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What to expect at the COP16 biodiversity summit

Countries are convening in Colombia to debate how they will achieve wide-ranging targets to stem biodiversity loss and how they plan to pay for it




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Preserved tracks suggest non-avian dinosaurs used their wings to run

Not all winged dinosaurs were necessarily capable of full flight, but this anatomical feature may have enabled them to travel further by flapping or gliding




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Meta AI tackles maths problems that stumped humans for over a century

A type of mathematical problem that was previously impossible to solve can now be successfully analysed with artificial intelligence




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All your questions about Marburg virus answered

Everything you need to know about Rwanda's outbreak of Marburg virus, which has been described as one of the deadliest human pathogens




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A supernova may have cleaned up our solar system

A nearby star that exploded some 3 million years ago could have removed all dust smaller than a millimetre from the outer solar system




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Battery-like device made from water and clay could be used on Mars

A new supercapacitor design that uses only water, clay and graphene could source material on Mars and be more sustainable and accessible than traditional batteries




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This surprisingly creative trick helps children eat more fruit and veg

Weaving tales of magical fruit and vegetables into your children's stories may encourage them to eat healthy snacks




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NASA is developing a Mars helicopter that could land itself from orbit

The largest and most ambitious Martian drone yet could carry kilograms of scientific equipment over great distances and set itself down on the Red Planet unassisted




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Stone Age network reveals ancient Paris was an artisanal trading hub

Ancient stone goods found across France may have been made by skilled craftspeople in what is now Paris, who traded along vast networks




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Earth is now gaining less heat than it has for several years

The recent surge in warming led to fears that climate change may be accelerating beyond model projections, but a fall in how much heat Earth is gaining makes this less likely




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Meditation seems to improve our empathy for strangers

In a small study, women experienced more empathy for strangers who were experiencing pain after an eight-week meditation training programme




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The world is falling far short of its goal to halt biodiversity loss

In 2022, countries pledged to halt biodiversity loss by protecting 30 per cent of the planet by 2030, but progress has been too slow thus far




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Flu viruses have evolved proteins that let them break through mucus

Computer simulations of how influenza A moves through human mucus found it is ideally configured to slide through the sticky stuff on its way to infecting cells




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Clean energy rollout means China’s emissions may have peaked

China's carbon emissions may have peaked in 2023, as figures suggest its output has plateaued so far in 2024




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Quantum 'Schrödinger's cat' survives for a stunning 23 minutes

A typically fragile quantum superposition has been made to last exceptionally long, and could eventually be used as a probe for discovering new physics




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AI helps driverless cars predict how unseen pedestrians may move

A specialised algorithm could help autonomous vehicles track hidden objects, such as a pedestrian, a bicycle or another vehicle concealed behind a parked car




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Astronauts could hitch a ride on asteroids to get to Venus or Mars

Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets




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Quantum batteries could give off more energy than they store

Simulations suggest that when a quantum battery shares a quantum state with the device it is powering, the device can gain more charge than was stored in the battery to begin with




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Cancer atlas reveals how tumours evolve inside the body

A massive undertaking to map cancer tumours is providing new insights into how the disease forms, evolves and develops resistance to treatments




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Simple fix could make US census more accurate but just as private

The US Census Bureau processes data before publishing it in order to keep personal information private – but a new approach could maintain the same privacy while improving accuracy




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Spies can eavesdrop on phone calls by sensing vibrations with radar

An off-the-shelf millimetre wave sensor can pick out the tiny vibrations made by a smartphone's speaker, enabling an AI model to transcribe the conversation, even at a distance in a noisy room




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A bizarre skeleton from a Roman grave has bones from eight people

Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have revealed that a complete skeleton found in a 2nd-century cemetery is made up of bones from many people spanning thousands of years – but we don’t know who assembled it or why




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Lakes are losing winter ice cover at an astonishing rate

Fewer lakes are freezing over each winter compared with past years, posing environmental and economic consequences around the world




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Chimpanzees will never randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare

The infinite monkey theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe




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War-era sugar rationing boosted health of UK people conceived in 1940s

