Science & technology

Agriculture and evolution
Wheat absorbs phosphorus from desert dust

After 12 millennia, a common crop still springs surprises

Babbage podcast
Fascinating science stories overlooked this year

The discoveries, advances and curious research findings that were missed amid covid-19 coverage

Bees versus hornets
Bees defend their hives against hornets with animal dung

They seem to be engaging in a form of chemical warfare

A megamegaphone
Super-loudhailers are becoming louder still

That is good for warfare. Perhaps less good for civilians

SpaceX
Elon Musk’s latest rocket launch is a successful failure

It crashed. But the data collected will help improve the next attempt

Hydrogen-powered flight
Is the time now ripe for planes to run on hydrogen?

Some planemakers think the answer may be “yes”

An injection of urgency
Britain becomes the first country to license a fully tested covid-19 vaccine

Inoculations with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab could start in less than a week

The Starship SN8
Elon Musk’s latest adventure

He hopes it will be a stepping stone to the Moon and Mars