23:48 05 January 2009  | 2 comments

The sharpest infrared picture yet taken of the roiling furnace at the galaxy's centre reveals a new population of massive stars

19:58 05 January 2009  | 2 comments

A bizarre-looking yet ignored species of land iguana might be one of the earliest examples of species diversification in the Galapagos

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:  16:30 05 January 2009  | 44 comments

TV presenter Richard Hammond asks why so many children get turned off science at school – and what we can do to rekindle their excitement

13:18 05 January 2009  | 8 comments

Borrowing a trick used to steer cars without effort could make robotic exoskeletons more reliable and easier to use, a patent application claims

IN BRIEF:  11:46 05 January 2009  | 14 comments

Newts aren't normally fazed by having their tails chopped off – they just grow a new one – but microgravity plays havoc with the process

FEATURE:  10:50 05 January 2009  | 9 comments

The next generation of particle smashers might be considerably smaller than the Large Hadron Collider – and made almost literally out of thin air

10:16 05 January 2009  | 164 comments

Creationism is like a roly-poly clown that pops back up when you punch it, and Jerry Coyne's new book aims to keep it down

IN BRIEF:  11:06 04 January 2009  | 18 comments

Airflows above mountains create rare clouds that act as reaction sites for chemicals that destroy ozone

IN BRIEF:  11:00 04 January 2009  | 7 comments

Brain activity that is "scrambled" in deaf cats develops normally if they are fitted with a cochlear implant shortly after birth, say researchers

IN BRIEF:  22:12 02 January 2009  | 33 comments

Circles of rocky material sorted by size suggest that the local Martian climate was once much warmer than thought

11:01 02 January 2009  | 4 comments

The most popular space stories of the year include a gallery of spooky cosmic images and an exploration of whether the universe existed before the big bang

10:49 02 January 2009  | 32 comments

Amidst much bad news, it's worth remembering that we live on an amazing planet – here are some of the most exciting stories revealed in 2008

08:00 02 January 2009  | 26 comments

People from Cameroon and Kenya have far more variation in a gene that controls sensitivity to bitterness, say researchers – could it be a survival adaptation?

07:00 02 January 2009  | 7 comments

Need to appear knowledgeable on something you know nothing about? Software that does the hard work for you is the answer, a new patent application claims

23:03 01 January 2009  | 1 comment

Astronomers observed the most powerful explosion ever recorded, detected what may be dark matter and found hints of a fractal universe

11:00 01 January 2009  | 1 comment

Stunning 3D scans of subjects from chimps to murder victims from a team who's work has appeared in the CSI television shows

FEATURE:  11:00 01 January 2009  | 7 comments

Industrial robots are mostly power-hungry workhorses, but a new mechanical arm and hand uses no more energy than a couple of electric toothbrushes

THIS WEEK:  10:36 01 January 2009  | 50 comments

Three times as many bears are in a fasting state compared with 20 years ago – it's all down to melting ice, say researchers

HISTORIES:  08:55 01 January 2009

Augustus Granville made a famous study of an Egyptian mummy in 1821 – but how much did he get right?

18:51 31 December 2008

See a selection of the most stunning science images from our galleries this year including the propagation and reflection of a blast wave, a planetary nebula and a baby kangaroo suckling in a pouch...

18:57 31 December 2008  | 3 comments

Astronomers glimpsed unseen swathes of Mercury, found a space rock heading for Earth and landed a probe squarely on a patch of Martian ice

03:45 31 December 2008  | 25 comments

The shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on 1 Feb 2003 into disaster happened so fast that the crew didn't have time to close their visors

COMMENTARY:  00:01 31 December 2008  | 3 comments

After a year in which the much-anticipated Large Hadron Collider has been delayed, you might think particle physicists don't have much to be jolly about – not so...

10:00 31 December 2008  | 5 comments

From a sea-slug that runs on solar power to a one-tonne rodent – here are the 10 oddest species from 2008

08:30 31 December 2008  | 2 comments

A new way to scan the 3D traces of brushstrokes in oils could make it possible to "replay" the work of old masters

FEATURE:  18:00 30 December 2008  | 18 comments

Pity future cyborg insects – as if being remotely controlled by a human isn't bad enough, their every movement may be harnessed to power the electronics that hijack their bodies

IN BRIEF:  18:00 30 December 2008  | 7 comments

Food scientists have found that fried or grilled beef contains fewer carcinogens when marinated in beer or, to a lesser extent, wine

THIS WEEK:  18:00 30 December 2008  | 32 comments

With flatter continents and shallower ocean basins, water would have covered the vast majority of the planet 2.5 billion years ago

THIS WEEK:  18:00 30 December 2008  | 210 comments

Cannabis is the world's most widely used illegal drug – now a team of experts says governments should rethink how they control it

COVER STORY:  18:00 30 December 2008  | 34 comments

Your behaviour is influenced by others far more strongly than you might think, even if you've never met them, says Michael Bond

19:49 05 January 2009 - updated 20:05 05 January 2009

Could space elevators one day be used to save the planet?

16:12 05 January 2009 - updated 17:19 05 January 2009

Flying insects continue to inspire roboticists. Early in 2008, US researchers added an artificial control system to the brain of moths, effectively creating remote controlled cyborg insects. Meanwhile, others are busy creating winged robots that flap around like real insects.A...

12:00 26 December 2008

We've rounded up some of our favourite blog posts of the year - from a nano-sized Barack Obama to calls for a 'Gaian dictator' to save the world. You can find them over on the main New Scientist site....

15:24 24 December 2008 - updated 15:34 24 December 2008

Forty years ago, astronauts went into lunar orbit for the first time - they took shifts staying awake and snapped an iconic image of the Earth rising above the Moon

13:00 24 December 2008 - updated 11:03 05 January 2009

A lot of the most informative and entertaining discussion triggered by New Scientist can be found in the comments that you, our readers, leave below the articles. This year, you made us laugh about the LHC and talking robots, muse...

15:50 23 December 2008 - updated 15:53 23 December 2008

How do you improve on the 40-year-old design we call the mouse that has, together with the keyboard, become the default tool for computer interaction? Patrick Baudisch of Microsoft Research and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has a...

11:31 23 December 2008 - updated 12:38 23 December 2008

Call it a message of ill-will for the holiday season. Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction...

20:17 22 December 2008 - updated 20:30 22 December 2008

This could be a watershed moment for the technology, which would collect solar energy in space and beam it to Earth

17:53 22 December 2008 - updated 18:27 22 December 2008

Here's a prediction to take note of: there will be an unambiguous new global temperature record during the first term of the Obama administration.This prediction comes from leading climate scientist James Hansen of NASA. He made it in response to...

16:45 22 December 2008 - updated 16:48 22 December 2008

It sounds like something from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Police in Finland say they have caught a car thief after making a DNA fingerprint of blood from a mosquito found in an abandoned car. Forensic investigators and prosecutors know only...