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New Scientist – News

Last feed update: Friday March 29th, 2024 09:02:53 AM

DNA sequencing may give hope to critically ill adults in hospital

Friday March 29th, 2024 10:00:06 AM
Genome analysis as a way of helping people with baffling medical conditions has so far mainly been seen as a diagnostic tool for babies and children, but it also helps adults

Spreading rock dust on farms boosts crop yields and captures CO2

Thursday March 28th, 2024 12:01:54 AM
We already have evidence that rock dust can remove carbon dioxide from the air – now there are signs that spreading the dust on farm fields also enhances crop growth

Early galaxy seen by JWST contains giant young stars and supernovae

Thursday March 28th, 2024 06:00:31 AM
The light signature from GLASS-z12, one of the most distant galaxies we have ever seen, suggests some of its stars have already exploded as supernovae

Hyperelastic gel is one of the stretchiest materials known to science

Thursday March 28th, 2024 06:00:09 PM
A super-stretchy hydrogel can stretch to 15 times its original length and return to its initial shape, and could be used to make soft inflatable robots

The ambitious plans to study the sun during April’s solar eclipse

Thursday March 28th, 2024 08:00:37 PM
Solar scientists have been preparing for years for a 4-minute window, during the total solar eclipse on 8 April, in which they will study the sun’s corona

Japan’s SLIM moon lander surprisingly survived a second lunar night

Thursday March 28th, 2024 04:13:32 PM
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon spacecraft has sent back images after surviving its second lunar night – generally these periods are so cold they destroy spacecraft electronics

Could bone marrow transplants transmit Alzheimer’s disease?

Thursday March 28th, 2024 03:00:16 PM
The mainstream view is that Alzheimer’s starts in the brain, but researchers were able to transfer the condition in mice by injections of bone marrow

Mathematicians are bitterly divided over a controversial proof

Thursday March 28th, 2024 01:00:33 PM
An attempt to settle a decade-long argument over a controversial proof by mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki has seen a war of words on both sides, with Mochizuki dubbing the latest effort as akin to a “hallucination” produced by ChatGPT

Chair for gamers boosts player performance and prevents muscular aches

Thursday March 28th, 2024 12:00:02 PM
Gamers seemed to be more comfortable after playing in a specialist gaming chair compared with a standard office chair

Some of the greatest cosmic discoveries have come about by accident

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
The universe has been surprising us ever since we first looked into the cosmic darkness. We should embrace serendipity in science, says Chris Lintott

Mars may have captured and split a comet to create its two moons

Thursday March 28th, 2024 08:00:28 AM
How the Red Planet acquired its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, is unknown – they could have formed after something collided with the planet, or started out as asteroids – but now there is a hint of a cometary origin

NASA’s Artemis astronauts will try to grow plants on the moon

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 08:18:57 PM
Three experiments have been selected to fly to the moon alongside NASA’s Artemis III astronauts, all designed to help with future long-term stays on the moon and eventually Mars

This robot predicts when you’re going to smile – and smiles back

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 06:00:05 PM
An AI-powered robot named Emo watches people’s facial expressions and tries to match them, in an effort to make robots more relatable

We’ve glimpsed something that behaves like a particle of gravity

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 04:00:30 PM
Gravitons, the particles thought to carry gravity, have never been seen in space – but something very similar has been detected in a semiconductor

Antibody therapy makes the immune systems of old mice young again

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 04:00:49 PM
A novel antibody therapy makes the immune system of old mice appear younger, allowing the animals to better fend off infections and reduce inflammation

Is every species necessary or can we let some die out?

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 04:00:26 PM
There are thousands of species at risk of extinction, and we can’t save them all – how do conservationists think about which ones to focus on?

Eclipse 2024: When is it and where can I see it?

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 03:00:09 PM
North America will have a total solar eclipse on 8 April – here is where, when and how to view it safely

Implantable battery is charged up by the body’s oxygen supply

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 03:00:10 PM
Many medical implants run on batteries that need to be recharged, but what if you could do so just by breathing?

