Google Street View helps map how 600,000 trees grow down to the limb
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

Jets of liquid bounce off hot surfaces without ever touching them
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

Next Mauna Loa eruption could be forecast months in advance
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

A new life on Mars? Expect toxic dust, bad vibes and insects for lunch
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

This robot can build anything you ask for out of blocks
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 targets Starship flight next week – just a month after last one
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

Red kites and buzzards are being killed by misuse of rat poisons
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

How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano
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

Humanity has warmed the planet by 1.5°C since 1700
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

Lights on surfboards and wetsuits could deter shark attacks
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

Our only visit to Uranus came at an unusual time for the planet
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

Is the climate change food crisis even worse than we imagined?
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

Audio AIs are trained on data full of bias and offensive language
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

Any delay in reaching net zero will influence climate for centuries
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

AI helps robot dogs navigate the real world
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

Why does our universe have something instead of nothing?
In order to figure out how something came from nothing, we first need to explore the different types of nothing ⌘ Read more

We are a long way from pregnancy being safe on Mars
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

Why hairy animals shake themselves dry
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

Bird flu antibodies found in dairy workers in Michigan and Colorado
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

Marmots could have the solution to a long-running debate in evolution
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 real reason VAR infuriates football fans and how to fix it
The controversies surrounding football’s video assistant referee (VAR) system highlight our troubled relationship with uncertainty – and point to potential solutions ⌘ Read more

Carbon emissions from private jets have exploded in recent years
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

Chinese rover finds further evidence for an ancient ocean on Mars
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

DNA analysis rewrites the stories of people buried in Pompeii
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