Mathematics
AI is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to mathematics
News
This week's magazine
16 September 2026
Issue 3613
On the cover
Editor's picks
Table of contents
Leaders
Health
Why it is time to restate the case for the importance of research on animals
Recent progress on alternatives to animal testing is hugely welcome. But talk of "phasing out" animal research completely is misleading and could even be dangerous to scientists
News
Mathematics
AI is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to mathematics
News
News
Mathematics
OpenAI has solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium problem using $15m of AI effort
One of the trickiest problems in mathematics has now fallen to AI after just days of work. The groundbreaking result was announced after similar, but less complete work, also created with AI, was announced just hours before
News
Mathematics
Why is there controversy around OpenAI’s Millennium Prize maths breakthrough?
News
Mathematics
Terence Tao: AI companies are harming mathematics
News
Health
Bursts of ‘pink noise’ during sleep seem to help clear waste from brain
News
Mind
Zapping the face could boost brain signalling and memory
News
Humans
Denisovan tools from cave in China show how mysterious humans lived
News
Health
Paracetamol use in early pregnancy linked to smaller ovaries and testes
News
Life
Earliest alligator flourished in the wake of the dinosaur extinction
News
Environment
Natural feedbacks will warm world an extra 20 per cent this century
News
Environment
The world’s biggest carbon sink may start emitting CO2 after net zero
News
Health
We may finally know what kick-starts muscle contractions in childbirth
News
Life
Exquisite 66-million-year-old bird feather preserved in dinosaur dropping
News
Space
Gamma ray burst may have been two supernovae in one
News
Environment
Super El Niño set to cause ‘terribly dangerous’ drought in the Amazon
News
Humans
Earliest evidence of habitual drug use found in teeth in Indonesia
News
Space
NASA’s next major telescope might see alien oceans and rainbows
News
Features
Physics
We’ve long thought that time has only one dimension. What if we’re wrong?
A second dimension of time has long seemed wholly incompatible with reality. But fresh insights involving black holes and quantum mechanics suggest it deserves another look
Features
Health
How better ways of screening drugs could soon lead to thousands fewer animal tests
Features
Health
Xand van Tulleken on the 3 wellness trends to be most wary of
Features
Culture
Comment
Carlo Rovelli takes on physics and philosophy in a compelling new book
In his new book On the Equality of All Things, physicist Carlo Rovelli explains there is no space or time in his view of reality, only quantum processes
Culture
Comment
Andrew Scott brings meteorology drama to gripping war film Pressure
Culture
Comment
Emily St. John Mandel is back with a stunning sci-fi trip to a parallel world
Culture
More
Sponsored
Cracking the ageing code
Where financial health meets human longevity.
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Technology
I made a free AI chatbot solve a decade-long maths problem in 13 minutes
Comment
Mind
How to build powerful microhabits for your wellbeing – and keep them
Comment
Physics
The danger of viewing the cosmos as a mirror that shows us ourselves
Comment
Humans
Why our common ancestor with chimpanzees keeps getting further away
Comment
Tom Gauld excludes an outlier from the study
Regulars
Twisteddoodles masters the universe
Regulars
Regulars
Comment
What is the most-used Beatles song in academic paper titles?
Feedback enjoys a new piece of research delving into papers whose titles mention Beatles songs – but wonders if there is an ulterior motive at work for those who pulled it together
This Week’s Letters
Letters
Why can’t we cool water as quickly as we can heat it?
Last Word
Do olfactory illusions exist, similar to optical and audio illusions?
Last Word
Why don’t dogs look up when a low-flying plane passes overhead? part 4
Last Word
This week’s new questions
Last Word
