New Scientist
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Body temperature may drive the higher risk of autoimmune conditions in women
Autoimmune conditions are much more common in women than men, which could partly be due to the fluctuating body temperatures that occur during the menstrual cycle and menopause
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Personalised cancer vaccine expected to be approved next year
A bespoke vaccine that is tailored to target an individual's unique skin cancer reduced rates of recurrence or death in a late-stage trial, making an approval expected
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Brazil presidential election dogged by alleged bias by Meta AI tools
Supporters of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have accused Meta of interfering in Brazil’s election by making it easier to generate campaign content promoting his rival, Flávio Bolsonaro
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Emily St. John Mandel: 'I don't want to write something relentlessly bleak'
The science-fiction novelist talks to Alison Flood about her latest book Exit Party, a tale of parallel worlds that is the October read for the New Scientist Book Club
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Why do mathematicians keep proving things they already know?
What exactly is a mathematical proof? Columnist Jacob Aron breaks down how mathematicians plot a course to answer open questions, and how finding several solutions to the same problem is an important part of the whole endeavour of maths
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Tiny 'solar flares' recreated in the lab may explain corona mystery
An experiment has produced nanoflares similar to those seen on the sun, and shown that they can help explain why the outer layers of the solar atmosphere are so hot
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All tropical coral reefs could collapse within 50 years
Shallow-water coral reefs are at high risk of disappearing by 2075, the IUCN has warned at a UN biodiversity conference. The loss would decimate fisheries and speed up coastal erosion
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Earth entered its 'bad decades' after dinosaur-ending asteroid strike
We now have a clearer picture of what happened in the decades following the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of almost all dinosaurs
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Adults may be more creative than children – but less confident about it
We often associate children with creativity, but adults actually performed better on inventive tasks, despite being less sure of themselves
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Global race to update computers as AI discovers most disruptive hack yet
More than two thirds of the world's websites are vulnerable to a hack that was first theorised in 2024, which AI has now made very real
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Cholesterol may disrupt the brain's cleaning system in Alzheimer's disease
The glymphatic system flushes toxins out of the brain, but this seems to be disrupted in Alzheimer's disease, and cholesterol may be involved
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People are vibe coding copyrighted apps with AI – will tech firms sue?
Every time a new technology hits the internet, there is a battle between the rights of users and major companies. To see how this will play out with AI, columnist Jacob Aron looks to examples from the past
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Digital scents could add a new dimension to virtual worlds
It's now possible to convert a handful of smells into electronic signals that can be sent through the internet
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Falling sea levels due to El Niño will hit mangroves and corals
As sea level rise in the eastern Pacific, they are falling around Australia and the Coral Triangle, leaving some mangroves and corals high and dry
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Twisteddoodles on a cat's-eye view of science
This week's cartoon from Twisteddoodles
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Some climate damage is now unavoidable even if we clean up our act
With the world looking likely to exceed 1.5°C of warming, the plan is now to reduce our carbon emissions after overshooting the target. What lasting damage will this have?
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Last Word: This week’s new questions
Which animal has the most sensory access to reality? Given the worldwide impact of carbon dioxide, why is it still used to put the fizz in water and soft drinks?
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Last Word: How different would Earth be if anaerobic life were the only life form?
This question was posed as part of New Scientist’s Last Word series, in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions. Here’s what our readers had to say
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These two new sci-fi novels by Claire North and Annalee Newitz really impressed us
A time traveller must fight for love in Claire North’s As We Fall Through Time, while a single-celled alien is perplexed by Earth’s biology in Annalee Newitz’s A Wall Is Also a Road. Sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson recommends both
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Tom Gauld on arriving late to the party
Tom Gauld's weekly cartoon
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Minds I've Met review: Primatologist Frans de Waal's final book is a rich mix of memoir and science
Minds I've Met review: Primatologist Frans de Waal's final book is a rich mix of memoir and science
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Last Word: What's the world actually like, if what we see is just our brain's interpretations?
This question was posed as part of New Scientist’s Last Word series, in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions. Here’s what our readers had to say
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Last Word: Is there also such a thing as an olfactory illusion? (part 4)
This question was posed as part of New Scientist’s Last Word series, in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions. Here’s what our readers had to say
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The world's first spinal cord transplant has been performed in Russia
A surgeon has told New Scientist they have performed a transplant on someone with a complete spinal cord injury using a piece of spinal cord from a brain-dead donor, but researchers have raised concerns
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UN says 1.5°C is over and world is on track for 2.8°C of global warming
The best-case scenario now is that the planet will only temporarily breach 1.5°C of warming, but current climate pledges fall way short of that hope
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1 in 4 cases of depression may be caused by off-kilter body clocks
Depression has long been linked to chemical imbalances, but many cases may actually be related to disrupted body clocks that could be treated with melatonin therapies and early morning sun exposure
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Where does the ‘extreme male brain’ sit in our better understanding of autism?
