Ariel Waldman is standing all alone on a planet that looks a lot like Mars. At her feet are rock shards and barren soil. Overhead are jagged mountains streaked with dusty ice. The sky is a hazy white; the sun appears very far away. And then, Waldman smiles, explaining that she’s in Antarctica’s dry valleys, a vast stretch of deep-brown earth between frozen mountains and ancient glaciers. Maybe she’s not coming to you live from another planet, but in her new docuseries , she may convince you that Earth is more alien than you realised.

Now available on PBS, Waldman’s 6-episode series is a journey into the microscopic jungle that lurks in our planet’s crust. Embedded with a soil-science team on Earth’s southernmost continent, Waldman brought her own microscopes, a macro probe lens that captures depth of field when shooting minute landscapes, a drone, and several complicated camera mounts to film the world’s most unsung wildlife in situ. She also filmed herself as she worked, creating a fascinating record of what it’s like to study an ecosystem that is undergoing a rapid, and sometimes violent, transformation due to climate change.

From the seemingly lifeless valleys of Antarctica to the bubbling wetlands of the North American prairies, she introduces us to animals including nematodes, rotifers and tardigrades, tiny creatures who shape and nourish our ecosystems while remaining invisible to the naked eye. Most impressive of all, she filmed her journey to Antarctica entirely on her own.

Sitting in her cozy office in San Francisco, surrounded by microscopes and cabinets full of photographic equipment, Waldman told me that a big part of her motivation is to chronicle environments in Antarctica and the prairies before they disappear. “If you want to do a nature documentary in [the dry valleys] of Antarctica, you need microscopes to see the animals that exist there,” she told me. The same goes for the prairies, where the vast majority of biomass lurks deep in the soggy ground.

As the official curator of the , Waldman also wants to normalise the idea that we should look at the dirt through microscopes as often as we peer through telescopes at the sky. That’s another reason she loves the microcosmos. “When we’re thinking about finding life on other planets or moons, our best guess is that we would find something microscopic.” In Life Unearthed, she films tardigrades (also known as water bears) under the microscope, wiggling their puffy legs and booping into plant cells. These cute little guys can survive in the extreme cold of Antarctica and the sweltering prairies – and even the vacuum of space. They hint at the kinds of characters we might find beyond the safe envelope of our atmosphere.

I first met Waldman when she was working with NASA and running , an organisation that connects citizen scientists with space-exploration projects. She introduced me to CubeSat, a group of people into orbit. Later, she created , a global event I attended where scientists and enthusiasts can collaborate on everything from data gathering to software development. Since then, we’ve become friends, and I’ve followed her unique career that blends science, art and community organising.

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I visited her the day before she left for Antarctica, when her biggest worry was how she would get as much equipment as possible into her suitcases. Unlike the scientists she works with, Waldman’s deep academic background is in graphic design. She doesn’t merely want to research the planet, she wants to show it to people, to encourage them to get a cheap microscope and “just throw things under it”. When people can see life in all its diversity, she believes, we become more confident about advocating for its conservation.

Influenced by the famous 1977 Eames short film , Waldman thinks that scale is a key way to understand our place in the universe. That’s why she needs drones for aerial views, as well as her beloved microscopes – and, when she’s chasing prairie crayfish in their underground burrows, she even uses a camera on a long wire that’s designed for snaking into clogged pipes. “Humans are both very small in the universe and very large in the universe, depending on your perspective,” she mused. So much of life is “virtually invisible to us without technology”.

Waldman hopes that Life Unearthed inspires more people to pick up a microscope and check out all the invisible wildlife beneath their feet. To understand the true wonder of nature, we need to see it first.

The robot army that saves the world won’t be anything like what you imagine. Nope, they aren’t little humanoids who can do synchronised martial arts like the ones who dazzled audiences during . And they won’t help you find a can of Coke with embarrassing slowness like from Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. Instead, they will be microscopic, and mostly made of algae, bacteria and other single-celled organisms. Engineers call them biohybrid microrobots.

