I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people

— Sir Isaac Newton

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Updated: 13 hours 48 min ago

Wealthy people with environmental ideals are the biggest emitters

Wed, 05/27/2026 - 10:00am
Among people of high socioeconomic status, love for nature corresponds with a bigger environmental footprint – and there's an obvious reason why
Categories: Astronomy

NASA plans a base on the moon spanning hundreds of square kilometres

Wed, 05/27/2026 - 9:05am
Three missions slated to launch this year will begin to search the lunar surface for a suitable base location
Categories: Astronomy

First quantum grandfather clock could probe where gravity comes from

Wed, 05/27/2026 - 7:00am
Researchers have designed a quantum version of a pendulum clock. It could shed light on timekeeping in the quantum realm
Categories: Astronomy

We may finally know why gold stays so shiny

Wed, 05/27/2026 - 5:00am
Gold is chemically inert and so doesn't tarnish, but exactly why had been a mystery
Categories: Astronomy

How a radical new view of life could reveal its origin – and aliens

Tue, 05/26/2026 - 12:00pm
We've been looking at nature the wrong way, argues Rowan Hooper. If we stop focusing on the individual, we get a whole new picture of how life on Earth – and elsewhere – may have begun
Categories: Astronomy

Space storms could switch train signals and cause serious accidents

Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:00am
Critical safety equipment in many train systems is vulnerable to disruption by space weather, which could lead to fatal accidents
Categories: Astronomy

Earliest use of anaesthetics uncovered in Chinese doctor’s tomb

Tue, 05/26/2026 - 7:24am
Residues on medical equipment reveal that physicians in China over 600 years ago used aconitine, a highly toxic plant chemical, to alleviate pain during surgical procedures
Categories: Astronomy

Will lab-grown sperm let infertile men have children of their own?

Tue, 05/26/2026 - 5:00am
Men who do not produce sperm can’t be helped by existing fertility treatments, but a start-up is now claiming it can grow their sperm in the lab. Columnist Michael Le Page suspects this technique will have to be combined with gene editing if it is to help many men
Categories: Astronomy

Attack on Iran’s oil released as much pollution as a volcano

Tue, 05/26/2026 - 5:00am
Airstrikes on Tehran earlier this year emitted a plume containing almost 30,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide that reached Asian countries
Categories: Astronomy

Does gravity create reality? A shocking path to a theory of everything

Mon, 05/25/2026 - 12:00pm
A rewrite of quantum mechanics that includes the force of gravity could finally achieve one of physicists’ biggest goals and reveal the ultimate fuzziness of time
Categories: Astronomy

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

Mon, 05/25/2026 - 5:00am
There is currently no good way for astronauts in space to do laundry, but researchers may have finally come up with one: a bright purple jet of microbe-killing plasma
Categories: Astronomy

Why your brain needs plenty of “Aha!” moments

Mon, 05/25/2026 - 5:00am
In the age of AI, instant answers to our questions are readily available. But columnist Helen Thomson finds that continuing to encourage those delicious flashes of insight that come from your own thoughts may be beneficial both for your everyday life and your long-term brain health
Categories: Astronomy

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

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 2:00pm
Despite being the closest planet to the sun, Mercury has thick deposits of ice at its poles, and now we may understand the events that formed them over just one Mercurian day
Categories: Astronomy

Experimental mRNA vaccine may protect against multiple Ebola viruses

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 1:00pm
Tests with rodents suggest an mRNA vaccine in development offers protection against three strains of Ebola virus, including the one behind the current crisis
Categories: Astronomy

Political anger affects the body differently to other forms of anger

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 10:00am
We all feel emotions like anger and disgust from time to time, but they seem to cause stronger bodily sensations when they're politically induced
Categories: Astronomy

Australia is battling its largest diphtheria outbreak in living memory

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 8:00am
Vaccine misinformation, nurse and doctor shortages and crowded living arrangements may be behind soaring rates of diphtheria in remote Indigenous communities in Australia
Categories: Astronomy

How ageing on Earth mimics the effects of space travel

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 5:00am
Life on the International Space Station may feel distant, but columnist Graham Lawton finds that studying how astronauts experience accelerated ageing could help us fight similar effects on Earth related to sedentary lifestyles, disrupted circadian rhythms and social isolation
Categories: Astronomy

Mathematicians stunned by AI's biggest breakthrough in mathematics yet

Thu, 05/21/2026 - 12:13pm
Artificial intelligence built by OpenAI has cracked a decades-old conjecture by Paul Erdős, which mathematicians have hailed as a monumental moment for AI in mathematics
Categories: Astronomy

Epic dreaming is leaving people exhausted and distressed

Thu, 05/21/2026 - 11:00am
Some people experience vivid, incessant dreams that leave them feeling exhausted the next day, with researchers calling for this "epic dreaming" to be classed as a sleep disorder
Categories: Astronomy

Women’s better memories may delay Alzheimer’s diagnosis by years

Thu, 05/21/2026 - 8:00am
Women appear cognitively normal for almost three years longer than men after their brains start to develop Alzheimer’s disease, making it harder to diagnose and preventing early treatment
Categories: Astronomy