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30th January 2018

New aviation biofuel cuts emissions by 80%

Australia's largest airline, Qantas, in partnership with Canadian-based Agrisoma Biosciences, has introduced a new biofuel made from a type of mustard seed.

29th January 2018

Altered Carbon to debut on Netflix

Based on the cyberpunk noir novel by Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon is an intriguing story of murder, love, sex, and betrayal, set more than 300 years in the future. Society has been transformed by a new technology: mind uploading.

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26th January 2018

Monkeys cloned in China

Scientists in China report the creation of two monkey clones, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the complex DNA transfer method that produced Dolly the sheep, for the first time.

25th January 2018

Doomsday Clock now at two minutes to midnight

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has today moved its iconic "Doomsday Clock" forwards by 30 seconds, the closest it has been to midnight since the height of the Cold War in 1953.

25th January 2018

100,000-fold increase in molecular machine speed

Researchers in Germany have achieved a new propulsion method for molecular machines, which enables them to be moved 100,000 times faster than biochemical processes used to date.

23rd January 2018

New algorithm recognises dolphin clicks in underwater recordings

Could it one day be possible for humans to communicate with dolphins? Scientists have just got a step closer to understanding these highly intelligent animals, thanks to a new algorithm.

23rd January 2018

Amazon opens hi-tech automated store

Amazon has opened its "Amazon Go" store to the public, the first completely cashier-less grocery store.

22nd January 2018

World's top 1% earned 82% of wealth generated in 2017

82% of wealth generated last year across the world went to the richest 1% of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half saw their wealth flatline. On current trends, it will take 217 years to close the gap in pay and employment opportunities between men and women.

21st January 2018

2028 – Completion of the Deep Space Gateway

The Deep Space Gateway (DSG) is the successor to the International Space Station (ISS). Whereas the ISS was placed in orbit around the Earth, the DSG is close to the Moon.

18th January 2018

First full-colour motion video from satellites

Earth-i, a mapping service based in England, has launched a prototype of the world's first full-colour, full-motion video satellite constellation.

17th January 2018

2021 – The ExoMars rover touches down on Mars

Originally planned for launch in 2018, the ExoMars rover was delayed until the next available launch window. After a journey of nine months, it arrives on the Red Planet in April 2021.

17th January 2018

AI beats humans at reading and comprehension test

Artificial intelligence has achieved better average performance on a Stanford University reading and comprehension test than human beings.

16th January 2018

Iceland to go plastic-free by 2023

British supermarket chain, Iceland, is to become the first major retailer globally to eliminate plastic packaging from all of its own brand products.

15th January 2018

New method to map miniature brain circuits

Scientists have developed a new technique to map electrical circuits in the brain far more comprehensively than ever before.

12th January 2018

Accelerating the production of stem cells through automation: "A giant leap in regenerative medicine"

The FDA has approved the use of an automated bioreactor-based platform that can produce billions of stem cells in days, instead of months.

11th January 2018

Record year for climate and weather-related disasters in the U.S.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for climate and weather-related disasters in the United States.

8th January 2018

2019 – The James Webb Space Telescope is launched

The James Webb Space Telescope is the long-awaited successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

7th January 2018

2018 – The first image of a black hole

In 2018, the first image of a black hole's event horizon is produced by a giant network of telescopes.

6th January 2018

2018 – The CHEOPS telescope is deployed to study exoplanets

This year sees the launch of a new telescope to find exoplanets. Called CHEOPS, it is powerful and precise enough to form accurate measurements of a planet's radius, as well as determining the likely density and internal structure.

6th January 2018

2018 – Launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

TESS is a space telescope that searches for extrasolar planets. It studies around 500,000 stars – more than triple the number that Kepler was designed to observe. Originally planned for 2017, the mission is delayed until March 2018.

2nd January 2018

2017 highlights

Our top 20 most viewed blogs of 2017, in reverse order.

1st January 2018

Happy New Year!

We've updated the timeline for 2018, including some new references. Check out our predictions for the year ahead.

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