Oshen’s robotic sailboats are powered by the wind and the sun Oshen The UK’s Royal Navy may return to the age of sail, with a new demonstration involving a flotilla of small, wind-propelled robot boats. Made by Oshen in Plymouth, UK, the vessels, known as C-Stars, are just 1.2 metres long and weigh around 40…
Speech sounds like it is made of words, but that impression has more to do with what’s in our heads than with what comes out of our mouths. In natural speech, there are no clear acoustic boundaries separating words; we pause about as many times within words as we do between them. This is especially…
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 Raining cats and dogs A new unit of measurement has dropped – and in this case the slang verb is doubly appropriate. Reader Alan Baker came across…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. So I have a confession that I need to get off my chest, and I’m bringing in my friend, SciAm’s very own Allison Parshall, to help. Allison Parshall: What is it, Kendra? On supporting science journalism If you’re enjoying this article,…
The ancestors of the British Bell Beaker people lived in a wetland area and relied heavily on fishing SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Analysis of ancient DNA has uncovered the origins of a mysterious group who appeared in Britain around 2400 BC and, in a century or less, all but replaced the people who built Stonehenge….
From skating to curling, the thrilling sports of the Winter Olympics have plenty of science behind them. Follow our coverage here to learn more. Food is fuel. It sounds like a cliché, but if you are a Winter Olympian, that phrase is more like a mantra. And with every Olympic Games, there is an inevitable…
Ryan Wills for New Scientist Richard Branson, Jane Goodall and Edward Norton might seem like strange bedfellows. But in 2012, at the Earth Summit in Brazil, they stood together on stage making the case that putting a price tag on nature was the only sensible way to prevent its destruction. Goodall, who spent decades studying…
February 11, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Hair extensions may contain chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive issues A new study finds a variety of hair extensions—from natural to synthetic—contain chemicals associated with cancer, birth defects and reproductive issues By Aude Konan edited by Lauren J. Young Daniel Llao Calvet/Getty Images…
Core samples from a lake in Nepal reveal a random pattern of historical earthquakes Zakaria Ghazoui-Schaus, BAS While some have argued northern India and western Nepal are overdue for a massive earthquake, an analysis says this is a myth, as the area has been experiencing smaller earthquakes at random for millennia. It is common for…
Senior physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award and a winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award.
