Crafty cockatoos learn to use public drinking fountains
Sulphur-crested cockatoos are waiting in line at public drinking fountains in Sydney to have their daily drinks of water in the latest example of cultural evolution in urban birds ⌘ Read more

Infant RSV shot may be more effective than vaccines during pregnancy
When an RSV vaccine became available for use during pregnancy, it offered a natural experiment between various countries to see how it compared to a one-time antibody injection ⌘ Read more

NASA is facing the biggest crisis in its history
Widespread proposed budget cuts have left the US space agency facing an uncertain future at the same time as NASA’s intended new leader has been withdrawn by the Trump administration ⌘ Read more

Why it’s taking a century to pin down the speed of the universe
The Hubble constant, a set number that connects a galaxy’s speed to its distance from Earth and tells us how fast the universe is expanding, was first described more than a hundred years ago – but astronomers have debated it ever since ⌘ Read more

Super-invasive termites could spread from Florida around the world
Two of the most destructive invasive termite species are interbreeding in the US – they can survive a wider range of temperatures and could easily spread across the globe ⌘ Read more

Private ispace Resilience probe will attempt lunar landing this week
If successful, Resilience will be only the third private spacecraft to complete a landing on the moon, and the first operated by a non-US company ⌘ Read more

Discovering the marvels of mucus is inspiring amazing new medicines
Mucus does far more than just act as a protective barrier. Emerging research reveals ways to harness its power and deliver treatments for everything from yeast infections to inflammatory bowel disease ⌘ Read more

Quarter of people follow rules even with no downside to breaking them
Why do we follow rules? A series of experiments with more than 14,000 people reveals that around a quarter of us will follow rules unconditionally, even if obeying them harms us and there is no downside to breaking them ⌘ Read more

There may be a surprising upside to losing coral reefs as oceans warm
As warmer waters and ocean acidification reduce coral formation, the seas will take up more carbon dioxide – an effect that hasn’t been included in climate models ⌘ Read more

Best quantum ‘transistor’ yet could lead to more accurate computers
Microwaves can control a single quantum bit more precisely than ever before, creating a device similar to a quantum transistor – and potentially making quantum computers more reliable ⌘ Read more

Trillion dollars’ worth of platinum waiting to be mined on the moon
Mining craters on the moon could be more practical than extracting precious metals from asteroids, but it might also introduce new legal difficulties ⌘ Read more

There’s growing evidence the big five mass extinctions never happened
Surprising new fossil evidence undermines the idea that there was ever a mass extinction on land – and may force us to reframe the current biodiversity crisis ⌘ Read more

Dogs pollute water with pesticides even weeks after flea treatment
When dogs given spot treatments for fleas go swimming, they release levels of pesticides dangerous to aquatic life for at least a month after the treatment ⌘ Read more

The global temperature may be even higher than we thought
Researchers have proposed a more accurate way to calculate the global surface air temperature, which suggests we are just three years away from breaching the 1.5°C climate goal ⌘ Read more

Any wall can be turned into a camera to see around corners
Researchers have developed algorithms that reconstruct a hidden image from the scrambled light waves that bounce off a wall, making it possible to see things behind a corner ⌘ Read more

At this rate, carbon dioxide removal will never matter for the climate
The carbon dioxide removal industry is struggling to grow at the pace needed to have a significant role in meeting climate targets ⌘ Read more

Should you still learn a second language if AI can translate for you?
Artificial intelligence has removed many of the barriers to understanding a new language, but there are still good reasons to do things the old-fashioned way ⌘ Read more

PTSD in 9/11 responders didn’t start improving for nearly a decade
Most 9/11 first responders experienced improvement in PTSD symptoms about 10 years after the traumatic event, but approximately 10 per cent saw symptoms worsen even two decades later ⌘ Read more

How does the pill affect your brain? We’re finally getting answers
Millions of women and teenage girls use oral contraception, but we are only now getting an idea of what effect these drugs have on our brains ⌘ Read more

Our verdict on Ringworld by Larry Niven: Nice maths, shame about Teela
Culture editor Alison Flood rounds up the New Scientist Book Club’s thoughts on our latest read, the science fiction classic Ringworld by Larry Niven ⌘ Read more

Read an extract from time-travel novel The Ministry of Time
In this short extract from Kaliane Bradley’s sci-fi novel, her protagonist makes a startling discovery about the nature of time ⌘ Read more

‘Time travel was just a metaphor for controlling a narrative’
The Ministry of Time author Kaliane Bradley on how she made time travel work in her bestselling novel, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club ⌘ Read more

First evidence of ancient birds nesting above the Arctic circle
Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought ⌘ Read more

Leprosy was in the Americas long before the arrival of Europeans
The history books say Europeans brought leprosy to the Americas, but analysis of ancient DNA reveals that a form of the disease was present in Argentina and Canada much earlier ⌘ Read more

Will SpaceX’s Starship rocket ever work - and what if it doesn’t?
The failure of SpaceX’s ninth Starship launch has raised fresh concerns about the future of the rocket, but is there any alternative to Elon Musk’s approach to space? ⌘ Read more

