science

Your chronological age can’t always tell you the state of your health, which is why biological clocks have been developed to show our risk of developing diseases or dying – but they’re not all they are cracked up to be, says columnist Graham Lawton Source link

Many species of fungus across the world produce psilocybin, a chemical with psychedelic effects in humans, but its evolutionary purpose may be to deter mushroom-munching insects Source link

A 5500-year-old genome recovered from human skeletal remains in Colombia may give insights into the early evolution of syphilis and its relatives Source link

We thought we could address big social problems by steering individual behaviour. But “nudging” people doesn’t work, say behavioural scientists Nick Chater and George Loewenstein Source link

Peter F. Hamilton’s new book A Hole in the Sky is set on a troubled ark ship hundreds of years into its voyage, with fantastic plot twists and turns. I’m a big Hamilton fan, but one aspect of the novel proved alienating for me, says Emily H. Wilson Source link

Extraordinary fossils of 518-million-year-old jawless fish, among the earliest known vertebrates, appear to show that these animals had two pairs of eyes Source link

Humpback whales off the west coast of Canada have learned a cooperative hunting technique from whales migrating into the area, and this cultural knowledge may help the population cope as food becomes scarce Source link

Countries have spent beyond their sustainable water budgets for so long that critical assets are depleted and the world faces huge economic, social and environmental costs Source link

Two or more satellites could communicate and manoeuvre around one another using magnetic fields, although getting the technique to work at scale in space might be tricky Source link

How discovering that different parts of the brain work together as networks has transformed our understanding of everything from daydreaming and emotions to planning and memory Source link