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This week's magazine

25 March 2023

Issue 3431

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Editor's picks

Our top articles from the latest magazine

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Lawrence Jackson/AP/Shutterstock (6360330b) Stephen Hawking Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, makes remarks at an event marking the 50th anniversary of NASA,at George Washington University in Washington Hawking NASA, Washington, USA

Physics

Stephen Hawking’s parting shot is a fresh challenge to cosmologists

Leader

Subscriber-only
Stephen Hawking with Thomas Hertog, in Hawking's office

Physics

Stephen Hawking's final theorem turns time and causality inside out

Features

Subscriber-only
Waste water flowing into a British river from concrete pipes

Environment

The state of Britain's rivers: Slurry, silage and sewage

Features

Free
Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. Photo by UNEP_Kibuuka Mukisa

Life

Uganda’s first wildlife vet on her revolutionary gorilla conservation

Features

Subscriber-only
Why we’re trapped in short-term thinking and how to take the long view

Society

Why we’re trapped in short-term thinking and how to take the long view

Features

Subscriber-only

Table of contents

Leaders

Physics

Stephen Hawking’s parting shot is a fresh challenge to cosmologists

The physicist’s final theorem, about why the universe seems fine-tuned for life, contains some provocative predictions. Will they be as fruitful as his insights into black holes?

Leader

Subscriber-only

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Lawrence Jackson/AP/Shutterstock (6360330b) Stephen Hawking Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, makes remarks at an event marking the 50th anniversary of NASA,at George Washington University in Washington Hawking NASA, Washington, USA

News

Life

Jumping parasitic worms use static electricity to hit their targets

Millimetre-long worms use powerful muscles to jump onto their bee or fly hosts to feed. But their expert leaping may be helped by an electric attraction that pulls them to their targets mid-air

News

Subscriber-only

Electrical field of a fruit fly

Health

Covid-19 may have started in raccoon dogs, new DNA evidence shows

News

Free

Environment

IPCC climate change report: Can we avoid 1.5°C of global warming?

News

Free

Life

Bird flu may be making foxes and other animals behave in unusual ways

News

Subscriber-only

Earth

Oxygen on early Earth may have come from quartz crushed by earthquakes

News

Free

Earth

Oxygen on early Earth may have come from quartz crushed by earthquakes

News

Free

Health

Ludwig von Beethoven’s DNA reveals he probably died of liver damage

News

Free

Mind

Is someone lying to you? A lack of detail may give them away

News

Subscriber-only

Space

Asteroids that speed up unexpectedly may be ‘dark comets’ in disguise

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Ghost catfish get their rainbow iridescence from transparent muscles

News

Free

Technology

Notre Dame fire revealed cathedral’s innovative use of iron

News

Free

Life

Gene-edited rice may be able to grow on Mars

News

Subscriber-only

Health

Women show signs of cellular ageing at 19 that hit men at age 40

News

Subscriber-only

Life

Fungus that kills frogs and salamanders is rapidly spreading in Africa

News

Free

Space

JWST took a stunning picture of a star that’s about to go supernova

News

Free

Analysis

Society

It's now or never – we need to achieve a sustainable human population

To address our overconsumption of resources, we must work to achieve a sustainable population by addressing gender inequality, improving education and tackling poverty, says Chris Packham

Comment

Subscriber-only

It's now or never – we need to achieve a sustainable human population

Technology

Why we need to be wary of anthropomorphising chatbots

Comment

Subscriber-only

Aperture

Comment

Rare photograph of snow in the usually baking hot Sonoran desert

This striking image shows the fleeting moment that the Sonoran desert in a parched corner of North America was blanketed in 10 centimetres of snow

Regulars

Free

Image taken: 2nd March 2023 SNOW WAY! The surreal site of snow-draped cacti in Arizona???s Sonoran Desert was captured in breath-taking detail by Jack Dykinga last week. The scenes, which meteorologists have described as ???once in a generation??? demonstrate a rare convergence of nature???s extremes. The Sonoran desert is typically known for its arid sub-tropical climate. Even in winter, days are sunny and mild. But this month the area saw 2-4 inches of snow that lasted about 4 hours. Dykinga, who has been photographing the Sonorn Desert since 1976, says the last big snow was a full decade ago. He described this year???s otherworldly scenes as ???pure magic, seemingly out of place and strikingly beautiful.??? Before the snow arrived, the Desert looked completely different, boasting an explosion of flowers and clear blue skies. The reason for the uncharacteristic snowfall is not fully understood. The current La Ni??a event (a cyclic weather pattern that influences global weather) is partly responsible, coupled with a persistent blocking pattern over the Pacific Ocean and cold air migrating south from the Arctic. Climate change also means extreme weather events are becoming more likely.

Features

Society

Why we’re trapped in short-term thinking and how to take the long view

Many of the most serious problems we face are the result of our tendency to focus on the present at the expense of the future. But we can escape this temporal myopia by confronting how we think about time

Features

Subscriber-only

Why we’re trapped in short-term thinking and how to take the long view

Environment

The state of Britain's rivers: Slurry, silage and sewage

Features

Free

Physics

Stephen Hawking's final theorem turns time and causality inside out

Features

Subscriber-only

Life

Uganda’s first wildlife vet on her revolutionary gorilla conservation

Features

Subscriber-only

Culture

Comment

Extrapolations review: Can this climate sci-fi make us care?

Earth's climate is reeling out of control in this eight-part sci-fi series stuffed with A-listers. From one of the minds behind An Inconvenient Truth, it is heavy on messaging, but lacks some focus

Culture

Subscriber-only

Episode 1. Sienna Miller in "Extrapolations," premiering March 17, 2023 on Apple TV+.

Comment

Your Brain on Art review: Fascinating guide needs a bit more science

Culture

Subscriber-only

Comment

Don't Miss: Explore great mysteries of physics in an ambitious podcast

Culture

Subscriber-only

Comment

Atomic Light review: Solar astronomers rescue an uneven installation

Culture

Subscriber-only

More

Humans

Why preserving your lemons in salt will make them even tastier

The flavour of fresh lemon is delicious, but this citrus fruit becomes even more wonderful when it is preserved in salt, says Sam Wong

Regulars

Subscriber-only

W6PMTY Preserved Lemons

Puzzle #214: Can you help me work out the code to my burglar alarm?

Regulars

Subscriber-only

Tom Gauld: A cockroach speaks out

Regulars

Free

Twisteddoodles: Schrodinger in the age of the internet

Regulars

Free

Regulars

The omen of the necrobotic spider

Feedback learns more about the "deepening of necrocapitalism", sniffs around how a changing climate affects nose shape and puts out a call for trivial superpowers

Regulars

Free

The omen of the necrobotic spider

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word

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