Our holiday special is out now!

Crammed full of festive stories, from how to catch a fart to the surprising maths behind coincidences, there is so much to explore in our jam-packed double issue.

Grab a copy in shops now or download our digital editions.
newscientist.com/issue/3521/ Dog owners often wonder what's really going on between their pets' fluffy ears. Now, savvy experiments and new technology are finally giving us a clearer glimpse.
newscientist.com/article/mg2643…

The discovery that faulty metabolism is at the root of many brain diseases suggests a surprising way to protect our brains from the ravages of ageing newscientist.com/article/mg2573… If you own a car, you will have noticed the engine getting less efficient with time

The further you drive it, the more fuel it takes to make the same journey – until, eventually, it becomes so underpowered that it needs a physical push to climb even a gentle hill

Researchers are building models of everything from black holes to the big bang in tanks of liquid. Now some claim these surprisingly simple models are showing us where our theories of space-time are wrong.
newscientist.com/article/mg2583… This is a black hole. Well, not a black hole in the common sense. Germain Rousseaux’s experiment at @InstitutPprime is a physical model of how the immense gravity of black holes can suck in waves – conventionally light waves, but in this case water waves – so they can’t escape.

In this week's issue: Can recreating black holes in the lab solve the puzzles of space-time?

Grab a copy in shops now or download our app for audio and digital editions newscientist.com/issue/3440/ Researchers are building models of everything from black holes to the big bang in tanks of liquid. Now some claim these surprisingly simple models are showing us where our theories of space-time are wrong
newscientist.com/article/mg2583…

Exciting news! New Scientist’s book club launches today, and we’re kicking things off with the excellent science fiction novel The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (@jccronin)

Sign up today, and tell us what you think at #NewScientistBookClub newscientist.com/sign-up/bookcl… Justin Cronin's new science fiction novel transmutes the familiar trope of a utopia with a dark secret into a deep story with humanity at its centre. Read along with us at #NewScientistBookClub newscientist.com/article/mg2583…

Are plants conscious?
Radical new experiments hint at sentience and cognition throughout the botanical kingdom, which may provoke a rethink of our understanding of the human mind
newscientist.com/article/mg2553… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… You’ve probably seen the way a Mimosa pudica plant, also called the touch-me-not, folds its leaves when they are touched

Albania's Vjosa river was due to be the site of a massive hydroelectric dam, but in March the Albanian government declared the entirety of the Vjosa a wild river national park, the first (and probably last) of its kind in Europe.
newscientist.com/article/mg2583… Dams are disastrous for biodiversity and other crucial ecological gifts rivers bestow upon us. So the saving of the Vjosa is a big win for nature – including the critically endangered Balkan lynx and an inspiration for other river conservation projects
newscientist.com/article/213447…

During his long career @UniofOxford mathematician Roger Penrose has collaborated with Stephen Hawking to uncover the secrets of the big bang, developed a quantum theory of consciousness with @StuartHameroff and won the Nobel prize in physics For Roger Penrose, the idea of consciousness is "much more outrageous than 'it’s quantum mechanics in the brain'. It’s where our current theories of quantum mechanics go wrong," he says.

"It’s to do with a theory that we don’t know yet."
newscientist.com/article/mg2563…

Can physics explain consciousness?
We are finally testing the ideas that quantum collapse in the brain gives rise to consciousness and that consciousness creates the reality we see from the quantum world
newscientist.com/article/mg2503… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… If physics explains all the phenomena in the universe, and if consciousness is part of the universe….can physics explain consciousness?

Evidence shows people who feel closer to their future selves make healthier decisions, have better grades, finances and wellbeing. Here are the evidence-based ways you can get closer to your future self newscientist.com/article/mg2583… Most people are bad at thinking about the future.

“Overall there’s a tendency for us all to be present oriented,” says psychologist @marcwittmann

To make sense of quantum theory and the passage of time, physicists are radically rethinking the relationship between matter and mind newscientist.com/article/mg2543… A walk in the woods. Every shade of green. A fleck of rain. The sensations and thoughts bound in every moment of experience feel central to our existence

But physics, which aims to describe the universe and everything in it, says nothing about your inner world

In this week's issue: Cases of #ADHD are rocketing, but what's the cause? Here's what we know about the condition

Grab a copy in shops today or download our app for audio and digital editions
newscientist.com/issue/3437/ It seems like everyone is talking about #ADHD at the moment, from people down the pub to online influencers

We know that diagnoses are rising too, so what’s behind all this interest?
newscientist.com/article/mg2583…

Cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are rocketing, but what's the cause? Fortunately, we now have a better understanding of the condition - and how to identify those who have it #ADHD newscientist.com/article/mg2583… It seems like everyone is talking about ADHD at the moment, from people down the pub to online influencers

Posts on tiktok with the #ADHD have 23 billion views. And we know that diagnoses are rising too

But what’s behind all this interest?

Tomorrow is the last day to vote for the @ASME1963 magazine cover of the year. The winner of the reader's choice is the one with the most likes. Here's a few we think you might like...

https://twitter.com/ASME1963/status/1631004342927982630

Forget vanity, there's a much better reason to want to banish wrinkles - a new theory suggests skin ageing is causing widespread ageing throughout your body and brain newscientist.com/article/236609… As skin ages, it degenerates dramatically. In the epidermis, stem cell proliferation slows down, leading to progressive thinning – we lose up to half this layer over our lifetime – and a roughening of its surface

In this week's issue: A radical new theory suggests wrinkles may be a cause of aging not just a symptom

Grab a copy in stores today or download our app for audio and digital editions
newscientist.com/issue/3432/ Fifty years ago, Bernard Carr wrote in New Scientist about the mounting evidence for black holes. Now, evidence for these objects is incontrovertible, and Carr is back writing for us – this time about black holes older than the universe
newscientist.com/article/mg2573…

Meet the cloud forest researcher and secular “missionary” for ecology who has a Barbie doll made in her image newscientist.com/article/mg2573… When Nalini Nadkarni first ventured into the canopy of a cloud forest four decades ago, almost nothing was known about this unique ecosystem

What qualifies as trauma has become a hotly debated issue, with implications for treating people who experience PTSD newscientist.com/article/mg2543… Giving birth. A car accident. Racial abuse. Many of us feel we have experienced things we would describe as traumatic

Add in a pandemic and experts warned that a mental health crisis was in the making, with cases of post-traumatic stress disorder predicted to soar

About 1 per cent of people may be treated for severe paranoia, but many more of us have milder paranoid thoughts, which has led some psychologists to identify a “paranoia spectrum” newscientist.com/article/mg2573… Paranoia, simply defined, is the unfounded belief that others are trying to hurt you

Such unjustified thoughts may include fear of a physical threat or merely the idea that other people are laughing at you behind your back

US authorities are reportedly considering a ban on new gas stoves in light of research claiming they are linked to one in eight cases of childhood asthma

How do gas stoves harm our health and climate, and should they be banned? newscientist.com/article/235443… For many restaurant chefs and enthusiastic amateur cooks, gas has long been the fuel of choice for stove-top cooking

But this love affair with gas cooking could be coming to an end, in the face of growing evidence of the public health and climate threat it poses

Harvard psychiatrist Robert Waldinger leads the world’s longest running study of happiness. Now he believes he understands the key to a happy and meaningful life newscientist.com/article/mg2573… The Harvard Study of Adult Development (HSAD) began in 1938, with 724 participants: 268 undergraduate students at @Harvard College and 456 14-year-old boys who had grown up in some of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Boston, Massachusetts