New Scientist

Academy Your immune system and how to boost it From covid-19 to the common cold, get the low-down on how your body works to protect you. This course serves as a primer on the biology of the immune system, how it works and what you can do to keep it healthy. academy.newscientist.com Online event The evolution of childhood Compared with the rest of our primate relatives, humans have a uniquely long childhood. What are the evolutionary pressures that made us this way? When did we choose pair-bonding, why is pregnancy so dangerous, how did the role of fathers come about and what have we evolved to use all this extra childhood for? Join anthropologist Brenna Hassett as she takes a deep dive into these questions and more. Watch at 6pm BST/1pm EST on 7 July or…

SIX months ago world leaders made grand promises to act on climate change. A war, an energy crisis and an inflation spike later, it is hard to find signs that the vows made at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, UK, are being honoured. Germany is building new gas terminals in haste, the UK is mulling classifying gas production as a green investment and Chinese coal production was up 10 per cent in the first four months of the year. Yet climate change marches inexorably on regardless. India has been hit by earlier heatwaves than usual. The Great Barrier Reef bleached despite cooling from the La Niña weather pattern this year. Sea level rise, atmospheric greenhouse gas levels and ocean heat all hit new highs in 2021. Science shows in forensic detail how close…

ON 15 May, the price of a bitcoin was £24,244, less than half of its high point in November last year. Meanwhile, Ethereum, another major cryptocurrency, plunged in value from £3567 to £1647 over the same period. Despite these steep falls, the total hashrate of the bitcoin network – a metric that tracks the amount of computer power devoted to mining the currency – continues to hit all-time highs. Miners obtain a fixed amount of cryptocurrency by performing intensive computing operations. Their costs may be predictable, but their income, as denominated in traditional currencies, varies. The latest data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) shows that the bitcoin hashrate reached 248 exahashes per second in February, while more recent data indicates that it has continued rising in the intervening months. Ethereum miners…

FOR the first time, scientists have taken a picture of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. This is the second image of a black hole ever created. The image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of observatories around the world operating as a single enormous radio telescope. In 2017, EHT observed two supermassive black holes: the one in the Milky Way, which is called Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*, and the one at the centre of the M87 galaxy known as M87*. The image of M87* was released in 2019, and now, after three more years of painstaking data analysis, the collaboration has finally released its picture of Sgr A*. “It was a bit like trying to take a clear picture of a puppy quickly…

NOW that the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has taken images of both the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), and the one at the centre of the M87 galaxy, known as M87*, it is time for the collaboration to move on to new scientific pursuits. So, what is next? First, the researchers will examine the data they have already collected. The images of Sgr A* and M87* were both assembled from data gathered in 2017, but there have since been two more observation periods, with extra telescopes added to the collaboration’s original network of eight. “Data does exist. We have taken data in 2018 with one additional telescope, [in] 2022 with three additional telescopes, and we are working very, very hard to get that to you… as soon as…

THE presentation by Sebastian Mernild pulled no punches. As more than 40 nations met in Copenhagen, Denmark, last week to discuss progress since 2021’s COP26 climate summit, the glaciologist greeted ministers with jagged red lines showing rising global temperatures. He reminded them that emissions are still growing, and told them their goal of holding temperature rise to 1.5°C needs nothing less than “rapid, deep and sustained” cuts to greenhouse gases. “They all know what we are facing scientifically regarding 1.5°C,” says Mernild, who is at the University of Southern Denmark. Whether they are acting on that knowledge is another question. Half a year on from a deal at COP26 in Glasgow, UK, it is far from clear if countries are delivering on the commitments they made. COP26 president Alok Sharma said on…