science fiction
A petri dish of human brain cells is currently playing Doom. Should we be worried?
'As soon as we got Pong to work, people said: 'When are you going to do Doom?' a biological computer playing the 90s video game. 'As soon as we got Pong to work, people said: 'When are you going to do Doom?' a biological computer playing the 90s video game. A petri dish of human brain cells is currently playing Doom. Scientists in the US have uploaded a fruit fly to a computer simulation, while an Australian lab has taught neurons on a glass chip to play a 90s video game. How long before we are all living in a sci-fi movie? I t sounds like the opening of a sci-fi film, but US scientists recently uploaded a copy of the brain of a living fly into a simulation.
- Oceania > Australia (0.05)
- North America > United States > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco (0.05)
- Europe > Ukraine (0.05)
- Leisure & Entertainment > Games > Computer Games (1.00)
- Health & Medicine > Therapeutic Area > Neurology (1.00)
Dario Amodei's Oppenheimer Moment
It came earlier than expected. More than a year before his recent standoff with the Pentagon, Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, published a 15,000-word manifesto describing a glorious AI future. Its title, "Machines of Loving Grace," is borrowed from a Richard Brautigan poem, but as Amodei acknowledged, with some embarrassment, its utopian vision bears some resemblance to science fiction. According to Amodei, we will soon create the first polymath AIs with abilities that surpass those of Nobel Prize winners in "most relevant fields," and we'll have millions of them, a "country of geniuses," all packed into the glowing server racks of a data center, working together. With access to tools that operate directly on our physical world, these AIs would be able to get up to a great deal of dangerous mischief, but according to Amodei, if they're developed--or "grown," as staffers at Anthropic are fond of saying--in the correct way, they will decide to greatly improve our lives. Amodei does not explain precisely how the AIs will accomplish this.
- Europe > Russia (0.15)
- Asia > Russia (0.15)
- North America > Panama (0.14)
- (12 more...)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (1.00)
- Government > Military (1.00)
The best new science fiction books of March 2026
The latest in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series is out this month, along with a speculative retelling of Moby-Dick and a forgotten classic from 1936 March is lining up to be packed with treats for science fiction fans. For starters, we get to return to the universe of Adrian Tchaikovsky's series, this time in the company of a huge mantis shrimp. We're also being offered a take on, set in space, and what sounds like a must-read: a forgotten speculative novel from 1936, which imagines the last woman left alive in Britain after a pandemic. If instead you're after a cosy sci-fi mystery, a slice of horror or a mission to Europa, then you're in luck, because all of those are on offer too. The latest in Tchaikovsky's excellent series is due to hit our shelves this month, and according to our sci-fi reviewer Emily H. Wilson, it is brilliant.
- Europe > United Kingdom (0.25)
- Asia > Middle East > Jordan (0.05)
- North America > United States > North Carolina (0.05)
- Media (0.71)
- Leisure & Entertainment (0.48)
- Marketing (0.43)
- (2 more...)
Supplementary Information
The claim and evidence conflict pairs can be found at https://huggingface. The scope of our dataset is purely for scientific research. Conflict V erification: Ensuring that the default and conflict evidence are contradictory. The human evaluation results showed a high level of accuracy in our data generation process. We select models with 2B and 7B parameters for our analysis. MA2 [ Touvron et al., 2023 ] is a popular open-source foundation model, trained on 2T Models with 7B and 70B parameters are selected for our analysis. To facilitate parallel training, we employ DeepSpeed Zero-Stage 3 [ Ren et al., The prompt for generating semantic conflict descriptions is shown in Figure 1 . The prompt for generating default evidence is shown in Table 6 . The prompt for generating misinformation conflict evidence is shown in Table 7 . The prompt for generating temporal conflict evidence is shown in Table 8 . The prompt for generating semantic conflict evidence is shown in Table 9 .
- Europe > Czechia > Liberec Region > Liberec (0.05)
- Africa > Nigeria > Taraba State (0.04)
- North America > Canada > Quebec > Montreal (0.04)
- (3 more...)
- Personal > Honors (0.69)
- Research Report > New Finding (0.68)
Human head transplants' gory, Frankenstein-esque history
Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In Mary Shelley's, a mad scientist creates a monstrous creature with severed body parts. In certain film adaptations, a dismembered head is tacked onto the malformed body. Then, with the help of a lightning storm, a new life is born. From the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, modern organ transplantation has often been linked to the horrors of Frankenstein .
- North America > United States > New York (0.05)
- North America > United States > Idaho (0.05)
- North America > United States > Alaska (0.05)
- (2 more...)
- Media (1.00)
- Health & Medicine > Therapeutic Area > Neurology (1.00)
The best new science fiction books of February 2026
We pick the sci-fi novels we're most looking forward to reading this month, from a new Brandon Sanderson to the latest from Makana Yamamoto Do you want to travel to Mars, to an alternate version of 1939 London or even to the very far future? If so, then February's science fiction is for you, with all three flavours on offer from our authors. I'm intrigued by a couple of time-travel novels: in we're time-travelling to save the world from global warming, and in, a time-traveller offers romantic salvation for a lonely immortal woman. I'm also keen to read a new entry in one of my favourite genres, fungal horror, thanks to . And I'm ready for a good debate about whether some of the books featured here are science fiction at all - check out new offerings from Brandon Sanderson and Francis Spufford and see what you think.
