This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Technology

DeepSeek has burst the AI hype bubble – now all bets are off

The Chinese firm threatens the dominance of Silicon Valley’s AI elite, and its innovations show the technology could be more affordable and less costly to the environment

Comment

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News

Physics

Twisted light may illuminate how quantum spookiness works

Physicists have verified a connection between two counterintuitive quantum properties, which may help us understand how quantum objects stay inextricably connected through entanglement

News

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Technology

Quantum-inspired algorithm could enable better weather forecasts

News

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Environment

Surge in ocean heat is a sign climate change is accelerating

News

Free

Health

Muscle patch made from stem cells could treat heart failure

News

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Technology

Experimental XB-1 aircraft goes supersonic for the first time

News

Free

Environment

Antarctic ice sheet may be less vulnerable to collapse than expected

News

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Life

How polar bears stop ice from freezing on their fur

News

Free

Health

Scratching an itch could help boost your immune defences

News

Free

Physics

Experiment with 37 dimensions shows how strange quantum physics can be

News

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Space

Grand canyons formed on moon in minutes after colossal asteroid strike

News

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Health

Creatine shows promise for treating depression

News

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Space

Building-sized asteroid has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032

News

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Environment

Tree scars reveal how wildfires in centuries past differed from today

News

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Environment

Rat populations in cities are booming as the planet warms up

News

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Life

Amazon river dolphins may send messages with aerial streams of urine

News

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Health

'Obsolete' muscle that wiggles ears actually activates while listening

News

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Life

Salamanders fill their toes with blood before each step

News

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Space

See huge coronal hole that opened up on the surface of the sun

News

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Analysis

Health

Mice born with two fathers - but don't expect the same for people

For the first time that we know of, mice with two fathers have survived to adulthood, but the methods used would be "unthinkable" to try in people

News

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Health

Is recycled plastic in utensils and toys really a big health concern?

News

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Technology

Does DeepSeek show a way to slash the energy demands of AI?

News

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Aperture

Environment

Chilling images reveal melting ice worlds

Winning images from the 2025 Walk of Water photo competition showcase vanishing frozen landscapes, from sparkling ice caves to melting glaciers

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Features

Space

Why we must investigate Phobos, the solar system's strangest object

Mars's moon Phobos is so strange that no one knows how it formed. But a forthcoming mission could solve this mystery - and a host of other puzzles connected to the solar system's deep past

Features

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Mind

What the new field of women’s neuroscience reveals about female brains

Features

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Health

The shocking discovery that our gut microbiome drives ageing

Features

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Culture

Space

A thrilling guide to the Indiana Jones-like world of meteorite hunting

Hunting for meteorites can be a high-octane race as private collectors and scientists go head-to-head, reveals a new book by New Scientist features editor Joshua Howgego

Culture

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Technology

Explore what shaped Bill Gates in part one of his autobiography

Culture

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Comment

New Scientist recommends Lost Gardens of London

Culture

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Space

Would we recognise alien intelligence, asks Adrian Tchaikovsky novel

Culture

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More

Society

How futurism took an abrupt right turn in the 20th century

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti coined the word futurism in 1909, going on to take an extreme rightward swerve into politics. This way of thinking about the future still influences us today, says Annalee Newitz

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Mathematics

Barcodes: How they could be your latest mathematical party trick

Regulars

Subscriber-only

BrainTwister #59 Seven segments

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Society

Why an increasing belief in alien visitations is a real-world problem

Comment

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Tom Gauld on a job for the most intelligent machine ever created

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles' ideas for "research romance" books

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Comment

George R. R. Martin finally finishes… a physics paper

Feedback digs into the first peer-reviewed paper from the Game of Thrones author, and concludes that he may have picked the wrong fictional universe to analyse

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Free

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Letters

Regulars

The last word