ChatGPT-written exam submissions for a psychology degree mostly went undetected and tended to get better marks than real students’ work| New Scientist
A skull from China has been identified as Denisovan using molecular evidence – so ancient humans once known solely from their DNA finally have a face| New Scientist
Dawn of the living Life must have begun with a simple molecule that could reproduce itself – and now we think we know how to make one 4 BILLION years before present: the surface of a newly formed planet around a medium-sized star is beginning to cool down. It's a violent place, bombarded by meteorites …| New Scientist
Solar electricity is growing rapidly, but can it really dominate the global energy system? Here is what it will take for us to power the planet on sunshine| New Scientist
A glow of gamma rays from within our galaxy has long puzzled astronomers, but now it seems they could be produced by a specific type of millisecond pulsar| New Scientist
Mathematicians thought that they understood how rotation works, but now a new proof has revealed a surprising twist that makes it possible to reset even a complex sequence of motion| New Scientist
Feels like flu? Let your body decide what to eat Crave chicken soup when you have a cold? There may be a good reason for that. Research in mice has found that changing eating habits could be crucial for surviving the body’s own immune responses to different types of infection. Winter flu: All the essential …| New Scientist
An analysis of patient records suggests that mRNA covid-19 vaccines boost the immune response to cancerous tumours when given soon after people start a type of immunotherapy, extending their lives| New Scientist
The latest generations of artificial intelligence models show little to no trace of 14 signs of self-awareness predicted by prominent theories of human consciousness| New Scientist
Researchers have documented orcas seemingly gifting rays, seals and fish to scientists and divers, which could suggest they have theory of mind and engage in altruism – even across species| New Scientist
Palaeolithic hand stencils with missing fingers could indicate ritual mutilation or frostbite – but new research suggests they might be trying to tell us something| New Scientist
An AI leaderboard suggests the newest reasoning models used in chatbots are producing less accurate results because of higher hallucination rates. Experts say the problem is bigger than that| New Scientist
Lamarck's Signature by Edward Steele, Robyn Lindley and Robert Blanden, Allen & Unwin, £7.99, ISBN 1864487968 BEFORE we knew about Mendelian inheritance of genes, let alone DNA, there was a debate about how we come to look like our parents. Jean Baptiste de Lamarck had a bright idea: he suggested that we inherited the characteristics …| New Scientist
Batteries containing solid electrolytes have many theoretical benefits, but a technique to manufacture them cheaply has been elusive| New Scientist
An experimental update to Ethereum, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency, has led to a dramatic reduction in the energy used to secure the currency and verify transactions| New Scientist
An ancient skull has finally shown us what the Denisovans looked like. Now it turns out they, not Neanderthals, might be our closest relatives, redrawing our family tree and transforming the hunt for Ancestor X| New Scientist
Previous estimates have suggested that more than half of people who stop taking antidepressants experience withdrawal symptoms, but now a review of the evidence suggests this isn't the case, at least for short-term use.| New Scientist
Genetic testing on samples collected during the earliest days of the covid-19 outbreak suggests it is likely that the virus spread from animals to humans at the Huanan seafood market| New Scientist
Contrary to common expectation, intelligence does not always predict financial wellbeing, and neither does it protect people from financial difficulty| New Scientist
A guiding principle of logic exhorting us to keep things as simple as possible.| New Scientist
Among primates brain size corresponds to social group size and Dunbar's number extrapolates this in humans to have a natural group size of about 150| New Scientist