THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SLIME

Runny noses, slippery sea creatures and that impossible-to-clean bit behind your sink all have one thing in common: slime. While it might make us cringe, life on Earth would be very different without it...

A VOLCANO ON VENUS HAS SHOWN SIGNS OF A RECENT ERUPTION

Images taken by the Magellan space probe in the 1990s could show evidence of eruptions or magma flow

Wild rats living in New York City sewers are carrying coronavirus

More than 15% of rats captured in wastewater systems tested positive for the virus

Do weighted blankets really work for anxiety and insomnia?

A weighted blanket contains glass beads, plastic pellets, ball weight.

3 RULES BEHIND EVERY DIET THAT WORKS

We're fed up with navigating all the tips and advice online telling us how to lose weight, so we asked an obesity expert to reveal whether anything actually works for weight loss

HOW TO AVOID THEM AND WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET BITTEN

With the number of critters on the rise, the UK is seeing increasing cases of tick-borne viruses already established in South Africa

ARE MERMAIDS REAL?

A marine biologist reveals whether a half-human, half-fish could survive beneath the waves

Compounds essential for life found in samples collected from a near-earth asteroid

Samples collected during Hayabusa2's trip to the asteroid Ryugu contain uracil, a substance present in RNA

Complete circuitry of an insect brain mapped for the first time

The model shows every single neuron and connection in the brain of a fruit fly larva

ANXIETY

Your ultimate guide to understanding, coping and conquering the inner demons

Is social media ruining childhood?

It's tempting to think that our digital lives on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are at fault, but there might be something altogether more analogue going on

Revealed: the spacesuit astronauts will wear for the next moonwalk

NASA has teamed up with private company Axiom Space to design its next-generation suits

Climate change is already having an effect... On our mental wellbeing

People's growing anxiety about the future of the planet is becoming increasingly obvious, but it's not an entirely bad thing

THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB MAN

Men are losing friends and struggling to make new ones – and missing out on powerful health benefits in the process. Buddy, what’s going on?

Al can predict the risk of heart disease by analysing a single chest x-ray

The model could be used to identify at-risk patients who are not currently taking preventative medication

New image of Cartwheel Galaxy shows us how stars are born

This stunning image released by the James Webb Space Telescope reveals the inner workings of a rare ring galaxy in unprecedented detail

NASA's Artemis programme is set to put humans back on the moon

Artemis 1 is the first of three missions that will culminate with humans walking on the moon for the first time since 1972

Eating Marmite could ease anxiety and depression

B vitamins found in the spread may help the brain produce calming neurochemicals

THE CARNIVORE DIET: CAN EATING A MEAT-ONLY MENU BE GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH?

The meat-only diet has gone viral on social media, with its proponents claiming that humans evolved to exist on animal protein alone

THINKING POSITIVELY CAN BE GOOD FOR YOUR BODY, NOT JUST YOUR BRAIN

Looking for an upside in any given situation can improve everything from the immune system to heart health

LOVE HURTS

Slicing, biting, slashing, cannibalising... these are not words we would naturally associate with romance. But there is beauty and splendour to be seen in the shadier side of animal mating

Artificial sweeteners found in sugar-free foods can kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The discovery could help in the war against superbugs

RECOMMENDED HEALTH TARGETS: DO THEY WORK?

Get your five-a-day. Sleep eight hours. Drink eight glasses of water. These are just a few of the ‘essential’ health guidelines we’re supposed to live by, but who can really manage all of the above? And do these ‘commandments’ stand up to scrutiny?

VIDEOCONFERENCING STIFLES CREATIVITY

Being tethered to a screen makes us less likely to mentally wander, and this has an impact on our creative thinking

THE HIDDEN ROOMS OF TUTANKHAMUN'S TOMB

A century ago, Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered. But even today, controversy still rages over whether it contains undiscovered chambers. Here, an Egyptologist puts the rumours to bed... or, rather, firmly into their sarcophagus

A lab to live by

CERN continues to be a hotspot for scientific discovery

HOW OUR BRAINS DECLINE AS WE AGE

The charts could one day be used as a clinical tool to help track patients’ brain development and diagnose neurodevelopmental disorders

HOW TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

At the Polarization Lab in North Carolina, multidisciplinary researchers – including social scientists, statisticians and computer scientists – are breaking apart the social media status quo to rebuild it, one peer-reviewed brick at a time

LAB GROWN MEAT

Everything you need to know about a future where you can have your steak and eat it…

W BOSON: IS IT ABOUT TO BREAK PHYSICS?

The mass of the W boson, a subatomic particle, appears to be wrong. What could this mean for the Standard Model of particle physics?