Particles of light can spend "negative time" passing through a cloud of extremely cold atoms – without breaking the laws of physics
As the space industry evolves, we need a new set of international regulations to decide who is responsible for safety, the number of satellites in space, and more
A new design for a nuclear battery that generates electricity from the radioactive decay of americium is unprecedentedly efficient
Spanning 23 million light years, or 220 Milky Way galaxies, a set of giant, newly discovered black hole jets known as Porphyrion may change our understanding of black holes and the structure of t...
Experiments in a state-of-the-art wave tank suggest we have underestimated the potential size and power of rogue waves and the risk they pose to offshore infrastructure
Simple words like "force" and "particle" can mislead us as to what reality is actually like. Physicist Matt Strassler unpacks how to see things more clearly
An artificial intelligence model that can identify the calls of eight whale species is helping researchers track the elusive whale behind a perplexing sound in the Pacific
The second-closest planet to the sun is more geologically active than we thought and could have more than 17,000 venusquakes a year
Some lizards dive into streams to escape predators, and a specialised bubble-breathing technique enables them to stay submerged for up to 18 minutes
In a survey of thousands of people, respondents underestimated the massive difference between the carbon footprints of the wealthiest and poorest individuals – and that’s bad for climate poli...
A quantum computing protocol makes it possible to extract energy from seemingly empty space, teleport it to a new location, then store it for later use
Even though the strange behaviour we observe in the quantum realm isn’t part of our daily lives, simulations suggest it is likely our reality could be one of the many worlds in a quantum multiv...
Maternity services need to educate parents-to-be on how pregnancy will affect their brain - their life could depend on it, says Helen Thomson
Echolocating bats can more easily find and pollinate long-stemmed flowers that stand out from the surrounding foliage, which may be why this floral trait evolved
Snoring is often viewed as harmless, at least to the snorer, but we are now uncovering its potentially serious effects on cardiovascular health. And finding ways to stop is surprisingly challengi...
In 2022, physicists were excited by hints that something was wrong with our understanding of the universe - but new results have put that in doubt
A ring of asteroid debris could have orbited Earth for tens of millions of years, and perhaps even have altered the planet's climate
The number of people worldwide directly killed by antibiotic resistance will rise to 1.9 million a year by 2050, according to the most comprehensive study so far
Archaeologists are using AI and US spy satellite imagery from the cold war to find ancient underground aqueducts that helped humans survive in the desert
A woman's brain was scanned throughout her pregnancy, adding to the growing body of evidence that dramatic remodelling takes place in preparation for motherhood
A chemical reaction that recycles carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen could provide more sustainable life support for astronauts on the moon or Mars – and as a bonus, it also produces carbon nanot...
Loneliness was long thought to cause health conditions ranging from diabetes to cardiovascular disease, but new research paints a more nuanced picture
Artificial intelligence has more in common with ants than humans, says Neil Lawrence. Only by taking a more nuanced view of intelligence can we see how machines will truly transform society
The long-standing mystery of how supermassive black holes grew so huge so quickly could be solved by decaying dark matter
A species of leaf chameleon newly named Brookesia nofy was discovered in a patch of coastal rainforest, a highly threatened habitat in Madagascar
The success of the all-civilian spacewalk on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission shows that private space flight is starting to catch up with government space agencies
Feeding bees edible bits of hydrogel increases their odds of surviving pesticide exposure by 30 per cent
A powerful new AI called o1 is the most dangerous that OpenAI has ever released, the firm claims – but who are these warnings for, asks Chris Stokel-Walker
Custom-made wool caps have enabled scientists to record electroencephalograms in awake cats for the first time, which could help assess their pain levels
The Cassini mission’s samples from Saturn’s moon Enceladus have signs of various organic molecules that could be among the ingredients needed for life to get started
The direction of cause and effect was brought into question for quantum objects more than a decade ago, but new calculations may offer a way to restore it
Thanks to advances in weather simulation, forecasts of heatwaves and hurricanes could soon come with information about the extent to which they were fuelled by climate change
ALS, the most common form of motor neuron disease, can take a long time to diagnose, but a blood test could help doctors spot the condition sooner
From drunk worms to mammals that breath through their anuses, founder Marc Abrahams on the winners of this year's Ig Nobel prizes, for research that "makes people laugh, then think"
Experiments show that viewers can usually identify video deepfakes of famous politicians – but fake audio and text are harder to detect
Extreme weather events lasting more than a decade could have killed off forests 250 million years ago, contributing to Earth's worst ever mass extinction
Seismologists were mystified by a strange signal that persisted for nine days in 2023 – now its source has been identified as a standing wave caused by a landslide in Greenland
An area of missing Antarctic sea ice twice the size of Texas adds to concerns that the ice has seen a lasting “regime shift”, with consequences for ecosystems and global ocean circulation
A groundbreaking civilian spacewalk saw two astronauts partially exit a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule wearing a brand new design of spacesuit. Every previous spacewalk completed before this was perf...