New view of our galaxy’s black hole reveals a swirling magnetic field

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 01:00:54 PM
The black hole at the centre of our galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, has been captured in polarised light to reveal its magnetic field

Most accurate clock ever can tick for 40 billion years without error

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 12:00:36 PM
The record for the most accurate clock has been broken in an experiment with strontium atoms almost as cold as absolute zero, and it is twice as accurate as any predecessor

AI chatbots are improving at an even faster rate than computer chips

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 10:00:49 AM
The large language models behind AI chatbots are developing so rapidly that after eight months, a model only needs half the computing power to hit the same benchmark score – which is much faster than the rate at which computer chips improve

Horses used in therapy often avoid people if they are given a choice

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 06:00:55 AM
Horses show signs of stress if people touch them while they are tethered, but they appear much less anxious if they are able to walk away

Some bamboo toilet paper contains only tiny amounts of bamboo

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 12:01:45 AM
Toilet paper made from bamboo is supposed to be more eco-friendly than traditional paper made from virgin wood pulp. But new tests suggest some products contain as little as 3 per cent bamboo

Not getting enough sleep may make you feel years older

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 12:01:12 AM
Insufficient sleep seems to result in people feeling older than they are, with a higher “subjective age” previously being linked to depression

Unexploded bombs from the second world war are getting more dangerous

Wednesday March 27th, 2024 12:01:01 AM
An explosive found inside many bombs and shells used during the first and second world wars is becoming more likely to explode in response to impacts

Bird flu detected in US dairy cows – here’s what you need to know

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 09:27:31 PM
The US Department of Agriculture has detected bird flu in dairy cows from Texas and Kansas – the first time the virus has been found in cattle

How to make an eclipse viewer

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 06:00:08 PM
Some basic equipment can help you safely enjoy the eclipse on 8 April – here’s how to easily make what you need

Flavour-predicting AI can tell brewers how to make beer taste better

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 04:00:31 PM
An AI model trained on chemical and perceptual data on 250 Belgian beers can predict the flavour profile of a brew – and how to make it tastier

AI forecaster can predict the future better than humans

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 03:00:39 PM
An AI forecaster based on the language model GPT-4 can predict the outcome of future events more accurately than single humans. In some cases, it can even outperform the “wisdom of crowds”

Heat pumps: How to speed up the switch to low-carbon home heating

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 02:00:00 PM
The rollout of heat pumps and other green heating technologies is going far too slowly in the UK – here’s what’s needed to get it moving

Paper planes made by a robot fly better than ones made by humans

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 12:00:07 PM
A robot that can design, build and test objects made from folded paper can make paper planes that fly further than ones made by a human having the same number of attempts

Ancient people carved mysterious symbols near dinosaur footprints

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 10:28:46 AM
A unique site in Brazil features rock carvings closely associated with dinosaur tracks, suggesting prehistoric people saw the footprints as meaningful

Huge crater in India hints at major meteorite impact 4000 years ago

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 08:00:18 AM
The Luna structure, a 1.8-kilometre-wide depression in north-west India, may have been caused by the largest meteorite to strike Earth in the past 50,000 years

Your nationality may influence how much you talk with your hands

Tuesday March 26th, 2024 05:00:59 AM
When recounting an episode of the children’s TV show Pingu, people from Italy made an average of 22 gestures per 100 words, compared with 11 for Swedish people

Wildfire smoke may be deadliest effect of climate change in US

Monday March 25th, 2024 04:00:57 PM
Smoke from wildfires made worse by climate change is set to cause thousands of additional deaths each year in the US

Dust clouds from the Sahara are reaching Europe more frequently

Monday March 25th, 2024 03:00:51 PM
Changes in wind patterns and desertification may be increasing the amount of dust from the Sahara desert blown over western Europe and the frequency of these events

Birds make an ‘after you’ gesture to prompt their mate to enter nest

Monday March 25th, 2024 02:00:15 PM
Japanese tits sometimes flutter their wings in an apparent gesture of encouraging their mate to enter their shared nest first

Humans spread more viruses to other animals than they give to us

Monday March 25th, 2024 12:00:13 PM
An analysis of viral genomes shows it is more common for viruses to jump from humans to other animals than the other way around

NASA’s mission to Europa isn’t meant to find alien life – but it could

Friday March 22nd, 2024 06:00:58 PM
Later this year, NASA is launching its Europa Clipper spacecraft to the icy moon of Jupiter. Its mission is only to investigate whether the moon is habitable, but now researchers have found that one of its instruments could look for direct signs of life

Tiny deer from the dry valleys of Peru recognised as new species

Monday March 25th, 2024 10:00:04 AM
A 38-centimetre-tall deer, found in an arid region in the central Andes, is the first new deer species found in South America for over 60 years

Why we need to invoke philosophy to judge bizarre concepts in science

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Theories of mind and cosmos are inevitably preposterous – knowing how to weigh competing implausibilities can help us decide which we should back

Medieval horses buried in London had far-flung origins

Friday March 22nd, 2024 06:00:16 PM
Isotopic analysis of horse teeth from a medieval burial site suggest that the animals were imported to England from Scandinavia or the Alps, perhaps for use in battle or jousting

