Super-low-density worlds reveal how common planetary systems form 07. January 2026 (17:00) Most planetary systems contain worlds larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and the low-density planets around one young star should help us understand how such systems form(New Scientist)
AI chatbots miss urgent issues in queries about women's health 07. January 2026 (11:00) AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini fail to give adequate advice for 60 per cent of queries relating to women’s health in a test created by medical professionals(New Scientist)
CAR T-cell therapy makes ageing guts heal themselves 07. January 2026 (09:00) Immune cells are most commonly engineered to kill cancers, but now, scientists have shown the technique makes the gut lining of older mice resemble that of younger mice, raising hopes that the same approach could work in people(New Scientist)
Early humans may have begun butchering elephants 1.8 million years ago 06. January 2026 (20:00) A 1.78-million-year-old partial elephant skeleton found in Tanzania associated with stone tools may represent the oldest known evidence of butchery of the giant herbivores(New Scientist)
The first quantum fluctuations set into motion a huge cosmic mystery 06. January 2026 (19:00) The earliest acoustic vibrations in the cosmos weren’t exactly sound – they travelled at half the speed of light and there was nobody around to hear them anyway. But Jim Baggott says from the first moments, the universe was singing(New Scientist)
Jellyfish sleep about as much as humans do – and nap like us too 06. January 2026 (17:00) 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(New Scientist)
The secret weapon that could finally force climate action 06. January 2026 (17:00) An ambitious form of climate modelling aims to pin the blame for disasters – from floods to heatwaves – on specific companies. Is this the tool we need to effectively prosecute the world’s biggest carbon emitters?(New Scientist)
The first commercial space stations will start orbiting Earth in 2026 06. January 2026 (15:00) For nearly three decades, the International Space Station has been the only destination in low Earth orbit, but that will change this year. Could it be the start of a thriving economy in space?(New Scientist)
