The epilepsy medication sodium valproate is linked to developmental problems in fetuses, but lab studies may now have found a way to prevent this
AI chatbots from Google and Microsoft sometimes parrot disinformation when answering questions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – but their performance depends on language and changes over ...
Machines are fighting machines on the Ukrainian battlefield, as a technological arms race has given birth to a new way to wage war
Google DeepMind claims its AlphaChip AI method can deliver “superhuman” chip designs that are already used in its data centres – but independent experts say public proof is lacking
A young boy who lived towards the end of the last glacial period had dark skin, blue eyes and a congenital heart condition, a study of his genome reveals
With just one week to go until the world's greatest festival of ideas and discoveries, New Scientist editor Catherine de Lange reveals what you can expect from the show this year
If artificial intelligence chatbots are fine-tuned to improve their responses using human feedback, they can become more likely to give deceptive answers that seem right but aren’t
Captive dolphins are more likely to make an open-mouthed expression when their playmate can see them and they often reciprocate, hinting that it is a form of visual communication
The compound creatine, a popular exercise supplement that only occurs naturally in animal products, could one day be produced in edible plants
People report greater life satisfaction six months after starting Parkrun events, which could partly be due to the supportive environment
Cracks running through samples of asteroid Ryugu were probably formed by the repeated thawing and freezing of water inside it, which could have helped asteroids like this carry the building block...
Astronomers have detected an exoplanet around Barnard’s star, one of the sun’s closest neighbours, but it is too hot for liquid water or life
Unravelling the complex biological process that allows fish to regrow injured fins could help advance regenerative medicine in humans
Fishers in Albania caught a blue shark with an 18-centimetre fragment of swordfish bill embedded in its skull, in the first known case of a shark surviving such an injury
Google, Microsoft and others have taken big steps towards error-free devices, hinting that quantum computers that solve real problems aren’t far away
Plankton that lived during the last glacial maximum have helped confirm the accuracy of our climate models – suggesting the predictions those models make about future El Niño events are accura...
Coral reefs around the world are at risk of collapse due to rising temperatures and acidifying oceans, but the natural adaptability of some species may help buy time
Rapid erosion caused by a geological act of “piracy” tens of thousands of years ago may have raised Earth’s crust and elevated Mount Everest by as much as 50 metres
A beam of radioactive carbon ions has been used to destroy cancer cells in mice, demonstrating a therapy that may cause less collateral damage than current techniques
Mosquito larvae die after consuming hemp leaves because they react strongly to the cannabidiol in the foliage. The discovery might lead to the development of a new pesticide to control mosquito n...
Our immune cells change a lot as the decades progress, which could explain why we become more susceptible to certain conditions
A US standards agency has issued new guidance saying organisations shouldn’t require users to change their passwords periodically – advice that is backed up by decades of research
Bacteria that have been genetically engineered to work like computers can solve a range of problems, using a very simple type of artificial intelligence
An AI-assisted analysis of satellite images suggests the vapour trails produced by aircraft have a net cooling effect in the daytime because they reflect sunlight back into space
Voice assistants can build profiles of their users’ habits and preferences, but the consistency and accuracy of these profiles vary
Astronomers listened for radio signals emanating from planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, but found no evidence of any interplanetary communications
Northern sea robins are formidable marine hunters, and they owe their success to modified fin rays that let them find prey buried in the seabed
It has become trivially easy to use artificial intelligence to edit images or generate video to remove unwanted objects or beautify scenes, but doing so leads to people misremembering what they h...
Replacing some existing vegetable oil crops with camellia oil could boost production while reducing environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions
A distant planet should have been consumed when its star expanded to become a red giant, perhaps offering insights into planetary migration
A flurry of studies has found microplastics in nearly every organ in the human body, from the brain to the testicles. But very few have revealed whether these tiny bits of plastic impact our heal...
