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Elsewhere on New Scientist
New adventures in time • The mysteries of the fourth dimension are a never-ending source of fascination
New Scientist International Edition
Bird flu hits UK seabirds • Deadly avian influenza is spreading in the UK’s globally significant populations of gannets and geese, reports Adam Vaughan
Rewinding the Milky Way • The European Space Agency has released a new tranche of data from its Gaia space telescope, and now we can look back into the history of our galaxy, finds Alex Wilkins
Net-zero pledges for countries and firms are on the increase
No sign of a machine mind yet • Claims that an AI has become sentient have sparked excitement, but the reality is more mundane, reports Matthew Sparkes
Debate about the source of evolution’s diversity may have been settled
AI finds evidence of human fires from a million years ago
Strange new type of time crystal has been created
Dinosaur may have had a reptile version of a belly button
An epigenome-editing injection • Switching off a gene in mouse liver cells lowered cholesterol and should cut heart disease risk
Brain can be a few degrees hotter than the rest of the body
Mysterious cold blobs discovered hiding in a star
UK government admits its Net Zero Strategy doesn’t add up
Umbilical cord stem cell therapy treats rare disease
Physicists have made a quantum boomerang
Trees protect Raphael paintings • Dirty air that threatens Renaissance frescoes in Italy can be cleaned up by leaves
Test shows which bio parent gave you each bit of your DNA
Mental health crisis response team cuts crime rates in Denver
Proof quantum computers can be faster than normal ones
Covid-19 link to development delays • Catching the virus in pregnancy may affect an infant reaching their milestones
Baby coral ‘planted’ on the base of offshore wind farm
Monarch butterflies are doing well in North America
Space telescope hit by rock, but all is OK
Human skin used to coat machine digit
Really brief
Control centre for fever is discovered
Thousands of new viruses discovered in the oceans
Bacteria help larvae to eat polystyrene
Healing encounters • Social media’s rise means policies requiring anonymity in organ donation are obsolete, say Nicholas Murphy and Charles Weijer
No planet B • The biodiversity diet I thought my Mediterranean-style diet was helping the planet, but while it has reduced my carbon footprint, it is harming Earth’s biodiversity, finds Graham Lawton
Life on the brink
Your letters
Making sense of the world • Our neat ways of measuring feel like they have always existed. A romp through history shows it is much messier than that, finds Chris Stokel-Walker
Defying the ravages of age
How big can they get? • Explore googology in a brilliant new guide and learn about the esoteric world of enormous numbers, says Timothy Revell
Don’t miss
Creativity and chaos • While David Cronenberg’s new movie intrigues, it is a missed opportunity to create compelling, transgressive sci-fi, says Davide Abbatescianni
MYSTERIES OF THE FOURTH DIMENSION • IT IS WOVEN INTO THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE. IT EXERTS A PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON OUR LIVES. YET WE KNOW PRECIOUS LITTLE ABOUT ITS...