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Editor's picks

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Humans

Time to take a long, hard look at humanity’s future in the cosmos

Health

Middle-age spread isn’t down to metabolism, but we know how to beat it

E7KTB1 US, New York City. View from the Empire State Building observation deck. Pigeon taking a rest.

Life

Creatures living in our cities are evolving in some surprising ways

Physics

Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans

Table of contents

Leaders

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Humans

Time to take a long, hard look at humanity’s future in the cosmos

Progress in understanding nearly everything that lies beyond Earth has been immense, but it is timely to raise questions about stewardship of our own world

快猫短视频

An employee in front of a screen displaying charts for cryptocurrencies at the Independent Reserve office in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, March 4, 2022. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies??rose earlier??in the week on the expectation that they might gain traction during Russias invasion of Ukraine. The advance was then??stymied by concern??about the effect of international sanctions against Russia. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Technology

Will bitcoin help or hinder Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion?

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are聽being used to raise funds to buy weapons for Ukraine, help refugees swiftly carry money across borders and potentially even aid Russians in evading sanctions

Mind

Special brain cells may signal when to start new memories

Life

Mouse pups born from unfertilised eggs through genetic manipulation

Health

Leaded petrol may have lowered the IQ of over half the US population

Environment

Amazon rainforest nears tipping point that may see it become savannah

Humans

Geese may have been the first birds to be domesticated 7000 years ago

Technology

Silkworms make fluorescent silk after eating quantum dots

Environment

Net zero: The UK is building its last big gas power plant

Technology

Encryption meant to protect against quantum hackers is easily cracked

Environment

Easter Islanders relied on freshwater springs under the sea to survive

Life

How a rodent鈥檚 fear of cats shapes rainforests in Panama

Space

Our closest black hole is actually just one star eating another

Technology

Robotic ships could inspect underwater pipelines without a crew

Life

Adjusting to a new sibling is highly stressful for bonobo infants

Life

Blue wings give morpho dragonflies stealth capabilities

Environment

Countries agree to end plastic pollution in ambitious global treaty

Physics

Ocean waves from a tropical storm could be focused like laser beams

Humans

Stonehenge may have been a giant calendar and now we know how it works

Earth

Burst of animal evolution altered chemical make-up of Earth’s mantle

Health

Fat levels in blood predict risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease

Life

Genes from bacteria may have helped plants colonise the land

Space

China鈥檚 Zhurong Mars rover finds hints landscape was shaped by water

Life

Dinosaur that broke its wrist may have fallen while mating

Environment

Solar panel add-on pulls water from air without consuming electricity

Analysis

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Kin Cheung/AP/Shutterstock (12833050v) Health workers from mainland China work at the Huo-Yan (Fire Eye) Laboratory, an inflatable mobile testing lab in Hong Kong, . Hong Kong has ramped up its testing capacity with the help of inflatable mobile laboratories, as the city grapples with tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases daily Virus Outbreak , Hong Kong, Hong Kong - 04 Mar 2022

Health

Why has the omicron coronavirus variant hit Hong Kong so hard?

Covid-19 cases are soaring in Hong Kong, and the government鈥檚 focus on testing instead of vaccinating older populations may be the reason deaths are spiking and hospitals are overwhelmed

Life

Sorry Darwin, but it turns out promiscuity benefits females too

Humans

Make mistakes on purpose 鈥� it can dramatically boost your performance

Aperture

Life

Beautiful images illustrate the dawn of modern botany

These delicately detailed representations of plants by a founding figure of modern botany are given a new lease of life in the book Leonhart Fuchs: The New Herbal

Features

Health

Middle-age spread isn’t down to metabolism, but we know how to beat it

It's a myth that extra belly fat in middle age is due to a slowing metabolism 鈥� and now we know what really causes the dreaded spread we can also fix it

Life

Creatures living in our cities are evolving in some surprising ways

Physics

Martin Rees interview: Elon Musk could spawn the first post-humans

Culture

Monk parakeet is looking at camera with curiosity expression. Quaker parrot is sitting on mans shoulder at home. ; Shutterstock ID 1047353692; purchase_order: 5 March 2022; job: Culture 12th March 2022; client: NS; other:

Humans

The Parrot in the Mirror review: Why humans evolved to be like birds

From our long lives to our social skills and even language, zoologist Antone Martinho-Truswell argues that we are more like birds than we think

Humans

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey review: An emotive exploration of memory

Humans

Don’t Miss: A new book exploring how AI can help us speak whale

Humans

The Cartographers review: A perceptive sci-fi love letter to maps

More

Technology

Help cancer research by playing the GENIGMA phone puzzle game

DNA becomes disordered inside cancer cells, and playing GENIGMA on your smartphone will help researchers discover the dangerous forms DNA can fold into, says Layal Liverpool

Twisteddoodles: Plants growing in the rich soil of social media

Tom Gauld on the impossibility of keeping up with physics

Regulars

Humans

The dentist that wants to calm patients with cuddles from dogs

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

This Week鈥檚 Letters

What caused this red-only rainbow, when there was no rain? (part 2)

If energy cannot be created or destroyed, where does it come from?

In the cold, why does our body require warm covers but not our face?

This week鈥檚 new questions

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