Author: New Scientist - News

NASA's Curiosity rover is compiling evidence of enduring bodies of water on the Martian surface, but this conflicts with what we know about the Red Planet's past climate

Comparing DNA extracted from an ancient Ethiopian skeleton with modern examples shows some of our ancestors migrated back to Africa from Eurasia 3000 years ago

The latest images from the New Horizons probe uncover surprising details about the dwarf planet's colours – and how the sky and the ground are connected

Including 31,000 neurons and their 37 million synapses, a digital recreation of a chunk of rat brain is already giving clues as to how the real thing works

The test, based on epigenetic tags on the genome, claims 67 per cent accuracy, but concerns over eugenics and misuse have led lead researcher to quit his job

Duplications of the p53 gene makes elephant cells more likely to die in response to DNA damage, rather than turn cancerous

Some of the ants in Costa Rican nests devote their lives to stealing from neighbours, which suggests a distinct behavioural caste

Independent panel of UK scientists says evidence supports the use of flu drugs for severely ill people in pandemics, which implies that stockpiles make sense

A peptide that over-excites neurons controlling facial feeling is to blame for migraines – so drugs that constrict blood vessels won't work

"Off-the-shelf" insulin-producing cells could be a simpler and potentially safer way to treat type 1 diabetes than using stem cells