The Roman road network mapped by Itiner-e Itiner-e A comprehensive new map of Roman roads has boosted the known size of the empire’s land transport network by almost 60 per cent – and it is available for anyone to explore online. The project, called Itiner-e, brings together topographic mapping, satellite imagery and centuries of historical…
Coffee plants can be propagated by grafting a shoot onto the rootstock of another plant sirichai_asawalapsakul/Getty Images The ancient trick of grafting one plant onto another could find a very modern use – enabling gene editing of plants that are very difficult or impossible to edit by other means. “It is still at the beginning…
Hackers has gained a cult following in the 30 years since its debut Maximum Film/Alamy Tim BoddyPicture editor, London It is 1995. Geocities, Yahoo! and Netscape are kings of a burgeoning internet. Spending an hour by your screeching dial-up modem on the information superhighway is thrilling. And the film Hackers is released, a psychedelic celebration…
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Peekaboo is a delightful game to play with infants. Lacking as they are in object permanence, the act of hiding your face from a baby before revealing it with a flourish is sure to raise a smile, as their little brains try to figure out what on Earth…
An Amur tiger, also known as a Siberian tiger, tests the waters in Russia Tamim Ridlo/Shutterstock Tigers Between EmpiresJonathan C. Slaght, Allen Lane (UK); Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US) The Siberian tiger is an awesome animal, with “cuts of black and washes of orange”, writes conservationist Jonathan Slaght, a roar like “some terrible tide”, at home in the bitter…
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 Mechanical turk Feedback is a grumpy sort, so we run a mile when faced with any kind of enforced fun. It is possible, therefore, that…
Simone Rotella When it comes to understanding the ups and downs of liberal democracy, conventional research looks at drivers such as economics, emotions and education. But another area is just as crucial: neurology. After all, liberal democracy challenges our brain in ways that other political systems don’t. Where dictatorships offer certainty about the future –…
“We are composed not only of human cells and microbes but also fragments of others…” Lois Fordham/Millennium Images Hidden GuestsLise Barnéoud, translated by Bronwyn Haslam, Greystone Books My children were conceived using donated eggs, so you would be forgiven for assuming we share no genetic material. Yet science has proved this isn’t entirely true. We…
Historical accounts say Ingólfr Arnarson was the first Norse settler of Iceland, arriving in the 870s, but this may not be true Public domain Norse people may have lived in Iceland almost 70 years earlier than historians thought, and their arrival might not have been the environmental disaster it is often portrayed as. Historical accounts…
33 minutes ago Will Grant and Nick Davis in Kingston and Brandon Drenon Watch: Before and after footage shows the destruction Hurricane Melissa caused to St John’s Anglican church, a 300-year-old church At least 19 people have died in Jamaica as a result of Hurricane Melissa, Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon has said, as search…