Biologists are finally beginning to corral molecules, cells and whole organisms to carry out complex computations. These living processors could find use in everything from smart materials to new kinds of artificial intelligence

The creators of “The Last of Us” have said they were inspired by a sequence in BBC’s “Planet Earth” documentary series depicting an ant infected with a fungus that hijacks its brain, forcing it to climb a tree and dangle above the forest floor. There, the fungus digests the ant’s body from the inside out and unleashes a shower of spores to create more zombies. When “Planet Earth” came out in 2006, the zombie ant fungus was believed to be part of the group Cordyceps, but genetic studies have since placed it in another insect-parasitizing fungus group, Ophiocordyceps. There are…

A simple mechanical system built from aluminium rods uses vibrations to encode information, mimicking quantum computing in a non-quantum system

Comparing the properties of qubits in different quantum computers is challenging, but AI can tell them apart even when the state of the qubits is 98 per cent similar

Making a wormhole that a human could theoretically travel through would require an upside-down universe and negative energy

To explain how life on Earth began, the big challenge is to identify the molecules and processes that enable non-living chemical systems to become more complex

The symmetries of matter are deeper and stranger than they first appear, and they have driven many of the biggest breakthroughs in particle physics. But have we exhausted their usefulness?

So-called virtual particles aren't particles at all. Some argue that they are merely mathematical figments, and that we need to find a better way to understand particle interactions

A vein of Galen malformation is a condition that can place pressure on a fetus’s heart and lungs and deprive the brain of oxygen. Surgeons corrected this type of blood vessel problem in a fetus for the first time

Semi-mythical "earthquake lights" may be accompanied by changes to Earth's magnetic field. Now researchers say these changes could be used to forecast major tremors