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New Scientist – News

Last feed update: Monday March 18th, 2024 12:06:31 PM

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

Combatting deepfakes is an evolutionary arms race

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Disinformation is far older than humans. Lessons from evolutionary biology can help defend against it today, says Jonathan R. Goodman

Did the people of Easter Island independently invent writing?

Thursday March 14th, 2024 08:00:53 AM
Wooden tablets containing a language of glyphs called Rongorongo may be evidence that the people of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, created their own writing system without the influence of European language

Anti-inflammatory nasal spray may ease symptoms of multiple sclerosis

Thursday March 14th, 2024 08:00:33 AM
A nasal spray containing an anti-inflammatory molecule reduces symptom severity in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, although the treatment might come with risks in people

Alzheimer’s may be caused by a build-up of fat in brain cells

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 04:00:32 PM
Fat droplets accumulating in brain immune cells could be behind the biggest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease

One in eight ski resorts worldwide could have no snow by 2100

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 06:00:24 PM
All major skiing regions worldwide are predicted to see a severe drop in snow days by the end of the century, with Australian resorts the worst affected

Watch an AI-powered robot dog crawl around an obstacle course

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 06:00:19 PM
A four-legged robot can handle real-world obstacles that require scrambling up and down or leaping sizeable gaps. AI training lets it adapt to new terrain it hasn’t seen before

Methane leaks from US oil and gas are triple government estimates

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 04:00:52 PM
The largest ever dataset of its kind suggests methane is leaking from US oil and gas fields at a much higher rate than previously thought, implying the environmental damage caused by the greenhouse gas is greater too

Extreme heat could trigger the worst global financial crisis ever seen

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 04:00:14 PM
Thanks to globalisation, severe heatwaves in one part of the world can cause financial losses in another. Annual losses could reach as much as $25 trillion by 2060 if we don’t curb emissions, dwarfing any previous financial crisis

US legislators vote to ban TikTok unless it severs ties with China

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 03:00:14 PM
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that will require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk a nationwide ban

Europa’s seafloor may be impenetrable and inhospitable to life

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 02:00:31 PM
The seafloor of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was thought to provide energy and nutrients to its ocean, but it turns out that may not be possible

Google AI learns to play open-world video games by watching them

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 02:15:48 PM
An artificial intelligence from Google DeepMind can play nine open-world video games like a human, by watching video from a screen and controlling a keyboard and mouse

Rethinking space and time could let us do away with dark matter

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 11:19:48 AM
Most physicists believe that only a quantum theory of gravity can fully explain mysteries of the universe like dark matter, but now an idea called “post-quantum gravity” is demonstrating an alternative approach

Starship launch 3: What time is the SpaceX flight today?

Thursday March 14th, 2024 10:14:27 AM
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up for the third launch of its massive Starship rocket, following two failed missions, with coverage beginning at about 13.25 GMT. What will the company be hoping for and what can we expect?

Plant-killing genetic technology could wipe out superweeds

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 10:00:12 AM
A ‘gene drive’ that spreads through plant populations could be used to wipe out pests such as superweeds, or to help save species by making them resistant to heat or disease

Sleeping black hole is way more massive than it should be

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 08:00:34 AM
The James Webb Space Telescope has found an unusual galaxy in the early universe with a black hole almost half the mass of the galaxy itself, raising questions about how it formed

City moths may have evolved smaller wings due to light pollution

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 12:01:44 AM
Populations of moths living in urban places may have evolved smaller wings to limit how much bright city lights disrupt their lives

Giant sequoia trees are growing surprisingly quickly in the UK

Wednesday March 13th, 2024 12:01:01 AM
Since their introduction in the 1800s, giant sequoia trees in the UK have grown up to 55 metres tall and capture 85 kilograms of carbon a year on average

US government wants to tax bitcoin to reduce its environmental impact

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 04:15:11 PM
The computers that secure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin consume large amounts of power, pushing up electricity prices and potentially contributing to climate change. Now, the US government wants to tackle the problem

Storm-proofing 1% of power lines protects entire grid from blackouts

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 04:00:36 PM
Researchers simulated the wind damage from seven historical hurricanes to identify just a few key electrical lines that were crucial to protect the whole grid from cascading power failures

Plants send out ‘distress calls’ – but can other plants hear them?

