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This week's magazine

17 January 2026

Issue 3578

Â鶹´«Ã½ issue 3578 cover
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Editor's picks

Vibrant Chatbot icon on black background. Design element

Health

AI is promising to revolutionise how we diagnose mental illness

Comment
Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness

Mind

Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness

Features

Mind

Three ways to become calmer this New Year that you haven't tried (yet)

Features
Aree Aupeia, 32, standing on the sea front near a house that gets regularly flooded during high tide events. The village is regularly flooded during high tides despite residents attempts to build sea walls or take care of those that were built by the local government, but frequent big waves continue to damage them, putting resident's houses, and gardens under the constant threat.

Environment

The Pacific Islanders fighting to save their homes from catastrophe

Features
Our elegant universe: rethinking nature’s deepest principle

Physics

Our elegant universe: rethinking nature’s deepest principle

Features

Table of contents

Leaders

Vibrant Chatbot icon on black background. Design element

Health

AI is promising to revolutionise how we diagnose mental illness

As rates of mental health conditions like depression spike, we desperately need new ways of identifying and treating people in distress. When it comes to giving artificial intelligence a role, though, guarding against its many flaws will be vital

Comment

News

El Capitan, the National Nuclear Security Administration's first exascale computer,

Technology

Some quantum computers might need more power than supercomputers

A preliminary analysis suggests that industrially useful quantum computers designs come with a broad spectrum of energy footprints, including some larger than the most powerful existing supercomputers

News

Technology

Quantum neural network may be able to cheat the uncertainty principle

News

Space

Weird clump in the early universe is piping hot and we don’t know why

News

Technology

AI chatbots miss urgent issues in queries about women's health

News

Environment

Northern Greenland ice dome melted before and could melt again

News

Humans

Early humans may have begun butchering elephants 1.8 million years ago

News

Humans

Hominin fossils from Morocco may be close ancestors of modern humans

News

Humans

Hunting with poison arrows may have begun 60,000 years ago in Africa

News

Mind

Exercise may relieve depression as effectively as antidepressants

News

Space

Super-low-density worlds reveal how common planetary systems form

News

Health

Weight regain seems to occur within 2 years of stopping obesity drugs

News

Environment

City-sized iceberg has turned into a giant swimming pool

News

Environment

Tree bark microbiome has important overlooked role in climate

News

Health

Man whose gut made its own alcohol gets relief from faecal transplant

News

Space

'Knitted' satellite launching to monitor Earth's surface with radar

News

Health

Microbiome study hints that fibre could be linked to better sleep

News

Technology

We're about to simulate a human brain on a supercomputer

News

Environment

Key finding could save endangered Darwin's frog from extinction

News

Aperture

These striking photos are a window into the world of quantum physics

Physics

These striking photos are a window into the world of quantum physics

David Severn has taken a series of images of scientists working on quantum physics for King’s College London’s new Quantum Untangled exhibition

Regulars

Features

Aree Aupeia, 32, standing on the sea front near a house that gets regularly flooded during high tide events. The village is regularly flooded during high tides despite residents attempts to build sea walls or take care of those that were built by the local government, but frequent big waves continue to damage them, putting resident's houses, and gardens under the constant threat.

Environment

The Pacific Islanders fighting to save their homes from catastrophe

Some of climate change's sharpest realities are being felt on small island nations, where extreme weather is claiming homes and triggering displacement. Those able to stay are spearheading inventive adaptation techniques in a bid to secure their future

Features

Mind

Psychiatry has finally found an objective way to spot mental illness

Features

Physics

Our elegant universe: rethinking nature’s deepest principle

Features

Mind

Three ways to become calmer this New Year that you haven't tried (yet)

Features

Culture

K6J3GX An old fashioned, stand on, coin operated, weighing scales at the end on an English seaside pier

Health

As Ozempic goes global, a powerful book reframes how we see obesity

With the market for anti-obesity drugs already worth billions, Aimee Donnellan’s Off the Scales is a timely exploration of the controversial and life-changing GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic

Culture

Technology

We're getting intimate with chatbots. A new book asks what this means

Culture

Health

Â鶹´«Ã½ recommends Why We Drink Too Much for Dry January

Culture

Mind

A new book provides a toolkit to tackle anxiety. Can it really help?

Culture

More

An X-ray skull with coloured brain and neurons

Mind

What I’ll be doing to help detox my brain in the new year

We have only just started to understand how our brains clean themselves, but columnist Helen Thomson finds promising evidence for how to boost this process

Comment

Mind

The science that will help you feel more fulfilled with your life

Regulars

Life

Why non-human culture should change how we see nature

Comment

Tom Gauld: How to deal with that nasty cold going around

Regulars

Twisteddoodles: Worried that you're a hot mess? Don't be!

Regulars

Regulars

Let's quibble about historical accuracy in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey

Let's quibble about historical accuracy in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey

Feedback is horrified to discover that a fantastical film featuring monsters and witches fails to get its ancient Greek armour quite right

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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