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Illegal money flows from Africa near $90 billion, U.N. study says
Illegal money flows from Africa near $90 billion, U.N. study says

Africa is losing nearly $89 billion a year in illicit financial flows such as tax evasion and theft, amounting to more than it receives in development aid, a U.N. study showed on Monday. The estimate, in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) 248-page report, is its most comprehensive to date for Africa. The report calls Africa a "net creditor to the world," echoing economists' observations that the aid-reliant continent is actually a net exporter of capital because of these trends.

Scientists detected a set of salty lakes on Mars, hidden below the glaciers of its south pole
Scientists detected a set of salty lakes on Mars, hidden below the glaciers of its south pole

NASA's Perseverance rover is set to search for signs of ancient Martian life that could have migrated to underground lakes like these.

The joy of birdsong graces David Attenborough
The joy of birdsong graces David Attenborough's lockdown

British naturalist David Attenborough has said he spent much of lockdown relishing the joy of the natural world by listening to the birds in his garden. Attenborough, the world's most influential wildlife broadcaster, has become increasingly outspoken in recent years about the risks posed by climate change. Attenborough, who launched last week a film about lessons learned during his seven decades as a television naturalist, said that the novel coronavirus lockdown had been relatively painless for him.

Maple trees offer most protection from harmful UV
Maple trees offer most protection from harmful UV

A species of maple tree gives the best protection from damaging sunlight, a study suggests.

'Planet is dying', India's 8-year-old climate crusader warns

When 8-year-old Indian climate change activist Licypriya Kangujam is older, she wants to launch a solo mission to the moon to research ways to save planet earth. One of the world's youngest climate change activists, Kangujam was inspired by the devastating scenes she witnessed in Nepal in 2015, where as a four-year-old she helped her father deliver aid to victims of huge earthquakes that killed some 9,000 people and destroyed one million homes. Now she is leading a youth movement calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian lawmakers to pass a new law aimed at capping carbon emissions in the world's third largest producer of greenhouse gases.

Brain-eating amoeba kills a 6-year-old boy in Texas, prompting officials to test the water supply to 8 cities
Brain-eating amoeba kills a 6-year-old boy in Texas, prompting officials to test the water supply to 8 cities

The child's mother described being heartbroken," but said, "the fact that we know how he got it, how he contracted it, gives us peace of mind."

Our supportive running shoes might counterintuitively make us more prone to injury, new research suggests
Our supportive running shoes might counterintuitively make us more prone to injury, new research suggests

Footwear is designed to maximize comfort when walking and running. But modern shoes might do our feet a disservice, weakening them over time.

The aurora borealis didn
The aurora borealis didn't cause the Titanic's crash, contrary to a new theory - but it may have affected rescue efforts

Strong northern lights can indicate huge bursts of energy from the sun - solar storms - that interfere with magnetic, electric, and radio technology.

Residents of a Texas city told not to drink tap water after a brain-eating microbe was found in the water supply
Residents of a Texas city told not to drink tap water after a brain-eating microbe was found in the water supply

Water tests were conducted in Texas communities after a 6-year-old boy died from a rare brain illness caused by a microbe found in water.

A Hopeful Forecast: More Accurate Long-Term Weather Predictions
A Hopeful Forecast: More Accurate Long-Term Weather Predictions

What if you could get an accurate weather report as much as three weeks in advance? In some parts of the world, that could soon be possible.Right now, forecasters can reliably predict the weather in most parts of the United States up to eight days in advance, according to the American Meteorological Society. In recent years, research has shown that improving technology could make weather forecasts accurate 15 days ahead of time. And recent research published by Falko Judt, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, found that there's even more unlocked potential in the tropics.Judt ran a series of simulations using a global weather...

Astronauts are testing NASA
Astronauts are testing NASA's new spacesuits underwater as the agency pushes toward the next moon landing

NASA wants to get astronauts on the moon by 2024. Before that, the agency must make sure its spacesuits work.

