This image combines views from the Hubble and Keck II telescopes. A galaxy in the foreground, which appears as a diagonal line, is acting as a gravitational lens. The ring shape is a smeared image of the galaxy H1429-0028 in the background NASA/ESA/ESO/W. M. Keck Observatory Astronomers have spotted a laser-like beam of microwaves produced…
Royal West of England Academy Both artists and astronomers are, in a way, translators. They convert what we can see into a story we can tell. In Cosmos: The art of observing space, a new exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, UK, every facet of this process is on display. “We…
Ice cream and other confections are ultra-processed foods Martin Parr/Magnum Photos A few months ago, I tried my hand, unsuccessfully, at coining a neologism. I was writing a feature about how obesity, stress, heatwaves and pollution accelerate ageing, or senescence, in which I proposed that our modern world should be called the “senesogenic environment”. (I…
Illustration of the exoplanet K2-18b NASA The planet K2-18b, which drew intense speculation last year due to apparent signs of life, shows no signs of advanced civilisation after a comprehensive search for radio signals from it. In 2025, Nikku Madhusudhan at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues sensationally claimed that K2-18b, an apparent water…
Artist’s interpretation of Spinosaurus mirabilis Dani Navarro Were the mysterious dinosaurs known as spinosaurs excellent swimmers that could dive to catch prey? Or were they “hell herons” that plucked huge fish from shallow waters? Fossils of a new spinosaur species that lived around 1000 kilometres inland should settle the debate, say its discoverers, confirming that…
Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Alamy Pollution is making many cities unlivable for their human inhabitants, but it is also tearing ant families and communities apart. Ants recognise each other by sniffing a thin layer of hydrocarbons on the outside of their exoskeletons; each colony has a specific “smell”. But a new study reveals that ozone emissions can…
A 30-second exposure showing a Falcon 9 upper stage re-entering the atmosphere above Berlin, Germany, on 19 February 2025 Gerd Baumgarten A SpaceX rocket that burned up after re-entering the atmosphere unleashed a plume of vaporised metals over Europe, a type of pollution that is expected to increase as spacecraft and satellites multiply. The upper…
Someone inhales fungal spores. They feel strange. They might get a bit bitey. Possibly a bit dead. And then… POP! Something gruesome happens and the horror spreads. Such is the fate of many in Cold Storage, a new film in which a trio of unlikely heroes try to save the world from apocalypse. Their enemy?…
Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Astreenomers Feedback is shocked – shocked – to learn that a grove of trees in northern Italy did not, in fact, predict a solar eclipse. Now,…
An image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* in polarised light, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope EHT Collaboration At the centre of our galaxy lies a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* – but one group of researchers is suggesting it may not be a black hole at all. The team says that…
