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This week's magazine

19 April 2025

Issue 3539

New Scientist issue 3539 cover
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Editor's picks

Quantum computer circuitry illustration. Conventional computers store information as 'bits', with each transistor holding either a 1 or a 0. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which operate according to two principles of quantum physics. One of the principles, supposition, allows a qubit to store a 1 and a 0 at the same time. This means two qubits can hold four values at once. The second principle, entanglement, means that the state of one qubit can depend on the state of another. As you expand the number of qubits, the machine becomes exponentially more powerful.

Physics

Quantum theory at 100: Let鈥檚 celebrate its power and provocation

Comment
Could the ancient Greeks have invented quantum theory?

Physics

Could the ancient Greeks have invented quantum theory?

Features
Carlo Rovelli on what we get wrong about the origins of quantum theory

Physics

Carlo Rovelli on what we get wrong about the origins of quantum theory

Features
What exactly would a full-scale quantum computer be useful for?

Physics

What exactly would a full-scale quantum computer be useful for?

Features
What does quantum theory really tell us about the nature of reality?

Physics

What does quantum theory really tell us about the nature of reality?

Features
A timeline of the most important events in quantum mechanics

Physics

A timeline of the most important events in quantum mechanics

Features
Where exactly does the quantum world end and concrete reality begin?

Physics

Where exactly does the quantum world end and concrete reality begin?

Features
California-Cultured-Cell-Chocolate. Shaker process

Environment

Inside the mouth-watering race to master lab-grown chocolate

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Quantum computer circuitry illustration. Conventional computers store information as 'bits', with each transistor holding either a 1 or a 0. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which operate according to two principles of quantum physics. One of the principles, supposition, allows a qubit to store a 1 and a 0 at the same time. This means two qubits can hold four values at once. The second principle, entanglement, means that the state of one qubit can depend on the state of another. As you expand the number of qubits, the machine becomes exponentially more powerful.

Physics

Quantum theory at 100: Let鈥檚 celebrate its power and provocation

Quantum theory started with a bout of hay fever, and went on to transform our view of the universe 鈥 but its legacy isn't complete

Comment

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Technology

AI-powered chilli spray could deter bears without injuring them

A machine controlled by AI that sprays bears with the chilli pepper chemical capsaicin could reduce dangerous confrontations with people

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Earth

Earth's upper mantle is revealing the deepest effect of human activity

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Physics

Space could emerge from time

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Physics

How to make great coffee with fewer beans, according to science

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Life

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

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Environment

Trees capture toxic fingerprint of gold mining in the Amazon

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Health

Blood test suggests preeclampsia risk using RNA

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Life

Rethink of fossils hints dinosaurs still thrived before asteroid hit

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Space

How long is a day on Uranus? Slightly longer than we thought, it seems

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Mind

Electrical synapses genetically engineered in mammals for first time

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Humans

Archaeologists uncover settlement from golden age of ancient Egypt

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Health

World's first baby born by IVF done almost entirely by a machine

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Humans

Denisovan fossil from Taiwan gives clue to mysterious ancient humans

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Environment

Methane-eating bacteria are ready to capture landfill emissions

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Life

Dolphins are dying from toxic chemicals banned since the 1980s

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Life

Great white pelicans take a well-deserved break during migration

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Analysis

Environment

Should we give up on recycling plastic?

Globally, only 14 per cent of the plastic we use is recycled 鈥 but some countries achieve higher rates and new technologies could change the picture drastically

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Aperture

19719.9.22 Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California 2022 MITCH EPSTEIN. AMERICAN NATURE

Life

Images capture the timeless beauty of America's ancient forests

Photographer Mitch Epstein's years-long project highlights the majesty and vulnerability of old growth forests across the US

Regulars

Features

Could the ancient Greeks have invented quantum theory?

Physics

Could the ancient Greeks have invented quantum theory?

There were hints that the world may be quantum long before the development of quantum mechanics in 1925 鈥 could we have come up with this revolutionary theory hundreds or even thousands of years earlier?

Features

Physics

Where exactly does the quantum world end and concrete reality begin?

Features

Environment

Inside the mouth-watering race to master lab-grown chocolate

Features

Physics

Carlo Rovelli on what we get wrong about the origins of quantum theory

Features

Physics

What exactly would a full-scale quantum computer be useful for?

Features

Physics

What does quantum theory really tell us about the nature of reality?

Features

Physics

A timeline of the most important events in quantum mechanics

Features

Culture

An artist?s impression of the Martian settlement SpaceX has envisioned. Image: SpaceX https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars/

Technology

Inside the outlandish, futuristic dreams of the tech bros

Exposing the origins of the improbable 鈥 and at times scary 鈥 plans of tech billionaires makes Adam Becker's More Everything Forever a disturbing but important book

Culture

Mind

Why saying no is so hard and what we can do about it

Culture

Comment

快猫短视频 recommends David de Jong's Nazi Billionaires

Culture

Comment

Black Mirror returns full of delights and disappointments

Culture

More

2G4A579 3D visualization of gravity distorsion, physical objects in orbit, space, general theory of relativity, law of universal gravitation, scientific

Physics

Why I still love reckoning with the quantum gravity problem

General relativity is an astonishingly beautiful theory, and grappling with why it disagrees with quantum mechanics is a joy, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Comment

Mathematics

This versatile piece of maths can help you solve all kinds of problems

Regulars

BrainTwister #69: Backward drops

Regulars

Mind

No need to stop the 'brain rot': Modern kids aren't less intelligent

Comment

Tom Gauld on the science of Easter

Regulars

Twisteddoodles has cracked it!

Regulars

Regulars

It's good to have a word describing why going viral is now meaningless

Comment

It's good to have a word describing why going viral is now meaningless

Feedback was pleased to come across journalist Taylor Lorenz's coining of the word "viralflation", as videos with hundreds of millions of hits proliferate across the internet

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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