New Scientist

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

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A note from the Podcast editor • The World, the Universe and Us

Extraordinary claims • How to deal with discoveries that seem too good to be true

New Scientist

Giant by name, giant by nature

Have we got light all wrong? • The double-slit experiment was long thought to confirm that light can be a wave, but a new mathematical model suggests it may not be so, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Wave interpretation • According to standard theory, dark stripes appear when two light waves completely cancel out. The darkness is a sign of the absence of light.

Dark photon interpretation • Dark stripes appear when particles of light can’t interact with the detector. The light isn’t visible, but it is still there in the form of dark photons.

Companies linked to climate costs • Climate researchers say they can now tie emissions from particular firms to damages from specific extreme weather events, but legal questions remain, finds James Dinneen

Dire wolf ‘de-extinction’ criticised by conservation group

Lyme disease treated with gut-friendly antibiotic

Is Keir Starmer advised by AI? • A lack of transparency in the UK government’s use of AI has experts concerned about the quality of information being given to politicians, finds Chris Stokel-Walker

Signs of alien life on exoplanet K2-18b may actually be nothing at all

Daily peanut doses could desensitise allergic adults

‘Black hole bomb’ created in the lab for the first time

Creepy caterpillar wears dead insect parts as a disguise

Humans evolved to survive mild burns at the expense of severe ones

Ancient icebergs left marks on the bottom of the North Sea

A new kind of quantum computer • Using the special theory of relativity could give us fresh insights into the quantum realm

Bats that walk backwards use their tails to navigate

Jets wrapped in ‘shark skin’ could fly further on less fuel

Ancient supervolcano had only mild impact on climate

LHC creates heaviest antimatter nucleus

Huge coral colony discovered in Red Sea tourism hotspot

Fresh evidence that reducing high blood pressure can lower risk of dementia

Suspected gladiator skeleton shows signs of lion battle

Climate justice • A Peruvian farmer’s landmark case against energy giant RWE will be decided shortly. But it has already made history, says Friederike Otto

This changes everything • Keeping going When politics and science align, it is easy to think science is apolitical. But the situation in the US today shows how science has always been fuelled by politics, says Annalee Newitz

Wild mirage

The nature of life • We should protect Earth’s rivers and forests with laws, says Rowan Hooper. But it is another matter to recast them as actual life forms, as a new book does

Root and branch • Welcome to a great, straightforward guide to the still-growing tree of life, says Peter Hoskin

New Scientist recommends

The sci-fi column • What’s in a name? It can be difficult to work out which books count as climate fiction. Covering topics from time travel to dystopia, could the shortlist for the Climate Fiction prize offer some clarity, wonders Emily H. Wilson

Your letters

The impossible neutrino • Astronomers are scrambling to determine the...