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This week's magazine

25 November 2023

Issue 3466

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Editor's picks

The UFO shines on a male standing on the mountain; Shutterstock ID 1476587882; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Our hunt for alien life needs solid guidelines for clear-cut success

Leader

Subscriber-only
Not to be used in museums, exhibitions, or articles about Elisabeth Daynes or the Atelier Daynes. No use in any context outside of mainstream science without the express permission of Atelier Daynes. Front covers or private use require clearance. Mandatory credit. Paranthropus boisei model. Reconstruction of a specimen of Paranthropus boisei. This hominin, which is sometimes classified as Australopithecus boisei, lived from 2.3 to 1.2 million years ago in eastern Africa. P. boisei is one of several extinct species that form an early part of the human evolutionary tree. Reconstruction by Elisabeth Daynes of the Daynes Studio, Paris, France. MANDATORY CREDIT.

Humans

How did Paranthropus, the last of the ape-people, survive for so long?

Features

Subscriber-only
How to get a better night's sleep by hacking your brainwaves

Health

How to get a better night's sleep by hacking your brainwaves

Features

Subscriber-only
FG10H1 JUPITER: EUROPA, 1979. /nJupiter's moon, Europa. Photographed by Voyager 2, 1979.

Space

How excited should we be by signs of life spotted on alien worlds?

Features

Subscriber-only

Table of contents

Leaders

The UFO shines on a male standing on the mountain; Shutterstock ID 1476587882; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Our hunt for alien life needs solid guidelines for clear-cut success

A proposed framework to assess and communicate the credibility of detections of extraterrestrial life is vital to deliver results we can all believe in

Leader

Subscriber-only

News

Technology

Game-playing DeepMind AI can beat top humans at chess, Go and poker

An artificial intelligence capable of beating humans at a variety of games is an important step towards a more general intelligence, says Google DeepMind

News

Free

The international space station

Physics

Ultracold atoms in space will let us stress test Einstein's relativity

News

Free

Life

Ants treat their own fungal infections by eating aphids

News

Free

Technology

3D-printed robotic hand has working tendons and muscles

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Anemones are first known animals to follow the sun like plants do

News

Subscriber-only

Space

Comets may bring ingredients for life most easily to clustered planets

News

Free

Health

Blood test could predict the severity of depression in adolescents

News

Subscriber-only

Health

The brain's waste disposal system can prevent swelling after an injury

News

Subscriber-only

Technology

Flexible needle goes soft after injections for safety and comfort

News

Subscriber-only

Health

Electronic pill monitors your breathing and heart rate from your gut

News

Free

Environment

COP28 must stick to 1.5°C target to save ice sheets, urge scientists

News

Free

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden

Technology

How the US and China talking AI safety could reduce nuclear war risk

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Bonobos are friendly with those outside their group – unlike chimps

News

Free

Health

Cannabis addiction may be partly down to genetics

News

Free

Space

Strange nebula changes colour rhythmically like a mood lamp

News

Subscriber-only

Environment

Earth passes 2°C of warming on hottest day ever recorded

News

Free

Life

Bat uses its huge penis like an arm during sex

News

Free

Life

Plants are more productive on weekends thanks to cleaner air

News

Free

Environment

Russia's war effort may be blinding a vital Earth monitoring satellite

News

Subscriber-only

Health

Eight personality traits may help people live to 100 and beyond

News

Subscriber-only

Analysis

Health

Sickle cell CRISPR 'cure' is the start of a revolution in medicine

The approval of a first CRISPR treatment, for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, is just the start for a technology still in its infancy

Analysis

Subscriber-only

Why has the death of Matthew Perry affected so many of us so much?

Mind

Why has the death of Matthew Perry affected so many of us so much?

Comment

Subscriber-only

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

Comment

Free

The caudate nuclei, parts of the brain affected by Huntington's disease

Health

Mutation behind Huntington's linked to higher childhood intelligence

Analysis

Subscriber-only

Aperture

Looking At Trees Anna_Beeke-p8-?Anna Beeke

Life

See a very special spruce - the Tree of Life in Washington state

Anna Beeke's shot of this huge spruce, which has become a landmark on the Pacific shoreline, is part of a stunning new book of photographs highlighting trees and woodlands around the world

Regulars

Free

Features

FG10H1 JUPITER: EUROPA, 1979. /nJupiter's moon, Europa. Photographed by Voyager 2, 1979.

Space

How excited should we be by signs of life spotted on alien worlds?

