Thanks to globalisation, severe heatwaves in one part of the world can cause financial losses in another. Annual losses could reach as much as $25 trillion by 2060 if we don't curb emissions, dwarfing any previous financial crisis | Continue reading
From solar power stations in space to stabilising melting glaciers, some researchers are proposing extremely ambitious and risky projects to fight climate change. Could they work? | Continue reading
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that will require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk a nationwide ban | Continue reading
There is more lurking below the surface of Arrakis than sandworms. Dune author Frank Herbert had a keen interest in fungi, and so should we, says Corrado Nai | Continue reading
The seafloor of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was thought to provide energy and nutrients to its ocean, but it turns out that may not be possible | Continue reading
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up for the third launch of its massive Starship rocket on 14 March, following two failed missions. What will the company be hoping for and what can we expect? | Continue reading
Most physicists believe that only a quantum theory of gravity can fully explain mysteries of the universe like dark matter, but now an idea called "post-quantum gravity" is demonstrating an alternative approach | Continue reading
A ‘gene drive’ that spreads through plant populations could be used to wipe out pests such as superweeds, or to help save species by making them resistant to heat or disease | Continue reading
The James Webb Space Telescope has found an unusual galaxy in the early universe with a black hole almost half the mass of the galaxy itself, raising questions about how it formed | Continue reading
Populations of moths living in urban places may have evolved smaller wings to limit how much bright city lights disrupt their lives | Continue reading
Since their introduction in the 1800s, giant sequoia trees in the UK have grown up to 55 metres tall and capture 85 kilograms of carbon a year on average | Continue reading
The US House of Representatives is voting on a bill that would require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk a nationwide ban | Continue reading
The computers that secure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin consume large amounts of power, pushing up electricity prices and potentially contributing to climate change. Now, the US government wants to tackle the problem | Continue reading
Researchers simulated the wind damage from seven historical hurricanes to identify just a few key electrical lines that were crucial to protect the whole grid from cascading power failures | Continue reading
Most people are too risk-averse when it comes to life's biggest choices. Learning how to overcome the cognitive biases at play can help you make better decisions with fewer regrets | Continue reading
Some studies have claimed that plants emit sounds when stressed and might perceive the distress calls of other plants, but a review finds the evidence is lacking | Continue reading
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks orbits the sun every 71 years and is currently making its closest approach. Here's when and how you can see it - perhaps even during a solar eclipse | Continue reading
When the moon hides the sun in a total solar eclipse, some animals seem to think that it is briefly nighttime, while others pace anxiously or even gaze up at the sky | Continue reading
An analysis of deep-sea drill cores suggests that Mars may have enough gravitational influence to shift sediment within Earth's oceans on a 2.4-million-year cycle | Continue reading
A thought experiment in which all music is replaced with AI-generated "Taylor's Versions" should prompt us to find ways to protect data from AI corruption, warn researchers | Continue reading
The origins of Mars’s moons Phobos and Deimos have long been an enigma, but they may have been formed when a comet-like icy object slammed into the Red Planet | Continue reading
Antarctic sea ice cover remains far below average levels for the third year in a row, but researchers are uncertain whether this is a permanent shift driven by climate change or part of natural fluctuations | Continue reading
Newborns whose mothers speak two languages appear to have distinct brain responses to speech compared with those born to monolingual mothers, supporting the idea that language acquisition begins in the uterus | Continue reading
Lake sediments reveal the ancient history of Aboriginal people’s use of fire to manage the landscape, a tradition that has benefits for biodiversity | Continue reading
Bolstered by impressive clinical trials, some companies are offering ketamine therapy as an employee health benefit – but what risks are posed by the drug's newfound popularity? | Continue reading
Unlike most other animals, the cave-dwelling Mexican tetra doesn’t get a fatty liver when it is malnourished – and its secrets could lead to medical benefits for other species | Continue reading
Two fossil claws found on Seymour Island reveal that phorusrhacids, or terror birds, lived in Antarctica 50 million years ago and were probably the apex predator | Continue reading
Physical injuries, mental health issues and malnutrition are widespread in Gaza – and major health groups have no firm plans to address the impending crisis | Continue reading
Palestinians face a protracted health disaster as physical injuries, mental health issues and malnutrition are widespread in Gaza – and major health groups have no firm plans to address it | Continue reading
A remotely controlled robot with an inflatable foot that oozes mucus can crawl across surfaces like a snail, and could inspire soft medical robots that move through mucus-lined cavities in the human body | Continue reading
A memory device that temporarily saves quantum information could become an important addition to quantum networks because it would allow users to salvage information if it fails to transfer properly | Continue reading
Four years after being restored with steel frames, coral reefs in Indonesia damaged by blast fishing grow at the same rate as healthy reefs, but they have lower levels of species diversity | Continue reading
Researchers restored degraded lithium-ion batteries to nearly full capacity by injecting them with a chemical that creates more charged particles inside them | Continue reading
When answering questions posed in Chinese, French, German or Russian, large language models seem to process the queries in English, which could create cultural issues | Continue reading
South of New Orleans, a project to divert the Mississippi river could restore ecosystems destroyed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and build new land to protect against sea level rise | Continue reading
All known natural phenomena fit into just a few categories and unifying them all is quantum field theory, says physicist Matt Strassler | Continue reading
As a clownfish spends time with an anemone, its mucus coating begins to change. Chemical tweaks to sugars in the slime may calm stinging cells in anemone tentacles | Continue reading
A total solar eclipse is a unique experience. From shadow bands to the sun’s majestic corona and pinkish prominences, here’s what you can expect to see | Continue reading
After hatching from eggs, young ringed caecilians feed on their mother’s skin, but also on a milk-like substance secreted from her rear end | Continue reading
The results, of 13 per cent weight loss after three months, need to be confirmed by larger and longer studies, but are seen as promising | Continue reading
Quantum computing firm D-Wave says its machines are the first to achieve "computational supremacy" by solving a practically useful problem that would otherwise take millions of years on an ordinary supercomputer | Continue reading
Mass mortality events at salmon farms have been getting more frequent since 2011, sometimes killing millions of fish at once, with causes including heatwaves and poor living conditions | Continue reading
By rotating a tank of water at 75 revolutions per minute, it’s possible to replicate some of the stunning, swirling patterns on Jupiter’s surface | Continue reading
An experimental Alzheimer's treatment involving sounds and flickering lights also prevented a decline in mental sharpness among mice having chemotherapy | Continue reading
Large language models still demonstrate racial prejudice against speakers of African American English, despite the safety guard rails implemented by tech companies such as OpenAI | Continue reading
February was the ninth month in a row to set a global heat record, with global average temperatures 1.77°C above the pre-industrial average for the month | Continue reading
People with artery plaques containing microplastics were about four times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those with plastic-free plaques | Continue reading
Dogs with a mutation in the POMC gene, common in Labradors and flat-coated retrievers, have a stronger appetite for snacks between meals and a lower metabolic rate | Continue reading