The Amazon is teetering on the edge of a climate tipping point
In some recent years, the Amazon biome released more carbon than it absorbed, and further degradation could make it a permanent shift ⌘ Read more

Astronauts could hitch a ride on asteroids to get to Venus or Mars
Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets ⌘ Read more

The surprising truth about the health benefits of snacking
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

One course of antibiotics can change your gut microbiome for years
Antibiotics can reduce diversity in the gut microbiome, raising the risk of infections that cause diarrhoea - and the effects may last years ⌘ Read more

Do certain foods suppress inflammation and help you live longer?
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

AI helps driverless cars predict how unseen pedestrians may move
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

Could when you eat be as important as what you eat?
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

Clean energy rollout means China’s emissions may have peaked
China’s carbon emissions may have peaked in 2023, as figures suggest its output has plateaued so far in 2024 ⌘ Read more

The world is falling far short of its goal to halt biodiversity loss
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

How psychedelics and VR could reveal how we become immersed in reality
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

Meditation seems to improve empathy for strangers
In a small study, women experienced more empathy for strangers who were experiencing pain after an eight-week meditation training programme ⌘ Read more

Weird microbes could help rewrite the origin of multicellular life
Single-celled organisms called archaea can become multicellular when compressed, highlighting the role of physical forces in evolution ⌘ Read more

Stone Age network reveals ancient Paris was an artisanal trading hub
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

AI models fall for the same scams that we do
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

NASA is developing a Mars helicopter that could land itself from orbit
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

DNA helps match ‘Well Man’ skeleton to 800-year-old Norwegian saga
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

This surprisingly creative trick helps children eat more fruit and veg
Weaving tales of magical fruit and vegetables into your children’s stories may encourage them to eat healthy snacks ⌘ Read more

Earth is now gaining less heat than it has for several years
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

Tiny battery made from silk hydrogel can run a mouse pacemaker
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 form of carbon spotted outside solar system for first time
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

Your gut bacteria are at war - and force their enemies to switch sides
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

Some wildfires are growing twice as fast as they did two decades ago
In the western US, the average maximum growth rate of fires has more than doubled over the past two decades ⌘ Read more

Battery made from water and clay could be used on Mars
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

Electric skin patch could keep wounds free of infection
Zapping the skin with electricity could stop bacteria that live there harmlessly from entering the body and causing blood poisoning ⌘ Read more

Carbon emissions are now growing faster than before the pandemic
Despite talk of a green recovery, global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise as the world emerged from coronavirus lockdowns ⌘ Read more

Nuclear waste tanker pilots futuristic aluminium sail
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

DNA has been modified to make it store data 350 times faster
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 tool makes AI-generated writing easily detectable
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

Energy expert Vaclav Smil on how to feed the world without trashing it
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 supernova may have cleaned up our solar system
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

All your questions about Marburg virus answered
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

Extremely rare Bronze Age wooden tool found in English trench
In a wetland on the south coast of England, archaeologists dug up one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools ever found in Britain, which is around 3500 years old ⌘ Read more

Woman scanned her brain 75 times to see how birth control changes it
A neuroscientist underwent dozens of brain scans over three months to better understand the neurological effects of hormonal contraceptives ⌘ Read more

Meta AI tackles maths problems that stumped humans for over a century
A type of mathematical problem that was previously impossible to solve can now be successfully analysed with artificial intelligence ⌘ Read more

Fresh insights into how we doze off may help tackle sleep conditions
New research into the moments between wakefulness and sleep could bring hope for insomniacs and even make us more creative problem-solvers ⌘ Read more

Morphing red blood cells help bats hibernate - and we could do it too
Animals that hibernate need a way to keep their blood flowing as their body temperature drops, and it seems that the mechanical properties of red blood cells may be key ⌘ Read more

Can sensor technology stop a wildfire before it starts?
The US Department of Homeland Security is trialling chemical sensors that detect the first whiff of smoke in the air and alert fire crews while a potential blaze is still smouldering ⌘ Read more

Amateur sleuth finds largest known prime number with 41 million digits
The largest prime number is now 16 million digits longer than the previous record found in 2018, thanks to an amateur hunter and his large collection of high-power graphics cards ⌘ Read more

I’ve been boosting my ego with a sycophant AI and it can’t be healthy
Google’s NotebookLM tool is billed as an AI-powered research assistant and can even turn your text history into a jovial fake podcast. But it could also tempt you into narcissism and nostalgia, says Jacob Aron ⌘ Read more

What the US election will mean for AI, climate action and abortion
The upcoming US presidential election will determine how the country regulates tech, combats the climate crisis and decides on access to abortion ⌘ Read more

What to expect at the COP16 biodiversity summit
Countries are convening in Colombia to agree on wide-ranging targets to stem biodiversity loss and make a plan to pay for it ⌘ Read more

What to expect at the COP16 biodiversity summit
Countries are convening in Colombia to agree on wide-ranging targets to stem biodiversity loss and make a plan to pay for it ⌘ Read more

What to expect at the COP16 biodiversity summit
Countries are convening in Colombia to agree on wide-ranging targets to stem biodiversity loss and make a plan to pay for it ⌘ Read more

What to expect at the COP16 biodiversity summit
Countries are convening in Colombia to agree on wide-ranging targets to stem biodiversity loss and make a plan to pay for it ⌘ Read more

Hornets can hold their alcohol like no other animal on Earth
The oriental hornet shows no ill effects – or behavioural changes – when it spends a week drinking an 80 per cent alcohol solution ⌘ Read more

Preserved tracks suggest non-avian dinosaurs used their wings to run
Not all winged dinosaurs were necessarily capable of full flight, but this anatomical feature may have enabled them to travel further by flapping or gliding ⌘ Read more

Many Iron Age swords may be tainted by modern forgery
Ancient weaponsmiths combined bronze and iron to fashion swords during the early Iron Age – but modern forgers glue together elements from different weapons, making it difficult for researchers to study the ancient technology ⌘ Read more

Solving Stephen Hawking’s black hole paradox has raised new mysteries
Physicists finally know whether black holes destroy the information contained in infalling matter. The problem is that the answer hasn’t lit the way to a new understanding of space-time ⌘ Read more

The laws of physics appear to follow a mysterious mathematical pattern
The symbols and mathematical operations used in the laws of physics follow a pattern that could reveal something fundamental about the universe ⌘ Read more

Simple plan could raise the billions needed to stem biodiversity loss
A 1 per cent levy on global retail sales would plug a funding gap of $200 billion when it comes to saving nature. Can COP16 get the world to agree to this ambitious proposal? ⌘ Read more