A drone that spins 25 times a second attempts can avoid being spotted by becoming nothing more than a vague blur – though the creators admit that it can still be easily heard
Vetenskapsnyheter
The 2026 Tour de France has been the hottest ever. Norwegian-method pioneer and Uno-X Mobility coach Olav Aleksander Bu reveals how Nordic athletes have been learning to beat the heat
In this New Scientist CoLab podcast, experts from global life sciences leader Cytiva explain the hidden, high-stakes science of purification that is required to close the gap between drug discovery and the pharmacy shelf.
Low levels of replicating Epstein-Barr viruses might be the main driver of the autoimmune condition multiple sclerosis. This may mean that targeting them would be as effective as suppressing the immune system, with fewer side effects
There is much to like in Janet Jones's look at horse "language" and the equine mind, A Horse's World, but beware unexpected issues, says Christa Lesté-Lasserre
A black colobus monkey from a remote part of the Congo Basin rainforest, known locally as likweli, is thought to be severely threatened by poaching
New Scientist reporter Karmela Padavic-Callaghan combines memoir and science writing to great effect in their first book, Entangled States
Why don’t dogs look up when a low-flying plane or helicopter passes overhead? I’ve never seen one do this. And what changes will occur on Earth as the moon moves further away from us?
Feedback has been spending far too much time reading the latest output of entirely made-up research studies from the Journal of Imaginary Research
How many of the 118 known elements in the periodic table could we permanently delete without any ill effect on our lives? (continued)
Guy Cox Sydney, Australia
Previous correspondent Mike Follows is far too stingy in his list of elements essential for life. The mnemonic CHOPKINS CaFe, mighty good – carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), iodine (I), nitrogen (N), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) – teaches us the essential elements for plant growth, to which we also have to add sodium and chloride (no salt on the table in this cafe?). Magnesium, by the way, is required for chlorophyll, which enables photosynthesis to take place.
But there are essential trace elements we humans also need in small quantities – copper, cobalt, selenium, manganese, molybdenum, zinc. Now we are up to 19 elements.
Silicon isn't just useful for computer chips, it is vital for many organisms, most obviously diatoms – aquatic algae with silica skeletons – and sponges. Getting somewhat left-field, some ascidians (sea squirts) need vanadium.
Correspondent Eric Kvaalen mentions that polonium is useful for killing people and there is one famous case of that (the 2006 murder of prominent Russia critic Alexander Litvinenko).
Silicon isn't just useful for computer chips, it is vital for many organisms, most obviously diatoms and sponges
But that isn't the only use of polonium. Back when photography wasn't digital, one of my prized possessions was an anti-static brush that had a strip of polonium behind the hairs to neutralise the static created by brushing when cleaning film. They probably went off the market after that assassination!
Colin NicholsonStockport, Greater Manchester, UK
It is indeed interesting to consider which elements we can do without, but we have to be careful. I find it fascinating that evolution has come up with very different strategies in various phyla for the transportation of oxygen an…
Tom Gauld's weekly cartoon
This week's cartoon from Twisteddoodles
The impact of high humidity on top of high temperatures is often underappreciated, but most of us aren't prepared for such extreme conditions, which will become more common with global warming
Some expert weigh in on this issue, which turns out to be much more complicated than it looks
A mathematical analysis suggests that the notion of agency, which is a prerequisite for consciousness, cannot be purely quantum in nature
Nicotine pouches aren't typically associated with the same health harms as similar products that also contain tobacco, but they have now been linked to receding gums and oral irritation
A spate of new studies is revealing the lifelong impact of being marked as exceptional during childhood – and the results suggest we may need to revise how we view giftedness
In naked mole rat colonies, only the queen can breed – and now we have found out how she maintains control
Cutting back on our use of energy and materials so that we live within Earth’s means can seem like an insurmountable challenge. But after a decade grappling with these problems, a historic Portuguese city is beginning to walk this tightrope
Marine bristle worms have jaws made from a mix of proteins and metal ions that may constitute a whole new kind of material, with possible applications in engineering
In some parts of the world, the probability of rain rises with every day it doesn’t rain, and communities in these places are more likely to carry out rain-making rituals
Powerful artificial intelligence models built by Chinese companies have gone from inducing widespread panic to being met with a shrug of the shoulders – what changed?
When considering what makes up a human body, a physicist drills down beyond the atomic level. Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explores the not-exactly-real particles that allow the stuff we’re made of to hang together
Hieroglyphs on the wall of a Maya building record calculations concerning the orbits of Earth, Mars and Venus, as well as the name of a mathematician who wrote the text around 1200 years ago
Artistic representations of ancient humans often show large men with bulging muscles – but our ancestors were actually smaller than us, in both height and body mass. Columnist Michael Marshall reveals surprising details about the short kings of prehistory