Orcas are under threat from man-made noise pollution. These scientists are fighting to protect them.
Orcas are under threat from man-made noise pollution. These scientists are fighting to protect them.

Noise pollution from boats and oil drilling can interfere with orcas' ability to communicate, and drive them toward dangerously rocky shorelines.

Tesla will face challenges with a new battery technology, experts say
Tesla will face challenges with a new battery technology, experts say

Welcome to Insider Energy, Business Insider's weekly energy newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Friday.

For Ugandan activist, COVID curbs set new hurdle in climate fight
For Ugandan activist, COVID curbs set new hurdle in climate fight

In a run-down residential compound in Kampala, Vanessa Nakate thrusts her fist in the air as she rallies 30 young demonstrators to defend their planet against climate change. "What do we want?" she shouts, to a ragged chorus of "climate justice". The youngest protester, two-year-old Manvir Ssozi, sucks his thumb as he flaps a placard that reads: "Money will be ... useless on a dead planet."

Chile
Chile's night sky protectors seek legal defense for the stars

On the open expanses of Chile's high-altitude Atacama desert, bright stars pierce an ink-black firmament, a lure for stargazers looking for wonder and astronomers seeking signs of life on distant planets. Chile's arid northern deserts have attracted massive investment in telescopes in recent years and the country is home to nearly half the world's astronomical observatories. Now, under threat from light pollution coming from urban sprawl and development, Chile's environmental defenders are starting a fight to keep the skies dark, with legal muscle and new protections.

Inspired by Thunberg, veteran climate activist logs Arctic meltdown
Inspired by Thunberg, veteran climate activist logs Arctic meltdown

ABOARD 'ARCTIC SUNRISE' (Reuters) - Jailed in Russia in 2013 for trying to halt oil drilling in the Arctic, a disillusioned Paul Ruzycki switched to working on cargo ships for a while before the words of Greta Thunberg inspired him to return to his life as a climate activist. The grizzled 55-year-old is now ice navigator on board a Greenpeace ship in the Arctic, and painfully aware of how much more fragile the environment he has devoted much of his life to protecting has become in the three decades he has sailed the globe with the group. "I used to say to my friends back home, go up and see the Arctic before it's gone, but I think that joke is turning out to be a reality," he told...

Europe
Europe's second wave is here: France and the UK recorded their highest daily COVID-19 cases ever, and the EU warned that some countries have worse outbreaks than in March

European countries are seeing cases surge and, in some cases, the highest number of new cases since the outbreak first began.

Inspired by Thunberg, veteran climate activist logs Arctic meltdown
Inspired by Thunberg, veteran climate activist logs Arctic meltdown

ABOARD 'ARCTIC SUNRISE' (Reuters) - Jailed in Russia in 2013 for trying to halt oil drilling in the Arctic, a disillusioned Paul Ruzycki switched to working on cargo ships for a while before the words of Greta Thunberg inspired him to return to his life as a climate activist. The grizzled 55-year-old is now ice navigator on board a Greenpeace ship in the Arctic, and painfully aware of how much more fragile the environment he has devoted much of his life to protecting has become in the three decades he has sailed the globe with the group. "I used to say to my friends back home, go up and see the Arctic before it's gone, but I think that joke is turning out to be a reality," he told...

Red locusts destroy 500 hectares Namibian grazing land, minister says
Red locusts destroy 500 hectares Namibian grazing land, minister says

Namibia is struggling to contain the second outbreak this year of the African migratory red locust, which has destroyed 500 hectares of grazing land in the north-east of the country, the country's agriculture minister said on Friday. At least 19 areas in the fertile Zambezi region, which borders Zambia, Zimbabwe Angola and Botswana, have been hit by a red locust outbreak since Aug. 12, agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein said in a statement. In total, 4,002 square kilometres have been invaded and 500 hectares of livestock grazing land destroyed, he said.

