To tackle the post-truth world, science must reform itself

Jan 27, 2017 10:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Science

Before Brexit and the US elections, Nature magazine columnist Colin Macilwain set out a challenge: If Donald Trump were to trigger a crisis in Western democracy, scientists would need to look at their part in its...

Space Science Series

Why the Earth's magnetic poles could be about to swap places – and how it would affect us

Jan 27, 2017 10:43 am UTC| Science

The Earths magnetic field surrounds our planet like an invisible force field protecting life from harmful solar radiation by deflecting charged particles away. Far from being constant, this field is continuously changing....

From flask to field: How tiny microbes are revolutionizing big agriculture

Jan 26, 2017 07:20 am UTC| Science

Walk into your typical U.S. or U.K. grocery store and feast your eyes on an amazing bounty of fresh and processed foods. In most industrialized countries, its hard to imagine that food production is one of the greatest...

Scientists may have proven women are better at multitasking than men

Jan 26, 2017 05:58 am UTC| Science

Women are less affected by interference when carrying out certain tasks than men, and hormones may play a part in this discrepancy. Our recent experiment found that the walking pattern of men - who typically have low...

Biosocial science: The murky history of the nature and nurture debate

Jan 24, 2017 15:52 pm UTC| Science

Self-righteousness, gratitude, sympathy, sincerity, and guilt what if these social behaviours are biologically influenced, encoded within our genes and shaped by the forces of evolution to promote the survival of the...

We've created a new vibration-proof metamaterial that could save premature babies' lives

Jan 20, 2017 15:12 pm UTC| Science

There are 16,000 transfers of premature babies to medical facilities each year in the UK alone. The babies are often transported over large distances from rural to city locations over significant periods of time, in some...

Space Science Series

Six cosmic catastrophes that could wipe out life on Earth

Jan 19, 2017 12:56 pm UTC| Science

If you ask yourself what the biggest threat to human existence is youd probably think of nuclear war, global warming or a large-scale pandemic disease. But assuming we can overcome such challenges, are we really...