Home
Smashed clock on a cyan background.

Scientists could soon reverse daylight savings clock changes. Here’s why

Most of us look forward to the extra hour we get in bed every October, but researchers argue that changing the clocks twice a year harms our health.
Show more
A bright explosion in the middle of a group of galaxies

We might finally know what came before the Big Bang

Could all of this have happened before? And might it happen again?
Show more
A pod of orcas, including a juvenile, swim in the warm waters of the Solomon Islands

Killer whales have now learnt a genius way to destroy great white sharks, new footage shows

Killer whales have a grisly new technique for hunting juvenile great white sharks – and scientists caught it on camera
Show more
A man wearing glasses, smiling.

Elon Musk? AI? ‘Crazy left-wing activists’? The man who built Wikipedia explains its biggest threats

25 years and millions of articles later, Wikipedia is the biggest bank of human knowledge on the web
Show more

New issue: What we got wrong about ADHD and why it matters

Psychology is rife with myths: you only use 10 per cent of your brain; you’re either left-brained or right-brained; your brain has a ‘learning style’. Culture is littered with ideas that would have any decent psychologist rolling their eyes. At 146 years old, psychology is no spring chicken, but compared to something like astronomy, it’s a toddler. Since the subject is still in its infancy, a lot of the early ideas about human thought and behaviour linger, giving rise to misconceptions about how our brains work. While erroneous conclusions about the ‘left/right brain’ idea is relatively harmless, others can get us into trouble. TV in the 90s taught us that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was something only kids had – the unruly, fidgety kind that couldn’t sit still long enough to do their homework. The trouble is, psychology and the early narrative around the condition oversimplified what was happening. As we learn more about the disorder, those assumptions are crashing into real people’s lives and a forgotten generation of undiagnosed people are emerging, having struggled their whole lives. This issue, we investigate why millions are waking up to the new reality of ADHD.
Show more
Illustration of the Solar System expanding.

Here's how scientists are rewriting the origin story of Earth & life itself

Although key details are missing from the story of how our Solar System formed, recent discoveries are helping scientists fill in the blanks and understand how rare it is.
Show more
Head shot of a wild cheetah in Masai Mara Kenya

This ‘internet of animals’ could unlock the secrets of nature’s greatest superpowers

Scientists are using electronic tags and satellites to track wild animals and build a data network.
Show more
Wikipedia logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence (AI) chip and symbol in the background.

How AI could soon be used by Wikipedia, according to its founder

Jimmy Wales, internet entrepreneur and founder of Wikipedia, reveals major changes coming to the web’s biggest bank of human knowledge
Show more

I survived the worst fire in space history – and was told to keep it secret

New nightmare unlocked
Show more

Top reads

Science news

Issue 426 of BBC Science Focus

New issue: On the Edge

I wonder how many discoveries in human history were made because someone thought: Let’s take a look around the corner? This time, the corner – figuratively speaking – is the region of space just beyond Pluto. More precisely, the area where the Sun’s influence begins to fade – the boundary of the heliosphere. Think of the heliosphere as a vast bubble, emanating from the Sun, that envelops our Solar System. Solar wind blasts out from the Sun in all directions, but eventually, it fizzles out the further away it gets. Where the winds are strong, they push back more harmful cosmic radiation gusting in from elsewhere in our Galaxy, shielding us. But the further these winds travel, the weaker they become, until, eventually, the solar particles become inconsequential. This is the place that scientists consider to be the edge of our Solar System and the beginning of the interstellar medium. Here, space roils with a cosmic zoo of exotic particles from strange places. This is exactly what NASA’s recently launched Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) wants to study. Its mission is to make sense of the stuff that’s arriving here from other parts of space, to understand how our Sun forms a barrier that protects us from the more harmful elements out there, and to chart what’s going on at the very edge of what we know. Get the full story in the November issue.
Show more
Mature man running on a bridge in the city

Men need to exercise twice as long as women, major heart study suggests

Keeping moving is the best way to hold off the world’s biggest killer
Show more

6 (very weird) new inventions that could change your life

From real-life holograms to smart contact lenses – these inventions are bringing science fiction into reality
Show more
A person's head with an X-ray view of their skull and brain.

I did neurosurgery on myself so I could control my dreams

Future technology

Instant Genius Podcast

From the creators of BBC Science Focus, Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. With each episode, a different world-leading expert will help you understand the latest ideas and research in the world of science and tech. We want to make you an expert in everything.

Your questions answered

Our team of scientists, doctors and experts answer your burning questions - send yours to questions@sciencefocus.com

Science photo galleries

This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
© Our Media 2025