Two excellent new sci-fi novels tackle robots in very different ways 08. April 2026 (20:00) Luminous by Silvia Park and Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer are both thoughtful and well-written science fiction novels, featuring robots in richly realised worlds. But there the similarities end, says Emily H. Wilson(New Scientist)
What to read this week: Beyond Inheritance by Roxanne Khamsi 08. April 2026 (20:00) A fresh and important book reveals the messy reality of our ever-mutating cells – and why the quest to defeat ageing is futile, says Michael Le Page(New Scientist)
Quantum entanglement can be measured in solids for the first time 08. April 2026 (19:00) A method that relies on hitting materials with neutrons can measure how much quantum entanglement hides within them, which could enable new kinds of quantum technology(New Scientist)
Disappearing megafauna may have prompted a stone tool revolution 08. April 2026 (19:00) Massive herbivores became scarce in the Middle East about 200,000 years ago, and this coincided with a shift towards smaller, lighter toolkits in the archaeological record(New Scientist)
Why early humans radically changed their toolkits 200,000 years ago 08. April 2026 (19:00) A decline in ancient megafauna in the Middle East coincided with a shift towards smaller, lighter toolkits in the archaeological record – though scientists are still in debate about why(New Scientist)
The invisibility cloak inventor now has better tricks up his sleeve 08. April 2026 (18:00) John Pendry is known for creating an invisibility cloak. Twenty years on, he has used the same principles to fashion an even more powerful kind of metamaterial that can teach us about the wild frontiers of physics(New Scientist)
Particles seen emerging from empty space for first time 08. April 2026 (14:00) By tracing the origins of an unusual, short-lived particle, researchers have gathered some of the strongest evidence yet that mass can emerge from fluctuations in the vacuum(New Scientist)
Why The Double Helix is such an extraordinary but infuriating book 08. April 2026 (14:00) James Watson’s The Double Helix is probably one of the greatest science books of all time – but Michael Le Page finds he can’t recommend that anyone actually reads it(New Scientist)
