The self-righting tetrahedron Gergő Almádi et al. A four-sided shape that will always come to rest on the same side no matter what side it starts on has been built by mathematicians, decades after it was first proposed to exist. Mathematicians have long been fascinated by self-righting “monostable” shapes, which have a preferred resting spot…
An unassuming lichen harbors a hidden superpower: It’s remarkably resistant to ultraviolet radiation. New experiments on the hardy organism call into question the long-held belief that alien planets bathed in ultraviolet light must be sterile worlds, researchers report June 12 in Astrobiology. The discovery may open up more options in the search for life elsewhere…
Meditation’s Benefits Stretch Beyond the Person Who Meditates Often framed as a boon for personal wellness, meditation helps us connect with and support others, too By Mariah G. Schug edited by Daisy Yuhas Richard Drury/Getty Images Listening to the daily news, with stories of war and conflict, can be disheartening. Unsurprisingly, data suggest that a…
Lake of Darkness is the New Scientist Book Club’s July pick You were born, in all likelihood, towards the end of the 20th– or towards the beginning of the 21st-centuries. Yes? I have no desire to condescend to you. Many of the features of life today will be readily comprehensible to you, if you can…
Tucked inside mochi, swirled into moon cakes or layered beneath custard in taiyaki, a sweet paste made from red beans is a beloved staple in East Asia. Despite its popularity, the origins of the bean (also known as adzuki) have long been contested. After analyzing nearly 700 wild and cultivated adzuki genomes across Asia, scientists…
Vaccines are a marvel of modern medicine: the carefully tested and regulated technologies teach people’s immune systems how to fight off potentially fatal infections, saving both lives and health care costs. But for as long as vaccines have existed, people have opposed them, and in recent years the antivaccine movement has gained visibility and power….
Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time was (largely) a hit with the New Scientist Book Club One of the wonderful things about science fiction is the broadness of its church, and this was really brought home to me by our two most recent reads. The New Scientist Book Club moved from the hard science fiction…
A Sodom and Gomorrah Story Shows Scientific Facts Aren’t Settled by Public Opinion Claims that an asteroid or comet airburst destroyed the biblical Sodom captured the public’s imagination. Its retraction shows that scientific conclusions aren’t decided by majority rule in the public square By Mark Boslough The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah, painting by John…
The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in Canada may contain the world’s oldest rocks Jonathan O’Neil Just over 4 billion years ago, magma from Earth’s mantle infiltrated a fracture in the young planet’s primordial crust. Over the following aeons, nearly all of the planet’s early crust melted back into the mantle except for a small area around…
Heat Domes Are Hotter and Lingering Longer—Because of the Arctic A rapidly warming Arctic is driving long-lasting summer extremes, such as this month’s sweltering temperatures, new research suggests By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News The sun rises over Manhattan on June 24, 2025 in New York City as the first heat wave of the year…
