Science

Could humans hibernate?

Hibernation allows many animals to time-travel from difficult times to plenty. Could humans learn how to do it too?

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy

Forwards, not back

Medicine aims to return bodies to the state they were in before illness. But there’s a better way of thinking about health

Kate MacCord & Jane Maienschein

Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings

3 minutes

Problem-solving matter

Life is starting to look a lot less like an outcome of chemistry and physics, and more like a computational process

David C Krakauer & Chris Kempes

How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution

60 minutes

For one of nature’s great builders, finding a mate means weaving the perfect nest

4 minutes

What is intelligent life?

Our human minds hold us back from truly understanding the many brilliant ways that other creatures solve their problems

Abigail Desmond & Michael Haslam

Kinship

Science must become attuned to the subtle conversations that pervade all life, from the primordial to the present

David Waltner-Toews

The dinosaurs didn’t rule

When we think of changes in Earth’s history as changes of dynasty we miss out on understanding how life really works

Riley Black

To understand how an animal sees the world, start with the shape of its pupils

5 minutes

Evolution without accidents

Despite advances in molecular genetics, too many biologists think that natural selection is driven by random mutations

James A Shapiro

The key to geckos’ unrivalled climbing skills isn’t sticky feet. It’s subatomic

4 minutes

Far from frivolous, cuteness is a powerful – and still mysterious – force of nature

6 minutes

Time is an object

Not a backdrop, an illusion or an emergent phenomenon, time has a physical size that can be measured in laboratories

Sara Walker & Lee Cronin

How like the kiwi we are

To understand helpless human babies, our big brains and oddly involved dads, look to the evolution of birds not mammals

Antone Martinho-Truswell

Why making if-then connections might be the key to consciousness

5 minutes

Our Earth, shaped by life

Darwin was the first to see that all lifeforms, from worms to corals, transform the planet. What does that mean for us?

Olivia Judson

To understand the limits of human senses, look to the wild world of animal cognition

45 minutes

Symmetry rules life on Earth – but it comes with many fascinating exceptions

9 minutes

There’s no one way for an insect to fly, but they’re all amazing in close up and slo-mo

7 minutes