If you’ve read about people swallowing pills full of tiny robots to deliver medicine – or you watched the classic 80s flick Innerspace – you’ve already experienced the dream of a microrobot future. For many years, medical researchers have imagined using little machines to get medicine into the hard-to-reach parts of our bodies such as the minuscule capillaries in our lungs. Even better, these machines could actually drive around in our organs, perhaps to seek and destroy cancer cells one by one. The problem is that we can’t actually build motorised devices small enough to do it.

That’s where biomedical engineer Joseph Wang’s work comes in. Like many in the growing field of microrobotics, Wang has dramatically expanded the definition of what most of us think of as “robots”. Any mechanism that can be controlled and move around semi-autonomously is a robot, much like the squishy, pneumatically powered turtle bot I described in a previous column. And some robots contain living tissues – or entire living creatures.

There are many things technology simply can’t do as well as biology – and one of them is motor around inside minuscule environments. Tiny synthetic engines tend to dissolve after a few minutes, Wang says, but “algae just swims and swims”. That’s why he and his colleagues power their robots with the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

At the University of California, San Diego, Wang’s lab worked closely with chemical engineer Liangfang Zhang’s research group to create . They began with C. reinhardtii, which can swim with its powerful flagellum, or tail. It also happens to love blue light, so it is relatively simple to guide this single-celled critter by shining a blue light on its target region. Wang and Zhang can even get massive swarms of the algae into formation: by shining the blue light through a screen with a shape cut out of it, they herded thousands of algae cells into forming a circle, square and even more complex designs.

To disperse the swarm, the researchers used a red light. In a video demonstration, they show a swarm under the microscope moulding itself into the shape of the African continent and then scattering again. Essentially, Wang and Zhang created a microrobot army, “programmed” to move in particular ways by blue and red lights.

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To turn this swarm into a microscopic medical team, they expose the algae to nanoparticles that stick to their outer membranes via electrostatic force. The result is half-algae, half-synthetic, all bot. Researchers can guide the fully loaded microbot swarm towards a wound using blue light. One day, doctors might use the masking technique to create custom-shaped algae bandages with many kinds of therapeutic payloads.

Other parts of the body call for a different kind of algae motor. For stomach exploration, Wang says, he and his team had to use where it had become used to acidic environments. That’s right – toxic mining sites produced algae that might one day swim to the rescue with drugs to treat your stomach cancer.

Light is just one way to program the bots. żěè¶ĚĘÓƵs can also – organisms that navigate via Earth’s magnetic field – then guide them around inside an animal’s body using electromagnets. Regardless of whether the payload rides on algae or bacteria, it’s referred to as “active” medicine. Traditional drugs are called “passive” because they can’t be programmed to target specific regions or cell types. The hope with much of this research is that more medicine can become active, leading to more effective therapies, fewer side effects and less invasive treatments.

Medicine isn’t the only possible application for biohybrid microrobot swarms, either. Wang’s lab is also in rivers and oceans. Instead of loading the bots up with medicine, researchers cover them in chemicals that can neutralise or absorb toxins. The algae wriggle around in the water, often for days, collecting toxins opportunistically until everything is cleaned up. Meanwhile, some research groups are testing fully synthetic in the ocean.

The fantasy of a robot army doesn’t have to mean humanoid soldiers conquering enemies. Another future is always possible. Tiny algae-cyborg swarms could one day live inside your body – briefly – or travel in packs through the environment, decontaminating the messes that humanity made.

by Simon Rogers

The best new popular science books of 2026

Clear out your shelves for a bumper new crop of books by authors including Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit and Xand Van Tulleken, says culture editor Alison Flood

by Courtney Conley and Milica McDowell

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by Vincent Doumeizel (translated by Charlotte Coombe)

by Turi King

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April has a lot to offer when it comes to popular science reading, promising to help us do everything from future-proof our brains courtesy of Hannah Critchlow, to get to grips with really big numbers, thanks to Richard Elwes

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by Dave Goulson

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by David Shukman

Social media giants Meta and YouTube have been found liable by a California jury for negligence that caused harm to a young woman’s mental health. The landmark decision is among the first of many similar cases, and could be the beginning of a trend that may force major changes in how social platforms work.

