Joined May 2026
A new study cultivated four strains of cold-adapted yeasts that had colonized Ötzi's body shortly after his death 5,300 years ago in the Alps.
Physicists used quantum bits to achieve 'perfect randomness' in a world-first experiment. The results of their research could strengthen cryptography and other security systems.
China's Long March 12B rocket has blasted off on its maiden voyage carrying more Qianfan "Thousand Sails" satellites, during a surprise launch for which there were reportedly no airspace notices.
Sigma’s 60-600mm Sport lens is one of the most versatile wildlife lenses around, but can its huge zoom range outweigh the heavy design?
Over a century after a red-lined cave wall was discovered, scientists have determined that it represents the U.K.'s oldest rock art.
Thomas More is remembered as the author of Utopia and one of Tudor England’s great minds, but his attacks on Henry VIII’s critics could be startlingly crude. In the battle over the Reformation, he used expletives, insults and scatological imagery to defend the king and the Catholic faith
David Kenyon tells the story of the brilliant computer scientist who helped crack Nazi codes in the Second World War
Animal trials took place across Europe from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the 18th century. In this excerpt from "Cats: A History", Rod Phillips explores this strange practice, and looks why cats appear to have been largely law-abiding.
Lucy Bolton challenges the 'dumb blonde' stereotype and reveals the career-driven, ambitious side to Marilyn Monroe
A 2015 astronaut photo shows dark-orange water that appears to bleed across the bright-white floor of a high-altitude salt lake in the Bolivian Andes.
Dr Lizzie Rogers explores Jane Austen's life at Chawton House, a cottage in rural Hampshire, where the author experienced one of the most fruitful episodes of her writing career
NASA shared an initial analysis of a 5-foot-wide fireball meteor that exploded in the sky over the northeastern U.S. on Saturday, May 30.
A new lab experiment is testing plasma jets as a water-free solution for "space laundry" on future missions to the moon and Mars.
A genomic study of Greenland sharks, thought to be the longest-lived vertebrates on the planet, is hinting at the secrets to their epic lifespan and cancer resistance.
Amateur male soccer players had greater changes in certain blood markers associated with neural damage the harder and more frequently they headed balls.
The Euphrates River fueled the "cradle of civilization," and a new study reveals the waterway was born of two other ancient rivers around 3.6 million years ago.
Dispatching Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US proved an embarrassing misstep for the British government. But have political appointments to Washington ever been successful? Longstanding British diplomat Lord Peter Ricketts runs the rule over three political appointees who enjoyed various degre…
The Gessel gold hoard is among the largest treasures ever discovered in prehistoric Europe but has only three pieces of jewelry in it.
The heart-shaped face. The iridescent blonde hair. And who can forget that billowing white dress? Image was key to Marilyn Monroe’s meteoric rise but, as Lucy Bolton explains on the star’s centenary, her success was only possible because of raw talent, ambition and a ferocious work ethic
In the book "Bitter Honey," writer and researcher Jennie Durant explores how industrial agriculture is destroying bees — and what can be done to stop them.
In the book "Bitter Honey," writer and researcher Jennie Durant explores how industrial agriculture is destroying bees — and what can be done to stop them.
A child's 4,000-year-old skull found in Uzbekistan has signs of trepanation, making it the oldest evidence of surgery in Central Asia on record.
The James Webb telescope peered into an ancient spot of light, and found it to be the most metal-poor galaxy in the early universe.
Rasputin’s rise at the Russian royal court seemed to fulfil a nightmare that had haunted Tsar Nicholas II’s mother for decades. As his influence over the imperial family deepened, fears about prophecy, scandal and political danger helped fuel opposition from within the Romanov dynasty.
The Crystal Ball Nebula has captivated astronomers for more than 200 years, and it offers a bittersweet glimpse of a dying star system similar to our own.
Modern humans have been around 300,000 years. How many generations is that?
A "foundational" study found that the brains of children with ADHD matured later, but that finding was likely a mirage tied to issues with how the children were followed over time.
Experts say the Ebola outbreak raging in Central Africa could be challenging to contain due to ongoing conflict in the region and a lack of vaccines and international aid.
What's the temperature in Earth's core, and how did we figure that out?
May 23, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend
The Levoit Sprout Evaporative Humidifier is quiet, easy to clean and effective at combating dry air — and it has a built-in night light, too.
Generative AI is destroying the baseline assumption that photographs bear some causal connection to reality. That's bad news for democracy.
Techniques for analyzing DNA have advanced, enabling scientists to better understand disease outbreaks throughout history.
It helped to have a number of features to aid survival following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
On its way to a metal asteroid, NASA's Psyche probe tested its cameras as it got a gravity assist from the Red Planet.
