Your Oral Microbiome Could Affect Your Weight, Liver and Diabetes Risk
The study, one of the largest to date, examined the oral microbiome of thousands of participants and found distinct bacterial signatures associated with obesity, pre‑diabetes and non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease. Researchers identified specific taxa whose abundance correlated with insulin resistance and liver fat accumulation. The findings suggest a simple mouth swab could eventually serve as a non‑invasive screen for metabolic risk. This work paves the way for microbiome‑based diagnostics and targeted interventions.
Doubts Cast over 'Wild' Claim that Magnetic Control Can Turn on Genes
Researchers in South Korea announced a magnetically controlled switch that can turn on genes inside cells using an electromagnetic signal, a development touted as a potential breakthrough for non‑invasive therapies. The study appeared in a leading journal but has been...
The Best New Science Fiction Books of May 2026
May 2026 brings a robust slate of new science‑fiction titles, ranging from the eighth Murderbot novel by Martha Wells to debut generation‑ship epic "The Republic of Memory" by Mahmud El Sayed. Established voices Matt Haig, Ann Leckie and Alan Moore also release fresh...
Our Verdict on Red Mars: Mostly Great, with a Few Quibbles
The New Scientist Book Club challenged its 25,000‑strong community to read Kim Stanley Robinson’s 600‑page classic *Red Mars* in 30 days, sparking lively Discord discussions. Readers lauded the novel’s vivid Martian landscapes and ambitious world‑building, while many found the love‑triangle...
Ann Leckie Continues to Shine with New Sci-Fi Novel Radiant Star
Ann Leckie’s newest Radch‑universe novel, Radiant Star, arrives this month, set on the underground world of planet Aaa after its star vanished. The book continues her reputation for meticulous world‑building and complex alien cultures, building on the critical acclaim of the...
Is an AI Version of Mark Zuckerberg – or Any Boss – a Good Plan?
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs is developing "ZuckGPT," an artificial‑intelligence replica of CEO Mark Zuckerberg that can converse with employees. The model is being trained on the founder’s public statements, policies, tone and mannerisms to simulate his leadership style. Meta says the...
Simple Treatment Tweak Drastically Reduces Blood Loss From Severe Cuts
Researchers at McGill University have engineered red blood cells to form rapid, durable clots, stopping severe bleeding in rat liver wounds within five seconds. Treated rats lost only 24 mg of blood versus nearly 2,000 mg in controls, and the clots remained...
Weird 'Transdimensional' State of Matter Is neither 2D nor 3D
Physicists at Nanjing University have identified a new quantum state of matter they term the transdimensional anomalous Hall effect (TDAHE). In carbon films only 2–5 nm thick, electrons exhibit simultaneous horizontal and vertical looping motions when subjected to two perpendicular magnetic...
Why Dinosaurs Lived Much More Complex Lives than We Thought
A surge of dinosaur discoveries over the past decade is overturning long‑held assumptions about their behavior. Palaeontologist Dave Hone argues that evidence for pack hunting, elaborate displays and frequent combat is scant, urging a more nuanced view of dinosaur life....
Cancer Is Increasing in Young People and We Still Don't Know Why
Recent research shows colorectal cancer among young adults is climbing sharply, with a 50% increase since the 1990s in several high‑income nations. A UK study identified 11 cancer types rising in people aged 20‑49, attributing only a small share of...
Humanoid Robots May Be About to Break the 100-Metre Sprint Record
In April 2026, Chinese smartphone maker Honor unveiled a humanoid robot that eclipsed the human half‑marathon record, while robotics firm Unitree fielded a biped that ran the 100‑metre dash within a second of the world‑record pace. Both feats highlight rapid...
How I Pay Almost Nothing to Power My House and Electric Car
Australian households are slashing electricity costs by pairing rooftop solar with subsidized home batteries. A federal incentive has enabled roughly 300,000 homes to install storage, letting owners like the author pay only about US$16 per month even while charging an...
