A huge black hole in a distant galaxy caused the largest explosion we have ever seen, with the energy of 10 billion suns – and it isn't clear why it was so big | Continue reading
Stranger Things, Black Mirror and Russian Doll are among the best science fiction shows to watch on Netflix at the moment | Continue reading
A private satellite that’s low on fuel could survive five more years because another satellite has come to its rescue – a technique that could be used by future service spacecraft | Continue reading
Lose your bearings in an unfamiliar landscape and fear shreds your navigational brain. But studies are now revealing the common mistakes lost people make, helping rescue teams to find them before it’s too late | Continue reading
A new analysis suggests that 100,000 overdose deaths in the US due to unspecified drugs were actually caused by opioids – bringing the total death count to more than 450,000 people | Continue reading
A private satellite that’s low on fuel could survive five more years because another satellite has come to its rescue – a technique that could be used by future service spacecraft | Continue reading
Listening to songs is a complex task for the brain, so it uses the left hemisphere to process the lyrics while the right hemisphere processes the melody | Continue reading
We knew that some fish glowed when placed under certain lights, but researchers have now shown that many amphibians can also shine bright | Continue reading
A worm-like creature from 518 million years ago evolved to lose its back legs, the earliest known example of an animal losing body parts it no longer needed | Continue reading
One kind of bacteria can cause colon tumours, while lacking another kind of microbe may lead to ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel condition | Continue reading
With the covid-19 virus spreading in a growing number of countries, many of us are wondering if and how we should prepare. Here's what to do | Continue reading
Christopher Medina-Kirchner used to be a drug dealer. Now he is a researcher looking at their effects, and says society's views on drugs and addiction need updating | Continue reading
Tech firms are making record profits but paying little tax. Now global leaders are discussing ways to make them pay their fair share | Continue reading
The UK government’s approval for a third runway to be built at Heathrow is unlawful because it doesn't consider the Paris climate deal, the Court of Appeal has ruled | Continue reading
The UK government’s approval for a third runway to be built at Heathrow is illegal because it doesn't consider the Paris climate deal, the Court of Appeal has ruled | Continue reading
Genetic analysis suggests that the Himalayan and Chinese red pandas are two different species that diverged about 200,000 years ago | Continue reading
China’s Yutu-2 rover has used radar to peer 40 metres under the surface of the far side of the moon and revealed how past impacts have shaped its geology | Continue reading
We’re used to tweaking our digital selves to look thinner or more attractive. A new generation of Instagram filters could drastically change how we perceive ourselves | Continue reading
Stress or infection may prompt viruses hidden in our genome to stagger back to life, contributing to some cases of multiple sclerosis, diabetes and schizophrenia | Continue reading
Encouraging the growth of benign bacteria is a tasty way to preserve vegetables, such as with this easy kimchi recipe, says Sam Wong | Continue reading
Earth’s atmosphere thankfully provides air for us to breathe, but when trying to study interesting objects in space it causes all sorts of problems, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Continue reading
Lose your bearings in an unfamiliar landscape and fear shreds your navigational brain. But studies are now revealing the common mistakes lost people make, helping rescue teams to find them before it’s too late | Continue reading
Electric scooters are a nightmare. Rented by the minute, they clog up pavements and are an ungainly eyesore, but we still need them, says Donna Lu | Continue reading
The annual New Scientist/SRG salary survey shows that science careers remained hugely satisfying despite the economic turmoil of 2019 | Continue reading
Astronomers have spotted an asteroid that has been captured by Earth's gravity, making it a temporary mini-moon. It will probably fly away again in April | Continue reading
A new movie reimagines H.G. Wells's novel The Invisible Man. We still can't make people invisible, but it is possible to make tiny objects completely disappear | Continue reading
Just how humans evolved the stiff feet that allow us to walk and run has been something of a mystery, but now researchers say a bony arch structure is the key | Continue reading
Everyone seems to agree trees are a major solution to climate change, but there is a danger that mass reforestation could see us to continue pumping carbon into the atmosphere | Continue reading
With outbreaks in multiple countries, the new coronavirus looks like a pandemic, but the World Health Organization won't declare one because governments may react in the wrong way | Continue reading
A cache of Denisovan tools shows how these extinct humans moved from using sharp stone flakes 150,000 years ago to stone blades and chisels around 60,000 years ago | Continue reading
As recently as 110 years ago, Aboriginal Australians used dingoes to help hunt kangaroos even though the canines are feral and difficult to train | Continue reading
The enormous black hole at the centre of the Milky Way was active millions of years ago, and its intense X-rays may have formed some molecules necessary for life | Continue reading
Why is there something rather than nothing? We’re finally making enough antimatter to extract an answer – and it might reveal the dark side of the universe too | Continue reading
All animals rely on oxygen at least at some stage of their life, but a parasite that infects fish seems to have completely lost the ability to use it – where it gets its energy from is still a mystery | Continue reading
Seagulls are known for aggressively attempting to swipe people's food, and it seems that when given the choice between identical meals, they favour the one handled by humans | Continue reading
Healthy grey whales are four times more likely to become stranded when solar activity produces lots of radio noise, suggesting solar storms may be blinding their ability to sense magnetic fields | Continue reading
People with severe brain injuries can be unable to communicate. Now brain scanners are being used to see if some can tell doctors what kind of care they want | Continue reading
Durian fruits, famous for their bad smell, could be used to make electrodes in ultra-fast chargers for electric cars and gadgets | Continue reading
Around 60,000 new seeds are being safeguarded in an Arctic vault, including sacred corn from the Cherokee Nation, Brazilian onions, and European crab apples | Continue reading
Around 60,000 new seeds are being safeguarded in an Arctic vault, including sacred corn from the Cherokee Nation, Brazilian onions, and European crab apples | Continue reading
A woman was denied a liver transplant after repeatedly failing alcohol tests – but she hadn’t been drinking. It turns out that yeast in her bladder was to blame | Continue reading
Researchers have finally demonstrated that cloud seeding leads to a measurable increase in precipitation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is worth doing | Continue reading
It was thought all animals needed oxygen to survive, but a parasite that infects fish has completely lost the ability to use oxygen to generate energy | Continue reading
Using the word ‘pandemic’ to describe the novel coronavirus outbreak could cause fear, according to Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization | Continue reading
Australia’s recent extreme wildfires burned 5.8 million hectares of forest, destroying about one fifth of the forest biome in eastern Australia over four months | Continue reading
The Good Place, a sitcom on Netflix about an afterlife with characters who represent me at my worst – and best – is over, but I can’t stop rewatching the show, says Chelsea Whyte | Continue reading
Healthy grey whales are four times more likely to become stranded when solar activity produces lots of radio noise, suggesting solar storms may be blinding their ability to sense magnetic fields | Continue reading
NASA’s InSight lander has been on the surface of Mars for over a year now – here are five of its strangest and most fascinating discoveries from the Red Planet | Continue reading