Issue

Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? If you look at the deep-field images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s easy to believe there might be something. Those images capture a portion of the sky smaller than a grain of sand held at arm’s length, and yet, in them, you can see thousands of galaxies. Within each of the galaxies are billions of stars. In the face of those odds, it just feels implausible to think our little rock is the only one where life found a way. The more we study other-worldly materials, like meteorites from Mars and dust collected from asteroids, the more we find the type of ingredients needed for biological processes. The most compelling discovery of this kind came in January, when scientists declared they’d found 14 of the 20 amino acids that make up human proteins inside a sample returned from the asteroid Bennu. In fact, they found all five of the nucleotide bases that make up our DNA (adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil). So, what does it all mean? Could life be quite common in the cosmos? Did life on Earth come from another world? Jonathan O’Callaghan picks up the story in this issue.

For decades, Hollywood has mined hypnotism as a cinematic trope, often portraying it through a lens of mystery, manipulation and mind control that reinforces enduring stereotypes far removed from its real-world practice. But scientists, too, have been looking into hypnotism for over a century now, and the more we learn about it, the more we’re finding it has potential for pain relief, both mental and physical. The thing is, that potential depends largely upon your ability to be hypnotised. In this issue, award-winning science writer David Robson sees if he can fall under hypnotism’s spell and, if so, how it could make doing his work a little easier.

Iceland sits upon two continental plates – the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. These huge chunks of Earth’s surface are yawning apart at a pace of 2cm (just shy of 1in) every year. This movement creates fissures in Earth’s surface, like cracks in its shell. In Iceland, the Silfra fissure sits over an aquifer, where glacial meltwater gathers underground, and so this crack became a lake. It's the only body of water in the world that you can dive into and find yourself swimming between two tectonic plates. You can, almost, reach out and touch the Eurasian plate with one hand and the North American plate with the other. I couldn’t tell you why that appeals to me as an idea, as something to see before I die, but it does. While the fissure is around 60m (200ft) deep underwater, in my imagination, swimming through those waters would feel like Earth was opening up beneath me. The idea that there’s another world beneath us has a special kind of hold on humanity, one that’s almost as alluring as the idea that there’s life beyond Earth. The thing is, seismology is now in a place where it’s able to give us a detailed picture of what’s really going on deep inside the planet. And every time it does, our understanding of what it’s like down there changes. In this issue, we share what we've discovered.

The textbook version of a heart can look flat and motionless, which doesn't really equip us with a proper understanding of how it works. It looks different on an ultrasound scan (also known as an echocardiogram). It's easy to be struck by how tireless it is: contracting and relaxing in a precise rhythm without change. It's hypnotic. But of course, the heart does tire – it just takes a few billion beats for it to happen. And for some of us, years of neglect means that it’s likely to happen a little bit sooner. So, how can we add some extra beats or, at the very least, make life a bit easier on the old ticker? Alongside all the usual advice (get some exercise, eat less bacon and so on) researchers are discovering that some surprising small changes can also significantly lower your risk of heart disease. And the good news is that they add up. In this issue, we share what we’ve uncovered.

Many of us liken dementia to a loss of memory, but the condition comes from a much more fundamental erosion of the very structures our brains depend on. Dementia has multiple causes, and the collective symptoms typically sneak up on us. Our grey matter will have been diminishing for years before we, or those around us, notice a difference in our behaviour. As a result, we’re only able to spot most cases of dementia very late. But mercifully, that could be about to change. In this issue, we look at the breakthrough science on the cusp of developing a biological test to spot dementia early.

