New Scientist

A flurry of studies has found microplastics in nearly every organ in the human body, from the brain to the testicles. But very few have revealed whether these tiny bits of plastic impact our health

DNA and genealogical evidence reveal, for the first time, the identity of cannibalised remains recovered from the Franklin expedition

It seems to be more energy efficient for emus to keep one foot on the ground when running at a moderate pace, and the same may have been true for dinosaurs

If we want to preserve the dwindling ice in the Arctic, cutting our emissions is no longer enough – we also need to use geoengineering to refreeze this precious ecosystem

Tree ring data reveals the impact a fluctuating jet stream has had on Europe for 700 years – and sheds light on future risks amid our warming planet

Though it was first predicted in the 1930s, chemists have just now managed to create a covalent bond that only uses one electron

Using more training data and computational power is meant to make AIs more reliable, but tests suggest large language models actually get less reliable as they grow

DNA and protein analysis has identified a white substance smeared on mummies in China as a kind of kefir cheese, made from cow and goat milk

Smart TVs from Samsung and LG monitor what you are watching even when you are using the screens to display a feed from a connected laptop or video game console

Dopamine was long thought to play a part in the placebo effect for pain relief, but a new study is questioning its true role

In most vertebrates, a pattern of chemical marks on the genome is a reliable indicator of age, but in axolotls this clock seems to stop after the first four years of life

High-temperature superconducting cables that could transform the power grid may be increasingly viable, thanks to a side effect of fusion energy research and new ways to cool the wires

Archaeologists have used AI to discover hundreds of large-scale drawings depicting figures like llamas, decapitated human heads and killer whales armed with knives

Interacting with animals seems to provide emotional support to young people with a serious illness, even when the contact is via letters and not face to face

An octopus will work with several different species of fish to find and catch prey - and punch those that aren't helping

Ancient DNA extracted from layers of sediment in a Czech forest shows how a drop in biodiversity coincided with a shift to pig herding about 4000 years ago

Field trials indicate that pumping seawater onto the snow on top of Arctic sea ice can make the ice thicker, offering a possible way to preserve sea ice throughout the summer

CAPTCHA tests are supposed to distinguish humans from bots, but an AI system mastered the problem after training on thousands of images of road scenes

A new covid-19 variant called XEC may spread more easily than past variants, but current vaccines are still effective against it

A sprawling research program aims to improve hurricane forecasts by collecting data at the chaotic interface of ocean and atmosphere