New Scientist Space - Cosmology

The world's insects are in trouble – if we start using pesticides to protect plants rather than killing insects it could make a big difference, says Théotime Colin and Andrew B. Barron

Could social drinking have created our civilisation by fuelling creativity and innovation? Drunk, an engrossing new book by Edward Slingerland, roams far and wide to make the case

From hippos escaping from drug lord Pablo Escobar’s private zoo to plant intelligence, a new podcast, Anthropomania, explores how humans interact with other life

When parasitic ants move into another species’ colony, they outsource foraging to the host ants – which may be why several species of parasitic ants have lost the genes for taste and smell

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

A secure quantum internet is one step closer thanks to a quantum memory made from a crystal that can store entangled photons

A man has been infected with the H10N3 strain of bird flu in China, but the risk of the virus spreading between people is thought to be low

After illegal dumps in Turkey, plastic waste imports were banned from the country, which takes most of the UK's recycling – which could spur the UK to find ways to recycle at home

The way mental health is being discussed in the public domain is becoming problematic. We need to start believing people when they ask for help and offering support, says Lucy Foulkes

Netflix documentary Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet is a deep-dive into the nine natural processes upon which all life on Earth depends, featuring David Attenborough and Johan Rockström

Tampons and sanitary pads that have been modified to change colour in the presence of some urinary tract infections could help to quickly diagnose such conditions in countries where access to healthcare is limited

When he was unjustly fired from his job as an astronomer in 1957, Frank Kameny took up a lifelong struggle for the civil rights of gay people

Mindfulness is hailed as a treatment for a vast array of problems and the apps are now hugely popular. But do the claims about its benefits stack up? New Scientist investigates

Snow leopards, puffins, bumblebees and emperor penguins are among the species under threat from climate change, according to a report by conservation charity WWF

Elephants use extreme suction to hold water and food in their trunks, often inhaling at speeds that are nearly 30 times the speed we exhale air when we sneeze

The highly transmissible coronavirus variant formerly known as B.1.617.2 has already become the dominant one in the UK, France, Japan and elsewhere

Restrictions will be lifted this weekend for most areas of Scotland, but tougher rules will remain in places such as Edinburgh and Dundee

The highest-resolution image of atoms has been captured, doubling the resolution of an image made in 2018 by using an algorithm to reduce blurring

Netflix’s Sweet Tooth is a hopeful take on coping with the fall-out of a deadly pandemic, set in a world featuring human-animal hybrids

Remembering which coronavirus variant is which just became simpler – the World Health Organization has announced a scheme for naming variants based on the Greek alphabet