The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.

— Peter De Vries

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Updated: 5 hours 14 min ago

Fossils reveal what the fur of early mammals looked like

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 2:00pm
A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they were all greyish-brown in colour, which would have helped them hide from dinosaurs
Categories: Astronomy

Destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam left behind a toxic legacy

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 2:00pm
The 2023 breach of the Kakhovka dam drained a huge reservoir and exposed a vast area of toxic sediment, creating a debate about how best to rebuild after the Russia-Ukraine war
Categories: Astronomy

NASA may have to cancel major space missions due to budget cuts

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 1:57pm
Potential cuts of up to 50 per cent of NASA's science budget could mean cancelling missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probes
Categories: Astronomy

Ancient humans lived in an 'uninhabitable' climate 25,000 years ago

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 11:00am
Bones dating back 25,000 years suggest that humans lived in extremely icy conditions in Tibet, which were previously thought to be uninhabitable
Categories: Astronomy

Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 8:04am
New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of Peter Kyle, the UK's technology secretary, in what is believed to be a world-first use of such legislation
Categories: Astronomy

Hera asteroid mission takes stunning images of Mars’s moon Deimos

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 7:28am
A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos
Categories: Astronomy

California isn't clearing forests fast enough to tame wildfires

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 7:00am
To reduce the growing risk of intense wildfires, California is cutting and burning the areas that fuel them – but these efforts may be moving too slowly
Categories: Astronomy

Quartz crystals on Mars could preserve signs of ancient life

Thu, 03/13/2025 - 4:00am
NASA’s Perseverance rover found large crystals of quartz with a high purity on Mars, which probably had to have formed in the presence of hot water
Categories: Astronomy

The 13 drugs and supplements that could slow brain ageing

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Hydrocortisone and testosterone are just two of 13 drugs and supplements that could lessen the impact of genes that accelerate brain ageing
Categories: Astronomy

How breaking the rules of tic-tac-toe makes it way more fun

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Noughts and crosses, or tic-tac-toe, is a simple game – but twist the rules and you can really spice it up, says Peter Rowlett
Categories: Astronomy

Terrific drama shows the battle for girls' education in Afghanistan

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
The odds are stacked against an all-female robotics team in Rule Breakers, a fantastic film about teaching girls in Afghanistan
Categories: Astronomy

Hypnotic art has its roots in the terrifying reality of nuclear bombs

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
In his Atomic series, artist James Stanford showcases "the spectacle and the horror" of growing up near a nuclear bomb testing site
Categories: Astronomy

Exhibition uses art to explore the mysteries of the quantum world

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Cosmic Titans, a new exhibition at the University of Nottingham, UK, is a powerful collaboration of artists and quantum physicists that sets out to make the intangible tangible
Categories: Astronomy

How we could achieve dog-level sense of smell – and what it would mean

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions yet to come – this time how, by the mid-21st century, many people were opting for a "nose job" that would supercharge their sense of smell. Rowan Hooper is our guide.
Categories: Astronomy

Is this the most glorious retraction notice a journal has ever made?

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Feedback would like to bring to readers' attention the retraction of five psychology articles by Nicolas Guéguen, including a "field study" into "bust size and hitchhiking"
Categories: Astronomy

Content moderation offers little actual safety on Big Social Media

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Whether social media sites police their platforms using humans or algorithms, content moderation isn't keeping users safe, says Jess Brough
Categories: Astronomy

Are we really doomed? An entertaining guide to humanity's extinction

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Few people could write so genially, even humorously, about our existential crisis. Henry Gee can, in his excellent new book The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire
Categories: Astronomy

Understanding conscious experience isn’t beyond the realm of science

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 2:00pm
For a long time objective measurement of subjective experience was considered impossible, but it is finally becoming a reality, promising a boost for health care and much more
Categories: Astronomy

Ancient face bones offer clues to identity of early humans in Europe

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 12:00pm
Bone fragments from a cave in northern Spain suggest there were multiple hominin species living in western Europe around a million years ago
Categories: Astronomy

Do we finally understand what caused record heat in 2023 and 2024?

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 12:00pm
Scientists have struggled to explain why global temperatures have shot up in recent years, but ocean cloud cover has now emerged as a crucial piece of the puzzle
Categories: Astronomy