If you were standing on Mars as it was hit by charged particles from the sun, you might be able to see an aurora just like on Earth
A single dose of a smallpox vaccine seems to lower the risk of catching mpox by around 60 per cent, and two doses would probably be even better
Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. This time, Rowan Hooper takes us to the early 2030s, when a technological step change enabled...
What is it like to be a dog? And what can we learn from them? Mark Rowlands's take, in his book The Happiness of Dogs, is full of insights, finds Abigail Beall
Cyborg: A documentary tells the intriguing story of Neil Harbisson, who wears an antenna to “hear” colour, but it is lacking in depth and should have probed its subject more, says Simon Ings
This claustrophobia-inducing image is taken from photographer Martin Broen's new book Light in the Underworld, a collection of shots from the Yucatán’s cenotes, or sinkholes
Far from being a behavioural quirk, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a debilitating condition with complex causes that we're just beginning to understand. We should treat it as such, and stop wit...
Supremacy, a new book from tech journalist Parmy Olson, takes us inside the rise of machine learning and AI, and examines the people behind it
Katie Steckles enlists the help of fluid dynamics researcher Kat Phillips to explain the versatile piece of maths behind dispensing wine from a box
From serpents to zombie pathogens, there is science behind our love of monsters. It reveals a lot about who we are, says Natalie Lawrence
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Analysis of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil found in a French cave indicates that it belonged to a group that was isolated for more than 50,000 years
DNA analysis shows that people from Easter Island had contact with Indigenous Americans around the 1300s, and finds there was no population crash before the arrival of Europeans
Gas bubbles on the surface of a star have been observed for the first time in detail outside our solar system, and they are 75 times the size of our sun
We're finally pinning down the mechanisms that drive obsessive-compulsive disorder, revealing a complex combination of imbalanced brain networks, the immune system and even gut microbes
In between two spacecraft visiting Jupiter’s moon Io, a volcano spreading material over hundreds of kilometres has appeared
Cleaner wrasse use their reflection to build a mental image of their body size, which they use to compare themselves to rivals before picking a fight
Ancient humans are said to have evolved to leave the trees, where our primate ancestors lived, in favour of open grassy savannahs – but we may have this idea wrong
When worker ants are exposed to a pathogenic fungus, they build nests that are more compartmentalised to reduce the risk of an epidemic
From migrating sauropods and semi-aquatic predators to doting parents, palaeontologists are finally uncovering the mysteries of the lifestyles of dinosaurs
Five satellites due to launch this week could be brighter than most stars, and astronomers fear the growth of such constellations could have a catastrophic impact
Four private astronauts are riding a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule further from Earth than any human since 1972, where they will attempt the first ever civilian spacewalk
Using images captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, researchers have created a cloud atlas of Mars, to better understand the climate of the Red Planet
A global survey of more than a thousand cities shows heat and air pollution in urban environments often have a measurable influence on rainfall, creating urban "wet islands"
Are humanoid robots the future of space exploration? New Scientist reporter James Woodford took NASA's Valkyrie for a spin to find out
The Arrhenius equation, which has accurately described rates of chemical reactions for more than a century, may have to be tweaked for the quantum realm
Levels of certain cells, fatty molecules and proteins in the blood are different in people with chronic fatigue syndrome than in those without it, which could help doctors spot the condition soon...
