A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about itJenny Lawler, Dublin City University
Nasa’s new telescope is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman – but who was she?Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University
How a ‘psychic’ horse named Clever Hans changed the way we do scienceMatyáš Moravec, Queen's University Belfast
We can’t quit smartphones, but we can manage digital junk food betterTanja Ahlin, Leiden University and Xin Zhan, SOAS, University of London; University of Cambridge
Star Trek at 60: the secret of this pioneering series was its exploration of humanity, not aliensStephen McVeigh, Swansea University
The real reasons you procrastinate – and how to stop, according to scienceItamar Shatz, University of Cambridge
Robots can run faster than elite human sprinters, but are they really athletes?Ross Walker, University of Stirling
The brain isn’t hardwired to read – here’s how we pull it off and why some are better at it than othersMikael Roll, Lund University
The ‘wonder material’ graphene can be made using a kitchen blender, a mobile phone and a newspaperConor Boland, Dublin City University
Can baby monitors protect children without data security risks?Erika Sanchez-Velazquez, Anglia Ruskin University
Why police have been told to pause their use of AI in court casesSimon Thorne, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Aliens at 40: from wearable cameras to exoskeletons, here are the technologies the film predictedSteve Benford, University of Nottingham
There’s a better way to cool data centres that cuts their huge thirst for waterJeff Punch, University of Limerick
Were Denisovans tall compared to other ancient humans? We should be scepticalSally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University
The death of dark energy is a false alarm – the universe is still acceleratingPhil Wiseman, University of Southampton and Mark Sullivan, University of Southampton
How we found Haida Gwaii’s first marbled murrelet nest in more than 30 yearsSonya Pastran, University of British Columbia
How a 19th-century estate agent offered 3D ‘walkthroughs’ before the photography ageJohn Plunkett, University of Exeter
What happens when someone’s chromosomes, sex hormones and body don’t align?Jean-Michel Fustin, University of Manchester
An astronomer on what it’s really like to stargaze for a livingAlix Violet Freckelton, University of Birmingham
Why snake venom may have evolved to catch dinner, not for defenceBálint Üveges, Centre for Ecological Research; Bangor University and Wolfgang Wüster, Bangor University
What it’s like to discover an ancient Egyptian tomb – and the race against time to preserve itCarina van den Hoven, Leiden University
Can DNA from cave paintings tell us who the artists were?Robyn Adams, Nottingham Trent University and Jay Silverstein, Nottingham Trent University
Why do some people feel life is so unfair? Understanding this may help explain conspiracy beliefsDaniel Jolley, University of Nottingham and Laura Blackie, University of Nottingham
Adding an AI tool to Google Earth shook our trust in maps that has been centuries in the makingJames Cheshire, UCL
How a cosmic coincidence gives Earth its ‘perfect’ solar eclipsesAlix Violet Freckelton, University of Birmingham
The psychology of overconfidence: why excessive self-belief is often a successful strategy in lifeChris Dawson, University of Bath and David de Meza, London School of Economics and Political Science
Elvish, Klingon and Pig Latin: what can invented languages teach us about the human brain?Inka Romero-Ortells Labrada, Universidad Nebrija; Jon Andoni Duñabeitia, Universidad Nebrija, and Manuel Perea, Universitat de València
Brain scans provide world-first evidence dogs can distinguish between human fear and sadnessMia Cobb, The University of Melbourne
Europe’s stone age hunters made sea voyages to Malta – thousands of years before evidence of sailsJames Blinkhorn, University of Liverpool and Eleanor Scerri, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Prehistoric plague could have caused population collapse in stone age EuropeRuairidh Macleod, University of Oxford and Stephen Shennan, UCL
Beyond Anglo-Saxons, Celts and Vikings: DNA uncovers a dynamic history of migration to BritainJay Silverstein, Nottingham Trent University
Ancient tooth proteins suggest Homo erectus may have left a genetic legacy in people todaySally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University
Three million years after Lucy walked upright in Africa, the inside story of another landmark journeyPeter C. Kjærgaard, UCL and Mark Maslin, UCL
Secrets of Stonehenge and other ancient sites unlocked for the summer solsticeDuncan Garrow, University of Reading
Nasa’s new space telescope will tackle some of the universe’s biggest mysteriesNoelia Noël, University of Surrey
Does dark energy really exist? Our work identifies cracks in the foundations of today’s cosmological modelSubir Sarkar, University of Oxford
What if disabled astronauts are just better suited to space?Zoe Elisabeth Swann Baillie, University of Leicester
Comet from another star has a composition unlike anything else in our solar systemMatthew Hopkins, University of Canterbury
As Nasa’s Artemis II Moon mission ends, a new adventure for humanity beckonsEd Macaulay, Queen Mary University of London
Why do some people who trust in science also believe in scientific conspiracy theories?Michele d'Errico, Trinity College Dublin and Taha Yasseri, Trinity College Dublin
Consciousness: how ‘working memory’ may mysteriously give rise to itHenry Taylor, University of Birmingham
Free will: does refusing to believe in it make you a ‘bad’ person? Research is challenging this old ideaTom St Quinton, Leeds Beckett University
Monkeys keep pets too – animal specialist on the world of interspecies friendshipCyril Grueter, The University of Western Australia; University of Oxford
As Larry the cat welcomes yet another prime minister, an expert explains how pets adapt to changeEmily Blackwell, University of Bristol
Great apes were using touch to reassure and keep the peace six million years before humans evolved – new researchJake Brooker, Utrecht University and Zanna Clay, Durham University
Differences in human and great ape laughter reveal clues to the origin of speechChiara De Gregorio, University of Warwick
The Large Hadron Collider is being upgraded so that it can unlock the secrets of the Higgs bosonDaniela Bortoletto, University of Oxford
Our Large Hadron Collider results hint at undiscovered physicsWilliam Barter, University of Edinburgh and Mark Smith, Imperial College London
What the sudden demise of the UK’s department of science means for the future of researchJames Wilsdon, UCL
Storms that built a graveyard: ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil siteAlfio Alessandro Chiarenza, UCL
What it would have been like to experience the dinosaur-killing asteroid armageddon: a blow-by-blow accountMichael J. Benton, University of Bristol and Monica Grady, The Open University
How we worked out a fossilised ‘pterosaur’ was actually a fish – new researchDavid Unwin, University of Leicester
Human vision: what we actually see – and don’t see – tells us a lot about consciousnessHenry Taylor, University of Birmingham
How individual consciousness works – and makes us uniquePeter Coppola, University of Cambridge and Emmanuel A Stamatakis, University of Cambridge
How psychedelics push your brain to dream while awake – new studyAndrea Benucci, Queen Mary University of London
Your brain for sale? The new frontier of neural dataAlberto Rinaldi, Lund University and Johan Mårtensson, Lund University
How to build a digital ‘twin’ of the human brain – what existing models overlookAndrea Luppi, University of Oxford; Gustavo Deco, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Morten L. Kringelbach, University of Oxford
The UK is building a fighter jet with Japan and Italy – an aviation expert explains why it could be a defence gamechangerMarco Chan, Kingston University
New UK defence plan fails to deliver on space, despite the military’s growing reliance on satellite systemsBleddyn Bowen, Durham University and Scott Mackie, Durham University
Germany pulled the plug on flagship FCAS fighter jet – the implications for European defence are worryingArun Dawson, King's College London
Hummingbirds and pineapples: why this ancient relationship hits the evolutionary sweetspotJamie Thompson, University of Reading
The secret life of roots: how plants fight back against salty soilsAmber Williams, Cardiff University
Seaweeds are not plants – and six other surprising facts about aquatic floraAlexander Bowles, University of Oxford
AI is making disinformation harder to spot – but we’ve found a new way to catch itSeán Roberts, Cardiff University and Kateryna Krykoniuk, University of Sheffield
Is recursive self‑improvement the dawning of AI superintelligence?Michael G. Madden, University of Galway and James McDermott, University of Galway
What will AI do for us? Young adults in lower-income countries feel more positive about its potential – new surveyAnna Barford, University of Cambridge; Anthony Mugeere, Makerere University, and Giulia Occhini, University of Cambridge
If AI is addictive, where does the responsibility lie – with big tech or its users?Bernd Stahl, University of Nottingham
An AI system ‘escaped’ during a test and hacked a company. How worried should we be?Oli Buckley, Loughborough University
Why the AI industry is so fond of the prefix ‘co’ – by an expert in linguisticsBrigitte Nerlich, University of Nottingham