Over 80% of Britons not heeding COVID-19 self-isolation rules - study
Over 80% of Britons not heeding COVID-19 self-isolation rules - study

Over 80% of people in Britain are not adhering to self-isolation guidelines when they have COVID-19 symptoms or had contact with someone who has tested positive, a study has found. A majority were also unable to identify the symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. The research raises major questions about the effectiveness of England's Test and Trace programme as Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeks to keep a lid on rising infection numbers with new restrictions.

World
World's youth rallies against climate change

United under Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, young people rallied across the world on Friday to demand urgent action to halt catastrophic climate change, in their first global action during the coronavirus pandemic. With wild weather wreaking havoc across the world - from fires ravaging the U.S. West, to abnormal heatwaves in the Siberian Arctic and record floods in China - organisers said the protests would remind politicians that while the world was focused on COVID-19, the climate crisis has not gone away. Demonstrations were planned in more than 3,100 locations, with Australia, Japan and Fiji among the first to kick off - though with pandemic-related curbs limiting the size of...

Remains of Jurassic sea predator found in Chile
Remains of Jurassic sea predator found in Chile's Atacama desert

Pliosaurs were reptiles from about 160 million years ago with a more powerful bite than Tyrannosaurus rex, according to University of Chile researchers. The fossils are the second oldest record of this species in the Southern Hemisphere. Chile's vast Atacama desert, once largely submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean, is now a moonscape of sand and stone with parts untouched by rain for years.

U.S. climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope
U.S. climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope

In a live interview with Reuters on Thursday Hayhoe explained how climate change was causing weather events such as heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes to become more severe and more frequent. "According to natural factors we should be very gradually but inevitably getting cooler right now," said Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The urgency of climate change is real, she says, calling it "a here issue, and a now issue."

California wildfire trend
California wildfire trend 'driven by climate'

Global warming is behind the scale and impact of recent wildfires in the western US, scientists say.

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope
Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope

In a live interview with Reuters on Thursday Hayhoe explained how climate change was causing weather events such as heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes to become more severe and more frequent. "According to natural factors we should be very gradually but inevitably getting cooler right now," said Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The urgency of climate change is real, she says, calling it "a here issue, and a now issue."

U.S. climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope
U.S. climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe: people need hope

In a live interview with Reuters on Thursday Hayhoe explained how climate change was causing weather events such as heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes to become more severe and more frequent. "According to natural factors we should be very gradually but inevitably getting cooler right now," said Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The urgency of climate change is real, she says, calling it "a here issue, and a now issue."

NASA has narrowed the source of an elusive leak on the space station to 2 Russian modules - one of which provides crucial life support
NASA has narrowed the source of an elusive leak on the space station to 2 Russian modules - one of which provides crucial life support

NASA hasn't yet found the culprit behind a small leak on the International Space Station. But it has now ruled out most modules.

How lockdown birds sang to a different tune
How lockdown birds sang to a different tune

It's official, bird song did sound different during lockdown, according to a scientific study.

Colombian miners strike fossilized gold: a mastodon
Colombian miners strike fossilized gold: a mastodon

Fossils of a mastodon, a giant prehistoric relative of today's elephants, have been discovered at an artisanal gold mine in central Colombia in a find which researchers say could herald a trove of similar specimens. Gold miners working a tunnel near the town of Quinchia, in Risaralda province, came across what they soon realized were bones on Tuesday. The discovery is the first of its kind in the province but mastodon remains have also been found in Cundinamarca and Valle del Cauca provinces, as well as along Colombia's Atlantic coast, said Carlos Lopez, an anthropologist at a university in Risaralda's capital Pereira.

Remains of Jurassic sea predator found in Chile
Remains of Jurassic sea predator found in Chile's Atacama desert

Pliosaurs were reptiles from about 160 million years ago with a more powerful bite than Tyrannosaurus rex, according to University of Chile researchers. The fossils are the second oldest record of this species in the Southern Hemisphere. Chile's vast Atacama desert, once largely submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean, is now a moonscape of sand and stone with parts untouched by rain for years.

