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ENTETC Robin, (Erithacus rubecula), garden bird standing on top of a branch in winter, UK

This week’s new questions

Do birds really sleep more in winter? And why do we scream in fear?

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Tom Gauld on a consciousness hotline

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Twisteddoodles on a very silly moon

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White snowflakes painted on glass of window of store. Decoration for christmas time. Horizontal color image.; Shutterstock ID 521082862; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other:

Mathematics

Why we all need a little festive pedantry when it comes to snowflakes

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Page 264 233. In the centre front, two pairs of seated humans drink from the same gourd and two other pairs are engraved behind. At the back right are petroglyphs of two pairs of mirrored ostriches and two armed men with triangular-shaped torsos. Bronze and Iron Age, Abragz bin Samra, Great Nafud Desert, northern Saudi Arabia. Photo 2020.

Humans

Ancient rock art revealed in all its glory in stunning photographs

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What is Bryan Johnson up to now? We try to explain

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Twisteddoodles: In the festive period, my collaborator gave to me…

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PAGE 20 MOMENT A while ago, I borrowed a piece of opal from a geological museum to photograph for a book I was working on. Using my ?real? camera, I had to figure out a good composition for a picture of this complicated mineral. Notice the larger light-blue ?veins? running across the image. I used them as organizational elements, to create sections to help the viewer decide how to look at the image. PHENOMENON Over many years of geological time, opal is slowly formed as many small spheres of silica (what glass is made of) self-assemble into perfectly ordered layers. Diffraction (not to be confused with refraction) occurs when light passes through the spheres and gaps, and it is split into the colors of the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The diameter of the spheres and the spacing between them determines the colors that we see. Light reflected from the different stacked layers creates interference effects.

Life

Can you work out what these enigmatic close-up photos are of?

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MENAN, ID - AUGUST 21: Locals and travelers from around the world gather on Menan Butte to watch the eclipse on August 21, 2017 in Menan, Idaho. Millions of people have flocked to areas of the U.S. that are in the "path of totality" in order to experience a total solar eclipse. (Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

Space

The stargazing events to look forward to in 2026

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Comment

Best acronym? Best use of AI? We present our end-of-year awards

Feedback has spent some time sifting through 2025's key scientific achievements to come up with a range of weird and wonderful (and less wonderful) winners for our inaugural Backsies awards

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Environment

Testing the Amazon’s ability to soak up increasing carbon emissions

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Life

Images reveal the astonishing complexity of the microscopic world

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Twisteddoodles on the equipment every lab needs…

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Tom Gauld’s Christmas predictions

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