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This week's magazine

8 June 2024

Issue 3494

New Scientist issue 3494 cover
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Editor's picks

JEDTX5 Different sorts of salt

Health

There's a simple solution to our salt addiction - we must adopt it now

Leader

Free
How materials that rewind light can test physics' most extreme ideas

Physics

How materials that rewind light can test physics' most extreme ideas

Features

Subscriber-only
How to easily satisfy your salt cravings without damaging your health

Health

How to easily satisfy your salt cravings without damaging your health

Features

Subscriber-only
Why excessive positivity is bad for your health and mental well-being

Mind

Why excessive positivity is bad for your health and mental well-being

Features

Subscriber-only

Table of contents

Leaders

JEDTX5 Different sorts of salt

Health

There's a simple solution to our salt addiction - we must adopt it now

Efforts to curb the amount of sodium we eat have mostly failed, so governments must now try a new strategy: adding potassium to table salt

Leader

Free

News

Magnetic resonance imaging scan showing plaques (dark areas) in the centre of the brain of someone with Parkinson's disease

Health

Parkinson’s disease could be prevented by a recent tetanus vaccine

People who have had a recent vaccine against tetanus appear to be less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that the bacterial infection is involved in the condition

News

Subscriber-only

Technology

Hackers are using AI to find software bugs - but there is a downside

News

Subscriber-only

Humans

Ancient Egyptian skull shows oldest known attempt at treating cancer

News

Subscriber-only

Physics

Time may be an illusion created by quantum entanglement

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Snares are wiping out South-East Asian wildlife – what can be done?

News

Free

Health

Risk of bird flu outbreak in cows causing pandemic is less than feared

News

Subscriber-only

Mind

Babies group together their squeals and growls to prepare for speech

News

Free

Space

'Unluckiest star' may be trapped in deadly dance with a black hole

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Chicks link shapes with 'bouba' and 'kiki' sounds just like humans

News

Subscriber-only

living bioelectronics device

Technology

Bioelectronic patch uses living bacteria to treat psoriasis in mice

News

Free

Life

Small fern species has a genome 50 times larger than that of humans

News

Free

Environment

Cleaner ship emissions may warm the planet far faster than expected

News

Free

Animal etchings into rocks along the Orinoco River in South America

Humans

Ancient snake drawings are among the largest known rock art worldwide

News

Free

Health

Periods are starting younger and we're struggling to pin down why

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Ancient geese stood 3 metres tall and weighed as much as a cow

News

Free

Space

Stunning image reveals the intricate structure of supersonic plasma

News

Free

Space

China's Chang'e 6 spacecraft begins sampling on far side of the moon

News

Free

Analysis

Technology

Can Google fix its disastrous new AI search tool?

Google's AI Overviews tool can offer impressive answers to search queries, but it will also make up facts and tell people to eat rocks. Can it be fixed, or will it have to be scrapped?

Analysis

Subscriber-only

Marcadet Belv?d?re

Environment

Embrace wooden buildings for the sake of your health and the planet's

Comment

Subscriber-only

Race is a social construct, but racism can cause real biological harm

Society

Race is a social construct, but racism can cause real biological harm

Comment

Subscriber-only

Aperture

Johnson's abyssal seadevil (Melanocetus johnsonii) portrait, cleared and stained by scientists, showing cartilage in blue and bones in red. Clearly visible in this picture are the pharyngeal jaws, which are like small forks that work like a second set of jaws that can pull prey items further into its mouth. The gill arches and gill rakers are also on full display. RV Sonne, Cruise SO285, South Atlantic, Benguela upwelling region off the coast of South Africa and Namibia. Captive..

Life

Striking image lets you see inside a deep-sea anglerfish's killer jaws

This astonishing image may look like a deep-sea monster, with its big teeth and gaping mouth, but the humpback anglerfish is really no bigger than your hand

Regulars

Free

Features

How to easily satisfy your salt cravings without damaging your health

Health

How to easily satisfy your salt cravings without damaging your health

Could potassium fortification be the answer we're looking for when it comes to battling our unhealthy addiction to salt?

Features

Subscriber-only

Why excessive positivity is bad for your health and mental well-being

Mind

Why excessive positivity is bad for your health and mental well-being

Features

Subscriber-only

How materials that rewind light can test physics' most extreme ideas

Physics

How materials that rewind light can test physics' most extreme ideas

Features

Subscriber-only

Culture

W0XR8N hawaii volcano kilauea

Comment

Michael Crichton and James Patterson's novel Eruption fails to thrill

Eruption, the much-vaunted "collaboration" of the late Michael Crichton and thriller king James Patterson, may work better as a film than a book. Wait till then, says Emily H. Wilson

Culture

Subscriber-only

Success hope ambition and dream concept. Surreal artwork. Businessman with a stair in a gate, business background illustration. painting

Comment

How to take on AI's challenge to ideas about what can be conscious

Culture

Subscriber-only

Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon alongside other members of the Indigenous-led Ceibo Alliance.

Comment

Amazonian activist Nemonte Nenquimo tells her story in a potent memoir

Culture

Subscriber-only

The Cannon Hall Muscat Grape. Plate 24. Watercolour on paper. Signed lower left Mrs Withers Delt. Painter to Her Majesty. 44.4 cm. x 35.2 cm., slotted onto page. c.1825.

Comment

New Scientist recommends Now You See Us at the Tate Britain

Culture

Subscriber-only

More

Fresh milk in jug on green nature background

Life

Why I won't be fertilising plants with milk, despite what Tiktok says

Social media is adamant that you can fertilise your houseplants with milk, but I'll be saving mine for a hot drink, says James Wong

Regulars

Subscriber-only

BrainTwister #23: Four points, two distances

BrainTwister #23: Four points, two distances

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Tom Gauld on the cost of science

Tom Gauld on the cost of science

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles: 'This model is quite hot'

Twisteddoodles: 'This model is quite hot'

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Solving the mystery death of a Danish black-headed gull

Solving the mystery death of a Danish black-headed gull

Feedback was intrigued to learn that a mussel has finally been found innocent of the death of a Danish black headed gull back in 1952

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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