Science Journalism

Aug 13th 2024 - Schools brief

LLMs will transform medicine, media and more

But not without a helping (human) hand

Aug 6th 2024 - Schools brief

How AI models are getting smarter

Deep neural networks are learning diffusion and other tricks

Apr 17th 2024 - Lead note

Large language models are getting bigger and better

Can they keep improving forever?

Feb 28th 2024 - Lead note

AI models make stuff up. How can hallucinations be controlled?

It is hard to do so without also limiting models’ power

Feb 3rd 2024 - Technology Quarterly

Where the internet lives

Users of the internet can ignore its physical underpinnings. But for technologies like artificial intelligence and the metaverse to work, others need to pay attention

Jan 27th 2024 - Feature podcast

The Weekend Intelligence: Digital Ghosts

Can AI help us commune with the dead?

Jan 18th 2024 - Leader

AI-generated content is raising the value of trust

Who did the posting will soon matter more than what was posted

Jan 17th 2024 - Note

Many AI researchers think fakes will become undetectable

Both detection software and watermarks can be defeated

Dec 23rd 2023 - Lead note

The Extremely Large Telescope will transform astronomy

It will be the world's biggest optical telescope by far–and a powerful time machine

Nov 22nd 2023 - Note

A new way to predict ship-killing rogue waves

And a way to figure out how, exactly, AI works its magic

Sep 13th 2023 - Cover / Lead note

How scientists are using artificial intelligence

It is already making research faster, better, and more productive

Sep 13th 2023 - Babbage / Podcast

How science will be transformed by AI

Sep 6th 2023 - Babbage / Podcast

Women are not the same as men. Should the rules and kit of their sports be?

How sex differences contribute to sport and how—or whether—to level the playing field

Aug 31st 2023 - Note

Long feared, volcanoes help the planet

A new book argues that volcanoes aid with carbon capture and environmental resets

Aug 16th 2023 - Leader

Why sex differences matter in football

Women are not simply men with long hair, even on the pitch

Aug 16th 2023 - Note

Should women’s football have different rules from men’s?

Women are not just smaller men

Jun 28th 2023 - Babbage / Podcast

Can biology explain same-sex attraction?

We meet the scientists studying same-sex attraction in people and explore why this research matters

Jun 21st 2023 - Lead note

The bigger-is-better approach to AI is running out of road

If AI is to keep getting better, it will have to do more with less

Jun 7th 2023 - Note

A new study asks whether racehorses have hit their genetic peak

But the breeders trying to improve them may be missing a trick

Jun 2nd 2023 - Daily chart

Demand for chocolate causes more illegal deforestation than people realise

New maps show the extent of the destruction in big cocoa-producing countries

Jun 14th 2023 - Babbage / Podcast

Why the future of fish farming lies on dry land

How to produce more fish sustainably amid an overfishing crisis

May 31st 2023 - Lead note

The future of fish farming is on land

New systems cut pollution and allow fish to be raised anywhere in the world

May 10th 2023 - Note

How to bring scents to the metaverse

VR enthusiasts turn their attentions to an evocative, but neglected, sense

May 3rd 2023 - Note

Much of the Earth remains unexplored

A new ocean census aims to change that

Apr 22nd 2023 - Cover / Lead note

Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets

They bring enormous promise and peril. In the first of three special articles we explain how they work

Apr 13th 2023 - Leader

The Human Genome Project transformed biology

Yet for genomics to become a part of everyday medicine, the hard work is still ahead

Feb 16th 2023 - Note

Vaccines based on mRNA need to get out of the freezer

Two new ideas might make that happen

Dec 20th 2022 - Lead note

Artificial intelligence and the rise of optical computing

Photonic data-processing is well-suited to the age of deep learning

Nov 20th 2022 - Graphic detail

Climate change will force farmers to reshuffle what is grown where

Time to develop a taste for breadfruit

Sep 14th 2022 - Note

The complex arms race between predator and prey

A new study attempts to quantify how well disguise works in nature

Sep 8th 2022 - Note

More American prisoners are receiving a tech-based education

Jails are experimenting with tablets and Zoom classes

Sep 7th 2022 - Note

Making the invisible visible

A new imaging technique can reveal tiny protein structures like never before

Jul 20th 2022 - Note

How menstruation affects athletic prowess is poorly understood

Changing that will give sportswomen a new way to improve performance