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Space-time may hide a bizarre new kind of black hole that causes Einstein’s theory of gravity to fail – and could solve the mystery of dark energy

For the first time that we know of, mice with two fathers have survived to adulthood, but the methods used would be "unthinkable" to try in people

Physicists have verified a connection between two counterintuitive quantum properties, which may help us understand how quantum objects stay inextricably connected through entanglement

The new AI model from China's DeepSeek performs on a level with leading US models without requiring as much computing power – but despite a huge drop in their stock, it's not game over for US tech companies

The rate of warming in the oceans has more than quadrupled since 1985, suggesting global warming in general has undergone a marked acceleration

Despite widespread studies revealing the prevalence of racism, its impact is often overlooked. But there are ways to tackle hidden biases and systemic discrimination, says Keon West

In Europe as a whole, the increase in deaths from hot weather over the next century will outweigh the decline in deaths from cold weather, but in colder countries such as the UK, temperature-related deaths will decline overall

In a barrage of executive orders, President Donald Trump has set the US on course to derail climate goals, biomedical research and pandemic readiness

Worlds with liquid water could have formed just 200 million years after the big bang from the remains of the earliest supernovae

Just three nasal injections of blood cells called platelets helped people whose smell was affected by covid-19 identify new odours

The hormonal changes of puberty, the menstrual cycle and menopause can all affect our sleep, but there are also subtler ways that hormones and sleep interact

Is 8 hours of sleep really the right amount for you? Understanding your personal chronotype could be a better way to approach how much time you should spend in bed

Research is revealing the complex relationship between sleep and the gut microbiome, raising the prospect that eating better during the day might help you get a better night’s rest

If you've missed out on sleep, it is possible to catch up. But is it better to try to do it all in one go or spread out over time – and is it really so bad to sleep in at the weekend?

Using a computer model of the retina, researchers have been able to trace the cause of the expanding hole illusion

When it comes to sending humans back to the moon, knowing how to work with the regolith that coats the ground will be make-or-break. Phil Metzger is studying how to mitigate its dangers and use it as a crucial resource

After three long years of hoping, it seemed impossible that the second season of Severance could live up to the scope and ambition of the first. But, mercifully, it has, says Bethan Ackerley

As California expands its prescribed burning efforts, a study of more than 180 such projects suggests they are an effective way to reduce a blaze's intensity and smoke

While some progress has been made in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, we are still on the path for high levels of global warming

Carbon removal schemes involving enhanced rock weathering should consider whether the rocks they use are lighter or darker than the soil, say researchers

A lithium battery patterned with holes is flexible, stretchable and allows more airflow than cotton, making it perfect for fitness tracking or medical monitoring wearables

Cryopreserved coral sperm could be used for future breeding programmes to restore damaged reefs

As the finale of the UK series approaches this evening, these are the best tactics to win the game of backstabbing and treachery, according to forensic psychology, game theory and evolutionary biology

South American megafauna, from giant sloths to camel-like creatures, survived thousands of years longer than we thought, challenging the idea that they were hunted to extinction by humans

Records from UK vehicle safety tests show that the average lifespan of an electric vehicle is 18 years, and the reliability is still improving considerably from year to year

Photographer Luisa Maria Stagno is on a mission to document the most unusual pigeons out there, from a Danish Suabian to a Gimpel

Robert Zemeckis's would-be epic film Here relies on real-time de-ageing technology. But do its ambitions conceal a more mundane project?

The Stargate Project aims to build huge data centres for AI development – but the details remain murky, and it is still unclear exactly how this might impact the energy future of the US

Many think dinosaurs first emerged on land well south of the equator that now forms part of Argentina and Zimbabwe, but they may have actually arisen in tougher conditions near the equator

More than 130 years after a fungus-eating orchid species was discovered, the purpose of its mysterious appendage has been revealed

Feedback is delighted by a YouTuber's sterling efforts to make Michael Crichton's velociraptors more accurate – but points out that they're still far too big

The shock discovery that metallic nodules could be producing oxygen in the deep sea made headlines last year – now the team behind it is launching a new project to confirm and explain the findings

Smell is often dismissed as a less important sense, but it makes our lives much more vivid, says Jonas Olofsson

Sleeping a solid 8 hours isn't the whole story and the quality of your sleep might matter more. But what does sleep quality mean and how can we measure it?

