Artificial intelligence can tell whether a human or a bot is posting on Twitter based on how regularly they post and how much they reply to others, which could help identify fake accounts

The US Navy is researching how to use lasers to form plasma into 2D or 3D infrared images of aeroplanes that can distract heat-seeking missiles

People born prematurely may have weaker hearts that recover less well after exercise, potentially explaining their increased risk of heart disease

We know that there is at least one planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system, and now astronomers may have taken the first picture of a second world

Getting less sleep for five nights in a row can make you view other people’s expressions more negatively, including facial reactions seen over video calls

The eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018 was caused by heavy rains – suggesting that extreme weather from climate change could lead to more eruptions

An AI-powered application lets you create real-time deepfakes during video calls, making you appear to be speaking as anyone from Albert Einstein to the Mona Lisa

Rocks from a 3.2-billion-year-old formation in Australia show changes in the direction of their magnetism over time that suggest plate tectonics started earlier than we thought

A brain-computer interface has helped a man with a severe spinal cord injury move and feel using a hand again, letting him carefully lift light objects such as a paper cup

A bunch of asteroids near Jupiter and Neptune with orbits perpendicular to the plane of the solar system may have come here from a different star system

While an alarming 9 per cent of insects on land are being lost each decade, the state of the world’s insects is much more nuanced than warnings of an insect apocalypse

Many people are turning to virtual therapy and mental health apps to cope with the stress of the coronavirus pandemic, but they may not be as helpful as talking face to face

We need to be very cautious about preliminary studies estimating how many people have already been infected by the coronavirus

Bamboo is a renewable material that when microwaved becomes stronger by weight than steel or concrete – which could make it ideal for constructing buildings, cars and planes

Some dogs and cats may be passing gut microbes to their owners that withstand last-resort antibiotics, which can be needed to fight off pneumonia from a coronavirus infection

Srinivisa Ramanujan’s ideas seemed to come from a parallel universe and mathematicians are still getting to grips with them today, say Ken Ono and Robert Schneider

Covid-19 contact tracers are part healthcare worker, part detective and part call centre operative. But what is the job really like? New Scientist spoke to one in Ireland to find out

In a small trial, implanting electrodes into the brain helped women with severe anorexia gain weight and feel less anxious and depressed

Coffee has been linked to changes on our DNA that affect how active certain genes are. The finding may help explain some of coffee's touted health benefits

Robots made of 3D-printed muscle and rat spines could help us understand conditions like motor neurone disease and the technique may eventually be used to build prosthetic devices

The ongoing spread of bluetongue virus among European farm animals may have started when a cow was inseminated with infected bull semen stored from an earlier outbreak

The UK government has set a new target of recruiting an army of 18,000 coronavirus contact tracers by the middle of May, to be in place for the launch of the NHS contact tracing app

Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and bats have evolved to be good at metabolising alcohol, according to a study that suggests many mammals can get drunk

Trials of experimental coronavirus vaccines are already under way, but it’s still likely to be years before one is ready and vaccination may not even be possible

A well-preserved fossilised tail from Spinosaurus suggests this massive dinosaur may have been able to propel itself and hunt for prey in the water

Looking at how many more people are dying than usual gives an idea of the coronavirus pandemic’s true effect – and suggests a far higher death toll in many countries

We are already seeing the pandemic's effects on mental health, and we need to act urgently to avoid a full-blown crisis, says Sam Howells  

Over half the world’s wild tigers now live 5 kilometres from a road, and infrastructure projects planned in Asia could fragment their habitat further

Many studies suggest coronavirus has low transmission rates among children, but there are still risks to reopening schools that were closed due to social distancing policies

A number of studies have found a link between air pollution and increased covid-19 deaths, but it isn't clear why. Both attack the lungs, but it could just be that more people live in polluted areas

The UK government has refused to say how many covid-19 contact tracers it has employed, with less than three weeks to go until its target of recruiting 18,000 of them by mid-May

Hyperconsumption adds to environmental destruction that brings people into contact with animal viruses that can spark pandemics. We have to avoid the temptation to rely on it to get us out, writes Graham Lawton

The remains of three slaves found in Mexico contain the earliest signs of the hepatitis B virus and yaws bacteria in the Americas, suggesting transatlantic slavery introduced these diseases

Lockdown measures and pandemic-related anxiety may be making you have more vivid dreams. Evidence suggests talking about them can help

Vampire bats are social creatures that build relationships through grooming and food-sharing, but when they feel ill, they self-isolate and call out for contact far less

Healthcare systems need to prepare for the extensive physiotherapy and mental rehabilitation that people put on ventilators for covid-19 will need as they recover

Stars that are similar to the sun in every way we can measure are mostly more active than the sun, which hints that the sun’s activity may ramp up someday, risking solar eruptions

The Tully Monster is a famously odd 300-million-year-old fossil that looks like an alien, but a new analysis suggests it was a backboned animal like a hagfish or lamprey

Weird blasts of radio waves from space called fast radio bursts have been baffling astronomers since they were discovered, but after finding one in our galaxy we may finally know what creates them

For orangutans, scratching is contagious – but unexpectedly, the behaviour is transmitted more between individuals that do not know each other well

A fresh look at the world’s oldest religious texts suggests ancient Egyptians saw the sky as a water-filled iron container from which chunks fell to Earth as meteorites

People with rheumatoid arthritis often take medicines that can have damaging side-effects, but a system that uses red light to deliver drugs exactly where they are needed could help

China just tested its biggest rocket yet, along with a new capsule designed to carry humans to its planned space station, the moon and beyond

We’ve found a 200-metre cliff in Mars's Hellas basin, the first evidence of a river that flowed on the planet for more than 100,000 years

Brain implants have revealed that we replay conscious experiences while we sleep, with the same patterns of neurons firing during sleep as in waking life

Telling Lies is a game where you sift through video calls to solve a mystery. Half the time you don't know what you should be doing, but that's part of the fun, says Jacob Aron

Once the coronavirus pandemic is over, we must work out how to stop the spread of poor information that has helped make a bad situation that much worse

Astronomers found a star that appeared to be orbiting nothing at all – but it’s actually the closest black hole ever at just 1000 light years away

Many countries are focusing coronavirus testing on people who have covid-19 symptoms. But regularly testing all essential workers would have more of an impact

The BCG tuberculosis vaccine boosts the production of immune cells and this may explain how it protects newborns from dying of sepsis