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This week's magazine

15 January 2022

Issue 3369

New Scientist issue 3369 cover
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Editor's picks

How bacteria-killing viruses are being used to keep food safe

Health

How bacteria-killing viruses are being used to keep food safe

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CGI abstract. hadron, futuristic, higgs, technology, abstract, science, explosion, collider, background, particle, digital, nuclear, atom, space, light, fractal, energy, plasma, physics, accelerator, matter, proton, fusion, scientific, universe,

Physics

Advances in physics may seem abstract at first but tech often follows

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How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

Mind

How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

Features
How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

Features
Why cat-like creatures vanished from North America for 6 million years

Life

Why cat-like creatures vanished from North America for 6 million years

Features
The Large Hadron Collider blips that could herald a new era of physics

Physics

The Large Hadron Collider blips that could herald a new era of physics

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

CGI abstract. hadron, futuristic, higgs, technology, abstract, science, explosion, collider, background, particle, digital, nuclear, atom, space, light, fractal, energy, plasma, physics, accelerator, matter, proton, fusion, scientific, universe,

Physics

Advances in physics may seem abstract at first but tech often follows

WHY are fundamental physicists so keen to undermine the very theories that are the bedrock of their success? It is a reasonable question to ask confronted with the excitement bubbling around anomalies that seem to be firming up at CERN’s LHCb experiment . At stake is a particle that might – the “might†bears emphasising – break open …

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Lithography elements - Silicon wafer seen through a lens element.

Technology

Fire at vital tech factory could worsen global computer chip shortage

ASML Holding, which supplies a vital technology used in computer chips, has reported a fire at a manufacturing plant, but the extent of the damage isn't yet known

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Life

A type of MRSA evolved in hedgehogs long before the first antibiotics

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Environment

Extreme air pollution from US wildfires now affects millions of people

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Health

One in 12 new cases of asthma in children linked to NO2 air pollution

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Health

Why is omicron more infectious but less severe? What we know so far

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Life

Newly identified tree species named in honour of Leonardo DiCaprio

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Humans

Ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound

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Life

Bacteria form complex structures like those seen in animals

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Health

mRNA vaccine technology has helped repair broken hearts in mice

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Earth

Plumes of rock that feed volcanic hotspots are surprisingly cold

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Ocean microbes produce oxygen in a way we have never seen before

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Life

What dolphins reveal about the evolution of the clitoris

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Life

Fungi that live on eucalyptus roots can control trees' gene activity

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Life

World's smallest land snail could fit inside a grain of sand

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Life

Spider fossil sheds light on Australia’s ancient rainforest ecosystem

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Space

Two black holes merged to form a huge one moving at incredible speeds

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Health

Covid-19 testing in the time of omicron: Everything you need to know

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Humans

Ancient humans may have started hunting 2 million years ago

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Technology

Outsider wins DARPA challenge to predict where floats drift at sea

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Health

How a pig heart was transplanted into a human for the first time

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Analysis

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2021/11/26: Protesters march with a Fuel Poverty Action banner during the demonstration in Parliament Square. Protesters gathered outside the Houses of Parliament and marched to Downing Street to deliver a letter to Boris Johnson, demanding action on excess winter deaths. Tens of thousands of people, particularly the oldest and poorest, die each year due to cold homes and the inability to afford heating. (Photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Environment

Energy crisis: What can the UK government do to help cut fuel bills?

The UK government is talking to the energy industry to find ways to mitigate a huge rise in energy bills that is set to hit consumers in April

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Mind

How to use little rituals to boost your mental performance

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Humans

Why everyone should learn some sign language

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Health

How bacteria-killing viruses are being used to keep food safe

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Aperture

Bottom view of the LEGEND-200 liquid argon cryostat and the enclosing water tank. The inner walls of the water tank and the outer wall of the cryostat are covered with a wavelength-shifting mirror film. The purpose is to shift and reflect the light produced by muons via the Cherenkov effect in the water. The photons are detected by photosensors. The purpose of this detector component is to detect and identify cosmic ray muons, some of which still reach the experiment despite being located deep underground the Gran Sasso mountain. (fyi: The muon flux is reduced by a factor 106 (one million) by the rock). If not identified, the muon induced events could mimic the searched signal events.

Technology

This gleaming experiment may solve the cosmic mystery of antimatter

Two views of LEGEND’s scintillation light detector fibre modules (above and below) with light-capturing fibres (green), part of the equipment needed to try to spot antineutrinos annihilating each other Photographer Enrico Sacchetti THESE gleaming images, taken by photographer Enrico Sacchetti , show key components of an experiment that could finally shed light on one of …

Regulars

Features

Why cat-like creatures vanished from North America for 6 million years

Life

Why cat-like creatures vanished from North America for 6 million years

Around 23 million years ago, North America's sabre-toothed cat-like animals disappeared, leaving the continent without felines for several million years. Now palaeontologists are solving the mystery of this "Cat Gap"

Features

Mind

How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

Features

Physics

The Large Hadron Collider blips that could herald a new era of physics

Features

How to alter your personality: why your character isn't fixed in stone

Features

Culture

PGDX6B Young african woman driving the car with her friends having fun in the car. Crazy young female friends having lots of fun on road trip.

Humans

The Power of Fun review: A user guide to getting more fun in your life

Unplanned silliness with friends is vital for our health and well-being The Power of Fun: Why fun is the key to a happy and healthy life Catherine Price Bantam Press (out 20 January) CHASTENED by the sight of her newborn baby's face lit up by the blue light of her phone, Catherine Price set about …

Culture

Humans

Emotional review: A new take on the importance of feelings

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: The Anomaly, a mind-bending French bestseller

Culture

Humans

Goliath review: Tourism to a ruined Earth explores the idea of home

Culture

More

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Puzzle #150: Can you piece together a very edgy jigsaw challenge?

Logan pulled an old jigsaw box off the shelf and gazed at the picture of a carousel on the lid. Under the picture in big, bold type it stated "468 pieces". He tipped out the contents. It didn't look like 468 pieces. He started to count, but realised it would take a long time. What …

Regulars

Space

Help discover the origins of meteor showers by spotting shooting stars

Regulars

Tom Gauld offers climate scientists a much-needed place to vent

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: lab-level smarts and ‘real-world’ wisdom

Regulars

Regulars

Not so lightweight: Hamsters handle their drink better than elephants

Humans

Not so lightweight: Hamsters handle their drink better than elephants

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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