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Sometimes, the best way to learn how to do something is just to do it. That is especially true if you're learning to do something using a specific methodology. And in some cases, the outcome of your efforts is something that's interesting to other people. A team from across the European Union, led by PhD candidate Domenico D'Auria, spent a few days last September performing just such an exercise - and their work resulted in a mission architecture known as the Planetary Exploration Deployment and Research Operation - Venus, or PEDRO-V.

NASA's Perseverance Rover is an ambitious mission. Along with its day-to-day exploration, the rover carried an experimental rotorcraft and is also caching samples for eventual return to Earth. But there's another aspect to its mission that's hidden in the glare of its ambitions. The rover is busy testing five different spacesuit materials.

When we move, it's harder for existing wearable devices to accurately track our heart activity. But researchers found that a starfish's five-arm shape helps solve this problem. Inspired by how a starfish flips itself over -- shrinking one of its arms and using the others in a coordinated motion to right itself -- scientists have created a starfish-shaped wearable device that tracks heart health in real time.

When we move, it's harder for existing wearable devices to accurately track our heart activity. But researchers found that a starfish's five-arm shape helps solve this problem. Inspired by how a starfish flips itself over -- shrinking one of its arms and using the others in a coordinated motion to right itself -- scientists have created a starfish-shaped wearable device that tracks heart health in real time.

High-speed drones will be put to the test in the extreme Arctic environment as part of a project to assess how quickly glaciers in Greenland are retreating

If you find yourself buffeted by bad news online, our resident advice columnist David Robson has some science-backed tips for managing your consumption and boosting your resilience

Our hero Mickey accidentally breaks the rules when he's "reprinted", in a tired take on an old trope, finds film columnist Simon Ings

Mandy Barker's new book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype imperfections, highlights the ongoing ocean pollution crisis by echoing an influential 19th-century book

Drug trials are vital to medicine, but what of those taking part? Jennie Erin Smith's moving new book about what happened in a rural community hit by early-onset Alzheimer's disease gives them a voice

Feedback is baffled – baffled! – as to why Facebook owner Meta's attempts to suppress a previous employee's memoir sent the book rocketing to the top of the book charts

A cost-cutting initiative in the world of passenger aviation could see flight-deck staff reduced to just a captain, with their co-pilot replaced by AI. It may save money, but it's a risk too far, argues Paul Marks

Why are some people drawn towards exploration and challenge – even to the point of extreme danger? Alex Hutchinson's bracing new book unpicks the complex reasons

For decades, autistic women and girls have had to play "diagnostic bingo" before getting their true diagnosis. As new neuroscience offers a fresh understanding of the condition, the time for change is now

World leaders should look to existing international law on the use of force to address the threat of space becoming ever more militarized, a new study shows.

For a long time, scientists thought that only actively star-forming galaxies should be observed in the very early Universe. The James Webb space telescope now reveals that galaxies stopped forming stars earlier than expected. A recent discovery deepens the tension between theoretical models of cosmic evolution and actual observations. Among hundreds of spectra obtained with the Webb program RUBIES, the team has found a record-breaking galaxy that had already stopped forming stars during an epoch where galaxies are normally growing very rapidly.

An AI model trained on large amounts of genetic data can predict whether bacteria will become antibiotic-resistant. The new study shows that antibiotic resistance is more easily transmitted between genetically similar bacteria and mainly occurs in wastewater treatment plants and inside the human body.

Applied physicists have created a photon router that could plug into quantum networks to create robust optical interfaces for noise-sensitive microwave quantum computers.

Applied physicists have created a photon router that could plug into quantum networks to create robust optical interfaces for noise-sensitive microwave quantum computers.

Chemists report that radiation-induced chemical reactions may help mitigate the corrosion of metals in a new type of nuclear reactor cooled by molten salts.

An international research team has developed mechanical metamaterials with a high elastic energy density. Highly twisted rods that deform helically provide these metamaterials with a high stiffness and enable them to absorb and release large amounts of elastic energy. The researchers conducted simple compression experiments to confirm the initial theoretical results.