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Life

This week’s new questions

How big would a planet have to be before its gravity made space travel impossible for the inhabitants? How do fish recognise others of their own species?

17 June 2026

D73X1R An colorful adult midnight snapper swims over the reef

Chris Gug/Alamy

The positions of most fishes’ eyes mean they cannot see their own body. So, how do they recognise others of their own species?

Bill Dixon
Brisbane, Australia

 

HCJC47 PARTICLE FEVER, full view of the open ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Switzerland, 2013.

Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

How big would a planet have to be before its gravity made space travel impossible for the inhabitants?

Goronwy Humphreys
Wallasey, Merseyside, UK

 

Last Word is New ¾«¶«´«Ã½’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To answer a question or ask a new one, email lastword@newscientist.comTo answer this question – or ask a new one – email lastword@newscientist.com.

Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address.

The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude) to write either questions or answers is forbidden, and any submissions found to have been written using AI tools will be withdrawn.

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