New Scientist - Home

The latest AI model from OpenAI achieved an “impressive leap in performance” but it still hasn’t demonstrated what experts classify as human-level intelligence

There is more research than ever focused on reflecting sunlight away from the planet to cool the climate – but there are still far more questions than answers about the effects

A US ban on the video-sharing app TikTok is set to take effect in early 2025 – but the country's Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump could still change that

An experiment showing that quantum and classical communication can be carried out through the same fibre at the same time may open the door to building a quantum internet with existing infrastructure

A new type of norovirus is causing a very high number of cases in countries like England, just as a large trial of an mRNA vaccine is starting up

The Ingenuity autonomous helicopter surpassed all expectations to fly dozens of missions over several years on the Red Planet, only stopping this year when an accident damaged one of its rotors

Hundreds of community websites run for fans of everything from cycling to Sunderland AFC may be forced to shut down by the UK's Online Safety Act, which is designed to protect children from harmful content

A newly described species of giant pitcher plant is one of the biggest ever found, with leaves covered in fur the same colour as orangutans

Blazing the Trail, a new podcast from the Australian Museum, delves into topics from how language evolved to the implications of harnessing fire

We asked New Scientist writers to pick their favourite sci-fi short story. From H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine to Octavia E. Butler’s Bloodchild, via stories from George R. R. Martin and Ursula K. Le Guin, here are the results

Recent findings show that Stonehenge’s stones came from all over Britain – and this offers clues to the monument’s purpose, say archaeologists

Featuring everything from eggnog to uranium oxide, these 12 brain-twisting conundrums will get you in the festive spirit and test your scientific knowledge

Using descriptions of flavours or chemical data, artificial intelligence can tell apart whiskies from different countries and identify their constituent aromas

Around 3000 years ago, several empires and kingdoms in the Mediterranean collapsed, with a group of sea-faring warriors implicated as the culprit. But new evidence shows that many of our ideas about this turbulent time need completely rethinking

Endangered skates and kingfishers were brought back from the brink this year and scientists found a way to protect frogs from deadly infections

A simple change to maize, sorghum and sugarcane that allows them to take advantage of rising CO2 levels can boost their growth by around a fifth

Advances in artificial intelligence mean that machines can now perform certain diagnostic tasks with far better accuracy than human doctors - but the picture is more complicated than you might think

Choosing presents at Christmas can be a bewildering task. Brain studies are revealing the surprising truth about which toys support cognitive development in kids

Analysing footage of what happens when people jump into water, and using a robot to mimic them, has revealed how do the perfect dive-bomb using a Maori technique called the Manu

This year has delivered some awe-inspiring imagery of space, from the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning shots of faraway stars and galaxies to images of the skies taken from here on planet Earth

From a fish with a tiny brain to the world’s oldest cheese, we have reported on plenty of strange and unusual science discoveries this year. Challenge yourself and see what you can remember in this fiendish set of questions from our quizmaster Bethan Ackerley

Small robots directed by magnetic fields can cooperatively lift heavy objects, form floating rafts and push through clogs. They may one day deliver drugs within the human body

Electronics made using diamond-based chips would have many advantages, but have been hard to make – a new technique involving sticky tape could change that

Researchers have tried to work out how fast Australopithecus afarensis could run by creating a 3D digital robot of the ancient hominin

The Great British Bake Off's Josh Smalley explains how to bake the perfect freestanding gingerbread Christmas tree, complete with strong icing glue, windows and just the right biscuit texture

Quantum computing hardware has been progressing rapidly in recent years – and quantum software is following

Geologists surprisingly declined to formally declare a new epoch, but proponents of the Anthropocene will continue to highlight humanity’s impact on the planet

Most people are too risk-averse when it comes to life's biggest choices. Learning how to overcome the cognitive biases at play can help you make better decisions - with no looking back

Neuralink’s first two human trials grabbed headlines this year, but it still isn’t clear how the firm’s technology compares with other brain-computer interfaces

Three people in the US received a genetically modified pig kidney in 2024, marking another step towards animal-to-human organ transplants becoming routine

We challenge you to find the scientific terms in this monster of a puzzle – and we’re not even telling you exactly what they are

Biological nanopore technology revolutionised DNA sequencing – now it has been adapted for analysing alcoholic drinks, providing a quick test for quality and safety

