In the age of AI, instant answers to our questions are readily available. But columnist Helen Thomson finds that continuing to encourage those delicious flashes of insight that come from your own thoughts may be beneficial both for your everyday life and your long-term brain health
Vetenskapsnyheter
<p>Partikelacceleratorn LHC vid det europeiska partikelfysiklaboratoriet Cern är den största som någonsin byggs, med 27 kilometers omkrets. Den håller nu på att uppgraderas till högre …</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fof.se/artikel/nasta-stora-partikelaccelerator-ska-bli-91-kilometer-lang/">Nästa stora partikelaccelerator ska bli 91 kilometer lång</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fof.se">Forskning & Framsteg</a>.</p>
<p>Vad kan framtidens robotar hjälpa till med inom hemtjänst och personlig assistans? Det ska forskare vid KTH undersöka i det nyinvigda forskningsprojektet SAInt.</p>
The 43-year-old police officer and mother of three serves as the team's payload scientist.
<p>Check it out</p><p>Today’s four puzzles are inspired by chess. (If you haven’t yet watched the recent documentaries on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/06/queen-of-chess-review-netflix-documentary-judit-polgar-garry-kasparov">Judit Polgár</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/07/untold-chess-mates-review-hans-niemann-magnus-carlsen-netflix">Hans Niemann</a>, I recommend them.)</p><p><strong>1. Oddities</strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/25/can-you-solve-it-are-you-on-board-with-these-quirky-chess-puzzles">Continue reading...</a>
Ulster Wildlife takes on 100 year restoration project of ancient rainforest.
<p>Because we define dates based on the stars, the full moon on 31 May will be the second one of the calendar month</p><p>This week’s full moon is a blue moon. The term does not describe the colour of the moon, but instead arises from the way we define our calendar in reference to the stars rather than the moon.</p><p>The moon takes almost a month to circle our planet. The exact time is 29.5 days but if we were to define our calendar as 12 lunar months, the year would fall short by around 11 days. Thus, the calendar would fall out of step with the seasons.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/25/starwatch-this-weeks-rare-blue-moon-highlights-the-strange-way-we-mark-our-calendar">Continue reading...</a>
Data for animals, such as foxes, will be welcomed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust.
<p>Animals have tactics of their own to cope with the heat, but zoo animals also get a little help from their keepers</p><p>A hot bank holiday weekend might see humans flock to the beach, don summer hats and crack open a cold beer, but when it comes to keeping big cats cool, zoos turn to a rather different treat: blood lollies.</p><p>While experts note habitats within zoos are carefully tuned to their inhabitants’ needs, with areas of shade, water, sun and mud as appropriate, animals have tactics of their own to cope with the heat.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/24/london-zoo-big-cats-keep-cool-in-the-heat-with-blood-lollies">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Mission will put first astronaut in orbit for a year, a key step in Beijing’s plan to put people on the moon by 2030</p><p>China has launched its Shenzhou-23 mission in which an astronaut will spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing’s ambition to send humans to the moon by 2030.</p><p>The Long March 2-F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch centre in north-western China on Sunday, carrying three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/24/china-launches-three-crew-space-flight-moon-shenzhou-23-mission">Continue reading...</a>
<p>La Brea Tar Pits – the only urban, active ice age excavation site in world – gets a mammoth face lift for the first time in nearly 50 years</p><p>Los Angeles is known for famous museum such as the Getty and the Lacma, but perhaps fewer people are aware that – in the heart of the city – lies a museum that contains one of the world’s most remarkable fossil sites.</p><p>The <a href="https://tarpits.org/la-brea-tar-pits-history">La Brea Tar Pits and Museum</a> is home to the remains of more than 2 million ice age flora and fauna, including mastodons and saber-toothed cats, that became trapped in oily pools that still bubble up today.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/24/la-brea-tar-pits-museum">Continue reading...</a>
<p>This teensy creature was discovered along a deep-sea mountain</p>
The Wye has become the first river in the UK to have a charter covering it from source to sea.
The white whales join the short, contested list of animals that see themselves.
<p>Technological interventions face huge financial or practical challenges, but there is another way</p><p>In 2019, my scientific research was nearly brought to an early end when my team and I published the bombastic statement that natural forest restoration was the “best climate change solution” available in a paper for the peer-reviewed journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax0848">Science</a>.</p><p>I remember a colleague from the World Wildlife Fund advising me that this message represented career suicide. He argued that people would be furious because reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the most urgent priority. The revival of nature might help with 30% of our carbon drawdown needs, but you cannot stop rising temperatures without cutting emissions.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/24/could-nature-itself-hold-the-solution-to-climate-change">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Project Hail Mary, Jurassic Park: from dino-mosquitoes to a spaceship’s roar, pointless mistakes on the scientific details make me wince</p><p>On the advice of my teenage son, I recently went to the cinema to see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/10/project-hail-mary-review-ryan-goslings-charm-carries-unserious-last-ditch-space-mission">Project Hail Mary</a>. The film has science in it. I am a science writer and so he was convinced I would like it.</p><p>Imagine my surprise partway through, however, when I found myself seething so hard I thought I would combust. Ryland Grace – the main character and a molecular biologist who <em>should</em> have known better – had just put two plastic tubes into a centrifuge NEXT to each other!</p><p>Helen Pilcher is a science writer and author of <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/life-changing-9781472956729/">Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth</a> and <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/this-book-may-cause-side-effects-9781805461432/">This Book May Cause Side Effects</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/24/hill-i-will-die-on-hollywood-blockbusters-science">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Over the course of 13 expeditions and other efforts between mid-2025 and mid-2026, scientists found hundreds of previously undiscovered creatures living under the waves</p>
<p>Risk of CTE in men’s sports has been widely studied, but female brains are softer and more vulnerable</p><p>Cleo Pallister-Turley, a back for Cardiff university’s women’s rugby team, winces as she recalls two major concussions from playing rugby. “Girls ask me, ‘aren’t you worried about getting injured?’,” the biomedical sciences student said. “I enjoy the physicality and the intensity. For me, no other sports compare.”</p><p>Women’s rugby has enjoyed significant growth in recent years. Women now make up a quarter of players worldwide, according to World Rugby, and more than 400 clubs offer rugby to women and girls around the UK; in the 1990s, only a handful existed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/24/pioneering-study-aims-to-find-out-how-repeated-blows-to-head-in-womens-rugby-affects-brain">Continue reading...</a>
SpaceX has more to prove before flying Starship all the way to low-Earth orbit.
Almost £1m is spent successfully restoring magnesian limestone grasslands in County Durham.
<p>Our universe appears flat—but this observation still leaves plenty of options for its true shape. In fact, our cosmos could resemble a donut</p>
A formal petition to the US government calls for sanctions on Chinese seafood imports.
Editor in chief Nancy Shute introduces a new social sciences column that explores what it means to be human.
“There's a whole industry that seems to have sprung up”: Two experts on the people profiting from the rise of the perimenopause movement.
<p>SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight on Friday. It was an upgraded version of the spacecraft Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hour-long flight that stretched halfway around the world. Despite some engine trouble, the spacecraft reached its final destination in the Indian Ocean where it erupted into flames on impact. The fire was not unexpected, according to SpaceX</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/spacex-launch-texas-test-flight">SpaceX launches its biggest rocket yet in test flight from Texas</a></p></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2026/may/23/spacex-rocket-bursts-into-flames-during-indian-ocean-landing-video">Continue reading...</a>