New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

Christmas with New Scientist

A note from the editor

The complexities of you • Studying ourselves isn’t getting any simpler – but it is endlessly fascinating

New Scientist

First shots given in the UK • Older people and health workers get Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, amid warnings that the pandemic isn’t over yet, reports Michael Le Page

Your guide to the new vaccine • The UK has taken delivery of the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine. How does it work and who will get it when? Graham Lawton reports

What about children?

The Christmas conundrum • Countries across Europe are taking very different approaches to the festive period. Clare Wilson reports

Was England’s second lockdown necessary?

Military robots work best alone • Human operators impede performance of robots being developed for US military

MRI machines get a glimpse at what causes migraines

Voice assistants could guess what someone is typing

Ancient rock art reveals life of Amazon’s earliest people

Up close with other worlds • Samples from the moon and the asteroid Ryugu are returning to Earth

Rocks from Ryugu

Sounds that might be heard in neutron star generated in lab

Brain device lets monkeys ‘see’ without using eyes

Quantum computer that measures light achieves supremacy

UK makes moves to build a nuclear fusion power plant

AI pilot keeps telecoms balloon in the right place

Hot rocks may have given Mars its water

How plastic pollution spreads far and wide

Really brief

Health toll of global warming on the rise

Bird supersense may date back to the dinosaur era

Vaginal microbes hamper HIV drugs

Geology for the future • It is time for geologists to fully embrace what they can do for humanity’s sustainability goals, says Christopher Jackson

No planet B • Party politics during a pandemic Covid-19 continues to split some people along party lines. We are now beginning to work out why, writes Graham Lawton

Your letters

Uniquely you • Understanding human individuality means grappling with genetics and neuroscience. Clare Wilson finds a great new guide to take on the journey

Apocalyptic romance • Superintelligence is a strange but captivating mix of rom-com, sci-fi and action, says Robyn Chowdhury

Don’t miss

The sci-fi column • All too human How would it feel to live in the world imagined by The Preserve, where robots do most things better than people? It is a great thought experiment about an all-too-possible future, says Clare Wilson

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU • Who are you? Where did you come from, where are you going and what makes you tick? “Know thyself” isn’t an easy maxim to follow, so let New Scientist be your guide on a journey of self-discovery. Over the next 12 pages, we attempt to take you out of yourself and answer the most profound questions about that mysterious, strangely foreign creature in the mirror: you.

THE ‘YOU’ GENES

THE ELEMENTS OF YOU

YOUR EXTENDED SELF

The call of alcohol • Some people get great pleasure from boozing while others can take or leave a drink. We’re beginning to work out why, says Claire Ainsworth

New Scientist’s first virtual all-day event: What is the future of food? • Thousands of people participated in New...