David Stock

1 month ago | newscientist.com | David Stock |Isabel Baldwin

From Raiders of the Lost Ark to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, films about archaeologists have long captured the public imagination, offering thrilling quests to uncover the hidden histories of humanity’s ancient past. But how accurately do these cinematic adventures reflect the real work of scientists in the field? Palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi has mixed feelings about cinema’s most iconic portrayals. There are some good depictions, she says, and a fair few not-so-good.

2 months ago | newscientist.com | David Stock |Isabel Baldwin

Space is a favourite setting for many Hollywood films, but just how accurate are their portrayals? Patricia Skelton, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, sheds some light on the scientific rigour of her favourite movies. For example, during an explosive space battle scene in Star Trek, a crew member is tossed out into space and suddenly into silence. For Skelton, this moment accurately portrays physics: space is an almost perfect vacuum, and sound can’t travel without a medium.

Feb 11, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc, California, is home to the US Space Force, a division of the US Air Force that develops and protects nationally strategic space infrastructure, including launching civilian and military satellites. The base is a major SpaceX launch site – but it also contains unique and rare biodiversity across the 99,000-acre …

Jan 16, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

We have long been inspired by the idea that life could reside on Mars – human or otherwise. But fiction is getting closer to reality, says NASA’s former chief scientist, Jim Green. “NASA’s plan, in the long run, is to go live and work on Mars,” he says, and they’ll do that by “learning how to live and work on the moon first”.

Jan 15, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

Last month, I saw Philippe Parreno’s new work, , which is at the Haus der Kunst gallery in Munich, Germany, until 25 May. The artist wants us to create a journey through rooms of light sculptures, heat lamps, speaker arrays, dancers and film screens, guided by a disembodied, AI-generated voice. A film, , forms the centrepiece: footage from a tiny plot in southern Spain is live-streamed into the gallery and sensors feed raw data to an algorithm to activate and change exhibits.