New Scientist

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

Talking about the blues • We need to get better at identifying postpartum depression in dads

New Scientist

Turning up the heat on space travel

One dose of DMT reduces depression • Limited exposure to the potent psychedelic alongside therapeutic support lessened people’s depression symptoms for months, but it is still unclear why, finds Mattha Busby

Humans are the only primates with a chin – now we finally know why

Weird planet system may have formed the wrong way round

Britain’s Bronze Age immigrants • About 4600 years ago, Britain’s population was replaced by a mysterious people who brought a new style of pottery with them. Now, we may know where they came from, discovers Tim Vernimmen

Huge hot blobs may have made Earth’s magnetic field wonky

Mystery structure found in the brain • An accidental discovery may change our understanding of how the brain works and lead to new therapies for neurodegenerative conditions, reports Carissa Wong

These diets could add years to your life, even if you have bad genes

Intermittent fasting may be no good for weight loss

Your brain may determine how long you can run for

A second-hand solution to China’s energy demands

Heat made to flow backwards • Quantum mechanics has turned the second law of thermodynamics upside down

Robotic sailboats could act as ocean CCTV network

Modified immune cells show promise as a treatment for ALS

Peruvian civilisation grew mighty by harvesting guano

Time crystals could help build quantum clocks

Is this rock an ancient Roman board game?

Why 1.5°C failed and setting a new limit would make things worse • To really galvanise climate action, we need to focus on making the annual average temperature rise clear for all to see, says Bill McGuire

Black hole smash-up proves Einstein was right about relativity

Newborn marsupials seen crawling to mother’s pouch

Stop the rot • Fungi have become Hollywood’s go-to bad guys. But as yet another story focuses on Cordyceps, Nick Crumpton has had enough

This changes everything • A little antagonistic We have long drawn parallels between ants and humans. Now we are comparing ants to computers. It is time we stopped anthropomorphising them, says Annalee Newitz

Cosmic art • Royal West of England Academy

“We’re going to see seismic changes” • Mathematician Hannah Fry travels to the front lines of AI in her new BBC documentary. She talks to Bethan Ackerley about what the technology is doing to us – for better and for worse

New Scientist recommends

The intelligence wars • In the ChatGPT era, a war over the nature of intelligence is playing out. Chris Stokel-Walker explores a Princeton professor’s engaging take

Two other great books on machine intelligence

Your letters

Lifting the veil • What came before the big bang? A new type of cosmology is giving us a glimpse and it’s not what we expected, discovers Miriam Frankel

A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE

In good hands • The evolution of human hands is one of the most important – and overlooked – stories of our origin, finds Michael Marshall

Hands do the talking

When Dad struggles • Fathers may get postpartum depression at a similar rate to mothers, but it’s often overlooked. That is...