newscientist2

To cut the cost of key stage 2 assessments, a UK government project proposes to use scripts generated by ChatGPT instead of real children's writing as examples supplied to moderators who check that grades are awarded fairly

A drug made up of THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis, reduced the severity and incidence of nightmares in people with PTSD

A bomb-fished coral reef in Sulawesi, IndonesiaThe Ocean Agency

Within just a 17-kilometre radius in one Indonesian archipelago, there is an explosion almost every hour as locals practise “bomb fishing”, destroying coral reefs and decimating marine life.

Over 483 d...

Fields have been scorched by the drought around St Catherine’s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset, UKGraham Hunt/Alamy

Summer 2026 is likely to be the warmest on record in the UK, with repeated searing heatwaves and a severe drought affecting much of the country. In southern England in particular, the landscape is parched and crispy, rivers and reservoirs are running low, and ...

A reconstruction of East Africa's environment 1.75 million years ago suggests wildfires spiked during wetter times, which may have influenced human evolution