Largest recorded solar storm was even bigger than we thought

Friday March 22nd, 2024 12:00:25 PM
Rediscovered magnetic recordings reveal just how extreme the largest recorded solar storm in history, the Carrington event in 1859, really was, highlighting the danger such storms could present to us nowadays

Dogs really do understand that words stand for objects

Friday March 22nd, 2024 03:00:08 PM
Pet dogs have different patterns of brain activity when they are shown an object that doesn’t match the word they hear, suggesting they have a mental representation of what words mean

Ant queens have good reasons for eating their own babies

Friday March 22nd, 2024 10:00:49 AM
Feasting on family members may be an unorthodox way for ant queens to keep their fledgling colonies from being overrun by lethal fungi

Sulphur dioxide from Iceland volcano eruption has reached the UK

Thursday March 21st, 2024 05:38:34 PM
A huge plume of sulphur dioxide from the latest eruption in Iceland is drifting across Europe, but it isn’t expected to cause any significant harm

Male and female spiders pair up to look like a flower

Friday March 22nd, 2024 08:00:46 AM
Together, a dark-hued male crab spider and a larger, paler female resemble a flower, in what researchers suspect is the first case of cooperative mimicry

Why giving AI a robot body could make its ‘brain’ more human-like

Thursday March 21st, 2024 09:30:18 PM
At its AI conference, Nvidia announced new software and hardware for AI-powered humanoid robots: a model called Project GR00T and a computer called Jetson Thor

SpaceX’s Starship created a volcano-like explosion in first launch

Thursday March 21st, 2024 07:00:03 PM
The Starship rocket destroyed its launch pad during its first launch attempt in 2023, and the explosion resembled a powerful volcanic eruption, spraying sand and chunks of debris over a huge area

Organic farms seem to trigger more pesticide use on conventional farms

Thursday March 21st, 2024 06:00:50 PM
Insects tend to be more abundant on organic farms than conventional ones, which may cause the pests to spill over into neighbouring fields, prompting these farmers to increase their pesticide use

Pig kidney transplanted into living human for the first time

Thursday March 21st, 2024 05:48:44 PM
A genetically modified pig kidney has been successfully transplanted into a living human – and the recipient is expected to leave hospital soon

Teen sweat has distinct chemical make-up with notes of musk and urine

Thursday March 21st, 2024 04:00:56 PM
Teenagers and babies produce different chemicals in their sweat, which may be why infants are generally considered to smell sweeter

Food costs more because of climate change – and it will get worse

Thursday March 21st, 2024 04:00:29 PM
Rising temperatures are predicted to drive up food inflation by between 0.9 and 3.2 per cent a year by 2035, as crop yields suffer from extreme heat

Why 2024 Abel prize winner Michel Talagrand became a mathematician

Thursday March 21st, 2024 03:17:01 PM
After losing an eye at the age of 5, the 2024 Abel prize winner Michel Talagrand found comfort in mathematics

Why falling birth rates will be a bigger problem than overpopulation

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 11:30:56 PM
Birthrates are projected to have fallen below the replacement level, of 2.1 per woman, in more than three quarters of countries by 2050

Is the truth out there? Yes, but it doesn’t involve aliens

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
A recent paper packed with delightful acronyms digs into where people report having seen UFOs, but finds no evidence of alien visitors, says Annalee Newitz

Has Neuralink made a breakthrough in brain implant technology?

Thursday March 21st, 2024 01:14:31 PM
Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface firm Neuralink has released a video of its first patient, Noland Arbaugh, controlling a computer cursor with his thoughts – is this the future?

Fluffy beetle discovered in Australia may be the world’s hairiest

Thursday March 21st, 2024 01:02:10 PM
The exceptionally long white hairs on the newly named longhorn beetle Excastra albopilosa may deceive predators into thinking it is covered in fungus

How to take a stunning photograph of April’s total eclipse

Thursday March 21st, 2024 12:00:32 PM
Photographing the eclipse isn’t as easy as taking a selfie, but with a bit of preparation anyone can capture a memorable image

Ozempic and Wegovy linked to a lower risk of cannabis use disorder

Thursday March 21st, 2024 12:00:15 PM
An analysis of almost 700,000 people with type 2 diabetes or obesity found that those prescribed Ozempic or Wegovy were about half as likely to develop cannabis use disorder as those taking other medications

