The most trusted meerkats are those with impeccable reputations

23 August 2018

Small foraging animals often put their trust in high-ranking or old group members to watch for danger – but meerkats trust sentries based on reputation

Fireflies don’t just glow for sex – they do it to warn away bats too

22 August 2018

We’ve long known that fireflies light up to woo mates, but now we know they also do it to warn bats that they taste disgusting

Parrots make wise investment decisions to get what they want: walnuts

22 August 2018

Macaws and African grey parrots can learn the value of tokens and choose to make investments that will earn them a better snack in the long-run

One bad night’s sleep can make you put on fat and lose muscle mass

22 August 2018

Sleep restriction seems to drive extra fat storage and loss of lean muscle, which could explain why troubled sleepers and shift workers are prone to obesity

Prehistoric girl had parents belonging to different human species

22 August 2018

A sliver of bone once belonged to “Denny”, the child of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father – the first such first-generation hybrid ever found

Mixed messages about biodiversity can do harm

22 August 2018

Don't restrict women's contraception rights through moral panic

15 August 2018

Failures of the contraception app Natural Cycles have been linked to abortions in Sweden. But critics should remember all contraception fails sometimes

Replacing your boss with a cruel robot could make you concentrate more

15 August 2018

A mean robot watching over you increases your focus on the most important parts of a task more than a friendly robot or even no robot at all

Global warming may become unstoppable even if we stick to Paris target

6 August 2018

There could be a planetary threshold beyond which the earth will keep warming even if we stop pumping out more fossil fuels - the so-called 'Hothouse Earth' scenario

The medical cannabis debate is a chance to put science before dogma

1 August 2018

Neither extreme prohibition nor extreme liberalism is a sensible drugs policy – on medical cannabis and elsewhere, let’s see what the facts say