This week's magazine
30 September 2023
Issue 3458
On the cover
Editor's picks
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Health
Surgeons perform the second ever pig-to-human heart transplant
The heart of a genetically modified pig has been transplanted into a man with heart disease, the second such surgery of its kind
Space
Samples from asteroid Bennu brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx
Space
OSIRIS-REx is about to fling samples of the asteroid Bennu at Earth
Space
NASA鈥檚 Psyche mission to a metal asteroid may reveal how Earth formed
Health
AI could diagnose sleep apnoea by watching you slumber at home
Earth
Nearly all mammals will go extinct in 250 million years as Earth warms
Physics
Squeezing loofah sponges creates enough electricity to power LEDs
Mind
Man who sees upside down provides clues on how we process faces
Mind
Therapy dogs in classrooms may improve children’s well-being
Space
This is the best place to build a moon base
Life
Armour-plated mollusc fluoresces brilliant red-pink
Humans
Earliest evidence of buildings made from wood is 476,000 years old
Mind
Brain damage linked to schizophrenia may spread as condition develops
Technology
Silkworms genetically engineered to produce pure spider silk
Life
Jellyfish can learn from experience even though they lack a brain
Health
Vaccine that erases immune memory may help treat multiple sclerosis
Space
We can only predict star motion in the Milky Way鈥檚 heart for 462 years
Humans
Prehistoric people in Spain may have made tools from human bones
Mind
Theory of consciousness branded ‘pseudoscience’ by neuroscientists
Space
Europa鈥檚 underground ocean seems to have the carbon necessary for life
Life
Young seabird couples get ‘divorced’ with little immediate benefit
Technology
Corkscrew-shaped microbot could use sound to spiral through human body
Analysis
Health
Covid boosters: Why are US and UK vaccine policies so different?
In the US, health officials recommend that everyone over the age of 6 months receives the latest annual covid-19 vaccine, while the UK and other European countries are restricting it to older or vulnerable people
Environment
Net zero delay won’t help when UK is already behind on climate targets
Environment
The rules protecting UK wildlife still allow horrifying practices
Technology
How artificial intelligence is helping keep Indigenous languages alive
Features
Mind
Free will: Can neuroscience reveal if your choices are yours to make?
Philosophers have wrestled with the question of whether we are truly free to decide on our actions for centuries. Now, insights from genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology are shedding fresh light on the issue
Environment
How to reach net zero five times faster
Health
Can we finally reverse balding with these new experimental treatments?
Culture
Comment
Camilla Nord interview: A personalised approach to mental health
Neuroscientist Camilla Nord, who has just published her first book The Balanced Brain, tells Liz Else why mental health science is increasingly about what works for individuals 鈥 from psychedelic therapy to exercise regimes
Comment
Life and Language Beyond Earth review: How aliens might communicate
Comment
快猫短视频 recommends The Retrievals and Ben Smith’s Traffic
Comment
Still Up review: Insomnia rom com is worth staying up for
More
Environment
Gardening with ‘native’ plants isn’t always better for the environment
The idea that native plants are better than 鈥渘on-natives鈥 has more to do with cultural bias than scientific evidence, says James Wong
Tom Gauld on the best way to ask a supercomputer for help
Twisteddoodles on Lab Life, a magazine for the break room
Regulars
A non-standard approach to celebrating World Standards Day
Feedback ponders the logic behind the choice to mark World Standards Day on different occasions, depending on where you live, as well as looking into sheep counting, and the workings of the middle ear muscle