Humans
Science is increasingly revealing how we can boost our happiness
News
This week's magazine
22 January 2022
Issue 3370
On the cover
Editor's picks
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Earth
Volcano eruption in Tonga was a once-in-a-millennium event
The underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption has already triggered a tsunami, a sonic boom and thousands of lightning bolts, and could now lead to acid rain
News
Technology
Robot piloted by a ball of algae is powered by photosynthesis
News
Environment
Can electric fields help plants grow? New claims met with caution
News
Technology
First fully programmable quantum computer based on neutral atoms
News
Technology
Portable laser scanner creates colour 3D images of surfaces or objects
News
Technology
Edible straws made by bacteria are better than paper or plastic ones
News
Health
Living with covid: How can the pandemic end and what will it be like?
News
Health
Strongest evidence yet that MS is caused by Epstein-Barr virus
News
Space
Astronomers may have found a huge moon around a Jupiter-like exoplanet
News
Technology
Overloaded memory chips generate truly random numbers for encryption
News
Space
Saturn鈥檚 small moon Mimas may be hiding an impossible ocean
News
Humans
A West African writing system shows how letters evolve to get simpler
News
Space
Organic compounds on Mars were produced by water and rocks, not life
News
Life
Largest ever fish colony hosts 100 billion eggs under Antarctic ice
News
Space
Huge gas bubble that contains the solar system mapped for first time
News
Space
Long-lasting radiation shields may make super-Earths friendly for life
News
Health
Electric knee implants could help treat pain of osteoarthritis
News
Humans
Ancient Andean leaders may have mixed hallucinogen with their beer
News
Analysis
Environment
UK energy crisis: Why renewable subsidies will help avoid price shocks
Rising energy costs have seen wind farms substantially refund environmental levies for the first time, showing they are likely to be the solution to, not a cause of, soaring bills
News
Health
What endemic means – and why covid-19 is nowhere near it yet
News
Technology
‘Doomsday’ shipwreck exposed by 快猫短视频 finally being tackled
News
Health
Toxic chemicals are everywhere in our daily lives 鈥� can we avoid them?
News
Physics
How does the sun shine? Here’s why we are still a little in the dark
News
Features
Humans
What really makes people happy 鈥� and can you learn to be happier?
Our life satisfaction is shaped by many things including our genes and relative wealth, but there is now good evidence that you can boost your basic happiness with these key psychological strategies
Features
Society
The happiness revolution: How to boost the well-being of society
Features
Space
Leigh Fletcher interview: Why we urgently need a mission to Neptune
Features
Culture
Humans
Station Eleven review: An uplifting vision of a post-pandemic world
A TV adaptation of the hit 2014 novel by Emily St John Mandel shows that culture and humanity can survive even the collapse of civilisation
Culture
Humans
Otherlands review: A fascinating journey through Earth’s history
Culture
Humans
Don’t miss: Sci-fi The Orbital Children on Netflix
Culture
Humans
Hard to Be a God: An 80s classic shows modern sci-fi how it鈥檚 done
Culture
More
Humans
How to perfectly pickle your cucumbers
Pickling is a delicious way to beat the microbes that would otherwise spoil your food, says Sam Wong
Regulars
Twisteddoodles: The youthful joys of scientific fieldwork
Regulars
Tom Gauld shows what happens when body donation goes surreally wrong
Regulars
Regulars
Humans
Is Pluto a planet? The Spanish government’s tax portal says it is
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
This Week鈥檚 Letters
Letters
Birds die around us all the time, so why do I never see a dead one?
Last Word
Is it a coincidence that there are two dippers in the sky? (Part 2)
Last Word
This week鈥檚 new questions
Last Word
Could we run out of musical note combinations? (Part 2)
Last Word
