The Best of New Scientist

Quantum pseudotelepathy is just one of the party tricks that can take the bored out of board games this Christmas, as Philip Ball explains

By channelling nearly 90 per cent of their blood into their liver while sleeping, glass frogs more than double their transparency – without any apparent health consequences

For the first time plants have been recorded making sounds when stressed. The sounds differed when they were injured or thirsty, a finding that could help farmers

We’ve been ravaging the planet’s ecosystems for too long, but crucial decisions this year could be the turning point that help us restore our relationship with nature

Are carbs good for you? Or eggs? Every week seems to bring contradictory new diet advice. New Scientist unpicks the surprising flaws in nutritional science

Postbiotics are the newest gut health trend promising to improve our skin, boost our strength and even reverse signs of ageing. But what are they and do they live up to the hype?

The first systematic review of the evidence on meditation suggests that 8 per cent of people experience a negative effect such as depression, anxiety, psychosis or thoughts of suicide

What we call laws of physics are often just mathematical descriptions of some part of nature. Ultimate physical laws probably don't exist and physics is all the better for it, says theoretical…

General relativity is one of two pillars of modern physics – our working theory of gravity and of the very large, of planets, galaxies and the universe as a whole

A simulated version of Paris where universities and telecommunication hubs are connected by a quantum communication network suggests that existing technology is already nearing the ability to create…

A tardigrade cooled to near absolute zero and placed in a state of quantum entanglement survived its ordeal

Our survival instinct should undercut morality – but our mammalian brains pulled off an amazing evolutionary trick, says neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland

You are not the person you were as a child, or even last year. The discovery that our characters change is unnerving, but embrace it and it can be empowering

Cosmologist Laura Mersini-Houghton says our universe is one of many – and she argues that we have already seen signs of those other universes in the cosmic microwave background, the light left over…

A new metal alloy keeps its flexibility and strength after high doses of radiation, making it potentially useful for building spacecraft or Mars colonies

Splitting data into a spectrum of colour packets has enabled a single computer chip to transmit a record 1.84 petabits of data per second via a fibre-optic cable

Frustrated with the Australian government’s inaction on climate change, software king Mike Cannon-Brookes is trying to buy several big coal plants so he can shut them down in favour of renewables

The influential scientist talks about his Earth-as-superorganism hypothesis and predicts a new era for humanity, unfettered by the constraints of our bodies

A long spell of extreme hot and dry weather is affecting energy, water supplies and food production across China

Analysis of data from sleep-tracking wristbands in 68 countries reveals that unusually hot nights are causing people fall asleep later, rise earlier and sleep less