China's Tianzhou-10 mission just delivered embryo-like structures made from living stem cells to the Tiangong space station. Experiments could shed light on how radiation and microgravity affect human reproduction.
Live Science spoke with Alika Maunakea, an Native Hawaiian epigeneticist, about how epigenetics underpins health disparities between Native Hawaiians and others in Hawaii.
Many medieval castles were formidable stone fortifications. Live Science takes a look at six that were never conquered.
When running an AI model through a quantum computer, scientists have increased accuracy by only adding a relatively small number of parameters.
This funerary shroud was made from thousands of multicolored beads and woven to represent a human face and a large scarab beetle.
The largest moon in the solar system — Jupiter’s Ganymede — has a unique and inexplicable magnetic field. New research could finally explain it: the moon is heating up.
Scientists are trying to understand Venus' bright surface formations, called coronae, using new 3D maps.
If your phone breaks, it's impossible to fix it yourself. The reason for that lies with a set of laws that emerged decades ago.
People with a rare genetic disorder that damages the amygdala are helping neuroscientists rethink how the brain shapes fear, trust and concern for others.
An analysis of residue on centuries-old surgical tools reveals the use of a toxic anesthetic in Ming dynasty-era Chinese medicine.
A new needle-free technology isn't ready to replace blood draws, but it could serve as a screening tool to flag people who need a full-blown blood test.
A 2015 satellite photo shows a series of golden tendrils surrounding Ghana's Lake Bosumtwi, which is considered sacred to the local Asante people. The lake and its surroundings were shaped by a massive meteor impact around 1 million years ago.
Multiple videos show a rare "fireball" meteor breaking apart with a flash of emerald light over the erupting Mount Mayon. Initial reports suggested that the falling space rock hit the volcano, but this was untrue.
A woman developed bright-red rashes on her back that looked like marks from a whip, and at first, it wasn't clear what caused them.
Radio astronomer Emma Chapman explains why the radio view of the universe is so crucial to space exploration, astronomy, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Despite their occupations of Britain, the Romans and Vikings didn't leave much of a genetic mark on Britons. The Anglo-Saxons, though, were a different story.
The space agency described the moon base as a sprawling city-like lunar outpost stretching over hundreds of square miles.
Astronomers weighed a black hole in a "little red dot" discovered by the James Webb telescope. They found it to be so overmassive that it may have formed before its host galaxy had a chance to develop.
West Antarctica's "Doomsday Glacier" is on the brink of losing its ice shelf, further compromising the already melting ice mass and threatening to unleash devastating sea-level rises.
Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,200-year-old hoard of gold, silver and gemstones that was buried along a medieval pilgrimage route in Saudi Arabia.
Researchers have warned that the Thwaites Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the world, is about to lose its eastern ice shelf. We spoke to marine geophysicist Robert Larter about what this means for the "Doomsday Glacier."
Two pairs of "rogue" Jupiter-size, planet-like objects have been found in a large star-forming region in the Milky Way, a new study claims. The findings suggest the weird objects actually do exist, and are not an illusion.
A dependable and sharp 6-inch GoTo telescope with sharp views and basic imaging potential, but with dated tech that’s a bit slow to set up.
Material scientists in China have created a new kind of coating that keeps clothes clean without the need for wasteful detergents. It could reduce the water and electricity costs of doing laundry by 80%.
Fires from March 7 airstrikes created a sulfur dioxide plume spanning 185,000 square miles.
A sea-urchin-like robot could offer a new blueprint for making more versatile robots, research suggests.
The rocket explosion, a contender for the largest in American history, is a significant setback for Jeff Bezos and NASA.
Fingal's Cave is a hollow inside the Scottish island of Staffa that is characterized by massive, interlocking hexagonal columns of volcanic rock and astonishing acoustics.
Researchers have uncovered an unexpected phenomenon, dubbed the Zwan-Wolf effect, squeezing plasma "like toothpaste" in Mars' upper atmosphere. This effect, which also happens on Earth, was thought to be impossible on the Red Planet.
The closest the field has come to solving the planar unit distance problem, first proposed in the 1940s, was in 1984. Now, OpenAI claims an internal model has cracked the puzzle.
Iran is experiencing "water bankruptcy" that stems from decades of broken water governance and aggressive policies, and the current war is exacerbating the crisis.
Researchers have built a miniaturized microcomb-driven terahertz wireless communication system that's 90 times smaller than conventional chips to deliver record-breaking data-transfer speeds at ultrahigh frequencies.
Tests that measure biological aging are informative tools for studying large numbers of people but not for tracking individual health status.
In honor of the 700th-anniversary founding of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria Pedralbes in Barcelona, scientists opened eight 14th-century graves and studied the 25 people found inside, including a queen.
