Science News

From the January archives of New Scientist: we call for black boxes, ask if the Channel Tunnel is safe and worry about cosmic rays

Cheap, quiet and much safer than planes, researchers are turning to drones to help monitor animals at risk

Two new U.S. research ships will take to the seas in the Arctic and Atlantic in 2015, allowing scientists around the world to explore the geology, biology and health of the oceans.

Up to three-quarters of heart attacks in younger women could be prevented if women followed a number of healthy lifestyle practices, a new study shows.

A new drug tricks mice into thinking they had an imaginary meal, a new study shows.

The first known Chinese kingdom may have been destroyed when its lands rapidly transformed into deserts, possibly driving its people into the rest of China, a new study finds.

Researchers have charted the bowhead whale's genome in a search for genes that fight off aging.

Albatrosses fly fast for huge distances, barely flapping a wing. Can they teach us to build drones that will stay aloft for months or even years? (full text available to subscribers)

A sneak preview of what's due to be published in the coming year suggests a promising crop

Researchers upload papers to arXiv before peer review for faster feedback --

An imaging technique that measures the path of a laser can build up a three-dimensional picture and could let spies map an entire room

Eating whole grains such as popcorn, oats and quinoa is linked to increased longevity, and may decrease risk for deaths from cardiovascular disease over a 25-year period, but not cancer deaths, a new study finds.

A mass of frigid air moving down from the north will plunge much of the U.S. into Arctic conditions this week, with the cold rivaling that experienced during last year's so-called polar vortex. The winter déj vu is expe...

More than 500 firefighters continued their frantic attempts to contain an out-of-control bushfire in South Australia on Monday. The summer fire, which started Friday, has been declared a "catastrophe" by the Insurance Co...

All the latest on newscientist.com: dating apps and disease, world-scale megaprojects, drones for wildlife, how iron blocked life and more

The tomb of a previously unknown Egyptian queen was discovered in a pyramid necropolis southwest of Cairo, officials said yesterday (Jan. 4).

Ancient microbes churned out oxygen for half a billion years before it reached levels adequate for complex life. A glut of iron may explain why it took so long

Many properties have been lost as the worst bushfires to hit the region in 30 years continue to blaze

A team of researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil has developed a new levitation device that can hover a tiny object with more control than any instrument that has come before.

Lihong Wang, PhD, continues to build on his groundbreaking technology that allows light deep inside living tissue during imaging and therapy.

With the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury about to fire its booster one last time, NASA is holding a public contest to name five of the planet's craters

Genetic changes found in mysterious bacteria living deep under the sea may have let them survive for millions of years without passing genes on to offspring