Who were the first humans to reach the British Isles? As ancient humans left Africa, they encountered many harsh environments including the Sahara and the high Arctic, but one of the last places they inhabited was Britain, likely due to the relentless cold and damp climate ⌘ Read more

Paralysed man can feel objects through another person's hand Keith Thomas, a man in his 40s with no sensation or movement in his hands, is able to feel and move objects by controlling another person's hand via a brain implant. The technique might one day even allow us to experience another person's body over long distances. ⌘ Read more

Martian volcanoes may have transported ice to the planet's equator The equatorial regions of Mars are home to unexpectedly enormous layers of ice, and they may have been put there by dramatic volcanic eruptions billions of years ago ⌘ Read more

We’re finally reading the secrets of Herculaneum’s lost library A whole library’s worth of papyri owned by Julius Caesar’s father-in-law were turned to charcoal by the eruption of Vesuvius. Nearly 2000 years later, we can at last read these lost treasures ⌘ Read more

'Pregnancy test' for skeletons could help reveal ancient mothers Progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone can be detected in skeletons over 1000 years old, offering a way to identify individuals who died while pregnant or soon after giving birth ⌘ Read more

Mother's voice seems to boost language development in premature babies Babies born too soon seem to have stronger connections in one of the major brain areas that supports language processing if they regularly heard their mother read them a story while in intensive care ⌘ Read more

Your diet is probably dangerously acidic but there’s a simple solution Nutrition scientists have unlocked an entirely new way of thinking about why certain foods are good for you and others are harmful. Here’s what to eat to function at your best ⌘ Read more

Chatbots work best when you speak to them with formal language Are you terse and informal when speaking to an AI chatbot? If so, you might be getting worse answers than if you used more formal language ⌘ Read more

A black hole fell into a star – then ate its way out again Stars often fall into black holes, and now it seems the opposite can also occur, producing an extra long-lasting explosion as the star is consumed from within ⌘ Read more

What makes a quantum computer good? Claims that one quantum computer is better than another rest on terms like quantum advantage or quantum supremacy, fault-tolerance or qubits with better coherence – what does it all mean? Karmela Padavic-Callaghan sifts through the noise ⌘ Read more

Coral reefs are at a tipping point after surging global temperatures Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences ⌘ Read more

Physicists are uncovering when nature’s strongest force falters The strong nuclear force may abruptly loosen its grip on the fundamental particles that make up matter at a special “critical point” – researchers are now getting a clearer picture of when that point is reached ⌘ Read more

Serum based on plant extracts boosts hair growth in weeks Applying a daily serum that contains extracts of a tropical plant improved hair density and strand thickness in just 56 days ⌘ Read more

Evolution of intelligence in our ancestors may have come at a cost By tracing when variations in the human genome first appeared, researchers have found that advances in cognitive abilities may have led to our vulnerability to mental illness ⌘ Read more

'Sword Dragon' ichthyosaur had enormous eyes and a lethal snout A beautifully preserved skeleton found on the UK’s Jurassic Coast has been identified as a new species of the marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs ⌘ Read more

Robotic underwater glider sets out to circumnavigate the globe Redwing, a robotic submarine about the size of a surfboard, is embarking on a five-year journey that will follow the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world ⌘ Read more

Therapy may be the most effective way to ease irritable bowel syndrome People with irritable bowel syndrome are often only given treatments like cognitive behavioural therapy after others have failed, but research suggests this approach is more effective than we thought ⌘ Read more

We've discovered another reason why naked mole rats live for so long The longevity of naked mole rats may partly be due to them having a variant of a key protein that boosts DNA repair – a discovery that could help extend our own lives ⌘ Read more

Swirly lasers can control an ungovernable cousin of magnetism Short pulses of light that impart rotation on a material's atoms can be used to switch a property called ferroaxiality, which could let us build very stable and efficient memory devices ⌘ Read more

Hidden ecosystem of the ovaries plays a surprising role in fertility A woman's fertility declines with age, which is often attributed to a fall in egg number and quality, but the environment of the ovaries themselves may also be responsible ⌘ Read more

