Taylor Swift joins celebrities using the law to fight back against AI deepfakes
A waxwork of Taylor Swift in Madame Tussauds in London. Now the star is trying to trademark her voice and image to protect against AI deepfakes. Sergii Figurnyi/Shutterstock When Taylor Swift launched her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in October 2025, she recorded two short clips to promote it. One for Amazon Music […]
Is recursive self‑improvement the dawning of AI superintelligence?
freedom100m/Shutterstock The US AI research company Anthropic has become known for building powerful AI models while simultaneously warning about their dangers. Most recently, its executives wrote about the threat posed by “recursive self-improvement”. This is the point when AI systems can improve themselves by themselves, potentially leading to “superintelligence” far beyond human control. “We are […]
The secret life of roots: how plants fight back against salty soils
Young shoots of corn. malshkoff/Shutterstock To people, salt is a kitchen staple. But to crops, too much of it can be devastating. Across coastal regions and irrigated agricultural land, salt is accumulating in soils, making it harder for plants to absorb water and reducing harvests. Scientists estimate that around half of the world’s irrigated farmland […]
What World Cup football can teach us about managing fatigue in extreme conditions
A football player standing over a penalty in a hot, high-altitude stadium is dealing with more than pressure. His body is trying to keep cool. His heart and breathing may be working harder. Less oxygen is reaching his muscles. One poor decision can end his team’s World Cup. The 2026 men’s World Cup has made […]
The real mystery behind Moana: after 1,700 years, why did Polynesians suddenly sail east?
The same question drives both the plot of Moana and decades of archaeological research: why, after centuries of relative stability, did Polynesian voyagers suddenly begin settling islands thousands of kilometres away across the Pacific? The latest Moana movie is a live-action adaptation of a Disney animated movie of the same name. While the films are […]
Hummingbirds and pineapples: why this ancient relationship hits the evolutionary sweetspot
kirkchai benjarusameeros/Shutterstock High above the rainforest floor, tiny ponds form in the leaves of plants perched on tree branches. Frogs breed in these ponds, alongside insects, microbes and even tiny crustaceans, creating miniature ecosystems suspended high in the canopy. These are the bromeliads – the remarkable plant family that also gave us air plants, the […]
How Iran used Ali Khamenei’s funeral as a political and diplomatic tool
Ali Khamenei, who served as Iran’s supreme leader until his assassination in a US-Israeli operation in February 2026, will finally be laid to rest today. His burial brings a week of public mourning ceremonies and processions to an end, and comes as hostilities between the US and Iran are escalating again. Islamic tradition calls for […]
Football headers: growing evidence suggests this skill is damaging to brain health
Whether it’s at practice or during a Fifa World Cup match, football players could unknowingly be putting their brain health at risk every time they take to the field. Studies suggest that retired football players have a higher risk of developing dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, compared to the general population. It’s currently thought that this […]
Ruth Ellis: what her posthumous pardon tells us about Britain’s view of abuse then, and now
Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain on July 13 1955. Her execution was a national event. A crowd, reported to be 1,000-strong, gathered outside Holloway Prison in London that morning. Anti-death penalty protesters held signs, some people prayed and some wept. Ellis’s story had deeply moved the public. Over 70 […]
Heatwaves: why British trees are shedding branches and dying
British trees are struggling to survive in heatwaves. Forests like these are likely to be affected. Billy Stock/Shutterstock If you visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, on the edge of London, you will see a brightly painted skeleton of a dead oak tree. The tree, known as the climate changed oak, succumbed in the […]