New Scientist - Home

1. How does the pill affect your brain? We're finally getting answers
   Millions of women and teenage girls use oral contraception, but we are only now getting an idea of what effect these drugs have on our brains
2. Our verdict on Ringworld by Larry Niven: Nice maths, shame about Teela
   Culture editor Alison Flood rounds up the New Scientist Book Club’s thoughts on our latest read, the science fiction classic Ringworld by Larry Niven
3. Read an extract from time-travel novel The Ministry of Time
   In this short extract from Kaliane Bradley's sci-fi novel, her protagonist makes a startling discovery about the nature of time
4. 'Time travel was just a metaphor for controlling a narrative'
   The Ministry of Time author Kaliane Bradley on how she made time travel work in her bestselling novel, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club
5. First evidence of ancient birds nesting above the Arctic circle
   Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought
6. Leprosy was in the Americas long before the arrival of Europeans
   The history books say Europeans brought leprosy to the Americas, but analysis of ancient DNA reveals that a form of the disease was present in Argentina and Canada much earlier
7. Will SpaceX’s Starship rocket ever work – and what if it doesn’t?
   The failure of SpaceX’s ninth Starship launch has raised fresh concerns about the future of the rocket, but is there any alternative to Elon Musk’s approach to space?
8. Amazing images reveal new details in the sun's atmosphere
   City-sized droplets and twisting streams of plasma have been picked up by incredibly detailed images of the sun’s corona, showing our star as we’ve never seen it before
9. Qubit breakthrough could make it easier to build quantum computers
   Quantum computers that correct their own errors usually require hundreds of thousands of qubits. Start-up Nord Quantique claims it can dramatically decrease that number – but many challenges remain
10. Dark chocolate is rich in flavanols. Does that make it a health food?
    Antioxidants like cocoa flavanols may benefit heart health, brain ageing and the microbiome. Columnist Alexandra Thompson investigates whether it’s time to rethink chocolate