How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic
As the US grapples with an ongoing bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle, the country’s health agencies are ramping up surveillance efforts and working to develop a vaccine if needed ⌘ Read more

Bowhead whales still harmed from whaling that ended a century ago
Commercial bowhead whaling ended in the early 20th century, but the industry’s lasting effects on the whales’ genetic diversity are leading to declines again ⌘ Read more

5 extraordinary ideas about the mind and what it means to be conscious
To celebrate the launch of our new event series in the US, kicking off with a masterclass on the brain and consciousness, we have unlocked five incredible long reads ⌘ Read more

Rare mutation that causes short stature may shed light on ageing
The genetic variant, which causes people to be insensitive to growth hormone, may also protect people from heart disease ⌘ Read more

Asteroid that broke up over Berlin was fastest-spinning one ever seen
Before it shattered over Germany, the asteroid 2024 BX1 was clocked rotating once every 2.6 seconds – the fastest spin we have observed ⌘ Read more

Global warming could make tides higher as well as raising sea levels
In addition to the overall rise in sea level, the heights of tides are also changing as the oceans warm and separate into more distinct layers ⌘ Read more

Two medicines for opioid addiction also help with compulsive gambling
The medicines nalmefene and naltrexone helped compulsive gamblers reduce their betting activities, trials have shown ⌘ Read more

Swarm of nanorobots can remove tiny plastic fragments from water
In just 2 hours, small metal robots can capture most nanoscopic plastic particles from a sample of water ⌘ Read more

Wasps use face-recognition brain cells to identify each other
The neurons in wasp brains that help them recognise hive mates are similar to those in the brains of primates, including humans ⌘ Read more

Supermassive black holes may provide a nursery for mini ones to grow
The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies may capture smaller black holes. Not only does this prove a place for the small black holes to grow, it also makes the supermassive ones look even bigger and brighter ⌘ Read more

Birthplace of red asteroid Kamo‘oalewa pinned to specific moon crater
The redness of asteroid 469219 Kamo‘oalewa marks it out as probably originating on the moon, and now we might know the exact impact crater it was launched from ⌘ Read more

Rat neuron injection lets mice that can’t smell sniff out cookies
Mice that had been genetically modified to lack the ability to smell could sniff out hidden cookies when sensory neurons from rats were grown in their brains ⌘ Read more

Modern rose hybrids have a worrying lack of genetic diversity
Intensive breeding since the 19th century has created thousands of varieties of rose, but a reduction in genetic diversity could leave them vulnerable to diseases and climate change ⌘ Read more

Brain activity seems to be more complex in baby girls than boys
When fetuses and babies were exposed to sound stimuli, their brains’ subsequent electrical activity appeared to be more complicated in the females than the males ⌘ Read more

India’s healthcare system falls short despite Modi’s improvements
More than 1.4 billion people live in India, giving its healthcare system a major role in planetary well-being. In the past 10 years, prime minister Narendra Modi has worked to improve India’s healthcare, but there is still much work to be done ⌘ Read more

Can India build a world-leading computer chip industry from scratch?
India currently has a fairly small chip-manufacturing industry, but prime minister Narendra Modi wants the country to become a dominant player in the sector in just a few years ⌘ Read more

Japan’s SLIM moon lander has shockingly survived a third lunar night
Almost all moon landers break down during the extraordinary cold of lunar night, but Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has astonishingly survived three nights ⌘ Read more

Quantum forces used to automatically assemble tiny device
The very weak forces of attraction caused by the Casimir effect can now be used to manipulate microscopic gold flakes and turn them into a light-trapping tool ⌘ Read more

Culling predatory starfish conserves coral on the Great Barrier Reef
Targeted culling of crown-of-thorns starfish has resulted in parts of the Great Barrier Reef maintaining and even increasing coral cover, leading researchers to call for the programme to be dramatically scaled up ⌘ Read more

Huge genetic study redraws the tree of life for flowering plants
Using genomic data from more than 9500 species, biologists have mapped the evolutionary relationships between flowering plants ⌘ Read more

Nuclear fusion experiment overcomes two key operating hurdles
Two important barriers to a stable, powerful fusion reaction have been leapt by an experiment in a small tokamak reactor, but we don’t yet know if the technique will work in larger devices ⌘ Read more

A new kind of experiment at the LHC could unravel quantum reality
The Large Hadron Collider is testing entanglement in a whole new energy range, probing the meaning of quantum theory – and the possibility that an even stranger reality lies beneath ⌘ Read more

Your diet may influence how effective vaccines are for you
Obese mice that lost weight on a low-fat diet before getting a flu shot had better immune responses than those that lost weight afterwards, suggesting diet and weight loss influence vaccine efficacy ⌘ Read more

Huge dinosaur footprints belonged to one of the largest raptors ever
A set of large, distinctive footprints suggest a raptor dinosaur that lived in East Asia 96 million years ago grew to a length of 5 metres ⌘ Read more

Exquisite fossils of Cretaceous shark solve mystery of how it hunted
Six full-body fossils of Ptychodus sharks have been formally analysed for the first time, revealing that they were fast swimmers that preyed on shelled creatures ⌘ Read more