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A new technique uses glowing molecules, laser light and microscopes to measure distances as minuscule as 0.1 nanometres – the width of a typical atom

Nearly 6000 species and subspecies of earthworms have been identified by scientists – but the true number could top 30,000

The ion tail of C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) could appear as a blue streak across the northern hemisphere sky during October, in a rare event thought to happen only every few decades

Hurricanes have kept forecasters guessing this year, but with the arrival of intense storms like Helene and Milton it is clear that warming ocean waters are having an effect on the weather

A mathematical proof shows that some quantum states can resist nature’s tendency to disorder – but only under very specific conditions

Discoveries from the genomes of the last Neanderthals are rewriting the story of how our own species came to replace them

Ancient volcanic rock from South Africa has been found to harbour primitive bacteria, which may shed light on some of the earliest forms of life on Earth

Two of the three science Nobel prizes in 2024 have been won by people working in AI, but does this mean that AI models are now vital for science?

New technologies will radically change the experience of living with and caring for someone with Alzheimer's, says Professor Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer at Alzheimer's Society, UK

The latest neuroscience shows that, contrary to a lot of productivity advice, the drive to make the most of every waking moment will diminish your capacity for creative thinking

How well do we look after people who are seriously sick? Astonishingly, research is scant – which makes Neil Vickers and Derek Bolton's ambitious new book, Being Ill, very welcome

Hurricanes often produce tornadoes that add to the destructive power of the storm – and climate change may make such tornadoes more common

Popular weight-loss medications including Ozempic and Wegovy contain a drug that seems to decrease cravings for food and drugs – and now there’s evidence that it might make exercise less rewarding, too

The Nobel committees seem to have an unfortunate habit of overlooking women and Black people when it comes to science – this must change, says Alexandra Thompson

The discovery that certain smells can be linked to specific neurons is helping us understand how the brain encodes concepts

We might not be able to cool the world down again after overshooting the 1.5°C warming limit – and even if we can, a lot of irreversible damage will have been done

The discovery that a small blue blob of neurons, the locus coeruleus, controls your mode of thinking suggests ways to increase learning, creativity, focus and alertness

If gravity is a truly quantum entity, something as simple as measuring the strength of an object’s gravitational field should change its quantum state

David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have been awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry for research on predicting protein structures and designing new proteins

More than 600 types of viruses that infect bacteria have been found living on toothbrushes and showerheads – and many of them have never been seen before

An army of tadpoles and a stretching lynx are just some of the incredible photos winning accolades at the annual competition

Brain scans of people tasting squirts of hot sauce have revealed how positive and negative expectations can influence brain activity patterns for pleasure and pain

It is thought that humans can only maintain relationships with around 150 people, a figure known as Dunbar's number, but it seems that AI models can outstrip this and reach consensus in far bigger groups

Key climate indicators from greenhouse gas levels to ice loss have reached record levels this year in what researchers call a “critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”

Gears just a few micrometres wide can be carved from silicon using a beam of electrons, enabling tiny robots or machines that could interact with human cells

The 2024 Nobel prize in physics has gone to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for discoveries that enabled machine learning and are key to the development of artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT

Daniele Oriti’s pursuit of a theory of quantum gravity has led him to the startling conclusion that the laws of nature don’t exist independently of us – a perspective shift that could yield fresh breakthroughs

Neuroscientists have been surprised to discover that the human brain is teeming with microbes, and we are beginning to suspect they could play a role in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's

While the 20th century saw rapid rises in average life expectancy at birth, more recent years have seen a slowdown, suggesting we may be reaching the limit of human lifespan

A pair of ctenophores, or comb jellies, can fuse their bodies together, merging their digestive and nervous systems, without any issues with immune rejection

Two more people in the US have tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, highlighting the need for expanded influenza surveillance to prevent a potential pandemic

Motion sensors in smartphones can be turned into makeshift microphones to eavesdrop on conversations, outsmarting security features designed to stop such attacks

The 2024 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery that tiny pieces of RNA called microRNAs play a key role in controlling genes

Apathy can overcome many of us – even our advice columnist, David Robson. Here are some tips on getting back your lust for life

Understanding the “effort paradox” can help you reshape your relationship to exertion so that you commit to those hard but truly meaningful activities

In What's Next? Bill Gates digs into AI, climate, inequality, malaria and more. But the man looms too large for alternative solutions to emerge, says Bethan Ackerley

Confidence in politics is falling around the world. Can scientific insights help us create a fairer, smarter foundation for government?

