3 May 2023
It takes just four particles of light to jump-start photosynthesis in a plant’s cells, but the details of what exactly happens after the fourth photon is absorbed have eluded researchers – until now
24 January 2023
X-rays have been used to digitally unwrap the mummy of a teenage boy dating back about 2300 years, revealing 49 precious protective amulets, including a gold scarab signifying the heart
23 November 2022
Supermassive black holes that beam powerful jets of matter towards Earth, known as blazars, accelerate particles to extraordinarily high energies – and astronomers have finally figured out how
13 December 2021
A mysterious space explosion dubbed “the Cow” was far brighter and faster than a typical supernova, and new observations suggest it may have been a failed supernova that left behind a black hole
1 October 2021
Love letters that Marie Antoinette wrote to a Swedish count have been impossible to read because he added extra handwriting on top of hers – but now the original words have been deciphered with X-rays
9 July 2021
Jupiter blasts out strange X-ray flares that have gone unexplained for decades, and the mystery has now been solved by vibrations in the planet’s magnetic field
9 December 2020
Astronomers have found a pair of enormous bubbles of X-rays, above and below the Milky Way, which were probably created by our galaxy’s supermassive black hole
1 September 2019
By shining an X-ray beam through a diamond, scientists have made X-rays with unique quantum properties that let them make sharper images using less radiation
4 July 2019
Rosalind Franklin is known for making a significant contribution to the discovery of the DNA double helix. In recent years, her story has become famous as one of a woman whose scientific work was overlooked during her lifetime.
22 May 2019
Our regular column sorting the week's supernovae from the absolute zeros
