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.

A note from the editor

Alive and kicking • Unexpected hints of dark matter show particle physics is far from dead

Has a dark matter particle been found? • Directly observing dark matter could reveal some of the universe's biggest secrets. The first particle may have been spotted, but it's not an overriding victory just yet, finds Leah Crane

Europe's expanding wildfire threat • Conditions this year have sparked wildfires in countries that are normally considered to be damp and cool. What can we do to mitigate the risk in the future, asks Madeleine Cuff

The scramble for Ukraine war data to feed AI • Foreign states and technology firms want access to drone data so they can train AI models that might be used for national security

AI beats mathematicians – again • Formalising Fermat’s last theorem was expected to take years, but AI has done it in 11 days

Psilocybin may stop nerve damage • The psychedelic compound could prevent a common side effect of chemotherapy that can disrupt treatment, potentially improving cancer outcomes

Can we really reverse global warming after passing 1.5°C? • A UN report says we could cool the planet back down to current temperatures in the future, but many researchers regard this as highly unlikely

Laughter therapy may help people with a common form of lung disease

Warning over mountain warming • There will be more disasters like the Nepal flood as mountainous regions around the globe warm rapidly, melting the ice that glues rocky slopes together

Bizarre weather pattern seen on Saturn

Deepest-ever nuclear reactor • A nuclear reactor will be installed further underground than ever before, setting the stage for a radically different way to build small nuclear plants

Groundbreaking neutrino laser may be impossible to build

New Scientist Podcast • Change Your Mind

Lithium’s new frontier • Should we all be taking low doses of lithium to prevent Alzheimer’s? As a human trial is about to start, Alice Klein looks into the benefits and downsides of the metal

Against the clock • Is time dilation real? Einstein thought so, but he also thought it is an apparent phenomenon related to our perception.

A micro-safari

Hunting the real Vikings • The stories we tell about the Vikings often say more about us than them. A fascinating book tries to show the Norse as they were

How to boldly go... • As Star Trek celebrates its 60th birthday, how can newcomers bond with its sprawling universe? Bethan Ackerley seeks help from three of New Scientist's crew

Views Your letters

Inside the vacuum • Quantum theory says a vacuum isn't truly empty. Probing it with powerful lasers could finally expose its hidden structure

The great escape • As golden oyster mushrooms are declared a high-risk invasive species in the UK, mycologist Joni Wildman looks at whether hobbyist home-grow kits are seeding a biodiversity crisis

We're trying to leverage quantum computers to accelerate the process of looking for new particles • Particle collisions are inherently quantum, but much of that character is lost when we turn them into classical data. Particle physicist Sarah Alam Malik tells Thomas Lewton how preserving more of it could help us uncover new physics

The back pages Almost the last word