Are calories on menus doing more harm than good?
Many restaurants in countries such as England and the US now print calories on their menus, but some researchers question whether this is really tackling their obesity problem ⌘ Read more

See the sun revealed in stunning glory by Solar Orbiter pictures
The best pictures we have of the sun yet have been delivered thanks to the Solar Orbiter spacecraft ⌘ Read more

Being in space makes it harder for astronauts to think quickly
The effects of being in space can worsen an astronaut’s working memory, processing speed and attention - which could be a problem for future missions ⌘ Read more

Einstein’s theories tested on the largest scale ever – he was right
Analysis of millions of galaxies upholds Albert Einstein’s ideas about gravity and also offers tantalising new hints of how dark energy may have evolved ⌘ Read more

Starship live: Watch Musk launch sixth Starship test as Trump attends
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket. It aims to conduct the launch at 4pm Central Time (10pm UK). Here’s everything we know so far ⌘ Read more

World’s new fastest supercomputer is built to simulate nuclear bombs
The vast computational power of the El Capitan supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California will be used to support the US nuclear deterrent ⌘ Read more

Heart-shaped mollusc has windows that work like fibre optics
Tiny, solid windows in the shells of heart cockles let in light for the photosynthetic algae inside them – and they could show us how to make better fibre-optic cables ⌘ Read more

The universe could vanish at any moment – why hasn’t it?
A cataclysmic quantum fluctuation could wipe out everything at any moment. The fact that we’re still here is revealing hidden cosmic realities ⌘ Read more

Bluesky is ushering in a pick-your-own algorithm era of social media
Nearly 20 million people have joined Bluesky, a social network that gives you fine-grained control over what you see and who you interact with. I think it is the future of social media, says Chris Stokel-Walker ⌘ Read more

Wild cavefish can somehow survive with almost no sleep at all
Several populations of Mexican tetra fish that live in darkness have independently evolved to need hardly any sleep, but the reason why is a mystery ⌘ Read more

AI maths assistant could help solve problems that humans are stuck on
Most mathematicians have been reluctant to start working with artificial intelligence, but a new tool developed by researchers at Meta may change that ⌘ Read more

We may have solved the mystery of what froze Earth’s inner core
A supercomputer simulation of iron and carbon atoms in Earth’s inner core may explain how a molten ball at the centre of our planet froze solid ⌘ Read more

Quantum time crystals could be used to store energy
The weird thermodynamics found in time crystals could be harnessed to store energy in a quantum battery-like device ⌘ Read more

Countries are cheating their way to net zero by overrelying on forests
Leading researchers warn that relying on “passive” carbon sinks such as forests to absorb ongoing carbon emissions will doom the world to continued warming ⌘ Read more

Vital Atlantic Ocean current is already weakening due to melting ice
A study modelling the impact of melting ice suggests scientists have underestimated the risk that an important ocean current will shut down and cause climate chaos ⌘ Read more

Evidence is growing that microbes in your mouth contribute to cancer
The oral microbiome is increasingly being linked to head and neck cancer, but we don’t yet understand its exact role ⌘ Read more

Australia wants to ban social media for under-16s, but it won’t work
Attempts to prevent Australian children from accessing social media are likely to fail, and could do more harm than good ⌘ Read more

AI models work together faster when they speak their own language
Letting AI models communicate with each other in their internal mathematical language, rather than translating back and forth to English, could accelerate their task-solving abilities ⌘ Read more

Satellites spot methane leaks – but ‘super-emitters’ don’t fix them
Governments and companies almost never take action when satellites alert them about large methane leaks coming from oil and gas infrastructure ⌘ Read more

COP29 host Azerbaijan faces climate disaster as Caspian Sea dries up
Water levels in the Caspian Sea are set to fall dramatically as the climate gets hotter, posing a major threat to economic activity and ecosystems in the region ⌘ Read more

A 200-year-old mystery about newts has finally been solved
A genetic flaw dooms half of all crested newts to die before they hatch – now we know how this baffling evolutionary quirk came about ⌘ Read more

A unique pair of galactic lenses may help solve a cosmological riddle
Two massive galaxies are bending light from the same distant quasar, creating a so-called Einstein zigzag lens that could help astronomers pin down how quickly the universe is expanding ⌘ Read more

How we misunderstood what the Lucy fossil reveals about ancient humans
It has been 50 years since archaeologists discovered Lucy, perhaps the most famous ancient hominin ever found. But the scientists who have studied her say that this fossil gave us a misleading image of the nature of her species ⌘ Read more

There’s a new twist on the famous invisible gorilla psychology study
A classic study found that people can fail to notice a gorilla when they are focusing on something else, but new experiments suggest this “inattentional blindness” might not tell the whole story ⌘ Read more

Weight-loss medications may also ease chronic pain
Popular semaglutide-based drugs used for weight loss may reduce chronic and acute pain, which could make them a promising alternative to opioids ⌘ Read more

Plumes of pollution from big factories can make it snow
Satellite images reveal that when conditions are right, the pollution from industrial hotspots can cause snow to fall downwind and punch holes in clouds ⌘ Read more

Twin spacecraft will launch to create an artificial solar eclipse
The Proba-3 mission consists of two spacecraft that will fly in close formation to study the sun, with the shadow of one creating an artificial solar eclipse from the perspective of the other ⌘ Read more

People prefer AI-generated poems to Shakespeare and Dickinson
Readers give higher ratings to AI-generated poetry than the works of poets such as William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson – perhaps because they often have more straightforward themes and simpler structure ⌘ Read more

Bizarre test shows light can actually cast its own shadow
With the help of a ruby cube and two laser beams, researchers made one ray of light cast a shadow when illuminated by the other ⌘ Read more

Watch autonomous cars do doughnuts and drift sideways round corners
Driverless cars can now do doughnuts and drift like stunt drivers, skidding sideways around corners while maintaining control, which might help the cars recover from dangerous situations ⌘ Read more

Starship launch flight 6: When is Elon Musk’s SpaceX flight test?
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket. It aims to conduct the launch as early as 18 November. Here’s everything we know so far ⌘ Read more

World’s largest coral is 300 years old and was discovered by accident
The mega-coral measures 34 metres by 32 metres – making it larger than a blue whale – and it is thought to be three centuries old ⌘ Read more

Mounting evidence points to air pollution as a cause of eczema
Air pollution has been linked to eczema before, and now a study of more than 280,000 people has strengthened the association ⌘ Read more

12,000-year-old stones may be oldest example of wheel-like tools
Dozens of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be early examples of spindle whorls, a rotating tool used in textile making that was a step towards inventing the wheel ⌘ Read more

We must use genetic technologies now to avert the coming food crisis
Food production is responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions. To get everyone the food they need in a warming world, governments worldwide must invest in securing our food systems ⌘ Read more

Why we now think the myopia epidemic can be slowed – or even reversed
Rates of near-sightedness are rising all over the world. But solutions to the epidemic are coming into focus and could be simpler than you think ⌘ Read more

Sweeter tomatoes are coming soon thanks to CRISPR gene editing
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

Millions of phones create most complete map ever of the ionosphere
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

Exquisite bird fossil provides clues to the evolution of avian brains
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

Drought, fires and fossil fuels push CO2 emissions to a record high
An annual accounting of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change finds no sign emissions will peak this year ⌘ Read more

Migratory birds can use Earth’s magnetic field like a GPS
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

Orbital wins the Booker prize: “I see it as a kind of space pastoral”
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

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