Kurt Gray's new book Outraged is a clear and insightful look at our society's deep divides, with valuable tips on building bridges

We often obsess about nighttime routines for good sleep, but mounting evidence shows that what we do during our waking hours is also important – a more holistic view that could ease the modern pressure to create a perfect environment for when our heads hit the pillow

When their quantum properties are precisely controlled, some ultracold atoms can resist the laws of physics that suggest everything tends towards disorder

We all know the tired old advice about how to get the best night's rest, but it can be hard to follow in the real world. A more personalised and holistic approach could help

New measurements suggest mysterious continent-sized masses in our planet’s lower mantle may be extremely stable features

A double layer of tungsten diselenide behaves as a superconductor at very low temperatures, which could suggest a new route to developing materials that do so at room temperature

People seem to assume that expensive branded drugs will be less likely to cause them harm than their generic counterparts, which manifests via the "nocebo effect"

The world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases will withdraw from the global climate pact, disrupting efforts to tackle climate change

The US contributes around a fifth of the budget for the World Health Organization – its withdrawal from the public health body will impede efforts to control the global spread of diseases and could put the US at risk

The megaflood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5 million years ago was so huge and fast that it shaped the landscape of what is now Sicily

All seven of the other planets in our solar system are about to become visible at once in a great planetary alignment – here’s how to spot the celestial show

From carefully timing meals and bedtime to turning down the lights and banning screens in bed, here's what the scientists who study sleep do to optimise their slumber

It is possible to speed up how quickly you get over jet lag – but calculating the right way to do it based on flight times, time zones and light exposure can be tricky

James Temple was "in the right place at the right time" to take these dramatic images of SpaceX's Starship's seventh flight test disintegrating above the Atlantic Ocean

Observations of WASP-127b, a giant gas exoplanet more than 500 light years from Earth, suggest it has phenomenally high wind speeds

Adding rows of upright panels on farmland generates green power in the morning and evening while acting as a windbreak for crops

Physicists have created a 3D shape called the cosmohedron, which can be used to reconstruct the quantum wavefunction of the universe – and potentially do away with the idea of space-time as the underlying fabric of the universe

After a close look with a powerful radio telescope, astronomers are still puzzled by a pair of objects with strange characteristics first spotted in 2021

A man with paralysis was able to fly a virtual drone through a complex obstacle course simply by thinking about moving his fingers, with signals being interpreted by an AI model

The benefits of taking GLP-1 agonists seem to outweigh the risks, at least when taken for approved uses, according to an assessment of how the drugs affect 175 conditions

Urine is rich in nitrogen, which is important for plant growth, and now scientists have found an efficient way of utilising this to make human wastewater into fertiliser

Countries like the UK, Spain and Italy rely on gas to step in when renewables can’t produce power, leading to higher energy prices – but a more flexible system could avoid this

The soft metal bismuth may be a wonder material for electronics – particularly because of one surprising behaviour it displays when exposed to magnetic fields

The gut microbiome has tremendous potential for helping us treat, or even prevent, many different conditions - but first, we need to understand it better

A fire at Vistra Energy's Moss Landing battery storage facility in California destroyed thousands of lithium batteries – and a significant amount of the state's clean energy storage capacity

Most people don’t adhere to their New Year’s fitness resolutions. These science-backed tips can make you the exception

At his best, Iain M. Banks could be extraordinarily stylish, inventive and downright funny. So how does his genre-redefining science fiction stand up to the test of time? Emily H. Wilson rereads the greats

A flying robot the size of a postage stamp can hover for up to 15 minutes without breaking, and it can perform acrobatic manoeuvres

Global average precipitation in 2024 may have broken the previous record set in 1998, as rising temperatures boosted the amount of moisture in the atmosphere

Now that the US Supreme Court has decided that a law banning TikTok is constitutional, the platform is set to shut down in the US on 19 January – but Trump could still save it

ELIZA is famous as a rudimentary artificial intelligence and the first ever chatbot, but versions found online today are actually knock-offs because the original computer code was lost – until now

The animals' teeth are constantly being worn down due to their tough diet. But rather than losing calcium this way, they could be recycling it to help grow their teeth back up to size

Blue Origin and SpaceX both launched rockets on 16 January, but while Jeff Bezos's company saw a launch success with New Glenn, Elon Musk's Starship exploded. What does this mean for the future of the space industry?

