A review of the Mental Health First Aid programme, which trains members of the public to support people with conditions like depression, has found no good evidence of it actually improving mental health ⌘ Read more
A review of the Mental Health First Aid programme, which trains members of the public to support people with conditions like depression, has found no good evidence of it actually improving mental health ⌘ Read more
Toilets that collect health data could be hacked to reveal extremely sensitive information and should be regulated as medical devices, say security experts ⌘ Read more
The development of cosmic structure – the huge strands of galaxies and caverns of emptiness that make up our universe – seems to be slowing down more than expected. That could mean there is something wrong with our understanding of the universe ⌘ Read more
Already a serious invasive species in the US and Australia, red imported fire ant nests have now been found in Sicily, Italy, and they could spread to other parts of Europe ⌘ Read more
Devices in which heat is a necessary part of the computation process rather than a nuisance could lead to more energy-efficient machines ⌘ Read more
Sleep-tracker data from 35 countries shows that people in Western countries tend to have longer lie-ins at the weekend than people in Asia, and they go to bed earlier ⌘ Read more
Originally dreamed up by Dominic Cummings, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has been tasked with a high-risk, high-reward approach to research funding ⌘ Read more
Between 1.5 and 2°C of global warming will lead to heatwaves so extreme that healthy people can't survive outdoors for long, in areas where people aren't used to extreme heat ⌘ Read more
Children between the ages of 4 months and 2 years seem more likely to have antibodies that attack insulin-producing cells, a feature of type 1 diabetes, if they have had covid-19, which may show how viral infections can lead to this type of diabetes ⌘ Read more
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation mission to the moon places India as a capable up-and-comer in the space industry, and may inspire other nations with relatively new space agencies to follow suit ⌘ Read more
The source of ochre minerals used by Stone Age humans in an Ethiopian cave changed over a 4500-year period, although it is unclear why ⌘ Read more
Fossils from a 25-million-year-old koala that may have weighed just 2.6 kilograms might help us understand how early marsupials diversified ⌘ Read more
Historically, researchers believed that quantum properties disappear at the scale of biology, but there is increasing evidence that this isn't the full story, says physicist Clarice Aiello ⌘ Read more
The destruction of telecommunications cables during the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano in 2022 shows that underwater debris currents can travel at 122 kilometres per hour ⌘ Read more
The price of carbon capture technology for power plants could be slashed using a design that relies on the reaction between CO2 in flue gas and a fine mist of electrically charged particles ⌘ Read more
Early kidney structures made of mostly human cells have been grown in pig embryos for up to 28 days as part of efforts to grow human organs in other animals for transplants ⌘ Read more
African Parks, a conservation group, has acquired a huge collection of southern white rhinos from a private estate in South Africa and plans to release them into the wild ⌘ Read more
For 75 years, the US Midwest has experienced unexpectedly cool summer temperatures – the “warming hole” could be due in part to intensive agriculture ⌘ Read more
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe and XRISM X-ray space telescope blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on 7 September, sharing the same rocket to orbit ⌘ Read more
When NASA crashed its DART spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos, the goal was to shorten the space rock's orbit around its parent asteroid. The mission succeeded - but Dimorphos' orbit has continued to shrink and it isn't clear why ⌘ Read more
By fusing fungi and robots, researchers hope to create a sustainable and biodegradable skin capable of sensing a variety of stimuli, as demonstrated by a model of the Terminator ⌘ Read more
An explosion that was billions of times brighter than the sun but faded within a month may have occurred when a rare medium-sized black hole ate a star ⌘ Read more
Today’s batteries lose efficiency – or “age” – through use, but theoretical quantum batteries might be immune to the problem if they are charged wirelessly ⌘ Read more
Emulating the pulsating action of the human heart could increase the efficiency of everything from oil pipelines to central heating systems ⌘ Read more
A type of brain cell that behaves like a hybrid of neurons and glia has been spotted, and it could explain how some neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s, develop ⌘ Read more
The global average temperature for June, July and August was 16.77°C (62.19°F), beating the previous record set in 2019 by almost three-tenths of a degree ⌘ Read more
Our amazing picture of the particles and forces that make reality took decades of invention and experiment to piece together ⌘ Read more
Cannabis was one of the first crops that humans cultivated about 12,000 years ago. But medicinal and psychoactive uses are much more recent ⌘ Read more
Northern gannets show a consistent preference for one side or the other when diving to catch fish, with a roughly equal split between lefties and righties ⌘ Read more
Stone balls found at a site used by early humans about 1.4 million years ago didn’t become round after being used as hammers, but were intentionally knapped into spheres ⌘ Read more
Compared with monkeys, great apes have greater range of motion in their shoulders and elbows, which may help heavier primates climb down safely ⌘ Read more
Several AI chatbots were tested to see how well they could perform legal reasoning and tasks used by human lawyers in everyday practice – GPT-4 performed the best, but still wasn’t great ⌘ Read more
