Category: Technology

Much of what scientists know about how genetic differences affect health comes from studying populations outside Africa. This matters because genetic information is increasingly being used to understand disease, interpret genetic tests and, in some cases, guide treatment. Africa has the greatest human genetic diversity in the world, yet African populations remain poorly represented in […]

PeopleImages/Shutterstock Who comes to mind when you think of someone emotionally intelligent? Someone who can read a room, defuse an argument, and who knows exactly what to say when a friend is struggling? For many people, that person is a woman. It’s such a widely held belief that popular psychology treats it as fact. We […]

Africa boasts up to 25% of Earth’s animal and plant species. This diversity is driven by diverse habitats: harsh deserts, vast grasslands, dense forests, towering mountains, lush coastlines and teeming seas. It is also due to deep evolutionary roots, as many animal and plant groups originated here in the distant past. Palaeontologists have been excavating […]

Shutterstock AI generator The 2026 Nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to two researchers for their work on mirror-image molecules. Frances’s Henri Kagan and Japan’s Kensō Soai were announced as this year’s winners during a news conference in Stockholm. Some molecules, like amino acids, the building blocks of proteins in living beings, exist in […]

Climate does more than shape the weather. It can influence when and where infectious diseases emerge by changing how disease-carrying vectors and animal hosts survive and behave. Scientists use weather data to anticipate some disease risks days or weeks ahead. But forecasting how those risks will change across seasons and years remains difficult. We asked […]

The ick can strike without warning. Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Ever felt a sudden wave of cringe toward someone you were into – all because they wore questionable shoes or chewed a bit too loudly? Congratulations, you’ve caught “the ick”. That instant flip from attraction to total repulsion is everywhere on TikTok and Instagram, with singletons and couples […]

Rhinos in the Kruger national park in South Africa. Karel Gallas/Shutterstock Moving large animals around is a seductive idea in conservation. If there are plenty of animals in one place and too few in another, moving some between the two seems an obvious solution. Sometimes it is. But with animals as large, mobile and socially […]

HAMBURG, Germany — A multinational law enforcement operation has disrupted the KillSec ransomware syndicate, identifying a 16-year-old as the suspected leader and main administrator of the cybercrime network. Dubbed “Operation KillSwitch,” the joint action culminated on September 30, 2026, when authorities seized control of KillSec’s dark web leak site and infrastructure, securing at least 110 […]

A growing body of research is generating renewed interest in potential hidden spaces beyond the decorated walls of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber in Egypt. Some researchers have raised the possibility that these concealed chambers – if they exist – could contain the burial place of Nefertiti, Tutankhamun’s stepmother and mother-in-law. Nefertiti was made famous by a […]

On Earth, most of us rarely have to think about the signals that keep our internal clocks aligned. The Sun rises, daylight changes, darkness arrives and morning comes again. Our bodies have evolved alongside this roughly 24-hour cycle. Light is one of the strongest signals our bodies use to synchronise the circadian clock. But what […]