science

The benefits of sleep may be more universal than we thought. We know it helps clear waste from the brain in humans, and now it seems that even creatures without brains like ours get similar benefits Source link

The Prudhoe ice dome disappeared during a warm period 7000 years ago. Global warming could cause similar temperatures by 2100, showing the Greenland ice sheet’s vulnerability Source link

A galaxy cluster in the early universe is 10 times hotter than it ought to be, which may reshape how we think these enormous structures formed Source link

The US government is approving the drug leucovorin to address rising rates of autism, despite limited evidence that it works. This year, results from the largest trial yet should give more insight into its potential Source link

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished our December read, Iain M. Banks’s sci-fi novel The Player of Games – and most of us were fans of this big-thinking Culture tale Source link

Researchers have confirmed the mass of a free-floating planet thanks to a lucky convergence of ground- and space-based telescopes Source link

Eleven companies are working towards an ambitious goal as part of the US Department of Energy’s plan to fast-track the development of advanced nuclear reactor technologies Source link

In the latest in our imagined history of inventions yet to come, Future Chronicles columnist Rowan Hooper reveals how by the 2030s, botanists had worked out how to grow hybridised superplants to help feed the world Source link

Clear out your shelves for a bumper new crop of books by authors including Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit and Xand Van Tulleken, says culture editor Alison Flood Source link

After the New START treaty expires in February, there will be no cap on the number of US and Russian nuclear weapons – but some are sceptical about whether the deal actually made the world safer Source link