A superb fairy-wren (left) tries to fend off a cuckoo David Ongley More than 20 species of bird around the world use a similar “whining” alarm call to warn birds like cuckoos are around. The call seems to be understood across species, and its specific use hints at how language may have originated. Cuckoos are…
Katalin Karikó thought the call was a joke. It was 3 a.m. on October 2, 2023. Her husband answered the phone. As someone in building maintenance, “he quite frequently gets calls for fixing this and that,” Karikó says. But this time, he handed it over. “It is for you,” he said. Only half awake, she…
The menstrual cycle and other aspects of women’s health have long been understudied Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images The Period BrainSarah Hill Vermilion (UK); Harvest (US) When I lived with my parents, my mother said she could always tell when my period was approaching: I raided the snack cupboard a little more frequently and…
These endearing photos of bats are a far cry from how these animals are often perceived – linked to fictional evildoers, or blamed for real-life diseases, most recently covid-19, due to the viruses they harbour. But the mammals deserve far more sympathy and attention, argues ecologist Yossi Yovel, based at Tel Aviv University in Israel,…
Wildlife broadcaster Chris Packham’s kinship with the natural world began before he could even speak. As a young child in his parents’ small back garden in Southampton, UK, he became fascinated with tadpoles, snails and ladybirds. Soon his bedroom filled up with jam jars and tanks, and then the garden was crammed with enclosures. His…
“B mesons can help us solve a big mystery of the universe: why there is more matter than antimatter” sakkmesterke/Alamy Did you know that, in physics, we have beauty factories? This has nothing to do with art or glamour. Instead, I am talking about experiments where electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, are collided together…
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 What’s in a squeak? Feedback’s experience of mice is sadly confined to the dead ones (or, sometimes, barely alive ones) that one of our felines insists on…
“Before the war on drugs in the 1970s, there was a range of promising research into therapeutic psychedelics” Adrià Voltà In the early 1950s, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Graham Greene and many other leading figures from science, philosophy, culture and politics were featured in plans for a gathering – dubbed “Outsight” – where they would…
October 2, 2025 4 min read This U.S. Government Shutdown Is Different—Especially for Science President Trump’s budget office lays out guidelines for mass federal lay-offs as the U.S. government grinds to a halt By Dan Garisto & Nature magazine The U.S. government ceased many operations early on Wednesday after Congress failed to pass legislation to…
AI could be used to make the toxin ricin, but this can also be obtained from castor beans, found in many gardens American Photo Archive/Alamy Artificial intelligence promises to transform biology, allowing us to design better drugs, vaccines and even synthetic organisms for, say, eating waste plastic. But some fear it could also be used…
