The real scientific insights from Bryan Johnson’s immortality quest 16. September 2025 (18:00) Tech millionaire turned longevity pioneer Bryan Johnson devotes more than 6 hours a day to trialling different methods to turn back the clock. Can the rest of us learn anything from his radical approach?(New Scientist)
Around one-third of AI search tool answers make unsupported claims 16. September 2025 (16:00) AI tools including Perplexity and Open AI’s GPT-4 often provide one-sided answers to contentious questions, and don’t back up their arguments with reliable sources(New Scientist)
Making atoms self-magnify reveals their quantum wave functions 16. September 2025 (14:00) Trapping ultracold atoms with laser light let researchers magnify and then image the wave functions of atoms that were previously too close together to look like anything but a blob(New Scientist)
Good immune health may come at the expense of chronic inflammation 16. September 2025 (13:03) Inflammation is a vital part of the immune response, but it seems that the system can sometimes go awry, resulting in chronic inflammation that has been linked to conditions such as cancer(New Scientist)
Lunar missions may contaminate the moon with hardy Earth microbes 16. September 2025 (10:00) Experiments on Earth indicate some common species of bacteria and fungi could survive for several days on the moon's surface, suggesting missions must take stronger precautions to avoid contamination(New Scientist)
The oldest human mummies were slowly smoked 14,000 years ago 15. September 2025 (22:00) For at least 10,000 years, humans across South-East Asia were being carefully preserved after death by being smoke-dried – a tradition that continues to this day in some cultures(New Scientist)
Modular nuclear reactors sound great, but won't be ready any time soon 15. September 2025 (20:46) The UK government has announced a raft of tiny nuclear power projects, while Russia, China and a host of tech giants are also betting big on small nuclear reactor designs. Does the idea make sense and can they really be built any time soon?(New Scientist)
Mars once had an atmosphere that was thicker than Earth's today 15. September 2025 (20:00) While Mars today only has a wispy remnant of an atmosphere, it may once have had one hundreds of times thicker with a pressure three times that on Earth(New Scientist)
What it’s like to run the world’s best dark matter detector 15. September 2025 (18:00) Chamkaur Ghag is on a mission to find the 85 per cent of the universe’s matter that we haven’t yet identified. He details his hopes for the major scientific experiment – and what the future could hold(New Scientist)
Covid-19 vaccine benefits worth up to $38 trillion in first year alone 15. September 2025 (17:00) The global health and economic benefits of covid-19 vaccines came to between $5 trillion and $38 trillion in their first year, showing an incredible return on investment(New Scientist)
