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This week's magazine

13 April 2024

Issue 3486

New Scientist issue 3486 cover
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Editor's picks

Digital Human Brain Covered with Networks

Technology

Why AIs that tackle complex maths could be the next big breakthrough

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Fatty liver. Coloured computed tomography (CT) scan of an axial section through the abdomen of a 66 year old woman suffering from fatty liver. At lower centre is a bone of the vertebra (white). The liver is the large organ occupying much of the abdomen at upper left to right (purple). Fatty deposits in the liver show up as blue patches. The liver cells become swollen by large fat droplets. This condition occurs in heavy drinkers and alcoholics, where high levels of alcohol in the blood disturbs normal fat metabolism. Fatty deposits in the liver can also be caused by hypoxia, toxins or diabetes mellitus.

Health

Why you may have a stealth liver disease and what to do about it

Features
Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Mind

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Features
How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Technology

How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Digital Human Brain Covered with Networks

Technology

Why AIs that tackle complex maths could be the next big breakthrough

Research-level mathematics might seem an unlikely proving ground for artificial intelligence, but recent developments suggest it offers a route to automated human-like reasoning

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Technology

Phone batteries could last 50% longer if more 5G towers are built

Adding more masts could reduce the overall energy use of phone networks by two-thirds and boost handset battery life by 50 per cent

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Space

Planet caught in a gravitational 'tidal storm' is so hot that it glows

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Technology

Showing AI just 1000 extra images reduced AI-generated stereotypes

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Mind

Babies recognise spoken nursery rhymes they heard in the uterus

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Life

Snakes show signs of self-recognition in a smell-based 'mirror test'

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Environment

Great apes threatened by mining for electric vehicle batteries

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Technology

Microsoft and Quantinuum’s quantum computer may be most reliable yet

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Life

Life’s vital chemistry may have begun in hot, cracked rock

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Space

Laser-powered licence plates could help avoid satellite collisions

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Health

Should we be worried about a bird flu pandemic in the US?

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Environment

How mass bleaching has pushed the Great Barrier Reef to the brink

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Mind

Why some songs make our heart swell and others give us butterflies

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Life

Left-handed monkeys prompt rethink about evolution of right-handedness

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Environment

Dumping green sand in shallow seas could let them absorb more CO2

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Life

Suppressing wildfires is harming California’s giant sequoia trees

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Space

The multiverse could be much, much bigger than we ever imagined

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Space

Eclipse 2024: 5 of the best pictures of the total solar eclipse

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Space

One of the biggest mysteries of cosmology may finally be solved

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Analysis

Health

Could an MRI scan make prostate cancer screening more accurate?

Screening for prostate cancer with the PSA blood test can sometimes lead to unnecessary and harmful treatment, but new proposals could mitigate the issue of overdiagnosis

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Health

Why nutrition needs to be on the educational agenda

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Environment

We can't get to net zero without tackling inequality

Comment

Aperture

The photographer who captured shots of nature daily for over a decade

Life

The photographer who captured shots of nature daily for over a decade

Since 2012, Mary Jo Hoffman has taken one snap a day of the natural objects around her. She explains what lies behind two of them - and what the "art of noticing" has brought to her life

Regulars

Features

Fatty liver. Coloured computed tomography (CT) scan of an axial section through the abdomen of a 66 year old woman suffering from fatty liver. At lower centre is a bone of the vertebra (white). The liver is the large organ occupying much of the abdomen at upper left to right (purple). Fatty deposits in the liver show up as blue patches. The liver cells become swollen by large fat droplets. This condition occurs in heavy drinkers and alcoholics, where high levels of alcohol in the blood disturbs normal fat metabolism. Fatty deposits in the liver can also be caused by hypoxia, toxins or diabetes mellitus.

Health

Why you may have a stealth liver disease and what to do about it

One in three adults have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – often without knowing. Now we understand what causes this stealthy condition and how to reverse it

Features

Technology

How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Features

Mind

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Features

Culture

Illustration of the human gut microbiota.

Comment

The Immune Mind review: How mental and physical health combine

It's tough turning neuroimmunology into a gripping read, but Monty Lyman's excellent book provides a delightful overview of the connection between the brain, immune system and gut microbiome

Culture

Comment

Everything Must Go review: A fascinating guide to the apocalypse

Culture

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ recommends When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope

Culture

Comment

Two brilliant new novels from Adrian Tchaikovsky show his range

Culture

More

JSWT first deep-field image

Mind

How science can inspire 'peak experiences' that improve well-being

My column about the spiritual side of science has seen many of you sharing your own awe-inspiring experiences, says David Robson

Regulars

BrainTwister #15: Domino strips

Regulars

Tom Gauld on Astrid's claim to fame

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: We need to access the secret laboratory

Regulars

Regulars

Dedicated experiments needed to understand why dogs wag their tails

Dedicated experiments needed to understand why dogs wag their tails

Feedback finds that despite close investigation, more research is needed to "better quantify tail wagging in general"

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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