DNA and genealogical evidence reveal, for the first time, the identity of cannibalised remains recovered from the Franklin expedition
It seems to be more energy efficient for emus to keep one foot on the ground when running at a moderate pace, and the same may have been true for dinosaurs
If we want to preserve the dwindling ice in the Arctic, cutting our emissions is no longer enough – we also need to use geoengineering to refreeze this precious ecosystem
Tree ring data reveals the impact a fluctuating jet stream has had on Europe for 700 years – and sheds light on future risks amid our warming planet
Though it was first predicted in the 1930s, chemists have just now managed to create a covalent bond that only uses one electron
Using more training data and computational power is meant to make AIs more reliable, but tests suggest large language models actually get less reliable as they grow
DNA and protein analysis has identified a white substance smeared on mummies in China as a kind of kefir cheese, made from cow and goat milk
Smart TVs from Samsung and LG monitor what you are watching even when you are using the screens to display a feed from a connected laptop or video game console
Dopamine was long thought to play a part in the placebo effect for pain relief, but a new study is questioning its true role
In most vertebrates, a pattern of chemical marks on the genome is a reliable indicator of age, but in axolotls this clock seems to stop after the first four years of life
High-temperature superconducting cables that could transform the power grid may be increasingly viable, thanks to a side effect of fusion energy research and new ways to cool the wires
Archaeologists have used AI to discover hundreds of large-scale drawings depicting figures like llamas, decapitated human heads and killer whales armed with knives
Interacting with animals seems to provide emotional support to young people with a serious illness, even when the contact is via letters and not face to face
An octopus will work with several different species of fish to find and catch prey - and punch those that aren't helping
Ancient DNA extracted from layers of sediment in a Czech forest shows how a drop in biodiversity coincided with a shift to pig herding about 4000 years ago
Field trials indicate that pumping seawater onto the snow on top of Arctic sea ice can make the ice thicker, offering a possible way to preserve sea ice throughout the summer
CAPTCHA tests are supposed to distinguish humans from bots, but an AI system mastered the problem after training on thousands of images of road scenes
A new covid-19 variant called XEC may spread more easily than past variants, but current vaccines are still effective against it
A sprawling research program aims to improve hurricane forecasts by collecting data at the chaotic interface of ocean and atmosphere
Forest loss is thought to have played a part in record low rainfall across South America this year, in a sign that environmental destruction is accelerating climate collapse
Medically evacuating an astronaut from space is difficult and expensive, and a new model predicts that one in three long-duration moon missions may require it
As a six-year investigation into the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica wraps up, the scientists involved are pessimistic for the future of this glacier and the consequences for sea level rise
Genetic analysis shows that microbes growing inside the International Space Station have adaptations for radiation and low gravity, and may pose a threat to astronauts
Making hydrogen from seawater can be tricky because the salt is corrosive and the process can create toxic chlorine gas – new electrodes can split ocean water to make the clean fuel more easily
Nearly imperceptible quantum flickers used to limit how precisely we could detect the way space-time ripples, but squeezing the laser light used in detectors overcomes this and doubles the number...
The average surface temperature varied more widely and was even hotter than previously thought during much of the past 500 million years, according to the most rigorous study so far
Genetic testing on samples collected during the earliest days of the covid-19 outbreak suggests it is likely that the virus spread from animals to humans at the Huanan seafood market
A meta-analysis of 137 clinical trials finds triptan drugs are among the most effective for treating migraines, while newer ditan and gepant drugs were rated less highly
African giant pouched rats proved adept at detecting four commonly trafficked products derived from endangered species including rhino horn and elephant ivory
We are finally untangling the ancient history of the cactus family, revealing some surprising forces that shaped these plants – and prompting concern for their future
Exoplanets in binary star systems usually orbit both stars, but astronomers have now spotted three planets orbiting one or the other star in a pair
Genetic analysis of a bird flu virus detected in a person in Missouri who didn’t previously have contact with animals offers more details on the case, but experts say there isn’t substantial ...
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
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...
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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