Science

An image of Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft during a flyby NASA/JPL/SSI/Val Klavans Titan’s plains may be covered in up to a metre of fluffy, organic “snow”. About 65 per cent of the surface of Saturn’s huge moon is made up of strangely uniform and flat plains, and they seem to be coated in

An artist’s impression of nanodiamonds KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy Diamonds are forever, but if you make them ultrasmall, they can get a little squishy. An experiment with some of the smallest diamonds ever studied has now revealed why they become surprisingly elastic when they are ultrasmall. “Bulk diamonds are widely known for extreme stiffness and

Extracting a patient’s blood plasma, removing a particular protein and then reintroducing the liquid could improve sepsis outcomes Vital Hil/Shutterstock People with severe sepsis could one day be treated by having their blood filtered to remove a crucial protein that seems to drive the life-threatening reaction. The approach has shown promise in animal models, with

The benefits of brushing in hospital have been overlooked Drazen Zigic/Getty Images Brushing your teeth while being treated in hospital can significantly reduce your chances of falling ill with pneumonia. Many hospitalised patients don’t brush their teeth during their stay, probably for a variety of reasons. Some may have forgotten to bring a toothbrush, while

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, Chile ESO/C. Malin Radio UniverseEmma ChapmanJohn Murray When he was 16 years old, Albert Einstein imagined chasing after a beam of light and, as the story goes, this feat of imagination helped him develop the now-famous theory of special relativity. Physicist Emma Chapman also chases a light signal through

Donated blood usually comes from anonymous volunteers, and is screened for safety Getty Images A hospital in the US has had to concede to an unusual request from patients requiring blood transfusions: that they come from donors who haven’t been vaccinated against covid-19. This has led to delays in treatments that caused one individual to

The largest 3D map of our universe to date, with Earth at the center and every dot showing a galaxy DESI collaboration and KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor The universe is dead; long live the universe. Not right at this moment, not yet. But one day everything we know will be gone. The cities we build, the lakes

When was the last time you changed your mind? Peter Cavanagh/Alamy “The most difficult subjects,” novelist Leo Tolstoy once wrote, “can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly

Electric cars could make their owners money while they sit idle Maskot Bildbyrå At least 90 per cent of the electricity generation being built today is renewable. But solar and wind farms produce electricity only when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, so the power supply will fluctuate more. A pilot project

The Lyrid meteor shower streaks through the sky Adventure_Photo/Getty Images The Lyrid meteor shower hits its peak on the evening of 22 April, or early hours of the 23rd, but you can look for them any time between the 16th and 25th. New Scientist‘s stargazing companion will talk you through what to look for. You

People sometimes report seeing a bright light during near-death experiences, but this symbolism of transition also commonly occurs in dreams as we approach the end of our life Kirill Ryzhov/Alamy People in palliative care who are approaching death often have vivid dreams featuring deceased loved ones and symbols of transition. The doctors and medical professionals

Monkeys can walk around a virtual world using a brain-computer interface Peter Janssen et al. 2026 Monkeys fitted with a brain-computer interface (BCI) successfully navigated a variety of virtual worlds using only their thoughts. Researchers hope the experiments will pave the way for people with paralysis to explore virtual worlds or more intuitively control electric

Donated blood usually comes from anonymous volunteers, and is screened for safety Getty Images A hospital in the US has had to concede to an unusual request from patients requiring blood transfusions: that they come from donors who haven’t been vaccinated against covid-19. This has led to delays in treatments that caused one individual to

Beef consumption is on the rise in the US, but is there any amount that fits into a healthy diet? Westend61 GmbH/Alamy The US government caused quite a stir earlier this year when it unveiled its new dietary guidelines. A hunk of red meat now gets top billing, sitting at the widest section of the

A super El Niño led to flooding in China in 1998 ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images In the past month, weather models have begun to show that a very strong El Niño climate phase could develop later this year, potentially the strongest we have ever seen. Many are calling this a “super El Niño” or

The Drax Power Station in the north of England Ian Lamond/Alamy You’ve probably seen those nice graphs showing carbon dioxide levels and temperatures falling towards the end of the century. How is this miracle meant to be achieved? The idea is that we harvest plants, burn them for energy and then capture and store the

Our gut microbiome has a significant impact on our hormones nopparit/Getty Images Discarded sex hormones can be returned to the bloodstream by bacteria in the gut – and now, a study has found that there are far more of these sex-hormone-recycling bacteria in the guts of people in industrialised societies than in those of hunter-gatherers

Logician, mathematician, philosopher and destroyer Kurt Gödel Pictorial Press/Alamy Kurt Gödel, the man who ruined mathematics, was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. He was born in 1906, smack-bang in the middle of the greatest crisis that maths has ever known. Just a few decades later, he would help resolve this

Quantum batteries could harvest energy by reversing time’s arrow da-kuk/Getty Images A method that can reverse the flow of time in quantum systems could one day be used to help charge quantum batteries. For every process we observe in the universe, events appear to happen in only one direction, following an apparent arrow of time.

In 2012, Shinichi Mochizuki published a paper claiming to provide a proof for the ABC conjecture in number theory Newscom/Alamy One of the most bitterly contested proofs in modern mathematics may be on the verge of being untangled. Two projects, both aiming to use a computer program to cast new light on the controversy, are