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Many people decide to give up alcohol during January. But is this actually helpful in the long-term and are there better, easier ways to change our drinking habits, asks Ian Hamilton

Simulations suggest Pluto and its largest moon may have gently stuck together for a few hours before Charon settled into a stable orbit around the dwarf planet

A velvet ant sting is like “hot oil spilling over your hand” – now, scientists have identified molecules in its venom that let it deliver excruciating pain to a variety of other animals

The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics invokes alternative realities to keep everything in balance. Has solving a century-old paradox now undermined their existence?

From carbon emissions to the share prize of videoconferencing firm Zoom, these graphs tell the story of how the covid-19 pandemic changed everything

From Cory Doctorow to Nnedi Okorafor and from fancy space opera to elegantly written visions of a flooded future world, there is plenty of great science fiction published this month

Deep sediments under Arctic lakes could release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, adding to the threat of runaway climate change

Smartphones, electric vehicles and wind turbines rely on environmentally destructive rare earth mining operations. Harnessing electric fields could make this mining more sustainable

Countries have pledged to phase out HFC-23, a powerful greenhouse gas, but atmospheric data shows that emissions are five times higher than governments are reporting

Homo floresiensis, a metre-tall ancient hominin, lived on the South Pacific island of Flores and hunted dwarf elephants until about 50,000 years ago – and now it seems climate change played a role in the downfall of both species

Teenagers in the US roughly doubled their use of nicotine pouches in 2024, despite turning away from alcohol and other drugs

A quantum sensor based on a protein from bioluminescent jellyfish can be made by the body itself and it may be able to help us track how cells form or detect disease at an early stage

A new type of crystal that absorbs heat when released from extreme pressure could lead to climate-friendly refrigerators and air conditioners

A robotic hand uses fingertip sensors and AI to determine how firmly to grip before closing in on an object, overcoming a persistent problem for prosthetics

Although popular AI models score highly on medical exams, their accuracy drops significantly when making a diagnosis based on a conversation with a simulated patient

We asked our writers to pick their favourite science fiction television series. Here are the results, from Battlestar Galactica to Futurama

Many dates stick in our minds as we reflect on five years of living with covid-19 - here are some of the most memorable ones

Covid-19 is responsible for the deaths of millions of people around the world, but researchers fear the next global outbreak could be even worse, making it vital that we start preparing for that unknown pathogen now

mRNA vaccines have been a long time coming, but were only approved after covid-19 emerged, marking the beginning of a new way of preventing – and treating – various conditions

Some people have been living with long covid for five years, but we are still just starting to learn about its exact causes and how best to treat the condition