Innehållsförteckning för October 2025 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

PHUKET, THAILAND The alien-looking organism inside this glass jar goes by a variety of names. In scientific circles, it’s known as Stegostoma tigrinum. Informally, however, people refer to it as an Indo-Pacific leopard shark. Or at least they do when it’s a fully grown, 2.5m-long (8ft) adult and has developed its distinctive spotted skin pattern. As a juvenile, though, it has bold brown and white stripes – a pattern that inspired its common name: the zebra shark. The one you see here, however, is just an embryo. It’s been removed from its protective egg case for a rearing experiment – part of the shark breeding programme at Thailand’s Aquaria Phuket. The grey ball it’s attached to is the yolk sac, which contains all the nutrients the tiny shark needs to…

Despite being roughly half their size, female gorillas can, and frequently do, overpower male gorillas when competing for status and resources, according to a recent study. This discovery challenges the belief that gorilla society is strongly patriarchal – characterised by male dominance over females – and brings into question the origins of human gender dynamics. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Germany, and the University of Turku, in Finland, analysed 25 years of data gathered by observing the behaviour of four different groups of gorillas. Though it’s true that gorilla society is hierarchical – each group has one alpha male at the top, and the rest of the gorillas compete for status below him – this new study concluded that gorilla hierarchies are more gender balanced…

Your gut microbes could be causing your insomnia, according to a new study from scientists in China. The study says the reverse is also true: your sleep habits could impact your gut health. Previous research had already suggested that sleep habits and gut health could be interlinked, but the recent analysis published in the journal General Psychiatry indicates that the link might be causal – meaning your sleep might directly influence your gut, and vice versa. First author Dr Shi Shangyun, from the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, in China, told BBC Science Focus that this research had the potential to “reshape understanding of insomnia and inspire interest in microbiome-based research and interventions.” In the future, it’s possible that insomnia could be treated via the gut with probiotics…

The first real-time footage and 3D images of a human embryo implanting into an artificial uterus have been captured. The remarkable feat, published in the journal Science Advances, offers an unprecedented view into one of the most critical steps in human development. Implantation is the stage in early pregnancy when a fertilised egg, now a developing embryo, attaches itself to the lining of the uterus. This step allows the embryo to draw nutrients and oxygen from the mother, making it essential for a successful pregnancy. To study the process, researchers built a platform that mimics the lining of a real uterus, consisting of a scaffold made of collagen and a mixture of proteins necessary for development. They then studied how both human and mouse embryos implant on the platform, revealing…

Tart cherry juice seemed to be the drink of choice at the Tour de France this summer. Riders taking on the race, which took place over three weeks in July, were spotted gulping down the supplement at the finish each day. Elsewhere, footballers and tennis players have been seen swigging pickle juice, while athletes in other events have been consuming baking soda gels. These are just the latest sports supplements to gain widespread attention – there are many more exotic options already available. But what are they actually doing for athletes? WHAT SUPPLEMENTS ACTUALLY WORK? Supplements are widely available and used by athletes at all levels. They can be consumed for several different reasons. For example, professional athletes may take them to obtain a high dose of a particular nutrient…

Right now, it feels like breathing is having a moment. Everyone’s at it, but some people are really putting in the elbow grease. Rather than ‘just’ breathing automatically, a growing number of devotees now practise deliberate exercises. With fancy names, such as coherent breathing or cyclic sighing, breathwork has become one of the fastest-growing trends in the wellness industry. Breathing studios are popping up in cities all over the world and breathwork gurus, such as extreme sub-temperature athlete Wim Hof, are becoming household names. Bold claims are being made. “There’s a lot of hype about breathwork changing your life,” says Dr Guy Fincham from Sussex University, who studies the health benefits of breathwork. Some say it can boost the immune system, banish ill health and, perhaps, even lengthen life. But…

There’s a stereotype,” Camilla tells me, “which is that if you’re not a complete screw-up, you can’t have ADHD. It’s particularly common among psychiatrists.” She would know. Growing up, Camilla was a model student. She got excellent grades, won a place at medical school and eventually became a psychiatry trainee and researcher. Then, towards the end of her twenties, everything suddenly came to a halt. When the stress of a botched medical procedure combined with mounting pressures at work, she found herself burnt out and unable to do her job. “My brain just stopped working. I was putting orange juice in the washing machine instead of the fridge. I couldn’t figure out the train home and kept ending up in the wrong parts of town.” She ended up taking sick…

Conjure in your mind a giant, deep-sea predator, and I bet there’s a colossal squid lurking in there, perhaps with an even bigger sperm whale chasing after it. But there are plenty of other enormous hunters prowling the dark depths that still remain great mysteries to science, including the aptly named giant phantom jellyfish, Stygiomedusa gigantea (from Greek words translating roughly as the “giant jellyfish of the underworld”). These impressively proportioned jellies are generally a deep crimson colour, with a smooth rounded bell (or ‘head’) a metre (3ft) or more wide, and fringed in a rippling skirt. Four ribbony arms trail behind for up to 10m (33ft) – long enough that if one of these jellies was sitting in the back row of seats in a London double-decker bus, it…

