Techniques from topology can help us understand DNA and improve drug development.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
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.
The northern lights might look like magic, but they can actually be explained by science – here's how.
The Earth's magnetic field has a beat, scientists discover.
We developed the world's first self-curving artificial cornea.
New research on facial recognition technology trials by the police calls for tighter regulation to protect human rights.
More democratic forms of politics, journalism and fact-checking will be needed when we can no longer trust any video footage.
Unconscious biases can trigger aggressive behaviour and lead to miscarriages of justice.
Specific brain networks are at work when we are conscious. New results can help distinguish truly unconscious patients from those who have some degree of consciousness.
Research shows that the sense of belonging provided by platforms like Facebook trumps our distrust of social media.
New study sheds light on the mystery of how people can experience and control phantom limbs decades after losing a body part.
When you share your genetic data – even with the NHS – you don't know where it will end up, or how it will be used.
Over a quarter of people believe that humans have psychic abilities.
New research suggests we may be able to forget about dark matter if we tweak the laws of gravity according to imaginary bubbles in space.
A new study suggests Neanderthals may have lived in woodlands rather than tundras, meaning they were most likely sprinters.
Fuel cells are being touted as an alternative to costly electrification – but no one knows if they'll really be cheaper.
Humans are social animals who like to communicate and copy each other. But key to this collective intelligence is flexibility and a little non-conformity.
Recreating freak waves can tell us a lot about the nature of the sea.
Data from hydrophones in the Indian ocean has raised new questions about what happened to MH370.
Tiny chemical clues in the ocean reveal how its role as a carbon store is changing.
Quantum computers are set to revolutionise technology, but very few people know how to use them.
The first systematic study of the ballistics and accuracy of prehistoric spears suggests Neanderthals could kill at a distance.
Exactly 150 years after Mendeleev's classic formulation, it's time for one for the resource-hungry 21st century.
You'll be able to download HD video in a jiffy, but investors will have to think big if they're going to profit from the next generation of mobile technology.
A pragmatic approach rather than active concealment is to blame for China's lack of research transparency.
Can we really expect vehicles to make the moral decisions we can't?
DNA testing is helping reveal people's unknown royal ancestry.
Buyers think you can tell the purity of a substance by looking at on an app – evidence shows they're mistaken.
A body at least twice as massive as the Earth smashing into Uranus could have made it lopsided, shows research.
Research suggests tidying really can make you happier, but it comes with a warning.
An ethicist on why fixing algorithms may not be the best response to algorithmic bias.
The blood moon myths are many and varied, but, at the end of the day, it's just an eclipse.
A new collider at CERN could push particle physics deep into an unexplored microscopic realm.
Decades of psychological research suggests humans are rather irrational. But a new approach, borrowing an idea from artificial intelligence, challenges this notion.
There's a lack of scientific evidence supporting claims that digital detoxes actually have any benefit to us.
New research on craters on the moon sheds light about when and how often the moon and Earth have been bombarded by meteorites.
If you're worried your phone is recording your private conversations, look closer at the data you've already agreed to give away.
Regulation of the internet is inevitable and governments, rather than businesses, should seek to regulate it.
Scientists are working on technology to analyse and advise your attempts to learn sign language.
We rely on depth to perceive objects, but not all of us see depth in the same way.
Scientists still rely on a set of 19th century postulates to identify disease-causing organisms but more than 100 years of research shows why we need to move on.
If you develop an awareness of how you feel you are more likely to be able to change negative thinking patterns.
Too often athletes are forced into a narrative in which their sport overtakes everything, to the detriment of their health and future happiness.
WhatsApp has become a haven of misinformation in developing countries.
Odd event could be explained by a star being ripped apart by a black hole.
Some of our favourite music formats might not be as environmentally friendly as we think.
Nanotechnology and materials are the source of countless innovations, but we don't accurately know how they are affecting humans and the environment.
Our birth is one of the all-important bookends of our lives and affects so much of what comes later – so why don't we think about it more?
European countries, especially the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have confronted Russian disinformation campaigns for decades. The US can learn from their experience.
Combining quantum computing with neural networks could produce AI that can make very complex decisions quickly.
The moon's far side looks redder than its near side. An expert explains what the actual colour is.
New research suggests ultrasound could make henna-based hair dyes more effective.
Originally found in a bucket of urine by an alchemist searching for the elixir of life, the race is on to find a way to rescue Element 15 from permanent exile in our rivers and streams.
Everything you can touch is made of molecules – but feelings, sound and light are something different.
Philip Pullman can help us understand what smartphones are doing to people – here's how.
Memories are an important part of our identity and we increasingly entrust them to the cloud – with potentially serious consequences.
Depression, an altered sleep cycle, and hallucinations are some of the effects of living alone in total darkness.
Using physical and psychological traits, researchers are building a system which can rate a person's attractiveness.
China has become the first to land on the far side of the moon. And unlike previous uncrewed moon landings, it relied on sophisticated technology rather than luck.
There have been some rather wacky looking suggestions for arranging the chemical elements.
One study found that people with brown eyes were more susceptible to the disorder.
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.
Podcast
Research and Expert Database
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.
Rational arguments and myth busting often won't help you change the mind of a conspiracy theorist. But there are other ways.
Events
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Christiana Herringham: artist, collector, suffragist — Royal Holloway
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The bitter future for coffee: Challenges in a changing world — University of York
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Be quiet and calm my countrymen: the story of SS Mendi — University of Portsmouth
How we are different
10 reasons
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- Are near-death experiences hallucinations? Experts explain the science behind this puzzling phenomenon
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