Are you an extrovert or an introvert? From personality to emotional maturity, individual differences matter when it comes to happiness.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
We often spend time thinking about how we can change ourselves rather than rejoicing in what makes us truly unique.
Analysis and Comment
Bruce Willis saved the Earth with a nuclear weapon in the 1998 film Armageddon, but the law would need to change for him to do it now.
Soybean cultivation for animal feed is destroying rainforests across the world. Microalgae may be the Amazon's closest ally.
Why some individuals age faster than others is a mystery, but new research suggests help with childcare is significant.
Tickling is an important sign that someone – or something – is touching you. An expert explains how it works.
Scientists are in a race to genetically engineer a new plant resistant to a devastating disease that is threatening to wipe out the banana.
Society needs cybersecurity professionals who can protect systems and mitigate damage.
Carbon Engineering's clever harnessing of high-school chemistry is just a small step on the path to negative emissions.
By studying old and dead stars, we can discover what will happen to our sun in the far, far future. And it won't end with a big explosion.
Putting driverless cars on the road safely is hard enough. Doing it in the air is much more difficult.
With further technology required and practical uncertainties, time is running out for them to be useful in the fight against climate change.
Israel's first moon mission failed to land successfully on the moon's surface.
Scientists turned Earth into one giant telescope to capture the uncapturable.
The first thing to know is that Siri is not a "who" – Siri is a "what".
Human changes to the living world have benefited us, but the ecological consequences are mounting.
There is currently no launch vehicle capable of launching astronauts to the moon in one go.
When you buy a film, eBook or song, you might assume that you own it outright, but that's not always the case, meaning companies may have a right to take it back from you.
Copious amounts of time spent looking at screens is likely affecting our health – so why aren't we doing anything about it?
Long-standing assumption that humans killed large mammals 4.5m years ago has been debunked by researchers -- but some experts still think humans played a part in the demise of biodiversity
Exoplanet discovery can help us work out how the Earth will end its days.
Ever heard of lexical selection? Every time you open your mouth you change the way future generations will talk.
Our flippered friends evolved from small, hooved deer-like creatures more than 50m years ago.
UK forensic science and technology is lurching from crisis to crisis. A fundamental reform of governance and policy making is needed.
Dissenter enables users to comment on any web page using a third-party forum. For better or worse, it begets implications for political behaviour online.
For the first time, an instrument orbiting Mars and a rover on the surface have detected methane simultaneously – raising hopes for finding life on the red planet.
Meteorites might look like boring bits of rock – but each one has a fascinating story.
Teeth covered in pits were common in the 2m-year-old species Paranthropus robustus.
No longer do we need to talk with shop assistants, receptionists, bus drivers or even coworkers, we simply engage with a screen to communicate whatever it is we want to say.
Growing evidence suggests that the extinction of the dinosaurs involved profound, complex and interconnected changes to the global systems that support life. Much like we are facing today.
Would you rather lose your sense of touch or your vision? Here are the pros and cons of each, according to science.
Cars that keep your speed within the limit may seem like a good idea, but the prospect of introducing the technology raises some tricky questions.
The LHCb experiment at CERN has discovered three new 'pentaquark' particles being created in high energy particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.
The idea of swarm robots has been around for some time but researchers are now looking more closely at nature for robot design inspiration.
Science fiction has made us vigilant of 'killer robots' in our midst, but they're far closer than many of us realise.
The mouse who tidied the shed he lives in fascinated human viewers, but cleanliness isn't a virtue unique to humans.
If you're in a competitive environment, be wary of people looking you directly in the eyes.
The advent of steam transformed the fishing industry after 500 years of trawling by sail. But overfishing and declining stocks put the British industry at loggerheads with that of other nations.
Your brain's sensory talents go way beyond those traditional five senses. A team of geoscientists and neurobiologists explored how the human brain monitors and responds to magnetic fields.
Researchers get their first glimpse into what happens in the brain when we consciously relinquish control over our actions and go with the flow.
When you listen very closely, the Duchess of Sussex still sounds like she's from Los Angeles.
A new experiment at CERN has discovered a source of asymmetry between matter and antimatter that could help explain why we are here at all.
Several flaws have already emerged in Facebook's new measures to stop improper political influence.
The Boeing 737 is the most produced commercial aeroplane in history – so what might have gone wrong?
What can social media platforms do after terrorist attacks?
The latest malware is designed especially to make small companies pay through the nose for their data.
There are good reasons to be sceptical of the Facecoin project.
If you believe a conspiracy theory about a specific minority group, you are more likely to have negative views about other, unrelated groups too.
It seems being in space could make us more reluctant to take risks.
Can animals find the beat in music and dance along?
A third generation of web technology could return the web to its original ideals – but do we really want it?
From the law to the media we're becoming artificial humans, mere tools of the machines.
Playing with imaginary friends in childhood is linked to being more creative as an adult.
If SpaceX wants to take humans to the International Space Station and beyond it must pull off a safe landing of its Dragon capsule.
The Lagrange mission could greatly improve forecasts of space weather.
Designing technology to feel more familiar can help older people live more independent lives.
It's not just the media who fuel unnecessary concern about so-called suicide games.
The tech giants are consistently failing to protect children.
Reading and writing may have evolved thanks to a natural ability of the brain's visual cortex to process geometrical shapes.
We talk about artistic inspiration all the time – but science demands inspiration too.