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 02:00:01 PM
Some studies have claimed that plants emit sounds when stressed and might perceive the distress calls of other plants, but a review finds the evidence is lacking

How to see the incredible comet 12P/Pons-Brooks tonight

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 01:51:08 PM
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks orbits the sun every 71 years and is currently making its closest approach. Here’s when and how you can see it – perhaps even during a solar eclipse

The surprising ways animals react to a total solar eclipse

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 11:00:55 AM
When the moon hides the sun in a total solar eclipse, some animals seem to think that it is briefly nighttime, while others pace anxiously or even gaze up at the sky

Mars’s gravitational pull may be strong enough to stir Earth’s oceans

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 10:06:30 AM
An analysis of deep-sea drill cores suggests that Mars may have enough gravitational influence to shift sediment within Earth’s oceans on a 2.4-million-year cycle

There are growing fears of an alarming shift in Antarctic sea ice

Monday March 11th, 2024 07:00:33 PM
Antarctic sea ice cover remains far below average levels for the third year in a row, but researchers are uncertain whether this is a permanent shift driven by climate change or part of natural fluctuations

Could an AI replace all music ever recorded with Taylor Swift covers?

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 08:00:50 AM
A thought experiment in which all music is replaced with AI-generated “Taylor’s Versions” should prompt us to find ways to protect data from AI corruption, warn researchers

The moons of Mars may have been formed in an icy planetary collision

Monday March 11th, 2024 08:15:30 PM
The origins of Mars’s moons Phobos and Deimos have long been an enigma, but they may have been formed when a icy, comet-like object slammed into the Red Planet

Babies with bilingual mothers have distinct brainwaves at 1 day old

Monday March 11th, 2024 06:00:10 PM
Newborns whose mothers speak two languages appear to have distinct brain responses to speech compared with those born to monolingual mothers, supporting the idea that language acquisition begins in the uterus

Indigenous Australians have managed land with fire for 11,000 years

Monday March 11th, 2024 04:00:20 PM
Lake sediments reveal the ancient history of Aboriginal people’s use of fire to manage the landscape, a tradition that has benefits for biodiversity

The war in Gaza is creating a health crisis that will span decades

Monday March 11th, 2024 06:49:22 PM
Physical injuries, mental health issues and malnutrition are widespread in Gaza – and major health groups have no firm plans to address the impending crisis

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

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

Blind cave fish offers lessons in how to survive starvation

Monday March 11th, 2024 03:00:40 PM
Unlike most other animals, the cave-dwelling Mexican tetra doesn’t get a fatty liver when it is malnourished – and its secrets could lead to medical benefits for other species

Flightless terror birds stalked Antarctica after the dinosaurs’ demise

Monday March 11th, 2024 10:50:15 AM
Two fossil claws found on Seymour Island reveal that phorusrhacids, or terror birds, lived in Antarctica 50 million years ago and were probably the apex predator

We should be open about organoid research to avoid a backlash

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Research that involves creating “mini-organs” from human cells, including those from fetuses, may leave people uncomfortable – so the best approach is to explain the reasoning behind the work and its potential benefits

Snail robot excretes sticky mucus that helps it crawl up slopes

Friday March 8th, 2024 08:00:29 PM
A remotely controlled robot with an inflatable foot that oozes mucus can crawl across surfaces like a snail, and could inspire soft medical robots that move through mucus-lined cavities in the human body

Quantum memory device could stop unhackable networks from failing

Friday March 8th, 2024 06:00:19 PM
A memory device that temporarily saves quantum information could become an important addition to quantum networks because it would allow users to salvage information if it fails to transfer properly

Damaged coral reefs can recover quickly after restoration work

Friday March 8th, 2024 04:00:28 PM
Four years after being restored with steel frames, coral reefs in Indonesia damaged by blast fishing grow at the same rate as healthy reefs, but they have lower levels of species diversity

Chemical injection brings dying batteries back to life

Friday March 8th, 2024 04:00:03 PM
Researchers restored degraded lithium-ion batteries to nearly full capacity by injecting them with a chemical that creates more charged particles inside them

AI chatbot models ‘think’ in English even when using other languages

Friday March 8th, 2024 01:00:25 PM
When answering questions posed in Chinese, French, German or Russian, large language models seem to process the queries in English, which could create cultural issues

Engineers are diverting Mississippi river to restore Louisiana’s coast

Friday March 8th, 2024 11:00:35 AM
South of New Orleans, a project to divert the Mississippi river could restore ecosystems destroyed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and build new land to protect against sea level rise

How one theory ties together everything we know about the universe

Friday March 8th, 2024 10:00:56 AM
All known natural phenomena fit into just a few categories and unifying them all is quantum field theory, says physicist Matt Strassler

