Selection for bigger tomatoes has made the fruits less sweet, but now it has been shown that gene editing can make them sweeter without decreasing yields ⌘ Read more
Selection for bigger tomatoes has made the fruits less sweet, but now it has been shown that gene editing can make them sweeter without decreasing yields ⌘ Read more
Researchers mapped Earth’s ionosphere, part of the upper atmosphere, using signal data from 40 million phones – a method that could improve GPS accuracy and help track space weather ⌘ Read more
Palaeontologists have pieced together the brain structure of a bird that lived 80 million years ago named Navaornis hestiae, thanks to a remarkably well-preserved fossil ⌘ Read more
An annual accounting of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change finds no sign emissions will peak this year ⌘ Read more
Eurasian reed warblers don’t just get a sense of direction from Earth’s magnetic field – they can also calculate their coordinates on a mental map ⌘ Read more
Samantha Harvey has won the UK's top fiction prize for a novel that takes place over 24 hours on the International Space Station ⌘ Read more
AI and Google Street View have created 'digital twins' of living trees in North American cities – part of a huge simulation that could help make urban tree planting and trimming decisions ⌘ Read more
Droplets of fluid have been known to hover above a hot surface, but a new experiment suggests the same can happen to tiny jets of liquid too ⌘ Read more
An analysis of crystals in lava from the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa has revealed an unknown magma reservoir within the volcano, which could extend forecasts of eruptions from minutes to months ⌘ Read more
You might have heard about plans to establish a self‑sustaining city on Mars. Here’s what life would really be like on the Red Planet ⌘ Read more
An AI-assisted robot can listen to spoken commands and assemble 3D objects such as chairs and tables out of reusable building blocks ⌘ Read more
SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket. Next week's launch – if successful – will be the fastest turnaround yet ⌘ Read more
Campaigners are calling for stricter controls on rodenticides after finding that birds of prey in England are increasingly being exposed to high doses of rat poison ⌘ Read more
Never underestimate what a single gopher can achieve in a day: one of the burrowing mammals helped boost soil fungi in an area blanketed by ash from the explosive eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state ⌘ Read more
Most assessments of global warming use 1850-1900 as a baseline, but researchers have now established a new pre-industrial reference by using Antarctic ice cores to estimate the average temperature before 1700 ⌘ Read more
Experiments show that illuminating the underside of a decoy seal reduces attacks by great white sharks, revealing a possible strategy to protect surfers and swimmers ⌘ Read more
Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, giving us our only up-close look at the planet – but unusual space weather just before the craft arrived has given us a misleading idea about the planet’s magnetic field ⌘ Read more
Extreme weather and a growing population is driving a food security crisis. What can we do to break the vicious cycle of carbon emissions, climate change and soaring food costs – or is it already too late? ⌘ Read more
Seven major datasets used to train audio-generating AI models are three times more likely to use the words "man" or "men" than "woman" or "women", raising fears of bias ⌘ Read more
Reaching net-zero emissions is essential for halting climate change - but even after we achieve this goal, parts of the planet will continue to warm. Delaying net zero will worsen these effects ⌘ Read more
Four-legged robot dogs learned to perform new tricks by practising in a virtual platform that mimics real-world obstacles – a possible shortcut for training robots faster and more accurately ⌘ Read more
In order to figure out how something came from nothing, we first need to explore the different types of nothing ⌘ Read more
Dangerous radiation reaches Mars at levels we aren't exposed to on Earth, which makes the Red Planet a particularly dangerous place to be during pregnancy ⌘ Read more
The brain pathway that causes hairy mammals like mice and dogs to shake themselves dry appears to have more to do with pressure than temperature ⌘ Read more
Blood tests have shown that about 7 per cent of workers on dairy farms that had H5N1 outbreaks had antibodies against the disease ⌘ Read more
When it comes to the survival of animals living in the wild, the characteristics of the group can matter as much as the traits of the individual, according to a study in marmots ⌘ Read more
The controversies surrounding football’s video assistant referee (VAR) system highlight our troubled relationship with uncertainty – and point to potential solutions ⌘ Read more
The climate impact of flights taken by the super-rich rose sharply from 2019 to 2023, fuelling calls for a carbon tax on private aviation ⌘ Read more
Data collected by the Zhurong rover and orbiting satellites suggests the existence of an ancient shoreline in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars ⌘ Read more
Genetic analysis of five individuals preserved as plaster casts in the ruins of Pompeii contradicts established beliefs about the people and their relationships ⌘ Read more
The earliest evidence of livestock with modified horns has been discovered in ancient Egypt – sheep skulls with horns that point in unnatural directions suggest humans forced them to grow that way ⌘ Read more
