CATEGORIES

WHY DO I GO RED WHEN I'M EMBARRASSED OR HAVE BEEN DRINKING?

Blushing, or turning red in the face, is a fascinating physiological response that occurs in certain situations, such as embarrassment or alcohol consumption.

BEFORE WE HAD LONG COVID, WAS THERE LONG SARS?

The SARS epidemic of 2002-2004, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), affected over 8,000 people globally.

ANEMOIA: WHY AM I NOSTALGIC FOR A TIME I DIDN'T KNOW OR A PLACE I'VE NEVER BEEN?

The term nostalgia’ was coined by a Swiss doctor in the 17th century to describe the homesickness experienced by mercenaries fighting far from home from the Greek nostos’ the desire to return home and algos’, meaning pain).

THE VAGINA'S HUGE MEDICAL POTENTIAL IS GOING UNTAPPED.BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER

Scientists are beginning to investigate the organ’s potential healthcare applications... and there’s a lot of them

THE HUNT FOR INVISIBLE PARTICLES IS OPENING A NEW SCIENTIFIC FRONTIER

The link between theory and experiment is opening a window on to the next iteration of physics

FEELING SUPERSONIC

IT'S 20 YEARS SINCE THE PUBLIC COULD BUY A TICKET TO FLY ON A PLANE CAPABLE OF BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER. BUT THERE'S A BAND OF ENGINEERS AND PILOTS WHO THINK COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PASSENGERS ARE ONCE AGAIN FEELING THE NEED... THE NEED FOR SUPERSONIC SPEED

OUR BEST FRIENDS

Many of us share our homes and lives with a canine companion. But how much do we really know about what's going on inside their heads? Cognitive scientists Dr Zazie Todd and Prof Alexandra Horowitz explain what we're learning about how our four-legged friends think, and share a few tips on how you can make their lives better...

Could adolescent reptiles learn martial arts?

Do you need more than pizza, surf slang and bright bandanas to bring out the heroes in four juvenile turtles?

ALBIE HEWITT, RIPON HOW RADIOACTIVE IS MY HOUSE? (DO I NEED TO WORRY?)

Pedantically, we could say that your house is literally bathed in radiation day and night, since visible light is radiation, and so are the infrared wavelengths coming from your radiators and the 2.4GHz frequency radio waves from your home Wi-Fi and mobile phone. But what you're probably referring to is ionising radiation - the kind powerful enough to knock electrons out of atoms and thereby cause cancer and, at very high doses, radiation poisoning and burns.

SPLENDID PERSEIDS WHEN: EARLY-LATE AUGUST

The Perseid meteor shower shows activity from mid-July through to late August. Generally the meteor rate is low, but between 10-16 August, rates are higher, reaching a peak in the early hours of 13 August.

HOW DO VARIFOCAL GLASSES WORK?

Varifocals are lenses that allow you to see close-up, far away and somewhere in between, all through the same pair of glasses.

SHEEPSHEAD FISH

Someone slap a lawsuit on the dentist who fitted this fish with the freakishly human teeth... What's that you say? Evolution did this. By natural selection? What was it thinking! The sheepshead fish, aka the lovechild of Billy Bass and my granny's dentures, is a scaly, sparkly swimmer that can be found in the shallow waters of the western Atlantic, from Nova Scotia to Brazil. It's a euryhaline species, which means it can tolerate a wide range of salinity.

CHRIS PACKHAM VERSUS THE WORLD

After conquering wildlife programming, presenter Chris Packham is taking on the planet in Earth, a BBC series that sheds new light on the history of our home. He talks Noa Leach through the show's surprising science and his guilty conscience

Five of the best outdoor speakers

A good outdoor speaker needs to be portable, offer great audio and be able to stand up to all types of weather. The BBC Science Focus team picks their faves

Ideas we like...

Our pick of the month's smartest tech

THE LAB

Three things to make and do

Should disposable barbecues be banned?

Some people think it's time to say goodbye to these single-use sizzlers.

Who invented music?

Singing along is fun, but when did it all begin?

James Stewart

Meet the man trying to spread a positive message about our planet.

HERE COMES TROUBLE!

Look out! Isabel Thomas goes in search of nature's naughtiest animals and asks if they are misbehaving or just misunderstood...

"We knew that this would be a historic comet"

Astronomer David Levy was immortalised for his co-discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 – its impact with Jupiter 29 years ago held the world in awe

New Tatooine-like exoplanet discovered orbiting twin suns

For decades, astronomers wondered if planets with twin Suns like Luke Skywalker’s fictional home world of Tatooine were only science fiction.

WHAT'S THE STRANGEST THING SENT INTO SPACE?

From LEGO to pizza, this list of space oddities proves that almost anything can make its way into the cosmos

Askar 130PHQ flatfield apo refractor

If you've got the budget, this hefty refractor's got fine views and a deluxe feel

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE FINDS A GARGANTUAN GEYSER ON SATURN'S MOON

Scientists are longing to go back to the moon to sample the plume material for signs of life

BEYOND PLUTO

From Planet X to objects frozen in time – what truly lurks outside the Solar System’s chaotic frontier

12 AMAZING JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE BREAKTHROUGHS

Webb is peering across the universe to discover new things about planets, galaxies and other cosmic objects

The great American eclipses

In a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, two solar eclipses are about to cross over the USA. Jamie Carter has the details

A new Pentagon-funded hypersonic test vehicle could fly in summer 2024

A new experimental hypersonic cruise vehicle could be flying as soon as next summer under an initiative from the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).

CAN SPACE EXPLORATION REALLY BE ETHICAL?

More than 60 years after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere, human exploration and exploitation of space isn’t just a matter of technological innovation… it continues to raise many ethical issues