Amazing images reveal new details in the sun’s atmosphere
City-sized droplets and twisting streams of plasma have been picked up by incredibly detailed images of the sun’s corona, showing our star as we’ve never seen it before ⌘ Read more

Qubit breakthrough could make it easier to build quantum computers
Quantum computers that correct their own errors usually require hundreds of thousands of qubits. Start-up Nord Quantique claims it can dramatically decrease that number – but many challenges remain ⌘ Read more

Dark chocolate is rich in flavanols. Does that make it a health food?
Antioxidants like cocoa flavanols may benefit heart health, brain ageing and the microbiome. Columnist Alexandra Thompson investigates whether it’s time to rethink chocolate ⌘ Read more

Before the Great Wall, Chinese rulers built a shallow ditch
A network of trenches, walls and enclosures built across the steppes of China and Mongolia 800 years ago seems to have been erected to control the flow of people, perhaps for tax reasons ⌘ Read more

We’re about to unlock the secrets of ancient human brains
For the first time, we have a method for extracting proteins from preserved soft tissues like brains – which could be a treasure trove of evolutionary information ⌘ Read more

Massive glacier collapse triggers landslide that buries Swiss village
Villagers in Blatten, Switzerland, were evacuated earlier this month after authorities warned a nearby glacier was on the brink of collapse – one of many becoming less stable as global temperature rise ⌘ Read more

How your whole imagination is conjured up from three brain processes
Understanding the neurological systems that produce the world inside your head can help you to harness its transformative power ⌘ Read more

Do we have free will? Quantum experiments may soon reveal the answer
Whether or not we have partial free will could soon be resolved by experiments in quantum physics, with potential consequences for everything from religion to quantum computers ⌘ Read more

How visualisation sets you up for success by changing your cognition
The vividness of your mind’s eye isn’t fixed - and training it up is the secret tool of top athletes and businesspeople. Here’s how you can help develop yours ⌘ Read more

Fossils show puzzling lack of evolution during last ice age peak
Thousands of fossils from the La Brea tar pits in California show no signs of mammals and birds evolving in response to shifting temperatures over the past 50,000 years ⌘ Read more

You can make fair dice from any shape you like
Want to roll an armadillo when you play Dungeons & Dragons, instead of standard dice? Now you can, thanks to a technique for mapping the probabilities produced by any shape ⌘ Read more

We’re getting close to recreating the first step in evolution of life
Life is thought to have begun when RNA began replicating itself, and researchers have got close to achieving this in the lab ⌘ Read more

Your imagination holds the power to make you healthier and happier
Imagination isn’t mere childhood whimsy – harnessing its extraordinary capacities can benefit us all ⌘ Read more

The world could experience a year above 2°C of warming by 2029
2024 was the first single year to surpass the 1.5°C global warming threshold – now scientists predict that a year above 2°C is possible in the near future ⌘ Read more

The extremes of imagination reveal how our brains perceive reality
The worlds inside our heads can be dramatically different. What does that reveal about how our minds shape our lives, asks cognitive neurologist Adam Zeman ⌘ Read more

Medieval woman was executed and displayed on London riverbank
A skeleton found in London records a brutal killing about 1200 years ago, thought to be a rare example of a judicial execution of a woman in medieval England ⌘ Read more

Humans were crafting tools from whale bones 20,000 years ago
More than 60 ancient tools found in France and Spain have been identified as whale bone, and the evidence shows that people made tools from this material a thousand years earlier than previously thought ⌘ Read more

The four types of imagination and how they create our worlds
Your imagination isn’t just one thing. The latest neuroscience is untangling just how diverse this faculty really is, says cognitive neurologist Adam Zeman ⌘ Read more

The sun is killing off SpaceX’s Starlink satellites
There have never been so many satellites orbiting Earth as there are today, thanks in part to the launch of mega constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink internet service - and now we are learning just how the sun’s activity can affect them ⌘ Read more

How fast you age is dictated by your sex, ethnicity and education
The pace of ageing accelerates as you get older, and it is linked to an individual’s sex, ethnicity and level of education, according to studies of US and UK populations ⌘ Read more

Cord blood banking is not living up to its promise
Banking a baby’s umbilical cord blood was once seen as a reasonable way to protect their future health, but much of that potential has turned out to be mere hype ⌘ Read more

How captured carbon dioxide could help mine carbon-negative nickel
Captured carbon dioxide could be injected deep in the Earth to dissolve rocks, freeing up nickel and other key metals vital for batteries ⌘ Read more

Physicists are waging a cosmic battle over the nature of dark energy
Results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) suggest that dark energy, a mysterious force in the universe, is changing over time. This would completely re-write our understanding of the cosmos - but now other physicists are challenging this view ⌘ Read more

A photon caught in two places at once could destroy the multiverse
The idea of a multiverse of universes is derived from a particular interpretation of quantum mechanics, but now a new twist on a classic experiment says it is time to put the idea to bed ⌘ Read more

Trump’s Golden Dome defence project could spur a space arms race
US President Trump has proposed a Golden Dome defence system that includes missile interceptors in space. But the idea would cost hundreds of billions of dollars – and could accelerate the weaponisation of space ⌘ Read more