New Scientist Australian Edition

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Elsewhere on New Scientist

Better late than never? • The James Webb Space Telescope has come at great expense, but it should be worth it

New Scientist Australian Edition

The omicron wave • The new variant seems to be highly transmissible and poised to cause a huge wave of infections worldwide, reports Michael Le Page

Cosmic rays used for Arctic GPS • Muons made by cosmic rays can be used for navigation at latitudes where GPS works poorly

Covid-19 vaccine passports for sale on the dark web

Smartphone app detects hidden camera lenses

Fake-meat boss wants farms to swap livestock for trees

Proposed anti-trolling law could be used to silence critics of the Australian government • Efforts to stop anonymous trolls are unlikely to work, but could see more people sued for defamation, says Alice Klein

Fossil footprints hint at mystery hominin with unusual walking style

New look at infant suns may solve galactic mystery

UK lags on child vaccinations • As concerns over long covid and the omicron variant grow, why has the UK been relatively slow to vaccinate young people? Clare Wilson reports

AI collaborates with mathematicians • DeepMind’s AI software has helped humans develop a new mathematical theorem

UK refuses to release document showing net-zero savings

Web of life in icy lakes faces turmoil in a warming world

Humans were relatively short for thousands of years

Dolphins invent spin-diving method to swim deeper

Armoured dinosaur had a fern-like tail

Massive black holes heading for collision

Really brief

Iron-cored planet has an 8-hour year

Rare mutation linked to lower risk of heart disease

The bird that was eagle and vulture

Digital tyranny • The way the pandemic changed cyberbullying tells us how to reduce it in the future, say Alexandra Martiniuk and Joseph Freeman

Science is being downsized • Funding cuts are undermining the whole enterprise, impoverishing attempts to discover the secrets of nature and share them, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Your letters

Ghostly fungi

Invasion of the tiny aliens • Sci-fi meets road trip in Encounter, a film that starts well, but then veers off course just when it is starting to get fun, says Gregory Wakeman

Secrets of the dead • A brilliant scientist finds a way to mine memories from beyond the grave, but it comes at a cost, finds Josh Bell

Don’t miss

The power of language • Two visions of a dystopian future examine how words can be used to get inside our heads and to command loyalty to causes that definitely don’t deserve it, finds Sally Adee

Launch of a time machine • The most powerful telescope ever made is about to blast off. It will show us the first stars and the atmospheres of alien worlds, says Colin Stuart

The James Webb Space Telescope • How it works and what it will see

Eyes in the sky • Several space telescopes slated for launch after the James Webb one promise to deliver incredible science. Here are three of the most important

The Amazon’s last chance • The Amazon could be facing irreversible collapse in just five years, with catastrophic effects for the planet, writes Graham Lawton

How to be more rational • To explain the paradox of why a smart species embraces so much...