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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Artist Tom Jung's 1977 painting introduced the world to the look and feel of George Lucas' blockbuster adventure. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Darth Vader's reign has ended. For a brief time, he owned the mantle of "Most Expensive Piece of Star Wars Memorabilia," but before you could say "more wealth than you can imagine" he fell once again, with a new challenger rising to take his place. It was only this past September that a verified screen-used lightsaber hilt wielded by the Dark Lord of the Sith in and set a sales record by fetching $3.65 million.

We are approaching the Gregorian New Year, and it's a great time to ponder what's coming next. Are we about to use CRISPR to grow wings? Will we all be uploading our brains to the Amazon cloud? Should we wrap the sun in a Dyson sphere? If, like me, you are a nerd who loves science and engineering, sci-fi is the place you turn to imagine the answers.

"Everyone thinks they're on this big now," Debbie said, refilling her glass. "I've had it with the journey. I've had it with you people." "I don't think I'm on a journey," Burt said. Life's too short to find out who we really are." It was the first time the six of them had got together for dinner in more than a year (since Maria's diagnosis), and after such a long time (and in celebration of Maria's remission) they'd expected to have more interesting things to tell one another, deeper things, but they were entering dessert territory now, a cake was on the table, and only superficial topics had been broached: Ervin's promotion, Jane and Burt's move to the suburbs, Katherine's recent purchase of a metabolism-tracking device--a pen-shaped item and the cause of Debbie's rant. "How much can you know about yourself, exactly?" she said. "The therapy, the vision quests, the birth charts--do we really need the data on metabolic flexibility, too?" Jane, in Katherine's defense, said that, the more you knew about yourself, the more useful you could be to society. Knowing whether Kat is in fat-or carb-burning mode doesn't help anyone." As a result of Katherine declining cake five minutes earlier, no one had touched it. No one, Debbie included, really wanted to. They'd all overeaten already, drunk too much, made private plans to atone for it the next day. The cake presented a challenge, it sat there taunting them, and Debbie knew this, that you couldn't serve cake to a group of fortysomethings without causing ripples, but what else could she have done? She got it, no one wanted to put on weight, but this was a gorgeous princess cake, just gorgeous, she'd had to drive all the way to Andersonville to get it from that Swedish bakery everyone talked about. Staring at it now, though, she wondered if the cake didn't look a little bit like a tit, the smooth half sphere, the small pink marzipan flower nippling the top of it--and, oh, God, did think it looked like a tit?

Using the example of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, this chapter illustrates the challenges posed by an AI capable of making decisions that go against human interests. But are human decisions always rational and ethical? In reality, the cognitive decision-making process is influenced by cognitive biases that affect our behavior and choices. AI not only reproduces these biases, but can also exploit them, with the potential to shape our decisions and judgments. Behind IA algorithms, there are sometimes individuals who show little concern for fundamental rights and impose their own rules. To address the ethical and societal challenges raised by AI and its governance, the regulation of digital platforms and education are keys levers. Regulation must reflect ethical, legal, and political choices, while education must strengthen digital literacy and teach people to make informed and critical choices when facing digital technologies.