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This week's magazine

18 January 2025

Issue 3526

New Scientist issue 3526 cover
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Editor's picks

2GNHAFF Plakat: SOS. Am 24. September 2021 versammelten sich in Munchen 29.000 Menschen beim Globalen Klimastreik vor der Bundestagswahl, um ein deutliches Zeichen fur Klimaschutz & Umweltschutz, die Einhaltung des Pariser Abkommens und das 1,5 Grad Ziel und um Druck auf die Wahler*innen sowie die Parteien auszuuben. * On September 24, 2021 29,000 people joined the global climate strike two days before the German Parliamentary Elections in Munich, Germany. They protested to show a clear message for climate and environmental protection, for the Paris Agreement & the 1.5 degree goal, and to make pre

Environment

Are we entering a dangerous new phase of climate change?

Comment
Is a broken jet stream causing extreme weather that lasts longer?

Environment

Is a broken jet stream causing extreme weather that lasts longer?

Features
Can a new class of wearable tech actively boost your mental health?

Health

Can a new class of wearable tech actively boost your mental health?

Features
The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Space

The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

2GNHAFF Plakat: SOS. Am 24. September 2021 versammelten sich in Munchen 29.000 Menschen beim Globalen Klimastreik vor der Bundestagswahl, um ein deutliches Zeichen fur Klimaschutz & Umweltschutz, die Einhaltung des Pariser Abkommens und das 1,5 Grad Ziel und um Druck auf die Wahler*innen sowie die Parteien auszuuben. * On September 24, 2021 29,000 people joined the global climate strike two days before the German Parliamentary Elections in Munich, Germany. They protested to show a clear message for climate and environmental protection, for the Paris Agreement & the 1.5 degree goal, and to make pre

Environment

Are we entering a dangerous new phase of climate change?

A series of events, from the California wildfires to evidence we passed 1.5 degrees last year, suggests wild weather will become even more common

Comment

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Chemistry

Batteries made from industrial waste could store renewable energy

Redox flow batteries offer a promising way to store power from wind and solar generation, and an industrial byproduct could be used in these batteries instead of lithium and cobalt, which are in short supply

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Technology

World’s first fully 3D-printed microscope made in under 3 hours

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Life

Secrets of velvet ant's venom explain what makes its sting so painful

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Environment

Lead pollution across the Roman Empire would have caused IQ deficits

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Health

Parents stop finding diapers disgusting once babies are eating solids

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Health

What is hMPV, the virus spreading through China?

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Health

Sleeping pills disrupt how the brain clears waste

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Environment

Tomato plants are covered in tiny anti-pest booby traps

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Life

Punk and Emo fossils rock our ideas of how ancient molluscs looked

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Physics

Physicists discover that 'impossible' particles could actually be real

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Earth

California wildfires fuelled by months of unusual extreme weather

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Technology

Quantum computers get automatic error correction for the first time

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Life

Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again

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Space

Keeping space tidy should become a global UN goal, say researchers

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Physics

Physicists discover the secret to perfect cacio e pepe pasta

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Environment

2024 confirmed as first year to breach 1.5°C warming limit

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Health

Your ears and nose are made from tissue that looks like bubble wrap

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Health

Gene-edited cells that evade rejection show promise in type 1 diabetes

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Space

See comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) as viewed from Earth's orbit

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Analysis

Technology

Are tech firms giving up on policing their platforms?

Social media companies have long struggled with moderating the behaviour of billions of users, and now it seems they are finally giving up policing their platforms in favour of a crowdsourced approach – but will it work?

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Health

Will genome editing transform our children's health? Some have doubts

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Aperture

The Curiosity rover faced a five-mile (eight-kilometer) trek from its landing site to the foothills of Aeolis Mons, but driving across bedrock eroded into sharp points was destroying its wheels. In early 2014, the mission directed the rover across a sand drift at Dingo Gap, leaving behind the jagged bedrock for kinder, gravel-filled valley bottoms.

Space

Extraordinary images reveal the mysteries of Mars

From windswept craters to frigid ice caps, explore Martian landscapes through the eyes of NASA’s orbiters, probes and rovers

Regulars

Features

The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Space

The physicist on a mission to understand Mercury's epic solar storms

Suzie Imber is a co-investigator for the BepiColombo mission, currently on its way to Mercury. She explains how it will cast new light on the planet's many oddities, including its awful space weather and the fact it appears to have shrunk

Features

Health

Can a new class of wearable tech actively boost your mental health?

Features

Environment

Is a broken jet stream causing extreme weather that lasts longer?

Features

Culture

Top view of pills grouped in plastic container

Health

What can we learn from a debunked theory of depression?

Rebutting the serotonin theory of depression exposed an important gap in our knowledge. But Joanna Moncrieff's new book Chemically Imbalanced takes too narrow a view of how we should react

Culture

Mind

A rich guide to the science of imagination also digs into art

Culture

Comment

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ recommends artist Philippe Parreno’s new work, Voices

Culture

Space

Rereading the best science fiction writers of all time: Iain M. Banks

Culture

More

2RTXJED A common garden spider (Araneus diadematus) spins an circular orb web in the back garden of a south London home, on 15th September 2023, in London, England.

Technology

Could spider silk be the answer to sustainable fashion?

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. In its latest instalment, Rowan Hooper reveals how by 2029, we had learned how to make synthetic spider silk, leading to a revolution in clothing

Comment

BrainTwister #56: Square sums by four

Regulars

Health

What's next in the fight against malaria?

Comment

Health

The science of exercise: Sticking to your New Year’s workout plan

Regulars

Tom Gauld on the latest in cow science and technology

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on news from space's biggest celebrities

Regulars

Regulars

Fancy publishing 'nonsense' and sabotaging your fellow scientists?

Fancy publishing 'nonsense' and sabotaging your fellow scientists?

Feedback explores the upsides (and downsides) of Publish or Perish, a game that simulates the experience of building a career in scientific research

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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