Get drunk without a hangover on synthetic booze
Professor David Nutt has developed two new drugs that could do away with liver damage and alcohol-induced shame
22 January 2015
How to see your music
Why settle for your standard music visualiser on your computer when you can create a three-dimensional one simply by filling an old speaker with baking soda?
14 January 2015
Keeping my ear to the ground: On getting music lessons at a ‘deaf rave’
It has been spectacularly enlightening to discover that I could learn more about the nature of sound from those who cannot hear than from anyone else.
12 December 2014
The good vibrations helping the deaf experience music
A slew of new music-listening devices for the deaf are on offer.
30 November 2014
Hats off to Chapelier Fou – the violinist taking us through the looking glass…
Every once in a while a musician comes along who reminds you of the redemptive power of music. Why sonic combinations make life worth living.
13 November 2014
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard @ The Shacklewell Arms
If you manage to get a mosh pit going – complete with crowd surfers grabbing the projector cables from the ceiling, hanging off the rafters and falling head-first onto the concrete floor – from 45 seconds into the first song, then you must be doing something right.
12 November 2014
Why brain scientists crave illegal drugs
Drugs are dangerous, but they are double-edged swords, and when used in the right time in the right way, scientists can use them as unparalleled tools to probe the mechanics of the mind.
28 October 2014
Liam Finn & Friends @ The Lexington
Liam Finn and his Kiwi all stars may come from the bottom of the earth, but we didn’t hear one bum note all night.
6 October 2014
A better British referendum: A vote on the royals
Undoubtedly a referendum on the monarchy would fail – most here are indisputably romantically attached to the institution. But tabling the idea would at least force people to question the concept at all.
12 September 2014
Naked selfies? I’ve taken them too (and all in the name of science)
Why do famous young women risk taking nude photos? Scientist Zoe Cormier explains the new exhibitionism
4 September 2014
Heavenly Nipples celebrates sexual diversity at the Glastonbury Festival
At this year's festival, Guerilla Science used latex nipples, merkins and the Great Wall of Vagina to confront the pervasive discomfort humans have with our sexual diversity
9 July 2014
How magic mushrooms induce a dream-like state
Anyone who has enjoyed a magical mystery tour thanks to the psychedelic powers of magic mushrooms knows the experience is surreally dreamlike. Now neuroscientists have uncovered a reason why: the active ingredient, psilocybin, induces changes in the brain that are eerily akin to what goes on when we're off in the land of nod.
4 July 2014
Urban Myths: Can a coin dropped from a skyscraper kill you?
As Britain unveils a new pound coin, we put to rest once and for all the question of whether falling change can, in fact, be lethal
20 March 2014
Online games offer trove of brain data
Study of 35 million users of brain-training software finds alcohol and sleep linked to cognitive performance.
21 June 2013
Gene switches make prairie voles fall in love
Epigenetic changes affect neurotransmitters that lead to pair-bond formation.
2 June 2013
Starfish sacrifice arms to beat the heat
You can tell when a starfish is too hot – it loses an arm.
29 May 2013
Hearing changes could be ancient in the human line
Comparison between hominins suggests modern middle-ear bones evolved early.
13 May 2013
Synthetic vaccine could prevent future outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease
Technique could be extended to human viruses and help with eradication of polio.
28 March 2013
Plants lace their nectar with drugs to make bees return
Plants may be spiking their nectar with addictive drugs to lure insects into spreading their pollen.
8 March 2013
Having sons can shorten a woman’s life expectancy
Boys may be energetically more demanding to breastfeed.
27 February 2013
Newt sequencing may set back efforts to regrow human limbs
Amphibian's unique proteins cast doubt on existence of latent potential for regeneration.
21 February 2013
Small-molecule drug drives cancer cells to suicide
Studies in mice show therapy is effective even in hard-to-treat brain tumours.
7 February 2013
UK unveils plan to fight deadly ash disease
But most of the country's 90 million ash trees are likely to be wiped out.
9 November 2012
Blind mole rats may hold key to cancer
Rodents' cells commit mass suicide when overcrowded, preventing uncontrollable proliferation.
5 November 2012
African spiny mice can regrow lost skin
Rodents are first mammals observed regenerating tissue.
26 September 2012
Subatomic particles collide at Secret Garden Party
Guerilla Science staged a safari featuring quarks, electrons and bosons to help demystify particle physics
27 July 2012
Termites explode to defend their colonies
Older workers use chemical reaction to increase toxicity of 'explosive backpacks'.
26 July 2012
The Unselfish Gene
Are humans really a selfish species ruled by competition and self-interest? Zoe Cormier surveys the ideas of recent thinkers who argue that biology and evolution prove we are natural co-operators.
1 July 2012
Illuminating Life
Since its discovery 50 years ago, Green Fluorescent Protein has become one of the most useful tools in biology.
1 July 2012
Stressed grasshoppers slow plant decay
Fear of predators affect nutrient cycling in whole ecosystem.
19 June 2012