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A map of part of a mouse brain, which is expected to be generalisable to people, could help scientists understand behaviours, consciousness and even what it means to be human ...

Ancient rocks reveal there were several humid spells in Arabia's past, which might have given early hominins a route out of Africa long before our genus migrated ...

Computers that use photons rather than electrons to manipulate data promise greater speed and energy efficiency, and the technology is developing rapidly ...

An investigation of the changing behaviour of a single quantum bit through time has uncovered a tantalising similarity to the geometry of three-dimensional space ...

It's incredibly tricky to pin down the origin of the language that led to the words spoken everywhere between Spain and India - and it'll be even harder to be sure we've got it right ...

Unusual rocks on an Icelandic beach were dropped there by icebergs, adding to evidence that an unusually cool period preceded the collapse of the Roman Empire ...

The number of dinosaurs may have been stable before the asteroid impact, despite evidence that species were getting less diverse ...

Magicians have long exploited quirks in our perception of the world to make us experience the impossible. Now, cognitive psychology is exploring how they do it and revealing fresh insights into how our minds work ...

Physicists have determined that the ideal technique for pour-over coffee can use up to 10 per cent fewer beans to make a cup just as flavoursome ...

A moth antenna can be integrated into the electronics of a drone to create a smell-seeking bio-hybrid - but it only detects the smell of a female moth ...