Pure Science

Science Focus

It’s the end of November and I’m standing under a freezing cold, outdoor shower in too-short shorts and a sports bra. I’ve spent 20 minutes sweating it out in a ‘wild sauna’ in a tiny tree-lined space carved out of an industrial estate in...

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And we have liftoff! The Artemis II rocket has roared into space, carrying NASA's first crewed mission to the Moon in over half a century. The four-person crew – commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina...

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We often think of body odour as an awkward inconvenience – something to hide with deodorant or a quick shower. But the smells our bodies produce can actually reveal a surprising amount about our underlying health. Where does body odour...

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With NASA’s Artemis II mission ready and waiting on the launch pad, it’s almost time for humans to return to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The mission will take a crew of four astronauts – commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor...

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Compared to every other country in the world, the US is bearing the biggest brunt of the economic losses inflicted by climate breakdown – and will likely continue to do so. That’s according to a recent study from Stanford University, in...

Science Focus

Whether you’re involved in the world of wellness, follow celebrity culture or simply get served anti-ageing content by the algorithm, there’s a good chance you’ll have come into contact with the latest fad spreading across the US and...

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Relationships can be brutal, just look at the popularity of songs like 'Someone Like You' by Adele, or all the covers of 'Cry Me a River' by Julie London. Some people have compared a relationship breakup with grief, as it involves the loss...

Science Focus

Schadenfreude, the experience of pleasure at the misfortune of others, is a very common emotion. It may seem mean-spirited, vindictive even, but if you have ever felt guilt about the satisfaction you experienced when someone else messed...

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Prof Børge Nordestgaard is a clinician and scientist in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark. He’s spent his career studying cholesterol and heart disease, and was awarded the 2020 Marie and...

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High cholesterol is a ‘silent killer’ and one of the biggest health problems affecting the world today. According to the CDC, around 86 million US adults have elevated cholesterol levels, putting them at an increased risk of heart attacks,...

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"Money can’t buy you happiness" is either a widely accepted insight or a tired cliché. Is it right, though? Scientifically speaking, the answer is… mixed. A study carried out at the University of Bath has once again looked at the...

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Scientifically speaking, there is no such thing as 'touching' something. When objects with mass – any objects with mass – touch each other, they aren’t physically in contact at all. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, atoms consist of...

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Tree-top time machines Scientists are preparing to pump thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the Amazon rainforest to answer one of climate change's biggest mysteries. Will the extra CO2 in a future atmosphere fertilise tree growth,...

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Science Focus

We may need to rethink what ‘sharks’ are, thanks to a new study from Yale University. Evolutionary biologists compared the DNA of different sharks to one another, and also to similar but non-shark species such as rays, skates and...

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Long-term cryosleep and reawakening may no longer be completely in the realm of science fiction thanks to the results of a new study published in the journal PNAS.  Researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University...

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I first visited Chernobyl in 2016, 30 years after the explosion at Reactor Four. I expected silence and scarcity – a lifeless place, defined by radiation. Instead, I found beavers swimming beneath a nuclear power plant. When the reactor...

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Its technology has been used in wars and in hospitals, its services have helped with killings and life-saving treatments, and its bosses are – according to who you ask – either helping to dismantle Western democracy or save it. Welcome to...

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Want to lose excess fat? There’s one method scientifically proven to work: the calorie deficit. In simple terms, that means eating a little less food than your body needs to fuel itself each day. Do that, and your body starts dipping into...

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Deep down, you probably believe you can sniff out lies like a bad smell. Perhaps inspired by Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, you may have confidence in your strong gut instinct and powers of deduction. It’s okay if you do – you’re not alone....

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Maya artefacts are something you'd probably expect to find in an archaeological site in Mexico or hidden in ruins buried deep in the Central American jungle. A startling number of them turn up in Europe, however – a legacy of the pillaging...

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The recent death of Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek from bowel cancer, aged just 48, highlighted a worrying trend: cases of early-onset cancer are rising. Research recently published in The Lancet Oncology found that the incidence...

Science Focus

Anxiety can be, at times, truly debilitating, making it hard to go about your day. However, feelings of unease, worry and fear – whether mild or more severe – can be dealt with. In the moment of an anxiety attack or any feelings of...

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There’s mathematical backing to an age-old fashion rule that clothing trends repeat themselves every 20 years, according to a study from Northwestern University. “We have all experienced the idea that fashion comes back – that miniskirts...

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Creating artificial quakes could soon help identify promising mining spots on the Earth – and even the Moon – according to German startup IMENSUS. Such technology could be a vital step towards realising lunar mining ambitions, but getting...

