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Software developers entering the International Obfuscated C Code Contest must write programs that look baffling, but perform unusual, unexpected or catastrophic tasks

Children may have a higher risk of developing ADHD if their mothers used paracetamol – also known as acetaminophen – during pregnancy, adding weight to the contested link between the painkiller and fetal brain development

Lunar: A history of the moon in myths, maps and matter tells the story of the coexistence between humanity and the celestial body through striking images and detailed maps

James Wong had always dismissed the idea aspirin was beneficial to plants. But digging into the science brought some surprises

Definitively convicting rapists is only possible thanks to one woman's efforts to create a forensic chain of evidence. A new book explores the rape kit and how we still fail survivors

Scott chooses to be a cyborg by implanting a piece of tech that vibrates whenever he faces north; Susanna copes by filming the effects on their marriage. Is this what modern love looks like?

By the 2030s, a wave of litigation led by artificial intelligence was forcing Big Oil firms to pay billions in damages for their emissions, says our guide to the future, Rowan Hooper

Feedback learns of the online assistant at finance firm Virgin Money shocked at the use of its own company name, and recalls glorious past mishaps when language filters took it too far

Online dating has warped how we view romantic connections. Adding artificial intelligence could make things worse, argues Luke Brunning

Ancient Mesopotamia comes alive in Moudhy Al-Rashid's must-read, millennia-spanning history, cleverly wrought from tablets written in the world's oldest script

While artificial intelligence and quantum computing insiders have both been guilty of hyping up their products, only the latter group appears to still be applying proper scientific rigour to their field

Forensic scientists investigating cases of sexual assault may be able to use the genital microbiome to identify the perpetrator, as researchers have found that this "sexome" is exchanged between partners during intercourse

The drug semaglutide has been linked to a lower risk of alcoholism before, but now we have strong evidence that it really does help curb drinking

Some turtles "dance" when they anticipate food, which gives us clues as to how they navigate from A to B

The smooth wings of fruit-sucking moths appear to be ridged like a leaf – but the resemblance is created by nanostructures that reflect light in an unusual way

A neutrino with more energy than we've ever seen before was picked up by a detector on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, and it seems to have a distant cosmic origin

Our estimates of the size of a neutrino span from smaller than an atomic nucleus to as large as a few metres, but now we are starting to narrow down its true value

Archaeopteryx, long considered the earliest fossil bird, could be knocked off its perch by Baminornis zhenghensis, which lived around 150 million years ago and had a short tail like those of modern birds

The surprising discovery of entities smaller than viruses raises profound questions about what life is and how it got started

A waste-water surveillance network of strategic international airports could quickly detect outbreaks of new diseases – and provide early warnings of future pandemics