The biodiversity, climate, health, water and food crises need to be addressed together rather than regarded as separate issues, urges a major report

An asteroid orbiting near our planet that temporarily became our second moon seems to have come from the actual moon, hinting that a hidden population of lunar rocks is drifting in space

Renewable energy continued to grow in 2024, and there were other hopeful developments in technologies aiming to reverse the rise in greenhouse gas emissions

A review of chemical exposures across 38 countries finds common plastic products are linked to millions of cases of heart disease and thousands of strokes

In the 1970s, John Calhoun built a sprawling mouse metropolis. The dystopian results influenced human society for decades

One of the biggest uncertainties in the ongoing AI revolution is whether these systems can legally be trained on copyrighted data. Now, the UK says it plans to clarify the matter with a change to the law

The fossilised remains of an ancient carnivore provide intriguing hints about how early relatives of mammals began regulating their own body temperature

A long-envisioned futuristic world of humanoid robots doing all the work has yet to arrive, but these startling images reveal some of the surprising ways that advanced robotics is becoming more ubiquitous in people's lives

Eating disorders have increased - and many are pointing the finger at sites like Instagram and TikTok

A cheap method for forming the tiny components of chips, such as transistors and diodes, harnesses simple fluid physics to make the electronics self-assembling

From warp drives to quantum tricks, here are five ways that physicists have figured out how to theoretically travel back in time

The age of the rings that encircle Saturn is under dispute thanks to calculations that show they could have been formed billions – rather than millions – of years ago

The past 12 months have seen animals of all shapes, sizes and colours strut their stuff – here are just a few of the best pictures from the year

From repeat lightning strikes to identical lottery draws, mathematician Sarah Hart explains why incredibly unlikely events happen all the time

From not smoking to maintaining a healthy weight, there are many healthy habits that could help keep your brain young

The past 12 months have been packed for the world’s wealthiest person as he has juggled Tesla, X, Neuralink, SpaceX and relations with Donald Trump – has it been a success?

The Greater Mekong region of Asia hosts a wealth of rare and unstudied species – 173 new species of plants, 26 reptiles, 17 amphibians, 15 fish and three mammals were described last year. Here are six of them

At least 37 men, women and children were brutally murdered in the largest massacre known in Bronze Age Britain, possibly in a performance of ritualistic violence

As families gather for festive time together, tensions can rise. David Robson delves into the science to find the best technique to stop arguments getting the better of us

Geologists estimate Earth contains several trillion tonnes of natural hydrogen that could be used as a clean fuel, but a global search for large reserves hasn’t delivered so far

Here are 10 words that entered our vocabulary this year, capturing discoveries at the cutting edge of science, elusive emotions and the various ways technology is changing our lives

Surging mpox cases in East, West and Central Africa prompted the World Health Organization to once again make the infection a global health emergency

A fungus named Psilocybe ochraceocentrata is the closest relative of a widely cultivated psychedelic mushroom, giving clues to their evolutionary origins

We assembled a crack team to create a record-breaking snowflake. Along the way, we learned just how impressive the natural kind really are

The ability to admit ignorance could be a sign of truly intelligent AI, and a new quiz of unsolved or perhaps even unsolvable questions aims to put this idea to the test

Fossil evidence shows that humans have been practising cannibalism for a million years. Now, archaeologists are discovering that some of the time they did it to honour their dead

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, came strangely far south this year and there may be more of the same while the sun is experiencing a solar maximum

Many children in the US seem to be using a chatbot to help them with their work, despite the risks of errors and often in defiance of school rules

For a truly exquisite glimpse of plants and animals, check out some of the top entries and the winner of the 2024 Evident Image of the Year contest

The US Navy has many tasks it wants quantum devices to tackle, from setting maintenance schedules to enabling nearly unhackable communication

A survey of more than 56,000 sun-like stars reveals that “superflares” that are linked to bursts of radiation which play havoc with electronics on Earth may happen every 100 to 200 years and we may be overdue one

The oldest genomes ever recovered from modern humans have helped pin down when and how the momentous mingling of two hominins played out

Large drones have been spotted flying over the US for weeks, and state and federal officials say they still have no idea who is behind the flights