Top 250 oil and gas firms own just 1.5% of the world's renewable power Despite public promises by many fossil fuel firms that they are investing in the green transition, it turns out that they have made little contribution to the growth of renewable energy ⌘ Read more

King Richard III's oral microbiome hints he had severe gum disease The skeleton of King Richard III, which was found beneath a car park more than a decade ago, has well-preserved teeth, allowing scientists to sequence his oral microbiome ⌘ Read more

Pig liver transplant into a living person edges it closer to the norm The first ever transplantation of a pig's liver into a living person helps us better understand how animal organs can be used to prolong, or even save, lives ⌘ Read more

Electrons inside graphene have been pushed to supersonic speeds Making electrons flow like a liquid is difficult, but inside graphene researchers forced them to move so fast that they created dramatic shockwaves ⌘ Read more

Memory chips just 10 atoms thick could vastly increase capacity A memory chip just 10 atoms thick has been tested in a lab and integrated into conventional chips, demonstrating a technology that could improve the capacity of our devices ⌘ Read more

The moon's largest crater didn't form in the way we thought The impact that carved out the South Pole-Aitken basin on the moon appears to have come from the north, not the south as previously thought – and NASA’s upcoming mission could investigate further ⌘ Read more

Selfish sperm see older fathers pass on more disease-causing mutations Older men are more likely to pass on disease-causing mutations to their children because of the faster growth of mutant cells in the testes with age ⌘ Read more

Why everything you thought you knew about your immune system is wrong Immunologist Daniel Davis wants to eradicate long-held myths and replace them with wonder at the complexity of the body’s defence system ⌘ Read more

Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for work on molecular architecture Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi have been honoured for the development of metal-organic frameworks, porous materials that can capture water or pollutants ⌘ Read more

There are five types of sleep – here's what that means for your health Scientists have identified five sleep profiles, each of which is linked to distinct mental health symptoms and brain activity patterns ⌘ Read more

Is the universe really one big black hole? According to the equations that govern black holes, the larger one of these cosmic behemoths is the lower its average density – given that the universe contains a lot of relatively empty space, could the whole cosmos be a black hole? ⌘ Read more

One of Earth’s most vital carbon sinks is faltering. Can we save it? For decades, forest, grasslands and other land ecosystems have collectively absorbed up to a third of the carbon dioxide we emit each year - but this climate buffer may be collapsing far sooner than anyone expected ⌘ Read more

Biodegradable plastic made from bamboo is strong and easy to recycle Bamboo is a highly renewable resource, and its cellulose fibres can be turned into a hard, mouldable plastic for use in cars and appliances ⌘ Read more

Nobel prize for physics goes to trio behind quantum computing chips The 2025 Nobel prize in physics has gone to three researchers, John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis, whose work has led to the development of today's quantum computers ⌘ Read more

Galaxies fling out matter much more violently than we thought An analysis of the afterglow of the big bang sheds light on how black holes distribute mass in the universe, and why some matter previously seemed to have been missing ⌘ Read more

General relativity might save some planets from death Some habitable worlds orbiting dead stars could be kept alive for aeons thanks to a quirk of Einstein’s theory of gravity ⌘ Read more

What’s my Alzheimer’s risk, and can I really do anything to change it? Can you escape your genetic inheritance, and do lifestyle changes actually make a difference? Daniel Cossins set out to understand what the evidence on Alzheimer’s really means for him ⌘ Read more

Shackleton knew his doomed ship wasn’t the strongest before sailing Endurance, the wooden ship that Ernest Shackleton took to Antarctica in 1915, wasn't built to withstand frozen seas – and the famous explorer knew it ⌘ Read more

Nobel prize for medicine goes to trio for work on immune tolerance The 2025 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries around how we keep our immune system under control ⌘ Read more

Would a ban on genetic engineering of wildlife hamper conservation? Some conservation groups are calling for an effective ban on genetic modification, but others say these technologies are crucial for preserving biodiversity ⌘ Read more