New Scientist - Home

1. AI data scrapers are an existential threat to Wikipedia
   As AI developers harvest Wikipedia content to train their models, the resulting surge in automated traffic is driving up costs for the non-profit that runs the popular crowdsourced encyclopaedia
2. Cannibal spiders have strange trick to stop their siblings eating them
   A spider species eat their siblings as soon as they die but tolerate each other when they are alive, suggesting a mysterious signal helps them to determine when to dine on a nest mate
3. Largest ever US honeybee die-off has destroyed 1.6 million colonies
   Beekeepers often experience some seasonal losses, but this past winter, more than half of all US honeybee colonies died off, potentially the largest loss in US history
4. Wind farm developers are worried about neighbours stealing their wind
   Wakes from offshore wind farms can reduce the power generated by neighbouring farms – an issue that is growing more prevalent as turbines get bigger and more numerous
5. Kennedy has taken a sledgehammer to the US's public health
   The US anti-vaccine movement is now firmly embedded in the highest levels of government, where those overseeing public health agencies are making drastic cuts both wide and deep
6. Bonobos use a kind of syntax once thought to be unique to humans
   The way bonobos combine vocal sounds to create new meanings suggests the evolutionary building blocks of human language are shared with our closest relatives
7. Mammoth tusk flakes may be the oldest ivory objects made by humans
   Ancient humans living in what is now Ukraine 400,000 years ago may have practised or taught tool-making techniques using mammoth tusks, a softer material than bone
8. Common artificial sweetener makes you three times hungrier than sugar
   A widely used artificial sweetener increases brain activity in regions involved in appetite, suggesting it makes people hungrier
9. We could make solar panels on the moon by melting lunar dust
   Researchers used a synthetic version of moon dust to build working solar panels, which could eventually be created within – and used to power – a moon base of the future
10. Ozempic weight loss is deemed less praiseworthy than lifestyle changes
    People seem to be less impressed when others lose weight with the drug Ozempic than when they achieve it via lifestyle changes