Visible aurora spotted for the first time on Mars by NASA rover
If you were standing on Mars as it was hit by charged particles from the sun, you might be able to see an aurora just like on Earth
One dose of a smallpox vaccine still gives good protection for mpox
A single dose of a smallpox vaccine seems to lower the risk of catching mpox by around 60 per cent, and two doses would probably be even better
Why everyone needs to stop joking that they’re “a little bit OCD”
Far from being a behavioural quirk, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a debilitating condition with complex causes that we're just beginning to understand. We should treat it as such, and stop with the misguided quips
Genome of Neanderthal fossil reveals lost tribe cut off for millennia
Analysis of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil found in a French cave indicates that it belonged to a group that was isolated for more than 50,000 years
Ancient people of Easter Island made return trips to South America
DNA analysis shows that people from Easter Island had contact with Indigenous Americans around the 1300s, and finds there was no population crash before the arrival of Europeans
Bubbles of gas 75 times larger than our sun spotted on another star
Gas bubbles on the surface of a star have been observed for the first time in detail outside our solar system, and they are 75 times the size of our sun
Huge new volcano has burst through the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io
In between two spacecraft visiting Jupiter’s moon Io, a volcano spreading material over hundreds of kilometres has appeared
Fish size themselves up in a mirror to decide if they can win a fight
Cleaner wrasse use their reflection to build a mental image of their body size, which they use to compare themselves to rivals before picking a fight
When did humans leave the trees for the savannah – or did they at all?
Ancient humans are said to have evolved to leave the trees, where our primate ancestors lived, in favour of open grassy savannahs – but we may have this idea wrong
Ants change the way they build nests to stop diseases spreading
When worker ants are exposed to a pathogenic fungus, they build nests that are more compartmentalised to reduce the risk of an epidemic