Headliner
Watch: World's biggest snowman dwarfs city in northeastern China
by Bronwyn Thompson
If you're chionoandrophobic, we recommend looking away now. Standing 62 ft tall, 46 ft long and 36 ft wide, 2025's largest snowman has been erected in China. The smiling icy monster required 124,000 cubic feet of snow, and has become an instant hit.
Today’s newsletter sponsor
Protect Your Home & Family with Smarter Smoke and CO Detection
Home protection should work quietly in the background until it’s needed. Siterwell’s UL-compliant smoke and CO alarms combine smart detection, reduced false alerts, and whole-home interconnection for dependable everyday safety.
Highlights
AircraftTransport
Human-scale cardboard aircraft came surprisingly close to real flight
by Monica J. White
Could cardboard really lift a person into the air? YouTuber Peter Sripol put this idea to the test by building a sit-in cardboard airplane and pushing it to the edge of flight, showing the potential of even the humblest of materials.
Diet & NutritionWellness and Healthy LivingBody and Mind
The best everyday health advice we learned from science in 2025
by Michael Franco
2025 certainly saw some major health-related breakthroughs including a universal cancer vaccine. But the year was also filled with smaller findings that can still have a big impact on your day-to-day health. Here are 18 of them.
More Stories
MilitaryTechnology
Is Trump's Golden Fleet the Great White Fleet of the 21st century?
by David Szondy
The Trump administration has announced that it wants to build a new class of battleships. But this is just one element of the Golden Fleet –a larger program of naval reform aimed at a major transformation of the US Navy and its strategy.
RoboticsTechnology
World's smallest autonomous robots could one day save your life
by Omar Kardoudi
These microscopic robots are smaller than a grain of sand. At 200 micrometers wide, they're autonomous, programmable, and cheap enough that high school students are already learning to operate them in labs.
BicyclesTransport
Smarter bike helmet hides a secret weapon for better brain protection
by Paul Ridden
We recently reported on an e-mobility spin-off from Rivian that launched a modular ebike that rides without a chain or belt. Pre-orders for the T-MB are now open, but Also is already looking to protect your noggin with a light-packing smart helmet.
Special promotion for New Atlas readers
Simplify your AI workflow with this all-in-one app
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the AI models on the market. 1min.AI unites dozens of them in one convenient spot. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to 1min.AI’s Advanced Business Plan for just $74.97 (reg. $540) through January 31.
BiologyScience
Digging up the past: Important dinosaur discoveries of the year
by Bronwyn Thompson
Dinosaurs may be long extinct, but 2025 made it clear that they’re anything but settled science. New fossils, reanalyses of famous specimens and increasingly sophisticated tools have helped us learn more about how they lived, moved, fed and evolved.
WearablesConsumer TechTechnology
Smart headphones hide a fold-down immersive display in the headband
by Abhimanyu Ghoshal
Virtually every headset for immersive content is about as subtle as a foghorn in a library. A South Korean hardware brand is trying to make them a little less conspicuous by sneaking a headset into a pair of mostly nondescript headphones.
Home EntertainmentConsumer TechTechnology
Hisense's next laser projector boasts 6,000 lumens on a 300-inch screen
by Abhimanyu Ghoshal
Hisense has already put out a bunch of impressive projectors to suit different needs this year, and with the upcoming XR10, it's pulling out all the stops to tempt laser home cinema enthusiasts – it'll do 6,000 lumens across a 300-inch screen.
Special promotion for New Atlas readers
What do Tom Brady, Alex Hormozi, and Jay Shetty all have in common?
They all have newsletters.
If you’re building a personal brand, social can only take you so far. Algorithms glitch. Reach tanks. But a newsletter gives you real ownership and revenue.
That’s why we built a free 5-day email course that shows you how to grow and monetize with sponsorships, digital products, and B2B services.
Usually we charge $97, but for the next 24 hours it’s free. Sign up for the course today.
Science
Advancing with animals: Standout biomimicry of 2025
by Bronwyn Thompson
From water-skipping robots to elephant-skin inspired cooling materials, engineers have continued to find inspiration in nature in order to move technology forward for humans. And it's set to take center-stage in the new age of robotics.
Around The HomeLifestyle
Smart sourdough kit uses onboard AI to help you bake bread
by Shirl Leigh
Beginning sourdough bakers can lessen their struggles with Crustello, a Kickstarter from American AI tech company Race Box. It takes the stress out of being a helicopter parent of a sourdough starter kit, by modernizing an ancient baking method.
Elsewhere
🦕Did you know they use puppets to create the incredible dinosaur scenes in Apple TV's Prehistoric Planet series?
Get your next issue ad-free – and support our work: join New Atlas Plus!