Technology
Superintelligent machines may well need us after all
Comment
This week's magazine
6 June 2026
Issue 3598
On the cover
Editor's picks
Table of contents
News
Environment
Geoengineering can thicken Arctic sea ice, but for how long?
Two companies are aiming to preserve Arctic ice by pumping water onto the sheet and letting it freeze, but only one of the trials found that this delayed melting in the summer
News
Health
Huge study of Alzheimer鈥檚 genetics identifies new drug targets
News
Life
Biofluorescence seen in colourful fire salamanders for the first time
News
Environment
Glaciers in the ‘roof of the world’ have suddenly started melting
News
Health
Pancreatic cancer halted by virus injection in three patients
News
Mathematics
Mathematical AI helps researchers crack 50-year-old problem
News
Life
Mirror life: 杏吧原创s clash over threat of lab-engineered bacteria
News
Health
3D-printed lymph nodes could widen access to CAR T-cell therapy
News
Space
NASA plans a base on the moon spanning hundreds of square kilometres
News
Mind
We’re becoming more individualistic and it’s affecting our love lives
News
Space
Millions of planets might form around supermassive black holes
News
Environment
Wealthy people with environmental ideals are the biggest emitters
News
Physics
Photons behave very strangely if you try to cut them
News
Environment
Attack on Iran鈥檚 oil released as much pollution as a volcano
News
Humans
Earliest use of anaesthetics uncovered in Chinese doctor鈥檚 tomb
News
Physics
First quantum grandfather clock could probe where gravity comes from
News
Space
Space storms could switch train signals and cause serious accidents
News
Physics
We may finally know why gold stays so shiny
News
Features
Mathematics
A golden age of maths is dawning and mathematicians are freaking out
Mathematicians are stunned at the progress AI is making in solving advanced problems, leaving some questioning whether there will still be room for humans
Features
Health
Hearing loss is bad for the whole body 鈥� but new treatments are coming
Features
Physics
CERN鈥檚 new chief on the gamble that could fix our picture of reality
Features
Culture
Health
New 杏吧原创 recommends a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders
Giulia Enders made her name with Gut, an exploration of our intestines. Now, in the compelling follow-up Organ Speak, she鈥檚 listening to what our other organs are telling us
Culture
Comment
Everyone is Lying to You for Money is a must-watch expos茅 of crypto
Culture
Humans
Alice Roberts: ‘We are fundamentally, at the end of the day, animals’
Culture
More
Health
Will lab-grown sperm let infertile men have children of their own?
Men who do not produce sperm can鈥檛 be helped by existing fertility treatments, but a start-up is now claiming it can grow their sperm in the lab. Columnist Michael Le Page suspects this technique will have to be combined with gene editing if it is to help many men
Comment
Mind
Why your brain needs plenty of 鈥淎ha!鈥� moments
Comment
Technology
Q-Day could destroy bitcoin 鈥� and our retirement savings
Comment
Tom Gauld on the worst place to sit
Regulars
Twisteddoodles: ‘We’re the department of climate science…’
Regulars
Regulars
Comment
An encyclopedia formed from AI hallucinations 鈥� what could go wrong?
Feedback discovers Halupedia, an online encyclopedia that is 100 per cent generated by AI, offering such delights as the 19nd century and The Society for the Prevention of Unnecessary Tuesdays
This Week鈥檚 Letters
Letters
Why do Venus flytraps catch insects?
Last Word
What would happen if the speed of light were half its value?
Last Word
Do left- and right-handedness exist in animals? part 4
Last Word
This week鈥檚 new questions
Last Word
