New Scientist Space - Space Headlines
Ig Nobel prizes 2024: The unexpected science that won this year
From drunk worms to mammals that breath through their anuses, founder Marc Abrahams on the winners of this year's Ig Nobel prizes, for research that "makes people laugh, then think"
Categories: Astronomy
The deepfakes of Trump and Biden that you are most likely to fall for
Experiments show that viewers can usually identify video deepfakes of famous politicians – but fake audio and text are harder to detect
Categories: Astronomy
Mega El Niños may have played a part in the Permian mass extinction
Extreme weather events lasting more than a decade could have killed off forests 250 million years ago, contributing to Earth's worst ever mass extinction
Categories: Astronomy
Greenland landslide caused freak wave that shook Earth for nine days
Seismologists were mystified by a strange signal that persisted for nine days in 2023 – now its source has been identified as a standing wave caused by a landslide in Greenland
Categories: Astronomy
Another extreme low for Antarctic sea ice signals a permanent shift
An area of missing Antarctic sea ice twice the size of Texas adds to concerns that the ice has seen a lasting “regime shift”, with consequences for ecosystems and global ocean circulation
Categories: Astronomy
SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew complete 'stand-up' civilian spacewalk
A groundbreaking civilian spacewalk saw two astronauts partially exit a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule wearing a brand new design of spacesuit. Every previous spacewalk completed before this was performed by government-trained astronauts.
Categories: Astronomy
Visible aurora spotted for the first time on Mars by NASA rover
If you were standing on Mars as it was hit by charged particles from the sun, you might be able to see an aurora just like on Earth
Categories: Astronomy
One dose of a smallpox vaccine still gives good protection for mpox
A single dose of a smallpox vaccine seems to lower the risk of catching mpox by around 60 per cent, and two doses would probably be even better
Categories: Astronomy
The mathematics behind pouring a glass of wine
Katie Steckles enlists the help of fluid dynamics researcher Kat Phillips to explain the versatile piece of maths behind dispensing wine from a box
Categories: Astronomy
Documentary tells the fascinating story of a man wired to hear colour
Cyborg: A documentary tells the intriguing story of Neil Harbisson, who wears an antenna to “hear” colour, but it is lacking in depth and should have probed its subject more, says Simon Ings
Categories: Astronomy
New Scientist recommends new superhero drama Supacell
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Categories: Astronomy
Cave diver explores a Mexican sinkhole in atmospheric photograph
This claustrophobia-inducing image is taken from photographer Martin Broen's new book Light in the Underworld, a collection of shots from the Yucatán’s cenotes, or sinkholes
Categories: Astronomy
Is life better as a dog? A philosopher investigates
What is it like to be a dog? And what can we learn from them? Mark Rowlands's take, in his book The Happiness of Dogs, is full of insights, finds Abigail Beall
Categories: Astronomy
How Star Trek-style replicators could lead to a food revolution
Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. This time, Rowan Hooper takes us to the early 2030s, when a technological step change enabled us to produce all the food we needed without the use of animals
Categories: Astronomy
Our fascination with monsters tells us a lot about ourselves
From serpents to zombie pathogens, there is science behind our love of monsters. It reveals a lot about who we are, says Natalie Lawrence
Categories: Astronomy
A riveting exploration of how AI models like ChatGPT changed the world
Supremacy, a new book from tech journalist Parmy Olson, takes us inside the rise of machine learning and AI, and examines the people behind it
Categories: Astronomy
Why everyone needs to stop joking that they're "a little bit OCD"
Far from being a behavioural quirk, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a debilitating condition with complex causes that we're just beginning to understand. We should treat it as such, and stop with the misguided quips
Categories: Astronomy
Genome of Neanderthal fossil reveals lost tribe cut off for millennia
Analysis of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil found in a French cave indicates that it belonged to a group that was isolated for more than 50,000 years
Categories: Astronomy
Ancient people of Easter Island made return trips to South America
DNA analysis shows that people from Easter Island had contact with Indigenous Americans around the 1300s, and finds there was no population crash before the arrival of Europeans
Categories: Astronomy
Bubbles of gas 75 times larger than our sun spotted on another star
Gas bubbles on the surface of a star have been observed for the first time in detail outside our solar system, and they are 75 times the size of our sun
Categories: Astronomy
