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Your support helps us tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is breaking new ground as the story unfolds. Whether it’s investigating the finances of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest film, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, … Read more
Bird watchers gather to share in one of nature’s most spectacular spectacles: a “blizzard” of snow geese flying over a Pennsylvania lake. ADVERTISING ADVERTISING It is as if they are gathered in the darkness of the morning, waiting for the time when thousands of migrating birds stop chirping and chirping. They are rewarded with a … Read more
Autism has a significant and persistent sex bias, with approximately four boys diagnosed for every girl. For years, experts have believed that this disparity stems primarily from a lack of diagnosis because most autism research — and the diagnostic tools that came out of it — have focused on boys, effectively setting male standards for … Read more
Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider accidentally turned lead into gold while trying to recreate the Big Bang. Researchers working on the “Alice” experiment at Cern, Switzerland, have produced a rare precious metal as they try to recreate conditions from shortly after the universe began. Medieval alchemists had tried to turn lead into gold for … Read more
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a very special type of black hole, thought to have formed from dense pockets of subatomic matter in the seconds after the Big Bang – and a new study reports what may be the first direct time. That may take years to prove, but the prospect is exciting. Black holes … Read more
From scaling to error correction, many problems still need to be solved before a working quantum computer can be built, but researchers continue to find the necessary solutions. Quantum computers can be used to solve complex problems that are impossible for the most conventional computer. But building a working quantum computer is, of course, not … Read more
Isosurface of the Dyson orbital, taken from Piccinelli, Samuele, et al., “Exploring paths towards quantum chemistry: the case of a molecule with a half-Möbius topology,” arXiv, 9 March 2026. arXiv:2603.08696 A recent paper in the journal Science announced the discovery of a truly new and surprising substance that could have a major impact on our … Read more
Global population is pushing the Earth beyond its breaking point The world has exceeded its capacity to sustainably support the world’s population, with new research warning of increasing pressure on food security, climate stability and human well-being. However, slowing population growth and increasing global awareness can still give people hope. The actual sustainable population is … Read more
The asteroid that recently dominated the headlines, 3I/ATLAS, may be between 10 and 12 billion years old, a new analysis of the isotopic composition of the comet has shown. This so-called “invader” in our planetary system is only the third object reported to enter our cosmic environment from beyond. If these predictions of new comet … Read more
Summary: We have known for a long time that alcohol changes the way the brain works, but new research has discovered a surprising direct mechanism: alcohol does not only affect brain chemistry – its breakdown products (metabolites) directly control genes. The study shows that these epigenetic “rewrites” occur throughout the entire brain after long-term exposure, … Read more