Removing some of the thick jelly layers surrounding spotted salamander eggs may help the embryos inside access more oxygen in the water ⌘ Read more
Many animals sense their surroundings in ways that are hard to imagine. Christie Taylor spoke to journalist Ed Yong about these different perspectives ⌘ Read more
Plain water, coffee or milk? Sports or energy drinks? Our ideas about what we ought to be drinking, and how much, are confounded by half-truths. Here's what the science says ⌘ Read more
An analysis of the sculpted shoes on the statues in China’s Terracotta Army, which dates back about 2200 years, suggests that their real-life soldier equivalents had surprisingly flexible footwear ⌘ Read more
Four years after Google first demonstrated the supremacy of quantum computers over ordinary ones, why aren't these exotic machines being used for practical problems? ⌘ Read more
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is officially complete, with both the rover and lander powering down for the lunar night, but the solar-powered hardware is expected to reawaken at sunrise ⌘ Read more
The proliferation of alien species costs the global economy more than $420 billion a year, and the problem is only growing ⌘ Read more
The shooting of Amarena, one of around 60 remaining Marsican brown bears in central Italy, raises doubts about whether large carnivores can coexist peacefully with humans ⌘ Read more
Fossilised remains of a 250-million-year-old animal are leading to a new understanding of how reptiles evolved in the wake of Earth’s largest mass extinction ⌘ Read more
In Denali National Park, Alaska, a major road has been rapidly slipping down a mountain as the permafrost melts. Now, a huge project to build a bridge over the Pretty Rocks landslide has begun ⌘ Read more
The strange big-eared brown bat was discovered in Brazil's Atlantic Forest in 1916 and then apparently vanished - but it has now reappeared in a Brazilian grassland ⌘ Read more
A barn rigged with dozens of cameras and sensors could help scientists better understand the group dynamics and flight patterns of flocks of birds and swarms of insects ⌘ Read more
A generative AI model based on small datasets was able to create maps and 2D character models for video games on demand ⌘ Read more
People with eczema may have higher levels of certain bacteria on their skin than people without the condition, with these microbes potentially offering a new target for treatments ⌘ Read more
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb and his team claim to be the first to have found fragments from an interstellar meteor, but other scientists are extremely sceptical ⌘ Read more
Supplementing with antioxidants such as vitamins C and E could increase the formation of blood vessels within lung cancer tumours, helping them to grow bigger and spread, according to a study in mice ⌘ Read more
A balm used in the mummification of an ancient Egyptian who died 3500 years ago contains ingredients hinting at long-distance trade ⌘ Read more
The supernova 1987A lies around 168,000 light years from Earth, and is the closest stellar explosion we have seen in hundreds of years. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is revealing new details ⌘ Read more
Our round-up of the most interesting artificial intelligence news in August includes a job created by AI, the problem of racial bias in driverless cars and how robots are better at 'are you a robot?' tests than humans ⌘ Read more
Running shoes with an elevated heel may change the speed at which the feet hit the ground, raising the risk of injuries in the lower legs, according to a small study ⌘ Read more
An unprecedentedly heavy version of oxygen is significantly less stable than expected, which suggests a problem our understanding of the nuclear strong force ⌘ Read more
The Swift AI has beaten expert drone racers in high-speed races using an on-board computer that fuses artificial intelligence and classical algorithms – a method that could speed up delivery drones ⌘ Read more
Seismometers normally used to detect earthquakes are being used to identify the time and location of explosions during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine ⌘ Read more
Mosquitoes can be drawn to your skin microbiome, suggesting that one day a spray that alters your bacteria could help ward off bites ⌘ Read more
A small proportion of people in the US are responsible for eating 50 per cent of the beef consumed in the country, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions ⌘ Read more
The latest generations of artificial intelligence models show little to no trace of 14 signs of self-awareness predicted by prominent theories of human consciousness ⌘ Read more
Drinking alcohol does not give people "beer goggles" that make others seem more attractive, but it may give them the confidence to approach those they already found attractive ⌘ Read more
What science and technology podcasts should you be listening to? Here are some of our favourites ⌘ Read more
There are several reasonable ways to protect Earth from any potential asteroid threats, but in this episode of Dead Planets Society, reason loses out to the idea of a huge orbiting shield ⌘ Read more
ESA’s JUICE mission will help us better understand whether Jupiter’s icy moons are habitable. But we need to be open to their unexpected secrets, says principal investigator Michele Dougherty ⌘ Read more
The six-wheeled Pragyan rover had to change course to avoid a 4-metre-wide crater on the surface of the moon, as the Vikram lander has returned temperature readings from the lunar surface ⌘ Read more
An object in the Kuiper belt named 2002 MS4 has a depression 45 kilometres deep and 320 kilometres across, unlike anything seen before on such a small world ⌘ Read more
The dengue virus has four subtypes, which each circulate at different levels in different countries, regularly fluctuating in prevalence. Developing a vaccine that effectively targets all of these subtypes has been notoriously challenging ⌘ Read more
Three archaeological sites in South Africa feature impressions that might have been made by ancient footwear, but pinpointing when humans first wore shoes is challenging ⌘ Read more
