Our lust for tastier chocolate has transformed the cocoa tree
27 December 2017
Ever since we domesticated the cocoa tree over 3000 years ago, we have been breeding them to make tastier chocolate – but in the process we have made them vulnerable
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Premium
Love at first sight is really just lust or even false memory
27 December 2017
One in three people say they’ve felt love at first sight, but experiments suggest the phenomenon is actually just physical attraction or distorted memories
The universe may be full of ex-moons flung from their home worlds
26 December 2017
Moons in other stellar systems may be hurled away from their planets up to 90 per cent of the time, leaving up to 100 former moons per star in the Milky Way
China tackles climate change with world's largest carbon market
22 December 2017
The Chinese state hopes to use market forces to encourage energy-hungry firms to seek cleaner alternatives, but simply telling them what to do may be more effective
Odd fossils hint first complex life hung on long after its time
22 December 2017
The strange Ediacarans were some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth. They are thought to have died out 540 million years ago but eight odd fossils suggest they survived far longer
Earth was smashed by a rock the size of Mars to make the moon
21 December 2017
4.5 billion years ago, a rock called Theia crashed into Earth and formed the moon. Now we know that it was probably only about a tenth the mass of our planet
Booby-trapped obstacle course trains older people not to fall
21 December 2017
A quarter of older adults who break their hip die within a year. Alice Klein went to try out an obstacle course designed to help them stay on their feet
NASA plans a launch to Titan or a return to comet 67P in 2025
21 December 2017
In 2025 NASA will either launch a probe to bring back samples from comet 67P, previously visited by Rosetta, or send a drone-like craft to Saturn's moon Titan
Mars rocks may have drunk up all the water and doomed life there
20 December 2017
We used to think Mars lost most of its water to space when its atmosphere blew away. Instead, the water may have been sucked up by rocks that sunk underground
One-off CRISPR treatment slows genetic hearing loss in mice
20 December 2017
An inherited form of progressive deafness has been slowed in mice using CRISPR. The approach might lead to treatments for inherited deafness in people