For years, it seemed MDMA-assisted therapy would revolutionise PTSD treatment. But poor trial design and alleged misconduct ultimately stopped the treatment from receiving government approval

Hurricane Helene hit a quartz mine in North Carolina that is key to global semiconductor production, which could impact the entire tech industry. Here is everything we know so far

Mathematician Tom Crawford explains what P versus NP means – and what makes the problem so fiendishly difficult to solve

A detector on the International Space Station found signatures of unexpectedly abundant antimatter – which may have been created in clashes of dark matter particles

Bacteria grown from carbon compounds in asteroids could be turned into a kind of nutritionally balanced milkshake

Satellite images of the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands reveal that the area covered by vegetation grew dramatically between 1986 and 2021 and the rate of growth has accelerated since 2016

El Niño and La Niña cycles driven by ocean temperatures in the Pacific can influence weather in the North Atlantic 12 months later – a finding that could improve long-range forecasts

A young boy who lived towards the end of the last glacial period had dark skin, blue eyes and a congenital heart condition, a study of his genome reveals

The European Space Agency is sending a probe to get a closer look at the asteroid Dimorphos, which had its orbit altered by NASA’s DART mission in 2022

Andrew McConnell's otherworldly photograph captures a Russian cosmonaut in front of the just-landed Soyuz MS spacecraft in Kazakhstan's remote grasslands

The first 18 satellites of a planned Chinese mega constellation are brighter than all but 500 stars in the sky, raising fears of a huge impact on astronomy

A monkey that performed poorly on vision tests did much better after having a stem cell transplant to patch up holes in its retina

A computer simulation suggests that some collisions between exotic, hypothetical stars would make space-time ripple with detectable waves

Snoring is often viewed as harmless, at least to the snorer, but we are now uncovering its potentially serious effects on cardiovascular health. And finding ways to stop is surprisingly challenging

We're finally pinning down the mechanisms that drive obsessive-compulsive disorder, revealing a complex combination of imbalanced brain networks, the immune system and even gut microbes

A traditional yogurt-making practice from south-eastern Europe uses live ants as a starter, with the insects providing the bacteria and acid needed to initiate fermentation

Techno-Orientalism is a strand of futurism that condemns and erases Asian cultural power. We need to eradicate it, says Annalee Newitz

The epilepsy medication sodium valproate is linked to developmental problems in fetuses, but lab studies may now have found a way to prevent this

Feedback is pleased to find that researchers are finally exploring if skin redness is a good indication of "the affective state of hens"

Smartphones have indeed created an "anxious generation", but it isn't young people, it is their parents, argues neuroscientist Dean Burnett

Musing on John Lewis-Stempel's latest book, England: A natural history, James McConnachie marks the flowering of other, more diverse voices in nature writing

AI chatbots from Google and Microsoft sometimes parrot disinformation when answering questions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – but their performance depends on language and changes over time

Machines are fighting machines on the Ukrainian battlefield, as a technological arms race has given birth to a new way to wage war

Google DeepMind claims its AlphaChip AI method can deliver “superhuman” chip designs that are already used in its data centres – but independent experts say public proof is lacking

With just one week to go until the world's greatest festival of ideas and discoveries, New Scientist editor Catherine de Lange reveals what you can expect from the show this year

If artificial intelligence chatbots are fine-tuned to improve their responses using human feedback, they can become more likely to give deceptive answers that seem right but aren’t

Captive dolphins are more likely to make an open-mouthed expression when their playmate can see them and they often reciprocate, hinting that it is a form of visual communication

The compound creatine, a popular exercise supplement that only occurs naturally in animal products, could one day be produced in edible plants

Male pattern baldness could soon be a thing of the past, with new hair loss treatments beginning to show tantalising results

People report greater life satisfaction six months after starting Parkrun events, which could partly be due to the supportive environment

