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This week's magazine

8 February 2025

Issue 3529

New Scientist issue 3529 cover
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Editor's picks

2SA3JYH Various Artificial Intelligence mobile apps, DeepSeek open-source large language models app on January 28, 2025 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Technology

DeepSeek has burst the AI hype bubble – now all bets are off

Comment
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Health

The shocking discovery that our gut microbiome drives ageing

Features
What the new field of women’s neuroscience reveals about female brains

Mind

What the new field of women’s neuroscience reveals about female brains

Features
Mars and Phobos. Computer artwork of how Mars (left) and its tiny moon Phobos (upper centre) might appear from a distance of about 100 miles from the surface of Phobos. Phobos is the larger of Mars' two satellites (the other being Deimos), being about 16 miles long and about 11 miles across at its smallest dimension. It may be an asteroid long ago captured by Mars' gravity and does not have enough mass for gravity to pull it into a uniform sphere like the larger satellites and planets in the Solar System.

Space

Why we must investigate Phobos, the solar system's strangest object

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

2SA3JYH Various Artificial Intelligence mobile apps, DeepSeek open-source large language models app on January 28, 2025 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Technology

DeepSeek has burst the AI hype bubble – now all bets are off

The Chinese firm threatens the dominance of Silicon Valley’s AI elite, and its innovations show the technology could be more affordable and less costly to the environment

Comment

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Twisted light may illuminate how quantum spookiness works

Physics

Twisted light may illuminate how quantum spookiness works

Physicists have verified a connection between two counterintuitive quantum properties, which may help us understand how quantum objects stay inextricably connected through entanglement

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Technology

Quantum-inspired algorithm could enable better weather forecasts

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Environment

Surge in ocean heat is a sign climate change is accelerating

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Health

Muscle patch made from stem cells could treat heart failure

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Technology

Experimental XB-1 aircraft goes supersonic for the first time

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Environment

Antarctic ice sheet may be less vulnerable to collapse than expected

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Life

How polar bears stop ice from freezing on their fur

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Health

Scratching an itch could help boost your immune defences

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Physics

Experiment with 37 dimensions shows how strange quantum physics can be

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Space

Grand canyons formed on moon in minutes after colossal asteroid strike

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Health

Creatine shows promise for treating depression

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Space

Building-sized asteroid has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032

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Environment

Tree scars reveal how wildfires in centuries past differed from today

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Environment

Rat populations in cities are booming as the planet warms up

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Life

Amazon river dolphins may send messages with aerial streams of urine

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Health

'Obsolete' muscle that wiggles ears actually activates while listening

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Life

Salamanders fill their toes with blood before each step

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Space

See huge coronal hole that opened up on the surface of the sun

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Analysis

A mouse with two fathers (left) and a control mouse (right) of the same age and sex

Health

Mice born with two fathers - but don't expect the same for people

For the first time that we know of, mice with two fathers have survived to adulthood, but the methods used would be "unthinkable" to try in people

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Health

Is recycled plastic in utensils and toys really a big health concern?

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Technology

Does DeepSeek show a way to slash the energy demands of AI?

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Aperture

A natural ice cave formed by glacial retreat, at the edge of a moraine.

Environment

Chilling images reveal melting ice worlds

Winning images from the 2025 Walk of Water photo competition showcase vanishing frozen landscapes, from sparkling ice caves to melting glaciers

Regulars

Features

Mars and Phobos. Computer artwork of how Mars (left) and its tiny moon Phobos (upper centre) might appear from a distance of about 100 miles from the surface of Phobos. Phobos is the larger of Mars' two satellites (the other being Deimos), being about 16 miles long and about 11 miles across at its smallest dimension. It may be an asteroid long ago captured by Mars' gravity and does not have enough mass for gravity to pull it into a uniform sphere like the larger satellites and planets in the Solar System.

Space

Why we must investigate Phobos, the solar system's strangest object

Mars's moon Phobos is so strange that no one knows how it formed. But a forthcoming mission could solve this mystery - and a host of other puzzles connected to the solar system's deep past

Features

Mind

What the new field of women’s neuroscience reveals about female brains

Features

Health

The shocking discovery that our gut microbiome drives ageing

Features

Culture

DNDTWK April 25, 2013 - A bright bolide meteor breaking up as it enters the atmosphere under the light of a full moon.

Space

A thrilling guide to the Indiana Jones-like world of meteorite hunting

Hunting for meteorites can be a high-octane race as private collectors and scientists go head-to-head, reveals a new book by ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ features editor Joshua Howgego

Culture

Technology

Explore what shaped Bill Gates in part one of his autobiography

Culture

Comment

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ recommends Lost Gardens of London

Culture

Space

Would we recognise alien intelligence, asks Adrian Tchaikovsky novel

Culture

More

2YJ64RA . Benedetta Cappa Marinetti (Benedetta) (Rome 1897 - Venice 1977) Velocit? di motoscafo, 1919-1924 Oil on canvas, 70 x 110 cm

Society

How futurism took an abrupt right turn in the 20th century

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti coined the word futurism in 1909, going on to take an extreme rightward swerve into politics. This way of thinking about the future still influences us today, says Annalee Newitz

Comment

Mathematics

Barcodes: How they could be your latest mathematical party trick

Regulars

BrainTwister #59 Seven segments

Regulars

Society

Why an increasing belief in alien visitations is a real-world problem

Comment

Tom Gauld on a job for the most intelligent machine ever created

Regulars

Twisteddoodles' ideas for "research romance" books

Regulars

Regulars

George R. R. Martin finally finishes… a physics paper

Comment

George R. R. Martin finally finishes… a physics paper

Feedback digs into the first peer-reviewed paper from the Game of Thrones author, and concludes that he may have picked the wrong fictional universe to analyse

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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