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Science + Technology

Man puts hands on chest apologetically

How to make your apology more effective – new research

Shiri Lev-Ari, Royal Holloway University of London

Two academics at a blackboard

Chinese research isn’t taken as seriously as papers from elsewhere – my new study

Peng Zhou, Cardiff University

Bronze-age Britain traded tin with the Mediterranean, shows new study – settling a two-century debate

Benjamin Roberts, Durham University and Alan Williams, Durham University

Bronze age tin ingot from Salcombe, England.
Conclave: the chemistry behind the black and white smoke

Mark Lorch, University of Hull

White smoke from the chimney on top of the Sistine Chapel (Vatican City), indicating a new pope has been elected.
AI therapy may help with mental health, but innovation should never outpace ethics

Ben Bond, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

AI therapy may help with mental health, but innovation should never outpace ethics
Who gets to be called an astronaut? Private space travel has reignited debate over use of prestigious title

Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University

Blue Origin passengers
Cat and dog curled up asleep on blanket

How dogs and cats are evolving to look alike and why it’s humans’ fault – new research

Grace Carroll, Queen's University Belfast

How we discovered specific brain cells that enable intelligent behaviour

Mohamady El-Gaby, University of Oxford

Young woman in kitchen cooking pasta.
What resources will US gain access to under Ukraine mineral deal? Expert Q&A

Gavin D. J. Harper, University of Birmingham

Graphite ore
How dandelions conquered concrete to bring nature back to cities

Yannick Woudstra, Stockholm University

Dandelion flowering on pavement.
How the UK’s microchip industry is bouncing back after a quarter of a century

Peter Gammon, University of Warwick

SiC wafer

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Space

Illustration of a habitable planet with a red dwarf sun

Indicators of alien life may have been found – astrophysicist explains what the new research means

Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University

New form of dark matter could solve decades-old Milky Way mystery

Shyam Balaji, King's College London

Star formation in the centre of our galaxy.
Mysterious objects from other stars are passing through our solar system. Scientists are planning missions to study them up close

Billy Bryan, RAND Europe; Chris Carter, RAND Europe, and Theodora Ogden, RAND Europe

Illustration of 'Oumuamua.
Nasa and Esa want to bring Martian rocks to Earth. Here’s what will happen to the samples once they get here

John Bridges, University of Leicester

Perseverance selfie with Cheyava Falls
Modern spacesuits have a compatibility problem. Astronauts’ lives depend on fixing it

Berna Akcali Gur, Queen Mary University of London

Spacesuits

Tech

A robot that you ride like a horse is being developed. It will stretch current limits of engineering

Matías Mattamala, University of Oxford

Corleo concept robot
AI-controlled fighter jets may be closer than we think — and would change the face of warfare

Arun Dawson, King's College London

F-22 Raptor.
From brain Bluetooth to ‘full RoboCop’: where chip implants will be heading soon

Amin Al-Habaibeh, Nottingham Trent University

Man's head on a robot's body (Robocop)
We need to stop pretending AI is intelligent – here’s how

Guillaume Thierry, Bangor University

Vector human eye illustration made by halftone patter.

Animals

Why whale urine is so important to life in the sea

Kirsten Freja Young, University of Exeter and Marion Rossi, University of Exeter

Humpback whale underwater
No kidding: goats prove brainier than sheep and alpacas

Megan Quail, Aberystwyth University

Close up shot of a goat with a bunch of foliage in its mouth on a meadow.
When dogs return to nature – just how domesticated are our pooches really?

Jacqueline Boyd, Nottingham Trent University

Dachshund running across grass
Can we really resurrect extinct animals, or are we just creating hi-tech lookalikes?

Timothy Hearn, Anglia Ruskin University

Woolly mammoth

Editor's picks

Magician hands showing magic trick.

What magic reveals about the brain – and how magicians sometimes fool themselves

Radoslaw Wincza, University of Central Lancashire and Gustav Kuhn, University of Plymouth

Why were people so drawn to phrenology?

Fenneke Sysling, Leiden University

Close up of phrenology bust
‘Return’ of the dire wolf is an impressive feat of genetic engineering, not a reversal of extinction

Timothy Hearn, Anglia Ruskin University

Dire wolf
Celebrity Traitors: my research shows voting behaviour could help identify faithfuls

Robin Kramer, University of Lincoln

Celebrity Traitors: my research shows voting behaviour could help identify faithfuls
How human connections shaped the spread of farming among ancient communities

Javier Rivas, University of Bath and Alfredo Cortell, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Architectural landscape of granary in ancient China

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