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Table of contents

Leaders

Environment

Human innovation caused the chemicals emergency – and it can solve it

WHEN the US chemicals company DuPont adopted the slogan "Better Things for Better Living... Through Chemistry" in 1935, it was to try to win over a public wary of new synthetic materials such as nylon, neoprene and pesticides. It seems to have succeeded. For most people, life today is steeped in synthetic chemicals. Many of …

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Health

Finger sweat can power wearable medical sensors 24 hours a day

Finger sweat can now power small medical sensors Small biofuel cells can harvest enough energy from the sweat on a person’s fingertips to power wearable medical sensors that track health and nutrition – and because our fingertips are one of the sweatiest parts of the body, the sensors could be powered all day. Lu Yin …

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Health

Some people can tell if you have an infection just by looking at you

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Technology

World's first 3D-printed steel bridge opens in Amsterdam

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Technology

Google demonstrates vital step towards large-scale quantum computers

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Life

Meet the puzzle-solving gorillas shedding light on how speech evolved

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Physics

Strange 3D-printed shapes test 150-year-old mathematical theory

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Technology

3D-printed robotic hand powered by water can play Super Mario Bros

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Health

Legal lead levels in US tap water may harm people with kidney disease

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Space

Microbes burping methane on Mars may be right next to NASA rover

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Life

Most bats have noise-cancelling genes that may stop them going deaf

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Life

Cannabis was domesticated in north-west China around 12,000 years ago

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Life

Weird ‘Borg’ DNA found in microbes takes in genes from other organisms

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Space

Cosmic calculation may settle debate about the rate the universe grows

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Life

Trilobite fossil shows it was attacked by a human-sized sea scorpion

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Environment

Climate change to blame for monarch butterfly's recent decline

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Life

Galapagos tortoises use their self-destructing cells to avoid cancer

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Health

What life will be like now England's covid-19 restrictions have lifted

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Analysis

Environment

EU's carbon border tax will test appetite for global climate action

Containers at a loading terminal in the Port of Hamburg, Germany An unprecedented and controversial carbon tax will be applied to goods imported to the European Union from 2026, the flagship measure in a sweeping suite of European Commission policies unveiled today to meet the bloc's 2030 climate target . The tax will mean companies …

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Technology

Pegasus spyware scandal: Can Silicon Valley stop government snooping?

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Space

The eternal debate about the eternal inflation of the universe

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Environment

We have just two years to stop deep-sea mining from going ahead

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Aperture

Amazing image taken with a camera obscura shows photography's origins

Unearthed: Photography's Roots , Dulwich Picture Gallery, London THESE impressive images include some of the first photographs of nature, taken from Unearthed: Photography's Roots, an exhibition tracing the history of photography from the 1840s to the 21st century through depictions of plants and botany. The exhibition is showing at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until 30 …

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Features

Environment

Why chemical pollution is turning into a third great planetary crisis

Thousands of synthetic substances have leaked into ecosystems everywhere, and we are only just beginning to realise the devastating consequences

Features

Physics

How is gold made? The mysterious cosmic origins of heavy elements

Features

Life

What would become of dogs without humans? Here’s how they’d evolve

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Culture

Earth

Katla review: A dark, mysterious thriller with a supernatural volcano

Gríma (Guðrún Eyfjörð) lives beside a strange volcano This review contains minor spoilers for  Katla . Katla is a story about a community living in the shadow of a glacial volcano that has been erupting for more than a year. But it isn't just about the threat of disaster – when people presumed missing or …

Culture

Mind

How opium, caffeine and mescaline shaped the world – and got us hooked

Culture

Life

Secret Worlds review: Immerse yourself in amazing animal senses

Culture

Don't Miss: Lessons from plants and how they can help us thrive

Culture

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More

Life

The Big Butterfly Count has just kicked off - here’s how to help

Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) WITH summer truly under way in the northern hemisphere, now is a perfect time to spot butterflies and day-flying moths. If you live in the UK, you can help conservation scientists by participating in this year’s Big Butterfly Count . By simply counting the amount and type of butterflies and moths …

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Puzzle #123: What is the longest line Cara can make with her cars?

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Twisteddoodles presents a history of the early 21st century

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Tom Gauld takes precautions to avoid hay fever

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Why ‘100 billion molecules per serving’ is not as good as it sounds

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

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Letters

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The last word