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This week's magazine

1 February 2025

Issue 3528

New Scientist issue 3528 cover
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Editor's picks

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 29: Pro Affirmative Action supporters and and counter protestors shout at each outside of the Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday, June 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. In a 6-3 vote, Supreme Court Justices ruled that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional, setting precedent for affirmative action in other universities and colleges. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Society

Building a true meritocracy means removing barriers, not ignoring them

Comment
AUSTRIA - JANUARY 01: Venus of Willendorf, statuette made of limestone, made about 25.000 BC. Photography by Gerhard Trumler, 1990. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images) [Venus von Willendorf, Statuette aus Kalkstein, um 25.000 v. Chr. entstanden. Photographie von Gerhard Trumler, 1990.]

Humans

How our ancestors invented clothing and transformed it into fashion

Features
A new kind of hidden black hole may explain the mystery of dark energy

Physics

A new kind of hidden black hole may explain the mystery of dark energy

Features
The psychologist exposing the mental gymnastics that conceal racism

Society

The psychologist exposing the mental gymnastics that conceal racism

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 29: Pro Affirmative Action supporters and and counter protestors shout at each outside of the Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday, June 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. In a 6-3 vote, Supreme Court Justices ruled that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional, setting precedent for affirmative action in other universities and colleges. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Society

Building a true meritocracy means removing barriers, not ignoring them

US President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in government agencies in order to build a “merit-based” society. But psychological research shows that such initiatives can create fairer outcomes, if employed correctly

Comment

News

Technology

Brain implant lets man with paralysis fly a virtual drone by thought

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

News

Environment

Reliance on wind and solar does expose nations to energy price spikes

News

Environment

Farms can install vertical solar panels without reducing crop yields

News

Mind

This optical illusion expands as you stare at it - and now we know why

News

Space

Weird icy balls in space could be a totally new kind of star

News

Physics

Extremely cold atoms can selectively defy entropy

News

Health

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy lower the risk of 42 conditions

News

Space

An alien planet has winds that blow at 33,000 kilometres per hour

News

Environment

Sicily's hills were 40 metres below water during Earth's megaflood

News

Technology

Electric cars now last as long as petrol and diesel counterparts

News

Physics

Twisted crystals show hints of a new kind of superconductivity

News

Earth

Towering structures in Earth’s depths may be billions of years old

News

Life

An orchid uses a finger-like appendage to pollinate itself

News

Life

Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia

News

Life

Dinosaurs may have first evolved in the Sahara and Amazon rainforest

News

Environment

Carbon removal schemes on farms could change Earth’s reflectivity

News

Environment

The world is on track for between 1.9 and 3.7°C of warming by 2100

News

Health

Covid smell loss eased by injecting blood cells into the nose

News

Environment

Setting fire to a million acres of California could cut smoke by half

News

Technology

A hole-filled battery could make wearables more breathable than cotton

News

Space

Habitable planets could have formed at the dawn of the universe

News

Earth

Gorgeous images capture coral breeding breakthrough

News

Environment

A giant iceberg is headed for the island of South Georgia

News

Analysis

Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 23 January 2025.

Society

What Trump's first week means for climate, science, health and tech

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

News

Aperture

Incredible images show the moment SpaceX's Starship exploded

Space

Incredible images show the moment SpaceX's Starship exploded

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

Regulars

Features

AUSTRIA - JANUARY 01: Venus of Willendorf, statuette made of limestone, made about 25.000 BC. Photography by Gerhard Trumler, 1990. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images) [Venus von Willendorf, Statuette aus Kalkstein, um 25.000 v. Chr. entstanden. Photographie von Gerhard Trumler, 1990.]

Humans

How our ancestors invented clothing and transformed it into fashion

Remarkable archaeological finds are telling a new story of how prehistoric humans turned clothing from a necessity into a means of self-expression

Features

Society

The psychologist exposing the mental gymnastics that conceal racism

Features

Physics

A new kind of hidden black hole may explain the mystery of dark energy

Features

Culture

This look at animal consciousness is a moral workout – in the best way

Mind

This look at animal consciousness is a moral workout – in the best way

Some animals – and even machines – may turn out to be conscious. Must we wait for scientific certainty before sharing our rights, asks The Moral Circle

Culture

Life

A lively history shows that the human neck is full of surprises

Culture

Comment

New Scientist recommends the British Museum's Silk Roads exhibition

Culture

Life

How humans evolved to think about risk may cost Earth dearly

Culture

More

These interstellar spaceship designs are wildly impractical

Space

These interstellar spaceship designs are wildly impractical

Scientists’ ideas for travelling to the stars range from the the wholly improbable to the hugely expensive and very difficult, says Ed Regis

Comment

Environment

Rewild the UK with lynx soon? Not a cat in hell’s chance, sadly

Comment

Space

How to spot Bode's galaxy this month

Regulars

BrainTwister #58: Fulfilling fractions

Regulars

Tom Gauld on the game of science

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on tree communications

Regulars

Regulars

The strange geoengineering idea with potential for significant fallout

Comment

The strange geoengineering idea with potential for significant fallout

Feedback is intrigued (and terrified) by a new paper that suggests you could set off a ridiculously gigantic nuclear bomb deep under the seabed to mop up carbon dioxide

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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