Like its rival BP, Shell claims it is committed to reaching net zero by 2050 despite planning to increase its output this decade, but experts say this doesn’t add up | Continue reading
For good or ill, dividing people up along generational lines with names and traits to fit seems hard to resist. What's going on, asks a new book that sets out to find the real differences | Continue reading
Politicians think that climate policy is a vote loser because people see it as a "tomorrow" issue. But immediate worries about the air we breathe offer a way to shift the dial, says London's mayor Sadiq Khan | Continue reading
From self-driving cars to humanoid robots, the world of robotics is a long way from talk of artificial intelligence causing human extinction. It's a breath of fresh air, says Alex Wilkins | Continue reading
Grasping anything much about our universe depends on complex computer models that can simulate reality. Andrew Pontzen was sceptical about such simulations but now, as his new book shows, he's an enthusiastic guide | Continue reading
What made Doug and Kristine Tompkins quit their corporate lifestyle and start buying swathes of unused land in South America? An engrossing documentary tells their story, says Simon Ings | Continue reading
We are often told to add used coffee grounds to garden soil to perk up plants. But the science doesn’t support this, says James Wong | Continue reading
Almost a year after its first images were released, the James Webb Space Telescope is living up to the hype, and its price tag, by revolutionising our understanding of the universe | Continue reading
Researchers at IBM pitted their 127-qubit Eagle quantum computer against a conventional supercomputer in a challenge to perform a complex calculation – and the quantum computer won | Continue reading
Ultrasound is most familiar to us as a non-invasive imaging technology used during pregnancy – now it is in clinical trials as a powerful new tool for treating all sorts of medical conditions | Continue reading
Astronomers have spotted white dwarfs moving faster than any free-moving star seen before – so fast they must have been launched by supernovae | Continue reading
Despite numerous people claiming to have seen big cats in the UK, there is no hard evidence they exist | Continue reading
Male harbour seals use vocalisations to woo females and they appear to learn these songs years before they need them | Continue reading
Tiliqua frangens, a giant, armoured skink that lived over 40,000 years ago, is the latest bizarre megafauna species to be discovered in Australia | Continue reading
Genetic experiments have identified a small group of neurons in the brain of fruit flies that respond to the sight of fly corpses and trigger accelerated ageing | Continue reading
Human skull and shinbone fragments found in a cave in northern Laos suggest modern humans may have been in South-East Asia between 68,000 and 86,000 years ago, considerably further back than the previous estimates of around 50,000 years | Continue reading
A few months ago, the James Webb Space Telescope spotted six early galaxies that were so large they threatened to break our best theory of how the cosmos evolved. Did they? | Continue reading
Black rhinos are commonly dehorned to prevent poaching, but monitoring data suggests the practice may have an impact on their social interactions | Continue reading
Recent research is revealing how air pollution damages many parts of the body, who is most at risk and how heatwaves exacerbate the effects | Continue reading
The microbes that insects harbour may have played a key role in shaping the diets and driving the diversification of inspect species | Continue reading
People who were played fake translations in their sleep could recall which category of words they belonged to when they woke up | Continue reading
Clouds of dust blown from the Sahara desert generally have a cooling effect on the North Atlantic, but the winds that blow the dust are weaker than usual, possibly due to El Niño | Continue reading
The fungal parasite Nosema is deadly to honeybee colonies and evolving resistance to fungicides, but engineered bacteria may help bees resist infection | Continue reading
Zebrafish eggs contain a compound called gadusol that acts as a sunscreen to protect the developing embryos from the sun’s rays | Continue reading
Language isolates, like Chimané from Bolivia, are unrelated to any other known tongue. Studying them is revealing how languages evolve and influence our perception of the world around us | Continue reading
A galaxy seen 700 million years after the big bang appears surprisingly mature, suggesting some pockets of the early universe were more tranquil than expected | Continue reading
Ants infected by the parasite don't work, are cared for by uninfected workers and live much longer than usual | Continue reading
A vegetable-growing trial has pitted expert human gardeners against an AI-powered robot – both produced comparable crops, but the robot used about 40 per cent less water | Continue reading
Alligator ponds have a greater diversity and abundance of plants and animals compared with the surrounding marsh, and offer aquatic refuge in dry months | Continue reading
Prion diseases are invariably fatal, but an experimental genetic treatment has dramatically extended the lifespans of infected mice | Continue reading
Researchers have identified a brain circuit that causes mice to show signs of being afraid when high up, with a similar mechanism expected to also occur in people | Continue reading
People who are genetically predisposed to have higher levels of Fusicatenibacter bacteria scored better on verbal and mathematical tests, while those with more Oxalobacter scored lower | Continue reading
An analysis of over 800 hours of footage from busy pedestrian areas in Japan found that pairs of people that share stronger social bonds are less likely to physically bump into other people walking | Continue reading
An equation developed to describe the motion of undulating animals and robots looks like the famous Schrödinger equation from quantum mechanics | Continue reading
Metformin, which is commonly used to control blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, was more effective than placebo at preventing lingering complications 10 months after a coronavirus infection | Continue reading
Harvestmen can shed legs when attacked by predators, but this survival tactic may have lifelong ramifications for the future sexual strategies of young males | Continue reading
If any alien civilisations have spotted the new supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel galaxy, they may use it to try to make contact | Continue reading
John Vaillant chronicles the most destructive fire in Canada’s history, and explores what lies ahead, in this timely book | Continue reading
The hunt for extraterrestrial spacecraft has generally been scattered and disorganised, but now NASA is collecting all the data in one place to try to find out if any UFOs really are alien ships | Continue reading
Robotic dogs do better than humans at identifying nests of invasive fire ants. The robots could be useful in helping eradicate an invasive species that packs a venomous sting | Continue reading
Water samples from the river Ouseburn in Newcastle upon Tyne during a rainstorm reveal high levels of faecal bacteria caused by raw sewage discharges | Continue reading
A drop of very cold liquid helium can be made to float for an indefinitely long time using strong magnets and quantum effects | Continue reading
Headlines about alien flu from outer space exaggerate the risk of extraterrestrial microbes but we still need to be careful about taking our own germs off-planet, says astrophysicist Erika Nesvold | Continue reading
Thousands of people have been evacuated due to the breach of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine. In a briefing, a minister for the Ukraine government explained how it is also harming ecosystems and farms | Continue reading
Mice had longer lives and monkeys stayed healthier as they aged when given taurine supplements | Continue reading
A chip-sized device can manipulate particles of sound in a way that mimics how particles of light are used in light-based quantum computers, opening the door for building sound-based quantum computers | Continue reading
From a photograph of algae choking an Indian river to a shocking depiction of the wearing away of the UK coast, these are some of the pictures in the running for the contest | Continue reading
When the temperature drops, octopuses recode their RNA in thousands of places to alter the proteins made in their nerve cells | Continue reading