SCIENCE

The looming El Niño could be bad – but much worse is to come

Waves supercharged by El Niño hit the California coast in 2016Eliason/Zuma Wire/Shutterstock A “Godzilla El Niño” is coming, according to…

1 month ago

Climate Fiction prize winner Helen Phillips: ‘The book is in the future, but everything is seeded from our present’

Hum is set in an over-heated near-future metropolisIngram Publishing / Alamy Hum by Helen Phillips, the story of a mother’s…

1 month ago

Mathematical AI helps researchers crack 50-year-old problem

Paul Erdős made many conjectures about numbers in his lifeOliver Helbig/Getty Images Just a week after an AI disproved an…

1 month ago

Mars astronauts may do laundry by blasting clothes with a plasma beam

White shirt material being cleaned with cold plasmaUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville, Propulsion Research Center Astronauts in space can’t do…

1 month ago

Mercury may have gained all of its unexpected water in a single day

We may now know how Mercury gained its ice depositsNASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Around 100 million years ago, the surface…

1 month ago

We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms

Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t the only predatory dinosaur with small armsROGER HARRIS/Getty Images/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY With jaws like these, who needs…

2 months ago

Will burying dead trees after a wildfire keep their carbon locked up?

Charred trees still standing after a wildfire in Glacier National Park, MontanaGorski/NurPhoto/Shutters​tock In 2021, a smouldering underground coal seam ignited…

2 months ago

Neanderthals treated a dental cavity by drilling into the tooth

Three views of the Neanderthal tooth with evidence of dental treatmentHexian Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau, Ma’anshan A 59,000-year-old Neanderthal…

2 months ago

Tiny ‘metajets’ could use light to steer sails for interstellar travel

An artist’s impression of a light sailRICHARD BIZLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Interstellar travel propelled by light just got one step closer.…

2 months ago

Coffee’s mood-boosting effects aren’t just down to caffeine

Coffee can influence our mood and microbiomeArtem Varnitsin / Alamy Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee can lead to improvements in…

2 months ago