Spacecraft may need to be dirtier to keep astronauts healthy
There may be logic in keeping spacecraft as sterile as possible, but this could inadvertently be affecting astronauts' health
A man’s brain was turned into glass by the eruption of Vesuvius
A cloud of super-heated volcanic ash and gas exploded the brain of one Herculaneum resident and the fragments inside his skull became an extremely rare organic glass
How to see every planet in the solar system at once this week
For a few evenings around 28 February, every planet in the solar system will be visible in the night sky, thanks to a rare great planetary alignment. Here's how to make sure you don't miss this planetary parade.
‘Galloping’ bubbles could act as tiny robotic vacuum cleaners
While experimenting with waves, researchers discovered that vibrating a container of liquid would cause bubble to "gallop" across its surface
Extreme heat may speed up biological ageing in older people
Spending more days in extreme heat seems to be linked to markers of increased biological ageing in people aged 56 and over, suggesting that it could raise the risk of age-related diseases
Physicists capture a strange fractal ‘butterfly’ for the first time
The electrons in a twisted piece of graphene show a strange repeating pattern first predicted in 1976, but never directly measured until now
Thread-based computer could be knitted into clothes to monitor health
Wearable technology could go beyond smartwatches to items of clothing that monitor large parts of your body
Humans were living in tropical forests surprisingly early
By far the oldest evidence of humans living in dense forests comes from a site in Ivory Coast, where stone tools and plant remains reveal a human presence stretching back 150,000 years
Vital ocean current is unlikely to completely shut down this century
Climate models predict that even under extreme warming, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation will weaken but not collapse entirely – although this could still have serious impacts
People in industrial societies get more sleep than hunter-gatherers
Individuals in industrialised societies seem to sleep for longer than people in non-industrialised ones, but their circadian rhythms are more out of sync