Orangutan uses plants to heal wound

For the first time ever, a wild animal has been observed healing a wound using a plant as medicine.

THE LAB

Three things to make and do

Stones of the SOLSTICE

Jamie Carter explores 12 ancient stones, tombs and temples across the world that align with the Sun at the solstice

The spirit of the eclipse

Eclipse chaser Yvette Cook reports on what it was like in the path of totality in Texas during 8 April's Great American Eclipse

Unearthing galaxies in the archives

Comparing old Hubble data to today is revealing distant active galaxies

Manhattanhenge

New York's urban island of Manhattan, with its gridiron street layout, sees summer Suns set neatly between skyscrapers. Jamie Carter explains the phenomenon

Surfing spacetime with LISA

A new era of gravitational wave astronomy is on its way as the ambitious upcoming LISA space mission joins a host of huge detectors on Earth. Charlie Hoy explains

A very British eclipse

In 1927, Britain experienced its first total solar eclipse since 1724. Mike Frost looks at how, like 8 April 2024's US spectacle, eclipse fever swept the nation

Cosmic rays

In part two of our series, Govert Schilling looks at cosmic rays, the high-energy particles that bombard Earth from space

A quicker way to colourise your narrowband frames

Create a bicolour image in Siril using data from just two narrowband filters

When Haydn met the Herschels

Jonathan Powell on how the astronomer siblings inspired the famous composer

Voyager 1 is back online and exploring the unknown

An interstellar rescue brings the venerable spacecraft back after months out of action

COULD A SUPERNOVA WORDS ANDREW MAY ENGULF EARTH?

We put some intriguing, baffling and bizarre space questions under the spotlight

A drone with a rotating detonation rocket engine' approached the speed of sound

venus Aerospace has completed the inaugural test flight of a drone fitted with its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), accelerating it to just under the speed of sound.

DNA reveals that ancient American lineage goes back 18,000 years

Members of the Blackfoot Confederacy have an ancient lineage that goes back 18,000 years. This means that Indigenous peoples living in the Great Plains of Montana and southern Alberta today can trace their origins to ice age predecessors.

A group of 60 ultra-faint stars could be a new type of galaxy

A stronomers have spotted the faintest and lightest satellite galaxy ever found: a minuscule, tight-knit group of stars trailing the Milky Way.

An underwater mountain hosts creatures unknown to science

An underwater mountain chain off Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, hosts an astonishing array of deep-sea species, at least 50 of which are new to science.

Understanding MENTAL HEALTH

Take a tour of the brain to discover the origins of anxiety and how to tackle it

HOW STONEHENGE WAS BUILT

Who built this stone circle and how was this ancient feat of engineering pulled off?

A sleeping subduction zone could swallow the Atlantic

A subduction zone below the Gibraltar Strait is creeping westward and could one day ‘invade’ the Atlantic Ocean, causing the ocean to slowly close up.

WHAT ARE ULTRAPROCESSED FOODS?

Some natural products are drastically transformed by the food industry, and regularly eating them can affect our health

ANIMALS ON THE BRINK

Meet some of the most critically endangered animals from around the world and discover why they're on the brink of extinction

The largest plane to ever fly

Take a first look at the mighty Radia WindRunner aircraft

Huge gold nugget found

A gold nugget that could be the largest ever found in England was recently put up for auction. Metal detectorist Richard Brock discovered the nugget on farmland during an organised expedition in Shropshire last year.

Smoke rings in the sky

In April, videos were filmed of Mount Etna, a volcano on the Italian island of Sicily, puffing what looked like smoke rings into the sky.

SUGAR RUSH

Join the candy craze as Claire Karwowski studies the sugary science of sweets.

Wildlife watch

Stevie Derrick shows you what to spot in nature this month

Evolutionary tree shows birds in a new light

Researchers have produced the most detailed evolutionary tree of birds ever.

Dogs can understand names of objects

Humans enjoy talking to their dogs. If you have a four-legged friend of your own, you might have taught them to respond to commands like \"sit\" and \"stay\".

WORLD OF WHIFFS

Stevie Derrick follows her nose to track down the world's grossest stinks and nastiest niffs.