A Space Expert Hoped to Use the Eclipse as Science Class. The D.J.s Had Other Plans.

The race to save thousands of animals

In October 1982, Paraguay and Brazil closed the gates of the Itaipu River, beginning to fill the reservoir of what would soon be the world's largest dam.

Tom Gauld on failed science clip art

Does shapewear make us less prone to taking risks? Weirdly, maybe yes

Josie Ford Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Reshape your mind One of society’s more intractable problems is unnecessary risk-taking behaviour. People do all kinds of silly things, like gambling on horses/prediction markets (delete according to age), or yelling “I love Coldplay” in a crowded biker bar. Surely it would be better if people just didn’t do these dangerous things.

I reread The Road 20 years on. It was even more devastating

Earlier this year, the New Scientist Book Club took on Tim Winton’s Juice, a brilliant, terrifying tale of a scorched future Australia. Reading it, I knew I would have to return to a title it reminded me of: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I first read this in 2006, and loved (if that’s the word) its vision of a post-apocalyptic US, all ash, dead trees and horrors.