The inactivation of one copy of the X chromosome in female mammals may start to fail as they get older, which may be why women have a higher risk of autoimmune conditions such as lupus
DNA analysis of remains found at medieval sites has identified closely related strains of leprosy-causing bacteria in the bones of humans and a red squirrel
Simulations of the crust of early Earth show that cycles of pressure caused by geysers or tidal forces could have generated cell-like structures and even very simple proteins
Migrating flies can carry pollen hundreds or thousands of kilometres, and this could help plants adapt to climate change
If all goes well, the Chang’e 6 probe will be the first ever to land on the far side of the moon to take samples and bring them back to Earth
Strange bursts of radio waves called FRBs have long been mysterious, and one of the most famous sources of these flashes may have an unexpected planet
Plants are often celebrated for the parts that are easy to see – flower, leaves, fruit – but scientists are uncovering the secrets of their more mysterious underground networks
The air and dust in climbing centres contain high levels of rubber particles from the soles of climbing shoes, some of which contain toxic additives
Climate change could be fueling bumblebee population loss by making hives too hot to handle
A male Sumatran orangutan chewed the leaves of a plant used in Indonesian traditional medicine and placed them on a wound on his face
Levels of protection measles provided by the MMR jab fall by a small amount every year, according to mathematical modelling
An analysis of the 2021 German federal elections has found that for every 200,000 times a politician's social media adverts were viewed, their vote share increased by 2.1 per cent - a potentially...
The skull of Shanidar Z was found in the Shanidar cave in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and has been painstakingly put back together
The record-breaking heat of 2023 has seen a rare disagreement break out between climate scientists, with some saying it shows Earth may have entered a new period of warming
Corals can survive heat-related bleaching, but research from the Great Barrier Reef suggests a full recovery may take longer than we thought
Blake Crouch's riveting Dark Matter sees physics professor Jason wanting out of the multiverse, after being kidnapped and dumped there by another version of himself
Finnair has cancelled flights to Tartu in Estonia this month because of an ongoing GPS jamming attack – and there is evidence that the attack is being controlled from Russia
By ignoring declining air pollution, regional climate models have greatly underestimated how hot Europe's summers and heatwaves will become
The future prime minister of this increasingly powerful nation should be prepared to play a key role in global climate policy
Drugs like Ozempic may help fight obesity. Johann Hari’s first-person account of taking the new medicines is a fascinating exploration of their impact
From an energy perspective, the move away from sodium vapour lamps to LEDs is great, but the news isn't so good when it comes to light pollution. The way we illuminate the world needs to be part ...
Nostalgia isn’t only about a rose-tinted view of the past. This emotion can also be put to use in surprising places, says Agnes Arnold-Forster
Feedback is intrigued by the possibilities of a new paper theorising that computer vision could be used to reconstruct shredded banknotes contained in a paperweight souvenir
Chris French, who runs the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, explores what lies behind claims of ghosts, aliens and reincarnation in his new book
My colleagues call me a supervillain for trying to destroy the cosmos, but this kind of imaginative thinking isn't so far from what scientists do, says space reporter Leah Crane
From an orchid bee to a violet carpenter bee, these images show the insects in amazing detail
Chemists have found a link between the taste of a beverage and the shapes formed by its water and ethanol molecules, which explains why spirits like whisky taste more alcoholic at warmer temperat...
Disrupted gut microbiomes in male mice increase their offspring’s risk of low birth weight, stunted growth and premature death
People who were asked to recall past events that made them angry experienced a change to their blood vessels that has been linked with heart attacks
A bristly bump on some mantises’ chests is a never-before-seen “gustifolium”, which may have evolved to help the insects with their highly specialised lifestyles
A new Stephen King short story collection, an Ursula K. Le Guin reissue and a celebration of cyberpunk featuring writing from Philip K. Dick and Cory Doctorow are among the new science fiction ti...
Spiked running shoes with a rubbery material between the inner and outer soles, and a stiff plate to improve stability, seem to help people move faster
Lunar settlers could avoid health problems like muscle wasting by running on the inside of a circular wall to mimic the pull of Earth’s gravity on the body
A process to dissolve the mineral olivine in acid could provide a plentiful, energy-efficient material for carbon-negative cement
Long feted by fossil hunters and geologists, if UNESCO recognises the extraordinary rock formation at Madygen in Kyrgyzstan, it will soon be a player on the world stage
Total solar eclipses are astonishing, but travelling to get to one is less so – this episode of Dead Planets Society is all about rearranging the solar system to create a more convenient eclips...
