Social media platforms will soon have to exclude children under 16 in Australia, but there are doubts over how age verification tools will work – and whether this is the right approach to deal with online harms

Several countries now offer at-home vaginal swabs to detect HPV status in place of traditional cervical cancer screening, but urine tests seem to work just as well

Eczema can be very distressing for children – and now it seems that its roots may at least partly lie in their mothers experiencing high levels of stress during pregnancy

A fossil discovered in Patagonia shows a 3.5-metre-long reptile from the late Cretaceous with large, serrated teeth capable of slicing through muscle

People used to experience an "unhappiness hump" around midlife, but declining youth mental health may mean that is no longer the case

Clues to our planet’s dramatic past are in the layers of rocks we might overlook. A great guide shows why they deserve our attention, says James Dinneen

Sky watchers are in for a treat next month, says Abigail Beall, when there is a total lunar eclipse visible in much of the world

The new book "Gemini and Mercury Remastered" features iconic images from the earliest days of human space exploration

The history of carbon dioxide’s role in life on Earth combined with a call to climate action makes for compelling reading, finds Chris Stokel-Walker

In this latest instalment of Future Chronicles, an imagined history of future inventions, Rowan Hooper explores the advances that meant an optical telescope with an effective mirror size of 3000 km could be built on the moon

Feedback is alerted by a reader to the latest effort to create a quantum computer that can factorise extremely large numbers, and discovers an abrupt shift to K9 tech

We are happy to inject synthetic substances into our faces in ever-increasing amounts, but reluctant to eat plant-based or cultivated fake meats. This inconsistent attitude has implications for sustainability, says Sophie Attwood

Why did Christianity grow from a niche sect to a religion followed by billions? Michael Marshall explores Alice Roberts’s latest book Domination

Categorising the Denisovans as a distinct species would allow us to more comprehensively trace our own evolutionary development

The brightest and most colourful glowing plants yet have been created by injecting phosphorescent chemicals directly into the leaves, but it is little more than a cheap gimmick

A 165-million-year-old ankylosaur from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco was covered in an array of extreme armour including body spikes fused to its skeleton, a feature never seen in any dinosaur before

A system that generates images by inducing random fluctuations in a laser beam could slash energy use compared with standard AI tools

The aurora borealis has been remarkably bright recently. Space weather physicist Tamitha Skov reveals what's going on and how worried we should be about a major solar storm

After three consecutive and dramatic failed missions, SpaceX has successfully launched Starship to space in a key step for NASA's lunar programme

Performing CPR on a space station in microgravity involves doing a handstand on a person's chest and pushing against the walls with your legs – but now researchers say there is a better way