Large proportions of users posting on Twitter – now X – about the Chinese balloon that drifted over the US and Canada in 2023 were bots attempting to shape the debate | Continue reading
Researchers studying fruit fly egg cells have discovered that they stir up the fluid inside them with a twister-like current | Continue reading
A nationwide electronic warfare system called Pokrova can disrupt satellite navigation – Ukraine may already be using it to prevent strikes by Russian drones and missiles, but doing so will also affect satnavs in the country | Continue reading
A game that prompts players to step on different arrows, like a dance mat, reduced falls among older people | Continue reading
Plastics from organic sources are touted as environmentally friendly, but they appear to make an appealing meal for some marine creatures | Continue reading
The rise of “floatovoltaics’ could reduce pressure to build large solar farms on land, but some researchers are concerned about the impact on aquatic ecosystems | Continue reading
Preparations are underway for a third attempted launch of the enormous Starship rocket after the first two test flights both ended in explosions | Continue reading
Through experiments in macaques, scientists have mapped how a range of organs - including the heart, liver and skin - change their interactions during pregnancy, and they expect much of this will also apply in people | Continue reading
Molecules called photoacids could offer a more energy-efficient way to release carbon dioxide captured from the air in order to store or reuse it | Continue reading
A layered material reflects infrared and visible light to mimic the appearance of leaves, and could be used to camouflage objects against foliage in forest settings | Continue reading
Shiba inus and miniature dachshunds are among the longest-lived dog breeds while flat-faced dogs tend to die younger, a comprehensive study of UK pets has found | Continue reading
From a new Jasper Fforde to post-apocalyptic hellscapes aplenty, February’s science fiction offers something for everyone | Continue reading
Tiny male anglerfish fuse their bodies into the larger females, and this strange strategy may have helped the fish diversify widely in the deep sea | Continue reading
The abundance of wild birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects has drastically declined over the past 50 years, but the scale and seriousness of this loss is often lost when we focus on the number of species in an area | Continue reading
Executives from Meta, TikTok and X were questioned by US lawmakers about the safety of children who use their products – experts say the companies need to do more than just provide parental controls | Continue reading
Nine out of ten people in a trial of a CRISPR treatment for potentially life-threatening inflammatory reactions seem to have been cured | Continue reading
A wrist-worn heart tracker called WHOOP detected changes in activity during pregnancy that may be linked to premature births | Continue reading
Experiments with a replica suggest that a piece of mammoth ivory with carved holes found in a cave in Germany was used by ancient humans to make ropes | Continue reading
Feedback remembers the cosmic knowledge of politicians past, as Andrew Griffith, newly appointed as minister of state for science in the UK, mistakes the Sun for Mars | Continue reading
Describing ourselves as addicted to our phones is a counterproductive way to frame our overuse of technology, argues Pete Etchells | Continue reading
A rare family murder adds piquancy to Brian Klaas's account of "chance, chaos and why everything we do matters" | Continue reading
Excitement is growing over hints Earth has vast reserves of carbon-free natural hydrogen that we could extract and burn to power our economies, but it is way too soon to declare it a climate saviour | Continue reading
These gorgeously intricate, centuries-old clocks, highlighting the technical expertise of yesteryear, are on show at the Science Museum in London | Continue reading
This is an epic work from 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen that explores how a city and its people react to civil control under Nazi occupation and, 80 years on, lockdown against a deadly disease, says Simon Ings | Continue reading
Leading economist Kaushik Basu's new book argues that we can increase our overall happiness by thinking more clearly | Continue reading
Long-lasting hats, jumpers and watch straps that function as smart devices can be made thanks to a cheap and reliable method of creating conductive fibre that can be woven into fabric | Continue reading
Four-atom molecules glued together by microwaves have broken the record for being the most complicated molecule to reach temperatures just billionths of a degree away from absolute zero | Continue reading
DNA from bones found in a cave in Germany has been identified as from Homo sapiens, showing that our species endured frigid conditions there as they expanded across the continent | Continue reading
Prospectors around the world are scrambling to find reserves of "gold hydrogen", a naturally occurring fuel that burns without producing carbon dioxide. But how much is really out there and how easy is it to tap into? | Continue reading
Officials set up almost 2000 camera traps covering 120,000 square kilometres to estimate the numbers of snow leopards in India’s mountainous regions | Continue reading
Scientists have mapped the brain circuit behind a form of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, when someone sees themselves or others in distorted proportions, in research that could improve how it is treated | Continue reading
Scientists have analysed the stars that an upcoming NASA telescope will target in its search for biosignatures, narrowing down the candidates for those that could host potential extraterrestrial life | Continue reading
Scientists have analysed the stars that an upcoming NASA telescope will target in its search for biosignatures, narrowing down the candidates for those that could host potential alien life | Continue reading
Not only can parrots fly and walk, they can also swing along branches using their beak, in a technique called beakiation | Continue reading
A review of dementia research highlights unequal healthcare outcomes for Black and Hispanic people in the US | Continue reading
At the smallest scales, everything is made out of a cloud of quantum possibilities. A new idea attempts to explain how our everyday world comes from this, using the laws of thermodynamics | Continue reading
DNA analysis of spider webs from two locations in Australia identified dozens of vertebrate species, suggesting a new approach to wildlife monitoring | Continue reading
Elon Musk's Neuralink company is conducting its first human trials, implanting a tiny chip onto the surface of a person's brain to allow them to talk directly with computers | Continue reading
A recent study suggests that reducing social isolation among people with obesity helps them live longer, but it's not easy to prove that's definitely the case | Continue reading
Contrail clouds that form behind planes are responsible for much of the climate warming effects of flying. Small altitude adjustments would help minimise them | Continue reading
Light from hydrogen in the early universe has baffled astronomers, but researchers have spotted interacting galaxies that could explain how it makes its way to us | Continue reading
An AI inspired by the way humans form long-term memories during sleep can learn to perform tasks better than existing models | Continue reading
Calls made by male orangutans to attract females have short sequences nested inside longer sequences – a feature called recursion that was thought to be unique to human language | Continue reading
After nearly three years of exploring Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has taken its final flight – but its astounding performance is a good sign for future drones on other worlds | Continue reading
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to take astonishingly detailed images of spiral galaxies, revealing how and where they spark star formation | Continue reading
A previously unknown type of replicating agent named "obelisks” has been found in genomic data from stool samples – but we know little about what these entities do | Continue reading
As more and more people without diabetes start to monitor their blood glucose levels, we take a look at what the evidence says about limiting your blood sugar spikes after eating | Continue reading