We May Finally Have a Cure for Many Different Autoimmune Conditions
A novel cancer immunotherapy is being repurposed to eliminate rogue T‑cells that drive autoimmune diseases. Early trials show it can eradicate the pathogenic cells rather than merely suppressing symptoms, delivering faster and more durable remission. Dozens of global studies are...
Coral Reefs on a Remote Archipelago Shrugged Off a Massive Heatwave
In early 2025 a severe marine heatwave devastated reefs worldwide, yet the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago off Western Australia remained largely unaffected despite enduring 22 °C‑weeks of heat stress. Researchers from the University of Western Australia documented near‑100 % survival at 16 °C‑weeks and...
Why the Keto Diet Could Be a Revolutionary Way to Treat Mental Illness
The ketogenic diet, traditionally marketed for weight loss, is now being explored as a treatment for severe mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, anorexia, and even schizophrenia. Early case studies and small clinical trials suggest that high‑fat, low‑carb nutrition...
10,000 New Planets Found Hidden in NASA Telescope Data
Astronomers have uncovered more than 10,000 candidate exoplanets in NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, the largest single discovery to date. The haul was revealed through a machine‑learning reanalysis of the full mission archive, adding roughly 20% to the...
Gravity's Strength Measured More Reliably than Ever Before
Physicists at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have released the most precise measurement of the gravitational constant, known as big G, using an advanced torsion‑balance apparatus. The new experiment reports an uncertainty of just 0.01%, narrowing the long‑standing...
Symptoms of Early Dementia Reversed by Bespoke Treatment Plans
A new personalized approach that targets nutritional gaps, infections, and environmental toxins has shown measurable improvements in memory and daily functioning for people with mild cognitive decline or early‑stage dementia. The bespoke treatment plans combine medical interventions with lifestyle changes...
Is Stem Cell Therapy About to Transform Medicine and Reverse Ageing?
Stem cell therapy is re‑emerging as a credible route to tissue regeneration and age‑reversal after a decade of failed anti‑ageing bets. Researchers are now demonstrating partial cellular reprogramming that restores youthful function without erasing cell identity. Early‑stage human trials from...
Striking Photo Essay Examines Deadly Spread of Dengue Fever in Nepal
Photographer Yuri Segalerba’s essay documents Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes discovered at 2,438 m in Chandannath, marking the highest altitude recorded for dengue vectors in Nepal. Climate change and increased travel have pushed dengue into 76 of the country’s 77...
98 per Cent of Meat and Dairy Sustainability Pledges Are Greenwashing
Animal agriculture drives about 16.5% of global greenhouse‑gas emissions, prompting the sector’s biggest meat and dairy firms to issue a wave of sustainability pledges. Researchers from the University of Miami examined 33 leading companies' reports from 2021‑2024, cataloguing 1,233 environmental...
Can You Slow Ageing with Your Diet? A New Book Gives It a Go
Freelance health journalist David Cox discovered his biological age was older than his chronological age and turned that shock into a mission to reverse it. In his new book, *The Age Code*, he chronicles how specific dietary changes can lower...
How Many Dachshunds Would It Take to Get to the Moon?
The New Scientist Feedback column highlighted the New York Times' tongue‑in‑cheek use of 22‑inch dachshunds to convey Artemis II’s 406,771 km lunar distance, estimating roughly 728 million dogs would be required. It also noted a separate study where a large‑language‑model classifier achieved 96%...
Why Your Opinion of Used Electric Vehicles Is Probably Wrong
A new report shows that well‑maintained EV batteries often outlive the cars they power, challenging the belief that they degrade quickly. This finding makes used electric vehicles a more attractive purchase, especially as new EVs in the UK have become...
This Mesmerising Cornish Time-Travel Film Is Not to Be Missed
Mark Jenkin’s new film “Rose of Nevada” opens in UK cinemas and will debut in the United States on June 19, 2026. The plot follows a Cornish fishing village haunted by the disappearance of the boat Rose of Nevada thirty...
