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This week's magazine

12 March 2022

Issue 3377

New Scientist issue 3377 cover
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Editor's picks

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Humans

Time to take a long, hard look at humanity's future in the cosmos

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Middle-age spread isn't down to metabolism, but we know how to beat it

Health

Middle-age spread isn't down to metabolism, but we know how to beat it

Features
E7KTB1 US, New York City. View from the Empire State Building observation deck. Pigeon taking a rest.

Life

Creatures living in our cities are evolving in some surprising ways

Features
Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans

Physics

Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

blue sunrise, view of earth from space; Shutterstock ID 154320125; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Humans

Time to take a long, hard look at humanity's future in the cosmos

SOMETIMES it pays to take the long view. Look at the past half-century of cosmology, as UK Astronomer Royal Martin Rees does in our interview , and it is plain how far we have come. The story of the universe's origin in a big bang – an idea not especially favoured when Rees started as …

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solar panel water harvesting device

Environment

Solar panel add-on pulls water from air without consuming electricity

The system uses day-night temperature differences to extract water from the air while slightly increasing electricity generation by cooling solar panels

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Humans

Stonehenge may have been a giant calendar and now we know how it works

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Environment

Countries agree to end plastic pollution in ambitious global treaty

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Life

Genes from bacteria may have helped plants colonise the land

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Physics

Ocean waves from a tropical storm could be focused like laser beams

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Life

Dinosaur that broke its wrist may have fallen while mating

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Space

Our closest black hole is actually just one star eating another

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Technology

Will bitcoin help or hinder Ukraine's fight against Russian invasion?

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Technology

Encryption meant to protect against quantum hackers is easily cracked

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Life

Blue wings give morpho dragonflies stealth capabilities

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Environment

Easter Islanders relied on freshwater springs under the sea to survive

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Health

Fat levels in blood predict risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease

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Life

Adjusting to a new sibling is highly stressful for bonobo infants

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Technology

Robotic ships could inspect underwater pipelines without a crew

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Technology

Silkworms make fluorescent silk after eating quantum dots

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Environment

Net zero: The UK is building its last big gas power plant

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Earth

Burst of animal evolution altered chemical make-up of Earth's mantle

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Space

China’s Zhurong Mars rover finds hints landscape was shaped by water

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Mind

Special brain cells may signal when to start new memories

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Health

Leaded petrol may have lowered the IQ of over half the US population

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Environment

Amazon rainforest nears tipping point that may see it become savannah

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Humans

Geese may have been the first birds to be domesticated 7000 years ago

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Life

Mouse pups born from unfertilised eggs through genetic manipulation

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Life

How a rodent’s fear of cats shapes rainforests in Panama

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Analysis

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Kin Cheung/AP/Shutterstock (12833050v) Health workers from mainland China work at the Huo-Yan (Fire Eye) Laboratory, an inflatable mobile testing lab in Hong Kong, . Hong Kong has ramped up its testing capacity with the help of inflatable mobile laboratories, as the city grapples with tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases daily Virus Outbreak , Hong Kong, Hong Kong - 04 Mar 2022

Health

Why has the omicron coronavirus variant hit Hong Kong so hard?

Covid-19 cases are soaring in Hong Kong, and the government’s focus on testing instead of vaccinating older populations may be the reason deaths are spiking and hospitals are overwhelmed

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Humans

Make mistakes on purpose – it can dramatically boost your performance

Comment

Life

Sorry Darwin, but it turns out promiscuity benefits females too

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Aperture

Beautiful images illustrate the dawn of modern botany

Life

Beautiful images illustrate the dawn of modern botany

These delicately detailed representations of plants by a founding figure of modern botany are given a new lease of life in the book Leonhart Fuchs: The New Herbal

Regulars

Features

E7KTB1 US, New York City. View from the Empire State Building observation deck. Pigeon taking a rest.

Life

Creatures living in our cities are evolving in some surprising ways

From mosquitoes and rats to foxes and birds, the urban environment is transforming animals that live among us – but which new species should we expect next?

Features

Physics

Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans

Features

Health

Middle-age spread isn't down to metabolism, but we know how to beat it

Features

Culture

Monk parakeet is looking at camera with curiosity expression. Quaker parrot is sitting on mans shoulder at home. ; Shutterstock ID 1047353692; purchase_order: 5 March 2022; job: Culture 12th March 2022; client: NS; other:

Humans

The Parrot in the Mirror review: Why humans evolved to be like birds

From our long lives to our social skills and even language, zoologist Antone Martinho-Truswell argues that we are more like birds than we think

Culture

Humans

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey review: An emotive exploration of memory

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: A new book exploring how AI can help us speak whale

Culture

Humans

The Cartographers review: A perceptive sci-fi love letter to maps

Culture

More

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Puzzle #158: Can you work out an old Five Nations rugby fixtures list?

#158 League of nations The TV sporting highlight of my childhood was always the Five Nations rugby championship, which involved a series of matches between England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. Every fortnight, on Saturday afternoon, there would be two matches, with the fifth country having the day off. The fixture list had an elegant …

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Technology

Help cancer research by playing the GENIGMA phone puzzle game

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Tom Gauld on the impossibility of keeping up with physics

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Twisteddoodles: Plants growing in the rich soil of social media

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Regulars

The dentist that wants to calm patients with cuddles from dogs

Humans

The dentist that wants to calm patients with cuddles from dogs

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

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Letters

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