People conceived during the UK's 1940s and 50s sugar rationing have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than those conceived after rationing ended




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Viruses may help store vast amounts of carbon in soil

Soil is full of an uncountable number of viruses, and scientists are only beginning to understand just how substantial their role in the carbon cycle may be




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We've seen particles that are massless only when moving one direction

Inside a hunk of a material called a semimetal, scientists have uncovered signatures of bizarre particles that sometimes move like they have no mass, but at other times move just like a very massive particle




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World's largest tree is also among the oldest living organisms

DNA analysis suggests Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah with thousands of stems connected by their roots, is between 16,000 and 81,000 years old




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COP29: Clashes over cash are set to dominate the climate conference

The focus is on finance at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, but countries are a long way from any kind of consensus




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The COP16 biodiversity summit was a big flop for protecting nature

Although the COP16 summit in Colombia ended with some important agreements, countries still aren’t moving fast enough to stem biodiversity loss




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Heat can flow backwards in a gas so thin its particles never touch

A surprising reversal of our usual understanding of the second law of thermodynamics shows that it may be possible for heat to move in the “wrong” direction, flowing from a cold area to a warm one




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Spraying rice with sunscreen particles during heatwaves boosts growth

Zinc nanoparticles, a common sunscreen ingredient, can make plants more resilient to climate change – in a surprising way




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Dazzling images illuminate research on cardiovascular disease

The British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research competition showcases beautiful images captured by researchers studying heart and circulatory disease




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Distant dwarf planet Makemake might have a surprising ice volcano

A small world in the outer solar system appears to have volcanic activity possibly spurred by liquid water




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Vampire bats run on a treadmill to reveal their strange metabolism

Experiments where vampire bats were made to run on a treadmill have revealed how they extract energy from protein in their latest blood meal




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More people are living with pain today than before covid emerged

Chronic pain has increased among adults in the US since 2019, which could be due to a rise in sedentary lifestyles or reduced access to healthcare amid covid-19 restrictions




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Knots made in a weird quantum fluid can last forever

Shapes created by vortices in water often fall apart, but an odd quantum fluid made from ultracold atoms could support vortex knots that never lose their knottiness




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Chinese rover finds further evidence for an ancient ocean on Mars

Data collected by the Zhurong rover and orbiting satellites suggests the existence of an ancient shoreline in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars




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Carbon emissions from private jets have exploded in recent years

The climate impact of flights taken by the super-rich rose sharply from 2019 to 2023, fuelling calls for a carbon tax on private aviation




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Marmots could have the solution to a long-running debate in evolution

When it comes to the survival of animals living in the wild, the characteristics of the group can matter as much as the traits of the individual, according to a study in marmots




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Why hairy animals shake themselves dry

The brain pathway that causes hairy mammals like mice and dogs to shake themselves dry appears to have more to do with pressure than temperature




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Why does our universe have something instead of nothing?

In order to figure out how something came from nothing, we first need to explore the different types of nothing




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Quantum Rubik's cube has infinite patterns but is still solvable

Allowing for moves that create quantum superpositions makes a quantum version of a Rubik’s cube incredibly complex, but not impossible to solve




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Watch elephants use a hose to shower themselves – and prank others

Asian elephants at Berlin Zoo show impressive skill when using a hose as a tool, and even appear to sabotage each other by stopping the flow of water




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Chimps do better at difficult tasks when they have an audience

An analysis of thousands of cognitive tests carried out by chimpanzees finds that the number of spectators influenced their performance in different ways depending on the difficulty of the task




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AI helps robot dogs navigate the real world

Four-legged robot dogs learned to perform new tricks by practising in a virtual platform that mimics real-world obstacles – a possible shortcut for training robots faster and more accurately




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How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano

Never underestimate what a single gopher can achieve in a day: one of the burrowing mammals helped boost soil fungi in an area blanketed by ash from the explosive eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state




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Audio AIs are trained on data full of bias and offensive language

Seven major datasets used to train audio-generating AI models are three times more likely to use the words "man" or "men" than "woman" or "women", raising fears of bias