We Need More Radioactive Drugs. Can We Make Them From Nuclear Waste?
A new wave of radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments is driving unprecedented demand for radioisotopes, prompting companies to extract them from legacy nuclear waste. Researchers at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory are refining radioactive lead from stored waste, while firms like Belgium’s...
Exercise Advice for Long Covid May Be Doing More Harm than Good
Long‑COVID sufferers have been urged to adopt exercise regimens as a low‑cost, drug‑free remedy, but emerging critiques suggest the evidence base is weak. Recent analyses highlight that many studies lack proper controls, small sample sizes, and fail to account for...
Fermat's Last Theorem: Still a Must-Read About a 350-Year Maths Secret
Simon Singh’s 1997 popular‑science book *Fermat’s Last Theorem* remains a seminal guide to mathematical proof, chronicling the 350‑year quest that culminated in Andrew Wiles’s 1994 proof. The work blends rigorous explanation of the theorem with the human drama of its...
The Monstrous Number Sequences that Break the Rules of Mathematics
Researchers have identified number sequences that grow far faster than traditional exponential functions, eclipsing the legendary chess‑board rice example in just a few steps. By alternating multiplication and addition in specific patterns, these hyper‑accelerating processes generate values that breach long‑standing...
Game Theory Explains Why the US's Goals in Iran Keep Changing
The standoff in the Strait of Hormuz is being framed as a war of attrition, where endurance outweighs firepower. Iran’s cheap drones and abundant missile stockpiles let it absorb losses longer, while the United States must sustain costly naval deployments...
Electric Vehicle Owners Could Earn Thousands by Supporting Power Grid
A pilot program in Delaware demonstrates that electric‑vehicle owners can earn several thousand dollars a year by letting their parked cars act as a collective battery for the grid. As renewable generation now accounts for roughly 90% of new capacity,...
Why Is It so Hard to Change Your Mind?
Changing one’s mind is notoriously hard, a trait psychologists link to confirmation bias and social‑media echo chambers. New research highlighted by columnist David Robson shows that mental rigidity not only fuels political polarization but also hampers business decision‑making. However, the...
The Rise, the Fall and the Rebound of Cyclic Cosmology
Cyclic cosmology, the big‑bounce theory that the universe contracts before rebounding, is experiencing a notable resurgence after years of marginalization. Early enthusiasm in the 2000s faded as data favored inflation, but fresh quantum‑gravity calculations have revived interest. Researchers now argue...
Monkeys Walk Around a Virtual World Using only Their Thoughts
Researchers at KU Leuven implanted three rhesus macaques with 288 micro‑electrodes across primary motor, dorsal premotor and ventral premotor cortices. An AI model decoded the neural activity, allowing the monkeys to steer avatars through a series of 3D virtual environments...
New Scientist Recommends Jamie Bartlett's Insightful How to Talk to AI
New Scientist’s weekly staff picks spotlight Jamie Bartlett’s new book, *How to Talk to AI*. The guide argues that most users lack formal training in prompting chatbots, leading to misinformation and emotional reliance. Bartlett emphasizes self‑awareness of one’s biases and...
Neanderthal Infants Were Enormous Compared with Modern Humans
A new study of the near‑complete Neanderthal infant skeleton Amud 7, dated 51,000‑56,000 years ago, shows the baby’s bone length and brain size correspond to a modern child aged 12‑14 months despite a dental age of about six months. The researchers found the...
Are Neanderthals Descendants of Modern Humans?
Columnist Michael Marshall proposes a controversial hypothesis that Neanderthals may have originated from anatomically modern humans, turning the traditional view of them as a separate branch upside down. The theory highlights a persistent gap between genetic data, which shows limited...
