A female bonobo at Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Lukas Bierhoff, Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project Bonobos combine their calls in a complex way that forms distinct phrases, a sign that this type of syntax is more evolutionarily ancient than previously thought. Human language, often described as the hallmark of our…
A mammoth skeleton at the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany DANIEL NAUPOLD/dpa/Alamy Archaeologists excavating 400,000-year-old rock in western Ukraine have uncovered fragments of what could be the oldest human-made ivory objects ever found. These artefacts would have been too soft to use as cutting tools, but they could have been used as…
A boot print on the dusty surface of the moon Public domain sourced / access rights from CBW / Alamy Future lunar bases could be powered by solar cells made on-site from melted moon dust. Building items on the moon, using materials that are already there, would be more practical than shipping them from Earth.…
The diabetes drug Ozempic can help people lose significant amounts of weight quickly Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock Using Ozempic to lose weight, even when combined with lifestyle changes, is judged as requiring less effort and being less praiseworthy than doing so via dietary changes and exercising. Ozempic contains the drug semaglutide, which mimics the appetite-suppressing hormone GLP-1.…
The Three Gorges Dam in China is a major source of hydropower Costfoto/NurPhoto/Shutterstock China’s vast electrical grid buzzes with more renewable energy than that of any other country, but this system is also becoming more vulnerable to power shortages caused by unfavourable weather. The need to ensure a reliable power supply could push China’s government…
Josie Ford Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Streisand strikes again Some things are sadly inevitable: death, taxes, another Coldplay album. One such inevitability, long since proved beyond any reasonable doubt, is that…
Adrià Voltà A dangerous idea is stalking the world of passenger aviation: that of halving, sometime in the 2030s, the number of pilots at the helm of civilian airliners and filling the vacant seats with AI – a move experts say could make flying far less safe. Instead of a captain and co-pilot on the…
Alirio, a coffee farmer and participant in the Medellín Alzheimer’s drug trials Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images Valley of ForgettingJennie Erin Smith (Riverhead Books) After working in health journalism for over 10 years, I have covered countless drug trials – some runaway successes, others out-and-out failures, and everything in between. But I am ashamed…
There is a form of nothingness even more empty than the vacuum of space Panther Media GmbH / Alamy The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You…
Daniel Stolle In China, it is known as “the lonely disease”. The Japanese term translates as “intentionally shut”. Across the world, there is a perception of autistic people as aloof, socially awkward and isolated, seeming to not only lack the kind of automatic social instinct that enables successful interaction, but also the desire to achieve…