Rereading the best sci-fi writers of all time: Larry Niven 09. April 2025 (20:00) Larry Niven's Ringworld won him the Hugo and Nebula awards when it was published 55 years ago. As the New Scientist Book Club embarks on a reread, Emily H. Wilson looks at how it holds up(New Scientist)
What the surprising lives of solitary animals reveals about us 09. April 2025 (18:30) A new understanding of why some animals evolved to be loners, and the benefits that brings, shows that a social lifestyle isn’t necessarily superior(New Scientist)
What the surprising lives of solitary animals reveal about us 09. April 2025 (18:30) A new understanding of why some animals evolved to be loners, and the benefits that brings, shows that a social lifestyle isn’t necessarily superior(New Scientist)
Can Amazon's soon-to-launch Kuiper satellites rival Musk's Starlink? 09. April 2025 (18:11) Amazon is aiming to launch its first operational satellites today to provide speedy internet connections in remote regions, but it will still take some time to catch up with its main competitor, SpaceX's Starlink
(New Scientist)
Largest mammalian brain map ever could unpick what makes us human 09. April 2025 (18:00) A map of part of a mouse brain, which is expected to be generalisable to people, could help scientists understand behaviours, consciousness and even what it means to be human(New Scientist)
Arabia has been green for long spells in the past 8 million years 09. April 2025 (18:00) Ancient rocks reveal there were several humid spells in Arabia’s past, which might have given early hominins a route out of Africa long before our genus migrated(New Scientist)
Light-based computers are getting close to a commercial launch 09. April 2025 (18:00) Computers that use photons rather than electrons to manipulate data promise greater speed and energy efficiency, and the technology is developing rapidly(New Scientist)
Space could emerge from time 08. April 2025 (23:00) An investigation of the changing behaviour of a single quantum bit through time has uncovered a tantalising similarity to the geometry of three-dimensional space(New Scientist)
The hunt for the birthplace of Indo-European languages 08. April 2025 (20:00) It’s incredibly tricky to pin down the origin of the language that led to the words spoken everywhere between Spain and India – and it’ll be even harder to be sure we’ve got it right(New Scientist)
Ancient rocks boost case for mini ice age linked to fall of Rome 08. April 2025 (19:00) Unusual rocks on an Icelandic beach were dropped there by icebergs, adding to evidence that an unusually cool period preceded the collapse of the Roman Empire(New Scientist)
