In this passage from the opening of Grace Chan’s sci-fi novel, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are introduced to her protagonists as they spend time in a virtual utopia which is becoming increasingly tempting in a dying world
If you could upload your mind to a virtual utopia, would you?
Grace Chan, author of Every Version of You, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, explores the philosophical implications of the choices her characters make
New Scientist recommends Never Let Me Go
The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Owning our own data is the only way to stop enshittifcation
The internet is not what it once was, with so many apps and websites mere shadows of themselves. Thankfully, the inventor of the web Tim Berners-Lee, has a fix that we should adopt
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Boy’s body was mummified and turned green by a copper coffin
The green mummified remains of a teenager buried in Italy 200 to 400 years ago have given us new insights into the preservative properties of copper
Sorry, but interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS really is a comet, not aliens
Interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS are exciting, but there is no reason to claim that they are evidence of alien spacecraft – sometimes a comet is just comet, says Robin George Andrews
Magnetic gel could remove kidney stones more effectively
Standard techniques for removing kidney stones often require repeated surgery, but a magnetic gel seems to make the process more efficient
The US is unlikely to test nuclear weapons, despite what Trump says
President Donald Trump appears to have ordered a return to nuclear testing after decades of uneasy but effective treaties banning the practice – but will it actually happen?
Dinosaur skeleton settles long debate over ‘tiny T. rex’ fossils
Palaeontologists have argued for decades over whether certain fossils are young Tyrannosaurus rex or another species entirely – now they have strong evidence that the diminutive Nanotyrannus really existed
The end of US support for the CMB-S4 telescope is devastating
The US government’s decision to stop supporting a telescope facility that would have given us unprecedented insight into the early universe is calamitous, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein