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Social media is enabling health symptoms and mass psychogenic illnesses to spread quickly around the world. But by knowing how it happens, you can protect yourself

From staying active to getting plenty of sleep, there are many ways to keep your heart healthy

Efforts to develop next-generation cryptography algorithms that can't be broken by quantum computers are already underway in the US, but now China has announced it will seek its own solutions

Pompeii only came under Roman control around 160 years before its destruction – and its traffic-worn streets show how the locals adjusted their business operations

Throughout Earth's history, ice caps have been very rare, but a model of the past 420 million years suggests an explanation for why they sometimes form

Crops don't generally thrive in desert-like ground, but 1000 years ago farmers in Israel utilised refuse such as ash and bones to turn sand into fertile land

A new look at fossils from the Cambrian Period around 500 million years ago has revealed that some of the earliest animals spent time on mudflats that were sometimes exposed to the air – a find that could rewrite the story of when life first left the oceans

For more than 40 years, Jonathan McDowell has tirelessly catalogued the space industry. Now he is planning to retire, and looking to pass on his extensive collection of knowledge

A UK start-up is producing dyes made by bacteria and yeast rather than fossil fuel-derived chemicals, which could help clothes manufacturers cut energy use and pollution

Fossil teeth of extinct megalodon sharks have grooves made by other megalodon teeth, hinting at violent encounters between these giant predators

Bioethanol made from fermented agricultural waste can be turned into zero-carbon hydrogen through a new process that uses much less energy than other sources

Seismic measurement of Los Angeles’s depleted aquifers show a year of heavy precipitation hasn’t been enough to refill them

Conservation projects in wealthy but nature-depleted countries can cause food and timber production to “leak” into poorer, biodiverse nations 

In mice, the neurons that dictate the feeling of being full are also the ones that cause sugar cravings, potentially explaining why people are still able to eat sweets after a filling meal

A survey of workers who used generative AI to complete tasks found that they used critical thinking less when they trusted the AI to do the task accurately

Batteries built on quantum principles could offer fast charging and discharging – and the technology may just have moved a little closer to the real world

Ancient DNA from 348 individuals suggests that pale skin became the predominant characteristic of people living in Europe much later than assumed

In a step towards suspended animation of people, slices of mouse brains have shown near-normal activity after being stored at -150°C for up to a week

Fast-moving stars zooming through our galaxy might have been slingshotted from a black hole inside the neighbouring Large Magellanic Cloud

A comprehensive analysis pours cold water on claims that using carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere to drive oil extraction can result in carbon-neutral fossil fuel