Researchers manipulated thousands of extremely cold atoms to make a ring-like defect that can change the properties of quantum objects that pass through it ⌘ Read more
Genomic information for almost all of the 250 kakapos in New Zealand will help determine how best to move birds around to increase genetic diversity ⌘ Read more
Taller people may have longer gastrointestinal tracts that can house a broader array of microorganisms and could protect them against infections from bacteria such as Clostridium difficile ⌘ Read more
Proteins in the cell membranes of most organisms act like the hypothetical “demon” imagined by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867, which was thought to break the laws of physics ⌘ Read more
The supermassive black holes at the centre of many galaxies were suspected to quench the formation of new stars – now the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted evidence of this ⌘ Read more
Rates of cannabis and psychedelic use among adults in the US reached record highs in 2022, part of a decade-long upswing in the use of mind-altering drugs ⌘ Read more
The predatory Atlantic blue crab has invaded Italian waters and is killing off young clams, which could undermine the global supply for years to come ⌘ Read more
It can be time consuming to test food and drink for potentially harmful bacteria, but viruses that naturally attack the bacteria can be gene edited to speed up the process ⌘ Read more
After the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s historic landing on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s rover has begun researching the composition of the surface and investigating water ice near the lunar south pole ⌘ Read more
Previous studies have overestimated the impact of early environment on how long people stay in education by neglecting key factors, according to a new analysis ⌘ Read more
Some companies are hiring specialists to help them get the best out of generative AI – but if the tech gets better at understanding what users want, such skills may not be needed ⌘ Read more
What science and technology podcasts should you listen to? Here's a guide to some of the best ⌘ Read more
Men typically throw objects with a greater velocity than women can – but with a spear-launching tool called an atlatl, men and women’s throwing velocity is indistinguishable ⌘ Read more
Four out of five emperor penguin colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea area suffered a total breeding failure in 2022 as a result of the record shrinking of sea ice ⌘ Read more
ChatGPT's responses to questions that were put to university students were as good as or better than the human answers in nine out of the 32 subjects tested ⌘ Read more
For just the second time, biologists have spotted a gentoo penguin with melanism, a genetic condition that results in unusually dark feathers ⌘ Read more
Some astrophysicists have said that the discovery of the gravitational wave background could shake the foundations of physics – why is it so momentous? ⌘ Read more
If bees can spot sugary rewards at a distance, it may mean that we need to re-evaluate experiments that assess their intelligence ⌘ Read more
Non-vaccine measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks have been "unequivocally effective" at preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, according to a major report by the UK's Royal Society ⌘ Read more
With more bears and wolves in Yellowstone National Park, cougars there appear to be shifting their hunting strategy to find and protect their kills ⌘ Read more
Tsunamis trigger atmospheric disturbances that are picked up by GPS satellites – and an AI-powered monitoring system that detects the signals could alert us before the tsunami reaches coastal areas ⌘ Read more
The way your data is stored and shared is changing and your online activity can be used to categorise you in ways that drastically alter your life. There are ways to take back control ⌘ Read more
The Y chromosome, which normally confers male characteristics, features large amounts of repetitive DNA, which meant it was difficult to compile a complete sequence until now ⌘ Read more
Satellite sensing reveals tropical forests are much closer to a major tipping point than previously thought, but are only likely to pass it in worst-case warming scenarios ⌘ Read more
AI research uses vast amounts of energy, but new research shows that analogue devices can run models far more efficiently due to their unusual ability to carry out data storage and processing in the same place ⌘ Read more
ISRO, India’s national space agency, is attempting a historic soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission near the moon's water-rich south pole, only days after Russia’s Luna 25 crashed on the lunar surface ⌘ Read more
After noticing that some heart problems resolve during pregnancy, researchers have shown cells in the placenta can turn into functioning heart cells in the lab ⌘ Read more
A map of all chemicals that places compounds next to each other that have similar properties could speed up the process of discovery for everything from drugs to materials ⌘ Read more
Our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley talks about her favourite series of the year so far and the upcoming releases that she's most looking forward to ⌘ Read more
Antibodies from people who have had covid-19 or been vaccinated against it may give them partial protection against most other pathogens in the coronavirus family ⌘ Read more
Vagus nerve stimulation is used to treat conditions ranging from inflammation to migraine. Mapping the nerve's complex structure of more than 160,000 fibres could usher in a new era of precision treatments ⌘ Read more
Using spent coffee grounds to replace some of the sand in concrete makes the material stronger and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coffee grounds in landfill ⌘ Read more
Tortoises and turtles accumulate uranium isotopes in their shells, which could provide a reliable record of historical nuclear activity ⌘ Read more
From Walking with Dinosaurs to King Kong, palaeontologist David Hone chooses his favourite science fiction films about dinosaurs – and reveals which Jurassic Park made the cut ⌘ Read more