Rumours on social media could cause sick people to feel worse
THE PLACEBO effect is a well-known example of the brain’s power over the body, allowing people who are poorly or in pain to i...
Can people be persuaded not to believe disinformation?
Anyone following American politics in recent months will have been treated to their fair share of bogus claims: USAID, the co...
Do viruses trigger Alzheimer’s?
In the summer of 2024 several groups of scientists published a curious finding: people vaccinated against shingles were less ...
What is the best way to keep your teeth healthy?
Tap water across America has, for decades, been fortified with fluoride, a negatively charged ion of the chemical element flu...
Ukraine’s embrace of drone warfare has paid off
IT HAS become a cliché to note that the war in Ukraine is a drone war. But two recent studies shed light on what that means i...
The race is on to build the world’s most complex machine
Few would expect the future of artificial intelligence (AI) to depend on Eindhoven, a quiet Dutch town. Yet just beyond its b...
Want even tinier chips? Use a particle accelerator
Semiconductor chips are among the smallest and most detailed objects humans can manufacture. Shrinking the scale and upping t...
Is butter bad for you?
BUTTER IS HAVING a moment. In 2024 American consumption per person hit its highest in almost 60 years. Long-standing fears ab...
Two private companies reach the Moon within four days
IT ALL SEEMS to have gone sideways—and for the second time. On March 6th an American firm called Intuitive Machines tried to ...
Satellites are polluting the stratosphere
In January more than 100 communications satellites burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, vaporising as they crashed towards the pl...