Science

The chances of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting the Earth and causing catastrophic damage were always small, but the probability has now been downgraded to 0.001%

The president’s funding freezes, gagging orders and ideological purges are wreaking havoc on US scientific research

Despite the lessons from the pandemic, the demagogues and their followers are all too ready to embrace a cult of death

As a universal criterion applied to individuals, the president’s executive order on gender ideology is hopeless

In the Somport Tunnel beneath the Pyrenees, scientists try to solve the biggest mysteries of the cosmos

It’s 100 years since Werner Heisenberg developed the theory of quantum mechanics. No one could possibly have imagined how this discovery would be put to use in the future

Polygenic editing – making changes to DNA – is now a reality. But are the medical benefits outweighed by the ethical risks and hidden dangers?

As they can only take into account what they are given, they are fallible

This year’s non-word of the year, ‘Bio-deutsch’ (biological German) has caused much controversy

The tech giant’s groundbreaking new chip is a gamechanger in the field of supercomputers – and the basis of powerful and potentially transformative technologies

Louis XIV built a Xanadu at Versailles – and sealed his family’s fate. But amid the extravagant luxury was thrilling innovation

The great German composer’s genetic makeup illustrates the dangers of polygenic screening

The Oxford-based sleep scientist Vladyslav Vyazovskiy believes so, but it would just make life blander

Nasa’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to orbit the moon in September, but don’t hold your breath – it’s already been put back more than once

The scientific developments in AI in 2024 were just the tip of the iceberg

It may not quite be ‘Google Maps of the human body’, but it’s not far off

Donald Trump's picks for the big science and technology jobs seem calculated to spread despair. Scientists need to formulate a robust response

The first man-made object in space was built by Germany – and the country’s space programme is now the biggest in Europe

Physicists are searching for evidence of the existence of particles known as gravitons – to determine if gravity is a ‘quantum’ affair

In times of state corruption and political interference, scientists remain ‘apolitical’ at their peril

Biology is notoriously conservative about bold new ideas, so even the suggestion of modernising the evolutionary theory has caused a stir

For years, scientists have been trying to undermine the cornerstone of modern fundamental physics, but it stubbornly refuses to break

We need water to survive. So why is ensuring its presence so controversial?

The gap between academia and reality needs to be closed when navigating today's political climate

Is AI really science, or just hi-tech number crunching?

Scientific American magazine has endorsed Kamala Harris, but many in the science community have their concerns

As Nobel season approaches, speculation has begun in the scientific community

The military’s investment in the technologies of invisibility should be a cause for concern

While Europe has under-invested, China has invested. The UK needs to take notice

The ethical issues surrounding these developments are about far more than safety

China’s Chang’e-5 mission has fuelled a new lunar race after it brought back a sample of rock apparently containing water

Fusion won’t arrive soon enough to solve global warming but it could become a commercial reality in the second half of the century