Health
Food, sex, drugs and more 鈥� are we addicted to addiction?
News
This week's magazine
25 May 2024
Issue 3492
On the cover
Editor's picks
Mind
What is thought and how does thinking manifest in the brain?
Features
Health
Why viewing cancer as an ecosystem could lead to better treatments
Features
Environment
To rescue biodiversity, we need a better way to measure it
Features
Physics
Quantum to cosmos: Why scale is vital to our understanding of reality
Features
Physics
What are fractals and how can they help us understand the world?
Features
Environment
Will we get to net zero fast enough, and how will the climate respond?
Features
Life
Quantum biology: New clues on how life might make use of weird physics
Features
Physics
How indefinite causality could lead us to a theory of quantum gravity
Features
Space
Why are there so many rogue planets and what do they look like?
Features
Physics
How quantum entanglement really works and why we accept its weirdness
Features
Mind
What neurodiversity means for psychiatrists and the people they help
Features
Technology
What is artificial general intelligence, and is it a useful concept?
Features
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Mathematics
Incredible maths proof is so complex that almost no one can explain it
Mathematicians are celebrating a 1000-page proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture, a problem so complicated that even other mathematicians struggle to understand it. Despite that, it is hoped the proof can provide key insights across maths and physics
News
Environment
Solar-powered floating islands could help to regrow coral reefs
News
Health
Heatwaves seem to be driving severe asthma flare-ups in children
News
Health
Food ‘addiction’ should be treated like drug abuse, claim doctors
News
Environment
Around half the world could lose easily accessible groundwater by 2050
News
Technology
VR headset can give you 360-degree vision like an owl
News
Health
Some brain injury patients would recover if life support weren’t ended
News
Technology
Buildings that include weak points on purpose withstand more damage
News
Health
Frozen human brain tissue can now be revived without damage
News
Life
World鈥檚 only lungless frog species actually does have lungs after all
News
Humans
A lost branch of the river Nile flowed past the pyramids of Egypt
News
Life
Orchids feed their young through underground fungal connections
News
Chemistry
Fragile quantum entanglement may survive chaos of chemical reactions
News
Humans
Nomads thrived in Greece after the collapse of the Roman Empire
News
Space
Einstein was right about the way matter plunges into black holes
News
Technology
AI noise-cancelling headphones let you focus on just one voice
News
Physics
Sunlight-trapping device can generate temperatures over 1000掳C
News
Environment
Huge jellyfish invasion could disrupt Arctic ecosystems as waters warm
News
Analysis
Environment
Will sucking carbon from air ever really help tackle climate change?
The direct air capture industry got a boost last week with the opening of Mammoth, the largest plant yet for sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, but questions remain about whether the technology can scale up
News
Technology
OpenAI overtakes Google in race to build the future, but who wants it?
News
Health
To stay alive, try being more female
News
Environment
Could we live in tree cities grown from giant sequoia in the future?
News
Features
Mind
What is thought and how does thinking manifest in the brain?
We can describe different kinds of thought and how they arise, to some extent, but the relationship between neural activity and the nature of what we are thinking isn't well understood
Features
Space
Why are there so many rogue planets and what do they look like?
Features
Physics
How indefinite causality could lead us to a theory of quantum gravity
Features
Environment
To rescue biodiversity, we need a better way to measure it
Features
Technology
What is artificial general intelligence, and is it a useful concept?
Features
Life
Quantum biology: New clues on how life might make use of weird physics
Features
Physics
What are fractals and how can they help us understand the world?
Features
Mind
What neurodiversity means for psychiatrists and the people they help
Features
Environment
Will we get to net zero fast enough, and how will the climate respond?
Features
Physics
How quantum entanglement really works and why we accept its weirdness
Features
Health
Why viewing cancer as an ecosystem could lead to better treatments
Features
Physics
Quantum to cosmos: Why scale is vital to our understanding of reality
Features
Culture
Comment
New psychology book reckons with separating solitude from loneliness
In a social world, being alone (by choice or not) is complex. Solitude: The science and power of being alone by Netta Weinstein, Heather Hansen and Thuy-vy T. Nguyen brings us up to date
Culture
Comment
Arielle Johnson digs into the science of flavour in her tasty new book
Culture
Comment
快猫短视频 recommends Michael Sheen in play about the NHS’s origins
Culture
Comment
Darkly comic sci-fi chiller sees a pet spider turn fast-growing hunter
Culture
More
Space
How to spot rare and beautiful noctilucent clouds
Long summer nights are the perfect time to see the electric blue wisps of these "night shining" clouds, which create patterns like the aurora, says Abigail Beall
Regulars
Tom Gauld on a graphical downturn
Regulars
Twisteddoodles on the northern lights
Regulars
Regulars
Life
How do you tell apart seemingly identical fanged frogs from Thailand?
Feedback is delighted to learn that there is a better approach to distinguishing different types of fanged frogs than just looking at them
This Week鈥檚 Letters
Letters
Why can a fly enter my home easily, but not escape as easily? Part 2
Last Word
How would Earth be affected if Sirius were to go supernova?
Last Word
How did ancient Britons mark the solstices with Stonehenge? Part 2
Last Word
This week鈥檚 new questions
Last Word
