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.

The transfiguration of fat • Treating fat as an active organ can improve our approach to our bodies and obesity

New Scientist

Deforestation on the COP30 agenda

The world’s oldest ever RNA sample • RNA extracted from an exceptionally well-preserved woolly mammoth gives us a window into the gene activity of these ancient animals, reports James Woodford

Rapid melt from Antarctica could speed up the revival of crucial ocean current

People with red hair may recover slower from wounds

A star-fuelled mystery • An isolated galaxy seems to be impossibly forming new stars

Ultrasound could clear the brain after a stroke

Strongest evidence yet that the Epstein-Barr virus causes lupus

Analysing Hitler’s DNA for a TV gimmick tells us nothing useful • To truly understand Adolf Hitler, we need to look at his personal life and the wider societal and historical context, says Michael Le Page

Forecast finds AI firms far off track to reach net zero goals

Fossil fuel emissions rise again, but China’s are levelling off

Is this the earliest known image of cosmic creation?

Close contact could help our wounds heal faster

A boost for quantum computers • IBM has revealed two quantum computers, which connect qubits in newly intricate ways

Parasitic ant plays a deadly trick on its relatives

Computer works like a living system • Reactions between enzymes and peptides create a constantly changing chemical network

Home hypnosis relieves menopausal hot flushes

Huge plasma cloud belched out by distant star

Rift lakes drying up can cause earthquakes and eruptions

Why aren’t young people having sex? • Sexual activity in young people is on the decline. Should we be worried about what this means for society, asks Alexandra Thompson

High-voltage ‘wand’ could defrost vehicles

Running out of road • Cars are getting bigger, which is bad for both us and for the planet. But we have ways to counter “carspreading”, says Anthony Laverty

Future Chronicles • Escaping the Anslopocene In the latest in our imagined history of inventions yet to come, Rowan Hooper reveals how an ingenious way to avoid AI slop was invented in the late 2020s

Water world

Dazzled by the quantum realm • Attempts to describe quantum physics are rarely so ambitious or enjoyable, but this book’s zeal sometimes steers too close to hype, finds Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Not for the squeamish • Exploring how we repair and replace body parts makes for a brilliant read – just beware the grisly details, warns Carissa Wong

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‘Dark matter music’ • Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe tell Chelsea Whyte about their new album – which is being transmitted into space by Nobel laureate Robert Wilson

Your letters

THE BIG FAT TRUTH • Often regarded as a nuisance or a health hazard, we have overlooked the role of fat as a vital organ that shapes our health, finds Linda Geddes

THE YO-YO EFFECT

YOUR UNAPPRECIATED ORGAN

Songs from the caves • Ancient rock art was meant to be heard as well as seen, and we are now starting to bring those sounds back to life, discovers Benjamin Taub

In search of the impossible • A strange form of matter was thought to exist only in the lab – until it started showing up in the world’s most...