The companies have been ordered to pay $3 million in compensatory damages, which are meant to cover the plaintiff’s financial losses related to the events relevant to the case, as well as pain and suffering. The jury has not yet decided the amount of any punitive damages – money the companies would pay as punishment for their actions.

The claim held by the young woman at the centre of the trial, known in court documents as KGM, was that the addictive nature of these social media products led to her anxiety and depression, and the jury agreed. Originally, the lawsuit included Tiktok (owned by ByteDance) and Snapchat (owned by Snap) as well, but they settled out of court before the trial began.

This case was not unique: thousands of similar lawsuits have been filed against social media companies across the US alleging that their products are addictive and harmful. Most of the cases have not yet gone to trial, but one in New Mexico was decided on 24 March, with a similar outcome. In that case, the state alleged that Meta failed to protect children from exploitation on its platforms, and a jury found the company guilty. Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in damages.

The question now is whether cases like this will result in substantive changes to the social media products that have been ruled to be harmful. In the US, free speech laws have made it difficult to demand any changes to social media platforms – in particular, one called Section 230 that prevents companies from being held liable for content posted on their platforms by users. But those same laws have made it difficult to win lawsuits like these, so this may well be a turning point.

The New Mexico case is moving towards a second phase, in which a judge will decide what changes, if any, Meta will be required to make to its social media platforms going forward.

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A Meta spokeperson told żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ that the company disagrees with the verdicts and intends to appeal in both cases. Jose Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, stated that the company intends to appeal the California decision. Several more lawsuits are set to go to trial in the coming months, and if this trend continues, it could force sweeping changes to the social media landscape.

March, in the northern hemisphere anyway, is about venturing out for some much-needed vitamin D and dodging showers. Forget that – just head for a decent café where you can delve into the marvellous science books we’ve got waiting for you. This month you can explore how animals shaped our world, how to spot liars from their language, what forest trees can tell us – and flowers as revolutionaries. There is some stronger stuff too, if you are in the mood: try AI in the hands of the US military, or a deep cultural look at how our world has changed beyond recognition. Whatever your choice, it’s all guaranteed to enrich the inner you.

by Megha Mohan

What would a world look like if women made the rules? In one still run largely by men, it’s an interesting question. According to her publishers, author Megha Mohan was inspired by her great-grandmother’s matrilineal community in South India to scour the world in search of “lessons from societies where women make the rules”. Such societies have always existed, with modern micro-examples including South Korea’s unique online feminist trolls, co-housing experiments in Paris and North London and the Rain Queens of South Africa. And what might different ways of collaborating, working, child rearing – above all, power and identity structures – look like in such a world? Mohan– the BBC’s first global gender and identity correspondent in 2018 – explores.

by Jamie Bartlett

Are you getting the best out of AI? Assuming you have increasingly little choice in the matter, it’s probably a plan to buckle down and read up. To judge by Jamie Bartlett’s earlier work, especially The Dark Net, How to Talk to AI promises to deliver on the nitty-gritty of how AI thinks and reasons and the best ways to exploit its (sorry) super-human abilities. Expect to learn how some folks are turbo-charging work and everyday life with AI, while others are falling down conspiracy rabbit holes and/or experiencing psychosis.

The best new popular science books of 2026

Clear out your shelves for a bumper new crop of books by authors including Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit and Xand Van Tulleken, says culture editor Alison Flood

by Suzanne Simard

It’s a fair claim to say (as her publisher does) that Suzanne Simard has helped transform our understanding of the profound intelligence and interconnectedness of trees. The bestselling author of Finding the Mother Tree, she is professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where she leads The Mother Tree Project – and has a global reputation for research on tree connectivity and communication and its impact on the health and diversity of forests. Her new book, When the Forest Breathes, taps into the deep-rooted cycles of renewal that sustain the forest and how they can also help us to protect the world’s ecosystem. Simard grew up in British Columbia, in a family of loggers committed to sustainable stewardship, so her life has been a very singularly committed one – which often makes for a great book. Here’s hoping.

