Technology AI can join the fight back against the post-truth world Facts are a debased currency in public debate. Technology can drive the pushback by calling out powerful people who peddle flawed arguments News
Life Ancient rock formations could be oldest fossils on the planet Allen Nutman and Vickie Bennet with a fossil 3.7 billion years in the making They could be the earliest fossils ever found. Structures discovered in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks in Greenland appear to be evidence of microbes living in a shallow sea on early Earth. The structures, all no more than a few centimetres tall, look like … News
Life US plan to fend off Zika with sterile mosquitoes faces catch-22 A project to unleash genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida to stop Zika could backfire if it ignores public protest and goes ahead, says Jamais Cascio Opinion
Life Spoiler alert: Why strange signals are never really from aliens Given the wealth of planets in our universe, aliens must be dwelling somewhere, right? Maybe. But we’re never going to get our sci-fi moment, says Jacob Aron News
Life Swooping pharaoh eagle-owl hunts in the desert HE'S coming right at you. This striking image of a pharaoh eagle-owl ( Bubo ascalaphus desertorum ) was captured at dawn in dunes of the United Arab Emirates. As well as being found across the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, pairs have been seen nesting on the pyramids of Egypt. The photographer, … Regulars
Life Get inside the collective mind of a genius superorganism The amazing bridges and scaffolds that ants build using their own bodies can teach us a thing or two about robotics, engineering and cooperation Features
Physics Fast forward: How we learned to love time travel A classic H. G. Wells story and key mathematics made time travel such a popular idea that it fundamentally changed our thinking, argues James Gleick in Time Travel: A history Culture
Feedback: Groundskeeper unwittingly triggers doomsday alert Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Regulars