science

The New Scientist Book Club’s read for July is Claire North’s space opera Slow Gods. In this extract from its second chapter, we learn about the upbringing of its protagonist on the planet Tu-mdo Source link

The loss of Antarctica’s doomsday glacier would transform our planet. Now scientists are revealing the secrets of this remotest of places, and asking the question: is its demise inevitable? Source link

This August a total solar eclipse is set to be visible across parts of Europe, while a partial eclipse will sweep across about a quarter of the planet – here’s how to catch it Source link

These images from photographer Kristin Bethge document Brazil’s milk bank system, which provides some of the world’s cheapest and safest donated milk to hundreds of thousands of babies Source link

Jessica Atkin knows more than anyone else about what it would take to supply food for a moon base. She reveals how to build a lunar farm and what astronauts can expect to dine on Source link

Oestrogen levels fluctuate throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, which may impact how efficiently a drug that targets the brain can reach its destination Source link

A cave in Belize contains teeth from dozens of important Maya people buried elsewhere, which may attest to a ritual intended to ensure their passage to the underworld Source link

Researchers say a surgery that let pigs with completely severed spinal cords walk again may lead to human trials, and then perhaps even full head or brain transplants. Columnist Helen Thomson is intrigued but sceptical of whether the technique can be successful in humans Source link

The next generation of AI models are meant to be trained by people paid to have conversations with them, but several of these workers have admitted to New Scientist that they simply get chatbots to do it instead. This “AI inbreeding” may reduce the power and usefulness of future models, warn experts Source link