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This week's magazine

18 October 2025

Issue 3565

Â鶹´«Ã½ issue 3565 cover
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Editor's picks

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - 2021/07/10: Protesters set a sphere representing Earth on fire during the demonstration. Members of the Extinction Rebellion group, supported by a few Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes in french), gathered in the Vieux-Port of Marseille to raise awareness on the dangers threatening the planet Earth. (Photo by Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Comment

We've hit a climate tipping point, but leaders seem unlikely to act

Comment
An illustration of a scroll being unfurled by two hands, surrounded by Roman columns and wisps of smoke, with a Roman figure in a toga at the centre

Humans

We’re finally reading the secrets of Herculaneum’s lost library

Features
A radical rethink of what makes your diet healthy or bad for you

Health

A radical rethink of what makes your diet healthy or bad for you

Features
The 30-year fight over how many numbers we need to describe reality

Physics

The 30-year fight over how many numbers we need to describe reality

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

MARSEILLE, FRANCE - 2021/07/10: Protesters set a sphere representing Earth on fire during the demonstration. Members of the Extinction Rebellion group, supported by a few Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes in french), gathered in the Vieux-Port of Marseille to raise awareness on the dangers threatening the planet Earth. (Photo by Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Comment

We've hit a climate tipping point, but leaders seem unlikely to act

A report on the state of the climate has concluded coral reefs are on a knife-edge, even as the world shifts away from making good on net zero

Comment

News

Space

Galaxies fling out matter much more violently than we thought

An analysis of the afterglow of the big bang sheds light on how black holes distribute mass in the universe, and why some matter previously seemed to have been missing

News

Humans

King Richard III's oral microbiome hints he had severe gum disease

News

Space

General relativity might save some planets from death

News

Health

There are five types of sleep – here's what that means for your health

News

Chemistry

Biodegradable plastic made from bamboo is strong and easy to recycle

News

Technology

Memory chips just 10 atoms thick could vastly increase capacity

News

Health

Selfish sperm see older fathers pass on more disease-causing mutations

News

Space

The moon's largest crater didn't form in the way we thought

News

Health

Pig liver transplant into a living person edges it closer to the norm

News

Physics

Physicists are uncovering when nature’s strongest force falters

News

Physics

Swirly lasers can control an ungovernable cousin of magnetism

News

Humans

Evolution of intelligence in our ancestors may have come at a cost

News

Environment

Top 250 oil and gas firms own just 1.5% of the world's renewable power

News

Health

Hidden ecosystem of the ovaries plays a surprising role in fertility

News

Health

We've discovered another reason why naked mole rats live for so long

News

Health

Therapy may be the most effective way to ease irritable bowel syndrome

News

Environment

Coral reefs are at a tipping point after surging global temperatures

News

Technology

Robotic underwater glider sets out to circumnavigate the globe

News

Life

'Sword Dragon' ichthyosaur had enormous eyes and a lethal snout

News

Space

A black hole fell into a star – then ate its way out again

News

Life

See the adorable baby numbats offering hope to an endangered species

News

Analysis

Life

Would a ban on genetic engineering of wildlife hamper conservation?

Some conservation groups are calling for an effective ban on genetic modification, but others say these technologies are crucial for preserving biodiversity

News

Aperture

Once Upon a Time in Space book - James Bluemel Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov seen in Mir?s window from Shuttle Discovery STS063-711-080 (6 Feb. 1995) --- Cosmonaut Valeriy V. Polyakov, who boarded Russia's Mir Space Station on January 8, 1994, looks out Mir's window during rendezvous operations with the Space Shuttle Discovery. This is one of 16 still photographs released by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Public Affairs Office (PAO) on February 14, 1995. Onboard the Discovery were astronauts James D. Wetherbee, mission commander; Eileen M. Collins, pilot; Bernard A. Harris, Jr., payload commander; mission specialists C. Michael Foale, Janice E. Voss, and cosmonaut Vladimir G. Titov. Page 134

Space

See the beauty of space, captured by the astronauts who experienced it

A new book and documentary from James Bluemel tells the story of the space race so far in photographs, a mix of images from astronauts' own collections and NASA archives

Regulars

Features

The 30-year fight over how many numbers we need to describe reality

Physics

The 30-year fight over how many numbers we need to describe reality

In 1992, three physicists began an argument about how many numbers we need to fully describe the universe. Their surprisingly long-running quarrel takes us to the heart of what’s truly real

Features

Humans

We’re finally reading the secrets of Herculaneum’s lost library

Features

Health

A radical rethink of what makes your diet healthy or bad for you

Features

Culture

Beyond Human series. Collage of human, geometric and natural forms on the subject of inner reality, mental health, imagination, mysticism, thinking and dreaming.; Shutterstock ID 164294465; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other:

Technology

If you love AI, you'll love Ken Liu's new cyberpunk thriller

In Ken Liu's All That We See or Seem, a once-famous hacker must find a missing dream-weaver. One for AI fans, but it didn't quite work for Emily H. Wilson

Culture

Comment

Del Toro's Frankenstein is a sumptuous take on a classic parable

Culture

Life

A purrfect guide to cats and our complex relationship with them

Culture

Comment

Â鶹´«Ã½ recommends Sheri S. Tepper's science fiction novel Grass

Culture

More

Fingerprint Authentication Button. Biometric Security Background

Technology

Digital ID cards could be a disaster in the UK and beyond

The British government isn't the only one looking to introduce digital ID cards. There is so much to worry about here, not least the threat of hacks, says Annalee Newitz

Comment

Life

Can chilli powder really stop animals from digging up your garden?

Regulars

Society

There is a major psychological flaw in how society punishes people

Comment

Twisteddoodles on research tales of terror

Regulars

Tom Gauld on science by numbers

Regulars

Regulars

Is it really likely that humans will go extinct in exactly 314 years?

Comment

Is it really likely that humans will go extinct in exactly 314 years?

Feedback isn't entirely convinced by a new piece of research that claims by 2339 "there will be no humans", even though the authors used three methods to make their calculation

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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