In mice, neurons activated by stress cause the animals to wake up far more often during sleep – if the process is similar in humans, it could lead to new ways of improving sleep quality | Continue reading
Before colonisation, Australia was made up of at least 200 distinct nations. Now a genome analysis has revealed that modern Indigenous Australians retain high levels of genetic diversity, far more than people of European or Asian ancestry | Continue reading
A material inspired by spider silk contracts to less than half of its length when exposed to water, and could be used for soft medical devices that adjust their shape around tissues and organs inside the body | Continue reading
The Geminid meteor shower will peak very early on the morning of 14 December, shortly after a new moon, making for perfect viewing conditions | Continue reading
In 2023, archaeologists found evidence of architecture and art beginning earlier than we thought, and uncovered data that rewrites our ideas of how much power women had in ancient societies | Continue reading
For the first time in the history of the COP process the phrase "fossil fuels" has appeared in a climate summit agreement, as part of promise for the world to begin "transitioning away" from the leading cause of global warming | Continue reading
A vast survey of more than 25 million galaxies confirms we still can’t be sure how much matter clusters together, suggesting something is awry with the standard model of cosmology | Continue reading
By studying the dream-like states of octopuses, pigeons and spiders, biologists hope to find out why dreaming evolved in the first place | Continue reading
Work your way through the exhibits of a mysterious museum, solving brain-twisting puzzles as you go. Then add your answers together to find the overall solution | Continue reading
The first attempt to draw up a comprehensive list of what domestic cats eat has identified more than 2000 species so far, including many endangered ones | Continue reading
It is now technically possible to capture icebergs, tow them to the equator and harvest them for drinking water. But what are the ecological risks? | Continue reading
The world's largest frozen animal-milk bank creates custom formulas to help orphaned infants survive. Now it is working on even better versions to help some of the rarest species | Continue reading
Some 550 years ago, a Venetian monk named Fra Mauro set out to create a world map. Rather than myth and religion, it was based on solid evidence for the first time | Continue reading
A careful look at the few bats that can walk on the ground – including the common vampire bat – is helping us understand why evolution has yet to produce a flightless bat | Continue reading
From ageotypes to marsification and noctalgia, here are nine words that entered our vocabulary this year, expressing fresh concepts, emerging trends and hard-to-articulate emotions | Continue reading
We thought there was no chance our world could survive the fiery death of the sun in another 5 billion years. Now sightings of strange "orphan planets" might force us to rewrite the story | Continue reading
To discover new extreme-loving microbes, there’s no need to travel to the ends of the Earth. New Scientist goes in search of the unexpected inhabitants of your kitchen gadgets | Continue reading
Scientists have discovered 'flavour bridges' are key to unlikely – but delicious – food combinations. We tested the idea by creating a festive meal like nothing you've tasted before | Continue reading
For 100 years, we have puzzled over the purpose of biophotons, low-level radiation emitted by all plants. Precision studies of lentils now hint that it could be a form of quantum communication | Continue reading
In 2028, a crystallographer will join an abolitionist and a fire god. Where are they? If you enjoy stretching your mental muscle, try this and 14 other cryptic puzzles for size | Continue reading
How will the rise of artificial intelligence ultimately pan out for society? We sketch the most likely outcomes, including a world where AIs solve all our problems and another in which they wipe us out | Continue reading
Countries at the COP28 climate summit are still struggling to reach a deal on phasing out fossil fuels, but even having discussions on an end to the main cause of global warming is huge progress, say campaigners and researchers | Continue reading
A neuromorphic supercomputer called DeepSouth will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, which is on par with the estimated number of operations in the human brain | Continue reading
A didgeridoo may look like a simple, hollowed-out branch, but a study of the acoustic interplay between the instrument and our vocal cords has revealed the complexity involved | Continue reading
A system that records the brain's electrical activity through the scalp can turn thoughts into words with help from a large language model – but the results are far from perfect | Continue reading
Mathematicians have long been fascinated by the most efficient way of packing spheres in a space, and now physicists have confirmed that the best place to put them is into a sausage shape, at least for small numbers of balls | Continue reading
In the second episode of our three-part podcast series, Christie Taylor explores what happens to memory, creativity and the mind when getting high from cannabis | Continue reading
As the climate negotiations reach their final hours, countries are still fundamentally divided on how to address the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions | Continue reading
As the climate negotiations reach their final hours, countries are still fundamentally divided on how to address the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions | Continue reading
A biocomputing system consisting of living brain cells learned to recognise the voice of one individual from hundreds of sound clips | Continue reading
The European Union is finalising its AI Act, which attempts to regulate the use of artificial intelligence, but it isn't clear that the legislation can keep pace with the cutting edge of technology | Continue reading
Scientists use electricity to make cells take up DNA – and the same process could happen in nature thanks to electric eels’ shocking powers | Continue reading
If you're planning a holiday bring your blanket and get ready to hunker down, these are the coldest places on Earth ever recorded | Continue reading
An AI that predicts the time of first light from exploding stars could help astronomers sift through millions of such events and speed up scientific discovery | Continue reading
This year's Geminid meteor shower will peak on 14 December, shortly after a new moon, making for perfect viewing conditions | Continue reading
Supporting people and countries that are already experiencing devastation from climate change must be a key part of COP28 agreements, on top of a potential deal to phase out fossil fuels, say politicians and campaigners | Continue reading
There is some evidence that cannabis is an effective short-term pain-reliever but long-term users may experience more pain | Continue reading
An analysis of over 270,000 people's genomes has found that people with genes linked to having children earlier in life are also more likely to die before the age of 76 | Continue reading
Much of the Great Wall of China is covered in a biocrust of lichen, moss and cyanobacteria – it turns out this isn’t slowly destroying the wall, as was previously thought, but is slowing its degradation | Continue reading
Studying the brain activity of a mouse while it scurries around different virtual reality scenarios typically requires cumbersome equipment, but the invention of miniature goggles may have solved that problem | Continue reading
Regal jumpers, a type of jumping spider, appear to be less interested in each other if they have met before, suggesting that the arachnids recognise individuals within their species | Continue reading
Psychiatrist Deepak D’Souza says we are finally beginning to understand the relationship between cannabis use and schizophrenia, including which drug users are most at risk | Continue reading
Humans have been altering the lunar surface since the first Soviet probe in 1959. With moon missions set to ramp up, researchers say humanity is now the dominant geological force and the moon is entering its equivalent of the Anthropocene | Continue reading
Visualising space-time can be a mind-melting exercise, but mathematician Manil Suri has a trick that makes it easier | Continue reading
Scientists have a better understanding of how we enjoy jokes after monitoring people's brain activity while they watched the sitcom Seinfeld | Continue reading
There is a reasonable chance 2024 will be the first year in which the average global surface temperature is more than 1.5°C above that of the pre-industrial period, the UK's Met Office forecasts | Continue reading
A reconstruction of 66 million years of climate history indicates global temperature may be even more sensitive to carbon dioxide levels than current models estimate | Continue reading
Honey-hunters from several African cultures use different sounds to communicate with honeyguides, and the birds respond to local calls more than others | Continue reading