Science News

People save more for retirement when they see older versions of themselves, so Merrill Edge is more than happy to make you look old and wrinkly. Did you know that if you see an age-enhanced version of yourself, you're mo...

As long as you reset a weight every 30 minutes, you can have a continuous, battery-free light source. GravityLight: lighting for the developing countries from T4 on Vimeo. Kerosene lamps used in off-grid, rural areas are...

Tapping the overhead shooting ability of an unmanned aerial system, filmmakers generate an eerie Tron-like motif as only overhead photography can. FIREFLY from samadhi production on Vimeo. Among those who appreciate the ...

A parliamentary report calls for a fresh programme of research to monitor the effects of European drug legalisation

On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and with it, the space age. By today’s standards Sputnik wasn’t much of a satellite. It was the about the size of a beach ball, weighed under 200 l...

A recently filed patent details the (scary dystopian) handcuffs of the future. An Arizona-based company recently filed a patent for high-tech futuristic handcuffs that are, in a word, terrifying. In addition to restraini...

Eyes in the back of your head – get them with a system that captures images from all around you and turns them into something human vision can grasp

In agreeing to reach another agreement, delegates in Doha followed a well-worn and tiresome path of procrastination

We pick our favourite objects to 3D-print, including a mathematical cookie cutter, a wormhole and a New Scientist holiday tree ornament inspired by fractals

All today's stories on newscientist.com, including: emperor penguins' last march, diagnosing mental illness inside the skull, earliest galaxies, and more

Seven galaxies that formed no later than 13.4 billion years ago will provide clues to what cleared away opaque gas in the early universe

Border Patrol agents have recovered 33 canisters of marijuana from a field in Arizona that they believed were launched roughly 500 feet from the Mexican side of the border. When we last checked in on the DIY innovations ...

Marcin Ignac's art shows what two-and-a-half years in front of a computer looks like in a series of colourful visualisations

Last summer, a group of top scientists warned that our penchant for growth and consumption may be pushing earth toward an irreversible tipping point. The days when scientists could share their results with just their col...

Tungsten blocks dropped by Curiosity made craters, which can help assess the rate of asteroid hits on the Red Planet

Watch a drone master an obstacle course by making improvements based on its previous attempts

They rule Antarctica, but perhaps not for much longer – climate change looks set to destroy the habitat that emperor penguins rely upon, says Alison George (full text available to subscribers)

Vote on the penultimate matchups in our Best of What's New bracket! Graphic by Katie Peek Welcome to the fourth round of our five-round bout! There was no shortage of impassioned debate when we gathered to anoint the top...

A light-activated gel that expands and contracts under UV and visible light could give soft robots much greater range

Check out the shortlisted entries for the Quantum Shorts film competition, and vote for your favourite

Tongues proliferate to give identity to competing groups rather than to encourage communication

Caltech scientists build the world's first integrated terahertz scanners, the size of a fingertip. A new silicon microchip can do what no other silicon microchip could before, generating and transmitting radio waves in t...