17:18 04 December 2008  | 1 comment

Modern inhabitants of Spain and Portugal still display genetic traces of the cultural melting pot that existed in the late 1400s

17:02 04 December 2008

The days of smutty grey and black buildings are gone, suggests research into how stone facades will be altered by changes in the atmosphere

THIS WEEK:  16:50 04 December 2008

The huge particle smasher will be back up and running by the third quarter of 2009 – probably

FEATURE:  11:36 04 December 2008

The device is the first artificial microswimmer to move without using chemical propulsion or bending itself into different shapes

THIS WEEK:  11:28 04 December 2008  | 16 comments

If the total abundance of dark matter in the universe was any different, humans and all other life on Earth might not exist

THIS WEEK:  10:39 04 December 2008  | 4 comments

As the world reels from the recent food and fuel crises, rich countries are snapping up vast tracts of land in poor regions to grow food and biofuels for themselves

INTERVIEW:  10:12 04 December 2008  | 21 comments

As the UN climate negotiations get underway in Poland this week, physicist Lenny Smith tells Fred Pearce that, while man-made climate change is real, climate modellers are too certain of their results

20:02 03 December 2008  | 2 comments

The exploding star that Tycho Brahe saw in 1572 was a gluttonous white dwarf, ghostly light from the centuries-old event reveals

THIS WEEK:  18:14 03 December 2008  | 31 comments

For the first time, a gene is being linked to increased susceptibility to the placebo effect – the mysterious capacity some people have to benefit from sham treatments

FEATURE:  18:11 03 December 2008  | 21 comments

Do our brains respond to hidden messages in pheromones after all? Caroline Williams investigates

FEATURE:  18:15 03 December 2008  | 27 comments

The breakthrough promises to put today's gigahertz processors in the shade – if practical hurdles can be overcome

18:00 03 December 2008  | 7 comments

A new reconstruction of two 2007 earthquakes off Sumatra shows that there is still plenty of pent-up energy waiting to be released

17:25 03 December 2008  | 5 comments

Wide-angle mirrors without potentially dangerous distortion are possible, says a new patent application

15:00 03 December 2008  | 12 comments

Climate change is exacerbating damage from acid rain and other forms of environmental degradation – such effects could have greater impact than global warming itself

13:45 03 December 2008  | 6 comments

See images of stars forming, both in our Milky Way Galaxy and in extreme environments in other distant galaxies

12:48 03 December 2008  | 25 comments

Free web access could bring the benefits of the internet to groups currently left behind by the broadband age – but is the plan about to be scuppered?

11:22 03 December 2008  | 2 comments

Feeling glum? New software could predict whether your feelings will descend into full-blown depression within the next year – plus: take the test

THIS WEEK:  10:52 03 December 2008  | 17 comments

People with psychopathic behavioural traits seem to steer away from the rich and successful, and focus on more vulnerable people

00:01 03 December 2008  | 16 comments

Women might swoon over Barry White's deep bass, yet when looking for a provider, they find Justin Timberlake's falsetto sounds sexier

20:02 02 December 2008  | 49 comments

The peculiar composition of Comet Machholz 1 hints that it may be an interloper from another star system

18:33 02 December 2008  | 9 comments

Search teams have found dozens of pieces of a 10-tonne space rock that exploded over central Canada less than two weeks ago

18:00 02 December 2008  | 7 comments

New techniques are making it easier for animators to create realistic hair, and helped create the river in Bjork's latest music video

16:09 02 December 2008  | 19 comments

Camera trickery convinces volunteers that they have swapped bodies with someone else or a mannequin

14:42 02 December 2008  | 69 comments

A new book describes the technologies we need to adopt if we are to win the war against climate change

14:35 02 December 2008  | 4 comments

See how computer visualisation informs everything from human bone analysis to simulations of warp bubbles in space

FEATURE:  14:00 02 December 2008  | 1 comment

The popularity of website items several weeks after publication can be predicted from the share of traffic they generate when first published

13:13 02 December 2008  | 13 comments

The host of the latest round of UN climate talks warns of the effects of climate change while frustrating the launch of an EU carbon-trading scheme