New Scientist recommends a smart new account of human exceptionalism 13. May 2026 (20:00) Why did humans decide they weren't like other animals, or animals at all? Has this exceptionalism twisted us out of shape? Michael Bond's book Animate offers a page-turning account of where we are now(New Scientist)
Science doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas 13. May 2026 (20:00) Scientific disciplines often shy away from asking fundamental "what if" questions. But philosophy – if unencumbered by dogma or ideology – has much to offer evidence-based enquiry(New Scientist)
Asteroid to miss Earth by a quarter of the length from us to the moon 13. May 2026 (18:08) Asteroid 2026JH2 will zoom past Earth at a distance of only 90,000 kilometres next week. It has enough mass to wipe out a city, but simulations suggest there is no chance of an impact for at least the next century(New Scientist)
Asteroid set to fly very close to Earth 13. May 2026 (18:08) Asteroid 2026JH2 has enough mass to wipe out a city and will zoom past Earth next week(New Scientist)
Why autism pioneer Uta Frith wants to dismantle the spectrum 13. May 2026 (18:00) After a career spent grappling with the neural underpinnings of autism, Uta Frith is unwavering in her controversial call to scrap our current view of the condition and start again(New Scientist)
Ancient teeth hint at links between Denisovans and Homo erectus 13. May 2026 (18:00) Six teeth roughly 400,000 years old have yielded some of the first ancient proteins thought to belong to Homo erectus, providing molecular clues to their relationships with other hominins(New Scientist)
Natural sunscreen found in fish eggs can be made by E. coli factories 13. May 2026 (18:00) Genetically altered bacteria can synthesise gadusol, a naturally occurring compound found in zebrafish eggs that could be developed as an alternative to existing sunscreen products that can harm marine life(New Scientist)
New rules confirm public has a right to see how UK government uses AI 13. May 2026 (14:00) Government departments and other public bodies in the UK must consider requests to release information about AI-produced content, regulators have confirmed. The move follows a successful request by New Scientist for the release of a minister's ChatGPT logs(New Scientist)
Can cloud seeding save us from water bankruptcy? 12. May 2026 (18:00) We’ve long tried to control the weather by engineering rainfall. Now such cloud-seeding efforts are escalating, creating conflict between countries and stoking conspiracy theories. But do they work?(New Scientist)
