Health
Monthly oral contraceptive capsule shown to work in pigs
News
Space
NASA’s closest ever flight to the sun answers solar wind mystery
News
Environment
Measures to reduce air pollution quickly result in big health benefits
News
Humans
A single gene controls how our faces develop when we are young
News
Technology
Listen to a bendy audio speaker made from liquid heavy metal
News
Analysis
Technology
TikTok may be leaking people’s data from the US to China
There is real concern over how Chinese video-sharing app TikTok handles privacy. But many of the issues are the same for Silicon Valley apps too
News
Space
Should SpaceX be allowed to contaminate Mars with Earth microbes?
News
Environment
How international conservation groups are betraying indigenous peoples
News
Humans
Smart doorbells may be fun, but we don鈥檛 know who is using your face
News
Features
Physics
In the quantum world, uncertainty reigns 鈥� or is it all in the mind?
Schr枚dinger's dead-and-alive cat embodies the uncertainty of the quantum world. But whether parallel realities truly exist is a question less of science than belief
Features
Humans
Think you understand how evolution works? You’re probably wrong
Features
Humans
D鈥檕h! Why human beings aren鈥檛 as intelligent as we think
Features
Life
Extinction is a fact of life. Could we stop it 鈥� or even reverse it?
Features
Life
No more goody two shoes: Why true altruism can鈥檛 exist
Features
Life
Alien life could be weirder than our Earthling brains can ever imagine
Features
Physics
Why information could be our route to the universe鈥檚 deepest secrets
Features
Humans
Who do you think you are? Why your sense of self is an illusion
Features
Physics
Big bang retold: The weird twists in the story of the universe’s birth
Features
Life
We’re beginning to question the idea of species 鈥� including our own
Features
Humans
Firms and governments use the internet to spy on us. Should we care?
Features
Humans
Why it鈥檚 time to call time on the 鈥榥ature vs nurture鈥� debate
Features
Physics
Dark energy: Understanding the mystery force that rules the universe
Features
Culture
Don’t miss: Primordial cities, a new Star Wars and the power of bad
This week, learn how nature can inspire resilient urban design, catch the latest chapter of the Star Wars saga, and read about negativity bias
Culture
Technology
The Artist in the Machine opens our eyes to AI’s amazing creativity
Culture
Technology
Death Stranding makes me rethink the morality of the gig economy
Culture
More
Environment
How we predicted global warming and Arctic ice melt 鈥� 40 years ago
快猫短视频 was well ahead of the curve in 1979 when we warned that the 'so-called carbon dioxide greenhouse effect' threatened long-term climate change
Regulars
Space
How to find Andromeda 鈥� a spiral galaxy you can see with the naked eye
Regulars
Health
How a Ugandan vet saved hundreds of gorillas by treating human disease
Regulars
Regulars
Ariel the mermaid鈥檚 science career runs into the gender pay gap
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
This Week鈥檚 Letters
Letters
Playing dirty: Which sport has the highest emissions?
Last Word
Web sense: How do spiders move around their webs?
Last Word
This week鈥檚 new questions
Last Word