Youth Advocates Want the Adults in the Room to Sit Up, Pay Attention, and Take Action
Youth Advocates Want the Adults in the Room to Sit Up, Pay Attention, and Take Action

"Our Financial Incentives are Not Aligned to Promote Climate Change" - Amber Yang. Three Youth Advocates, Amber Yang, Alexandria Villaseñor, and Vanessa Nakate speak on the daunting future older generations have left behind for them.

Teenage British activist stages climate protest on Arctic ice floe
Teenage British activist stages climate protest on Arctic ice floe

ABOARD 'ARCTIC SUNRISE' (Reuters) - Like many of her generation, Mya-Rose Craig feels strongly that adults have failed to take the urgent action needed to tackle global warming and so she has headed to the Arctic Ocean to protest. The strikes, made famous by Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, are resuming after a lull caused by the global coronavirus pandemic to draw public attention back to the threat posed by climate change. "I'm here to... try and make a statement about how temporary this amazing landscape is and how our leaders have to make a decision now in order to save it," she told Reuters Television as she stood with her placard on the edge of the Arctic sea ice.

Meet the 38-year-old who
Meet the 38-year-old who's key to Amazon's health ambitions

These are Business Insider's biggest healthcare stories for September 24.

The best wildlife photos taken this year reveal a pair of puffins, fighting foxes, and a perfectly camouflaged hippo
The best wildlife photos taken this year reveal a pair of puffins, fighting foxes, and a perfectly camouflaged hippo

The front-runners in the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest showcase trees' and animals' struggles to survive in a human-dominated world.

BlackSky will add sharper focus and night vision to future Earth-watching satellites
BlackSky will add sharper focus and night vision to future Earth-watching satellites

BlackSky's satellites are already producing frequently updated, high-resolution views of planet Earth - but now the company says its next-generation spacecraft will kick things up a notch. There'll even be night vision. BlackSky, a subsidiary of Spaceflight Industries with offices in Seattle and Herndon, Va., announced today that its Gen-3 Global satellites will provide pictures with 50-centimeter spatial resolution, as well as short-wave infrared sensor readings. That level of resolution for visual imagery will be twice as sharp as the current Gen-2 satellites' 1-meter resolution. And the short-wave infrared imaging system should be able to deliver night-vision views as well… Read More

In Siberia forests, climate change stokes
In Siberia forests, climate change stokes 'zombie fires'

Equipped with a shovel, Grigory Kuksin lifts and turns smouldering earth in the marshy clearing of a sprawling Siberian forest.

How can I tell the difference between the flu and COVID-19?
How can I tell the difference between the flu and COVID-19?

Influenza and COVID-19 have such similar symptoms, you may need to get tested to know what's making you miserable. People with the flu typically feel sickest during the first week of illness. Another difference: COVID-19 is more likely than the flu to cause a loss of taste or smell.

Global climate goals
Global climate goals 'virtually impossible' without carbon capture - IEA

A sharp rise in the deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology is needed globally if countries are to meet net-zero emissions targets designed to slow climate change, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. A growing number of countries and companies are targeting net zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by around the middle of the century in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. To reach that, the amount of CO2 captured must rocket to 800 million tonnes in 2030 from around 40 million tonnes today, the IEA, which advises industrialised nations on energy policies, said in a report.

Key to butterfly climate survival may be colour coded
Key to butterfly climate survival may be colour coded

A butterfly's ability to absorb or reflect heat from the sun with its wings could be a matter of life and death in a warming world, according to British research published Thursday calling for gardens, parks and farms to host shady, cooling-off spots.

Researchers figured out why hundreds of elephants dropped dead in Botswana this year: Their water was poisoned by algae
Researchers figured out why hundreds of elephants dropped dead in Botswana this year: Their water was poisoned by algae

Months after 330 elephants inexplicably died in Botswana, officials identified the cause of the die-off: toxic bacteria in their watering holes.

NASA is developing a new space toilet for moon-bound astronauts - but the agency
NASA is developing a new space toilet for moon-bound astronauts - but the agency's 'certified sniffers' say the system is far too stinky

Before it can fly astronauts to the moon, NASA's Orion spaceship will have to fix an important problem: Its toilet is too stinky.

