Ancient Andean leaders may have mixed hallucinogen with their beer
A concoction of vilca seeds and fermented alcohol may have provided a mild hallucinogenic experience, enabling Wari leaders in South America to bond with their people ⌘ Read more

Watch the best ever simulation of stars being born in a cosmic cloud
A computer simulation tracks 9 million years of evolution within a stellar nursery - also known as a giant molecular cloud – in which stars are born ⌘ Read more

Overloaded memory chips generate truly random numbers for encryption
Random numbers – a vital part of encryption – are hard for computers to generate, but a new trick turns memory chips into a source of random noise ⌘ Read more

How a pig heart was transplanted into a human for the first time
The first transplant of a pig heart genetically modified for acceptance into human bodies raises hopes for a new solution to donor organ shortages ⌘ Read more

Saturn’s small moon Mimas may be hiding an impossible ocean
Mimas doesn’t show any hints of liquid water, and it seems impossible that it could have an ocean under its surface, but that’s exactly what a new set of simulations suggest ⌘ Read more

Covid-19 news: Majority of people in Europe will soon catch omicron
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic ⌘ Read more

A West African writing system shows how letters evolve to get simpler
The characters used to write the Vai script, which was invented in Liberia in 1833, have become visually simpler over time, reflecting the evolutionary pressures acting on writing ⌘ Read more

Two black holes merged to form a huge one moving at incredible speeds
Astronomers have long suspected that merging black holes can give the resulting larger black hole a massive boost of speed, and have finally spotted this happening ⌘ Read more

Fungi that live on eucalyptus roots can control trees’ gene activity
Eucalyptus trees rely on root fungi to source nutrients and water – but the fungi actually control the genetic development of the tree roots by releasing tiny chunks of RNA ⌘ Read more

Ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound
The ancient Egyptians were adept at bandaging dead bodies during the mummification process, but we have had no evidence of the way they dressed flesh wounds until now ⌘ Read more

Covid-19 news: Ministers plan for UK to ‘live with covid’
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic ⌘ Read more

Covid-19 testing in the time of omicron: everything you need to know
With omicron infections surging around the world, many countries are changing their coronavirus testing guidelines to better deal with the new variant and the huge number of cases it is causing. Here’s what you need to know. ⌘ Read more

James Webb Space Telescope has finished unfolding its massive mirror
The space telescope has successfully completed a series of crucial steps to achieve full deployment, and will now continue to its final destination 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth ⌘ Read more

UK’s largest ichthyosaur fossil was a 10-metre-long apex predator
The largest ichthyosaur fossil ever found in the UK has been unearthed in the Rutland Water Nature Reserve ⌘ Read more

Beth Singler interview: The dangers of treating AI like a god
Artificial intelligence’s lack of transparency is leading many to fear the technology and others to elevate it to a mysterious god-like figure, but we should be more critical of those making decisions about how AI is used, says anthropologist Beth Singler ⌘ Read more

Record levels of greenhouse gas methane are a ‘fire alarm moment’
The rate at which methane concentrations are rising is concerning researchers, with 2020 marking the biggest annual jump since 1983. ⌘ Read more

World’s smallest land snail could fit inside a grain of sand
The newly discovered Angustopila psammion is the smallest snail ever seen on land, though there are smaller snails in the sea ⌘ Read more

Energy crisis: What can the UK government do to help cut fuel bills?
The UK government is talking to the energy industry to find ways to mitigate a huge rise in energy bills that is set to hit consumers in April ⌘ Read more

Kazakhstan unrest takes down a fifth of global bitcoin mining network
The second largest bitcoin mining nation in the world has cut off internet access, slashing the amount of computing power dedicated to the cryptocurrency ⌘ Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: 11 climate solutions to watch in 2022
From heat pumps to electric cars, satellite launches to floating wind turbines, we focus our attention on 11 climate solutions to watch in 2022 ⌘ Read more

Plumes of rock that feed volcanic hotspots are surprisingly cold
Geologists may need to come up with a new explanation for the sources of volcanic activity in places like Iceland and Hawaii ⌘ Read more

mRNA vaccine technology has helped repair broken hearts in mice
The mRNA technology used in some coronavirus vaccines is expected to have many other uses, including temporarily reprogramming heart cells to remove scarring ⌘ Read more

Why is omicron more infectious but less severe? What we know so far
The omicron variant infects cells in a different way, is present in higher levels in saliva and seems more likely to cause asymptomatic infections - all findings that could help explain why omicron is spreading so rapidly but resulting in a lower proportion of hospitalisations and deaths ⌘ Read more

Bacteria form complex structures like those seen in animals
Bacterial biofilms, slimy collections of microbes, can develop concentric rings containing cells with different biological features ⌘ Read more

Covid-19 news: Omicron cases hit record highs in Europe
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic ⌘ Read more