I'm not a lawyer, but this feels like something that increases liability...

I misread "morality" as "mortality" and I'm not sure which is more terrifying www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/u...

Was there ever a tech scramble in history as embarrassing as AI

As I predicted in the New Scientist 2026 preview podcast, Elon Musk has confirmed SpaceX is not going to Mars this year. I would be extremely surprised if it attempted to do so in 2028 as well, so I'll pencil 2030 in as a "maybe" www.marketwatch.com/story/why-el...

This is a shockingly bad piece, doing very little to actually inform readers about the current state of quantum computers. Don't let your economics editor write about cutting-edge science and technology! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is the crux of the matter, isn't it? Only polite norms are preventing Trump from getting what he wants, and when has that ever stopped him? www.ft.com/content/2f06...

So long rules-based order, it's been nice knowing you

Not every news event needs to be made into a drama!

As I predicted in the New Scientist 2026 preview podcast, Elon Musk has confirmed SpaceX is not going to Mars this year. I would be extremely surprised if it attempted to do so in 2028 as well, so I'll pencil 2030 in as a "maybe" www.marketwatch.com/story/why-el...

Have just added an epigraph to my new one, out of pure spite.

What a wonderfully incorrect opinion on a topic that doesnt matter. This is the good side of social media.

I out myself as the annoying editor in the lede to this terrific @willdouglasheaven.bsky.social explainer on parameters. We hear about them constantly - but usually explained in metaphorical terms. But what are they REALLY?? www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/07/1...

I avoid X all together now but I think there's a reasonable distinction between passively using X as a source of information or for work (an unfortunate necessity) and actively posting on it (unforgivable, have a word with yourself)

The writer doesn't get to tell the reader how to read their book or how to understand it. Do what you want with it! It's *your* book now, motherfucker

Nice to see @newscientist.com stories @mjflepage.bsky.social and I did on Colossal highlighted in this @theguardian.com long read. Biased take, obviously, but nobody cuts through the hype and explains the facts behind new science claims as well as New Scientist. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm sorry, have I fallen through a portal into the 2010s? www.ft.com/content/671a...

Retweeting for the drama

If you have time to doom scroll, you have time to read books!

I would gladly write the epitaph for epigraphs

Obviously it's Six Feet Under

Well, it seems I'm in the wrong on this one - but what are you people getting out of them?!

dante made up an entire fake trip through hell just so he could talk about how he coincidentally saw every single one of his enemies there receiving graphically specific and tailor-made punishments

Settle an argument: I told my wife I never read epigraphs in books because they are pointless and she was outraged. Who's right?

In the week Grok produces images of child sexual abuse, its creator, xAI, has just announced it has closed a $20 billion funding round.

Smart glasses are all dogshit I’m sorry. Put all of these things in the trash

This is all very well, but Europe is not going to war with the US, because it will lose, badly. If Trump wants Greenland, he's taking it.

"turned out"

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But it's a bankable IP."

Is The Guardian working through All the Men in AI in alphabetical order and making sure they all feel special?

asked my six year old niece what was wrong with phones and she said "people keep looking at them and don't listen to you" then asked "so what would you do about it" and she said "feed the phones to crocodiles" so her platform has my full support

Happy new year! My all sky camera imaged the sky every 15 seconds and this picture shows what happened in the sky in 2025. It shows the length of the night and day with the hourglass shape, the monthly lunar cycle with the diagonal bands, the elevation of the Sun at local noon, and lots of clouds.

I keep seeing *discussion* about Bluesky drama but not seeing any actual drama on my timeline, which leads me to assume I'm not following any dramatic people?

They've historically been named after physicists/astronomers/mathematicians: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... Not sure where/why it started but not that weird a name in the context of previous names.

This is a weird name, no? As far as I know Vera Rubin was not notable for work in computing

"vaccines are good" continues to be a popular genre of story for us at New Scientist, but obviously that's a somewhat self-selecting audience. We really shouldn't be having to write "no really, this is why vaccines are good" stories as well, but here we are

Wrote about an obvious and yet profoundly underappreciated aspect of the AI boom: its total narrative capture by Elon Musk's X nymag.com/intelligence...

Sustainable aviation fuel just ain't going to happen - it's a nice fiction that allows the industry to continue with business as usual

If there is an argument then this is the argument. But lol I can’t find where this obviously false stat is coming from. And if the government does believe more than half the families in the UK are using it as their primary news source then woah maybe time to up the scrutiny of it!

I'm starting to get the emails. Reporters: please see my comments below.

Finally caught up on #TheTraitors and this secret traitor stuff is kind of nonsense right?

Avatar wishes it could match these memes

An explorer and a glaciologist are kite-skiing across Antarctica with a ground-penetrating radar to gather data that will help understand the past and future of the ice sheet

In 2014, I wrote a story about a rare exoplanet alignment, an exosyzygy, due to take place in 2026. At the time it seemed impossibly far off, but now here we are - and unfortunately, astronomers haven't been granted time with a telescope to observe this event, so we're going to miss it!

i would suggest an online safety act that can’t deal with CSAM on a widely used social network frequented by most westminster public figures isn’t doing a very good job of keeping anybody safe online

With a storage capacity of 36 petabytes, a DNA-based cassette tape can hold every song every recorded, and it could be on the market within five years

If this was a twist in a murder mystery you'd be like "oh fuck off that's not a thing"

“If a woman dares to show herself in public in any way, then she can and will be sexually harassed with the aid of genAI-driven tools that can easily turn her face into highly realistic pornography” is an absolute red-alarm human rights disaster