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This week's magazine

30 March 2024

Issue 3484

New Scientist issue 3484 cover
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Editor's picks

E3Y70G Three year old boy pushing grandmother on cycle in park

Technology

Why our ageing world could accelerate progress in AI and robotics

Leader

Subscriber-only
The unexpected reasons why human childhood is extraordinarily long

Humans

The unexpected reasons why human childhood is extraordinarily long

Features

Subscriber-only
How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

Mind

How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

Features

Subscriber-only
Claudia de Rham

Physics

The physicist searching for quantum gravity in gravitational rainbows

Features

Subscriber-only

Table of contents

Leaders

E3Y70G Three year old boy pushing grandmother on cycle in park

Technology

Why our ageing world could accelerate progress in AI and robotics

We are heading for a demographic crunch later this century, but might a workforce of intelligent machines compensate for a likely lack of human workers?

Leader

Subscriber-only

News

Technology

DeepMind and Liverpool FC develop AI to advise on football tactics

An AI model trained on data from Premier League matches can help football coaches devise tactics for attacking or defending corner kicks

News

Free

Heart muscle structure, computer illustration

Health

Common antibiotics can regenerate heart cells in animals

News

Subscriber-only

Health

These four common medicines could help prolong your life

News

Subscriber-only

Life

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

News

Subscriber-only

Technology

Artists who use AI are more productive but less original

News

Subscriber-only

Humans

Human brains have been mysteriously preserved for thousands of years

News

Free

Health

CRISPR could disable and cure HIV, suggests promising lab experiment

News

Free

Humans

Amazingly preserved Bronze Age village reveals life in ancient England

News

Free

Life

Californian orcas used specialised tactics for hunting whale calves

News

Free

Artistic reconstruction of Pebanista yacuruna

Life

Extinct freshwater dolphin from the Amazon was largest of all time

News

Free

Humans

Ancient canoes hint at bustling trade in Mediterranean 7000 years ago

News

Free

Debris around the Space X Starship launch pad

Space

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

News

Subscriber-only

Health

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

News

Free

Environment

Organic farms seem to trigger more pesticide use on conventional farms

News

Free

Environment

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

News

Free

The sun producing solar flares

Space

Largest recorded solar storm was even bigger than we thought

News

Subscriber-only

A new species of fluffy longhorn beetle found in Queensland, Australia

Life

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

News

Free

Life

Dogs really do understand that words stand for objects

News

Free

Life

Ant queens have good reasons for eating their own babies

News

Free

Drs. Kawai and Elias will be transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney

Health

Pig kidney transplanted into living human for the first time

News

Free

Technology

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

News

Subscriber-only

Robot folding paper plane

Technology

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

News

Subscriber-only

Analysis

Why falling birth rates will be a bigger problem than overpopulation

Humans

Why falling birth rates will be a bigger problem than overpopulation

Nearly every country is predicted to have a birth rate that is too low to maintain its population by 2100, which may result in too few people of working age

Analysis

Subscriber-only

Life

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

Comment

Subscriber-only

Some of the greatest cosmic discoveries have come about by accident

Space

Some of the greatest cosmic discoveries have come about by accident

Comment

Subscriber-only

Aperture

See the messages NASA is sending to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa

Space

See the messages NASA is sending to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa

Douglas Vakoch of METI International explains how NASA drew on the organisation's expertise at attempting to contact extraterrestrial intelligence to help craft a message to Europa

Regulars

Free

Features

How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

Mind

How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

We are finally getting to grips with why solitude is so important. Here's how to use your alone time to get the biggest boost to your health and relationships

Features

Subscriber-only

The unexpected reasons why human childhood is extraordinarily long

Humans

The unexpected reasons why human childhood is extraordinarily long

Features

Subscriber-only

Claudia de Rham

Physics

The physicist searching for quantum gravity in gravitational rainbows

Features

Subscriber-only

Culture

SPACEMAN. Adam Sandler as Jakub??in Spaceman. Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix ?? 2023.

Comment

Spaceman review: Adam Sandler is a serious star as a lonely astronaut

An astronaut on a journey far from home appears to be losing his grip. But the opposite is closer to the truth in a movie with many virtues, transcendental aspirations and a rather overblown conceit, says Simon Ings

Culture

Subscriber-only

CDF particle detector at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near Chicago, USA. The CDF (Collider Detector Facility) records subatomic particles created in high-energy proton-antiproton collisions in the Tevatron coll- ider. It co-discovered the top quark in 1994. Here the detector is partly disassembled between operation runs. The black segments (left) are part of the outer muon chambers. The red areas are part of the magnet which bends charged particles travelling out from the collision point. The blue segments (right) are part of the hadron calorimeter. When in use these parts are closed tightly together. Photographed in 1998. The physicist is ROB ROSER.

Comment

Space Oddities review: A lively insider account of particle physics

Culture

Subscriber-only

J27FKX Washington, DC, USA. 25th Apr, 2017. A military aide carries the

Comment

Nuclear War, A scenario review: What if the US faces a first strike?

Culture

Free

Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams? A Body For Harnasie, 2024. Photo Credit Ravi Deepres & Luke Unsworth

Comment

New Scientist recommends AI-enhanced ballet A Body for Harnasie

Culture

Subscriber-only

More

PP65DP Building with climber plants, ivy growing on the wall and grass on the floor. Ecology and green living in city, urban environment concept.

Life

Why ivy growing on your walls may actually be beneficial

Long considered damaging to walls, a living coating of ivy can actually stabilise temperature and humidity and lower your energy bills, finds James Wong

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Brain Twister #13: Number Venns

Brain Twister #13: Number Venns

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Tom Gauld on an astounding discovery

Tom Gauld on an astounding discovery

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles: Good news, your results are back

Twisteddoodles: Good news, your results are back

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Why you should always yell at the ref - according to science

Why you should always yell at the ref - according to science

Feedback is inspired by new research suggesting that the decision-making of umpires at baseball games was influenced by criticism from spectators

Regulars

Free

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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