Gas prices, which had already been rising since the start of the conflict, surged in response to the Iranian attack on Qatar. The UK benchmark peaked briefly at almost 183p per therm on Thursday before easing back to 154.8p, an 11.3% increase from Wednesday’s level. European prices also rose by more than 10%.
A probiotic cream could make visits to extremely cold environments a little bit safer Aurora Photos, USA Polar explorers and deep-water divers could one day apply a probiotic cream to their skin to ward off frostbite or hypothermia. This optimism comes after scientists genetically engineered bacteria that naturally live on our skin to detect temperature,…
Gerd Faltings has won the 2026 Abel Prize Peter Badge/Typos1 Gerd Faltings has won the 2026 Abel Prize, considered the Nobel prize of mathematics, for a groundbreaking proof which took mathematics by storm in 1983. His contributions helped establish one of the most important fields in modern mathematics, arithmetic geometry. The crowning achievement of Faltings,…
There is a limit to how many times you can fold a crêpe ResonX /Jasmin Schoenzart If you gently fold a disc made of some flexible and possibly tasty material, what makes it stay folded? And how many times can you fold it before it puts up a fight and flips back? A physicist from…
Ultra-processed foods are often high in fat and sugar Anastasiia Krivenok/Getty Images In the past few years, there has been a growing clamour from scientists, doctors and the media about ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Some have warned that the trend towards more and more processed food in our diet is mainly responsible for the huge burden…
NASA’s Perseverance rover is on the hunt for gems NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS The Perseverance rover has found precious stones inside Martian pebbles. These gem grains are made of a substance called corundum, which is also known as ruby or sapphire depending on the traces of metals within it. Ann Ollila at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New…
Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo show Joseph Okpako/Getty Images I have always thought insects deserve more appreciation, so I was excited to catch a circus show dedicated to the tiny critters at London’s Royal Albert Hall, as it passed through en route to European venues. OVO, from Cirque du Soleil, is named after the Portuguese word…
A prototype of the James Webb Space Telescope’s star shade Craig Cutler Thames & Hudson It is a testament to the human imagination that the emptiest and most desolate place we know of – outer space – has inspired such obsession. In his upcoming book, Space Journal: Art, science and cosmic exploration, presenter and author…
Rebecca Solnit: ‘‘We have so much power and we do have so many victories” Albert Llop/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Rebecca Solnit is an activist and author of more than 25 books, including the essay collection Men Explain Things to Me. Her new book, The Beginning Comes After the End, argues that we have seen a revolution in rights…
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 Shooting for the moon It’s been a while since humans walked on the moon: 54 years in fact. A lot of robots have visited our…