LATEST NEWS
Glow of alien planets spotted from Earth for first time
23:42 14 January 2009 | 1 comment
The feat, previously accomplished only from space, could be a 'huge breakthrough' for studies of exoplanet atmospheres
Top 7 alternative energies listed
18:15 14 January 2009 | 50 comments
A detailed study ranks the main types of non-fossil fuels according to their total ecological footprint and their benefit to human health
Comment: Good riddance to British bulldogs
18:10 14 January 2009 | 34 comments
Breeding dogs to have unhealthy features is no longer acceptable – it's great news for animal welfare, says Andy Coghlan
Model of surprise has 'wow' factor built in
THIS WEEK: 18:00 14 January 2009 | 1 comment
We all know what surprise feels like, but a computer model has now defined the concept
Virtual double flexes your muscles 
FEATURE: 18:00 14 January 2009
A system that creates a virtual body double displaying your bones and muscles could help athletes and recovering patients get fitter
Novels help to uphold social order
THIS WEEK: 18:00 14 January 2009 | 6 comments
A study of the way we respond to literature hints that storytelling has endured in human culture because it mirrors hunter-gatherer impulses
Doubts raised over brain scan findings
THIS WEEK: 18:00 14 January 2009 | 6 comments
Some of the hottest results in the nascent field of social neuroscience may be inflated or even entirely spurious.
Is it really bad to be sad?
FEATURE: 18:00 14 January 2009 | 25 comments
Is sadness an essential human emotion or is it time to banish it for good, asks Jessica Marshall
Morphing gel display puts images at your fingertips
17:44 14 January 2009
A tactile display that crams 300 moving points into every centimetre could display high-resolution information for blind people or even remote surgery
Rampant rabbits trash World Heritage island
15:05 14 January 2009 | 38 comments
Removing just 160 feral cats on Macquarie Island has led to an explosion in the rabbit population and devastation of 40% of the vegetation
HEALTH
Top 11 compounds in US drinking water
A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread presence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors
GALLERY
Twin rovers celebrate five years on Mars
This month, NASA's plucky rovers are celebrating their fifth anniversary on the Red Planet - relive their highs and lows in this gallery
HEALTH
Discovery hints at pill to curb smoking damage
Normalising levels of certain molecules in the airways of smokers might reduce the damage caused by inhaling tobacco smoke
FEEDBACK
Forgettable passwords and capitalist volcanoes
Feedback reveals where to buy an active volcano, why dogs are so important in the Iraq war, and the iPod that came from the future
SHORT SHARP SCIENCE BLOG
Swarmbots team up to transport child
17:21 13 January 2009 - updated 17:56 13 January 2009
At the beginning of last year we brought you news of prototype swarming robots that cling together using electromagnetic forces to assume different shapes. Seth Goldstein, the lead researcher on the project, thinks that scaled down versions could swarm together...
Will future parking be perfect?
17:15 12 January 2009 - updated 17:19 12 January 2009
Cellphone anthropologist Jan Chipchase poses an interesting question: when self-parking cars become the norm, will they all be indistinguishably perfectly lined up? Or will different brands park in identifiably different ways?
Buddhists welcome science into monasteries
10:57 12 January 2009 - updated 15:43 12 January 2009
The Sarnath Buddhist monastery, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is revered as the site of the Buddha's first discourse after his enlightment - the stream from which the teachings of Buddhism flowed. But if you visit the monastery between 20 and 31 January, you could witness the start of a new stream of Buddhist teaching...
