Support for medical cannabis has skyrocketed in recent years, but when does it actually help? Here's what the evidence says about 20 conditions, including anxiety, cancer and insomnia | Continue reading
Batteries containing solid electrolytes have many theoretical benefits, but a technique to manufacture them cheaply has been elusive | Continue reading
A gamma ray burst seen last year was so powerful that cosmologists might have to update their models of the universe | Continue reading
A computer-generated image mapping the thousands of muscle cells that make up the wall of the heart won top prize at the British Heart Foundation's annual Reflections of Research science photography competition | Continue reading
The world is going “in the wrong direction” on forests, say campaigners. But some countries have reduced deforestation rates, and actions such as trade reform could yet turn the tide | Continue reading
An adult human's immune system is made up of more than 1 trillion cells. In total, it weighs around 1 kilogram, depending on the size of the person | Continue reading
OpenAI’s GPT-4 advised on committing terrorism and financial fraud when requests were translated into languages it was less familiar with, like Zulu and Scots Gaelic | Continue reading
Highly processed foods, from pizza to bread, are said to be seriously bad for your health. Here is a digestible guide to what the evidence says, to help you make sense of the conflicting claims | Continue reading
Ocean modelling suggests coastal cities around the world need to start preparing for several metres of sea level rise over the coming centuries | Continue reading
Some 3500 salmon have escaped from a fish farm pen in Iceland and now the hunt is on to catch them before they hybridise with the local wild, genetically distinct salmon in the fjords | Continue reading
A new look at the age of zircon crystals in a lunar rock sample brought back by NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972 has revealed that the moon formed at least 4.46 billion years ago | Continue reading
Enjoy Piero Martin’s The Seven Measures of the World, stories about measurement, and explore Four Ways of Thinking by David Sumpter, as he argues that maths can improve our lives | Continue reading
More than 20 US states have now legalised recreational cannabis, but the devastating effects of prohibition have yet to be overcome, says Zachary Siegel | Continue reading
A few years ago, researchers discovered that a rapidly rotating magnet will cause other nearby magnets to levitate, and they have now worked out why | Continue reading
The eagerly awaited finding comes from the first randomised trial of putting HEPA filter machines into classrooms | Continue reading
Analysis of DNA from human remains up to 37,000 years old shows that more infectious diseases jumped from animals to people after the dawn of farming | Continue reading
Some biological cells swim freely in a way that apparently breaks one of Newton’s laws of motion – but only if they have strange elastic properties | Continue reading
Isambard-AI will contain about 5000 graphics processing units, making it 10 times as powerful as the UK’s current fastest computer, but it will have a humble home in a Bristol car park | Continue reading
Scientists have identified the brain mechanisms behind why we often misremember small details, such as an object's colour or location | Continue reading
Among birds, eyes come in all sorts of colours – and it seems that this helps them compete for mating opportunities and intimidate rivals | Continue reading
The Orionids are flashes of light that appear in the sky every year when Earth passes through debris from Halley’s comet. On 21 October they will be visible from almost anywhere in the world | Continue reading
The Orionids are flashes of light that appear in the sky every year when Earth passes through debris from Halley’s comet. On 21 October they will be visible from almost anywhere in the world | Continue reading
The population of snow crabs in the Bering Sea has crashed since 2018, probably due to starvation as a result of a marine heatwave | Continue reading
The emergence of 'Brood X' periodical cicadas in the US in 2021 gave birds a new food source, leading to knock-on effects throughout forest ecosystems | Continue reading
An IBM chip that mimics the brain can run AI-powered image recognition algorithms 22 times faster than any commercial chip | Continue reading
A huge burst of energy that has been travelling for more than half the age of the universe is powerful enough to microwave a bowl of popcorn twice the size of the sun | Continue reading
As the world warms, vast areas of wilderness in Russia, Canada and Alaska will become more suitable for farming, threatening the local wildlife | Continue reading
An analysis of all tropical storms in the Atlantic between 1971 and 2020 has confirmed that hurricanes are intensifying more rapidly, giving people less time to prepare | Continue reading
A newsfeed algorithm designed to counteract political polarisation could be effective, according to a test involving hundreds of AI-generated users | Continue reading
Efforts to regulate artificial intelligence are gathering steam across the world, but some key ethical and controversial issues don’t seem to be getting enough attention | Continue reading
It's hard to let go of the idea that free will exists, but neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky says that society starts to look very different once you do | Continue reading
Tall buildings made from electrically conductive materials can send lightning bolts up into the heavens during a thunderstorm, and they generate X-rays at the same time | Continue reading
Some people whose brains show hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease display none of its symptoms. Now, finally, we are getting to the bottom of this mystery and how it might aid us in forestalling dementia | Continue reading
If we build and use AI effectively, we can create an education system where students are assessed on the quality and depth of their knowledge, rather than the content of an exam, says Okezue Bell | Continue reading
A disdain for misogyny past and present shines through in Shohini Ghose's rich history of women's underappreciated contributions to astronomy and physics | Continue reading
An eye-opening read from Brian Merchant traces today's collective rage against big tech back to the Luddite uprising | Continue reading
See the inside of a rodent’s eye like never before, alongside other commended images from the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition | Continue reading
Interesting, mind-bending puzzles abound in Cocoon – some so clever they will make you gasp. With visuals reminiscent of H. R. Giger, don't miss out on this release, says Jacob Aron | Continue reading
Use the night sky pattern known as the summer triangle to help you track down Aquila, the eagle, and its collection of open star clusters, says Abigail Beall | Continue reading
I knew there were problems with salmon reared in captivity at sea, but after witnessing the damage inflicted by life in an ocean pen, I will be voting with my shopping trolley, says Graham Lawton | Continue reading
New figures confirm toll of the coronavirus on hospital patients during UK’s second wave, but it’s unclear what lessons this has for today | Continue reading
Data centres consume a huge amount of energy, but researchers have found a simple fix - let the servers run much hotter than they do currently | Continue reading
For about 25 years, bird flu viruses typically originated in Asia – but the virus that began spreading in 2021 arose in Europe and Africa | Continue reading
A particle accelerator that measures just 0.2 mm in length uses laser light to accelerate electrons to speeds of a hundred thousand kilometres per second | Continue reading
Numbers of invasive Chinese mitten crabs are believed to be growing in the UK, causing damage to river beds and competing with native wildlife | Continue reading
The Orionids are one of the most reliably active annual meteor showers, and with clear skies, you should see a spectacular display on 21 October from almost anywhere in the world | Continue reading
Why does mental effort lead to a more resilient brain that can withstand dementia and decline? We are now discovering the mechanisms behind this cognitive reserve, opening up new ways to boost it | Continue reading
Robots that do their job reliably can cause humans who work alongside them to be less diligent because of a phenomenon called social loafing | Continue reading