Evidence for the origins of complex language can be found in creative two-word insults such as busy-body and kill-joy

The discovery of ancient cities in Asia and the Americas point to earlier bouts of social and climatic upheavals. The good news is that humanity survived, says Annalee Newitz

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. This time we fast forward to the 2050s, when people gain the ability to hibernate and use it for far more than escaping the winter blues

Red lights continued to flash on the climate dashboard as many aspects of the natural world declined in 2024, although there were a few green shoots of hope to cling to, says Graham Lawton

Events across the globe have conspired to create a sense of chaos, but many fields of research can help us make sense of the world, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

AI made incredible progress in 2023, but with a less-impressive pace of development this year, it may be that existing techniques are reaching their limits

La Niña conditions are expected to lead to a slightly cooler average global surface temperature in 2025, though it does not mean the planet as a whole has stopped warming

Feedback, feeling somewhat Grinch-like, digs into the knotty history of NORAD Tracks Santa, in which the North American Aerospace Defense Command shows its cuddly side

2024 was another year of record-breaking heat and extreme weather, including devastating floods, storms and wildfires across the globe

More and more people under 50 have been diagnosed with bowel cancer in different parts of the world over the past few decades

On 24 December, the Parker Solar Probe will be the closest human-made object ever to a star, taking unprecedented measurements of the sun

Just a few months after the previous record was set, a start-up called Quantinuum has announced that it has entangled the largest number of logical qubits – this will be key to quantum computers that can correct their own errors

Solving challenges like climate change not only requires ambitious targets, but also an honest appraisal of uncertainty and possible failure

They were loved by Charles Darwin, they build brilliantly bad nests and they even produce a kind of “milk”. Surely, these facts are more than enough to foster a love for the urban pigeon

Rather than getting its water from impacts, our planet may have drawn in water vapour after the sun boiled it off early icy asteroids

The unusual properties of gallium have helped scientists to create delicate moulds that can be used to grow cultures of human cells resembling tiny blood vessels

Hope for a much-needed treatment for the common pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia has been raised by a successful test of an mRNA therapy in mice

From the first private moon landing to the first civilian spacewalk, Elon Musk’s SpaceX helped drive a big year for private space flight

Rats of the sky? Pigeons are often the target of human ire, but there's a lot to cherish – or at least appreciate – in these scrappy survivors

Dog harnesses are sometimes claimed to reduce pulling forces on the leash, but an experiment found they have the opposite effect

People in multiple US states tested positive for bird flu this year, raising concerns about the pandemic potential of the virus

The electricity required to support AI could contribute to approximately 600,000 asthma cases and create a $20 billion public health burden by 2030

For millennia, Arctic ecosystems have stored more carbon dioxide than they release, but that has shifted as warming temperatures have boosted wildfires and melted permafrost in the north

Leading archaeologists share the biggest recent advances in our understanding of human evolution, and their hopes for the exciting finds the next five years may have in store

The ocean carbon sink – which removes about a quarter of our emissions from the atmosphere each year – was much weaker than expected in 2023

Dog owners often wonder what's really going on between their pets' fluffy ears. Now, savvy experiments and new technology are finally giving us a clearer glimpse

Google has unveiled a new quantum computer called Willow that excels at a benchmarking problem, but it still isn't clear whether these machines can serve a practical purpose

Atoms cooled to near absolute zero let researchers make a measurement of gravity 20 per cent more precise than the standard quantum limit usually allows

A resurgence of the screwworm parasite in Central America could have a devastating impact on livestock farming, and poses a threat to humans and wildlife too

The term “Disease X” means a new infection, or an existing pathogen that has mutated to become more dangerous, with the potential to cause a global pandemic

Many ancient board games have been discovered, but there are no rulebooks so we don't know how to play them. Now AI is bringing these games back to life by working out likely rules

Higher or lower levels of certain proteins in your blood appear to indicate if your brain's age is older than your actual age

The moving sofa problem, which involves negotiating furniture around an awkward hallway, has puzzled mathematicians for decades – but now we have an answer

Could the universe's missing matter be hiding in a "dark" extra dimension? We now have simple ways to test this outlandish idea - and the existence of extra dimensions more generally

In a surprise discovery, researchers found a new way to generate quantum entanglement for particles of light, which could make building quantum information networks easier