“A government might start using its digital ID in more invasive ways than originally promised…” da-kuk/Getty Images The first ID card I ever had was the flimsy piece of laminated paper that made up my driver’s license. In the US, a driver’s license includes a photo, biometric information (eye colour, height, etc.) and birthdate. This…
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 Our expiry date Bad news, everyone: our cards are marked. The human species will go extinct by the year 2339, so we have just a…
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper I have a penchant for old sci-fi with trashy covers so terrible they are brilliant. My dream is that someone creates a wallpaper of them so I can use it to paper my downstairs bathroom. In the meantime, I recently came across a book in a charity shop I ended…
Simone Rotella People transgress. They get punished. They start cooperating. This basic intuition that people are rational, and so respond to punishment by changing their behaviour, lies at the heart of Western legal systems, economic theories of crime and evolutionary theories of cooperation. The only problem is that decades of research suggest that punishment doesn’t…
Comparing Our Favorite Alexa Speakers Other Alexa (or Alexa-Compatible) Speakers There are a lot of Echo devices out there, and some third-party speakers that are Amazon Alexa–compatible. Here’s every Alexa smart speaker we’ve tried and what we thought of it. Amazon Echo Pop for $40: The Echo Pop is a perfectly fine little speaker, and…
Despite years of effort and the outlay of billions of dollars, none of the world’s automakers have yet to match Tesla’s prowess in delivering over-the-air (OTA) software updates. Just like with your phone and laptop, these operating system refreshes allow owners to upgrade their cars remotely. Tesla introduced OTAs in 2012, but now Elon Musk’s…
Japan is facing a shortage of Asahi products, including beer and bottled tea, as the drinks giant grapples with the impact of a major cyber-attack that has affected its operations in the country. Most of the Asahi Group’s factories in Japan have been at a standstill since Monday, after the attack hit its ordering and…
Last February, Emily Whittemore stepped onto the stage at Los Angeles’ Jumbo’s Clown Room in a pair of eight-inch Pleaser heels, a black string bikini, and an extra-large T-shirt with the face of Luigi Mangione printed across it. She writhed and wiggled on the iconic strip bar’s floor to System of a Down’s “Prison Song”…
The gravitational lensing not only splits the light source, but magnifies it, allowing a detailed view of the light source behind the lens. Thanks to this, the team says that HerS-3 appears to be a bright starburst galaxy—a galaxy undergoing explosive star formation—and was formed at a time when star formation was at its peak…
A Thai court has sentenced a man to life in prison for killing a prominent Cambodian opposition politician in Bangkok. In January, hours after Lim Kimya arrived in the Thai capital with his wife, he was shot dead in public by Thai national Ekkalak Paenoi. Ekkalak then fled to Cambodia, where he was arrested and…