New Scientist - Home

1. Failed Soviet probe will soon crash to Earth – and we don't know where
   Kosmos 482, a Soviet spacecraft that never made it beyond Earth’s orbit on its way to Venus, is due to come crashing down on 9 or 10 May
2. Record heat in 2023 and 2024 may just have been natural variability
   Simulations suggest that an extraordinary jump in temperatures seen in 2023 and 2024 could simply be natural variability, rather than a new phase of climate change as some researchers have suggested
3. Major US cities like New York and Seattle are sinking at a rapid rate
   Groundwater extraction, plate tectonics and consequences of the last glacial period mean that most of the US's biggest cities are sinking
4. The maths that tells us when a scientific discovery is real – or not
   When huge scientific discoveries are made, you may hear that they are “statistically significant” or pass a threshold called “5 sigma” – but those calculations can be manipulated to make claims seem grander than they are, finds Jacob Aron
5. Dementia cases are rising faster in China than the rest of the world
   Cases of dementia doubled worldwide between 1990 and 2021, but more than quadrupled in China during the same period