Honeybees are getting confused by electric pollution from power lines
Airborne electric fields similar to those from nearby power lines seem to have a dramatic effect on honeybee foraging, raising concerns about widespread impacts on pollinators ⌘ Read more

How to boost your brain power just by changing how you breathe
We mostly breathe subconsciously, but columnist Helen Thomson finds evidence that the brain functions differently when inhaling or exhaling, or breathing through your nose or mouth ⌘ Read more

Extra cancer screening could help pick up early cases in dense breasts
Dense breast tissue can make tumours hard to spot on mammogram scans, but adding another step to this screening programme could help identify such cases ⌘ Read more

Why taping your mouth shut at night probably isn’t a good idea
Social media is awash with videos claiming that taping your mouth closed will improve your sleep – but the evidence doesn’t stack up ⌘ Read more

The first teeth were sensory organs on the skin of ancient fish
Teeth are good for chewing and biting, but they are also sensitive – and that may have been their original function hundreds of millions of years ago ⌘ Read more

Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise for spinal cord injury recovery
People with incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries showed improvements to their hand and arm movements after receiving a targeted form of vagus nerve stimulation ⌘ Read more

West Nile virus detected in mosquitoes in the UK for the first time
“Fragments” of West Nile virus have been detected in UK mosquitoes, suggesting that the virus is circulating in the country, probably as a result of the warming climate ⌘ Read more

China is readying a mission to two rocky bodies in our solar system
China’s ambitious Tianwen-2 mission will soon be heading to two extremely different space rocks, and should provide vital data to help us understand the nature of asteroids and comets ⌘ Read more

Tropical forest loss doubled in 2024 as wildfires rocketed
A record 67,000 square kilometres of primary rainforest was lost from the tropics in 2024, with global warming and El Niño contributing to a massive jump in fire-driven damage ⌘ Read more

Supergiant crustaceans may cover more than half of the deep-sea floor
The enigmatic crustacean Alicella gigantea is the world’s largest amphipod, but like all deep-sea creatures it hasn’t proved easy to find ⌘ Read more

How the US military wants to use the world’s largest aircraft
The world’s largest aircraft, called WindRunner, is being designed to carry huge wind turbine blades – but the US military is looking into its own applications for the proposed plane ⌘ Read more

Earliest galaxy ever seen offers glimpse of the nascent universe
The galaxy MoM-z14 dates back to 280 million years after the big bang, and the prevalence of such early galaxies is puzzling astronomers ⌘ Read more

How an ancient alchemy technique is transforming modern chemistry
Today’s chemistry is a wet business, mostly done by mixing compounds in liquid solvents. But a push towards using dry powders instead is proving surprisingly effective ⌘ Read more

Vaccine may treat cocaine addiction by blocking drug’s entry to brain
A vaccine that helps people overcome cocaine addiction has shown signs of being safe and effective in a small trial ⌘ Read more

Ancient Maltese temples may have been schools for celestial navigation
The alignment of some megalithic temples in Malta suggests they may have been used to teach sailors how to navigate by the stars ⌘ Read more

Astronomers double down on claim of strongest evidence for alien life
Are there aliens living on the exoplanet K2-18b? Some astronomers believe they have evidence for molecules on the planet that must have a biological origin, but others disagree ⌘ Read more

Sea level will rise fast even if we limit global warming to 1.5°C
Satellite observations show the ice sheets are melting faster than expected, and slowing sea level rise to a manageable rate would require lowering the global temperature below the current level ⌘ Read more

AI doesn’t know ‘no’ – and that’s a huge problem for medical bots
Many AI models fail to recognise negation words such as “no” and “not”, which means they can’t easily distinguish between medical images labelled as showing a disease and images labelled as not showing the disease ⌘ Read more

Attempt to reach expert consensus on teens and phones ends in argument
There are a range of competing views on whether smartphones and social media are harmful to adolescents, and an attempt to settle the debate has instead sparked more disagreement ⌘ Read more

This new book is a one-sided attempt to puncture the AI bubble
The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna wants to expose the hype generated by large artificial intelligence companies, but it is a frustrating read ⌘ Read more

Capuchin monkeys are stealing howler monkey babies in weird fad
A group of white-faced capuchins on a remote island have started stealing infants from another primate species, and researchers don’t know why ⌘ Read more

Why honing your sense of smell could keep you sharp as you age
A declining ability to detect scents is linked to conditions including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But restoring our most neglected sense might not only reduce cognitive decline – studies also show it could even reverse it ⌘ Read more