Subscribe now

This week's magazine

13 April 2024

Issue 3486

New Scientist Default Image
Previous issue Next issue
arrow
Subscribe
Access our magazine content direct via our website, app or print magazine
arrow
View in the app
Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app
arrow
Buy this issue in print
You can purchase our magazines on back-issue from the last 4 months
arrow
Find a previous edition online
Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Digital Human Brain Covered with Networks

Technology

Why AIs that tackle complex maths could be the next big breakthrough

Leader

Subscriber-only
Fatty liver. Coloured computed tomography (CT) scan of an axial section through the abdomen of a 66 year old woman suffering from fatty liver. At lower centre is a bone of the vertebra (white). The liver is the large organ occupying much of the abdomen at upper left to right (purple). Fatty deposits in the liver show up as blue patches. The liver cells become swollen by large fat droplets. This condition occurs in heavy drinkers and alcoholics, where high levels of alcohol in the blood disturbs normal fat metabolism. Fatty deposits in the liver can also be caused by hypoxia, toxins or diabetes mellitus.

Health

Why you may have a stealth liver disease and what to do about it

Features

Subscriber-only
Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Mind

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Features

Subscriber-only
How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Technology

How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Features

Subscriber-only

Table of contents

Leaders

Digital Human Brain Covered with Networks

Technology

Why AIs that tackle complex maths could be the next big breakthrough

Research-level mathematics might seem an unlikely proving ground for artificial intelligence, but recent developments suggest it offers a route to automated human-like reasoning

Leader

Subscriber-only

News

Technology

Phone batteries could last 50% longer if more 5G towers are built

Adding more masts could reduce the overall energy use of phone networks by two-thirds and boost handset battery life by 50 per cent

News

Subscriber-only

Artist's impression of a super-Earth

Space

Planet caught in a gravitational 'tidal storm' is so hot that it glows

News

Subscriber-only

Technology

Showing AI just 1000 extra images reduced AI-generated stereotypes

News

Subscriber-only

Mind

Babies recognise spoken nursery rhymes they heard in the uterus

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Snakes show signs of self-recognition in a smell-based 'mirror test'

News

Free

Environment

Great apes threatened by mining for electric vehicle batteries

News

Free

Quantum computer chip

Technology

Microsoft and Quantinuum’s quantum computer may be most reliable yet

News

Free

3d rendered medically accurate illustration of amino acids

Life

Life’s vital chemistry may have begun in hot, cracked rock

News

Free

Space

Laser-powered licence plates could help avoid satellite collisions

News

Subscriber-only

Health

Should we be worried about a bird flu pandemic in the US?

News

Subscriber-only

How mass bleaching has pushed the Great Barrier Reef to the brink

Environment

How mass bleaching has pushed the Great Barrier Reef to the brink

News

Subscriber-only

Why some songs make our heart swell and others give us butterflies

Mind

Why some songs make our heart swell and others give us butterflies

News

Free

Life

Left-handed monkeys prompt rethink about evolution of right-handedness

News

Subscriber-only

Environment

Dumping green sand in shallow seas could let them absorb more CO2

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Suppressing wildfires is harming California’s giant sequoia trees

News

Subscriber-only

Many versions of Earth disappearing into the distance

Space

The multiverse could be much, much bigger than we ever imagined

News

Subscriber-only

Space

Eclipse 2024: 5 of the best pictures of the total solar eclipse

News

Free

Space

One of the biggest mysteries of cosmology may finally be solved

News

Subscriber-only

Analysis

Health

Could an MRI scan make prostate cancer screening more accurate?

Screening for prostate cancer with the PSA blood test can sometimes lead to unnecessary and harmful treatment, but new proposals could mitigate the issue of overdiagnosis

Analysis

Free

Why nutrition needs to be on the educational agenda

Health

Why nutrition needs to be on the educational agenda

Comment

Subscriber-only

WW4018 Planes at Las Vegas airport

Environment

We can't get to net zero without tackling inequality

Comment

Subscriber-only

Aperture

The photographer who captured shots of nature daily for over a decade

Life

The photographer who captured shots of nature daily for over a decade

Since 2012, Mary Jo Hoffman has taken one snap a day of the natural objects around her. She explains what lies behind two of them - and what the "art of noticing" has brought to her life

Regulars

Free

Features

Fatty liver. Coloured computed tomography (CT) scan of an axial section through the abdomen of a 66 year old woman suffering from fatty liver. At lower centre is a bone of the vertebra (white). The liver is the large organ occupying much of the abdomen at upper left to right (purple). Fatty deposits in the liver show up as blue patches. The liver cells become swollen by large fat droplets. This condition occurs in heavy drinkers and alcoholics, where high levels of alcohol in the blood disturbs normal fat metabolism. Fatty deposits in the liver can also be caused by hypoxia, toxins or diabetes mellitus.

Health

Why you may have a stealth liver disease and what to do about it

One in three adults have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – often without knowing. Now we understand what causes this stealthy condition and how to reverse it

Features

Subscriber-only

How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Technology

How AI mathematicians might finally deliver human-level reasoning

Features

Subscriber-only

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Mind

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Features

Subscriber-only

Culture

Illustration of the human gut microbiota.

Comment

The Immune Mind review: How mental and physical health combine

It's tough turning neuroimmunology into a gripping read, but Monty Lyman's excellent book provides a delightful overview of the connection between the brain, immune system and gut microbiome

Culture

Subscriber-only

2A1MK33 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA - SEPTEMBER 27, 2019: Thousands of people gather and march towards Parliament Hill as part of a global climate strike protest.

Comment

Everything Must Go review: A fascinating guide to the apocalypse

Culture

Subscriber-only

2F7CCFA London, UK. 6 Apr 2021. After a week the wall nears its completion, stretching all the way to Lambeth Bridge - The national Covid Memorial Wall outside St Thomas' Hospital on the southbank. Family and friends of some of the more than one hundred and forty-five thousand people who've lost their lives to Covid-19 are drawing hearts by hand on a wall opposite Parliament in London. Each heart represents someone who was loved. Credit: Guy Bell/Alamy Live News

New Scientist recommends When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope

Culture

Subscriber-only

Astronaut on strange, rocky alien planet.

Comment

Two brilliant new novels from Adrian Tchaikovsky show his range

Culture

Subscriber-only

More

JSWT first deep-field image

Mind

How science can inspire 'peak experiences' that improve well-being

My column about the spiritual side of science has seen many of you sharing your own awe-inspiring experiences, says David Robson

Regulars

Subscriber-only

3D illustration, brain shaped maze. Concept image of study and brain behavior.; Shutterstock ID 2177110871; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

BrainTwister #15: Domino strips

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Tom Gauld on Astrid's claim to fame

Tom Gauld on Astrid's claim to fame

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles: We need to access the secret laboratory

Twisteddoodles: We need to access the secret laboratory

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Dedicated experiments needed to understand why dogs wag their tails

Dedicated experiments needed to understand why dogs wag their tails

Feedback finds that despite close investigation, more research is needed to "better quantify tail wagging in general"

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

Browse past issues

View all