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In the 1970s, physicists drew up an elegant blueprint to explain our existence. The Standard Model classifies the tiny building blocks everything is made of and three of nature’s four fundamental forces. Despite its success, there are things the theory can’t explain: gravity, dark matter and dark energy. This meant the Standard Model must be incomplete.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built to find cracks in the Standard Model, but it has remained remarkably solid. Now, physicists seem to be on the verge of an amazing discovery. An experiment at the LHC appears to show particles behaving in a way that disagrees with the Standard Model. If the results stand up to scrutiny, it could lead researchers to a deeper understanding of the universe.
Meanwhile, the idea that eating fruit could be driving lung cancer in young people sounds bizarre. A cancer researcher looks into this recent suggestion and recommends that we don’t change our eating habits.
Forty years on from Chernobyl, the world’s worst civilian nuclear accident, wildlife is thriving in the exclusion zone. Wolves, foxes, lynx and elk have all increased in number without people around. It illustrates how ecosystems can respond and still flourish when the usual rules do not apply.
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Paul Rincon
Commissioning Editor, Science, Technology and Business
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The LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.
CERN
William Barter, University of Edinburgh; Mark Smith, Imperial College London
The behaviour of sub-atomic particles in the LHC seems to disagree with the Standard Model.
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Deadly? Not likely.
New Africa/Shutterstock.com
Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University
A small conference study sparked headlines linking fruit to lung cancer. Here’s why the science tells a very different story.
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Wikimedia
Nick Dunn, Lancaster University
Endangered species are making their home in a massive wild zone around the derelict Chernobyl nuclear plant.
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World
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John Nagle, Queen's University Belfast
The majority of Lebanese people distrusts Hezbollah, but the Israeli attacks are driving many in the south back into their fold.
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Politics + Society
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Raawiyah Rifath, University of Exeter; Alex Powell, University of Warwick; Calogero Giametta, University of Leicester
A new investigation is likely to cast suspicion over LGBTQ+ claims more broadly.
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Nye Davies, Cardiff University
Polls point to historic losses as internal divisions, voter fatigue and new rivals threaten Labour’s grip on Wales.
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Colin Diamond, University of Birmingham
When schools attempted to escalate concerns about Rudakubana’s behaviour, they were not succesful.
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Arts + Culture
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Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester
From a history of hip hop through one rapper’s words to the official Beatles biography,
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Laura Minor, University of Salford
Shannon and Arran’s romance, for all its visual electricity, is paper-thin.
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Danielle Reid, University of Leeds
The Blue Trail is a thoroughly original story in which two older women are capable of newness, independence and transformation against all odds.
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Business + Economy
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Asrif Yusoff, University of Greenwich; Jafni Bin Johari Jiken, Durham University
Organisations need to take their share of responsibility, too.
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Environment
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Esther Kettel, Nottingham Trent University
The return of an apex predator has all sorts of positive effects throughout an ecosystem.
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Health
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Dipa Kamdar, Kingston University
Best known as a type 2 diabetes treatment, metformin is also being investigated for its possible effects on PCOS and ageing.
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Jonathan R. Goodman, University of Cambridge; Mariam Rashid
Why do we trust the wrong people and doubt the right ones? An experiment in lying reveals some uncomfortable truths.
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Carsten Eickhoff, University of Tübingen
AI chatbots can sound authoritative on health, but new research shows they often mislead, especially when users must interpret and apply the answers themselves.
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2 March - 30 September 2026
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3 March - 15 May 2026
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Glasgow
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14 - 30 April 2026
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Colchester, Essex
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