Deep-sea mining may soon ease the world’s battery-metal shortage

Taking nickel from rainforests destroys 30 times more life than getting it from the depths

A new gravitational-wave detection has excited astronomers

It could reveal giant black holes—or the beginnings of the universe

A new TB vaccine could save 8.5m lives over the next quarter of a century

But testing it will rely on the efforts of two charities

Even doctors can struggle to diagnose concussions

A new test could make it much easier

Thousands of species of animals probably have consciousness

A group of scientists are trying to track down how it works in the brain

An acrimonious debate about covid’s origins will rumble on

An American intelligence report says it could have come from a market—or a lab

A risky cancer treatment can be modified to treat immune diseases

The key is to make the treatment temporary, not permanent

Sweden wants to build an entire city from wood

Modern timber buildings can be cheap, green and fireproof

The bigger-is-better approach to AI is running out of road

If AI is to keep getting better, it will have to do more with less

Study drugs make healthy people worse at problem-solving, not better

Users try harder, but are less competent

The idea of “holobionts” represents a paradigm shift in biology

These meta-organisms are made up of animals, plants, and the microbiota that live on and inside them

There’s more than one way to spay a cat

A new injection could be a cheap, simple solution to a big problem

A tiny, ancient hominin may have been surprisingly clever

Small brains seem to be no barrier to culture and art

A new study asks whether racehorses have hit their genetic peak

But the breeders trying to improve them may be missing a trick

Reproduction without sex is more common than scientists thought

Several vertebrates, including turkeys, snakes and now crocodiles, can do it without doing it

Sucking a carbon-neutral fuel out of thin air

To power future cars and planes

A Finnish firm thinks it can cut industrial carbon emissions by a third

Running a turbine backwards can produce green heat

Temperatures of 50°C will become much more common around the Mediterranean

Spikes above 45°C are likely every year by 2100

There is more than one way to make green steel

Why electricity may be better than hydrogen

Mosquitoes, wasps and parasitic worms could help make injections less painful

How to improve the humble hypodermic