New Scientist

A UK biotech firm spent years gathering genetic data that has uncovered 1 million previously unknown microbial species and billions of newly identified genes – but even this trove of data may not be enough to train an AI biologist

Sea star larvae have been stored at −200°C and thawed for the first time, a step towards restoring populations that have been ravaged by disease

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Images from a jellyfish-breeding facility in Germany showcase the luminous invertebrates' environmental challenges and medical promise

A sauropod dinosaur fossil has been found with preserved stomach contents for the first time, providing insights into what they ate and how

Thousands of tiny nematode worms can join up to form tentacle-like towers that can straddle large gaps or hitch rides on larger animals

Artist Clare Hewitt uses fallen oak leaves and sunlight to create her works of art before returning the leaves to the forest

Putting an end to a mass extinction sounds like an impossible task, but some researchers argue that doing so would be setting our ambitions too low

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are waiting in line at public drinking fountains in Sydney to have their daily drinks of water in the latest example of cultural evolution in urban birds

Palaeontologists are finding more dinosaur remains than ever before, and with new technology they can now peer inside these creatures' brains, understand their sensory anatomy and reconstruct whole skeletons from fragmentary remains. Applying novel techniques to a single Spinosaurus skeleton discovered in Morocco, researchers have revealed that this dinosaur was perfectly adapted to an aquatic …

Two of the most destructive invasive termite species are interbreeding in the US – they can survive a wider range of temperatures and could easily spread across the globe

Surprising new fossil evidence undermines the idea that there was ever a mass extinction on land – and may force us to reframe the current biodiversity crisis

Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought

The belief that adding certain plants around crops will boost their growth is an old one, but will your tomatoes' yield and flavour really be improved by growing tasty herbs alongside them? James Wong investigates

The village of Cocullo celebrates a festa dei serpari every May – and scientists are getting in on the action

Thousands of fossils from the La Brea tar pits in California show no signs of mammals and birds evolving in response to shifting temperatures over the past 50,000 years

Life is thought to have begun when RNA began replicating itself, and researchers have got close to achieving this in the lab

Puzzlingly, many birds add human-made material to their nests with no obvious function – now there is evidence that these home improvements might ward off predators

Wildlife carers fostering some of Australia’s most precious animals have had to rescue them one by one from rising waters and are now racing to repair fencing that keeps feral predators away

An analysis of the sloth family tree suggests three different groups of the animals evolved to gigantic sizes in response to cold and dry conditions