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“You forget to eat. You forget to buy food. You forget to buy healthy food. You even forget what counts as healthy food.” Dr Blandine French is talking about the complicated relationship that people with ADHD can have with something most...

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The difficult people in your life could accelerate your ageing – and even your chances of death, according to a new study. Why? So-called ‘hasslers’ make your life more stressful rather than supporting you, and chronic stress is a key...

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Astronomers have discovered a strange new world just 35 light-years from Earth – one permanently covered in a vast ocean of molten rock. The exoplanet, known as L 98-59 d, defies existing models of planetary formation and may represent an...

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Most of us, whether we admit it or not, would probably like to be a little smarter. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a chess whizz, or at the heart of the cut and thrust in every dinner party debate? But beyond being born with the right...

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Empathy is typically considered to be a good thing. We teach our children to be empathic because we want them to understand how others are feeling and to help them if needed.  Research also shows empathy to be positive, demonstrating...

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When you have a child, it’s often described as the happiest moment of your life. Indeed, it can be more emotionally intense than anything else the human brain can experience.  But the moment you become a parent is just that: a moment....

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People weren't always able to read silently. Writing began as a way to encode speech, not thought. In the early days, written text was performed for an audience, rather than consumed silently and alone. Religious scripture, royal...

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Today's AI tools are strange beasts. On the one hand, they have truly remarkable capabilities. You can ask Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini about quantum mechanics or the collapse of the Roman Empire and they'll...

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Science is one step closer to being able to accurately predict your lifespan based on your daily habits, thanks to a new study from Stanford University. Researchers monitored the behaviour of 81 African turquoise killifish in...

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A 74-million-year-old leg bone from a fossil bed in New Mexico could be an early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, suggests a new study published in Scientific Reports.  The find adds weight to the theory that T. rex's lineage originated...

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A new portal is allowing scientists and doctors – and anyone else curious enough – to fly through intact human organs in unprecedented detail, from the whole organ down to individual cells, in a form that researchers say could transform...

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The medical term for teeth grinding during sleep is called sleep bruxism, and it’s surprisingly common. It’s an unconscious action and most people aren’t even aware they’re doing it. It’s estimated that up to 8–10 per cent of people...

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A single dose of stem cells can significantly improve the physical endurance of older people living with frailty, a condition that affects 1 in 10 people over the age of 65, according to new research published in the journal Cell Stem...

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Most people are overconfident in their ability to identify faces generated by AI, according to a new study by researchers at UNSW Sydney and the Australian National University (ANU). The research, published in the British Journal of...

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You may hear a heartbeat in your pillow for a few reasons – most likely it's normal blood flow amplified by your head’s position. If you’re on your side with your ear against the pillow, and you have some earwax buildup, you may simply be...

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The majority of animals on Earth, humans included, are bilaterally symmetrical. It means we can be divided roughly into two mirror-image sides. Evolutionary biologists believe that it has been like that for at least 300 million years, and...

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Two severed killer whale fins found on a remote Russian island may point to a gruesome new behaviour never seen before: orcas actively hunting and eating their own kind. That’s because each of the fins, a new study says, bears tooth marks...

Science Focus

Money. It talks, makes the world go round, doesn’t grow on trees and is the root of all evil. Whatever your proverb, one thing’s certain – unless you live in an off-grid eco-lodge on a faraway island (and if you’re reading this, you’re...

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How do you navigate the awkward territory of ending a relationship that’s no longer working? Do you fall back on the old line of “It’s not you, it’s me” to spare the person’s feelings? Or is honesty the best policy? These are never easy...

Science Focus

Contrary to popular belief, babies aren’t born seeing only in black and white – their colour vision is limited, though. Newborns can detect some intense colours, especially red, but it’s as though the saturation dial is turned down. This...

Science Focus

There once was a time when a type 2 diabetes diagnosis meant learning to live with a lifelong chronic condition. But perhaps it doesn’t have to be so permanent after all. In recent years, research has shown it could be possible to turn...

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It should come as no surprise that we have more detailed maps of the Moon than the deep seafloor. The surface of the Moon is much easier to see because there’s no huge, deep ocean covering it up. With a telescope and a clear night, anyone...

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Yes, the Moon is technically drifting off into space, but it’s not in a hurry: the distance between it and us is growing by around 3cm (1.2in) every year.  This phenomenon, known as lunar recession, is caused by the complex...

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There’s a worrying problem with the ‘Higgs field’ – the energy field that gives particles their mass. It seems to be dangerously close to having an inherent instability. In the absence of particles, the Higgs field has a background,...

Science Focus

A 90-million-year-old fossil unearthed in Argentina is helping scientists rewrite the evolutionary history of a group of peculiar bird-like dinosaurs – and settle a long-running debate about how they spread across the ancient world. The...