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This week's magazine

29 June 2024

Issue 3497

New Scientist issue 3497 cover
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On the cover

Features
How big is the universe? The shape of space-time could tell us
Are space and time illusions? The answer could lie in black holes
Why this is a golden age for life to thrive across the universe
Why our location in the Milky Way is perfect for finding alien life
This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe
Why you should feel comforted, not scared, by the vastness of space
The universe is built a lot like a giant brain – so is it conscious?
We are closer than ever to finally proving the multiverse exists
Why antibiotic resistance could make the last pandemic look minor
Is it possible to fully understand the universe while living in it?
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Sick chimpanzees seek out range of plants with medicinal properties
We finally know why some people seem immune to catching covid-19
Quantum ‘super behaviour’ could create energy seemingly from nothing
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Editor's picks

Man with astronomy telescope looking at the night sky, stars, planets, Moon and shooting stars.; Shutterstock ID 2244243077; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

What 100 years of studying other galaxies has told us about the cosmos

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the surface of an multiverse with a lot of universes 3d rendering; Shutterstock ID 2256998119; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Physics

We are closer than ever to finally proving the multiverse exists

Features
Are space and time illusions? The answer could lie in black holes

Physics

Are space and time illusions? The answer could lie in black holes

Features
Head star made with 3d illustration image.; Shutterstock ID 1765794698; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Physics

The universe is built a lot like a giant brain – so is it conscious?

Features
Close up image of antibiotic resistant bacteria inside a biofilm.

Health

Why antibiotic resistance could make the last pandemic look minor

Features
This image from ESO?s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the V?a L?ctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy?s structure and explain how it formed.

Physics

Why this is a golden age for life to thrive across the universe

Features
MAZATLAN, MEXICO - APRIL 08: A man prepares his telescope to see the eclipse on April 08, 2024 in Mazatlan, Mexico. Millions of people have flocked to areas across North America that are in the

Physics

Is it possible to fully understand the universe while living in it?

Features
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/07/Stephan_s_Quintet_NIRCam_and_MIRI_imaging Stephan?s Quintet ? NIRCam and MIRI imaging An enormous mosaic of Stephan?s Quintet is the largest image to date from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-fifth of the Moon?s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The visual grouping of five galaxies was captured by Webb?s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb?s MIRI instrument captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster. These regions surrounding the central pair of galaxies are shown in the colours red and gold. This composite NIRCam-MIRI image uses two of the three MIRI filters to best show and differentiate the hot dust and structure within the galaxy. MIRI sees a distinct difference in colour between the dust in the galaxies versus the shock waves between the interacting galaxies. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to highlight that difference by giving MIRI data the distinct yellow and orange colours, in contrast to the blue and white colours assigned to stars at NIRCam?s wavelengths.

Space

How big is the universe? The shape of space-time could tell us

Features
star milkyway

Space

Why you should feel comforted, not scared, by the vastness of space

Features
This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe

Space

This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe

Features
HY0AKX Little green alien and welcome sign welcomes visitors to a business in Roswell, New Mexico

Space

Why our location in the Milky Way is perfect for finding alien life

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Man with astronomy telescope looking at the night sky, stars, planets, Moon and shooting stars.; Shutterstock ID 2244243077; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

What 100 years of studying other galaxies has told us about the cosmos

A hundred years since Edwin Hubble announced his discovery that ours is not the only galaxy, we are still awestruck by the scale and structure of our universe – and there are many mysteries still left to solve

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Environment

Farmland near Chernobyl nuclear reactor is finally safe to use again

Radiation surveys suggest that it is now safe to grow food on farmland that has been unused since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but changing its status would face local opposition in Ukraine

51

Life

Sick chimpanzees seek out range of plants with medicinal properties

51

Technology

Driverless cars are mostly safer than humans – but worse at turns

51

Chemistry

Chemists invoke bizarre Maxwell's demon on the largest scale yet

51

Space

Pluto and the largest moon of Neptune might be siblings

51

Life

Watch leeches jump by coiling their bodies like cobras

51

Chemistry

Glassy gel is hard as plastic and stretches 7 times its length

51

Environment

Overheated trees are contributing to urban air pollution

51

Health

We finally know why some people seem immune to catching covid-19

51

Life

Triceratops relative had the weirdest horns ever seen on a dinosaur

51

Health

Walking helps keep people free of lower back pain for longer

51

Environment

Cloud geoengineering could push heatwaves from US to Europe

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Humans

Easter Island's legendary societal collapse didn't actually happen

51

Space

Stunning JWST image proves we were right about how young stars form

51

Physics

Quantum ‘super behaviour’ could create energy seemingly from nothing

51

Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may have disappeared and reformed

