Science
BBC Science Focus
OBJECTS IN OPPOSITION WHEN: LATE AUGUST - EARLY SEPTEMBER 2023
Opposition describes an object being opposite the Sun in the sky. For some planets this can be a big deal, as the weeks around opposition offer us the best views of them. At opposition a planet is also visible all night long.
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
GREAT EARED NIGHTJAR
Lock up your goats, it's the great eared nightjar; a big-mouthed, teat-wrangling, milk-gobbler of a bird that will desiccate your bleaters and leave them blind.
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I GET STRANDED ON SNAKE ISLAND?
Just off the coast of southern Brazil lies the island of Queimada Grande, known as 'Snake Island'. Covering just 43 hectares (106 acres), this rocky island is home to between 2,000 and 4,000 highly venomous golden lancehead vipers (Bothrops insularis), which can grow to 70cm (just over 2ft). The snakes were trapped there around 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, when rising sea levels cut them off from the mainland.
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN
Earth is blanketed by a swarm of human-made debris hurtling around at speeds of up to 8km per second - about five times the speed of a bullet. The UK's Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative hopes to catch these fast-moving projectiles and clean up the nasty, and potentially lethal, mess our cosmic littering habit has caused
7 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
THE POWER OF HABIT
Our lives are filled with habitual behaviours, both good and bad, but how do they form and how can we build better ones?
10 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
SAY AHHH
EVERY LIVING THING HAS TO EAT SOMEHOW... WHATEVER TYPE OF MOUTH IT MIGHT HAVE. AND THERE ARE SOME TRULY BIZARRE MOUTHS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. SOME OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY EXAMPLES ARE ENOUGH TO LEAVE YOU SLACK-JAWED
6 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Ideas we like...
Our pick of the month's smartest tech
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Five of the best BBQs for the summer
There are hundreds of BBQs on the market, all boasting their own impressive features. But which is the best? The BBC Science Focus team picks their faves...
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Artificial intelligence discovers drugs to fight ageing
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh use machine learning algorithm to identify drugs with potential new applications in minutes
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
HAY FEVER: IS IT REALLY GETTING WORSE?
Hay fever sufferers say their allergies are getting worse... and climate change could be to blame
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
SKIN CANCER: CASES ARE RISING. WHAT CAN WE DO?
Annual cases are expected to reach 2.7 million by 2040
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
LIVE FACIAL RECOGNITION: THE MET POLICE'S CONTROVERSIAL NEW TECH
It has already been used at high-profile events, despite concerns about the privacy, accuracy and bias of this Al-driven system
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
DON'T KICK THE ROBOT
If something's got no feelings, you can't hurt it, right? So where's the harm?
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BANG SINGULARITY?
The Big Bang marks the beginning of the Universe, right? The physicists brave enough to look beyond it aren't so sure
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
PALEO IS A FLINTSTONE FANTASY
'Big farmer' has changed our digestive capabilities... and that's just one of the reasons why you can't eat like a caveman
3 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
PRIMER : DEEP-SEA MINING
Why the next gold rush is happening at the bottom of the ocean
4 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
MEDICINE : SCIENTISTS PRODUCE THE FIRST CELLULAR MAP OF THE HUMAN INTESTINE
Fluorescent antibodies reveal the atlas of cell that cooperate to protect you 'neighbourhoods'
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
ASTRONOMY : RARE 'ULTRACOOL' BROWN DWARF STAR FOUND EMITTING RADIO WAVES
Unusual radio signals have led astronomers to a surprising astronomical object
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
BIOLOGY : MOTHERS ARE FORCED TO FIGHT A NUTRIENT WAR WITH THEIR UNBORN BABIES
A study on mice enabled scientists to discover that children inherit 'greedy genes' from fathers
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
MEDICINE : ANT HONEY USED IN INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN MEDICINE COULD INSPIRE POWERFUL NEW ANTIBIOTICS
It's a first for Western science, but Indigenous Australians have been using the honeypot ant medicinally for thousands of years
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
VIROLOGY : NEW AI COULD IDENTIFY VIRAL 'DARK MATTER' OF NEXT PANDEMIC
The early warning system is based on machine learning and could have predicted the emergence of the COVID variants
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
ASTRONOMY : EERIE 'SONG' OF TWINKLING STARS DRIVES UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR NUCLEAR CORES
Taking a musical approach helps scientists determine how much a star should shine
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Show your stripes
Pictures may tell a thousand words, but this one goes even further. These stripes appeared along Dover's White Cliffs on 21 June, as the iconic landmark was gradually turned into a scientific graphic.
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Let's work together
There's a reason they call the ocean Earth's unexplored frontier. Dive into any of this planet's waters and you soon discover an entirely different ecosystem, populated with strange and unexpected species.
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Birthday wishes
This is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. It's the closest star-forming region to Earth - around 390 light-years away - and in stellar nursery terms, it's a rather small, quiet region.
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Ideas we like...
Our pick of the month's smartest tech
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
Could adolescent reptiles learn martial arts?
Do you need more than pizza, surf slang and bright bandanas to bring out the heroes in four juvenile turtles?
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
ANEMOIA: WHY AM I NOSTALGIC FOR A TIME I DIDN'T KNOW OR A PLACE I'VE NEVER BEEN?
The term nostalgia’ was coined by a Swiss doctor in the 17th century to describe the homesickness experienced by mercenaries fighting far from home from the Greek nostos’ the desire to return home and algos’, meaning pain).
2 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
BEFORE WE HAD LONG COVID, WAS THERE LONG SARS?
The SARS epidemic of 2002-2004, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), affected over 8,000 people globally.
1 min |
August 2023
BBC Science Focus
DEAR DOCTOR: HOW DO I STOP HICCUPING? WHAT WILL ACTUALLY WORK?
Hiccups, those sudden and sometimes annoying contractions of the diaphragm, can be a perplexing phenomenon. During a hiccup your diaphragm contracts and, immediately after this, the top of your windpipe (your glottis) closes, making the typical 'hic' sound.
2 min |