Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Mechanical turk Feedback is a grumpy sort, so we run a mile when faced with any kind of enforced fun. It is possible, therefore, that we would…
November 6, 2025 2 min read A Flicker of Hope for the World’s Rarest Porpoise The latest report shows that the estimated number of endangered vaquita porpoises has modestly increased By Ryan Green edited by Andrea Gawrylewski A lone vaquita, Phocoena sinus, in the open sea. For the first time since researchers have been tracking…
When it comes to understanding the ups and downs of liberal democracy, conventional research looks at drivers such as economics, emotions and education. But another area is just as crucial: neurology. After all, liberal democracy challenges our brain in ways that other political systems don’t. Where dictatorships offer certainty about the future – just think…
Hidden beneath all their rum-pum-pumming, woodpeckers are quietly grunt-grunt-grunting. The birds exhale with each strike, much like a tennis pro groaning through a stroke. Elaborate coordination between those breaths and muscles across the body keep their hammering at a perfectly consistent rate, researchers report November 6 in Journal of Experimental Biology. Research into the extraordinary…
The COVID Pandemic May Have Aged Your Brain—Even If You Never Got Sick Immunologist Zachary Rubin explains how, according to a recent study, living through a pandemic might accelerate brain aging. By Zachary Rubin edited by Kelso Harper This video is part of “Innovations In: RSV,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with…
“We are composed not only of human cells and microbes but also fragments of others…” Lois Fordham/Millennium Images Hidden GuestsLise Barnéoud, translated by Bronwyn Haslam, Greystone Books My children were conceived using donated eggs, so you would be forgiven for assuming we share no genetic material. Yet science has proved this isn’t entirely true. We…
Composer Peter Hugh White and librettist Clare Heath join host Rosie Millard in front of a London audience to explore why the story of chemist and x-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin and the race to uncover the structure of DNA makes such a compelling subject for an opera. We hear excerpts that capture the contrasting personalities…
Jacob, outfitted with a tracking collar, lost his left hind leg in a poacher’s snare Alex Braczkowski A lion that lost one leg to a poacher’s snare has defied the expectations of conservation scientists by adopting an inventive new hunting strategy. Jacob, an 11-year-old lion in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, made headlines last year…
November 6, 2025 3 min read Record-Breaking Black Hole Blast Reveals Star’s Final Moments A “superflare” 10 trillion times brighter than the sun is confirmed as the record holder for luminosity By Jenna Ahart & Nature magazine Black holes can get energy boosts by ‘snacking’, although their dish of choice is rather different from our…
The Roman road network mapped by Itiner-e Itiner-e A comprehensive new map of Roman roads has boosted the known size of the empire’s land transport network by almost 60 per cent – and it is available for anyone to explore online. The project, called Itiner-e, brings together topographic mapping, satellite imagery and centuries of historical…
