Crickets rapidly evolve new mating call to evade their parasites
In Hawaii, parasitic flies target singing crickets, forcing them to rapidly evolve to escape detection. Now some males have developed a special, seductive purr
There is a weird new state of matter that can’t be stirred or pushed
Rigid light is a strange new state of matter. It’s somewhere between a solid and a superfluid, and can’t be stirred, rotated, or even pushed
Creams remove skin sun spots with minimal pain and may prevent cancer
Sun spots – or actinic keratoses – are caused by UV light. Now people are using medicated creams to remove them before they have a chance to turn cancerous
Huddling for warmth gives animals a more efficient gut microbiome
When animals huddle together in the cold their gut bacteria change in a way that slows down the animals’ metabolisms and helps them preserve energy
Search engine for CCTV lets you find people from their description
Trawling through surveillance video for a suspect or missing person is slow work, but a new system can automatically match footage of people to their descriptions
Search engine for CCTV lets you find people from their description
Trawling through surveillance video for a suspect or missing person is slow work, but a new system can automatically match footage of people to their descriptions
The Higgs boson may have stopped the early universe from collapsing
Moments after the big bang, calculations show the universe could have collapsed into black holes. The reason it didn’t could be explained by the Higgs boson
Physicists are turning to Lewis Carroll for help with their maths
Mathematics produced by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, has been used to help simplify calculations used by particle physicists
Sunshine seems to protect babies from eczema – but we don’t know why
Sunshine seems to prevent babies from getting eczema and is more effective than vitamin D supplements, but moderation is advised due to the risk of skin damage
Crashing waves may have spurred the evolution of backbones
Backbones helped vertebrates conquer the oceans and move onto land. Now a study hints they may have evolved as protection against strong waves in shallow waters