New Scientist - News

1. Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia
   South American megafauna, from giant sloths to camel-like creatures, survived thousands of years longer than we thought, challenging the idea that they were hunted to extinction by humans
2. Dinosaurs may have first evolved in the Sahara and Amazon rainforest
   Many think dinosaurs first emerged on land well south of the equator that now forms part of Argentina and Zimbabwe, but they may have actually arisen in tougher conditions near the equator
3. An orchid uses a finger-like appendage to pollinate itself
   More than 130 years after a fungus-eating orchid species was discovered, the purpose of its mysterious appendage has been revealed
4. Dark oxygen: New deep sea expedition to explore mysterious discovery
   The shock discovery that metallic nodules could be producing oxygen in the deep sea made headlines last year – now the team behind it is launching a new project to confirm and explain the findings
5. Extremely cold atoms can selectively defy entropy
   When their quantum properties are precisely controlled, some ultracold atoms can resist the laws of physics that suggest everything tends towards disorder
6. Twisted crystals show hints of a new kind of superconductivity
   A double layer of tungsten diselenide behaves as a superconductor at very low temperatures, which could suggest a new route to developing materials that do so at room temperature
7. Towering structures in Earth’s depths may be billions of years old
   New measurements suggest mysterious continent-sized masses in our planet’s lower mantle may be extremely stable features
8. Thinking a drug is a knockoff generic can cause worse side effects
   People seem to assume that expensive branded drugs will be less likely to cause them harm than their generic counterparts, which manifests via the "nocebo effect"
9. The US is leaving the Paris Agreement – what happens next?
   The world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases will withdraw from the global climate pact, disrupting efforts to tackle climate change
10. Trump's exit from World Health Organization could backfire on the US
    The US contributes around a fifth of the budget for the World Health Organization – its withdrawal from the public health body will impede efforts to control the global spread of diseases and could put the US at risk