New Scientist

Netflix’s Awake tackles the nightmare world where no one can sleep. But how close is it to reality?

China has released the first batch of science images from its Zhurong Mars rover, following its successful landing on the Red Planet on 14 May

Sexual selection, a mechanism of evolution that can drive the appearance of bright feathers and elaborate horns, is more widespread among females than many researchers expected

The 2021 flood in Uttarakhand, India, that resulted in over 200 dead and missing was the result of an avalanche that dropped about 27 million square metres of rock and glacier ice from the nearby Ronti mountain

NASA’s two planned missions to Venus are getting a companion – the European Space Agency has announced plans to send the EnVision orbiter to Venus around 2031

Stress caused by climate change is making it harder for coral reefs to build their calcium carbonate skeletons, and may lead to their demise by mid-century

Ear defenders that have been modified to collect alcohol given off by the skin of the ears could be an alternative to a breathalyser

The two planetary crises of climate change and biodiversity loss must be tackled together or neither will be successfully solved, according to a major report by two international bodies

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has developed a drone interceptor that fires what appears to be a form of Silly String into their rotors, bringing them down with minimal risk of accidental damage

Are you a budding photographer? Our New Scientist Photography Awards 2021 are now open and will celebrate images that illustrate how science and technology impact our lives and the world around us

Several European airlines have been lobbying to challenge European Union climate policies, a UK-based think tank has found

Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is used as a pain reliever and recreationally. Now a study has found that it reduces symptoms of depression for two weeks when inhaled for one hour

By 340 million years ago, our ancient fish-like ancestors had evolved to walk on land – but within about 10 million years, some of them had adapted to an aquatic life again

The second law of thermodynamics, which gives us an arrow of time, is routinely violated at the smallest scales - an insight that is already yielding fresh clues to some of biology's great mysteries

New Scientist's weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn't miss

Buildings take a great deal of energy and use potentially polluting materials to create. How can we make them differently in an age of climate change, asks Barnabas Calder's book Architecture: From prehistory to climate emergency

Amazon has acquired the movie studio MGM. The move by the streaming giant is just following an ancient pattern, writes Annalee Newitz

Urban populations are exploding. If we want future cities to be more sustainable, we need to think of them as complex, dynamic systems with their own metabolism, says Anu Ramaswami

Some strange units of measure, plus the first statue for the creator of bitcoin and the (lack of) connection between bluetooth and covid-19, in Feedback’s weird weekly round-up

How did Hakeem Oluseyi move from selling drugs to teaching astrophysics at MIT? His vivid memoir sets out his journey and what he's doing to help other Black physicists