Simon Baron-Cohen’s influential research helped pin autism as a particularly male condition. As studies increasingly broaden our view of autism, has his perspective changed?
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Parasite-infected mosquitoes released in Europe for first time
Male mosquitoes infected with a parasite have been released in Barcelona to reduce the number of insects that can transmit infections such as dengue
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1000 human mathematicians pledge to shun AI in their research
There is a growing backlash against the way AI companies have gone about tackling mathematical problems – and now some mathematicians are opting to avoid AI altogether
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The roots of AI fear in the West are cultural, not technological
Popular conceptions of AI differ drastically between the US and China. Columnist Annalee Newitz dives into the cultural, religious and sci-fi factors driving our impressions of its power
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Are we about to solve the greatest mystery of the neutrino?
We have long had a seemingly simple question about neutrinos: how much do they weigh? Now, a gigantic experiment in China is poised to find out – and the answer could transform particle physics forever
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Bottlenose whales may look after each other when they’re sick
Northern bottlenose whales are more likely to stick together when individuals are poorly or emaciated
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It's about to get a lot harder to keep countries honest about climate change
A row over when to publish crucial climate change assessments risks letting countries off the hook on emissions cuts
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Discovery of T. rex's cousin upends our understanding of tyrannosaur evolution
A dinosaur that is new to science has features of both subfamilies of the tyrannosaur group, complicating our understanding of how they evolved
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El Niño is dramatically increasing sea levels – how bad could it get?
El Niño has already raised sea levels in part of the eastern Pacific by 40 centimetres and as it continues to strengthen, there could be coastal flooding from Alaska to Chile
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Archaeologists are uncovering the meaning of a unique rock art site
Excavations in the Côa valley in Portugal, the world’s largest site of Palaeolithic open-air rock art, are yielding clues about how engravings of animals were seen by prehistoric hunter-gatherers
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Error-correction record pushes quantum computers closer to usefulness
Useful quantum computers will have to use many “logical qubits” as their computational building blocks, and researchers just broke the record for how reliable they can be
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Why the Drake equation is still important 65 years after its creation
The Drake equation provides a way to guess how many aliens we might be able to communicate with, but it’s also a prime example of the importance of scientific guessing, says columnist Leah Crane
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Noise-cancelling headphones prevent vomiting after surgery
Nausea and vomiting are common after surgery, which may be partly related to the noises patients are exposed to, even under general anaesthetic. Wearing noise-cancelling headphones while on the operating table reduces the risk
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El Niño has killed hundreds of children in Sudan
Drought driven by El Niño is causing hunger and disease in Sudan that has already killed hundreds of children
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Japan is launching a mission to Mars’s largest moon Phobos
The Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft, set to launch on 20 October, will bring back samples that should solve a moon mystery that has been vexing scientists for more than a century
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Scientists have just voted to abolish leap seconds
Since 1972, officials have added 27 leap seconds to the universal clock, but in a meeting this week in France they have decided to abandon the practice
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Can a positive mindset protect us from the sniffles?
If you’re trying to avoid the worst of cold and flu season, looking after your mind can help shape your immune system, finds columnist David Robson
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Will physics be the next field to be turned upside down by AI?
AI has taken huge strides in computer programming and mathematics – physics could be next
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A quarter of male soldiers in the US could have low testosterone
Newly introduced testosterone screening in the US Army could find more than 100,000 male soldiers with low testosterone
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Why a high school in Virginia is getting a quantum computer
Starting in January, students attending Skyview High School in Virginia will learn about the building blocks and principles underlying quantum computers by working with one directly
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Google showcases way to fix quantum computer errors more efficiently
Error-proofing the most important operations performed on a quantum computer has so far required lots of resources, but a new experiment shows a more efficient way to make the devices reliable
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Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier will keep melting even if oceans cool
Computer models suggest that unrealistically cold oceans would be insufficient to stop Thwaites glacier retreating, although a neighbouring glacier might begin to grow
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Towering glacial ice cliffs may collapse in fits and starts
We still don't know for sure how the ice cliffs looming over the sea at the leading edge of some glaciers will behave as the climate warms, but satellite data offers some clues
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Probiotic cuts risk of respiratory infections in formula-fed babies
Babies who are formula fed are more prone to infections, but the addition of a probiotic supplement containing sugars from breast milk slashed the risk of such infants catching respiratory viruses