A rich new history of our obsession with extracting Earth's resources 28. May 2025 (20:00) Philip Marsden's book Under a Metal Sky is an engrossing look at how we have excavated key metals and rocks over the millennia. It's a story shot through with awe, power, greed and hubris(New Scientist)
How the new Murderbot TV series made me a reluctant convert 28. May 2025 (20:00) Murderbot fans will be thrilled to learn that the cyborg security unit that gains free will by hacking its governor module is now the star of a compelling adaptation. Bethan Ackerley has unexpectedly joined their ranks(New Scientist)
Does the old concept of companion planting have any science behind it? 28. May 2025 (20:00) The belief that adding certain plants around crops will boost their growth is an old one, but will your tomatoes' yield and flavour really be improved by growing tasty herbs alongside them? James Wong investigates(New Scientist)
Can imagining a better future really make it come true? 28. May 2025 (18:00) Manifestation is easy to dismiss as unscientific nonsense. Certain techniques used in the practice, though, do work — just not in the magical way some people think, as neuroscientist Sabina Brennan elucidates(New Scientist)
Do we have free will? Quantum experiments may soon reveal the answer 28. May 2025 (17:30) Whether or not we have partial free will could soon be resolved by experiments in quantum physics, with potential consequences for everything from religion to quantum computers(New Scientist)
Fossils show puzzling lack of evolution during last ice age peak 28. May 2025 (16:00) Thousands of fossils from the La Brea tar pits in California show no signs of mammals and birds evolving in response to shifting temperatures over the past 50,000 years(New Scientist)
You can make fair dice from any shape you like 28. May 2025 (12:57) Want to roll an armadillo when you play Dungeons & Dragons, instead of standard dice? Now you can, thanks to a technique for mapping the probabilities produced by any shape(New Scientist)
