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Groundwater extraction, plate tectonics and consequences of the last glacial period mean that most of the US's biggest cities are sinking

When huge scientific discoveries are made, you may hear that they are “statistically significant” or pass a threshold called “5 sigma” – but those calculations can be manipulated to make claims seem grander than they are, finds Jacob Aron

The growing use of smart home devices is undermining the privacy and safety of domestic workers. New research reveals how surveillance technologies reinforce a sense of constant monitoring and control by domestic workers' employers, increasing their vulnerability and impacting their mental wellbeing.

Redesigning social media to suit different needs of users could make their time online more focused, according to new research.

Redesigning social media to suit different needs of users could make their time online more focused, according to new research.

The Fermi Paradox presents us with a striking contradiction: despite the high probability of numerous civilizations existing throughout the Universe, we've encountered no evidence or communication from any alien intelligence. A new paper just published calculates that we should have a 99% chance of detecting at least one signal from another civilisation—assuming they survive for several hundred years and could be distributed anywhere across the Milky Way galaxy. This calculation further deepens the mystery of our apparent cosmic solitude.

On May 7th, the Japanese space exploration company ispace announced that its HAKUTO-R RESILIENCE lander entered lunar orbit after completing a 9-minute thruster burn. It's now in a stable lunar orbit, and operators will spend the next month testing and preparing for its landing attempt on June 5. This is the company's second attempt at landing on the Moon, after the first attempt crashed in 2023. It's carrying a micro-rover and several science experiments.

NASA’s Psyche mission is on its way to explore a metal-rich asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. All was going well since its launch in October 2023 until nasa announced a decrease in fuel pressure for the propulsion system. It uses a solar electric propulsion system, generating thrust with four electric ion engines that expel xenon ions, giving the spacecraft a gentle nudge in the opposite direction. It has been firing its thrusters continuously since May 2024, but in April 2025, engineers detected the pressure drop. Thankfully they have redundancy built in but are still troubleshooting the issue.

The most massive stars in the Milky Way contain one hundred times more mass than the Sun, even more in some cases. These O-type stars are extremely hot, luminous, and blue, and often die in supernova explosions. Astrophysicists want to know how they get so big, and a simple household chemical might hold the answer.

When ISS astronauts return home, they have a hot ride back to Earth's surface. It's been that way since the beginning of human spaceflight to orbital space and beyond. The incoming vehicle uses friction with Earth's atmosphere to slow down to a safe landing speed. The "hot ride" part comes because that friction builds up high temperatures on the spacecraft's "skin". Without protection, the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry could destroy it. This same heating happens to incoming meteoroids as they whip through Earth's atmosphere.

Using a thermal sensor smaller than a grain of sand, engineers have measured the vibrations, or phonons, within individual molecules.

Cases of dementia doubled worldwide between 1990 and 2021, but more than quadrupled in China during the same period

Deep-sea submersibles have been diving for decades, but records show that we have still only explored a tiny area of the deep seabed, which makes up the majority of Earth's topography

If astronomy has a Holy Grail, it's another habitable world. To find one, NASA is working with partners to develop the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The HWO would be the first telescope built to detect Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars. China is building the Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES), and new research shows that by working together, HWO and CHES would amplify their results.

A reader wonders if they can become less gullible. Our science-based advice columnist David Robson has some surprising answers

A disturbing new Danish TV series, which follows a wealthy family as rising seas force the evacuation of Denmark, is wildly popular in its home country. We should all be watching it, says Bethan Ackerley

Combining sustainability, climate resilience and environmental preservation, the ancient “milpa” system of the Maya revealed in these images has been practiced for millennia

The mathematician is out to show the close link between maths and the arts. This idea isn't new, and while Blueprints is lyrical on maths, it falls a bit flat when it comes to covering artists

In this latest instalment of our speculative column Future Chronicles, an imagined history of future inventions, Rowan Hooper explores the pros (and cons) of networking our brains with those of other animals

Feedback's proposal that the genome of the blue whale could be used to communicate the scale of large datasets is knocked back by a reader with a radical alternative suggestion