Scientists are scrambling to understand how climate change may be interfering with the winds that carry our weather, with potentially catastrophic consequences

The author of the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club on the science that lies behind his novel Alien Clay, set on a prison planet where the biology is very different to that on Earth

Trained pianists who hit a plateau improved their finger speed after a half-hour training session with a device that moves their fingers for them

Researchers saw a chain of atoms in a quantum simulator go from being magnetic to not magnetic at all, the first time such a change has ever been seen in one spatial dimension

In the opening to Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction novel Alien Clay, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, our hero wakes from years of space travel to a terrifying new reality

Wildfires and fossil fuel burning in 2024 contributed to the biggest annual rise in atmospheric CO2 levels ever recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii

From windswept craters to frigid ice caps, explore Martian landscapes through the eyes of NASA’s orbiters, probes and rovers

Neurologist Adam Zeman's excellent exploration of the power and complexity of our imaginations literally needs more space to house all its riches

As apparent acts of sabotage cut undersea data cables around the world, NATO held its first demonstration of a project to quickly reroute crucial communications to satellite internet

By using MRI brain scans to identify regions linked to hand movements and sensations, researchers were able to restore a sense of touch to two people with paralysis – and one was able to control and feel a robot arm using his thoughts

Droughts lasting multiple years are becoming more common and extreme around the globe, expanding by about 50,000 square kilometres annually

Genetic evidence from Iron Age Britain shows that women tended to stay within their ancestral communities, suggesting that social networks revolved around women

A jawbone found in a Moroccan mine was thought to be a novel species of marine reptile from the Cretaceous period, but other researchers believe it is probably a fake

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. In its latest instalment, Rowan Hooper reveals how by 2029, we had learned how to make synthetic spider silk, leading to a revolution in clothing

A reader is worried about socialising without the confidence boost she gets from alcohol. But studies show that the chemical isn’t necessary for easing our social inhibitions, our columnist David Robson advises

Feedback explores the upsides (and downsides) of Publish or Perish, a game that simulates the experience of building a career in scientific research

After delays and false starts, Jeff Bezos's firm Blue Origin has reached orbit with its first launch of the New Glenn rocket, though attempts to land the first stage at sea were unsuccessful

An AI trained on motion capture recordings can help robots smoothly imitate human actions, such as dancing, walking and throwing punches

Rebutting the serotonin theory of depression exposed an important gap in our knowledge. But Joanna Moncrieff's new book Chemically Imbalanced takes too narrow a view of how we should react

This month marks a year since the malaria vaccine rollout began. Here's what we still need in order to beat a disease as old as ancient Egypt, says Azra Ghani

Neolithic people buried hundreds of stones carved with images of the sun about 4900 years ago and they may have done it because a volcanic eruption covered the sky

The shipping industry is planning to swap some fossil fuels for green ammonia – but that could create a major new source of nitrogen pollution

A series of events, from the California wildfires to evidence we passed 1.5 degrees last year, suggests wild weather will become even more common

The Chinese social media apps Red Note and Lemon8 have become popular alternatives for TikTok users ahead of a US government ban on TikTok. But government restrictions loom over those apps too

Middle-aged mice fed golden oyster mushrooms had healthier hearts, suggesting an antioxidant in the fungi protects against the effects of ageing

A newly discovered neutron star is behaving so strangely that it may alter our understanding of the dense remains left behind when stellar objects die

Obesity is typically assessed by measuring someone's body mass index, but now researchers are calling for a more nuanced approach that could help with treatment

A huge number of ultracold atoms have been corralled into a grid that could form the basis of the next largest quantum computer

Volcanoes have been proposed as the reason for the extinction of the Neanderthals and the hobbits of Indonesia, but the end of those species may not have come from a single, dramatic event

From 2000 to 2022, the US legally imported almost 30,000 different species of plants and animals, from songbirds to reptiles

A range of brainwave-reading devices and other gadgets aim to monitor our nervous systems and intervene to improve our well-being. Do they work?

Two companies, Firefly Aerospace and ispace, are aiming to make the second and third successful private landings on the moon - and both are launching on the same Falcon 9 rocket

A marine crustacean that looks like Darth Vader’s helmet has been recognised as a new species, but it could be under threat from trawling due to its popularity in Vietnamese restaurants