How social stress makes your brain vulnerable to depression

How social stress makes your brain vulnerable to depression: Bullying and other social stresses may make it easier for inflammatory substances to enter your brain, altering your mood and leaving you susceptible to depression

Facebook can make your profile pic wink and scowl

Facebook can make your profile pic wink and scowl: Like portraits and pictures in Harry Potter, your Facebook image will soon react to visitors’ actions with happiness, sadness, or anger

Grow fake versions of rare delicacies like sea urchin at home

Grow fake versions of rare delicacies like sea urchin at home: Japanese meat culturing project goes beyond hamburger to copy problematic delicacies like sea urchin, foie gras - and someday maybe dinosaur

Gluten-sensitive? It may actually be a carb making you ill

Gluten-sensitive? It may actually be a carb making you ill: Rather than gluten, fructan molecules seem to be to blame for sensitive guts. If true, gluten-free people could eat soy sauce and sourdough bread again

A bizarre supernova keeps exploding over and over again

A bizarre supernova keeps exploding over and over again: The weirdest supernova ever seen is a zombie star that keeps collapsing and coming back to life. It’s so strange, it may be a whole new kind of celestial object

Sheep learn to recognise celebrity faces from different angles

Sheep learn to recognise celebrity faces from different angles

Shark on the menu: Species hunted for their fins

Shark on the menu: Species hunted for their fins: The rising popularity of shark's fin soup in China is increasing fishing for sharks across the globe. Let's see which species are on the menu

Sharks now protected no matter whose waters they swim in

Sharks now protected no matter whose waters they swim in: 126 countries have signed up to cross-border protection measures to conserve whale sharks and many other endangered migratory species

Alzheimer’s may be able to spread through blood transfusions

Alzheimer’s may be able to spread through blood transfusions: A protein might be capable of spreading Alzheimer’s through blood transfusions and surgical equipment, but we don’t know yet how much of a risk this is

Female birds that used to be silent are now singing like males

Female birds that used to be silent are now singing like males: When faced with a rival, some female dark-eyed juncos now sing just like males to defend their mates and territories

The first ancestors of giant pandas probably lived in Europe

The first ancestors of giant pandas probably lived in Europe: Ten million years ago a bear similar to modern giant pandas lived in what is now Hungary, suggesting the earliest pandas really came from Europe, not China

A common herbal medicine may cause liver cancer mutations

A common herbal medicine may cause liver cancer mutations: A compound found in some plants used in traditional medicine has been linked to a 78 per cent of cases of liver cancer in hospitals in Taiwan

AlphaGo’s AI upgrade gets round the need for human input

AlphaGo’s AI upgrade gets round the need for human input: AlphaGo Zero, Google DeepMind's artificially intelligent Go player, dominates humans and other AIs by learning itself – without any human training

Magic mushroom extract changes brains of people with depression

Magic mushroom extract changes brains of people with depression: Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms, may help re-set the activity of neural circuits in the brain that are involved in depression

Gene study shows human skin tone has varied for 900,000 years

Gene study shows human skin tone has varied for 900,000 years: An analysis of genetic variation and skin pigmentation suggests that some particularly dark skin tones evolved relatively recently from paler genetic variants

Can We Get Real? Obesity Rates Are Up Again

Can We Get Real? Obesity Rates Are Up Again

Drone designers accidentally explain colour of albatross wings

Drone designers accidentally explain colour of albatross wings: Why are some birds' wings darker on top? Engineers may have found the answer while trying to design a biomimetic drone that goes further on less fuel

Female dolphins have weaponised their vaginas to fend off males

Female dolphins have weaponised their vaginas to fend off males: Bottlenose dolphins have evolved complicated, folded vaginas that make it difficult for unwanted males to fertilise their eggs

Soda Tax Loses Its Fizz in Chicago

Soda Tax Loses Its Fizz in Chicago

Is There A Cancer Cluster In This Neighborhood? Study Seeks Answers

Is There A Cancer Cluster In This Neighborhood? Study Seeks Answers: A state-led study found several types of cancers were slightly higher in