New Scientist

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.

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The path of progress • Theories of material reality are less about the destination than the journey

New Scientist

First pig heart transplant • The world waits to see the outcome of this groundbreaking surgery and what it could mean for organ donation, reports Clare Wilson

Understanding omicron • Studies are beginning to shed light on why omicron behaves so differently to other coronavirus variants, reports Michael Le Page

Testing for the new variant • Omicron and changed rules have left people wondering what coronavirus test results really mean. Clare Wilson explains

Outsider nets prize to predict where a message in a bottle would float to

Ancient humans may have started hunting 2 million years ago

World’s smallest land snail could fit in a grain of sand

Merging black holes produce an exceedingly speedy runaway

More than just a phage • Bacteria-killing viruses are increasingly being used to clean up our food and could soon be put to work in healthcare, reports Michael Le Page

Evolution of the clitoris • A study of dolphin genitalia should end any notion that the clitoris is just a “mini penis”, finds Jessica Hamzelou

Bacteria can form complex structures like those of animals

Australian fossil bonanza • Remains reveal what life was like in the country’s ancient rainforests

Drop in child asthma cases linked to pollution

Ancient Egyptians used bandages for medicine too

Can the UK avoid a fuel bill crisis? • The government wants to protect people from rocketing prices, but most options will only delay financial pain, says Adam Vaughan

Broken hearts in mice repaired using mRNA coronavirus vaccine technology

Newly identified tree species named after Leonardo DiCaprio

Hedgehogs had a form of MRSA over 200 years ago

Some volcanic zones cooler than expected

Mystery of oxygen made by sea microbe

Really brief

Fungus uses RNA to control plant partner

Millions more exposed to dirty air from US wildfires

Factory fire may deepen chip crisis

A sign of the times • Sign languages are flourishing in many parts of the world. This could bring cognitive benefits for all who learn them, says Bencie Woll

Make your own luck • Secular rituals really can bring greater success, even for rational thinkers, writes David Robson

Stuff of legend

Your letters

Well, this is fun… • There are many ways to get more fun into your life. You just need to stop scrolling for long enough to try, finds Elle Hunt

Feel your way • Emotions don’t have to be the Achilles’ heel of rational thought. They are a key tool in our intellectual arsenal, finds Gege Li

Don’t miss

The sci-fi column • Gentrifying broken Earth When space colonies offer rich people a way off a ruined planet, it seems like the perfect chance to start again. But the pull of home is a powerful force, finds Sally Adee

Dawn of a new physics? • Hints from particle smash-ups at the Large Hadron Collider are firming up. We could finally be looking at a new force of nature and a deeper theory of reality, says physicist Harry Cliff

An American catastrophe • The mystery of why all cat-like animals disappeared from North America for millions of years is finally being cracked, finds Chelsea...