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Science & Tech
Can cloud seeding save us from water bankruptcy?
We’ve long tried to control the weather by engineering rainfall. Now such cloud-seeding efforts are escalating, creating conflict between countries and stoking conspiracy theories. But do they work?
Science & Tech
Carbon credits are flawed, but they can still help save forests
Carbon credits bought by companies to offset their emissions really have reduced deforestation, but not by as much as credit developers claim, according to a rigorous analysis
Science & Tech
PCOS has been officially renamed PMOS, and it’s a momentous move
PCOS will now be known as PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome), and for Alice Klein, who has the condition, it's been a long time coming
Science & Tech
Taiwan’s chips power the global economy. China holds the leverage
Big Tech’s reliance on TSMC makes the China-Taiwan dispute the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint, says writer Eyck Freymann ahead of this week’s Xi-Trump meeting in Beijing.
Science & Tech
Why do particle physicists like spending time in fields?
The concept of a field plays a key role in particle physics, but what exactly is it? From its origins in the study of magnetism to the quantum fields of…
Science & Tech
A new tectonic plate boundary could be forming in southern Africa
Gases collected from boiling mineral springs in Zambia contain the chemical signature of having come directly from the Earth’s mantle, a sign of a rupture in the tectonic plates and…
Science & Tech
The story of the first human tool: the humble container
An analysis of ancient human artefacts finds that the container, a simple but critical tool, may have originated 500,000 years ago. Columnist Michael Marshall explores how slings, ostrich eggs and…
Science & Tech
Can floating data centres meet AI’s huge energy demand?
A US start-up is putting autonomous data centres in the ocean, powered by wave energy, but experts warn that the harsh environment could make maintenance challenging
Science & Tech
Where did the laws of physics come from? I think I’ve found the answer
The rules governing gravity and other laws of nature seem like eternal truths, but cosmologist João Magueijo has always questioned their origins. Now, he has a bold new proposal
Science & Tech
Huge study of ancient British DNA reveals only minor Roman influence
Genetic analysis of 1039 people buried in Britain between the Bronze Age and the Norman conquest highlights the impact of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings on the island’s ancestry
Science & Tech
The Chinese whiz kids of Silicon Valley
Chinese-born tech workers have fueled Silicon Valley for decades. In the AI era, they're superstars.
Science & Tech
Drilling Into the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica
Ten people. Eight weeks. Three thousand feet to pierce a fast-melting Antarctic glacier.
Science & Tech
U.S.-China Rivalry Reaches South American Skies
The U.S. has pressed Argentina and Chile to review two Chinese telescope projects in the Andean deserts. Astronomers are worried about setbacks to research.
Science & Tech
Tiny ‘metajets’ could use light to steer sails for interstellar travel
Minuscule silicon wafers propelled by lasers could be used to steer light sails, helping them travel beyond the solar system
Science & Tech
A vast dam across the Bering Strait could stop the AMOC collapsing
If a key ocean current collapses it could plunge northern Europe into a big freeze. Now researchers are weighing up a drastic intervention – building a 130-kilometre-wide dam between the…
Science & Tech
U.F.O. Files Released by U.S. Shed Light on What the Government Knows
The Pentagon on Friday released online what it called “new, never-before-seen” files, dating back decades, related to unidentified flying objects.
Science & Tech
Tech Now
Andrew Rogers explores new tech trials helping people stay underwater for longer.
Science & Tech
Pentagon Releases Files on U.F.O.s
The initial files are murky images that show what could be anything. The government said more would be released on a rolling basis.
Science & Tech
US government releases huge batch of UFO files
The US Department of Defense has released hundreds of documents and photographs related to UFOs, some of which have been declassified, in the first of many drops to come
Science & Tech
Doubling their genomes may have helped plants survive mass extinctions
Many flowering plants have duplicated genomes, which could have helped them evolve to deal with extreme stress in times of environmental upheaval
Science & Tech
Fire is spreading in the Chernobyl exclusion zone after drone crash
A drone has crashed in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, causing a fire that has spread to 12 square kilometres of land. Dry weather, strong winds and the presence of land…
Science & Tech
There has been a sudden increase in the rate of sea level rise
Satellite measurements show that in the early 2010s sea level rise suddenly accelerated to a rate of 4.1 millimetres per year, possibly in response to an increase in the rate…
Science & Tech
Pentagon releases declassified UFO files including images held by government for decades
The Pentagon on Friday began releasing “never-before-seen” files relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena — previously and more infamously known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs — that the government has…
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Some Taiwanese drone math ahead of the Xi-Trump visit
Recalling my visit to Thunder Tiger, a Taiwanese company building “non-China” drones for the U.S. military.
Science & Tech
Slow breathing can calm the mind without any need for mindfulness
How important is thinking about your breath for calming yourself down? We now know that slow breathing is effective even without conscious involvement
Science & Tech
Neanderthal ‘kneeprint’ found next to mysterious stalagmite circle
An impression made in clay around 175,000 years ago could be a kneeprint left by one of the builders of a strange stalagmite circle found deep inside Bruniquel cave in…
Science & Tech
The mathematician who doesn’t exist
A secret society of French mathematicians has been revolutionising the field of mathematics under a pseudonym for nearly a century. Columnist Jacob Aron finds that this mythic collective provided maths…
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BBC Inside Science
We explore whether Pluto should regain its title as the solar system’s ninth planet
Science & Tech
Hantavirus outbreak will not cause a covid-style pandemic, says WHO
The World Health Organization sought to quell worldwide fears over the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius and reassure the public that the risk of widespread transmission is…
Science & Tech
PCOS postpones perimenopause and allows pregnancies at older ages
Only 3 per cent of those with polycystic ovary syndrome reach perimenopause by the age of 46, which may allow them to conceive when older
Science & Tech
Coffee’s mood-boosting effects aren’t just down to caffeine
A comprehensive study exploring coffee’s physiological effects finds that some of its benefits are down to polyphenols and their influence on gut bacteria
Science & Tech
Surprising Signs of an Atmosphere Around a Tiny World, Billions of Miles Away
A gradual dimming and brightening when a star passed behind it suggested the mini-Pluto was wrapped in a thin layer of air.
Science & Tech
The best new popular science books of May 2026
A guide to walking, a look at the world’s Google searches and a deep dive into the secrets of our DNA are some of the topics tackled by the popular…
Science & Tech
Five Ways A.I. Search Beats an Old-School Google Search
Google’s A.I. search technology is far from perfect (don’t count on it for celebrity news), but it excels at tasks like picking out groceries and detecting scams.
Science & Tech
Pressure from individual particles measured for the first time
A device made using a tiny bead floating in a beam of light can measure extremely small pressures and could help find a mysterious kind of neutrino