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Hundreds of millions of people live close enough to data centres used to power AI to feel warmer average temperatures in their local area

During his second-ever spacewalk, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano felt water creeping across his face – and knew he could be moments from drowning inside his helmet

After the passing of physicist Anthony Leggett, columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan remembers their personal connection with this giant of quantum physics, and explores the legacy of his enduring recipe for testing the edges of the quantum world

A new spacecraft concept called NOVA could keep asteroids from hitting our planet by using a huge magnet to gradually pull them apart while shifting their trajectories

Kim Stanley Robinson opens his classic science fiction novel Red Mars in 2026. As the New Scientist Book Club embarks on reading it in April, he looks back on its origins – and how the idea of moving to Mars holds up today

As the New Scientist Book Club reads Kim Stanley Robinson’s science-fiction novel in April, George Bass digs into why this 1992 book still feels so relevant today

This is the opening of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, the New Scientist Book Club read for April, as humans come to the planet to settle it

A long-overlooked area of the penis has been found to have the highest concentration of nerve endings and sensory structures in the organ, suggesting that it is the “male G-spot”

A long-overlooked area of the penis has been found to have the highest concentration of nerve endings and sensory structures in the organ, suggesting that it is the “male G-spot”

A female sperm whale has been filmed giving birth for the first time, supported by 10 adult females who lifted the calf out of the water and protected it from predators

Pieces of jawbone and teeth found in Egypt have been identified as a new early ape species named Masripithecus moghraensis, which lived about 17 million years ago

A computer language designed to robustly verify mathematical theorems and expose logical flaws has been turned towards a physics paper – and spotted an error. The discovery raises questions about how many other papers may harbour similar issues

In the cloud forest of Costa Rica, many canopy-dwelling animals do their business in strangler fig trees, perhaps as a way of leaving messages

A device that relies on quantum effects and oversized atoms may be a more reliable way to measure temperature that doesn't require calibration

In a landmark trial, social media giants Meta and YouTube were found negligent and ordered to pay for harming a user's mental health. The decision could force major changes in how social platforms work

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards, this image by photographer Sebastian Di Domenico was taken in Columbia

Feedback is prompted by readers to investigate the size of the shed in the term 'shedload', and gets down and dirty with particle physics in the quest

We shouldn't dismiss flowers as merely ornamental – these blooms are world-changers, argues a vivid new book by David George Haskell. Michael Marshall is mostly convinced

A duo of drugs that boosts our glympathic system, which clears waste from our brain, also improves the removal of proteins associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease