SCIENCE

Nobel prizewinning biochemist who succeeded against the odds in mapping the ribosome For years, the crystallographer and biochemist Ada Yonath had to contend with the disdain and sometimes derision of many of her contemporaries after she set herself the challenge of mapping the molecular structure…

The sleep disorder has been the butt of jokes and a comedic plot point, but the reality of living with narcolepsy is anything but funny. Things could be about to change for people with the condition though, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ever drug to treat…

Some change in our lifestyles and environments over a generation has caused this increased risk. What, exactly, is a mystery Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh In the field of global health, we often talk about each generation living longer and…

We have a deep reservoir of assets, but struggle to turn small companies into global success stories. Innovation needs to be at the heart of government policy Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010 The coming 10 years are almost certain to be the decade that sees the greatest…

Intense flash of radio waves is more than 10bn years old and has travelled through ‘approximately 80% of cosmic history’ A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a mysterious flash of energy was released into the universe. Astronomers have now detected that flash – a burst of radio waves which…

Researchers found five events, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, caused serious damage to mental wellbeing across UK Brexit, Liz Truss’s mini-budget and other “shocks” over the last 10 years have led to a serious and lasting deterioration in the UK population’s mental health, research has…

Operation on 19-year-old who had no sperm after chemotherapy offers hope of preserving children’s fertility after cancer treatment Surgeons have performed the first testicular tissue transplant on a teenager in the UK, offering hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could one day have…

MIT computer scientist led development of software for moon mission and earned Presidential Medal of Freedom Margaret Hamilton, the computer pioneer whose software powered the first moon landing, has died, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on Wednesday. She was 90. In an era…

Optogenetic therapy, based on Nobel prize-winning science, involves turning nerve cells on and off using light A type of gene therapy based on Nobel prize-winning science is safe and can partly restore sight in blind people, researchers have revealed. The approach, known as optogenetic therapy,…

‘Transparent information sharing’ from Moscow is required to conduct full risk assessment, UN agency says The World Health Organization has said it does not have the “full picture” from Russia following the suspected death from plague last week of a 28-year-old laboratory worker in Siberia. Darya…

This year’s Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine have celebrated work that has been used to develop countless drugs and transform modern medicine, allowed physicists to observe one of the most mysterious particles, and provided a tool that could act as an on/off switch for…

The Nobel prize in chemistry 2026 has been awarded to two scientists, Henri B Kagan at Paris-Sud University in France and Kensō Soai at Tokyo University of Science in Japan. Their discoveries showed how chemical reactions can produce an overwhelming excess of one of two mirror image forms of a…

DNA analysis of oldest living land animal reveal patterns on genes that appear to protect functioning of mitochondria The ancient quest to extend human lifespan has received a boost after scientists analysed the genetic code of the world’s oldest living land animal, a giant tortoise called…

Second up for the 2026 Nobel Prizes was the award for physics. And this year it went to just one scientist, Francis Halzen. The Belgian physicist won the prize based on his work on the IceCube detector that observes ghostly particles called neutrinos. Science editor Ian Sample tells host Madeleine…

Several hospitals in eastern Russia are under quarantine after a lab worker fell ill at a plague research centre following a reported accident and died. Russia’s health watchdog has said Darya Shipilova, 28, died of ‘pneumonia of unknown aetiology’, but there is speculation about a possible plague…

The sleep disorder has been the butt of jokes and a comedic plot point, but the reality of living with narcolepsy is anything but funny. Things could be about to change for people with the condition though, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ever drug to treat…

Kicking off the 2026 Nobel prizes in is the award for physiology or medicine. This year the prize went to three scientists for their work investigating the mysteries of the brain. Karl Deisseroth of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt…