New Scientist
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Twisteddoodles on a brand-new type of robot | New Scientist
This week's cartoon from Twisteddoodles
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Last Word: Are there plants that could survive as a food source on the moon? Part 2 | New Scientist
Fresh answers are questioning the broader applicability of the Wardian case – and note the importance of where on the moon the plants are grown
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Richard Feynman’s 80-year-old quantum postulate has now been validated | New Scientist
Decades after it was posited as a foundational principle of quantum physics, Richard Feynman’s “path integral” has been directly measured in an experiment for the first time
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The quest to save the bananas we love so much makes scary reading | New Scientist
Without serious technical efforts, banana crops faces collapse worldwide. James Woodford enjoys a passionate plea from leading researcher James Dale in his new book, The Future of Bananas
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Tom Gauld on picking the right staff | New Scientist
Tom Gauld's weekly cartoon
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Last Word: This week’s new questions | New Scientist
Is there such a thing as an olfactory illusion, and what forces make a particle of fluid start spiralling down a pipe instead of flowing smoothly?
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The healthcare industry isn't built for coming off medication | New Scientist
Starting a new medication is relatively easy once you have a prescription from your doctor, but stopping is much harder, because from research to revenue, the healthcare industry has little interest in getting people off drugs
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Last Word: Why don’t we sneeze when we are asleep? | New Scientist
Our readers don’t agree with this statement, and even broaden out their evidence base to their furry companions
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Can 'quantum musical agents' really make a melody better? | New Scientist
Feedback wonders if a bum note is being struck in a new paper exploring "quantum teleportation in multi-agent systems for interactive music”
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Last Word: Why do we feel emotional about fictional characters? | New Scientist
Readers provide different perspectives to tackle the question of why humans so readily adopt fiction into our lives
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5 graphs that show how the record-breaking El Niño will affect the world | New Scientist
A stronger El Niño means more extreme weather, including droughts and wildfires in some places and flooding and tropical storms in others
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Are mushroom-growing kits seeding a biodiversity crisis across Europe? | New Scientist
What began as a seemingly harmless and delicious hobby may have released an invasive species across the continent. Experts fear that these desirable fungi, now classed in the UK as "high risk", could radically reshape forest ecosystems.
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A glacier collapse is most likely cause of the Nepal disaster | New Scientist
Melting snow appears to have weakened a steep glacier at an altitude of 5 kilometres, causing it to plummet around a kilometre into the river valley below
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Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal | New Scientist
Withdrawal symptoms following long-term SSRI use appear far more pervasive and serious than previously realised. Now medical bodies are rethinking how and when to stop taking them
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Nanoparticles ease Alzheimer's by making neurons from other cells | New Scientist
A drug made up of a cage of nanoparticles and antibodies created neurons from another type of brain cell, which relieved symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in mice
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Hot weather in the UK is now almost as deadly as a cold snap | New Scientist
Cold weather has always killed more people than hot weather in England and Wales – but that's about to change
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Workout patch delivers some of the benefits of exercise with no exertion | New Scientist
Injecting muscle cells beneath the skin of mice led to a patch of self-contracting cells that boosted their muscle mass, bone density and even markers of good brain, immune and liver function
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Shingles vaccine may lower risk of stroke and heart failure | New Scientist
Being vaccinated against shingles has been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease before, but now a study suggests that the vaccine that is currently being used reduces the odds more than earlier versions of the shot
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See the stunning contenders for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year | New Scientist
These images of nature in action are just some of the highly commended shots in the running for the prestigious nature photography award
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The engineer racing to run the world’s most dangerous algorithm | New Scientist
Craig Gidney is largely unknown outside of quantum computing, but his pioneering work on quantum circuits could have huge consequences for us all, ushering in both useful quantum computers, and the end of digital privacy and security as we know it
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Will muscle-boosting meds be the next big thing after GLP-1 drugs? | New Scientist
A number of drugs designed to prevent muscle loss and boost muscle growth are being tested in clinical trials. Columnist Michael Le Page looks at whether building and maintaining muscles is about to get a whole lot easier
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Dice discovered that solve decade-long mathematical problem | New Scientist
After years of searching, mathematicians have found dice that can allow five players to fairly decide who moves first in a board game, with a winner guaranteed from just a single roll
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How much water do you really need to drink to keep your brain sharp? | New Scientist
Water is essential for good brain function, with a handful of convincing studies suggesting that dehydration could be slowing you down, cognitively speaking. Columnist Helen Thomson explores how much water we should be drinking to stay sharp
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Why banishing irrational numbers could trigger a revolution in quantum theory | New Scientist
Irrational numbers have underpinned quantum mechanics for a century. Removing them could eliminate its strangest features and trigger the biggest upheaval in physics since quantum theory began
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Lack of sleep may cause anxiety by making us less adaptable to threats | New Scientist
People who were deprived of sleep overnight didn't seem to adapt to being in a potentially threatening space, which may help explain the link between a lack of shuteye and anxiety
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Diabetes drug metformin may halve the risk of dementia | New Scientist
Taking metformin, a type 2 diabetes drug, has been linked to a lower risk of dementia over the following decades, but the association isn't conclusive
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Plastic bottles can be turned into edible, vanilla-flavour cookies | New Scientist
Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic pollution are created each year. One option may be to turn the pollution into food, but critics voice concerns
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From back pain to cancer, how the interstitium could transform medicine | New Scientist
For centuries, we’ve ignored the interstitium, but research is now revealing that this body-wide network of fluid is instrumental to our health and points the way to new treatments
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'Off the charts' El Niño is already the strongest since records began | New Scientist
Renowned climate scientist James Hansen says the developing super El Niño has already "blown past" previous events with months to go before it peaks
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Burns improve more rapidly after treatment with fish skin | New Scientist
Severe burns are often treated with synthetic products ahead of skin graft surgery, but there is evidence that a product made from minimally processed cod skin is more effective
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Greenland meltwater is intensifying European heatwaves | New Scientist
The cooling of the North Atlantic is creating waviness in the jet stream and high-pressure ridging over Europe, a study finds
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Super El Niño could lead to mega CO2 emissions from Indonesian fires | New Scientist
Intense fires are already burning in Indonesia, and there could be much worse to come as the Super El Niño ramps up
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How long could we possibly live? A new estimate is mind-boggling | New Scientist
Biogerontologists are exploring the upper limit for human life. A recent study has it verging on two centuries – but columnist Graham Lawton finds reason to be sceptical
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Strange gamma-ray signal could unlock dark matter’s secrets | New Scientist
Researchers spotted an unusual gamma-ray signal in three galaxy clusters, which may be a telltale sign of dark matter – or some even more exotic phenomenon
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Will personalised mRNA vaccines transform cancer treatments? | New Scientist
A personalised mRNA cancer vaccine has produced positive results in a final-stage trial involving skin cancer, raising hopes that this approach could work against many cancers
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Two emerging tick viruses that can be deadly are spreading in the US | New Scientist
Heartland virus and Bourbon virus, which are transmitted by lone star ticks, have killed at least seven people in the US
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Depression doesn't shrink the brain like we thought it did | New Scientist
For the past decade, depression has been linked to a shrunken hippocampus, which has a vital role in memory. But a large study using up-to-date scanning techniques suggests this may not be the case
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AI firms are watermarking generated text – here's why it won't work | New Scientist
AI companies have begun embedding watermarks in the output of their models to improve transparency and help crack down on misinformation, disinformation and cheating on homework, but there are limitations to this approach
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NASA calls off rescue effort to save doomed telescope | New Scientist
The Swift observatory will now re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in a few months, after a mission to boost it higher failed
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Suggesting that ADHD is a myth is pseudoscientific and dangerous | New Scientist
ADHD is a real condition that can have serious consequences if undiagnosed. An ill-informed documentary that suggests it is a modern, social construct could cause harm, says Caroline Williams
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Tom Gauld on popularity in the lab | New Scientist
Tom Gauld's weekly cartoonTom Gauld's weekly cartoon
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Stunning image of a polar bear with an outsized snack wins major award | New Scientist
Roie Galitz's breathtaking shot is one of the winners of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest, praised for its unusual perspective and scale
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This sci-fi novel is a riveting tale of an oppressive galactic empire | New Scientist
The Infinite State review: A riveting tale of an oppressive galactic empire
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Twisteddoodles on distribution graphs (with added cats) | New Scientist
This week's cartoon from Twisteddoodles
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The wild, gripping story of the psychedelic secreted by desert toads | New Scientist
Kimon de Greef's The Ego Trip chronicles the rise of a potent psychedelic drug, from the toads that secrete it to the man who claimed it has amazing powers. Olivia Goldhill discovers an extraordinary tale
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Last Word: Are flies following a strategy when they keep hitting windows? Part 4 | New Scientist
Answers continue to pour in as New Scientist readers ponder this question, with one reader widening it out to consider dragonflies, and another focusing on cluster flies
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It is finally time to talk about the impact of fluctuating hormones | New Scientist
For decades, women have felt the need to hide the impact of changes in their hormones, while scientists have excluded women from research to avoid hormonal fluctuations complicating their research. Thankfully, this is starting to change
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Last Word: This week’s new questions | New Scientist
Why do humans have a common sense of beauty for things like sunsets, and do other animals share this appreciation? And why can’t we cool water as quickly as we can heat it?
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Don't be an archaeologist in a movie if you want to survive | New Scientist
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Archaeologists RIP In July, Feedback
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Sean Carroll interview: The surprising upsides of living in a reality that repeats for eternity | New Scientist
Having faced the prospect that our minds are random fluctuations in a dead universe, quantum cosmologist Sean Carroll suggests that we may be stuck in an eternally repeating reality