Muscle coordination can be mimicked by electric motors – it could lead to improved robotsHermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha, University of Bristol
Birds masturbate, and that’s perfectly normalChloe Heys, University of Lancashire; Kevin Arbuckle, Swansea University, and Matilda Brindle, University of Oxford
Do birds have accents? The fascinating regional differences in birdsongLouise Gentle, Nottingham Trent University
My unsung hero of science: William Adams, the Bombay bureaucrat whose vision of a solar future was dashed by colonial conservatismSebastian Egholm Lund, University of Oxford
My unsung hero of science: a pioneer of feminist psychology who foresaw the risks of biasMadeleine Pownall, University of Leeds
Our unsung hero of science: Friedrich Miescher, the man who discovered DNAKersten Hall, University of Leeds and Ralf Dahm, University of Padua
My unsung hero of science: Buckminster Fuller, the architect who wanted to redesign the world (and inspired a nanosized one)Antonios Kelarakis, University of Lancashire
Why we used to sleep in two segments – and how the modern shift changed our sense of timeDarren Rhodes, Keele University
The mathematical secrets hidden at the heart of Barcelona’s Sagrada FamíliaSergi Muria Maldonado, Universitat de Barcelona; Anton Aubanell Pou, Universitat de Barcelona, and Jordi Font González, Universitat de Barcelona
What is the chance of a message in a bottle being found?Kevin Burke, University of Limerick and David O'Sullivan, University of Limerick
A 1952 Pan Am plane crash transformed passenger safety procedures – a former airline pilot explains howMarco Chan, Kingston University
Why power banks in hold luggage pose such a risk on holiday flightsAmor Abdelkader, Bournemouth University
Ferrari’s first electric supercar has proved controversial – a car designer explainsAamer Mahmud, Coventry University
What happens inside a tennis player’s brain as they try to return a 148mph serve?Michelle Spear, University of Bristol
World Cup technology: from ref cams to AI analysts, cutting-edge research is changing the gameThomas Allen, Manchester Metropolitan University
Can we design sports shoes that don’t squeak? Here’s what the science saysGabriele Albertini, University of Nottingham
Will companies ever be run by an AI CEO?Nick Butler, Stockholm University and Sverre Spoelstra, Lund University
Investigative interviews are key to solving crimes – should AI be helping police with their inquiries?Brandon May, Florida Institute of Technology; University of Portsmouth and Rebecca Milne, University of Portsmouth
The more commodified your job, the more likely AI can do it – lessons from online freelancingFabian Stephany, University of Oxford
AI and work: an expert assesses how far this revolution still has to runVivek Soundararajan, University of Bath
The story of the first telephone call – nine words that changed the worldIwan Rhys Morus, Aberystwyth University
What secret report reveals about British nuclear weapons tests – veterans claimed they were harmed by falloutChristopher R. Hill, University of South Wales and Jonathan Hogg, University of Liverpool
Is the biggest march in English history a myth? My research shows King Harold sailed down to the battle of HastingsTom Licence, University of East Anglia
We are in a digital version of the enclosures – like the landowners, big tech has power without responsibilityNana Nwachukwu, Trinity College Dublin
Alien first contact: how the new rules differ from science fictionMichael Garrett, University of Manchester
Could it be aliens? From Cheyava Falls on Mars to exoplanet K2-18b – here’s what scientists really thinkPeter Vickers, Durham University
Why some people still believe that aliens shaped ancient civilisationsStephan Blum, University of Tübingen and Stefan Baumann, KU Leuven
We’re ‘green chemists’ – why we think this emerging science can transform the way the world uses its resourcesAndrew C Marr, Queen's University Belfast and Paul Anastas, Yale University
Chemistry is stuck in the dark ages – ‘chemputation’ can bring it into the digital worldLee Cronin, University of Glasgow
Space launches are changing the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere, studies warn – here’s what can be doneIan Williams, University of Southampton
Apple’s unrivalled commitment to excellence is fading – a designer explains whyChristopher J. Parker, Loughborough University
Updating Darwin: biologists are returning to an older theory to explain anomalies in evolutionPim Edelaar, Lund University; Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Why Antarctica froze millions of years before the Arctic – new researchThomas Gernon, University of Southampton
In our deep oceans, evolution is supercharged – this diversity of life could help unlock humanity’s greatest challengesThomas Mock, University of East Anglia