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Tackling topics from the cutting edge of dark matter research to the latest developments in the tech world, explore the incisive opinions of New Scientist's expert columnists.

Society

The weird tale of California Forever, a tech billionaire instant city

A group of Silicon Valley investors wants to see a brand new community for 50,000 people rise out of the dirt north of San Francisco. It's really not a good idea, says Annalee Newitz

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A road sign is posted near a parcel of land recently purchased by Flannery Associates near Rio Vista, California on September 15, 2023. A stealth campaign by Silicon Valley elites with a dream of turning a swath of California farmland into a new age city has ranchers who live here challenging their tactics as well as their motives. The project first surfaced when a mysterious buyer started gobbling up parcels of land in this rural outback between San Francisco and Sacramento. The buyer, first revealed by the New York Times in August, turned out to be a secretive outfit called Flannery Associates. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Technology

A tale of two Silicon Valley Sams – Bankman-Fried and Altman

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A tale of two Silicon Valley Sams – Bankman-Fried and Altman

Space

Two books to write and the universe to decipher – 2024’s gonna be busy

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Beatriz Nascimento Afro-Brazilian academic and activist
Youth from Fridays for Future organization stage a protest calling to cease fires and end fossil fuels in the conference venue, Blue Zone during the COP28, UN Climate Change Conference, held by UNFCCC in Dubai Exhibition Center, United Arab Emirates on December 8, 2023. COP28, running from November 30 to December 12 focuses on particular nations' decarbonisation goals. The Conference in Dubai focuses also on the most vulnerable communities and Loss and Damage (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Environment

How 2023 saw the UK going backwards on climate issues

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TBTFJA star trail circle-space-night-sunset-blue

Physics

Why I've been somewhat obsessed with space-time this year

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Life

The battle to bring beavers back to Scotland

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Hand with smartphone, e-news concept. Casual young man using mobile app to read online newspaper; Shutterstock ID 688514581; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Technology

Trust and safety – the most important tech job you’ve never heard of

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BFERM2 Bulldozer Spread Coal Mine Waste on Impoundment Dam

Environment

Could coal mining waste provide crucial elements for green tech?

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KPJYBX Illustration of a coronal mass ejection impacting the Earth?s atmosphere. These events, CMEs for short, are powerful releases of solar charged particl

Space

Why we need to bring stellar astrophysics into the real world

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CARDIFF, WALES - FEBRUARY 23: A teacher wearing a face mask teaches a child at Roath Park Primary School on February 23, 2021 in Cardiff, Wales. Children aged three to seven began a phased return to school on Monday. Wales' education minister Kirsty Williams has said more primary school children will be able to return to face-to-face learning from March 15 if coronavirus cases continue to fall. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

Health

HEPA filters cut covid-19 sick days but we've been slow proving this

Covid-19 sick days were 20 per cent lower in schools with air-cleaning HEPA filter machines, researchers on an eagerly-awaited study have found. But why has it taken so long to discover how well they work, asks Clare Wilson

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2T17MYG Los Angeles, United States. 12th Oct, 2023. File photo dated October 06, 2019 of Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith attend Paramount Pictures' premiere of Gemini Man in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed in a new interview that she and her husband Will Smith have been separated since 2016. Though the actors were living completely separate lives for seven years, they were not ready to publicly confirm the news before, she confessed to NBC. Photo by Lionel Hahn/ABACAPRESS.COM Credit: Abaca Press/Alamy Live News

Society

Don't click on the war

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Field Notes - Graham Lawton

Environment

Why I won't be buying sea-farmed salmon ever again

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S3F98G Colorful balloons against the light

Space

How the balloon analogy for an expanding universe is almost perfect

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Portland, OR, USA - Jan 17, 2023: Webpages of ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, and Google are seen on smartphones. A new wave of chatbots like ChatGPT use AI that can reinvent the traditional search engine.; Shutterstock ID 2250721589; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Technology

We still don't really understand what large language models are

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