A person who has ingested cocaine will excrete a compound that can be detected from a single fingerprint, even if they have washed their hands

We are increasingly aware that our personal data is a valuable commodity – but just how valuable? A survey has revealed how much people are willing to sell their data for

A sci-fi collection explores extreme corporate futures, such as a Tinder-run city where you can swipe left or right for everything from sex to teachers

In the memoir Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener examines the collective hyperconfidence that has enabled the tech sector’s meteoric growth

Weighing around 1270 kilograms, the largest ever firework travelled at more than 480 kilometres and exploded over Steamboat Springs in Colorado

A geopolitical battle is being played out in orbit as countries vie for the best satellite navigation system

The UK government has announced plans to police content on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, but it won't be able to do more than the social networks are already doing

Concerns about adversaries hacking democracy abound, but it’s sheer incompetence we should really be worried about, writes Annalee Newitz

The US Special Operations Command is developing a portable face-recognition system designed to identify people 1 kilometre away. It could also be used by law enforcement

QR codes, tracking apps and drones at toll booths are just some of the tech tools China is deploying to monitor the spread of the new coronavirus

Electric cars depend on cobalt as a key ingredient in their batteries, but a new analysis reveals we may run out by 2030, while car firm Tesla is moving to other types of battery in China

An AI search engine takes one-tenth of a second to search more than 2 billion satellite images, identifying natural or built features that look alike, such as forests or military bases

Durian fruits, famous for their bad smell, could be used to make electrodes in ultra-fast chargers for electric cars and gadgets

A new movie reimagines H.G. Wells's novel The Invisible Man. We still can't make people invisible, but it is possible to make tiny objects completely disappear

Electric scooters are a nightmare. Rented by the minute, they clog up pavements and are an ungainly eyesore, but we still need them, says Donna Lu

We’re used to tweaking our digital selves to look thinner or more attractive. A new generation of Instagram filters could drastically change how we perceive ourselves

Adrian Tchaikovsky's latest novel The Doors of Eden rewrites Earth's evolutionary history, with highlights including fish that upload their minds to supercomputers and cats that rule over primates

Honeywell, the same company that might make your humidifier or home security system, is unveiling a powerful quantum computer that will be available to the public

Clothes that light up by themselves could be a high-tech replacement to high-visibility gear worn by cyclists and construction workers

A lightweight liquid metal alloy that is less dense than water could be used to make exoskeletons and transformable flexible robots

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them

A secret US Navy project known only as CLAWS will equip armed robot submarines with sensors and algorithms enabling them to destroy targets without explicit human control

Westworld is soon to return with season three. Four episodes in to the impossibly glamorous, highly urbanised future, I can't wait to find out what's going on, writes Emily Wilson

A temporary coronavirus hospital ward in China is being staffed entirely by robots. Around 200 patients with mild symptoms will be fed and treated by machines, while medical staff issue commands from outside

A robot can recreate the mechanism plants use to transport water to bend itself towards the sun and open its leaves like a real plant

Robots are being developed to help with tasks like fixing the sea cages where fish are farmed, and their size seems to be all that affects how the fish react

A self-powered device that generates electricity from the wind can also absorb and break down harmful nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide from the air

The data centres servicing our beloved digital devices gobble huge amounts of electricity. A new way to think about heat and energy could help us meet growing demand without burning through the world's resources

Twitter used to be full of cat memes and had a culture of sharing. Now, I pay a company to make sure my presence on the site is extremely limited, writes Annalee Newitz

The UK government has pledged to make smart motorways safer by rolling out a radar detection system within the next three years, but New Scientist can reveal that just 7 per cent of the roads are protected by the measure today

TikTok's rise has been meteoric. With more than 3 million people a day now downloading the app, its success is down to more than just luck

Doom Eternal does contain gratuitous violence, but the evidence suggests violence in video games doesn't affect people's behaviour in the real world, says Jacob Aron

An artificially intelligent eco-assistant can persuade hotel guests and staff to reduce their electricity use by up to a third

In winter, the veins of leaves don’t get completely covered in frost. Mimicking this effect could be the best way to create ice-resistant surfaces

Kate Darling researches human-robot interaction. She explains why we are prone to forming emotional connections with robots and what we can learn from our relationships with pets and other animals

A spring-powered exoskeleton that minimises the amount of energy our legs lose when running could help boost human running speeds by more than 50 per cent

Always forgetting birthdays? Terrible at staying in touch? New tech promises to turn you into the best buddy ever. We put it to the test

Lab-grown ‘meat’ often uses gelatin produced in slaughterhouses to give artificial beef a meat-like texture – but substituting soya protein can achieve that without killing animals

Pandemics of the past can teach us about the current one, says John Troyer, who studies how we use technology to alter the experience of death

Join Pearse Keane to find out why the NHS is collaborating with AI company DeepMind and how deep learning could transform ophthalmology

Inside a mountain in the Arctic, Microsoft is building a backup of open-source software that it says will keep the code safe for 1000 years

Pollen has a natural tendency to adsorb mercury and forms the basis of a new class of tiny robots that speed through toxic water to purify it

An analysis of the media consumption habits of people in the US shows that fake news makes up a tiny fraction of what they watch or read every day

Is our love affair with AI really about building a new kind of deity to meet human needs no amount of rationality can fill? Max Barry's disturbing novel Providence lays out the case, says Sally Adee

The video game Resident Evil 3 was in development long before the coronavirus outbreak, but it holds up a mirror to the strange times we live in today

A program that combines artificial intelligence and geometrical modelling can create an accurate 3D model of your face from a single 20-second video

Businesses, individuals with land, and local governments are competing to host an underground nuclear waste facility in the UK, and receive a yearly £2.5 million incentive

Fabric with tiny vibrating motors elicits sensations associated with clouds, water and rocks on the skin and has been made into a dress that could improve emotions

A high-speed 3D printer is being tested by the US Army for producing spare steel parts near the front lines – it could also make weapons or aircraft parts

An image-editing program designed by researchers at Abode uses AI to let you quickly transform the shape of objects in images and change the lighting