Why the long history of calculating pi will never be completed Building the full value of pi has been a project thousands of years in the making, but just how much of this infinite number do we actually need, asks our maths columnist Jacob Aron

I'm launching a new monthly maths column, and what better day to do it than Pi Day? Read on to learn what an ancient Egyptian scribe called "Directions for Knowing All Dark Things", why Newton was ashamed by pi, and how our best estimate was wrong for a century
www.newscientist.com/article/2471...

Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of Peter Kyle, the UK's technology secretary, in what is believed to be a world-first use of such legislation

🚨 @newscientist.com SCOOP: I've exclusively obtained Peter Kyle's interactions with ChatGPT using FOI laws - in what I believe may be a world-first transparency release. The chatbot said "Lack of Government or Institutional Support" slowed UK AI adoption www.newscientist.com/article/2472...

Physicists capture a strange fractal ‘butterfly’ for the first time The electrons in a twisted piece of graphene show a strange repeating pattern first predicted in 1976, but never directly measured until now

This is soo cool. Douglas Hofstadter (yup that one) predicted a sort of fractal 50 years ago and now it's finally been seen for real

Story by @alexwilkins.bsky.social

www.newscientist.com/article/2470...

NOAA scientists refuse to link warming weather to climate change In a monthly reporting call on global climate, researchers from the US government’s climate and weather agency avoided mentioning rising levels of greenhouse gases

On @noaa.gov's first monthly climate update call under the Trump Administration, researchers avoided any mention of whether human greenhouse gas emissions have played a role in record global temperatures. 🧪

Absolutely shocking and very worrying from NOAA www.newscientist.com/article/2469...

Book #2 for 2025: "The secret lives of numbers" by Kate Kitagawa and @timothyrevell.bsky.social. A fun tour through the history of math beyond the Greek and Eurocentric stories. Pretty accessible for the non-expert (in my expert opinion). #booksky #mathsky

Genetically modified toxic semen could suppress troublesome insects Male flies have been genetically engineered to produce poisonous proteins in their seminal fluid, a technique that could be employed against pests and disease carriers

Toxic masculinity but good

www.newscientist.com/article/2462...

Believing in Santa Claus doesn't make children act nicer at Christmas You might expect a child's belief in Santa Claus – with his ability to discern whether children have been naughty or nice – would have an impact on their behaviour. But it turns out other festive trap...

Turns out Santa was a lie this whole time

www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

😂

Mesopotamians felt happiness in their liver and anger in their thighs An analysis of ancient cuneiform texts suggests people thought of emotions in a different way almost 3000 years ago, showing how culture influences our most intimate experiences

Ancient Mesopotamians embodied emotions differently to us. They felt happiness in their liver and anger in their thighs and knees! (according to an analysis of cuneiform texts)

www.newscientist.com/article/2458...

The extraordinary ways species control their own evolutionary fate Natural selection isn't just something that happens to organisms, their activities also play a role, giving some species – including humans – a supercharged ability to evolve

Natural selection isn't just something that happens to organisms, their activities also play a role, giving some species – including humans – a supercharged ability to evolve.
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Robotic rat uses AI to befriend real rodents A robotic wheeled rat that was trained with AI learned how to play and fight with real rodents – and could one day offer companionship to lab rats

This week in news you can use

"To increase the chance that the robot rodent was socially accepted, the researchers also coated it in rat urine."

www.newscientist.com/article/2459...

Nice mix of new books from @timothyrevell.bsky.social @benaaronovitch.bsky.social et al.

Baby's first Bluesky ~personal news~ post: My looong tenure at @politico.com and @politico.eu is ending. From mid-January, I'll join @newscientist.bsky.social as chief subeditor. It's been a wild, decade-plus ride. I'll miss my colleagues immensely, but I'm excited about the new challenge.

Orcas have begun wearing salmon hats again – and we may soon know why About 40 years ago, researchers noticed a population of orcas had begun swimming around with dead fish on their heads, and now the craze is back

The orcas are wearing hats. I repeat the orcas are wearing hats.

www.newscientist.com/article/2457...

📣JOB ALERT📣

We're looking for a specials editor – in charge of putting together New Scientist's amazing special reports on the most exciting breakthroughs in science and technology. Details here.

www.newscientist.com/nsj/job/1402...

Please share to anyone who might be interested

Seven States Passed Ballot Measures To Protect Abortion Rights Abortion was on the ballot in 10 states, and seven of them passed constitutional amendments defending abortion rights.

It's time for #SciFri 📻

We kick off with @timothyrevell.bsky.social, who joins us to talk about the outcome of some science-related ballot measures and what we can expect going into another Trump presidency.

Mathematicians make even better never-repeating tile discovery An unsatisfying caveat in a mathematical breakthrough discovery of a single tile shape that can cover a surface without ever creating a repeating pattern has been eradicated. The newly-discovered "spectre" shape can cover a surface without repeating and without mirror images

Behold the spectre!

You might remember a few months back an amazing new shape was discovered called the "hat" that could cover a surface without repeats. Well, it involved an annoying caveat.

Now mathematicians have found shapes that don't need the caveat

Yup exactly!

Met this fella in California

Brooklyn eh

A map of every tree in Africa will help monitor deforestation | New Scientist A technique based on high-resolution satelllite images could help researchers monitor tree cover loss, reforestation and the impact of climate change

There is now a map of EVERY* tree in Africa

www.newscientist.com/article/2371349-a-map-of...

*nearly

Fellow science and technology journos… who should I be following?

American Kestrel on my balcony a few weeks ago.