Clownfish avoid the sting of their anemone hosts with sugary slime

Thursday March 7th, 2024 09:20:35 PM
As a clownfish spends time with an anemone, its mucus coating begins to change. Chemical tweaks to sugars in the slime may calm stinging cells in anemone tentacles

6 things to look out for during the total solar eclipse

Thursday March 7th, 2024 08:00:42 PM
A total solar eclipse is a unique experience. From shadow bands to the sun’s majestic corona and pinkish prominences, here’s what you can expect to see

Worm-like amphibian produces a kind of milk for its hatchlings

Thursday March 7th, 2024 07:00:22 PM
After hatching from eggs, young ringed caecilians feed on their mother’s skin, but also on a milk-like substance secreted from her rear end

Experimental weight loss pill seems to be more potent than Ozempic

Thursday March 7th, 2024 04:43:02 PM
The results, of 13 per cent weight loss after three months, need to be confirmed by larger and longer studies, but are seen as promising

D-Wave says its quantum computers can solve otherwise impossible tasks

Thursday March 7th, 2024 04:33:52 PM
Quantum computing firm D-Wave says its machines are the first to achieve “computational supremacy” by solving a practically useful problem that would otherwise take millions of years on an ordinary supercomputer

Salmon farms are increasingly being hit by mass die-offs

Thursday March 7th, 2024 04:00:10 PM
Mass mortality events at salmon farms have been getting more frequent since 2011, sometimes killing millions of fish at once, with causes including heatwaves and poor living conditions

Why does weed give you the ‘munchies’? Here’s what the science says

Friday December 1st, 2023 10:00:17 PM
There may be several reasons why cannabis encourages people to eat, including the fact that the psychoactive compound in the drug affects the neurons that control hunger

Jupiter’s stormy surface replicated in lab

Thursday March 7th, 2024 02:30:21 PM
By rotating a tank of water at 75 revolutions per minute, it’s possible to replicate some of the stunning, swirling patterns on Jupiter’s surface

A tale of two mysteries: ghostly neutrinos and the proton decay puzzle

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Searching for the true nature of neutrino particles also provides the perfect experimental conditions to seek evidence of another slippery customer – proton decay, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Light and sound therapy for Alzheimer’s may also prevent ‘chemo brain’

Thursday March 7th, 2024 11:47:20 AM
An experimental Alzheimer’s treatment involving sounds and flickering lights also prevented a decline in mental sharpness among mice having chemotherapy

AI chatbots use racist stereotypes even after anti-racism training

Thursday March 7th, 2024 11:00:06 AM
Large language models still demonstrate racial prejudice against speakers of African American English, despite the safety guard rails implemented by tech companies such as OpenAI

How manners can be a weapon to divide and disempower

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Living in close proximity to strangers requires shared social norms – but manners can also be used to divide us, says Kirsty Sedgman

The world just experienced the hottest February on record

Thursday March 7th, 2024 03:00:51 AM
February was the ninth month in a row to set a global heat record, with global average temperatures 1.77°C above the pre-industrial average for the month

Microplastics linked to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 10:00:30 PM
People with artery plaques containing microplastics were about four times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those with plastic-free plaques

Hunger-inducing mutation makes some Labradors more likely to get fat

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 07:00:35 PM
Dogs with a mutation in the POMC gene, common in Labradors and flat-coated retrievers, have a stronger appetite for snacks between meals and a lower metabolic rate

The hunt is on to learn why bowel cancer in young people is rising

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:15:32 PM
Something in the environment seems to be causing a rise in early-onset cases of bowel cancer. Now the hunt is on to find out what it is

US coastal cities face higher 2050 flood risk because they are sinking

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:04:17 PM
The subsidence of land caused by the extraction of water and fossil fuels is exacerbating the threat of sea level rise in many US cities, including New Orleans

Ukraine may have been first part of Europe colonised by early humans

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:00:56 PM
Korolevo, a site in Ukraine where early humans made stone tools, has been dated to 1.4 million years ago, suggesting early humans moved from Ukraine into the rest of Europe

Weird floating crystals can stop stars ageing for billions of years

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:00:55 PM
Some white dwarfs seem to stop ageing for billions of years, and this may be due to the behaviour of unusual ice crystals that heat up the stars

Bumblebees show each other how to solve complex puzzles

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:00:54 PM
Puzzles that bumblebees cannot solve on their own can be cracked with help from another bee, adding to research on the transmission of culture among insects

Bizarre galaxy in the early universe died extremely young

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 04:00:23 PM
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed that a distant galaxy stopped forming stars extraordinarily fast, making it the furthest dead galaxy ever spotted

Genomes of modern Indian people include wide range of Neanderthal DNA

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 03:27:26 PM
A genetic study of nearly 2700 individuals has revealed the ancestry of Indian people, and gets scientists closer to reconstructing the genomes of ancient Neanderthals

Is the woolly mammoth really on the brink of being resurrected?

