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The annihilation of matter and antimatter may have been behind the gamma ray burst known as GRB221009A. Plus: why studies have wrongly claimed that moderate drinking could help you live longer. 

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/ A. Simonnet, Sonoma State University

Biggest cosmic explosion

The most powerful explosion astronomers have ever seen contains a mysterious signal thought impossible to exist. That signal gives us our first detailed look inside a gamma ray burst and suggests that they involve the annihilation of matter and antimatter. In the 1990s, researchers became excited at the prospect that some gamma ray bursts appeared to show distinct lines, but after careful analyses they found these were statistical errors and concluded that the burst spectra couldn’t be spiky. Now, a team has discovered that GRB221009A, dubbed the brightest explosion since the big bang, contains an energetic peak at about 10 megaelectronvolts. Read more

Bottoms up

Drinking even small amounts of alcohol reduces your life expectancy. That’s the conclusion of a review of 107 studies looking at how drinking alcohol affects people’s risk of dying from any cause at a particular age. By the 2000s, numerous papers had suggested that if people drank a little then their risk of dying of any cause went down a bit compared with non-drinkers, but drinking more led to a sharp increase in the risk. Now, we know there are major flaws in these studies. “People need to be sceptical of the claims that the industry has fuelled over the years,” says Tim Stockwell at the University of Victoria in Canada. Read more

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monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images

It is becoming increasingly clear that physical activity is hugely important for a child’s cognitive and physical development, setting them on a healthier trajectory for the years to come. Yet most young people in the UK and US don't get enough. This matters, because the list of benefits of exercise for young people is well established and growing, not only for physical health but for the brain and cognition too. To help children be more active there are many things that parents can do, including encouraging risky play and watching out for gender expectations. Read more

Instant Expert: The mathematics that explains our world

Saturday 28 September, London

Join our expert speakers as we unlock the secrets hidden within the language of mathematics – the language that truly explains our world.

Gregor Dolinar at the International Mathematical Olympiad on DeepMind getting a silver medal in the prestigious competition for young mathematicians.

Coming later today on the New Scientist Weekly podcast, the team discusses the flawed studies that previously suggested drinking a little bit of alcohol is good for you. Plus, why microplastics may sometimes do more harm than good and the best pebble to make a splash, according to science.

Available on Spotify, Apple and more. 

Alexandra Thompson

Assistant News Editor, New Scientist
Email me at [email protected]
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