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A tiny engine comprised of a glass bead zapped with electric fields behaves as if it is operating 2000 times hotter than the sun

A tiny engine comprised of a glass bead zapped with electric fields behaves as if it is operating 2000 times hotter than the sun

Week in images: 25-29 August 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Genetic and anatomical data reveal how the human pelvis acquired its unique shape, enabling our ancestors to walk on two legs

As humans expand into space, how we'll continue to expand the species remains an important question.

There's more to being a Vulcan than prosthetic ears and playing it straight.

The near-Earth asteroid's microscopic surface tells a detailed story.

A survey of Scientific American’s century of quantum coverage helps explain the enduring popularity of strange physics

A star 3,000 light years away pulled off the ultimate disappearing act, dimming by 97% for eight months before mysteriously returning to full brightness. This unexpected vanishing trick has finally been solved by astronomers who discovered a massive dust disk and a hidden companion star orchestrating one of the rarest eclipsing events ever observed, a one in a million phenomenon that won't happen again until 2068.

Stars with eight or more stellar masses are termed high-mass stars. There are questions around how these stars can become so massive, since as they form they lose mass through stellar winds and radiation. New research shows that elongated streams of gas that feed these stars explains their high masses.

For the first time, astrophysicists have spotted a supernova right before it explodes. This is a rare glimpse inside a massive star before it meets its doom. The star was stripped down to its core, and the observations confirm theories that show stars have onion-like layers.

Weather apps regularly differ in their predictions for the same location – why is it so hard to predict local forecasts, and where can we get the best weather information?

Weather apps regularly differ in their predictions for the same location – why is it so hard to predict local forecasts, and where can we get the best weather information?

AI can transfer strange qualities through seemingly unrelated training—from a love of owls to something more dangerous

Superluminal velocities are common but illusory

Hurricane forecasts have made huge leaps since Katrina hit 20 years ago, but that progress is threatened by Trump administration cuts to research

Two decades after Katrina, we revisit the storm and discuss the evolution of hurricane preparedness since then.

Newly released SpaceX footage gives us great looks at the final moments of Starship's epic Flight 10 test on Aug. 26, which ended with an Indian Ocean splashdown.

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Alex Foster's sci-fi novel “Circular Motion”. We liked it – but there were calls for a bit more science in this slice of science fiction

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Alex Foster's sci-fi novel “Circular Motion”. We liked it – but there were calls for a bit more science in this slice of science fiction