This week's magazine
31 May 2025
Issue 3545
On the cover
Editor's picks
Mind
Can imagining a better future really make it come true?
Mind
How visualisation sets you up for success by changing your cognition
Mind
The extremes of imagination reveal how our brains perceive reality
Mind
The four types of imagination and how they create our worlds
Mind
Your imagination doesn’t get worse as you age – but it does change
Mind
How your whole imagination is conjured up from three brain processes
Mind
Five tests will help you understand the full scope of your imagination
Table of contents
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Technology
See the world’s tallest 3D-printed tower
The White Tower, in the Swiss village of Mulegns, stands 30 metres tall and comprises 124 3D-printed elements
Physics
A photon caught in two places at once could destroy the multiverse
Life
Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves
Mind
We assume women are morally superior to men – and that’s a bad thing
Humans
Ancient Maltese temples may have been schools for celestial navigation
Life
Giant ground sloths evolved three different times for the same reason
Space
China is readying a mission to two rocky bodies in our solar system
Space
Physicists are waging a cosmic battle over the nature of dark energy
Life
Penguin poo helps keep Antarctica cool
Life
The first teeth were sensory organs on the skin of ancient fish
Technology
How the US military wants to use the world’s largest aircraft
Technology
Special contact lenses let you see infrared light – even in the dark
Environment
Honeybees are getting confused by electric pollution from power lines
Life
Why birds decorate their nests with weird and unnatural objects
Technology
AI doesn’t know ‘no’ – and that’s a huge problem for medical bots
Space
Weird planet is orbiting backwards between two stars
Environment
Sea level will rise fast even if we limit global warming to 1.5°C
Technology
Attempt to reach expert consensus on teens and phones ends in argument
Health
Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise for spinal cord injury recovery
Space
Astronomers double down on claim of strongest evidence for alien life
Features
Mind
How your whole imagination is conjured up from three brain processes
Understanding the neurological systems that produce the world inside your head can help you to harness its transformative power
Mind
Your imagination doesn’t get worse as you age – but it does change
Mind
The four types of imagination and how they create our worlds
Mind
The extremes of imagination reveal how our brains perceive reality
Mind
Five tests will help you understand the full scope of your imagination
Mind
How visualisation sets you up for success by changing your cognition
Mind
Can imagining a better future really make it come true?
Culture
Health
Is this book the ultimate guide for getting babies to sleep? Sort of
Helen Ball's How Babies Sleep draws on anthropology and biology to help babies (and their parents) get a better night's sleep. It has some fascinating insights, but is somewhat impractical
Earth
A rich new history of our obsession with extracting Earth’s resources
Earth
¿ìè¶ÌÊÓÆµ recommends map exhibition From Streets to the Stars
Technology
How the new Murderbot TV series made me a reluctant convert
More
Society
How a study in the Stockholm subway could help prevent violent crime
We need to learn the lessons from an ingenious piece of research done in Sweden and radically change policies around interpersonal violence, says Jens Ludwig
Technology
Storm clouds threaten a promised AI revolution in weather prediction
Life
Does the old concept of companion planting have any science behind it?
Tom Gauld on the many travails of Voyager One
Twisteddoodles on dog science
Regulars
Comment
Guess who brought back Agatha Christie as an AI clone
Feedback was surprised to learn that the late, great queen of crime fiction is presenting a creative writing course, and wonders if there aren't enough living authors around to impart their wisdom