Shapes created by vortices in water often fall apart, but an odd quantum fluid made from ultracold atoms could support vortex knots that never lose their knottiness ⌘ Read more
Averting an asteroid strike will need many of the same skills we must hone to tackle climate change and future pandemics ⌘ Read more
Chronic pain has increased among adults in the US since 2019, which could be due to a rise in sedentary lifestyles or reduced access to healthcare amid covid-19 restrictions ⌘ Read more
In this choose-your-own-adventure game, it's up to you to protect the planet. From nuclear strikes to giant spikes, find out what would give us the best chance of survival ⌘ Read more
This year’s average global temperature is almost certain to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial times – a milestone that should spur urgent action, say climate scientists ⌘ Read more
Experiments where vampire bats were made to run on a treadmill have revealed how they extract energy from protein in their latest blood meal ⌘ Read more
A small world in the outer solar system appears to have volcanic activity possibly spurred by liquid water ⌘ Read more
The British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research competition showcases beautiful images captured by researchers studying heart and circulatory disease ⌘ Read more
Fibres in wet wipes and clothes often make their way into soil - and natural versions could be more damaging than synthetic ones ⌘ Read more
Before Mesopotamian people invented writing, they used cylinder seals to press patterns into wet clay – and some of the symbols used were carried over into proto-writing ⌘ Read more
Zinc nanoparticles, a common sunscreen ingredient, can make plants more resilient to climate change – in a surprising way ⌘ Read more
A surprising reversal of our usual understanding of the second law of thermodynamics shows that it may be possible for heat to move in the “wrong” direction, flowing from a cold area to a warm one ⌘ Read more
Although the COP16 summit in Colombia ended with some important agreements, countries still aren’t moving fast enough to stem biodiversity loss ⌘ Read more
From seed oils to olive oil, we now have an overwhelming choice of what to cook with. Here’s how they all stack up, according to the scientific evidence ⌘ Read more
The focus is on finance at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, but countries are a long way from any kind of consensus ⌘ Read more
A bird flu virus that has been circulating in dairy cattle for months has now been found in a pig in the US for the first time, raising the risk of the virus evolving to become more dangerous to people ⌘ Read more
Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle ⌘ Read more
Soil is full of an uncountable number of viruses, and scientists are only beginning to understand just how substantial their role in the carbon cycle may be ⌘ Read more
Alan Turing's theories about computation seem to have a startling consequence, placing hard limits on how fast or slow any physical process in the universe can grow ⌘ Read more
DNA analysis suggests Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah with thousands of stems connected by their roots, is between 16,000 and 81,000 years old ⌘ Read more
Just under 5 per cent of the Wikipedia pages in English that have been published since ChatGPT's release seem to include AI-written content ⌘ Read more
Light can be directed and steered around bends using a method similar to the way clouds scatter photons, which could lead to advances in medical imaging, cooling systems and even nuclear reactors ⌘ Read more
From Harlan Ellison to Haruki Murakami, via an intergalactic cooking competition, this month has plenty of science fictional treats on offer ⌘ Read more
People conceived during the UK's 1940s and 50s sugar rationing have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than those conceived after rationing ended ⌘ Read more
Fewer lakes are freezing over each winter compared with past years, posing environmental and economic consequences around the world ⌘ Read more
Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have revealed that a complete skeleton found in a 2nd-century cemetery is made up of bones from many people spanning thousands of years – but we don’t know who assembled it or why ⌘ Read more
An off-the-shelf millimetre wave sensor can pick out the tiny vibrations made by a smartphone's speaker, enabling an AI model to transcribe the conversation, even at a distance in a noisy room ⌘ Read more
The Infinite Monkey Theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe ⌘ Read more
The US Census Bureau processes data before publishing it in order to keep personal information private – but a new approach could maintain the same privacy while improving accuracy ⌘ Read more
The Renaissance artist Michelangelo had carried out human dissections, which may have led him to include women with breast cancer in some of his pieces ⌘ Read more
Our metabolism's response to food is highly idiosyncratic and there are hints that tailoring our diet to these personal differences can deliver health benefits ⌘ Read more
Scientists used AI to transform tourist photos into a 3D digital map of Antarctic penguin colonies – even as researchers debate whether to harness or discourage tourism in this remote region ⌘ Read more
From the benefits of fermented foods to diets that promise a better hormone balance, there is a confusing array of dietary advice out there ⌘ Read more