Young People More Likely to Believe Virus Misinformation, Study Says
Young People More Likely to Believe Virus Misinformation, Study Says

As public health officials raise alarms about surging coronavirus cases among young people, new research suggests that Americans under 25 are most likely to believe virus-related misinformation about the severity of the disease and how it originated.In a survey of 21,196 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, researchers identified a clear generational divide. Respondents 18 to 24 had an 18% probability of believing a false claim, compared with 9% for those over 65, according to the study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University, Rutgers University, Northeastern University and Northwestern University.The results diverge from past research that said older people...

People across the US have relied on KN95 face masks for protection. But the majority imported from China have failed safety standards.
People across the US have relied on KN95 face masks for protection. But the majority imported from China have failed safety standards.

A majority of masks tested did not filter 95% or more particles, per requirements, according to a nonprofit that tests the respirators.

Why insulin is so expensive
Why insulin is so expensive

The price of insulin has increased dramatically in the past 15 years. Many Type 1 diabetics have struggled to pay for this lifesaving drug.

China
China's carbon neutral pledge could curb global warming by 0.3°C: researchers

President Xi Jinping's pledge that China will achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 is the most significant climate policy move for years and, if achieved, could curb likely global warming by 0.2-0.3 Celsius this century, researchers said. Xi's surprise announcement at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday is the first time the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide has committed to ending its net contribution to climate change. If delivered, the pledge would bring about the biggest reduction in projected global warming of any climate commitment made to date, according to research consortium Climate Action Tracker (CAT).

Reptile dubbed
Reptile dubbed 'Jaws of Death' terrorized Cretaceous seas

Roughly 80 million years ago in the shallow inland sea that once split North America into eastern and western land masses, a fearsome 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) marine reptile with powerful jaws and tremendous bite-force was one of the apex predators. A type of seagoing lizard called a mosasaur that ruled the oceans at the same time dinosaurs dominated the land, it has now been given a name meaning "Jaws of Death." A new analysis published on Wednesday of fossils of the creature unearthed in 1975 has determined that it deserves to be recognized as a new genus of mosasaur based on skeletal traits including a unique combination of features in the tooth-bearing bones and the shape of an...

Read the letter one of Belgium
Read the letter one of Belgium's top virologists sent his children on how they can safely get on with their lives

Calling it a 'dangerously stable' situation, Guido Vanham details how to resume normal activities and why he's optimistic about a vaccine.

History-making black hole seen to do a shimmy
History-making black hole seen to do a shimmy

Scientists trace a wobble in the brightness around M87* - the first black hole ever to be imaged.

J&J kicks off final study of single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in 60,000 volunteers
J&J kicks off final study of single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in 60,000 volunteers

Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday kicked off a final 60,000-person trial of a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine that potentially would simplify distribution of millions of doses compared with leading rivals using two doses. The company expects results of the Phase III trial by year end or early next year, Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J's chief scientific officer, said in a joint press conference with officials from the National Institutes of Health and the Trump administration. Rival vaccines from Moderna Inc, Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca all require two shots separated by several weeks, which make them much more difficult to administer.

J&J kicks off final study of single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in 60,000 volunteers
J&J kicks off final study of single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in 60,000 volunteers

Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday kicked off a final 60,000-person trial of a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine that potentially would simplify distribution of millions of doses compared with leading rivals using two doses. The company expects results of the Phase III trial by year end or early next year, Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J's chief scientific officer, said in a joint press conference with officials from the National Institutes of Health and the Trump administration. Rival vaccines from Moderna Inc , Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca all require two shots separated by several weeks, which make them much more difficult to administer.