A rare Blue Moon, the second full moon in May, will also be a "micromoon" near its farthest point from Earth.
Long-haul travelers often feel totally out of whack for several days after arriving at their destination. Jet lag is a natural phenomenon, but can it be prevented?
May 30, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend
A new device could allow computer processors to operate significantly faster, without generating waste heat.
Special eye drops containing photosynthetic machinery from spinach leaves have helped combat dry eye, a new mouse experiment reveals.
Is my brain wired to never see a ghost? A psychologist on three factors that make a paranormal experience more likely
From the rock’n’roll revolution to era-defining protest anthems, Jonathan Wright reveals the tunes that helped shape the modern age
New DNA evidence shows that Europe’s hunter-gatherers and early farmers interacted far more closely than previously thought, with women likely playing a crucial role in spreading farming across northwestern Europe. Centuries later, the arrival of Bell Beaker migrants triggered another sweeping popul…
In the Operation Overlord drama Pressure, Chris Messina stars as American meteorologist Irving P Krick, working on weather forecasts for the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy. Confident and charismatic, Krick delivers his predictions with pizzazz – yet some of his colleagues doubt that he knows what …
Leading the cast in D-Day drama Pressure, Andrew Scott stars as James Stagg. Among the meteorologists advising Dwight D Eisenhower on whether to launch Operation Overlord, Stagg’s voice is the most important. Jonathan Wright asks: how close is the character on screen to the real man?
Brendan Fraser stars as General Dwight ‘Ike’ D Eisenhower in the D-Day drama Pressure. As supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, he had the huge responsibility of overseeing Operation Overlord. How close is the figure we see to the real man, asks Jonathan Wright?
Fact and fiction blast into cinemas with Pressure, a gripping drama that focuses on the immediate buildup to Operation Overlord. Jonathan Wright unpicks the true story of the tense hours when meteorologists clashed over whether a storm was going to hit Normandy in early June 1944
In the D-Day drama Pressure, Kerry Condon stars as Kay Summersby, US General Dwight D Eisenhower’s aide and driver. In the film she acts both as confidant to the general and a mediator between battling factions on his staff. But is the figure we see on screen anything like the real woman, asks Jonat…
Our team of historians, broadcasters and authors name kings and queens with a strong claim to greatness
A newly discovered raptor-like dinosaur from Patagonia is changing how scientists think about ancient predators. Named Kank australis, the 70-million-year-old dinosaur appears to have hunted fish much like modern herons, using a long, flexible neck and specialized vertebrae adapted for swift, precis…
Scientists have discovered Labrujasuchus expectatus, a bizarre crocodile relative that looked more like an ostrich-like dinosaur than anything resembling a modern crocodile. It walked on two legs, had tiny arms, and sported a toothless beak—an unexpected combination for a member of the crocodile lin…
The 18th century was an age of industrialisation, scientific exploration and ‘progress’, but what happened when those rational foundations were shaken?
Medieval Europe’s Muslim societies helped transform science, medicine, music, fashion and dining. In Al-Andalus, centuries of cultural exchange produced innovations that left a lasting mark on European life
From the high stakes of the D-Day decision, to the portrayal of Group Captain James Stagg, HistoryExtra's Charlotte Vosper takes a closer look at the real history explored in the film Pressure
How much have you been paying attention to this week's content on HistoryExtra? Test your knowledge with our quiz…
On 1 March 1999, Breitling Orbiter 3 – piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones – took off from Châteaux d’Oex in Switzerland. After more than 19 days aloft, circumnavigating the world, the hot-air balloon landed in Egypt. Piccard, one of the subjects of a new documentary, The Balloonists, tells …
A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord's success
Mary Beard speaks to Charlotte Vosper about her new book exploring why we should study ancient worlds – and the questions we should really be asking about them
From sardine-laced popcorn to a startling yeast and ketchup concoction, Jonny Wilkes explores some of the weirdest fillings that our ancestors enjoyed (or endured) in their sandwiches
To mark the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling event, Isabel King explores the fascinating – and surprising – history of cheese, from ancient cows to Wallace and Gromit
"Music belongs to everyone, and it evokes the deepest human emotions", writes Michael Wood
From the Black Death to the French Revolution, music has long been affected by the upheavals of history. Rebecca Franks speaks to Gillian Moore, presenter of the new BBC Radio 3 series Key Changes, about the events that transformed the art form forever
In the second episode of a four-part series on Austen's life and writing, Dr Lizzie Rogers and Lauren Good chart the author’s tumultuous twenties
Judith Jesch traces the story of the Scottish archipelago across the Viking Age, as seen through the Old Norse Saga of the Earls of Orkney
