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This week's magazine

8 November 2025

Issue 3568

New Scientist issue 3568 cover
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Editor's picks

UNITED STATES - MAY 9: An inverted image of the U.S. Capitol is reflected in puddle on the East Front on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Comment

The Trump administration is playing peekaboo with reality

Comment
What we’re learning about consciousness from master meditators’ brains

Mind

What we’re learning about consciousness from master meditators’ brains

Features
An illustration of an hourglass with a tortoise on top and a hare below

Health

Our bodies are ageing faster than ever. Can we hit the brakes?

Features
How preppers plan to save us if the whole internet collapses

Technology

How preppers plan to save us if the whole internet collapses

Features
Does the family tree of ancient humans need a drastic rewrite?

Humans

Does the family tree of ancient humans need a drastic rewrite?

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

UNITED STATES - MAY 9: An inverted image of the U.S. Capitol is reflected in puddle on the East Front on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Comment

The Trump administration is playing peekaboo with reality

By cutting surveys of public health, the US government won't be able to properly tackle problems ranging from drug addiction to food insecurity

Comment

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Technology

Analogue computers could train AI 1000 times faster and cut energy use

Computers built with analogue circuits promise huge speed and efficiency gains over ordinary computers, but normally at the cost of accuracy. Now, an analogue computer designed to carry out calculations that are key to AI training could fix that

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Space

A distant comet is forming new rings while we watch in real time

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Health

Men may have to exercise more than women to get same heart benefits

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Space

A tiny nearby galaxy is home to a shockingly enormous black hole

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Health

Can't focus after a bad night's sleep? Your dirty brain is to blame

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Humans

Prehistoric crayons provide clues to how Neanderthals created art

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Health

Stem cell therapy lowers risk of heart failure after a heart attack

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Space

We may have found a surprisingly nearby cluster of primordial stars

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Life

Dinosaur skeleton settles long debate over 'tiny T. rex' fossils

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Humans

Boy's body was mummified and turned green by a copper coffin

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Health

Magnetic gel could remove kidney stones more effectively

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Health

The gut microbiome may play a role in shaping our personality

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Humans

Denisovans may have interbred with mysterious group of ancient humans

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Environment

COP30: Can Brazil summit get climate negotiations back on track?

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Chemistry

Bulletproof fabric laced with carbon nanotubes is stronger than Kevlar

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Environment

COP30: What’s on the agenda at the Belém climate summit

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Life

Orcas are ganging up on great white sharks to eat their livers

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Space

SpaceX's Starlink and other satellites face growing threat from sun

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A tiger gets taken for a CT scan

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Analysis

Health

US public health system is flying blind after major cuts

The Trump administration has laid off government workers integral to major public health surveys, meaning the country will lack crucial information on births, deaths and illnesses nationwide

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Aperture

Aerial view of the round structures of the AmazonFACE experiment built in a National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) research area, located 80 km north of Manaus. AmazonFACE is one of the largest scientific experiments ever conducted in the Amazon. It simulates, in a tropical forest area, the impact of the increase in atmospheric CO2 predicted for the coming decades. Using FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) technology, the project seeks to understand how climate change will affect the forest, its biodiversity, and the beneficial functions it currently carries out.

Environment

Testing the Amazon's ability to soak up increasing carbon emissions

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, an unusual experiment is deliberately pumping out greenhouse gas to measure how flora and fauna react to the levels we expect to reach in the future. Photographer Lalo de Almeida captures the vast machinery of the AmazonFACE project

Regulars

Features

Does the family tree of ancient humans need a drastic rewrite?

Humans

Does the family tree of ancient humans need a drastic rewrite?

Anthropologist Christopher Bae has recently suggested we add two new species of ancient human to our family tree. The plans break the conventions for how species should be named – but Bae argues the rules themselves are flawed

Features

Technology

How preppers plan to save us if the whole internet collapses

Features

Mind

What we’re learning about consciousness from master meditators’ brains

Features

Health

Our bodies are ageing faster than ever. Can we hit the brakes?

Features

Culture

Father and daughter

Life

This book is a great insight into the new science of microchimerism

Lise Barnéoud's Hidden Guests shows how this fascinating new field brings with it profound implications for medicine, and even what it means to be human, finds Helen Thomson

Culture

Environment

New book tells compelling tale of the fight to save the Siberian tiger

Culture

Comment

51¶¯Âþ recommends the cult film Hackers – 30 years late

Culture

Space

Deep-space sci-fi novel is delightful, profound and not to be missed

Culture

More

Physics

The fascinating story of the ultimate cosmic law

How do we know the speed of light – and why does it have a speed limit at all? Leah Crane explores the history of one of the most important numbers in the universe

Comment

Space

Here's how to spot the Leonid meteor shower this month

Regulars

Society

Human minds abhor uncertainty. This is a problem for liberal democracy

Comment

Tom Gauld on a portal to an alternate universe

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: 'I'm a little beaker, short and stout...'

Regulars

Regulars

Is a robot programmed to prank you annoying? Yes

Comment

Is a robot programmed to prank you annoying? Yes

Feedback discovers a robot that can mimic Turkish ice cream vendors, who are known for playing tricks on their customers. Researchers concluded that customers, perhaps predictably, don't trust it

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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