Mars’s south pole may have an underground lake surrounded by ponds

The south pole of Mars may be hiding a cold lake of liquid water surrounded by ponds, all buried 1400 metres beneath the planet’s ice caps

Covid-19 news: Travel abroad linked to positive test rate in England

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

The paleo diet may make your biological age older than your real age

A new way of calculating biological age based on the bacteria in our gut has thrown up some surprising results, including that people on the paleo diet are biologically almost two years older than their real age

Covid-19 news: Infection rate in England rises to one in 500 people

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Radiation exposure on the moon is nearly three times that on the ISS

Astronauts on the moon would face 2.6 times more radiation exposure than those aboard the International Space Station, which could make long-term missions riskier than thought

Magnetic microbots can hook up brain cells to make a neural network

Tiny robots that can transport individual neurons and connect them to form active neural circuits could help us study brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease

Tiny algae can photosynthesise and grow in the dark beneath Arctic ice

Microscopic marine algae can use even the smallest amount of reflected light to grow in near darkness during winter under the Arctic sea ice

Rapid evolution due to extreme climate events could lead to extinction

Extreme events can skew evolution in a way that helps drives small, vulnerable populations to extinction, and global warming is making such events more common

Carbon ribbons a few atoms wide could help make powerful computers

Researchers have developed tiny wires made entirely of carbon, a key advance on the path to developing carbon computers and smartphones

Coronavirus lockdown changed how birds sing in San Francisco

The uniquely quiet circumstances of the covid-19 restrictions in San Francisco saw birds respond by lowering their pitch, singing sexier songs and making their songs clearer

New species of tiny ‘fairy shrimp’ found in the world’s hottest desert

Tiny shrimp have been found living in Iran’s Lut Desert, which has reached temperatures above 80°C. These shrimp have eggs that lay dormant for years when water is scarce

Covid-19 news: Test and trace app goes live across England and Wales

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

The theory of evolution is a vibrant, living entity still in its prime

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is one of the greatest accomplishments of human intellect and it is continuing to bring further insights under its wing

When things look bleak, thinking in terms of ‘hope horizons’ can help

With wildfires raging, the outlook looks bleak from San Francisco. Thinking about the future in terms of “hope horizons” can help, writes Annalee Newitz

When did the coronavirus really reach the US and Europe?

While there may have been a few cases outside Wuhan as early as December, it appears the virus did not become widespread until months later

Blood test could reveal if you will experience the placebo effect

People who respond to the placebo effect have proteins in their blood that are linked to controlling inflammation, which may help to explain how a placebo makes us feel better

Astronomers may have found the first planet in another galaxy

The first planet found outside the Milky Way may be in the Whirlpool galaxy, 28 million light years away. If it is confirmed, it would be the most distant planet ever spotted

The longest whale dive ever recorded clocks in at almost 4 hours

A Cuvier's beaked whale did a dive lasting 3 hours and 42 minutes, breaking the previous record by an hour. How they manage to hold their breath for such long periods is not understood

A robot called Curly beat top-ranked athletes at curling

Curly is a robot with a camera arm and wheels that uses AI to assess the best strategy for playing the game of curling – and it beat top-ranked players

Device can harvest wind energy from the breeze made when you walk

A small device can harvest energy from the breeze generated as you walk and could potentially be used to power your gadgets

Covid-19 news: Volunteers to be infected with virus to test vaccines

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

China's 2060 carbon neutral pledge is a big deal but is it big enough?

China surprised the world yesterday when president Xi Jinping told the United Nations general assembly that the country would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060

How the UK can get its catastrophic coronavirus testing under control

Operation Moonshot aims to carry out millions of covid-19 tests in the UK each day. Here’s what it would take to achieve this wildly optimistic plan

Doctor's diary: How can we deal with the long covid-19 symptoms?

