Black hole batteries could power mysterious radio bursts
Just before a black hole and a neutron star collide, they may make a circuit that lights up for a few milliseconds – confirming Einstein's theory
Engineered fillets on sale in two years as US approves GM salmon
Success will depend on whether claims of the salmon's commercial benefits prove true and if supermarkets change their plans not to stock it
Capuchin monkeys use sticks as shovels to dig out caiman eggs
The first-ever record of this tool-wielding behaviour shows the monkeys risking it all for an egg treat hidden deep inside the predator's nest.
Koalas’ love of sex with neighbours protects against inbreeding
Despite population bottlenecks, it looks like koalas get around enough to avoid inbreeding, according to genome analysis from across the marsupial's range
One Per Cent
Air way to heaven All those air-guitar dreams are about to come true. Kurv, a “stringless” guitar, promises to let anyone play music if they don’t mind looking a bit silly doing so. The instrument, which launched on Kickstarter, consists of an eight-button touchpad held in one hand and a digital pick in the other. […]
Privacy apps to help fight back against companies that track you
Computer scientists are building tools to help us understand where our personal information goes online, stepping up the battle for privacy
Mission space food: Sugar-growing bacteria go into orbit
Genetically modified bacteria are scheduled to launch on a satellite in 2017 to test whether we can use them to make food for long space missions
17th century plot to use plague hats as bioweapons revealed
The Venetian empire hoped to break the world's longest siege by selling fezzes painted with bubonic plague fluids to Ottoman troops
Whales make mysterious visits to underwater mountains
New Caledonian humpback whales stop for days on end at underwater mountains when they migrate between breeding and feeding grounds. Why do they do this?
Computers learn to create photos of bedrooms and faces on demand
An artificial neural network can conjure up realistic-looking but imagined photographs on demand –and the results are quite bizarre