X-ray videos of Japanese eels swallowed whole by dark sleeper fish have revealed how the eels can make a daring escape from being digested
Forget atomic clocks. Nuclear clocks, which only drop a second every 300 billion years, can test whether nature's fundamental constants are constant after all
A camera trap at an Australian nature refuge has captured a boisterous interaction between a northern hairy-nosed wombat and an echidna
Medical clowns, who play with children in hospitals, may help them be discharged sooner by reducing their heart rates
Bands of fast-moving wind that blow west to east around the globe play a crucial role in weather – a poleward shift in parts of these jet streams could cause dramatic changes in weather from th...
Charging new lithium-ion batteries with high currents can significantly increase their total lifespan
Breaching is a common behaviour in a wide range of sharks and rays, and it is thought to have functions related to courtship, birthing and hygiene
Information theory tells us the limits of what can and cannot be communicated – and without it, the digital revolution could never have happened
On a recent expedition, researchers braved summer storms in northern Greenland to learn the secrets of the ancient peoples who lived there 4500 years ago
Information on faces recognised, voice commands and internet searches can be extracted from an Amazon Echo smart assistant without help from the user or manufacturer
The largest pterosaurs, ancient reptiles that were the first vertebrates to master flight, may have mostly soared while smaller ones flapped their wings, a pattern that persists in today's birds
Saline drops and sprays have already been linked to reduced cold symptoms in adults and now a study suggests they also work in children
In counties in the US affected by a bat-killing disease, there has been a 31 per cent increase in insecticide use and an 8 per cent rise in infant mortality
Rubbing a common yellow food dye onto a mouse's skin turns it temporarily transparent, so we can monitor its insides without harming the animal
Cyanobacteria exposed to shorter days are better at surviving cold conditions, showing that even simple organisms can prepare for the arrival or summer and winter
News of the asteroid 2024 RW1 impacting near the Philippines may have come as a shock this week, but space agencies and astronomers around the world are keeping an eye out to protect us
People with cancer may have understandable reasons to follow Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson in declining chemotherapy, but the odds aren’t in their favour, warns Elle Hunt
The forecasts predicted an extreme storm season in the Atlantic, but so far there have only been three named hurricanes – so where are all the storms?
Google has built a quantum computer that makes fewer errors as it is scaled up, and this may pave the way for machines that could solve useful real-world problems for the first time
As misinformation about the upcoming US elections rockets across social media, creating chaos, companies need to be honest about where this content is coming from, says Annalee Newitz
Greg Eghigian's After the Flying Saucers Came and Luis Elizondo's Imminent both show how our fascination with UFOs goes beyond simple curiosity
These images are taken from a new book, Seeds: Time capsules of life, which explores how plant life has flourished in the past 360 million years
The deeply researched podcast series Tested tells the stories of Namibian sprinter Christine Mboma and Kenya’s Maximila Imali, and how their early successes made their womanhood suspect to some
Comet C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, is expected to grace our skies from mid-October. Abigail Beall is hoping for a dazzling display
There's just over a month to go before the world's greatest festival of ideas and discoveries, so grab your tickets now, says Timothy Revell
Narratives around addiction often reduce it to a series of poor choices, lack of values and weakness. This has real-world consequences, warns Anna Wolfe
Feedback is delighted to receive a response, however excruciating, from a junior doctor to the call for papers in which The Title Tells You Everything You Need to Know
The author of Sapiens has turned his attention to the information networks that shape our societies, but when you stop and think about what he's saying, it's obvious
With its particles in two places at once, quantum theory strains our common sense notions of how the universe should work. But one group of physicists says we can get reality back if we just rede...
A newly spotted asteroid named 2024 RW1 burned up in the atmosphere over the South Pacific, creating a spectacular bright flash in the sky over the Philippines just hours after first being detect...
An intricate atlas of the inner lining of the uterus could help researchers better understand conditions like endometriosis, infertility and abnormal menstruation
A faint glow from all of the galaxies that have ever existed fills the cosmos, and NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has made the best measurement ever of just how faint it is
They fight invaders, clear debris and tend neural connections, but sometimes microglia go rogue. Preventing this malfunction may offer new treatments for brain conditions including Alzheimer's
Clouds can trap heat or reflect it away from Earth, making their impact on global warming extraordinarily hard to predict. Now, new ways of studying them are lifting the fog