Cracks running through samples of asteroid Ryugu were probably formed by the repeated thawing and freezing of water inside it, which could have helped asteroids like this carry the building blocks of life to early Earth

A better understanding of what happens to our bodies when we get fitter can unlock ways to speed up the journey – and it might be simpler than you think

A new diet based on research into the body's ageing process suggests you can increase your life expectancy by up to 20 years by changing what, when and how much you eat

The latest research on caffeine reveals why coffee and decaf can be so good for your health, but energy drinks can be lethal

Time travel from Alan Moore and Pride and Prejudice in space? There's plenty on offer for science fiction fans this October

Astronomers have detected an exoplanet around Barnard’s star, one of the sun’s closest neighbours, but it is too hot for liquid water or life

Unravelling the complex biological process that allows fish to regrow injured fins could help advance regenerative medicine in humans

Fishers in Albania caught a blue shark with an 18-centimetre fragment of swordfish bill embedded in its skull, in the first known case of a shark surviving such an injury

Google, Microsoft and others have taken big steps towards error-free devices, hinting that quantum computers that solve real problems aren’t far away

Plankton that lived during the last glacial maximum have helped confirm the accuracy of our climate models – suggesting the predictions those models make about future El Niño events are accurate too

Coral reefs around the world are at risk of collapse due to rising temperatures and acidifying oceans, but the natural adaptability of some species may help buy time

Rapid erosion caused by a geological act of “piracy” tens of thousands of years ago may have raised Earth’s crust and elevated Mount Everest by as much as 50 metres

Though it was first predicted in the 1930s, chemists have just now managed to create a covalent bond that only uses one electron

A beam of radioactive carbon ions has been used to destroy cancer cells in mice, demonstrating a therapy that may cause less collateral damage than current techniques

New research is revealing that common sense is a lot more idiosyncratic than we thought, with important implications for tackling political polarisation and the future of AI

Bake Off finalist and chemical biologist Josh Smalley shares his recipe for the perfect caramel sauce with Catherine de Lange

Mosquito larvae die after consuming hemp leaves because they react strongly to the cannabidiol in the foliage. The discovery might lead to the development of a new pesticide to control mosquito numbers

Our immune cells change a lot as the decades progress, which could explain why we become more susceptible to certain conditions

A US standards agency has issued new guidance saying organisations shouldn’t require users to change their passwords periodically – advice that is backed up by decades of research

Bacteria that have been genetically engineered to work like computers can solve a range of problems, using a very simple type of artificial intelligence

A flurry of studies has found microplastics in nearly every organ in the human body, from the brain to the testicles. But very few have revealed whether these tiny bits of plastic impact our health

An AI-assisted analysis of satellite images suggests the vapour trails produced by aircraft have a net cooling effect in the daytime because they reflect sunlight back into space

These dazzling images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are from the upcoming book Cosmos: Explore the wonders of the universe, which has a foreword by astrophysicist Becky Smethurst

What if tech bros ruled the world, asks Asif Kapadia's 2073. This docudrama is captivating and disturbing, but lacks enough heft to stand out

For an undercover operative, Sadie Smith takes unnecessary risks as she infiltrates an eco-activist group. Why? And where do the Neanderthals fit into Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner's Booker-shortlisted climate fiction novel? Emily H. Wilson loved finding out

Voice assistants can build profiles of their users’ habits and preferences, but the consistency and accuracy of these profiles vary

Astronomers listened for radio signals emanating from planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, but found no evidence of any interplanetary communications

Northern sea robins are formidable marine hunters, and they owe their success to modified fin rays that let them find prey buried in the seabed

There has been plenty of controversy over GM crops, but if deployed well they could have a positive environmental impact, says Graham Lawton

It has become trivially easy to use artificial intelligence to edit images or generate video to remove unwanted objects or beautify scenes, but doing so leads to people misremembering what they have seen

Tree ring data reveals the impact a fluctuating jet stream has had on Europe for 700 years – and sheds light on future risks amid our warming planet

Replacing some existing vegetable oil crops with camellia oil could boost production while reducing environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions

Feedback explores the painstaking science of hair-pulling, and learns that experts have discovered that its effects can range from "hot-burning" to "aching"