Humans
In 2021, we made real progress in fighting covid-19 and climate change
News
This week's magazine
18 December 2021
Issue 3365
On the cover
Editor's picks
Humans
Kenneth Libbrecht interview: A grand unified theory of snowflakes
Features
Life
How the shimmering secrets of iridescence could keep us cool
Features
Life
When geckos play ball and spiders spar: The strange evolution of fun
Features
Humans
The real reasons we laugh and what different types of laughter mean
Features
Humans
Occam鈥檚 razor: The medieval monk who saw the power of simplicity
Features
Humans
Strange but true? Test yourself in our barely believable science quiz
Features
Humans
How climate change is shaking up the hops that give beer its flavour
Features
Mind
What doing magic tricks for birds is revealing about animal minds
Features
Life
The secret life of cheese: How marvellous microbes create its flavour
Features
Humans
Ambergris: What fragrant whale excretions tell us about ancient oceans
Features
Space
Milky Way shakes: The cosmic collisions that made our galaxy
Features
Life
Did monkeys really sail the oceans on floating rafts of vegetation?
Features
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Health
The world faces an omicron Christmas but isn鈥檛 doing much about it yet
The festive season will be dominated by a large wave of covid-19 infections caused by the omicron variant, but few countries appear to have substantially changed their plans
News
Life
Turkeys with pale plumage are more fearful than dark-feathered birds
News
Space
Baffling ‘space cow’ explosion was probably a failed supernova
News
Technology
AI reads boring terms and conditions documents so you don’t have to
News
Humans
Babies bond better with strangers when they can smell their mother
News
Space
NASA is launching X-ray telescope to study the science of black holes
News
Technology
Watch a robot playing table tennis after just 90 minutes of training
News
Life
Some dinosaurs could run at 45 kilometres per hour as they chased prey
News
Health
Investigation fails to replicate most cancer biology lab findings
News
Environment
Extreme lack of sea ice in Hudson Bay puts polar bears under pressure
News
Space
An unexpected giant planet is orbiting a massive pair of stars
News
Life
Zebra finch songs alter the behaviour of their chicks’ mitochondria
News
Health
Older people who get cataracts removed have lower dementia risk
News
Mind
Interrupting sleep after a few minutes can boost creativity
News
Life
Migrating birds may be paler colours to help them keep cool
News
Health
Grape seed chemical allows mice to live longer by killing aged cells
News
Health
2021 in review: Billions of covid vaccinations given unequally
News
Technology
2021 in review: AI firm DeepMind solves human protein structures
News
Technology
2021 in review: CRISPR-edited food goes on sale to public
News
Space
2021 in review: Space tourism begins 鈥� for billionaires, anyway
News
Technology
2021 in review: Jian-Wei Pan leads China鈥檚 quantum computing successes
News
Technology
2021 in review: When a brain blob in a dish grew a pair of 鈥榚yes鈥�
News
Space
2021 in review: Three different missions land on Mars
News
Technology
2021 in review: A helicopter flies on Mars for the first time
News
Humans
2021 in review: Learning the pros and cons of working from home
News
Health
2021 in review: World鈥檚 first malaria vaccine is approved
News
Environment
2021 in review: COP26 lays the groundwork for a decade of action
News
Environment
2021 in review: Weather records aren鈥檛 just broken, they鈥檙e smashed
News
Analysis
Health
We failed to prevent omicron 鈥� can we stop future variants evolving?
There is a lot more that countries could be doing to reduce the risk of new coronavirus variants arising, but it won't be easy
News
Environment
Race to start commercial deep-sea mining puts ecosystems at risk
News
Technology
2021 was the year cryptocurrencies went completely off the rails
News
Environment
In this pivotal year, rich nations failed woefully on climate justice
News
Life
The major science-fiction films that get botany spectacularly wrong
News
Space
My encounter with a different and deeply mysterious kind of corona
News
Features
Life
Did monkeys really sail the oceans on floating rafts of vegetation?
The mystery of how some species colonised new continents is as old as the theory of evolution itself. Now, with fresh clues surfacing, the rafting hypothesis might finally sink or swim
Features
Space
Milky Way shakes: The cosmic collisions that made our galaxy
Features
Humans
Ambergris: What fragrant whale excretions tell us about ancient oceans
Features
Humans
Kenneth Libbrecht interview: A grand unified theory of snowflakes
Features
Life
The secret life of cheese: How marvellous microbes create its flavour
Features
Mind
What doing magic tricks for birds is revealing about animal minds
Features
Humans
How climate change is shaking up the hops that give beer its flavour
Features
Humans
Strange but true? Test yourself in our barely believable science quiz
Features
Humans
Occam鈥檚 razor: The medieval monk who saw the power of simplicity
Features
Humans
The real reasons we laugh and what different types of laughter mean
Features
Life
How the shimmering secrets of iridescence could keep us cool
Features
Life
When geckos play ball and spiders spar: The strange evolution of fun
Features
