Science

Manganese nodules on the sea floor may be a source of oxygen Science History Images/Alamy Marine scientists who made headlines last year with their discovery that deep sea nodules could be producing “dark oxygen” are embarking on a three-year research project to explain their findings. Amid swirling controversy over their research, project lead Andrew Sweetman

Caroline Tompkins/Refinery29 for Getty Images When trying to form a healthy habit, it usually helps to be conscious. So it is easy to understand why sleep-tracking devices, which claim to reveal what happened while users were out for the count, have become so popular with those in pursuit of better rest. These promise to monitor

Two similar overlaid patterns create what are called moiré patterns, which may be related to superconductivity in some atom-thick materials RICHARD GERMAIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A mysterious form of superconductivity has been found in a twisted crystal, which could help researchers better understand how to make super-efficient electronics. Superconductivity is a rare property that lets some

Donald Trump holding an executive order announcing the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images A cheer went up from the crowd in a Washington DC stadium on 20 January as US president Donald Trump signed an order on stage to withdraw the US from the Paris climate treaty. The order said the

Trying to sleep your way through jet lag might not actually work Iakovos Hatzistavrou/AFP Via Getty Images In the first flush of our relationship, my husband began taking a series of photos of me during our travels. In every one, I am asleep: sat on a chair at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Head on

Foxys_forest_manufacture/Getty Images There are many things we can blame for a bad night’s sleep – screen time, stress, too much booze. Now there is another culprit: the microbes in our gut. This article is part of special series investigating key questions about sleep. Read more here. We have long known that our microbiome has a

A virtual drone was piloted through an obstacle course by a person imagining moving their fingers Willsey et al. A man with paralysis who had electrodes implanted in his brain can pilot a virtual drone through an obstacle course simply by imagining moving his fingers. His brain signals are interpreted by an AI model and

New Glenn reached orbit (left) but Starship exploded, raining debris (right) Blue Origin; SWNS Compare these two scenes: on 16 January, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket triumphantly reached orbit for the first time, while SpaceX’s Starship burst into flames above the Atlantic Ocean. You might think that the established space company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has

A protester holds a pro-TikTok sign in front of the US Supreme Court on 10 January 2025 Allison Robbert/The Washington Post/Getty Images The US Supreme Court has upheld a ban on the popular video streaming app TikTok, which is set to take effect on 19 January. The ban will require US firms to block users

Flooding in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 2024 S LESSER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock In 2024, Earth received about 2.9 millimetres of rain per day. That may not sound like much, but it could represent a new record amount of precipitation for the planet. Last year’s global average precipitation was about 3 per cent greater than the average since records

A tiny drone powered by soft muscle-like actuators Kevin Chen An insect-inspired robot that only weighs as much as a raisin can perform acrobatics and fly for much longer than any previous insect-sized drone without falling apart. For tiny flying robots to make nimble manoeuvres, they need to be lightweight and agile but also capable

Smoke rises during a fire at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing battery storage facility in California on 17 January Bloomberg / Getty Images A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in California destroyed 300 megawatts of energy storage, forced 1200 area residents to evacuate and released smoke plumes that could pose a health threat

Joseph Weizenbaum created the ELIZA chatbot at MIT From the image archive of the documentary film “Weizenbaum. Rebel at Work” A groundbreaking chatbot created in the 1960s has been painstakingly reconstructed from archived records and run for the first time in over half a century, as part of an effort to preserve one of the

The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has been recording atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1958 FRED ESPENAK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere measured by a weather station at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii increased by 3.58 parts per million in 2024 – the biggest jump since records began there

Artist’s impression of Carinodens, a mosasaur whose remains scientists suspect might have been manipulated and then labelled as a new species Henry Sharpe Remnants of a bizarre “shark-toothed” aquatic predator that lived alongside dinosaurs were probably forged, according to new research. The contentious fossil of a jaw fragment was apparently collected by miners working at

Stone plaques with sun motifs found on Bornholm island, Denmark Antiquity Publications/John Lee, National Museum of Denmark Hundreds of mysterious engraved “sun stones” unearthed in Denmark may have been ceremonially buried because a volcanic eruption in about 2900 BC made the sun disappear. A total of 614 stone plaques and fragments of plaques engraved with

A late Iron Age Durotrigan burial at Winterborne Kingston in Dorset, UK Bournemouth University Genetic analysis of people buried in a 2000-year-old cemetery in southern England has bolstered the idea that Celtic communities in Britain placed women centre-stage, showing that women remained in their ancestral homes while men moved in from other communities – a

Measuring body fat more carefully could help treat obesity Halfpoint/Getty Images Rethinking the way we define obesity could help millions of people worldwide, argue a team of researchers who want to introduce a new category of “preclinical” obesity. The current definition of obesity, as set by the World Health Organization (WHO), is having excess body

“You’ve achieved 40 seconds of uninterrupted focus.” Apparently, this is cause for celebration. For the past 10 minutes, I have been staring at my phone, trying to move a digital ball up a hill using nothing but the power of my mind. The Mendi headset I am wearing is analysing my brain activity and reflecting

Meta owns social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram JRdes / Shutterstock In 2024, Meta allowed more than 3300 pornographic ads – many featuring AI-generated content – on its social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The findings come from a report by AI Forensics, a European non-profit organisation focused on investigating tech platform algorithms.