New Scientist

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

A note from the editor

The race to 100 is often rigged • The odds of becoming a centenarian are better than ever – but we can do even more

New Scientist

Quantum computers get silicon makeover

Covid-19 vaccines’ economic benefits • An estimate of the global health and economic impact of the vaccines against the coronavirus shows they delivered a huge return on investment, finds Michael Le Page

Early Neanderthals hunted ibex on steep mountain slopes

Jupiter is smaller and more squashed than we expected

Analysis Health • Childhood obesity is now more common than undernutrition – what do we do? Policies designed to reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods aren’t working, finds Grace Wade

Ancient toolkit brings us closer to hunter-gatherers

Black hole theorem proved correct • Gravitational wave observations are shedding light on an idea proposed by Stephen Hawking

NASA hasn’t found life on Mars – yet • Fresh evidence could point to the existence of ancient organisms on the Red Planet, but we can’t know for certain without returning samples to Earth, finds Matthew Sparkes

Resistance training may also strengthen your gut microbiome

DNA cassette can store every song ever recorded

Area of brain behind cravings identified

How elements shaped our evolution • Adaptation to local micronutrient levels, once vital, continues to influence populations worldwide

Mysterious cloud on Mars finally has an explanation

Britain’s economy actually thrived after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire

‘Great Migration’ of wildebeest is smaller than we thought

Surprising number of mammals are iridescent

Antibody mix may be universal flu treatment

Polar geoengineering just won’t work • A review of five methods put forward for cooling down the poles or slowing the loss of ice concludes they are all wildly impractical, wouldn’t work, or both, finds Michael Le Page

Exoplanet shows signs of having a habitable atmosphere

Sculpted head may reveal a unique ancient hairstyle

Sustainability over style • A radical idea to standardise packaging across brands could make it far easier for us to recycle and reuse plastic, says Saabira Chaudhuri

This changes everything • In the long run We are still waiting for the retro-futuristic tech envisioned in science fiction stories of years past – including advances in human reproduction, writes Annalee Newitz

Slow escape

Common knowledge • Steven Pinker makes a compelling case that knowing what everyone else knows transforms societies. But Michael Marshall laments his politics

Stopping an AI apocalypse • We must take drastic action before superintelligent AIs wipe out humanity, according to a new book. Jacob Aron isn’t convinced

New Scientist recommends

The sci-fi column • A literary mystery Set in a future where rising seas have swallowed most of the UK, Ian McEwan’s excellent novel What We Can Know follows a scholar on a quest to rediscover a great lost poem, says Emily H. Wilson

Your letters

HOW TO LIVE TO 100

Centenarian boom • More people than ever before are living to 100 and beyond.

‘I’m like an Olympian, but for longevity’ • Tech millionaire turned longevity pioneer Bryan Johnson is going to extremes to reverse the age of his body. What can the...