Bethan Ackerley 🇵🇸

Breaking Bad showrunner uses sci-fi for smart dive into happiness 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, ...

I forgot to promote this the other week, but: Pluribus good! Pluribus great, even! Carol Sturka, the woman you are www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

A large black cat with a red collar next to a yellow pot

Text from the article, reading: “Over the course of a weekend, I once saw one of my family’s cats, a Byronic individual named Solomon, maul my sister under the guise of play, throw up on my bedsheets and polish off a goldcrest before my bird-loving father’s eyes. Yet we forgave Solomon, because there is nothing we would begrudge him or his sister. Such is the cognitive dissonance of cat lovers.”

Immortalised him in print

A purrfect guide to cats and our complex relationship with them Our bond with cats – which has seen them go from hunter to house pet – may be more diverse than with any other animal. And Jerry D. Moore's Cat Tales: A history rounds up the lot, says Bethan Ackerley

If you talk about your cats enough in the workplace, eventually you will have to review a book about them. I enjoyed the archaeological insights in Cat Tales very much www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Alien: Earth adds surprisingly good TV dimension to veteran sci-fi After fifty years of books, games and movies, what more could the Aliens franchise deliver? An inventive TV show, with fresh monsters and new heroes, finds our TV critic Bethan Ackerley

I am obviously all about Alien: Earth and I can’t wait to find out what happens in the final two eps. Morrow and Kirsh spin-off when www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

American climate journalist Alec Luhn missing on Norwegian glacier A search is underway for award-winning climate journalist Alec Luhn, a Wisconsin native, who is missing on a Norwegian glacier.

Climate journalist and New Scientist contributor Alec Luhn has gone missing on a Norwegian glacier. His family is asking that anyone hiking in the region share any information with local authorities. www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Five years later, has sci-fi cult hit Devs aged well? Alex Garland's tech company mystery is smart and compelling, though it can also be chilly and self-indulgent. Bethan Ackerley missed it in 2020, but after five strange years, she has decided to check ...

Post-watching 28 Years Later, I wanted to check out Devs, five years after it first aired www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

when they close it all up, I do believe this will go down as the funniest video on the internet

Foundation's new season has dramatic potential – but sadly falls flat Foundation's new series is full of new characters and dramatic potential. But instead of mining those rich seams, too many plotlines have become shallow and absurd. It's hard to see a good show go bad...

It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you the new season of Foundation isn’t very good. I am pro-Jared Harris and take no pleasure in reporting this www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

No problem! It’s such a fab book, thank you for writing it

The 14 best science and tech documentaries of 2025 so far From David Attenborough to Hannah Fry via Bryan Johnson, our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley selects her favourite science and technology documentaries of the year to date

Super official, not-at-all-exhaustive list of the best science and tech documentaries of the year so far! www.newscientist.com/article/2486...

This stunning post-apocalyptic drama is the one you should be watching There are hundreds of TV apocalypses to choose from, but The Eternaut, a fresh and compelling adaptation of a classic Argentinian comic book series, is the one to pick, says Bethan Ackerley

The Eternaut is a cut above a lot of the post-apocalyptic TV dramas out there, give it a watch www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

COUNTRY LAWYER: yuh honor could the esteemed opposin' council explain to me, in, uh, legal terms, this Shrek charactah

Shrek's namesake character is a large, bald, dull-green ogre with a broad, round face, brown eyes, and highly distinctive trumpet-shaped ears. Shrek typically wears crude clothing consisting of a canvas-like shirt, a leather vest, and brown leggings.

The suit includes the legal definition of Shrek

This lawsuit is brutal. One of the exhibits is the letter Universal sent to Midjourney, including a quote from a 2022 Forbes interview that I bet midjourney regrets

How the new Murderbot TV series made me a reluctant convert Murderbot fans will be thrilled to learn that the cyborg security unit that gains free will by hacking its governor module is now the star of a compelling adaptation. Bethan Ackerley has unexpectedly ...

I found the first Murderbot book a bit too elder millennial for my tastes, but I’ve decided the TV show is Good, Actually www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

I have assumed that the mum, being a freelance science journalist, was a contributor to NS in her timeline

Climate drama Families Like Ours deserves to be a word-of-mouth hit A disturbing new Danish TV series, which follows a wealthy family as rising seas force the evacuation of Denmark, is wildly popular in its home country. We should all be watching it, says Bethan Acker...

Review by @inkerley.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Families Like Ours! What a show - and they read New Scientist

I was surprised how much I felt for the family throughout. Really delicately handled stuff, I agree

Climate drama Families Like Ours deserves to be a word-of-mouth hit A disturbing new Danish TV series, which follows a wealthy family as rising seas force the evacuation of Denmark, is wildly popular in its home country. We should all be watching it, says Bethan Acker...

Families Like Ours is just the right amount of bleak. A terrific climate drama about how quickly our privileges can fall away in times of crisis. One for fans of Years and Years www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Where is the TV drama to move the dial on climate change? UK show Adolescence is sparking debate about the harm of social media. We need a series to do the same for the most pressing crisis of our times, says Bethan Ackerley

If a popular TV drama is the only way to reach Keir Starmer and his colleagues, then we need an Adolescence for climate change www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Black Mirror returns full of delights and disappointments Black Mirror's new season is a mixed bag, ranging from a sublimely plotted romp to one of the worst episodes to date. And it's still playing fast and loose with its sci-fi concepts, finds Bethan Acker...

Black Mirror remains a mess of a show - but the USS Callister sequel is worth the wait www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Stunning new animated series tells the story of a cure-all mushroom A naturalist finds a hallucinogenic mushroom with the power to cure all ailments in the animated series Common Side Effects. Big Pharma is hot on his trail in this beautifully made show, says Bethan A...

Common Side Effects is a beautifully animated show, and if you miss Scavengers Reign and wanna support one of the brains behind that series, you should check this out www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

New Scientist recommends Weather Girl, an electrifying one-woman show Weather Girl, a play in London's Soho Theatre about a weather forecaster who finally snaps as the climate apocalypse looms, is frantic and funny

Go see Weather Girl! Yes, it’s only on till 5 April. Find a way! It’s fantastic www.newscientist.com/article/2473...

Rediscover The OA, a tv show with echoes of late director David Lynch The death of David Lynch, who shaped decades of film and TV, is bound to hurt. Rediscovering a show called The OA helps, with its Twin Peaks-style echoes of small-town US and other Lynchian themes, sa...

I miss David Lynch. Watching The OA helped me grieve him www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

I will be researching both of these now, because Jesus Christ, what in the world folks

Mercifully it is just some piercings in his chest that anchor a vibrating compass. A perfect fine thing to do, but he refuses to just be normal about it

Documentary-maker films the fallout as her husband opts to be a cyborg Scott chooses to be a cyborg by implanting a piece of tech that vibrates whenever he faces north; Susanna copes by filming the effects on their marriage. Is this what modern love looks like?

If I were married and watched My Husband, the Cyborg, I’d want to get divorced. A good documentary, but watch at your peril, folks ♥️🤖 www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Ndnd from Futurama, a scaly alien baddie

trying to be her