Covid-19 brain fog: What we know about lingering neurological effects:
Growing evidence suggests neurological symptoms of long covid, such as brain fog, are caused by an immune reaction – and should be reversible
Babies can tell who's closely related from whether they share saliva:
Infants and toddlers seem to expect people who exchange saliva, for example by taking bites of the same food, to be close enough to comfort each other if one gets upset
Antibiotic resistance killed more people than malaria or AIDS in 2019:
About 1.3 million deaths were directly caused by drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, a global study estimates
Elephant’s trunk may be one of most sensitive body parts of any animal:
The bundle of nerves that controls the elephant’s trunk contains 400,000 neurons – a lot more than we expected – suggesting the trunk is incredibly sensitive
It’s official – we don’t know how fast the universe is expanding:
The Hubble constant describes how fast the universe is expanding, but our measurements won’t line up, which may mean our standard model of the universe is wrong
How does the sun shine? Here's why we are still a little in the dark:
The basics of how fusion works inside stars like the sun is more complicated than it is sometimes portrayed. We shouldn't be surprised that the details are imperfectly understood, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
How bacteria-killing viruses are being used to keep food safe:
Bacteria-killing viruses known as phages are increasingly being sprayed on food to keep them free of pathogens, and they could soon be put to work in healthcare
2021 in review: Space tourism begins – for billionaires, anyway:
A flurry of short flights aboard privately funded craft saw space tourism begin with a bang for billionaires in 2021. Perhaps by the end of the decade, mere millionaires will be able to join them
2021 in review: AI firm DeepMind solves human protein structures:
In July, DeepMind announced that its AlphaFold model had worked out how most of the proteins in our bodies fold. Pushmeet Kohli tells New Scientist that there is more to come
Methane is much worse than CO2 – here’s what we should do about it:
Methane is an underappreciated but potent greenhouse gas. How we deal with it will have a massive impact on averting the worst consequences of climate change