From contact with aliens courtesy of Adrian Tchaikovsky to the childhood writings of Octavia E. Butler, February’s sci-fi offerings are rich and strange | Continue reading
Male dolphins have been observed shooting jets of urine into the air and other dolphins seem to follow the stream, perhaps to pick up social cues | Continue reading
A muscle that we thought served no purpose beyond enabling some people to wiggle their ears is actually active when we are trying hard to listen | Continue reading
Mice that were free to scratch their itchy ears saw the number of immune cells go up and levels of infection-causing bacteria decline | Continue reading
Some US states may see the number of power cuts caused by hurricanes jump by 60 per cent by 2100 in a high-emissions scenario, affecting tens of millions each decade | Continue reading
People receiving talking therapy for mild to severe depression reported greater improvements to their symptoms when also taking creatine compared with those on a placebo | Continue reading
Burn marks left on trees show that fires occurred frequently in North America from 1750 to 1880, but they tended to be less severe than modern fires and may have even been beneficial to forests | Continue reading
The US Congress is expected to vote on whether to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the nation’s public health institutions in the coming days – he would be taking over during a time of turmoil | Continue reading
The asteroid is unlikely to be cause for concern, but its detection has triggered planetary defence response procedures for the first time | Continue reading
A search for particles’ most paradoxical quantum states led researchers to construct a 37-dimensional experiment | Continue reading
An algorithm inspired by quantum computers but used on classical machines can make weather forecasts and other turbulence simulations a thousand times easier to run | Continue reading
Indigenous peoples of the Arctic traditionally use polar bear fur for its ice-resistant properties, but the science behind the bears’ natural antifreeze hasn't been studied until now | Continue reading
A numerical error in a scientific paper created alarm around the chemicals in black plastic utensils, but the extent to which they cause harm is up for debate | Continue reading
The success of Chinese firm DeepSeek suggests tech companies can train and run powerful AIs without consuming vast amounts of power | Continue reading
Feedback is intrigued (and terrified) by a new paper that suggests you could set off a ridiculously gigantic nuclear bomb deep under the seabed to mop up carbon dioxide | Continue reading
US President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in government agencies in order to build a “merit-based” society. But psychological research shows that such initiatives can create fairer outcomes, if employed correctly | Continue reading
Some animals – and even machines – may turn out to be conscious. Must we wait for scientific certainty before sharing our rights, asks The Moral Circle | Continue reading
Scientists’ ideas for travelling to the stars range from the the wholly improbable to the hugely expensive and very difficult, says Ed Regis | Continue reading
Various projects aim to reestablish lynx as a wild species in the UK after being absent for centuries, but those involved face formidable hurdles, finds Graham Lawton | Continue reading
A provocative new book delves into the way humans – and elephants – evolved to manage risk. We might do better to think more like elephants | Continue reading
The neck is less than 1 per cent of the human body's surface area, but it plays an oversized role in our lives, reveals Kent Dunlap's engaging natural and cultural history | Continue reading
We will never get an image of the Milky Way from above, but M81 or Bode's galaxy is a good stand-in – and now is a great time to see it, says Leah Crane | Continue reading
A patch made from lab-grown muscle cells boosted heart function in monkeys with cardiovascular disease and is now being tested in humans | Continue reading
The West Antarctic ice sheet could cause metres of sea level rise if it collapses – but more than 120,000 years ago, it may have survived an even warmer period than it's experiencing now | Continue reading
Remarkable archaeological finds are telling a new story of how prehistoric humans turned clothing from a necessity into a means of self-expression | Continue reading
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 aircraft broke the sound barrier during three test runs, a step toward the possible return of supersonic commercial flights | Continue reading
Space-time may hide a bizarre new kind of black hole that causes Einstein’s theory of gravity to fail – and could solve the mystery of dark energy | Continue reading
For the first time that we know of, mice with two fathers have survived to adulthood, but the methods used would be "unthinkable" to try in people | Continue reading
Physicists have verified a connection between two counterintuitive quantum properties, which may help us understand how quantum objects stay inextricably connected through entanglement | Continue reading
The rate of warming in the oceans has more than quadrupled since 1985, suggesting global warming in general has undergone a marked acceleration | Continue reading
The new AI model from China's DeepSeek performs on a level with leading US models without requiring as much computing power – but despite a huge drop in their stock, it's not game over for US tech companies | Continue reading
The new AI model from China's DeepSeek performs on a level with leading US models without requiring as much computing power – but despite a huge drop in their stock, it's not game over for US tech companies | Continue reading
In Europe as a whole, the increase in deaths from hot weather over the next century will outweigh the decline in deaths from cold weather, but in colder countries such as the UK, temperature-related deaths will decline overall | Continue reading
Despite widespread studies revealing the prevalence of racism, its impact is often overlooked. But there are ways to tackle hidden biases and systemic discrimination, says Keon West | Continue reading
In a barrage of executive orders, President Donald Trump has set the US on course to derail climate goals, biomedical research and pandemic readiness | Continue reading
Worlds with liquid water could have formed just 200 million years after the big bang from the remains of the earliest supernovae | Continue reading
Just three nasal injections of blood cells called platelets helped people whose smell was affected by covid-19 identify new odours | Continue reading
As California expands its prescribed burning efforts, a study of more than 180 such projects suggests they are an effective way to reduce a blaze's intensity and smoke | Continue reading
While some progress has been made in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, we are still on the path for high levels of global warming | Continue reading
Cryopreserved coral sperm could be used for future breeding programmes to restore damaged reefs | Continue reading
Carbon removal schemes involving enhanced rock weathering should consider whether the rocks they use are lighter or darker than the soil, say researchers | Continue reading
A lithium battery patterned with holes is flexible, stretchable and allows more airflow than cotton, making it perfect for fitness tracking or medical monitoring wearables | Continue reading
Using a computer model of the retina, researchers have been able to trace the cause of the expanding hole illusion | Continue reading
As the finale of the UK series approaches this evening, these are the best tactics to win the game of backstabbing and treachery, according to forensic psychology, game theory and evolutionary biology | Continue reading
Records from UK vehicle safety tests show that the average lifespan of an electric vehicle is 18 years, and the reliability is still improving considerably from year to year | Continue reading
The Stargate Project aims to build huge data centres for AI development – but the details remain murky, and it is still unclear exactly how this might impact the energy future of the US | Continue reading
South American megafauna, from giant sloths to camel-like creatures, survived thousands of years longer than we thought, challenging the idea that they were hunted to extinction by humans | Continue reading
Many think dinosaurs first emerged on land well south of the equator that now forms part of Argentina and Zimbabwe, but they may have actually arisen in tougher conditions near the equator | Continue reading