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Tackling topics from the cutting edge of dark matter research to the latest developments in the tech world, explore the incisive opinions of New Scientist's expert columnists.

Space

Is the truth out there? Yes, but it doesn't involve aliens

A recent paper packed with delightful acronyms digs into where people report having seen UFOs, but finds no evidence of alien visitors, says Annalee Newitz

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Is the truth out there? Yes, but it doesn't involve aliens

Environment

Why biodiversity offsetting is a contentious issue in conservation

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Sand Martin Wood in Faugh near Carlisle, Cumbria, UK, was acquired by the carbon offset company co2balance in September 2006 It has been planted with a broad mix of native trees over 6 hectares and is managed for wildlife as well as the companies offset clients Though seen as controversial by some carbon offsetting is one way of a company or individual to reduce their emissions, as the trees absorb and sequestrate carbon as they grow. (Photo by Ashley Cooper/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images)

Physics

A tale of two mysteries: ghostly neutrinos and the proton decay puzzle

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35-ton-capacity Prototype cryostat for LBNF / DUNE, Anode Plane Assemblies - Construction of the DUNE 35-ton prototype detector
A woman holding several small flags of the United States checks her mobile phone while waiting with other onlookers prior to the arrival of the US President in Warsaw on February 21, 2023. - US President Biden is due to deliver a speech in Warsaw later on February 21 at Royal Warsaw Castle Gardens. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski / AFP) (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Technology

How will AIs like ChatGPT affect elections this year?

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2WHYG59 Taylor Swift kisses Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Society

The Taylor Swift 'psy op' conspiracy theory offers a troubling lesson

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Pitcairn Islands

Environment

What a trip to far-flung islands taught me about protecting our oceans

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Fractal image electrons movement in a magnetic field or colorful space background. Quantum physics. Soap bubbles or photon, atom, neutrino. Nanotechnology, nanocosmos, nanoworld. 3d illustration.; Shutterstock ID 2130031907; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

In a new era of astronomy, we're feeling for vibrations in space-time

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2MC69A3 Young university students using laptop and studying with books in library - School education concept

Technology

I'm teaching again after 20 years away. The tech is pure absurdity

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Health

How measles can do long-lasting damage to children's immune systems

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The Iceland Ocean Cluster House

Environment

How an Icelandic scheme aims to use fish entirely and eliminate waste

The innovative green project 100% Fish is repurposing fish waste products to make everything from leather and skin grafts to collagen, finds Graham Lawton

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Wolf-Rayet stars are known to be efficient dust producers, and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows this to great effect. Cooler cosmic dust glows at the longer mid-infrared wavelengths, displaying the structure of WR 124?s nebula. The nebula is made of material cast off from the aging star in random ejections, and from dust produced in the ensuing turbulence. This brilliant stage of mass loss precedes the star?s eventual supernova, when nuclear fusion in its core stops and the pressure of gravity causes it to collapse in on itself, and then explode. As MIRI demonstrates here, Webb will help astronomers to explore questions that were previously only left to theory about how much dust stars like this create before exploding in a supernova, and how much of that dust is large enough to survive the blast and go on to serve as building blocks of future stars and planets.

Space

How galactic mysteries near and far are poised to shake up cosmology

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A-Lab on Thursday, April 6, 2023 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. 04/06/23

Technology

Are autonomous labs the future of science?

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A road sign is posted near a parcel of land recently purchased by Flannery Associates near Rio Vista, California on September 15, 2023. A stealth campaign by Silicon Valley elites with a dream of turning a swath of California farmland into a new age city has ranchers who live here challenging their tactics as well as their motives. The project first surfaced when a mysterious buyer started gobbling up parcels of land in this rural outback between San Francisco and Sacramento. The buyer, first revealed by the New York Times in August, turned out to be a secretive outfit called Flannery Associates. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Society

The weird tale of California Forever, a tech billionaire instant city

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Beatriz Nascimento Afro-Brazilian academic and activist

Space

Two books to write and the universe to decipher – 2024’s gonna be busy

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