Sperm whale clicks could be the closest thing to a human language yet
Analysis of thousands of exchanges between the intelligent cetaceans suggests they combine short click patterns – similar to letters of the alphabet - into longer sequences ⌘ Read more

Why we are finally within reach of a room-temperature superconductor
A practical superconductor would transform the efficiency of electronics. After decades of hunting, several key breakthroughs are inching us very close to this coveted prize ⌘ Read more

Hackers can steal data by messing with a computer’s processor
Software that has been blocked from connecting to the internet should be secure from hacking attempts, but now researchers have found a way to sneak data out by varying the speed of the computer’s processor ⌘ Read more

Bird flu has hit US cows but tracking efforts fall woefully short
The strategy for tracking bird flu in US dairy cattle falls worryingly short of what is needed to prevent the outbreak from widening and potentially spreading to humans ⌘ Read more

Implantable heart pump could let children wait for transplants at home
An implantable heart pump could help children with heart failure awaiting transplants forego bulky devices that require long hospital stays ⌘ Read more

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is about to make its first crewed flight
Two astronauts are about to set off for the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule. If all goes well, Starliner will join SpaceX’s Dragon as a US shuttle into orbit ⌘ Read more

Ball-balancing robot could assist wheelchair users
A robot that moves around by balancing on a ball could prove a better assistant for wheelchair users than humanoid robots that walk on two legs ⌘ Read more

How Schrödinger’s cat could make quantum computers work better
A quantum bit inspired by Schrödinger’s cat can resist making errors for an unprecedentedly long time, which makes it a candidate for building less error-prone quantum computers ⌘ Read more

Black holes scramble information – but may not be the best at it
Information contained within quantum objects gets scrambled when they interact. Physicists have now derived a speed limit for this process, challenging the idea that black holes are the fastest data scramblers ⌘ Read more

Zebras bob their heads at each other to signal cooperation
Head-bobbing seems to be a way for zebras to invite others to groom, graze or move together, suggesting sophisticated social and cognitive capabilities ⌘ Read more

Stink bugs grow a fungal garden on their legs to fight parasitic wasps
A surprise discovery has revealed that female stink bugs have a small indent on their hind legs that they use for cultivating fungi before spreading it on their eggs ⌘ Read more

Autoimmune conditions linked to reactivated X chromosome genes
The inactivation of one copy of the X chromosome in female mammals may start to fail as they get older, which may be why women have a higher risk of autoimmune conditions such as lupus ⌘ Read more

Protocells on early Earth may have been formed by squeezing geysers
Simulations of the crust of early Earth show that cycles of pressure caused by geysers or tidal forces could have generated cell-like structures and even very simple proteins ⌘ Read more

China is sending its Chang’e 6 spacecraft to the far side of the moon
If all goes well, the Chang’e 6 probe will be the first ever to land on the far side of the moon to take samples and bring them back to Earth ⌘ Read more

Mysterious space signals may come from a dead star with a planet
Strange bursts of radio waves called FRBs have long been mysterious, and one of the most famous sources of these flashes may have an unexpected planet ⌘ Read more

Seven surprising things you may not know about roots
Plants are often celebrated for the parts that are easy to see – flower, leaves, fruit – but scientists are uncovering the secrets of their more mysterious underground networks ⌘ Read more

Rising temperatures are cooking bumblebee nests and killing larvae
Climate change could be fueling bumblebee population loss by making hives too hot to handle ⌘ Read more

Orangutan is first non-human seen treating wounds with medicinal plant
A male Sumatran orangutan chewed the leaves of a plant used in Indonesian traditional medicine and placed them on a wound on his face ⌘ Read more

MMR vaccines may not always give lifelong immunity against measles
Levels of protection measles provided by the MMR jab fall by a small amount every year, according to mathematical modelling ⌘ Read more

Politicians can use social media ads to buy votes for €4 per person
An analysis of the 2021 German federal elections has found that for every 200,000 times a politician’s social media adverts were viewed, their vote share increased by 2.1 per cent - a potentially low-cost way of swinging elections ⌘ Read more

Astonishing images show how female Neanderthal may have looked
The skull of Shanidar Z was found in the Shanidar cave in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and has been painstakingly put back together ⌘ Read more

Is climate change accelerating after a record year of heat?
The record-breaking heat of 2023 has seen a rare disagreement break out between climate scientists, with some saying it shows Earth may have entered a new period of warming ⌘ Read more

Corals that recover from bleaching still struggle to breed
Corals can survive heat-related bleaching, but research from the Great Barrier Reef suggests a full recovery may take longer than we thought ⌘ Read more

Joel Edgerton must escape the multiverse in a gripping sci-fi series
Blake Crouch’s riveting Dark Matter sees physics professor Jason wanting out of the multiverse, after being kidnapped and dumped there by another version of himself ⌘ Read more

GPS jamming traced to Russia after flights over Europe suspended
Finnair has cancelled flights to Tartu in Estonia this month because of an ongoing GPS jamming attack – and there is evidence that the attack is being controlled from Russia ⌘ Read more