Most ingredients touted as the key to better health fail to live up to the hype but fibre bucks this trend, with benefits for the whole body, not just the gut ⌘ Read more
A fossil of a tadpole from Argentina is 161 million years old - and isn't that different from some modern species ⌘ Read more
A massive undertaking to map cancer tumours is providing new insights into how the disease forms, evolves and develops resistance to treatments ⌘ Read more
The health benefits of fermented food and drink have long been touted, but firm evidence in favour of kombucha, sauerkraut and kefir is surprisingly elusive ⌘ Read more
Diets that claim to control excess oestrogen or stress hormones are all the rage on Instagram and TikTok. They could be good for us, just not for the reasons claimed ⌘ Read more
In some recent years, the Amazon biome released more carbon than it absorbed, and further degradation could make it a permanent shift ⌘ Read more
Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets ⌘ Read more
We get about a quarter of our calories from snacks and new research shows that this isn't necessarily bad for us. Done right, snacking can boost our health ⌘ Read more
Antibiotics can reduce diversity in the gut microbiome, raising the risk of infections that cause diarrhoea - and the effects may last years ⌘ Read more
Recent research shows that anti-inflammatory diets are not as faddish as they might sound, with the power to reduce the risk of heart attacks and some cancers ⌘ Read more
A specialised algorithm could help autonomous vehicles track hidden objects, such as a pedestrian, a bicycle or another vehicle concealed behind a parked car ⌘ Read more
Peaks in appetite and metabolism driven by our body's inbuilt clocks mean that eating at the wrong time can have consequences for our health and waistline ⌘ Read more
China's carbon emissions may have peaked in 2023, as figures suggest its output has plateaued so far in 2024 ⌘ Read more
In 2022, countries pledged to halt biodiversity loss by protecting 30 per cent of the planet by 2030, but progress has been too slow thus far ⌘ Read more
An outlandish experiment searching for a brain network that tunes up and down the feeling of immersion is hoping to unlock the therapeutic effects of psychedelics ⌘ Read more
In a small study, women experienced more empathy for strangers who were experiencing pain after an eight-week meditation training programme ⌘ Read more
Single-celled organisms called archaea can become multicellular when compressed, highlighting the role of physical forces in evolution ⌘ Read more
Ancient stone goods found across France may have been made by skilled craftspeople in what is now Paris, who traded along vast networks ⌘ Read more
Large language models can be used to scam humans, but AI is also susceptible to being scammed – and some models are more gullible than others ⌘ Read more
The largest and most ambitious Martian drone yet could carry kilograms of scientific equipment over great distances and set itself down on the Red Planet unassisted ⌘ Read more
The Sverris saga describes how castle invaders “took a dead man and cast him unto the well, and then filled it up with stones”, in what may have been an early act of biological warfare - and now researchers believe they have found the skeleton of the man in question ⌘ Read more
Weaving tales of magical fruit and vegetables into your children's stories may encourage them to eat healthy snacks ⌘ Read more
The recent surge in warming led to fears that climate change may be accelerating beyond model projections, but a fall in how much heat Earth is gaining makes this less likely ⌘ Read more
A lithium-ion battery made from three droplets of hydrogel is the smallest soft battery of its kind – and it could be used in biocompatible and biodegradable implants ⌘ Read more
Complex carbon-based molecules crucial to life on Earth originated somewhere in space, but we didn't know where. Now, huge amounts of them have been spotted in a huge, cold cloud of gas ⌘ Read more
Rival tribes of bacteria armed with poison darts are fighting it out in your gut, with armies of traitors often winning the day ⌘ Read more
In the western US, the average maximum growth rate of fires has more than doubled over the past two decades ⌘ Read more
A new battery design that uses only water, clay and graphene could source material on Mars and be more sustainable and accessible than traditional batteries ⌘ Read more
Zapping the skin with electricity could stop bacteria that live there harmlessly from entering the body and causing blood poisoning ⌘ Read more
Despite talk of a green recovery, global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise as the world emerged from coronavirus lockdowns ⌘ Read more
Adding blade-like sails to tankers could reduce their annual fuel consumption by up to 30 per cent, slashing the climate impact of the shipping industry ⌘ Read more
Researchers have managed to encode enormous amounts of information, including images, into DNA at a rate hundreds of times faster than was previously possible ⌘ Read more
Google DeepMind has been using its AI watermarking method on Gemini chatbot responses for months – and now it’s making the tool available to any AI developer ⌘ Read more
The systems we use to produce food have many problems, from horrifying waste to their dependence on fossil fuels. Vaclav Smil explains how to fix them ⌘ Read more
A nearby star that exploded 3 million years ago could have removed all dust smaller than a millimetre from the outer solar system ⌘ Read more
Everything you need to know about Rwanda's outbreak of Marburg virus, which has been described as one of the deadliest human pathogens ⌘ Read more