New Scientist Australian Edition

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

Elsewhere on New Scientist

In the hot seat • City mayors can play an important role in coping with climate change

New Scientist Australian Edition

The sun in all its glory

COP29 host faces climate disaster • Water levels in the Caspian Sea are set to fall dramatically as the climate gets hotter, threatening economic activity and ecosystems in Azerbaijan, finds Madeleine Cuff

Some countries are cheating their way to net zero by overrelying on forests

Planet-warming methane leaks aren’t getting fixed

Fossil fuels and forest fires push carbon dioxide emissions to record high

We have warmed the planet by 1.5°C since 1700

Oral microbiome linked to cancer • Microbes are increasingly being implicated in the onset of head and neck cancer, but there is still a lot that we need to learn, reports Linda Geddes

New twist on famous invisible gorilla psychology study

Sweeter tomatoes are coming thanks to gene editing

Weight-loss drugs may treat pain • In mice, the medications effectively treated many types of pain, both chronic and acute

Autonomous cars do doughnuts and slide round corners

Galaxies make a zigzag lens • Light from a distant quasar is being deflected by not one but two massive galaxies, giving us a unique opportunity to probe the expansion of the universe, reports Alex Wilkins

Twin spacecraft will launch to create an artificial solar eclipse

Can Australia’s planned social-media ban for under-16s work? • Attempts to prevent children from accessing online platforms could do more harm than good, finds James Woodford

AIs converse better in own language • Using a mathematicial dialect called Droidspeak helps speed up AI communication

Gophers restored ruined landscape after eruption

Jets of fluid can levitate above a scorching hot pan

12,000-year-old stones may be oldest example of wheel-like tools

World’s largest coral found • This 300-year-old colonial organism is larger than a blue whale

Our only visit to Uranus was at a weird time

Evidence mounts that air pollution can cause eczema

Migratory birds use Earth’s magnetic field like GPS

Erosion of trust • A recent scandal over food hygiene ratings shows how deception destroys trust within society. We need to fight back, says Jonathan R. Goodman

No planet B • A load of rubbish When I moved back to York, UK, I was shocked by its garbage system, with limited recycling and no composting. But a bit of digging showed its brilliance, says Graham Lawton

Vanishing act

Your letters

Is this a menu for change? • Vaclav Smil’s “big numbers” take on feeding future populations fails to address how global warming will affect food production, says Michael Le Page

Putting death on ice • Could brain freezing cure all disease – indirectly? Jonathan R. Goodman explores a book with a bold take on dying

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The sci-fi column • Hard stuff In Lake of Darkness, two deep-space science ships meet to study a black hole. Their research comes to an abrupt halt, however, when crew members start dying horribly in this bold, experimental novel, says Emily H. Wilson

Volatile cosmology • The universe as we know it could vanish in an instant. What does our continued existence tell us about the reality we can’t see,...