Strange alien worlds suggest Earth could survive the death of the sun
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY IT ALL seemed so simple when we knew the date of Earth’s demise. In 5 billion years from now, so the story went, the solar system will have dramatically transformed. Instead of being the benign presence we are used to, the sun will have ballooned into a giant, hundreds of times bigger than it is today. In More...
The unlikely extremophiles lurking in your kitchen
“CAN I ask what all this is for?” The pharmacy assistant is eyeing me suspiciously. I have just asked for some covid tests, urine sample pots and sterile scalpel blades. Oh, and some latex gloves, please. More...
Evolution: Why are there no flightless bats? We’re closing in on an answer
The vampire bat isn’t just an expert flyer – it is also an adept walker Joel Sartore/Photo Ark/naturepl.com IN THE undergrowth of a New Zealand forest, something stirs. A small, fuzzy animal is scurrying More...
Biophotons: Are lentils sending secret quantum messages?
In the foothills to the south of Rome sits Italy’s premier nuclear physics lab, the National Laboratory of Frascati. It has all the equipment you would expect at a cutting-edge science facility, with huge More...
Babies may start to learn language before they are born
Newborn babies seem to recognise the language spoken by their mother Fida Hussain/AFP/ Getty Images Experiments with newborn babies suggest they can already recognise their mother tongue, hinting that More...
10 of the world’s most remarkable rivers from Hampshire’s Itchen to China’s Qiantang
The river Itchen is “a globally important river” Triple H Images/Shutterstock When most people are asked to name a river, they often reach for the most famous: the Amazon, Nile, Ganges, Mississippi, More...
Lake Maracaibo: Stunning image of South America’s largest lake hides a dark secret
Lake Maracaibo, seen from space Copernicus Sentinel/ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO This exquisite image of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela was captured by one of the satellites from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission More...
Where You Live Is As Important As What You Eat
And then there’s identifying what role people can play, either in what they do or advocate for. Cities aren’t uniform. What can cities around the world teach one other? So: intersectoral governance mechanisms. More...
Chum Salmon Are Spawning in the Arctic. It’s an Ominous Sign
By laying eggs in the rivers, the chum salmon might actually help native fishes by providing food for them. These frigid Arctic waters aren’t particularly productive, biologically speaking, meaning there isn’t More...
Mouse embryos have been grown in space for the first time
A microscope image of mouse embryos after they had returned from the International Space Station Teruhiko Wakayama/University of Yamanashi Mouse embryos have been cultured on the International Space Station More...
