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GTG9F9 Hot mulled wine and book in woman hands. Relaxing in front of burning fire in the cold winter day.

Chemistry

Can science explain why some drinks and foods are a perfect match?

Some things just go together, like red wine and cheese, lager and a spicy curry – and Christmas and mulled wine, says Sam Wong

Regulars

Alastair Reynolds: An exclusive short story for 51��

Society

Alastair Reynolds: An exclusive short story for 51��

Culture

Close up image of a selection of freshly flame grilled burgers in a row on a wooden counter at a London street food market. Each of the burgers has its own label, on which is written the contents of the burger. The burgers are sandwiched between glazed buns, and presented on beds of fresh green lettuce and stuffed with melted cheese and red onion. Horizontal colour image with copy space and beautiful bokeh background.

Health

Cancer in young people is rising and 2023 saw a plan to figure out why

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2PNBXXP Pack of Ozempic, antidiabetic for weight control, taken in a pharmacy in Niesky, April 13, 2023.

Health

Wegovy and Ozempic made 2023 a revolutionary year for weight loss

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NEW DELHI, INDIA - AUGUST 23: People celebrates after successful landing of Chandrayaan 3 on Moon at Nehru Planetarium on August 23, 2023 in New Delhi, India. The Chandrayaan-3 lander module has successfully touched down on the Moon's south pole, making India the first nation in the world to achieve this feat. India is also the fourth nation, after the United States, China and Russia to have landed on the Moon. (Photo by Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Space

India made history with 2023's low-budget Chandrayaan-3 moon landing

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2RF6WE0 FOTOMONTAGE, Miniatur-Roboter auf einer Computerplatine mit dem Schriftzug ChatGPT

Technology

2023 was the year that artificial intelligence went mainstream

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David Smith, Joseph Myers, Chaim Goodman-Strauss and Craig S. Kaplan prove that a polykite that we call

Mathematics

Mathematicians discovered the ultimate bathroom tile in 2023

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A nurse prepares a shot for Jonathan Halter as the German embassy begins its roll out of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for German expatriates at a Beijing United Family hospital in Beijing, China January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Health

Covid-19 'emergency' ended in 2023 but the virus still lingers

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EVROS, GREECE - AUGUST 31: A firefighters runs as wildfire intensifies in the village of Sidiro and Yannuli in Evros, Greece on August 31, 2023. Efforts to extinguish wildfire continues. (Photo by Ayhan Mehmet/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Environment

Why 2023 was almost certainly the hottest year ever recorded

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Wolf-Rayet stars are known to be efficient dust producers, and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows this to great effect. Cooler cosmic dust glows at the longer mid-infrared wavelengths, displaying the structure of WR 124?s nebula. The nebula is made of material cast off from the aging star in random ejections, and from dust produced in the ensuing turbulence. This brilliant stage of mass loss precedes the star?s eventual supernova, when nuclear fusion in its core stops and the pressure of gravity causes it to collapse in on itself, and then explode. As MIRI demonstrates here, Webb will help astronomers to explore questions that were previously only left to theory about how much dust stars like this create before exploding in a supernova, and how much of that dust is large enough to survive the blast and go on to serve as building blocks of future stars and planets.

Space

Six of the most amazing space pictures from 2023

This year saw an extraordinary number of awe-inspiring images of objects in space, thanks in part to the James Webb Space Telescope. Here are the ones that dazzled us most and why they are important

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Physics

LK-99 superconductor mania swept the internet for a few weeks in 2023

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Technology

The spy balloon saga of 2023 inflated US-China political tensions

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Health

Stretchy electrodes shrink when wet to fit snugly around organs

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Chemistry

How to use 'flavour bridging' to cook a bizarre but tasty holiday meal

Features