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 03:00:35 PM
A company called Colossal claims it has taken a “momentous step” towards bringing back the woolly mammoth. Here’s all you need to know about whether such a feat is possible

Australia could launch its first private orbital rocket within weeks

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 10:27:54 AM
Gilmour Space is awaiting approval from the Australian Space Agency for the first launch of its Eris Block 1 orbital rocket, with plans to deploy a satellite as soon as April

First gene-edited meat will come from disease-proof CRISPR pigs

Friday February 23rd, 2024 08:00:02 AM
Pigs that have been given genetically engineered immunity to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a major and costly disease, could be on the market within two years

Wearing make-up during exercise may harm your skin health

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 08:01:19 AM
Our skin’s pores normally enlarge when we exercise, but this appears to be hindered if we are wearing make-up, which may prevent the release of healthy oils

Walking 10,000 steps a day really does seem to make us healthier

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 11:30:30 PM
The much-touted advice to take 10,000 steps a day for our health has been accused of lacking evidence, but new research suggests that hitting this target has serious benefits

Surprise decision not to define the Anthropocene shocks scientists

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 08:28:14 PM
A proposal to define the Anthropocene, a geologic epoch defined by human activity, has been rejected – surprising even scientists who consulted the voting group

US Army tests AI chatbots as battle planners in a war game simulation

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 04:00:06 PM
Researchers in the US Army are experimenting with commercial AI chatbots as battlefield advisers in war game simulations – but experts caution that such AI should not be used in high-stakes situations

JWST will officially begin searching for exomoons around other planets

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 03:55:00 PM
Five exomoon programmes have been picked for the James Webb Space Telescope, raising the hopes of finding moons around exoplanets for the first time

Asian elephants seen burying their dead for the first time

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 03:18:32 PM
Five elephant calves have been found buried in drainage ditches on tea-growing estates in India in a rare example of burial behaviour in non-human animals

How to view an eclipse safely and what to look for in eclipse glasses

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 05:00:57 PM
Follow these tips to have a safe viewing experience during the upcoming North American total solar eclipse

Blue cheese could get an upgrade thanks to new mould hybrids

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 02:00:21 PM
Five new varieties of Penicillium roqueforti, the fungus used to make blue cheese, might rescue the fungus from a genetic dead end and produce pharmaceutical compounds

Earliest known sex chromosomes evolved in octopuses

Tuesday March 5th, 2024 10:00:19 AM
Genetic analysis of the California two-spot octopus reveals that the species has sex chromosomes, and they may have originated up to 378 million years ago

Satellite launched to track down leaks of potent greenhouse gas

Monday March 4th, 2024 10:11:12 PM
MethaneSAT will orbit the planet 15 times a day to capture unprecedented amounts of data on methane emissions from human and natural sources

Eerie green sunsets after 1883 Krakatoa eruption finally explained

Monday March 4th, 2024 10:07:04 PM
Mysterious green sunsets were reported after the massive eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 – now simulations show how they were created and just how rare they are

Storks refine their migration routes as they learn from experience

Monday March 4th, 2024 08:00:42 PM
Tracking data shows that young white storks spend more time exploring new places, while older ones take a more direct route on their annual migrations

Europa may have less oxygen to fuel life in its seas than we thought

Monday March 4th, 2024 04:00:26 PM
The ocean on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is one of the best places we have found to search for alien life, but it might have less oxygen than researchers had thought

Organoids made from uterus fluid may help treat fetuses before birth

Monday March 4th, 2024 04:00:13 PM
Fetal cells retrieved from fluid in the uterus can now be turned into balls of cells called organoids, which could help diagnose and treat fetuses with a serious lung condition

Google launches $5m prize to find actual uses for quantum computers

Monday March 4th, 2024 11:00:31 AM
Existing quantum computers can solve some problems faster than any ordinary computer, but none of those problems has any practical use. Google and XPRIZE hope to change that

If gene-edited meat eases the climate crisis, then we must embrace it

Wednesday February 28th, 2024 06:00:00 PM
Livestock farming is a major source of carbon emissions and damage to biodiversity, so the advent of gene-edited animals reared for meat that can help address these issues is good news






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