Earthquakes paint a picture of the inside of the Earth
Eavesdropping on seismic waves rumbling through our planet helps us work out its internal structure, and now one team aims to map the entire mantle in this way
Ice makes unlikely rocket fuel for CubeSats
These low-cost satellites are limited in what they can do by the lack of a good propulsion system, but using ice could change that
Vanuatu disaster prompts calls for climate change action
Cyclone Pam, which tore across Vanuatu, killing eight people, has been explicitly linked to climate change by the country's president and climate scientists
Editing human embryos is genetics' new battleground
Will pioneering work to alter genes in human germ cells or early embryos allow us to make superbabies, and is it ethical? New Scientist explores the issues
Risky business: Why money markets ignore the rules
Physicist turned Goldman Sachs analyst Emanuel Derman explains why it is so difficult to write equations for stock markets or interest rates
Chance: Think of a number – and make it random
From shuffling in iTunes to keeping your bank account secure, computers need random numbers. But are they, like us, wired to think in predictable patterns?
Risky business: Rare events happen surprisingly often
In the weird world of probability, winning the lottery and being struck by lightning happen more often than you think, says mathematician David Hand
Age of Sustainable Development: Good lives for all?
Top sustainable-development guru Jeffrey Sachs can get world leaders on board for saving the planet, but is the optimism of his vision enough?
Risky business: Coping with chaos in weather forecasts
Will it rain this weekend? It's a simple question, but the best answer comes down to probability, says Ken Mylne of the UK Met Office
Win one of 50 Raspberry Pi micro-computers
The latest edition of the world's favourite hobby computer is here and, to celebrate Pi Day, we have 50 to give away
ISIS is waging war on history. It's time to intervene
We have the tools to prevent further destruction of ancient Assyrian history and we need to use them now
CO2 emissions may have stalled in 2014 – why?
The surprise plateauing of carbon emissions even as the global economy grew may be a one-off event fuelled by several factors
Chance: The importance of randomness in evolution
The genetic game of life is a tug of war between randomness and determinism. But which one wins in the end?
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