This week's magazine
10 August 2024
Issue 3503
On the cover
Editor's picks
Space
Five of the most important International Space Station experiments
Space
Inside NASA’s ambitious plan to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth
Mind
Self-centred, spoiled and lonely? Examining the only child stereotype
Environment
How clues in honey can help fight our biggest biodiversity challenges
Table of contents
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Space
Banana-shaped galaxies are helping unpeel the mysteries of dark matter
Astronomers have been spotting strange banana-shaped galaxies and the evidence seems to indicate that filaments of dark matter make them take this shape
Environment
Rising land under Antarctica could slow sea level rise
Humans
Hobbit hominins from Indonesia may have had even smaller ancestors
Health
Keto diet helps with weight loss but also raises cholesterol levels
Environment
Streetlights may make tree leaves tough and hard for insects to eat
Health
Bacteria originally found in faeces help chronic wounds heal
Environment
Glaciers in the Andes are the smallest they’ve been for 130,000 years
Life
Charles Darwin’s frogs turn mating upside down
Technology
Using an AI chatbot or voice assistant makes it harder to spot errors
Space
Water molecules found in lunar rock sample for the first time
Space
Should we put a frozen backup of Earth’s life on the moon?
Chemistry
Quantum dots help destroy ‘forever chemicals’ with light
Health
Vision loss and high cholesterol recognised as dementia risk factors
Space
Black holes may inherit their magnetic fields from neutron stars
Environment
Anti-methane vaccine could reduce the huge climate impact of cow burps
Life
Algae transformed into a ‘biofactory’ for green fuel and plastics
Health
People who had severe covid-19 show cognitive decline years later
Physics
A slight curve helps rocks make the biggest splash
Physics
Nerve fibres in the brain could generate quantum entanglement
Life
We have discovered an entirely new kind of wood
Technology
AI put in charge of setting variable speed limits on US freeway
Features
Mind
Self-centred, spoiled and lonely? Examining the only child stereotype
More and more parents are choosing to only have one child. Here’s what the evidence says about how growing up without siblings affects their personality traits and well-being
Space
Inside NASA’s ambitious plan to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth
Space
Five of the most important International Space Station experiments
Environment
How clues in honey can help fight our biggest biodiversity challenges
Culture
Earth
Ambitious story of how life shapes Earth ends superb trilogy
The dynamics of how plants and animals change Earth is central to this last book in a trilogy by Other Minds author and "scuba-diving philosopher" Peter Godfrey-Smith
Earth
¿ìè¶ÌÊÓÆµ recommends Twisters – action sequel with added tornadoes
Life
Intimate nature documentary is an ode to an oak
Society
The Decameron review: 14th-century romp is a veiled satire of today
More
Life
The science is clear: repeatedly whipping a horse won’t help it learn
After the release of a shocking video showing Olympic rider Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse, it is time for equestrians to educate themselves on the science of horse training, says Christa Lesté-Lasserre
Life
The best livestream so far this year? A corpse flower slowly blooming
Mathematics
The surprising connections between maths and poetry
Tom Gauld: Tragedy strikes the mission
Twisteddoodles on the latest Toddler Science News
Regulars
Mind
What becomes of the broken-hearted? ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓÆµs investigate
Some write poetry when broken-hearted, others label it "love trauma syndrome" and use scientific methods to investigate. Feedback explores an acronym-heavy study into the lovelorn