Our verdict on Annie Bot: This novel about a sex robot split opinions
Members of the New Scientist Book Club give their take on Sierra Greer's award-winning science-fiction novel Annie Bot, our read for February - and the needle swings wildly from positive to negative Annie Bot by Sierra Greer was the Book Club's January read The New Scientist Book Club moved on from reading a classic piece science fiction in December - Iain M. Banks's - to an award-winning sci-fi novel in January: Sierra Greer's, which won the Arthur C. Clarke prize in 2025. I must admit, I was nervous to announce this one to my fellow readers. is the story of a sex robot, owned by a controlling and abusive man. It gets very dark in places, it has a number of sex scenes, and I wanted to make sure you all knew what you were getting into before getting started. That cupboard scene, some way into the book, was super disturbing, for example. It turns out my wariness was warranted.
- Information Technology > Communications > Social Media (1.00)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Robots (0.75)
NASA reveals list of most scientifically accurate sci-fi movies ever made
Barron Trump's perfect response to UK 911 operator calling him RUDE when he was saving friend's life... and how case may shift public perception The cancer now killing more Americans under 50 than any other... and why it's still being caught too late Trump goes to war with America's top banker with staggering lawsuit Judge BLOCKS Trump's attempt to charge Don Lemon for joining anti-ICE protesters as they stormed Minnesota church Haunting secret trove of Idaho murder pictures: Leaked images reveal last moments of Bryan Kohberger's victims Secret woman in Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams' life... as unseen pictures from college days show heartthrob actor as you've never seen him Disney sparks outrage as it quietly eliminates beloved treat from theme park: 'Blatant cost-cutting measure' Hollywood's secret clique of mean girl A-listers exposed in shock new trove of Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni evidence: Read their toe-curling private texts Woke Karen, 63, lets VERY embarrassing detail slip to the Daily Mail after she mistook cops rushing to school for ICE'and tried to obstruct them' Blake Lively and costar Brandon Sklenar unload on Justin Baldoni in bombshell unsealed texts: 'He's scrambling' Tense moment US tennis star shuts down reporter's attempt to get her to criticize Donald Trump ICE blasted over photo of officers'detaining five-year-old boy' - but they hit back with shocking claims against his father Haunting handwritten note shared by boy who stabbed his mother to death when he was 13 as he finds out how long he'll spend behind bars Revealed: What Josh Allen really thinks about Sean McDermott's firing and erratic Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula Killer dad hurled baby son off bridge to his death because of social worker's horrific blunder, lawsuit alleges Trump declares US gets'TOTAL ACCESS' to Greenland as he reveals latest plan Has Aaron Rodgers' wife finally been found? Pete Hegseth accused of policing troops' private lives with Pentagon crackdown on use of intimate devices See Adele's ruthless demolition of Hollywood icon's Mediterranean-style mansion in $50m rebuild, leaving only his statue standing... for now NASA has shared a surprising list of movies it considers among the most scientifically accurate ever made. The films span nearly a century of cinema, from silent-era classics to modern blockbusters and were praised for respecting real scientific principles rather than relying on fantasy. According to NASA and NASA-affiliated scientists, accuracy is not about predicting the future perfectly, but about portraying science, scientists and technology realistically. Movies like Gattaca and Jurassic Park earned recognition for their grounded treatment of genetics, DNA and complex systems.
- North America > Greenland (0.24)
- North America > United States > Idaho (0.24)
- North America > Canada > Alberta (0.14)
- (17 more...)
- Media > Film (1.00)
- Leisure & Entertainment (1.00)
- Government > Space Agency (1.00)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (1.00)
Netflix scores Oscar nominations for Frankenstein and KPop Demon Hunters
Bungie's Marathon arrives on March 5 How to claim Verizon's $20 outage credit Ryan Coogler's Sinners, however, walked away with a record-breaking 16 noms. The nominees for the 2026 Academy Awards were just announced and Ryan Coogler's vampire-adjacent period drama received a record-breaking 16 nominations. That's the highest number of Oscar nominations for a single film in the history of the awards, followed by, and with 14 noms each. The same goes for the performances, as Michael B. Jordan captured the nomination for Best Actor. Even Delroy Lindo got nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which is his very first Oscar nomination after 50 years in the business.
- Media > Film (1.00)
- Leisure & Entertainment (1.00)
- Information Technology > Communications > Mobile (0.61)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Science Fiction (0.42)
The best new science fiction books of January 2026
Big hitter Peter F. Hamilton has a new sci-fi novel out this month - and Booker winner George Saunders ventures into speculative fiction with his latest book, Vigil Is it an asteroid or an alien in Van Jensen's Godfall? Welcome to January, a month when many of us are keen to escape from the world into the pages of a book. Thankfully, science fiction is here to help, whether that's with a story set on a generation ship where things aren't as they seem, courtesy of Peter F. Hamilton, or journeying to an alternate version of this world where the Roman Empire is still in charge, in Solitaire Townsend's . Add to the mix a time-loop murder, a UFO romance and some eco-horror, and there's plenty of choice for sci-fi fans this month. A generation ship is in search of a new home in Peter F. Hamilton's latest sci-fi novel Big hitter Peter F. Hamilton sets his latest outing on a generation ship in search of a new world, where people are only allowed to live for 65 years so they don't deplete the ship's resources. When a teenager Hazel's brother has an accident that means he is no longer productive, he is set to be killed off.
- Oceania > Australia (0.05)
- North America > United States > Nebraska (0.05)
- North America > United States > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles (0.05)
- (2 more...)