Caused by debris from a comet thought to originate in the Oort Cloud, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks this year on 22 April and is best viewed from the northern hemisphere, says Abigail Beall

A computer intended to mimic the way the brain processes and stores data could potentially improve the efficiency and capabilities of artificial intelligence models

A black hole would be tough to destroy, but in the season two premiere of Dead Planets Society our hosts are willing to go to extremes, from faster-than-light bombs to time travel

Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions

A black hole 33 times the mass of the sun is the largest stellar black hole ever spotted, and its strange companion star could help explain how it got so huge

Mounting evidence suggests our galaxy sits at the centre of an expanse of nothingness 2 billion light years wide. If so, we may have to rethink our understanding of the universe

After a short conversation with an artificial intelligence, people’s belief in a conspiracy theory dropped by about 20 per cent

A 10-minute walk can build up enough static electricity to power a battery-free water purifier, which could be especially helpful during disasters or in regions that lack access to clean water and stable power supplies

About 1.5 billion people worldwide carry a risk of conditions including malnutrition because of parasitic infection, and AI could help identify those affected

We don’t know what alien life might look like, but if other civilisations can colonise multiple worlds, we might see planets that look unusually similar

These soccer-playing robots can respond faster than ones trained in a standard way because they improved their skills via an artificial intelligence-based technique called deep reinforcement learning

Research-level mathematics might seem an unlikely proving ground for artificial intelligence, but recent developments suggest it offers a route to automated human-like reasoning

Artificial intelligence is taking on some of the hardest problems in pure maths, arguably demonstrating sophisticated reasoning and creativity – and a big step forward for AI

A study shows that surgical site infections in spine surgery often stem from the patient’s own microbiome, challenging current prevention strategies.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria that lead to surgical site infections in spine surgery originate from the preoperative patient microbiome.

A gene expression module in the fibroblasts lining the joint synovium is associated with sensory nerve growth and pain in rheumatoid arthritis.

A mouse model of chronic pain with potential predictive validity integrates catechol-O-methyltransferase deficiency, stress, and minor injury.

Highly deformable platelet-like particles mitigate bleeding, improve healing responses, and exhibit renal clearance in small and large animal models.

B cell receptor signaling can elicit posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease in immunodeficient mice receiving differentiated human B cells.

Adding more masts could reduce the overall energy use of phone networks by two-thirds and boost handset battery life by 50 per cent