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Humans

World's oldest wine found in 2000-year-old Roman tomb

51

Life

Dazzling photos capture the unreal beauty of insects

51

Mind

AI reads brain activity to reveal what part of a movie you're watching

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Analysis

2CE844B Infinity tunnel pocket watch time, time travel concept

Physics

How physics is helping us to explain why time always moves forwards

While time is relative, it still flows in one direction for every observer. We don’t yet understand why, but some physicists are looking for answers that invoke the evolution of entropy, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Comment

Health

Why we should be wary of social media's obsession with the vagus nerve

51

Health

Could paying people to lose weight help tackle obesity?

51

Aperture

See the solitary structures that once helped aircraft stay on course

Technology

See the solitary structures that once helped aircraft stay on course

Photographer Ignacio Evangelista's stark shots shine a light on the little-known VOR beacons, once key to aviation navigation but now being replaced by GPS

Regulars

Features

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/07/Stephan_s_Quintet_NIRCam_and_MIRI_imaging Stephan?s Quintet ? NIRCam and MIRI imaging An enormous mosaic of Stephan?s Quintet is the largest image to date from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-fifth of the Moon?s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The visual grouping of five galaxies was captured by Webb?s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb?s MIRI instrument captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster. These regions surrounding the central pair of galaxies are shown in the colours red and gold. This composite NIRCam-MIRI image uses two of the three MIRI filters to best show and differentiate the hot dust and structure within the galaxy. MIRI sees a distinct difference in colour between the dust in the galaxies versus the shock waves between the interacting galaxies. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to highlight that difference by giving MIRI data the distinct yellow and orange colours, in contrast to the blue and white colours assigned to stars at NIRCam?s wavelengths.

Space

How big is the universe? The shape of space-time could tell us

We may never know what lies beyond the boundaries of the observable universe, but the fabric of the cosmos can tell us whether the universe is infinite or not

Features

Physics

Are space and time illusions? The answer could lie in black holes

Features

Physics

Why this is a golden age for life to thrive across the universe

Features

Space

Why our location in the Milky Way is perfect for finding alien life

Features

Space

This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe

Features

Space

Why you should feel comforted, not scared, by the vastness of space

Features

Physics

The universe is built a lot like a giant brain – so is it conscious?

Features

Physics

We are closer than ever to finally proving the multiverse exists

Features

Health

Why antibiotic resistance could make the last pandemic look minor

Features

Physics

Is it possible to fully understand the universe while living in it?

Features

Culture

TOPSHOT - A man pushes a bycicle along as he walks amid building rubble in the devastated area around Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on April 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Comment

A powerful new book shows why it's so important to understand war

In his latest book, Why War?, historian Richard Overy grapples with a question that stumped Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud – why do humans persist in waging war?

Culture

Comment

Matt Parker's comic look at trigonometry is a bit heavy on the maths

Culture

Comment

51 recommends a stage adaptation of Spirited Away in London

Culture

Comment

Save the planet, release your inner wild, urges a passionate new book

Culture

More

A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. The red giant is a large sphere in shades of red, orange, and white, with the side facing the white dwarf the lightest shades. The white dwarf is hidden in a bright glow of white and yellows, which represent an accretion disk around the star. A stream of material, shown as a diffuse cloud of red, flows from the red giant to the white dwarf. When the red giant moves behind the white dwarf, a nova explosion on the white dwarf ignites, creating a ball of ejected nova material shown in pale orange. After the fog of material clears, a small white spot remains, indicating that the white dwarf has survived the explosion. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Space

Get ready to watch a rare explosive star system blaze into life

So bright you'll be able to see it without a telescope, a “new” star system, T Coronae Borealis, will become visible for the first time in 80 years between now and September. Abigail Beall explains where to spot it

Regulars

BrainTwister #26: Up and down

Regulars

Tom Gauld on not disturbing the professor while he's thinking

Regulars

Twisteddoodles takes on virtual AI assistants

Regulars

Regulars

Hardening – the new way to stop your kids getting a cold?

Hardening – the new way to stop your kids getting a cold?

Feedback delves into a new study about snotty-nose prevention in children, and is intrigued to discover that hardening, rubbing and water procedures are the cutting edge of cold science these days

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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