by Michael Bond

Michael Bond is a former żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ staffer and author of a growing pile of books exploring the inner world of how we shape each other (peer pressure, fans, belonging) and the outer world (wayfaring and his own family’s part in settling the Canadian prairies). This time he sets off on a connected but different track, exploring how animals shaped our minds and cultures, “from our hunter-gatherer ancestors whose brains were rewired by the prey they hunted and the predators they feared, to the medieval and Enlightenment thinkers who used animals to promote notions of human supremacy”. If everything that was thought to make us human is shared with other creatures, who are we and what is our place in the world? What is the new order? Looking forward to this one.

by Kirsty King

Can you spot a liar, or separate truth from fiction? Who do you trust in these mendacious, deepfake days? Forensic psychologist Kirsty King may have a new way to help us weave our way through the lies we all tell to keep our lives going, and the bigger ones that are extremely damaging. We need all the help we can get here, given the failure of other approaches such as physiology (think micro-expressions and the like). So, can lies be exposed by paying close attention to the language liars use? Drawing on research from forensic linguistics and psychology, King shares real-life case studies and stories to explore the “tells”. Should be a fascinating read.

by David George Haskell

It’s a big claim: without flowers, human beings would not exist. But sounds like environmental scientist David George Haskell can back up the publishing hype in How Flowers Made Our World – subtitled “The story of nature’s revolutionaries”. He delves into everything from the “fascinating but less celebrated flowers such as seagrasses and tea to show us what we’ve been missing”, to the power of plants as inventive agents, able to “build and sustain rainforests, savannahs, prairies; and even ocean shores”. Looking to the future, he says that flowers “offer us lessons on resilience and creativity in the face of rapid environmental change”. Lots to celebrate there then.

by Rebecca Solnit

We may not have the world promised by Star Trek and the like, but anyone living in a sealed off bunker for the past fifty or sixty years would still emerge into the sunlight blinking at the political landscape of the 21st century. Rebecca Solnit has been at the forefront of thinking about this for quite a while, winning plaudits and nominations for book awards as she goes. Her latest, The Beginning Comes After the End, her publisher says, “is a culmination of years of activism and offers a unique perspective on our politics and our humanity, to give hope in difficult times and to urgently remind us that the power to change the world is within our reach”. Let’s hope so.

The best new popular science books of February 2026

Readers are spoiled for choice when it comes to popular science reading this month, with new titles by major names including Maggie Aderin and Michael Pollan

by Lixing Sun

What’s not to like in a book about sex? Even better, a book about sex in animals– which promises to tell “the weird and wonderful science of how our planet is populated”. This is one of żěè¶ĚĘÓƵ’s 2026 books to watch out for, and its author, Lixing Sun, is a professor of biology at Central Washington University. A sneak peek reveals, among much else, that the female mole is a “true rebel of the animal kingdom” with both ovaries and testes – and that California condors are capable of immaculate conception.

by Katrina Manson

Could this book be any more timely? Project Maven by Katrina Manson is a kind-of briefing for the hell we see on our screens every night as Operation Epic Fury unfolds in the Middle East. Manson tells the chilling story of how the US Department of Defense launched Project Maven in 2017– an initiative designed to harness artificial intelligence for military targeting. She is a Bloomberg reporter who covers national security and cutting-edge tech, so you can be pretty sure she will know what she’s writing about. This looks to be fascinating and compelling stuff– but you may need a strong stomach.

by F. Marina Schauffler

We’re fast getting used to the acronym PFAS to describe per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and the horrifying global environmental legacy trailing in the wake of what are labelled “forever chemicals”. These invisible, hard-to-remove chemicals are in the blood of most people on Earth, as they permeate everyday life and the natural world. Journalist Marina Schauffler zeros in on Maine, the US’s most north-easterly state. She tells the stories of farmers, firefighters, tribal members, researchers, everyday homeowners and officials as they suffer from, or fight back against, PFAS contamination in a place known for its rich farms, woods and waters – and, apparently, at the forefront of PFAS testing and regulation. The poignant accounts here may be from the US, but it could equally well be somewhere near you.