A report found data privacy problems with the vast majority of 30 companies that sell neurotechnology devices to consumers. New US state laws aim to change that
A joint investment by the Australian federal government and the government of Queensland makes PsiQuantum one of the largest dedicated quantum computing firms in the world
India’s space agency has been remarkably successful in recent years, growing the country’s prestige on the global stage – and the 2024 election is unlikely to change that
As the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, climate policy decisions taken by India will shape the fate of the entire world. But can it continue to develop its economy while keeping...
Plastic production is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than flying – at a summit in Canada, countries were divided on how to deal with this under-recognised part of the plastic pro...
Red foxes and Arctic foxes dive headfirst into snow at up to 4 metres per second to catch small rodents, and the shape of their snouts reduces the impact force
Climate change means many tree species planted today in Europe won’t survive to the end of the century, but English oaks could thrive in many areas
A court in the Philippines revoked the permit to grow rice genetically modified to boost vitamin A, but the government is expected to appeal against the decision
Governments need to take action to protect people from potentially toxic additives in tyre rubber, say researchers after finding they can get into food from contaminated soil
An AI trained on the heart's electrical activity alerted physicians about patients at high risk of dying, significantly reducing deaths in a clinical trial with almost 16,000 patients at two hosp...
Generative AI models designed to create images from text can be adapted to construct complex optical illusions - pictures that look like different things when viewed from far away or with motion ...
As the US grapples with an ongoing bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle, the country’s health agencies are ramping up surveillance efforts and working to develop a vaccine if needed
Commercial bowhead whaling ended in the early 20th century, but the industry’s lasting effects on the whales’ genetic diversity are leading to declines again
To celebrate the launch of our new event series in the US, kicking off with a masterclass on the brain and consciousness, we have made five incredible stories on that subject free to read
The genetic variant, which causes people to be insensitive to growth hormone, may also protect people from heart disease
When alpacas mate, males deposit sperm directly into the uterus, a reproductive strategy not confirmed in any other mammals
Before it shattered over Germany, the asteroid 2024 BX1 was clocked rotating once every 2.6 seconds – the fastest spin we have observed
In addition to the overall rise in sea level, the heights of tides are also changing as the oceans warm and separate into more distinct layers
Political campaigns are deploying AI-generated deepfake versions of politicians to reach hundreds of millions of eligible voters in India’s 2024 election – the world’s largest ever
The medicines nalmefene and naltrexone helped compulsive gamblers reduce their betting activities, trials have shown
In just 2 hours, small metal robots can capture most nanoscopic plastic particles from a sample of water
The neurons in wasp brains that help them recognise hive mates are similar to those in the brains of primates, including humans
The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies may capture smaller black holes. Not only does this prove a place for the small black holes to grow, it also makes the supermassive ones lo...
The redness of asteroid 469219 Kamo‘oalewa marks it out as probably originating on the moon, and now we might know the exact impact crater it was launched from
Mice that had been genetically modified to lack the ability to smell could sniff out hidden cookies when sensory neurons from rats were grown in their brains
Intensive breeding since the 19th century has created thousands of varieties of rose, but a reduction in genetic diversity could leave them vulnerable to diseases and climate change
When fetuses and babies were exposed to sound stimuli, their brains' subsequent activity appeared to be more complicated in the females than the males
More than 1.4 billion people live in India, giving its healthcare system a major role in planetary well-being. In the past 10 years, prime minister Narendra Modi has worked to improve India's hea...
India currently has a fairly small chip-manufacturing industry, but prime minister Narendra Modi wants the country to become a dominant player in the sector in just a few years
Almost all moon landers break down during the extraordinary cold of lunar night, but Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has astonishingly survived three nights
The very weak forces of attraction caused by the Casimir effect can now be used to manipulate microscopic gold flakes and turn them into a light-trapping tool
Targeted culling of crown-of-thorns starfish has resulted in parts of the Great Barrier Reef maintaining and even increasing coral cover, leading researchers to call for the programme to be drama...
