People prefer AI-generated poems to Shakespeare and Dickinson
Readers give higher ratings to AI-generated poetry than the works of poets such as William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson – perhaps because they often have more straightforward themes and simpler structure ⌘ Read more

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 ⌘ Read more

Google tool makes AI-generated writing easily detectable
Google DeepMind has been using its AI watermarking method on Gemini chatbot responses for months – and now it’s making the tool available to any AI developer ⌘ Read more

Clown visits may shorten the amount of time children spend in hospital
Medical clowns, who play with children in hospitals, may help them be discharged sooner by reducing their heart rates ⌘ Read more

Falling satellite will give clues to how objects burn up on re-entry
A chance to observe the high-speed re-entry of a falling satellite will give researchers important insights on how debris burns up in our atmosphere ⌘ Read more

Windows computers around the world are failing in a major outage
An update to a piece of software called CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor appears to be negatively impacting Windows computers worldwide, with banks, airports, broadcasters and more finding that devices display a “blue screen of death” instead of booting up ⌘ Read more

We finally know why some people seem immune to catching covid-19
Unique cell responses mean some people may be immune to catching the coronavirus, even if they are unvaccinated ⌘ Read more

Glassy gel is hard as plastic and stretches 7 times its length
A material made of liquid salt mixed with polymers is extremely stretchy but still as strong as the plastics used to make water bottles ⌘ Read more

Is an old NASA probe about to redraw the frontier of the solar system?
The New Horizons mission to Pluto, now zooming out of the Kuiper belt, has made a discovery that could upend what we know about where the solar system ends ⌘ Read more

Rare corpse flower that stinks of rotting flesh blooms at Kew Gardens
A giant flower, one of the smelliest in the world, is currently blooming at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ⌘ Read more

Farmland near Chernobyl nuclear reactor is finally safe to use again
Radiation surveys suggest that it is now safe to grow food on farmland that has been unused since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but changing its status would face local opposition in Ukraine ⌘ Read more

Why herbs evolved to smell and taste so delicious
Humans may have shaped the development of aromatic herbs like lavender and mint, but did herbs also shape our own evolution? ⌘ Read more

Pluto and the largest moon of Neptune might be siblings
The chemical composition of Pluto and Triton suggests they originated in the same region of the outer solar system before the latter was pulled into Neptune’s orbit ⌘ Read more

Driverless cars are mostly safer than humans – but worse at turns
Driverless cars seem to have fewer accidents than human drivers under routine conditions, but higher crash risks when turning or in dim light – although researchers say more accident data is necessary ⌘ Read more

The truth about social media and screen time’s impact on young people
There are many scary claims about excess time on digital devices for children and teenagers. Here’s a guide to the real risks - and what to do about them ⌘ Read more

Chemists invoke bizarre Maxwell’s demon on the largest scale yet
A 19th-century thought experiment that was once thought to defy the laws of thermodynamics has now been realised to make molecules accumulate on one side of a U-bend ⌘ Read more

Ukraine is using AI to manage the removal of Russian landmines
There are so many Russian landmines across Ukraine that removing them could take 700 years. To prioritise areas for de-mining, the Ukrainian government has turned to an artificial intelligence model that can identify the most important regions ⌘ Read more

Shipping companies are testing biofuel made from cashew nut shells
Cashew nut shells are a source of low-emissions biofuel, which is being tested in several ships, but it is unlikely there will be enough to make much of a dent in the industry’s emissions ⌘ Read more

Time crystals may make quantum computers more reliable
Extremely cold atoms that perpetually move in repeating patterns could be a promising building block for quantum computers ⌘ Read more

Mathematicians find odd shapes that roll like a wheel in any dimension
Not content with shapes in two or three dimensions, mathematicians like to explore objects in any number of spatial dimensions. Now they have discovered shapes of constant width in any dimension, which roll like a wheel despite not being round ⌘ Read more

Watch a humanoid robot driving a car extremely slowly
A robot named Musashi with a human-like skeleton and musculature can perform basic driving tasks – but this isn’t the safest approach to autonomous transport ⌘ Read more

Google’s new quantum computer may help us understand how magnets work
By combining two approaches to quantum computing into one device, Google has been able to simulate the behaviour of magnets in detail - and found discrepancies with our current understanding of certain magnet systems ⌘ Read more

Light-activated drugs could keep sleep-deprived military pilots alert
A US military program led by DARPA is modifying the stimulant drug dextroamphetamine so it can be switched on or off in the brain using near-infrared light, avoiding risks like addiction ⌘ Read more

Einstein’s theory was wrong about black holes made out of light
The theory of relativity predicts black holes should be able to form from light alone, but incorporating quantum effects makes it impossible ⌘ Read more

Hybrid design could make nuclear fusion reactors more efficient
Two types of fusion reactor called tokamaks and stellarators both have drawbacks – but a new design combining parts from both could offer the best of both worlds ⌘ Read more