These four common medicines could help prolong your life

Thursday March 21st, 2024 10:00:12 AM
Viagra, HRT, a statin and a painkiller slightly lowered people’s chances of dying over a 12-year study, suggesting they may have life-extending properties

Why our genetic code should remain off-limits to life insurers

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
As DNA testing becomes routine, will life insurance companies start using our genetic code to inform their decisions, asks Jenny Kleeman

Blue tits shared a tree hollow with bird-eating bats – and survived

Thursday March 21st, 2024 06:00:34 AM
A pair of blue tits were seen nesting in a tree cavity that was also inhabited by about 25 greater noctule bats, which commonly eat blue tits, but the birds lived to tell the tale

Extinct freshwater dolphin from the Amazon was largest of all time

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:55 PM
A dolphin that lived in the Amazon 16 million years ago grew to a length of 3.5 metres – larger than any other freshwater dolphin

Ancient canoes hint at bustling trade in Mediterranean 7000 years ago

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:12 PM
Italian canoes capable of transporting people and goods have been dated to the Neolithic period, suggesting there was a bustling trade across the Mediterranean Sea

Billions of stars have swallowed up a planet

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 04:00:24 PM
Twin stars that were born together should have the same composition, and the fact that many don’t suggests they have changed their chemistry by devouring planets

Ancient campsite may show how humans survived volcanic super-eruption

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 04:00:22 PM
Evidence from an archaeological site in Ethiopia suggests ancient humans adapted their diet during a dry spell after the Toba volcano eruption 74,000 years ago

Flying drone can roll on the ground to save energy over long distances

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 02:00:21 PM
Researchers claim to have combined the benefits of rolling robots with those of flying drones by creating a device that rotates along the ground but hops over obstacles

Amazingly preserved Bronze Age village reveals life in ancient England

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 12:00:59 AM
A settlement in the east of England burned down in a fire 3000 years ago, falling into a muddy waterway that preserved everything inside the houses including tools, fabric, cooking pots and more

Mathematician wins 2024 Abel prize for making sense of randomness

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 11:00:03 AM
Michel Talagrand has won the 2024 Abel prize for his work researching probability theory and the extremes of randomness

Artists who use AI are more productive but less original

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 06:00:22 AM
An analysis of work posted on a popular art-sharing website finds that users who adopted generative artificial intelligence tools increased their output, but saw a drop in novelty

Human brains have been mysteriously preserved for thousands of years

Wednesday March 20th, 2024 12:01:29 AM
Intact human brains 12,000 years old or more have been found in unexpected places such as shipwrecks and waterlogged graves, but it is unclear what preserved them

CRISPR could disable and cure HIV, suggests promising lab experiment

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 11:01:48 PM
The gene-editing strategy could be a way to disable HIV that lies dormant in immune cells, meaning people would no longer need to take daily medication

Common antibiotics can regenerate heart cells in animals

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 05:00:17 PM
A combination of widely available antibiotics may be able to treat heart failure after researchers found that the therapy regenerates heart cells in animals

DeepMind and Liverpool FC develop AI to advise on football tactics

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 04:00:11 PM
An AI model trained on data from Premier League matches can help football coaches devise tactics for attacking or defending corner kicks

Genetics may protect against disease linked to eating human brains

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 03:00:25 PM
Remote tribes in Papua New Guinea were ravaged in the 20th century by kuru, which was spread when people ate their dead relatives as part of funeral rituals – but some individuals may have had genetic resistance to the condition

‘Red alert’ after key global warming records were smashed in 2023

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 01:00:46 PM
2023 wasn’t just the hottest year on record by far, it also saw record glacier loss, sea level rise, ocean heat and sea ice loss, says World Meteorological Organization report

‘Forever chemicals’ have infiltrated food packaging on a wide scale

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 12:00:18 PM
Nearly 70 “forever chemicals”, also known as PFAS, are commonly found in materials that come into contact with food, some of which have been linked to negative health outcomes

‘Running of the bulls’ festival crowds move like charged particles

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 10:00:18 AM
Researchers have studied the movements of thousands of people waiting for the opening of the San Fermín festival and found they behave like electrons circling in a magnetic field

Nvidia’s Blackwell AI ‘superchip’ is the most powerful yet

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 09:59:37 AM
A computer chip featuring over 400 billion transistors can train artificial intelligence models faster and using less energy, says Nvidia – but it is yet to reveal the price tag

Cannabis vaping liquids contain lead and other toxic metals

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 09:00:31 AM
The heating elements in vapes can release toxic metals. Now an analysis of cannabis vaping liquids shows metals like lead are present at dangerous levels – even before the vape is used