Some environmental campaigners claim that attempts to create a circular economy for plastics are doomed to fail – but the arguments can be disingenuous
AI companies are trying to impose safety measures on their chatbots, while researchers are finding ways around them all the time. Where will this end, asks Alex Wilkins
For all the students wondering why they would ever need to use the Pythagorean theorem, Katie Steckles is delighted to report on a real-world encounter
Feedback is pleased to see that researchers are looking into the urgent issue of which angle blood might travel at following a violent act in space
In Breathe, Earth is stripped of its oxygen, the plants are dead, oceans are dried up, no one trusts anyone — but we don't know what caused it. This sci-fi film fails to stand out among superio...
Thomas Metzinger's The Elephant and the Blind explores deep meditation, which can take us to states where the sense of self vanishes, arguing that this may be crucial in cracking consciousness
Photographer Diane Tuft has documented how global warming is affecting bodies of water around the world
Cancer has been one of the world's most feared diseases for decades. But this "cancerphobia" no longer matches the evidence and is doing great harm, argues David Ropeik
Using genomic data from more than 9500 species, biologists have mapped the evolutionary relationships between flowering plants
Two important barriers to a stable, powerful fusion reaction have been leapt by an experiment in a small tokamak reactor, but we don’t yet know if the technique will work in larger devices
The Large Hadron Collider is testing entanglement in a whole new energy range, probing the meaning of quantum theory – and the possibility that an even stranger reality lies beneath
Obese mice that lost weight on a low-fat diet before getting a flu shot had better immune responses than those that lost weight afterwards, suggesting diet and weight loss influence vaccine effic...
A set of large, distinctive footprints suggest a raptor dinosaur that lived in East Asia 96 million years ago grew to a length of 5 metres
Six full-body fossils of Ptychodus sharks have been formally analysed for the first time, revealing that they were fast swimmers that preyed on shelled creatures
Climate change’s effects on ocean water temperatures and salinity could shrink sonar detection ranges underwater and make it more challenging to spot submarines
Amazon says it will create new jobs to replace roles taken over by machines, but it isn’t clear whether this will happen quickly enough
The balance of omega fatty acids in the food we eat affects our health. But what does the evidence say about claims you should be seeking to reduce omega-6 intake as well as boosting omega-3s?
AI can analyse satellite images to reveal the movements of dark ships in a shadow fleet that smuggles oil and other cargo from sanctioned countries such as Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea
With severe climate impacts becoming more and more apparent, many scientists think we should explore ways to block out solar radiation, but doing so would be risky
Our blood sugar levels vary a lot from day to day, so results from continuous glucose monitors need to be interpreted with caution
A group of around 40 scientists signed a declaration calling for formal acknowledgement of consciousness in a range of animals, including insects and fish – but the evidence is still lacking
As work begins on building the US’s first high-speed rail service – linking Los Angeles to Las Vegas – analysts say the project could serve as a blueprint for similar projects across the co...
In the 1920s, Erwin Schrödinger wrote an equation that predicts how particles-turned-waves should behave. Now, researchers are perfectly recreating those predictions in the lab
"Advanced recycling" promises to convert dirty, mixed waste plastic into brand new plastic time and time again. It is a major step towards creating a circular economy and fighting climate change
The finding that managed fires burn a much greater area than thought means we may be underestimating the increase in wildfires due to global heating
Forensic investigators can reliably measure drug and explosive residue using gels that lift fingerprint samples
Shading the planet by spraying aerosols into the stratosphere might stave off ice sheet collapse, modelling studies suggest, but we are running out of time
An Australian bull ant is the first animal known to use the patterns produced by polarised moonlight to navigate its environment
A mathematical model of a particle that remembers its past so that it never travels the same path twice produces stunningly complex patterns
One in five adults worldwide is living with fatigue. The general advice is to “do more” - but this isn’t the only solution to our exhaustion epidemic, says Amy Arthur
Investigations of the paradoxical link between tinnitus and hearing loss have revealed a hidden form of deafness, paving the way to possible new treatments
One in three adults have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – often without knowing. Now we understand what causes this stealthy condition and how to reverse it