How Autoimmune Conditions Can Unexpectedly Drive Mental Illness
Researchers have uncovered that antibodies mistakenly attacking the brain can trigger a range of mental health disorders, from schizophrenia and obsessive‑compulsive disorder to dementia. The phenomenon, first highlighted in cases of autoimmune encephalitis, blurs the line between neurological and psychiatric...
Quantum Computers Could Usher in a Crisis Worse than Y2K
Quantum researchers warn that a functional, large‑scale quantum computer capable of breaking RSA and ECC encryption – dubbed Q‑Day – may emerge within the next decade. The threat mirrors the Y2K panic, but the underlying cryptographic foundations are far more...
From Autism to Migraines, Birth Order May Have Wide-Reaching Effects
A new epidemiological study of more than 10 million siblings links birth order to a wide range of health outcomes. Firstborn children are statistically more likely to be diagnosed with autism, anxiety and allergic conditions, while their younger siblings face higher...
A Key Solution to Climate Change Isn't Happening – and That's Good
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), once hailed as a cornerstone of net‑zero strategies, is now deemed unviable. The flagship Drax‑linked project is unlikely to proceed due to prohibitive costs, massive land‑use demands, and evidence that it can increase...
Modern Living May Be Causing Big Changes to Our Oestrogen Levels
A new study led by Rebecca Brittain compared the gut "oestrobolome" of hundreds of people from 24 global populations. It found that industrialised societies harbor up to seven times more estrogen‑recycling bacteria and twice the enzyme diversity of hunter‑gatherers and...
We’ve Caught a Comet Switching Its Spin Direction for the First Time
Astronomers have recorded the first confirmed reversal of a comet’s spin direction in comet 41P/Tuttle‑Giacobini‑Kresák during its 2026 approach to the Sun. The kilometer‑wide body, which orbits the Sun every 5.4 years, switched from prograde to retrograde rotation as powerful outgassing jets...
The Man Who Crawls Into the Perilous Heart of the Chernobyl Reactor
Anatoly Doroshenko, a young scientist at Ukraine's Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, regularly crawls into the shattered remains of Chernobyl’s Reactor 4 to record radiation levels. He can get as close as eight metres to the molten core...
NASA’s Artemis II Mission Was a Historic Success
NASA’s Artemis II mission returned safely on 10 April after a historic crewed flyby of the Moon, the first human trip beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion capsule traveled to a record‑breaking 406,771 km from Earth, surpassing Apollo 13’s distance...
Hidden Fossils Reveal Secrets of Oceans Before Major Mass Extinction
A half‑grain‑size rock pellet from China’s Sichuan basin yielded 20 microscopic fossils representing eight species, including a previously unknown radiolarian with elongated spines. The 445‑million‑year‑old sample dates to just before the Late Ordovician mass extinction, the second‑largest extinction event in...
The Secret Project to Settle Controversial Maths Proof with a Computer
A secretive team of mathematicians has been running a computer‑based effort for more than two years to verify Shinichi Mochizuki’s controversial 500‑page proof of the ABC conjecture. Simultaneously, a second independent project has launched, aiming to use automated reasoning to assess...
The Man Who Ruined Mathematics
Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, first published in 1931, shocked the mathematical community by proving that any sufficiently powerful formal system cannot be both complete and consistent. The result directly contradicted the Hilbert program’s ambition to ground all of mathematics in...
Sci-Fi Show The Miniature Wife Underwhelms – Despite the Big Names
The Miniature Wife, a ten‑episode Peacock limited series starring Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen, adapts Manuel Gonzales’s 2014 short story about a scientist’s shrinking compound. While the premise taps into a long‑standing sci‑fi trope of miniature characters, critics argue the show’s pacing...
Mysterious 'Compound X' Clears Toxic Parkinson’s Proteins From Brain
Researchers at Swinburne University disclosed that an undisclosed molecule, dubbed compound X, eliminated toxic protein clumps linked to Parkinson's disease in mice. The treatment activated the brain's glymphatic waste‑clearance system, resulting in measurable gains in balance and overall mobility. While the...