Do you need to fairly allocate players to teams, or sort out a pot of badly brewed coffee? Katie Steckles has a mathematical solution

Vince Gilligan, the showrunner behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is back, this time using sci-fi to explore a deceptively rich premise about the pursuit of happiness and the notion of utopia, finds Bethan Ackerley

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Christine Webb's provocative and moving book The Arrogant Ape explores our unjustifiable sense of superiority in the living world, laying out the evidence against it, says Elle Hunt

New technologies and academic funding cuts are upending the ways we learn today. Newly enrolled student Annalee Newitz finds some silver linings

A new study hammers home how the "survival of the nicest" view makes no sense when it comes to evolution, says Jonathan R. Goodman

Francis Crick's biography is full of surprises as author Matthew Cobb reveals the life and work of the co-discoverer of DNA's structure, finds Michael Le Page

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian apparently thinks the 1969 moon landing was fake. If Feedback comes up with an equally outlandish conspiracy theory, maybe we can also get a guided tour of NASA

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

Christine Webb's provocative and moving book The Arrogant Ape explores our unjustifiable sense of superiority in the living world, laying out the evidence against it, says Elle Hunt

New technologies and academic funding cuts are upending the ways we learn today. Newly enrolled student Annalee Newitz finds some silver linings

A new study hammers home how the "survival of the nicest" view makes no sense when it comes to evolution, says Jonathan R. Goodman

Francis Crick's biography is full of surprises as author Matthew Cobb reveals the life and work of the co-discoverer of DNA's structure, finds Michael Le Page

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian apparently thinks the 1969 moon landing was fake. If Feedback comes up with an equally outlandish conspiracy theory, maybe we can also get a guided tour of NASA

These photographs of humanoid robots by Henrik Spohler are part of his project Tomorrow Is the Question

These photographs of humanoid robots by Henrik Spohler are part of his project Tomorrow Is the Question

Mild wounds healed faster if people took a spray containing the "love hormone" oxytocin and set aside time to praise their partner – but they cleared up even quicker if these individuals were also intimate with their other half

Mild wounds healed faster if people took a spray containing the "love hormone" oxytocin and set aside time to praise their partner – but they cleared up even quicker if these individuals were also intimate with their other half

A coronal mass ejection from a distant star has been confirmed for the first time, raising questions about how such events could impact exoplanet habitability

A coronal mass ejection from a distant star has been confirmed for the first time, raising questions about how such events could impact exoplanet habitability