We keep spotting molecular “biosignatures” in the atmospheres of planets beyond Earth, but it isn't clear if any of them can provide definitive evidence that we’re not alone

Features

Subscriber-only

Not to be used in museums, exhibitions, or articles about Elisabeth Daynes or the Atelier Daynes. No use in any context outside of mainstream science without the express permission of Atelier Daynes. Front covers or private use require clearance. Mandatory credit. Paranthropus boisei model. Reconstruction of a specimen of Paranthropus boisei. This hominin, which is sometimes classified as Australopithecus boisei, lived from 2.3 to 1.2 million years ago in eastern Africa. P. boisei is one of several extinct species that form an early part of the human evolutionary tree. Reconstruction by Elisabeth Daynes of the Daynes Studio, Paris, France. MANDATORY CREDIT.

Humans

How did Paranthropus, the last of the ape-people, survive for so long?

Features

Subscriber-only

How to get a better night's sleep by hacking your brainwaves

Health

How to get a better night's sleep by hacking your brainwaves

Features

Subscriber-only

Culture

2K00NBC Diver in a bloom of jellyfishes Aurelia aurita pointing something

Comment

How do two new books on consciousness close in on the elusive field?

The Four Realms of Existence by Joseph LeDoux and Consciousness by John Parrington tell us a lot about human cognition, brain structure and evolution – but most of all they demonstrate how far this most tricky of quests still has to go

Culture

Subscriber-only

2AR175X Amsterdam, Netherlands. 25th Jan, 2020. AMSTERDAM, 25-01-2020, Amsterdam, Dam Square, 5G Protest Credit: Pro Shots/Alamy Live News

Comment

Troubled by Faith review: How delusion marked psychology's beginnings

Culture

Subscriber-only

Over my dad body

Comment

New Scientist recommends: Over My Dad Body and Live to 100

Culture

Subscriber-only

Episode 3. Masha Mashkova and Joel Kinnaman in "For All Mankind,"

Comment

For All Mankind season four review: Space race drama still a winner

Culture

Subscriber-only

More

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Graeme Whipps/Shutterstock (4301807b) Pic shows the Geminid meteor shower over Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire on Sunday evening Dec 14th. A Scottish photographer has managed to get some pictures of the Geminid meteor shower on its FINAL night above the UK. Amateur astronomer Graeme Whipps picked up 13 meteors on camera in the dramatic display above Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire last night (Sun). "There was a little bit of airglow, an active burst of aurora, distant lightning flashes and last, but not least, the Geminids," said Graeme, 50, who works as a meteorologist. "It wasn't as bright as the 12th and 13th but they were much more frequent, although mostly short and fast moving." The shower is an annual occurrence which happens when the Earth crosses paths with a trail of rocky debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. The debris burns up when it enters the Earth's atmosphere, giving the appearance of a "shooting star." Annual Geminid Meteor Shower, Exeter, Devon, Britain - 14 Dec 2014 A Scottish photographer has managed to get some pictures of the Geminid meteor shower on its FINAL night above the UK. Amateur astronomer Graeme Whipps picked up 13 meteors on camera in the dramatic display above Pitcaple in Aberdeenshire. "There was a little bit of airglow, an active burst of aurora, distant lightning flashes and last, but not least, the Geminids," said Graeme, 50, who works as a meteorologist. "It wasn't as bright as the 12th and 13th but they were much more frequent, although mostly short and fast moving." The shower is an annual occurrence which happens when the Earth crosses paths with a trail of rocky debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. The debris burns up when it enters the Earth's atmosphere, giving the appearance of a "shooting star."

Space

How to spot this year's Geminid meteor shower

The peak of the spectacular Geminids meteor shower is on the night of 14 and 15 December, but the shower is active from 4 December, says Abigail Beall

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Puzzle #249: Can you calculate exactly how much more paint is needed?

Puzzle #249: Can you calculate exactly how much more paint is needed?

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Tom Gauld: Notice how the eyes follow you around the room

Tom Gauld: Notice how the eyes follow you around the room

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles on an ultra-rare limited edition cold

Twisteddoodles on an ultra-rare limited edition cold

Regulars

Free

Regulars

New black hole discovered in New Zealand toilet

New black hole discovered in New Zealand toilet

After bringing the world news of the Black Hole Lane near a reader's home in Hereford, UK, last month, Feedback is delighted to learn of the existence of the Black Hole Public Toilet in Nelson, New Zealand

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

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