Did rock art spread from one place or was it invented many times?
Rock art is a truly global phenomenon, with discoveries of cave paintings and etchings on every continent that ancient humans inhabited – but how many times was it invented over human history? ⌘ Read more

UK election: How can next government get climate goals back on track?
The UK’s journey to net zero has stalled – whoever wins the 4 July election will need to get it moving again, but many climate scientists are frustrated with what the main parties are offering ⌘ Read more

JWST spotted an incredible number of supernovae in the early universe
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have increased the number of known supernovae in the early universe by a factor of 10 and found the most distant one ever confirmed ⌘ Read more

Polycystic ovary syndrome could be treated with a malaria drug
The malaria treatment artemisinin improved hormone levels and regulated menstrual cycles in women with polycystic ovary syndrome ⌘ Read more

Cooling fabric blocks heat from pavement and buildings in hot cities
A three-layered textile made from fabric, plastic and silver nanowires can keep a person several degrees cooler than silk or other cooling materials ⌘ Read more

Lung-targeted CRISPR therapy offers hope for cystic fibrosis
Gene therapies for cystic fibrosis have previously struggled to reach the faulty lung cells, but a new approach has succeeded in achieving long-lasting modifications in mice ⌘ Read more

Odd black holes smaller than protons may have once littered the cosmos
Minuscule black holes that formed right after the big bang could have had a strange property called colour charge, and spotting them could help unravel the mystery of dark matter ⌘ Read more

Walking with irregular strides may help you burn more calories
Taking a combination of short and long strides as you walk increases the amount of energy used by the body ⌘ Read more

Mathematicians discover impossible problem in Super Mario games
Using the tools of computational complexity, researchers have discovered it is impossible to figure out whether certain Super Mario Bros levels can be beaten without playing them, even if you use the world’s most powerful supercomputer ⌘ Read more

Russia faces $32 billion bill for carbon emissions from Ukraine war
The estimated greenhouse gas emissions caused by the war in Ukraine are equivalent to around 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and Ukraine plans to include the associated climate damage in its compensation claim against Russia ⌘ Read more

Martin Rees: Why challenge prizes can solve our most pressing issues
As the winner of the Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance is announced, chair of the prize committee Martin Rees, the UK’s Astronomer Royal, explains why it pays to reward ideas ⌘ Read more

Quantum sensor gets a read on tiny worm implanted with nanodiamonds
Tiny diamonds and quantum sensors can be used to measure conditions inside cells or living organisms, potentially offering a way to detect diseases or study biology in minute detail ⌘ Read more

What would a wormhole look like if we ever found one?
How could we tell the difference between an ordinary black hole and one connected to a tunnel through space-time? ⌘ Read more

We could detect a malfunctioning warp drive on an alien starship
Faster-than-light warp drives are theoretically possible to build, and if aliens are using them, we should be able to detect the gravitational waves produced when one goes wrong ⌘ Read more

Australian pterosaur had a huge tongue to help gulp down prey
Scientists have identified a new species of pterosaur from a 100-million-year-old fossil in Australia, which appears to have had a massive tongue to push prey down its throat ⌘ Read more

Muscle zapping during exercise helps people recover after a stroke
A small trial has found that electrical stimulation of arm muscles while people do physiotherapy exercises leads to more improvement ⌘ Read more

What “naked” singularities are revealing about quantum space-time
Are points of infinite curvature, where general relativity breaks down, always hidden inside black holes? An audacious attempt to find out is shedding light on the mystery of quantum gravity ⌘ Read more

Astronaut medical records reveal the health toll of space travel
The largest collection yet of detailed medical data and tissue samples from astronauts should help researchers better understand the impacts of space flight on health ⌘ Read more

How many moons and moonmoons could we cram into Earth’s orbit?
Earth is lagging behind other worlds with its single moon, so on this episode of Dead Planets Society we are giving it more – and giving those moons moonmoons to orbit them ⌘ Read more

Marine fungus can break down floating plastic pollution
The plastic-digesting capabilities of the fungus Parengyodontium album could be harnessed to degrade polyethylene, the most abundant type of plastic in the ocean ⌘ Read more

Ozempic and Wegovy linked to lower risk of alcoholism
People taking semaglutide, also called Ozempic and Wegovy, either for weight loss or type 2 diabetes, were less likely to become addicted to alcohol ⌘ Read more

The first stars in the universe could have formed surprisingly early
Huge stars might have formed in the first million years of the universe if there was enough matter clumped together, according to a computer model ⌘ Read more

How dodo de-extinction is helping rescue the extraordinary pink pigeon
The same genetic tools being used to resurrect the woolly mammoth and dodo could help many other vulnerable species that have yet to die out ⌘ Read more

Elephants seem to invent names for each other
An analysis of their vocalisations suggests that African savannah elephants invent names for each other, making them the only animals other than humans thought to do so ⌘ Read more

The largest volcanoes on Mars have frosted tips during winter
We know that there is ice at the Martian poles and underground, but until now it wasn’t clear it could exist on the surface of the Red Planet ⌘ Read more