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This week's magazine

23 August 2025

Issue 3557

Â鶹´«Ã½ issue 3557 cover
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Editor's picks

A new angle on brain health could bring much-needed new treatments

Health

A new angle on brain health could bring much-needed new treatments

Comment
Chronic inflammation messes with your mind. Here's how to calm it

Health

Chronic inflammation messes with your mind. Here's how to calm it

Features
Physicist Frank Wilczek’s unique insights on the nature of reality

Physics

Physicist Frank Wilczek’s unique insights on the nature of reality

Features
In the village of Tshabula, villagers search for cobalt and copper in the waste tailings dumped by the lorries of the Chinese company Commus, which extracts minerals from one of the town's largest open-cast mines.

Environment

Mining for renewable tech inflicts huge damage. Is there a solution?

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

A new angle on brain health could bring much-needed new treatments

Health

A new angle on brain health could bring much-needed new treatments

Psychiatric medicine hasn't changed much since the 1960s. Could blocking the effects of chronic inflammation on the brain be the step change we need?

Comment

News

A human Y (right) and X chromosome seen with a scanning electron microscope

Health

Vanishing Y chromosomes seem to be driving heart disease in men

Men typically lose Y chromosomes from their cells as they get older, which could be affecting their heart health

News

Environment

Extreme heat is driving dramatic declines in tropical birds

News

Environment

Trees may be getting more flammable because of climate change

News

Mind

Psychedelic drug ibogaine may treat PTSD by slowing brainwaves

News

Life

These ants are one of the most effective teams in the natural world

News

Health

Vape mouthpieces could be swarming with fungi that harm airways

News

Technology

Social media toxicity can't be fixed by changing the algorithms

News

Humans

DNA analysis reveals West African ancestry in early medieval England

News

Health

mRNA drugs could protect against almost any kind of viral infection

News

Health

Living at high altitude may help ward off obesity

News

Humans

Fossil teeth may come from a new species of early hominin

News

Technology

Jacket that gets thinner when you sweat could help avoid overheating

News

Environment

Pacific Ocean changes may 'lock in' US megadrought for decades

News

Physics

Extremely cold atoms defy entropy and refuse to heat up

News

Environment

2024 saw a record-breaking number of dangerously hot and humid days

News

Space

Oldest fast radio burst ever seen sheds light on early star formation

News

Chemistry

Scientists created a new carbon molecule for the second time ever

News

Life

Weird microbial partnership shows how complex life may have evolved

News

Physics

Jupiter's moon Ganymede could be a giant dark matter detector

News

Technology

It is impossible to build a practical quantum broadcaster

News

Technology

Running robot takes a tumble at China's World Humanoid Robotic Games

News

Analysis

Technology

GPT-5's modest gains suggest AI progress is slowing down

OpenAI’s latest large language model has achieved seemingly underwhelming improvements in performance, leading to questions about whether the AI industry can make significant advancements with its current designs

News

Aperture

Southern Lakes Sanctuary field rangers install a line of stoat traps in the Kea Basin. Stoats are a particular threat to indigenous alpine species including Kea, Rock Wren as well as the endangered flightless Takahe which also spend time in alpine areas. Southern Lakes Sanctuary is a consortium of regional conservation groups involved in the suppression of predators that threaten New Zealand's indigenous species.

Life

Documenting the battle to protect New Zealand's endangered birds

Robin Hammond's photographs show the conservation battle to eradicate three species introduced to New Zealand, in order to protect the island nation's birds

Regulars

Features

Chronic inflammation messes with your mind. Here's how to calm it

Health

Chronic inflammation messes with your mind. Here's how to calm it

From depression to dementia, we are now realising the profound impacts of long-term inflammation on the brain. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is unlocking new treatments to protect our cognitive function and mental health

Features

Physics

Physicist Frank Wilczek’s unique insights on the nature of reality

Features

Environment

Mining for renewable tech inflicts huge damage. Is there a solution?

Features

Culture

Mother holding baby on her lap and playing. Happy little boy looking at mother.; Shutterstock ID 1368345290; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Humans

Did childcare fuel language? A new book makes the case

Rearing our unusually underdeveloped young may account for the evolution of language. Michael Marshall is intrigued, but wants more evidence from Madeleine Beekman's The Origin of Language

Culture

Society

Powerful new book explores how noise has taken over the world

Culture

Comment

Â鶹´«Ã½ recommends Michael Smith's take on a fallout shelter

Culture

Humans

Exploring humanity's ancient origins in fantastic new BBC documentary

Culture

More

Cyclists and commuters make their ways home in evening sunshine at the junction of Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill in the City of London, aka the Square Mile - the capital's financial district, on 4th April 2023, in London, England. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images)

Technology

I'm a cyclist. Will the arrival of robotaxis make my journeys safer?

Inveterate cyclist Matt Sparkes, who has been knocked off his bike by human-driven cars several times, wonders if the arrival of driverless cars in London is a good thing - or a bad one

Comment

Humans

Why bosses exploit their most loyal employees

Regulars

Technology

We need to establish free internet access as a standalone human right

Comment

Tom Gauld on calculating the number of books to take on

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on early human research

Regulars

Regulars

Anyone keen on a cat cryptocoin? Anyone?

Comment

Anyone keen on a cat cryptocoin? Anyone?

Feedback is horrified to discover that the owner of one of the internet's favourite cats, Pépito, has taken the crypto route…

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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