Stories of spooky goings on pique our interest like nothing else, so there’s always a slight tinge of disappointment when science debunks them as fiction rather than fact. Case in point: the many yarns spun about the ‘Bermuda Triangle’. But truth is stranger than fiction. And although we’ve struck off one mysterious Bermuda Triangle, another – perhaps even stranger – one has risen to take its place: the South Atlantic Anomaly, or the so-called ‘Bermuda Triangle of Space’. Satellites and spacecraft risk being scrambled and pass through it at their peril, while astronauts avoid going on spacewalks when they’re anywhere near it. But what makes this orbital no-go zone so weird, is that it doesn’t stay put. It's been shifting from one place to another, and back again, over a very long time. So, what's behind this mysterious sinkhole that we have no control over?

On the eve of a quarter century, it seems like a good time to pause and take a look back (and forwards) at the science that matters. Of course, it’s all important, but it’s fun to wind the clock back and argue about the breakthroughs that have really blown our minds since the year 2000. We asked some of the world’s leading scientists and science commentators for their take on the biggest breakthroughs of the 21st century (so far), including the Higgs boson particle, the Mars Curiosity rover, psychedelic therapy, HPV and HIV vaccines, programmable chemical robots, the James Webb Space Telescope... and more.

The older I’ve gotten the more I’ve come to know my body’s immune system. In my twenties, a cold would hit me like a train. Fevers would burn like a furnace, I would sleep like the dead and then, in a few days, it’d be over. These days everything’s drawn out. First, come the aches, then the hot, dry eyes, and finally an overwhelming weariness. But what if we could turn back the clock on our immune system? It's an appealing thought, and as it turns out, one that might not just be wishful thinking. Grab a copy of our November issue to find out what the latest science says about sprucing up your body’s natural defences and the best thing you can do to give your immune system a helping hand.

What if we could halt the ageing process or maybe even reverse it? Researchers across the world are beginning to hone in on the ‘biological hallmarks’ of ageing – processes within the body that are linked to many common age-related diseases. In this issue, we look at some of the latest research, from pills that supercharge our bodies’ ability to remove disease-causing cells, to uncovering the mysteries the immortal jellyfish.

The world is facing an energy crisis. But deep beneath our feet is a limitless source of heat that could wean us off fossil fuels forever. Around the world, a handful of engineering companies have been digging deep in the hopes of harnessing this heat. If they are successful, it could be the solution to humanity's most pressing existential crisis and might allow us to avoid the very worst consequences of climate change. But to reach it, we need to dig deeper than we've ever dug before in search of some very special rocks...

Diagnoses of ADHD have risen in recent years, particularly among adults. But while we may be getting better at recognising the condition, as a society we need to improve the how we view and treat those with it.

One of the deadliest forces on Earth is waking up. Are we prepared?

Hunger is a hugely complex system. For one thing, the ‘system’ isn’t actually hunger, but appetite, which encompasses hunger, fullness and reward, all of which are mediated by different parts of the brain. To complicate things further, our guts and our brains need to speak to one another, but it turns out they don’t speak the same language. Then there's what’s going on outside our bodies: the world concocts all manner of treats designed to bend our brains to their will, and there's marketing conceived to seduce and trick us when we’re at our weakest. Professor Giles Yeo takes a deep dive into the role that genetics play in the struggle to get rid of unwanted fat.

Although our picture of the cosmos is incredibly detailed, as the tools we build to explore the Universe become more and more sensitive, our understanding starts to grow fuzzy. There are crucial pieces missing... and without them, our model of the Universe just doesn't make sense. We take a dive into some of the biggest head-scratchers that are baffling astronomers.

For over three decades we've been navigating the cutting-edge of science. So for our 400th issue it only seemed right to look forward, as we always have, to the future. Inside, we’ve explored some of the subjects that have been most popular with you – our readers – in the format that’s been most popular: a great, big Q&A.

Would you like to reverse your biological age? In this issue, we take a look at the simple, science-backed actions that really could slow, stop, or even reverse the ageing process itself.

We’re terrible at spotting liars. Instinctively, we think we know when someone is lying to us, and sometimes we’re right, but just as often we misread the cues. So will we ever be able to definitively catch a liar? Well, it turns out we might. And you can find out exactly how in this issue.