Semi-identical or sesquizygotic twins occur when two sperm fertilise one egg. A boy and a girl in Brisbane are only the second set of semi-identical twins known in the world.
India has more WhatsApp users than any other democracy – and a worrying history of 'fake news'.
Scientists have developed a robotic arm with knowledge of its physical form – a very basic sense of self.
Different languages have different ways of describing the world – and this in turn affects how speakers see the world.
An academic describes the career high of working on the most successful mission to Mars, and the little rover that made it possible.
The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted clouds and storms on the solar system's ice giants.
The AI behind retail websites has learnt the best strategy is to copy each other's prices – and that can see them 'collude' to keep them high.
Your virtual self reflects your real-life skills and values. Understanding them could help you find a more suitable job.
More evidence that the asteroid hit on Earth that marked the end of the dinosaurs could have triggered a deadly increase in volcanic activity.
How the zebra got its stripes is not only a just-so story, but an object of scientific inquiry. New research suggests that stripes help zebras evade biting flies and the deadly diseases they carry.
Techniques from topology can help us understand DNA and improve drug development.
There are three ways heat can be shared: conduction, convection and radiation. Find out which one lets heat travel through space.
Almost half of people with depression don't appear as sad as you'd expect, but are at a particularly high risk of suicide.
Rovers including 'Rosalind Franklin' will pick up where Opportunity left off – trying to answer the question of whether there is, or ever has been, life on Mars.
Local tetrapod biodiversity exploded after the dinosaurs, but has barely changed in 60m years.
Shooting stars are not stars at all. They are tiny space adventurers who accidentally wander into our sky and get sucked toward us by Earth's gravity. Here's the story of a shooting star's journey.
Newly found fossils point to a link between a rise in atmospheric oxygen and the first emergence of complex life on Earth.
New research shows teaming fungi with 'friendly' viruses could create an environmentally sustaiable and efficient way to protect crops.
Many homes are already smart – but they're about to get much smarter.
What we thought we knew about male development since the 1950s has now been turned on its head.
Changing the way we farm is necessary – for us and the planet.
Tech firms should be forced to reassess how they impact society under existing EU law.
Our brain processes the fear of regret in the same way as actual regret, making us reluctant to make changes in life.
Soft robots printed in the home? Not as far off as you might think.
Nobel Prize 2018
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to work on how to use the principles of evolution to create new medical treatments and renewable fuels.
Using lasers to trap and move particles changed the way we're able to study microscopic life.
Allison and Honjo discovered how inhibiting the brakes in our immune systems can be used to treat cancer.
Donna Strickland is the first woman in 55 years to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Let's hope the next such award to a woman won't take so long.
This year's Nobel Prize for literature was nixed because of a sex scandal. Other Nobels have neglected key contributors. Should all prizes be cancelled while criteria for winning is reassessed?
Farewell, Cassini!
As Cassini’s titanic mission comes to an end, we need to start thinking ahead. A combined mission to explore Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus would be a good place to start.
Cassini may be gone but the data it left behind could help reveal how long Saturn's day is and how its magnetic field is generated.
Humour and laughter
Laughing at inappropriate moments could be an early sign of dementia, while injury to the front part of the brain could make you lose your sense of sarcasm.
CC BY-ND26.5 MB (download)
In this episode of the podcast, we take in the history of Victorian humour, why kids find poo so hilarious and whether academics should try and be funny.
Wild chimpanzees are hard to find, but their DNA – left-behind genetic traces – are opening up a new way of studying them.
Killing insects, as the Big Wasp Survey asked people to do, contributed to many vital advances in science.
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Research and Expert Database
Would you rather lose your sense of touch or your vision? Here are the pros and cons of each, according to science.
Forget about dark matter and dark energy, new research suggests that the existence of 'dark fluid' may solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics.
We previously thought mitochondrial DNA could only be passed on by mothers.
Bullies have traditionally been viewed as having low IQ and social problems, but this often isn't the case.
New research shows how 'teleological thinking' means that conspiracists are more likely to also be creationists.
Why do some people love roller coasters while others hate them?
An expert gives a few tips on what makes the perfect penalty football kick.
Hawking wasn't able to give his students a gentle introduction, but he did provide a lot of inspiration and support.
Research shows that the Y chromosome may be able to protect itself from extinction in the short term. But what about in a future where we all reproduce artificially?
Psychological phenomena have long been thought of as universal. But it turns out scientists may have been blinded by their own culture.
We can see at a finer resolution than the spacing between individual photo-receptors in the eye – and it's all down to our brains.
We no longer perform surgery on babies without drugs, but a new study shows that we may be underestimating how much pain babies feel when they are under stress.
Private companies are increasingly challenging national space agencies in a new space race, which comes with great opportunities but also huge risks.
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) could help unravel the mysteries of antimatter and complete scientists' next model of the universe.
A new study can't rule out the possibility that human ancestors lived on Crete at the same time as they evolved in Africa.
Events
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¡Yo soy Fidel! Post-Castro Cuba and the cult of personality — Royal Holloway
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Francis Bacon Philosophy Lecture - Animal Minds and Animal Ethics — University of Hertfordshire
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Front-end planning of capital projects: it’s a matter of choices | Dr Edd Gibson — UCL
How we are different
10 reasons
Most Read past week
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- First black hole photo confirms Einstein’s theory of relativity
- Worried you are dating a psychopath? Signs to look for, according to science
- The ‘Mandela Effect’ and how your mind is playing tricks on you
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