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This week's magazine

19 March 2022

Issue 3378

New Scientist issue 3378 cover
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MEDYKA, POLAND - MARCH 09: Iryna Holoshchapova, a Ukrainian refugee who fled the embattled city of Mykolaiv, shows a video on her smartphone of a friend's apartment block in Mykolaiv on fire following a Russian attack as she, her son Tibor and mother Halina rest in a heated tent at the Medyka border crossing on March 09, 2022 in Medyka, Poland. Yulia said her friend was not in the building when it was struck. Over one million people have arrived in Poland from Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 24, and while many are now living with relatives who live and work in Poland, others are journeying onward to other countries in Europe. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Humans

The internet is a key battleground for truth about the Ukraine war

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Artificial touch: The new tech making virtual reality more immersive

Technology

Artificial touch: The new tech making virtual reality more immersive

Features
European rabbits (Oryctolagus ciniculus) juveniles emerging from burrow, Cheshire, UK May

Life

Rabbits face a fresh onslaught akin to myxomatosis – can they survive?

Features
How a new kind of gravitational wave will reveal the early universe

Physics

How a new kind of gravitational wave will reveal the early universe

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

MEDYKA, POLAND - MARCH 09: Iryna Holoshchapova, a Ukrainian refugee who fled the embattled city of Mykolaiv, shows a video on her smartphone of a friend's apartment block in Mykolaiv on fire following a Russian attack as she, her son Tibor and mother Halina rest in a heated tent at the Medyka border crossing on March 09, 2022 in Medyka, Poland. Yulia said her friend was not in the building when it was struck. Over one million people have arrived in Poland from Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 24, and while many are now living with relatives who live and work in Poland, others are journeying onward to other countries in Europe. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Humans

The internet is a key battleground for truth about the Ukraine war

The threats of cyberwarfare and online disinformation loom over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but even in this online age, war is still life or death for those in the firing line

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Type specimen of Hanyusuchus sinensis from the Bronze Age of China (above), and life restoration (below: drawn by Hikaru Amemiya).

Life

A 6-metre-long crocodile relative lived in China during the Bronze Age

A large species of gharial, an animal closely related to crocodiles, roamed China 3000 years ago, but was probably driven extinct by humans

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Health

Your organs may be ageing at different rates

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Space

Perseverance rover measures speed of sound on Mars for the first time

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Earth

Red and purple microbes give Australia’s mysterious pink lake its hue

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Health

Electric field keeps kidney cells powered up while organs are on ice

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Technology

Simple mathematical trick could slash AI development time in half

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Technology

Collision-dodging drones can navigate tight spaces without crashing

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Life

Resurrecting extinct species from their DNA is essentially impossible

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Humans

AI can help historians restore ancient texts from damaged inscriptions

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Health

Hugging a pillow that mimics breathing could reduce anxiety

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Health

Recurring UTIs may be prevented with an antiseptic drug

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Technology

Why hasn't Russia waged an all-out cyberwar against Ukraine?

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Health

We may now know why young blood can have rejuvenating effects

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Space

Curiosity rover discovers diverse cache of organic minerals on Mars

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Life

Common toads surprise biologists by climbing trees

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Health

Iceland targets herd immunity with controversial covid-19 strategy

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Space

Moon mystery could be solved by simulation of planetary smash-up

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Health

Even a low level of light at night may disrupt your blood sugar

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Physics

Nuclear safety regulators urge Russia to grant access to Chernobyl

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Environment

Cutting biofuels can help avoid global food shock from Ukraine war

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Space

Double-shadowed moon craters may be coldest place in the solar system

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Technology

How do organisations find and debunk disinformation on war in Ukraine?

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Analysis

Piggy Bank,3d Render

Space

We mustn’t let the billionaire rocket men decide what happens in space

Right now, very few of us have a say in how humans get to space or what we do there. That has to change, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Comment

Health

Learning to live with covid-19 means covering up coughs and sneezes

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Aperture

Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) chick under the wing of protective parent, breeding colony, Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, June.Finalist in the Portfolio Category of the Terre Sauvage Nature Images Awards 2017. First Prize in the '2017 National Wildlife Photo Contest' organised by the National Wildlife Federation of the USA

Life

Beautiful new photos of flamingos thriving in Mexico's wetlands

Flamingos prefer their habitats "just so", and the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico ticks all the boxes, as revealed by Claudio Contreras Koob's delightful photographs

Regulars

Features

European rabbits (Oryctolagus ciniculus) juveniles emerging from burrow, Cheshire, UK May

Life

Rabbits face a fresh onslaught akin to myxomatosis – can they survive?

After bouncing back from one viral threat, rabbits are being sucker-punched by a second killer disease – and these unsung eco-warriors need our help

Features

Technology

Artificial touch: The new tech making virtual reality more immersive

Features

Physics

How a new kind of gravitational wave will reveal the early universe

Features

Culture

Downfall: The case against Boeing review: Tragedy and broken trust

Humans

Downfall: The case against Boeing review: Tragedy and broken trust

Netflix's new film about recent Boeing plane crashes is a damning account of why the disasters happened and who was responsible

Culture

Humans

Get Rich or Lie Trying review: A pacy scroll through influencer life

Culture

Humans

Don't miss: The chance to get life lessons from plants and fungi

Culture

Humans

Last Exit Space review: An unusual take on the race to colonise space

Culture

More

Puzzle #159: The coffee vendors of New Addleton have a problem

Puzzle #159: The coffee vendors of New Addleton have a problem

#159 Express coffee The streets of New Addleton are set out in a rectangular grid. Seven coffee vendors (the circles in the diagram above) have stalls at metro stations and want to set up a central depot to collect supplies from each morning. They want to minimise their combined cycling distance from stall to depot. …

Regulars

Humans

How to perform the culinary technique of spherification at home

Regulars

Tom Gauld documents Godot's ongoing failure to show up

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: the self-cancelling problem of 'anxiety power'

Regulars

Regulars

Radioactive gummy bears, renewable trams and moon geese

Humans

Radioactive gummy bears, renewable trams and moon geese

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

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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