Intermittent fasting linked to a higher risk of heart disease death

Monday March 18th, 2024 08:00:53 PM
Only eating within an 8-hour window is associated with a significantly higher risk of heart disease-related death compared with eating over 12 to 16 hours

Blood-clotting drug derived from pigs can now be made synthetically

Monday March 18th, 2024 07:00:53 PM
A common anti-clotting drug called heparin is made from pig intestines, which risks contaminations and infections. A safer, synthetic version has now been developed but its production needs scaling up

Mammoth carcass was scavenged by ancient humans and sabre-toothed cats

Monday March 18th, 2024 04:00:10 PM
A southern mammoth skeleton found in Spain bears cut marks from stone tools and bite marks from carnivore teeth, suggesting that both hominins and felids feasted on its meat

‘Sound laser’ is the most powerful ever made

Friday March 15th, 2024 11:00:47 AM
A new device uses a reflective cavity, a tiny bead and an electrode to create a laser beam of sound particles ten times more powerful and much narrower than other “phonon lasers”

Mathematicians plan computer proof of Fermat’s last theorem

Monday March 18th, 2024 10:00:20 AM
Fermat’s last theorem puzzled mathematicians for centuries until it was finally proven in 1993. Now, researchers want to create a version of the proof that can be formally checked by a computer for any errors in logic

Titan’s sand dunes may be made of smashed up small moons

Monday March 18th, 2024 11:00:29 AM
The sand dunes that splay across the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan may be made of the ground-up remains of ancient irregular moons, rather than atmospheric particles

It’s time to accept that we are in the Anthropocene once and for all

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Humans are drastically changing the planet and the Anthropocene is a useful tool to help us deal with that – so let’s stop quibbling over definitions

Gold flecks make super-transparent glass fully opaque from one side

Friday March 15th, 2024 06:00:39 PM
A glare-free window that is opaque from the outside but still offers a clear view from inside could be made with a coating using billions of tiny bits of gold

Miniature furniture 3D printed using ink made from recycled wood

Friday March 15th, 2024 06:00:17 PM
Waste wood can be reconstituted into a form that can be 3D printed and used to produce furniture or other objects

Mental health conditions may accelerate ageing by damaging RNA

Friday March 15th, 2024 01:00:34 PM
People with mental health conditions have greater amounts of damaged RNA than those without one, which might explain the link between the conditions and age-related diseases such as cancer

Perfectly straight ridges may cover the poles of Saturn’s moon Titan

Friday March 15th, 2024 03:00:34 PM
Saturn’s moon Titan may have hundreds of strange ridges called yardangs that could teach us how the icy moon’s geology and conditions vary across its surface

Single mathematical model governs primate brain shape across species

Friday March 15th, 2024 02:00:28 PM
An analysis of primate brains shows that the pattern of folds on the surface follows the same mathematical pattern across species

What do home faecal test kits really reveal about our gut microbiome?

Thursday March 14th, 2024 06:00:47 PM
Many firms sell direct-to-consumer faecal testing kits, but an investigation has revealed that scientists don’t yet know what makes for a healthy gut microbiome

Should everyone start eating snakes to save the planet?

Thursday March 14th, 2024 04:00:55 PM
Pythons convert food into meat more efficiently than other livestock, and they can be fed on waste meat, but this doesn’t mean snake meat is inherently more sustainable

Chimp mothers play with their youngsters even when times are tough

Thursday March 14th, 2024 03:00:55 PM
Ten years’ worth of observations of a wild chimpanzee community show that most adults stop playing when food is short, but not mothers and their young

Why biodiversity offsetting is a contentious issue in conservation

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
As a new law is introduced in England, requiring developers to create 10 per cent more wildlife habitat than they destroy when developing a site, does it really work to destroy nature in one place, but preserve it elsewhere, asks Graham Lawton

Starship launch: Third flight reaches space but is lost on re-entry

Thursday March 14th, 2024 02:55:25 PM
The world’s most powerful rocket, Starship, launched from Texas and reached an altitude of more than 230 kilometres, travelling further and faster than it has done before. But it seems to have been destroyed on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere

Can a pill really reverse ageing in dogs? Don’t get your hopes up yet

Thursday March 14th, 2024 10:56:59 AM
A trial suggests that giving older dogs a supplement makes them cognitively sharper, but some scientists stress that pet owners should lower their expectations

A single meteorite smashed into Mars and created 2 billion craters

Thursday March 14th, 2024 10:00:07 AM
The debris from the formation of a relatively small crater on Mars created billions of additional craters, which could help us learn about Martian geology






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