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This week's magazine

3 May 2025

Issue 3541

New Scientist issue 3541 cover
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Editor's picks

Let's remember that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence

Life

Let's remember that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence

Comment
How vanishing Y chromosomes could help explain men's ill health

Health

How vanishing Y chromosomes could help explain men's ill health

Features
Early spring - a backpacking walk through a beautiful green forest - Poland, Warmia and Masuria; Shutterstock ID 1954071967; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Mind

How a simple walk can bust stress, boost cognition and fight diseases

Features
The 'impossible' particle hinting at the universe's biggest secrets

Physics

The 'impossible' particle hinting at the universe's biggest secrets

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Let's remember that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence

Life

Let's remember that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence

Several recent scientific findings, including signs of life on an exoplanet and 'de-extinction' of the dire wolf have caused a stir but when a claim seems too good to be true it probably is

Comment

News

Life

Giant coral colony discovered in Red Sea tourism hotspot

A huge colony of Pavona coral near the coast of Saudi Arabia is thought to be the largest living example found in the Red Sea

News

Technology

Jets wrapped in 'shark skin' material could fly further on less fuel

News

Physics

LHC breaks the record for heaviest antimatter nucleus ever seen

News

Life

Bats that walk backwards have developed unusual navigation strategy

News

Technology

We can build quantum computers using the rules of special relativity

News

Health

Reducing high blood pressure can cut risk of dementia

News

Environment

Colossal ancient icebergs left grooves on the bottom of the North Sea

News

Physics

'Dark photon' theory of light aims to tear up a century of physics

News

Environment

Can climate science attribute economic damage to major polluters?

News

Humans

First evidence of gladiator fight with lion seen in Roman-era skeleton

News

Health

Lyme disease treated with antibiotic that doesn't harm gut microbiome

News

Life

Dire wolf 'de-extinction' criticised by conservation group

News

Health

Daily doses of peanuts could desensitise adults with the allergy

News

Physics

First ever 'black hole bomb' created in the lab

News

Earth

Ancient supervolcano eruption had surprisingly mild impact on climate

News

Life

'Bone collector' caterpillar wears dead insect body parts as disguise

News

Space

Signs of alien life on exoplanet K2-18b may just be statistical noise

News

Humans

Humans evolved to survive mild burns at the expense of severe ones

News

Technology

Is Keir Starmer being advised by AI? The UK government won’t tell us

News

Life

A giant snail that lives up to its name

News

Aperture

Out of Africa champagne picnic experience. Masai Mara luxury safari. Kenya Kenya???s national parks and reserves offer tourists the chance to see wild animals in what remains of their natural habitat. In Masai Mara, tourists engage in colonial fantasies while re-enacting the romantic picnic scene in the film Out of Africa. Local Masaai tribesman are employed to provide picturesque authenticity to the experience. Earth???s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in the last 50 years; 90% of African elephants have been wiped out in the past century. Kenyan national parks provide a sanctuary, but the animals living within them are allowed to survive essentially for human entertainment and reassurance. These animals become, in effect, performers for paying tourists eager to see a nostalgic picture-book image of the natural world.

Environment

Captivating images expose a 'staged version' of nature

In his series The Anthropocene Illusion, photographer Zed Nelson highlights the tension between an unfolding environmental crisis and our obsession with 'curating' nature

Regulars

Features

The 'impossible' particle hinting at the universe's biggest secrets

Physics

The 'impossible' particle hinting at the universe's biggest secrets

Neutrinos have always been hard to explain – and now the detection of one so energetic it shouldn't exist may help illuminate the strangest corners of the cosmos

Features

Mind

How a simple walk can bust stress, boost cognition and fight diseases

Features

Health

How vanishing Y chromosomes could help explain men's ill health

Features

Culture

H7X53M Los Cedros River, Cotacachi-Cayapas Reserve, Ecuador

Life

Robert Macfarlane is wrong to cast rivers as life forms in new book

We should protect Earth's rivers and forests with laws. But it is another matter to claim them as living beings, as Robert Macfarlane does in his new book Is a River Alive?

Culture

Life

Welcome to a great, straightforward guide to the tree of life

Culture

Life

New Scientist recommends Ocean with David Attenborough

Culture

Environment

This sensational novel shows what climate fiction can be

Culture

More

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Blue Origin/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock (15255350a) Texas, USA: New Shepard-31 Capsule Recovery with the crew : Katy Perry, American Singer, Aisha Bowe, American aerospace engineer, Lauren Sanchez, American presenter and companion of Jeff Bezos, Kerianne Flynn, American Producer, Gayle King, American journalist, and Amanda N. Nguyen (Amanda Nguyen), Activist. Suborbital launch system and landing mission. This suborbital flight, the 31st in the New Shepard program and the 11th crewed, will extend Blue Origin's initiative to democratize access to space, having already carried 52 people beyond the Karman line. USA. Blue Origin All-Women Crew Historic Space Launch, Texas, USA - 14 Apr 2025

Society

Does science have a future in the US?

When politics and science align, it is easy to think science is apolitical. But the situation in the US today shows how science has always been fuelled by politics, says Annalee Newitz

Comment

Health

Can running too far be bad for your health?

Regulars

BrainTwister #71: Dip die

Regulars

Environment

We may soon be able to hold fossil fuel companies to account

Comment

Tom Gauld on the hidden realm of fungi

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on VR headset scenarios for a cardio workout

Regulars

Regulars

Why do so many AI company logos look like buttholes?

Comment

Why do so many AI company logos look like buttholes?

Feedback notes the proliferation of AI company logos, and agrees with one blogger's claim that many bear a striking resemblance to a certain anatomical feature

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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