Good news for those who love a nibble between meals

When everything feels... well, 'meh', there's complex chemistry at play in your brain

Politeness costs nothing? Tell that to the planet

Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? If you look at the deep-field images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s easy to believe there might be something. Those images capture a portion of the sky smaller than a grain of sand held at arm’s length, and yet, in them, you can see thousands of galaxies. Within each of the galaxies are billions of stars. In the face of those odds, it just feels implausible to think our little rock is the only one where life found a way. The more we study other-worldly materials, like meteorites from Mars and dust collected from asteroids, the more we find the type of ingredients needed for biological processes. The most compelling discovery of this kind came in January, when scientists declared they’d found 14 of the 20 amino acids that make up human proteins inside a sample returned from the asteroid Bennu. In fact, they found all five of the nucleotide bases that make up our DNA (adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil). So, what does it all mean? Could life be quite common in the cosmos? Did life on Earth come from another world? Jonathan O’Callaghan picks up the story in this issue.

Quantum physics is really confusing, but scientists are finally beginning to make some sense of it all

New studies have shown that several small lifestyle changes can drastically improve your heart health

Scientists are beginning to understand what makes tardigrades (otherwise known as 'water bears') so indestructible

A study on more than 10,000 adults found links between outlook on life and memory in middle age

An advanced new research station is being developed to explore the potential for a human settlement under the ocean