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This week's magazine

6 December 2025

Issue 3572

New Scientist issue 3572 cover
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Editor's picks

Lot of vaccine glass vials arranged in a rows on blue background, 3d rendering illustration.; Shutterstock ID 1906552987; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other:

Health

Human challenge trials have never been more popular

Comment
A hand holding glowing prion proteins, from which fossils and microbes emerge.

Life

A sinister, deadly brain protein could reveal the origins of all life

Features
The collaborative Human Challenge study is the first in the world to perform detailed monitoring over the full course of COVID-19, from the moment a person first encounters SARS-CoV-2, throughout the infection to the point at which the virus is apparently eliminated. The Human Challenge Programme is a partnership between Imperial College London, the Vaccine Taskforce and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), hVIVO (part of Open Orphan plc.), and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Health

How deliberately giving people illnesses is supercharging medicine

Features
An artwork made my layering many paper cutouts, showing an astronaut near a black hole. Within the black hole are colourful swirls, stars and specks

Physics

Black hole entropy hints at a surprising truth about our universe

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Lot of vaccine glass vials arranged in a rows on blue background, 3d rendering illustration.; Shutterstock ID 1906552987; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other:

Health

Human challenge trials have never been more popular

The ethics of clinical trials that deliberately infect people with a disease aren't clear-cut – but there's a strong case for doing more of them

Comment

News

Physics

We may need a fourth law of thermodynamics for living systems

The laws of thermodynamics don't accurately account for the complex processes in living cells – do we need a new one to accurately measure the ways living systems are out of equilibrium?

News

Environment

Have we found a greener way to do deep-sea mining?

News

Humans

Easily taxed grains were crucial to the birth of the first states

News

Mind

Your brain undergoes four dramatic periods of change from age 0 to 90

News

Physics

Physicists have worked out a universal law for how objects shatter

News

Physics

We might have just seen the first hints of dark matter

News

Humans

Ancient human foot bones shed light on how two species coexisted

News

Humans

Easter Island statues may have been built by small independent groups

News

Health

Monthly injection could replace daily steroid pills for severe asthma

News

Life

Pandas use tools to scratch thanks to a strange evolutionary quirk

News

Life

Origin story of domestic cats rewritten by genetic analysis

News

Life

Deadly fungus makes sick frogs jump far, possibly to find mates

News

Space

Supermassive dark matter stars may be lurking in the early universe

News

Chemistry

Plastic can be programmed to have a lifespan of days, months or years

News

Health

Upheavals to the oral microbiome in pregnancy may be behind tooth loss

News

Humans

Warming and droughts led to collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation

News

Environment

Africa’s forests are now emitting more CO2 than they absorb

News

Technology

Why Google’s custom AI chips are shaking up the tech industry

News

Life

Cats can overcome fear of water to benefit from aquatic therapy

News

Life

IUCN report finds more African forest elephants than we thought

News

Aperture

Images reveal the astonishing complexity of the microscopic world

Life

Images reveal the astonishing complexity of the microscopic world

From a dragonfly to marine organisms, photographer Michael Benson zoomed in with powerful scanning electron microscopes to take these extraordinary shots for his book Nanocosmos

Regulars

Features

The collaborative Human Challenge study is the first in the world to perform detailed monitoring over the full course of COVID-19, from the moment a person first encounters SARS-CoV-2, throughout the infection to the point at which the virus is apparently eliminated. The Human Challenge Programme is a partnership between Imperial College London, the Vaccine Taskforce and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), hVIVO (part of Open Orphan plc.), and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Health

How deliberately giving people illnesses is supercharging medicine

The covid-19 pandemic opened the door to once-controversial human challenge trials. Now, volunteers are willingly catching norovirus and influenza to reveal how our immune systems really fight back

Features

Life

A sinister, deadly brain protein could reveal the origins of all life

Features

Physics

Black hole entropy hints at a surprising truth about our universe

Features

Culture

PARADISE - ???The Day??? - Sinatra and Xavier confront the past, returning to the harrowing day that brought them to Paradise. (Disney/Brian Roedel) JAMES MARSDEN, STERLING K. BROWN, KRYS MARSHALL

Comment

The six best science-fiction shows of 2025

What were the year's top sci-fi shows? Andor and Severance are still up there, but our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley also has some unexpected tips to share

Culture

Comment

The four best science documentaries of 2025

Culture

Comment

The two standout science-fiction films of 2025

Culture

More

Cold-water swimming has benefits for the brain as well as the body

Mind

Cold-water swimming has benefits for the brain as well as the body

There is a growing body of research on the physical benefits of going for a dip in chilly water, but now researchers are starting to find that cold-water swimming may also be reshaping our brains for the better in lasting ways

Comment

Life

Stop treating your pet like a fur baby – you're damaging its health

Comment

Mind

Why do I feel lonely even when I'm surrounded by a festive crowd?

Regulars

Tom Gauld's Christmas predictions

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on the equipment every lab needs...

Regulars

Regulars

Where did I put it? Loss of vital crypto key voids election

Comment

Where did I put it? Loss of vital crypto key voids election

Feedback is entertained by the commotion at the International Association for Cryptologic Research's recent elections, where results could not be decrypted after an "honest but unfortunate human mistake"

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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