Bolivia accounts for 9 per cent of all primary forest lost across the globe, and conservationists fear deforestation will only increase due to the government’s desire to expand agricultural production | Continue reading
An increased awareness of ADHD symptoms in adulthood may be prompting people to seek a diagnosis | Continue reading
A researcher won a bet by performing an experiment a colleague said wouldn't work. The result was the largest quasicrystal ever made | Continue reading
Pygmy right whales are evolutionarily distinct and may be part of a whale family long thought to be extinct | Continue reading
A ring wormhole is one that you could simply step through, like a portal through space – but new, more detailed models have shown that they could be a portal through time as well | Continue reading
The US actors’ union is striking over disagreement with Hollywood studios about using AI to create "digital twins" of actors, and the results could determine the viability of acting as a career | Continue reading
Regular exercise prevents neurons crucial for movement from degrading in rats with symptoms of Parkinson's disease, potentially explaining why consistent physical activity can slow the advancement of symptoms | Continue reading
Fish, shrimp and other creatures were found in much lower numbers 13 months after a deep-sea mining test in the Pacific Ocean | Continue reading
Found in a Brazilian cave, the remarkable specimen of a ground sloth fetus inside its mother offers a rare insight into the developmental biology of the extinct mammal | Continue reading
A report from the World Health Organization contradicts current mainstream health advice to choose food and drinks with sweeteners instead of sugar | Continue reading
An experiment in which pigs showed an inclination to help other group members suggests they have an altruistic streak – but selfish motivations can’t be ruled out | Continue reading
Every additional year before a woman gives birth to her last child is associated with an extra 22 days of life | Continue reading
India has launched its Chandrayaan-3 mission, which aims to explore the south pole of the moon by rover, completing a scientific mission that was first attempted in 2019 but ended in catastrophic failure due to a software glitch | Continue reading
Large numbers of dead fish have been seen in many UK rivers in recent weeks, and researchers warn that climate change will lead to more such events | Continue reading
Llamas are able to learn from other llamas and even more effectively from humans, possibly because thousands of years of domestication gave them the ability to read human social cues | Continue reading
The minuscule fluctuations of seemingly empty space can be controlled just enough to make the building blocks of a new type of computer | Continue reading
Genetically editing poplar trees reduces the resources required to harvest their wood's cellulose, which makes up paper | Continue reading
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the oral contraceptive Opill for use without a prescription. It is the first hormonal contraceptive available over the counter in the US | Continue reading
Faecal transplants alleviated nerve pain in people with diabetes, suggesting gut bacteria may play a role in causing such pain | Continue reading
A fossil has been identified as an ancient alligator species with a very short snout, ridged skull and teeth made for crushing hard shells, suggesting that it may have munched on snails along with other prey | Continue reading
Many northern countries including the UK must adapt homes to cope with hot weather, a study warns – but there are ways to do this without increasing energy use | Continue reading
Elon Musk has announced a new project called xAI that plans to “understand the true nature of the universe”. Here’s what we know so far | Continue reading
Contrary to Silicon Valley wisdom, training AIs on larger data sets could worsen their tendency to replicate societal biases and racist stereotypes | Continue reading
The Magellanic stream is a cloud of dust and gas that wraps around our galaxy. It has long been thought to host stars, but they have never been seen until now | Continue reading
A scheduling algorithm can help redistribute AI workloads among data centres to minimise the environmental impact on regions experiencing water shortages or fossil fuel pollution | Continue reading
An analysis of bones from the La Brea tar pits in California reveals that sabre-toothed tigers and dire wolves had very high rates of osteochondrosis, which may stem from a dwindling gene pool as they neared extinction | Continue reading
Colossal bubbles of hot gas observed around three distant, supermassive black holes are probably the result of powerful winds, which could also be preventing the formation of new stars in those galaxies | Continue reading
A vaccine induced an immune response against the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, which can remain dormant in the body and cause a relapse of symptoms | Continue reading
You thought the maze looked fun, but now you can’t find your way out. Luckily, mathematics is here to help you escape, says Katie Steckles | Continue reading
A recent US surgeon general’s report on social media use and youth mental health warns of a "profound risk of harm". But it also highlights the upsides, says Jennifer Abbasi | Continue reading
The desert kingdom’s much-hyped, zero-carbon linear city has been dismissed as greenwashing, but there is some truth to the claim the country wants to be more sustainable, finds Graham Lawton | Continue reading
William returns home to recover after a terrible car accident leaves his world in pieces. Great performances and a chilling script make for an intriguing debut, says Simon Ings | Continue reading
Ideas that people should lose weight “the hard way” rather than take semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are holding back progress in the fight against obesity | Continue reading
Brad Fox's vivid retelling of the voyages of the first deep-sea submersible is full of fascinating technology, novel marine discoveries – and unusual scientists | Continue reading
The playfully named Loo Gardens in the Thames Tideway Tunnel is an art installation intended to replicate the flora and fauna of the river | Continue reading
The human microbiome has a big influence on our health and yet, rather like dark matter in cosmology, its story is still unfolding, says a tantalising book covering the future of medicine from James Kinross | Continue reading
A group of 51 superconducting qubits have been entangled inside a quantum computer, not just in pairs but in a complex system that entangles each qubit to every other one | Continue reading
Plastic was found at nearly all of the 84 coral reefs studied across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans | Continue reading
A trend towards greener seas revealed by satellite images is probably down to changes in ocean plankton communities, which could have repercussions for marine life and carbon storage | Continue reading
Quantum computers have been shown to solve some problems faster than ordinary computers, but so far all these problems have had little application. A quantum Monte Carlo algorithm could change that | Continue reading
A handful of “rules” govern how evolution shapes life on Earth, from island gigantism to colours shifting with latitude – and offer clues about how animals and plants might adapt to a warming world | Continue reading
Plastic is commonly used on farms in irrigation pipes or sheets to cover crops, but can reduce soil quality | Continue reading
After a year of producing incredible imagery, the James Webb Space Telescope team has released a picture of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, Earth's closest star-forming region | Continue reading
A pair of common redstarts and a pair of black redstarts were seen brooding in the same nest in Italy – a kind of cooperative breeding that has never been documented before | Continue reading
Preliminary studies show that psilocybin, a compound in magic mushrooms, reduces pain in people with chronic Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and migraines. But without effective control groups the evidence is far from conclusive | Continue reading
Researchers have identified hundreds of potential biomarkers that may be involved in the physical signs of ageing | Continue reading
The James Webb Telescope revealed its first images of deep space on July 12 2022 – here’s a look back at one year of awe-inspiring images and confounding scientific discoveries | Continue reading
Most snakes can see a limited range of colours, but the blue-banded sea snake has regained genes lost millions of years ago that may let them see ultraviolet and blue light | Continue reading