The coronavirus has handed doctors many challenges, writes Selma Stafford, the latest being previously healthy young people debilitated by covid-19

Young bats accept reality of climate change before older generations

Bats that normally migrate more than 1500 kilometres in the winter are staying closer to home as the world warms, with young males being the first to make the change

Some frogs have evolved eyes that are far too big for their bodies

Certain frogs have some of the biggest eyes of all vertebrates, relative to their body size, which is a significant evolutionary investment that has puzzled zoologists

India about to overtake the US with highest covid-19 caseload globally

With almost 100,000 new daily coronavirus cases, India is fast overtaking the US and the true number is likely to be much higher

Covid-19: Asymptomatic people may be more infectious than we thought

People infected with covid-19 but who show no symptoms appear to have similar levels of viral RNA in their noses and throats to those with mild symptoms

AI camera can tell what surfaces feel like with just a glance

Artificially intelligent cameras are able to tell the physical properties of surfaces, such as texture or how well it conducts heat, based on a single image – but they can't tell whether something is sticky

Birds that 'speak' with a flap of their wings have regional dialects

Male fork-tailed flycatchers have a notch in their wings that makes a high-pitched sound as they fly, and birds from different areas produce different pitches – a bit like a regional dialect

Covid-19 news: New restrictions in England could last six months

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

US science news biased against people with names of non-British origin

Scientists with names that are not of British origin are less likely to feature in a US news story about their research, according to an analysis of 230,000 news articles

People in Cape Verde evolved better malaria resistance in 550 years

A gene variant that protects against malaria has spread rapidly among people living on the island of Santiago off West Africa

Air pollution in China may have caused millions of deaths since 2000

Air pollution is estimated to have caused 30.8 million premature deaths in China and Taiwan since 2000, according to an algorithm that was trained on satellite data

UK coronavirus epidemic is doubling every seven days warn scientists

The UK faces a “very difficult problem” of rising covid-19 deaths and cases if it does not change course, chief medical officer for England Chris Whitty has warned

Covid-19 news: New restrictions in the UK as alert level raised to 4

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Children’s allergic reactions to nuts spike at Halloween and Easter

Severe peanut allergies in children jump 85 per cent on Halloween and 60 per cent on Easter, and other nut allergies follow the same trend, possibly due to social gatherings where sweets are shared

The purpose of sleep appears to change when we are toddlers

Sleep in babies seems to mainly help develop new brain connections, but at the age of around two-and-a-half there is an abrupt shift to brain repair

Life in the toxic clouds of Venus

Read a preview of Launchpad, our free weekly newsletter in which resident space expert Leah Crane fills you in on on all the very latest news on our exploration of our solar system – and beyond.

Most space travellers are men despite slow rise in female astronauts

Early space travellers were younger men, but the average age has risen since the 1960s. More women are also now going to space, but they only make up 64 of the 566 to have left Earth

Covid-19 news: UK government won’t rule out second national lockdown

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Most fertility-tracking apps are unreliable but free apps work best

An analysis of fertility-tracking apps available in the UK and Canada found that many use flawed methods to predict periods, and they should not be relied on to help conceive or as a contraceptive tool

It’s time to for us to revisit Venus to uncover its many mysteries

The discovery of a possible sign of life on Venus highlights our ignorance of what is going on within its swirling clouds and on its furnace-like surface. It’s time to go there and find some answers, writes Peter Gao

Supercool experiment reveals water is actually two liquids in one

Supercooling liquid water to temperatures lower than ever achieved before has revealed new evidence that water is two liquids in one

Your shoes could be increasing the risk of a painful foot condition

Shoes that raise the toes away from the ground make walking easier but weaken the foot, which might increase the risk of a painful condition called plantar fasciitis

Training bees to prefer certain flower scents boosts seed production

Feeding honeybees scented food makes them more likely to visit flowers with that scent, boosting pollination rates and crop yields

Covid-19 news: New cases in England up 167% since end of August

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Watch titan triggerfish jump out of the water to catch and eat crabs

Titan triggerfish that live in the Red Sea will deliberately launch themselves onto the beach to catch and eat ghost crabs crawling along the shore

Sound analysis hints sirens have an evolutionary link with wolf howls

Wolf howls may have served as a danger signal to our ancestors – and modern emergency sirens may be an effective way to alert us because they sound like howls

The absurd QAnon conspiracy theory is expanding into science denial

A harmful political conspiracy theory is now embracing science denial. Combating it is important, but it won't be easy, writes Graham Lawton

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