When one little Caenorhabditis elegans worm dies in a petri dish, any others in the vicinity wiggle as far away as possible, prompting speculation that the eyeless invertebrates are responding to some sort of ‘death scent.’ Researchers have recently discovered that the reaction is triggered by specific chemicals, released as cells break down, that are detected by key sensory neurons. This not only prompts the worms to move away, but it also makes them reproduce more quickly and then die sooner. Flies also die more quickly in the same situation, so all in all, it’s best to avoid the scent of death. HP…

A discovery on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has pushed back the timeline of early human sea crossings and deepened the mystery of who made them. Archaeologists unearthed a stone tool that is at least 1.04 million years old – and possibly as ancient as 1.48 million years old – at Calio, a site in Southern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Because Sulawesi has always been surrounded by deep, fast-moving waters, whoever made the tool would have needed to travel across open ocean. “This is by far the earliest known evidence for the presence of early humans (hominins) on Sulawesi,” Prof Adam Brumm of Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, who co-led the new study, told BBC Science Focus. “It’s now clear there’s a pattern of early hominins somehow managing to…

If you’ve ever struggled to lose weight, chances are you’ve blamed your metabolism – that mysterious phenomenon we’re told keeps some people effortlessly slim while making weight loss an unwinnable battle for others. But that’s not really how the body works – it’s a warped version of the story that leaves out the parts that matter most for fat loss. For starters, metabolism is more than just ‘how many calories you burn’. It’s the vast network of chemical reactions inside your cells and tissues that power everything you do. Still, most of us shrink it down to a single number: the calories burned at any given time. That’s where ‘metabolic rate’ comes in – the go-to measure of how ‘fast’ your metabolism is running. In simple terms, it’s the energy…

There are few events in technology that can be classed as true ‘Big Bang’ moments: times when our understanding of the world, and tech’s place in it, shifts. The advent of the World Wide Web was one such ‘before and after’ moment. The release of the iPhone in 2007 was another, bringing about the smartphone revolution. The November 2022 release of ChatGPT was a similarly seismic shift. Before that, artificial intelligence (AI) was something few people outside the tech world really knew or cared about. But the large language model (LLM) quickly became the fastest-growing app in history and kickstarted what we now call the ‘generative AI revolution’. Revolutions can’t always sustain the same momentum, however. Three years on from the release of ChatGPT and despite the harrowing headlines about…

LEVITATING FROGS Everything has its own magnetic field, however small. This means that, theoretically, any object would be repelled by a sufficiently strong magnet. Scientists dramatically demonstrated this fact in 1997, when they used a high-powered magnet to levitate a live frog. The frog was unharmed by the experience, but research into this phenomenon (called ‘diamagnetic levitation’) has many potential applications, from medical imaging to space technology. TURNING WATER INTO METAL Ancient alchemists would have marvelled at this 2021 experiment, which briefly turned water into a shiny, metallic substance. Metals conduct electricity because they contain ‘free electrons’, which aren’t bound to an atom. In contrast, pure water isn’t conductive because the electrons are tightly bound to their atoms. Theoretically, water is conductive under extremely high pressure, because the molecules are…

The annals of medical history prove that the average human meat sack is surprisingly resilient. The literature is dotted with extraordinary case studies, such as a French man found in 2007 to be living without 90 per cent of his brain. The 44-year-old was leading a normal life when doctors discovered he had an extreme case of hydrocephalus, where brain tissue is replaced by cerebrospinal fluid. It’s a startling example of biological redundancy and adaptation, where surviving tissues take on the function of lost tissue (in this case, through neuroplasticity). Something similar can happen in paired organs such as the lungs, kidneys or testes. If one is lost, the surviving organ can take on the function of two. In other cases, astonishing medical technology keeps people alive after the loss…

PENCILS AT THE READY! ACROSS 7 Wise men with key to a form of sorcery (5) 9 Almost mislay remedy about shutdown (7) 10 Scrap occasion for some music (7) 11 Mark has registered a knack (5) 12 Summit making strange claim and getting cross (6) 13 Rip-off boy in gaol (6) 16 Follow member to a bend (6) 17 Child at home with loud worker (6) 19 Slender, returning to husband in high spirits (5) 21 Holiday right for a warship (7) 22 Large broadcaster outside is modest (7) 23 Laces some trousers (5) DOWN 1 Hugged me back and provided support (8) 2 Start to vacate it, possibly (8) 3 Personnel pursuing small fastener (5) 4 Two weeks not having dark time in castle (4) 5 Roman play (6,6) 6 Fifty-two cards on the floor (4) 8 Very keen to request a judge’s directive (7,5) 14…

DR JACK GOULDER Jack, a medical doctor and science writer, delves into the misconceptions around ADHD and what’s fuelling the dramatic rise in diagnoses among adults. p68 QUENTIN WILLSON There’s a problem with electric vehicles that few people want to address. Motoring journalist Quentin reveals the straightforward solution. p34 GINNY SMITH Should you be worried about your cortisol levels? Yes, according to social media. Ginny, a science writer, investigates to see if the answer is that simple. p28 CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER Recent reports suggest AI may have already hit the ceiling of its intelligence. Chris, a tech journalist and author, asks the experts. p76 CONTACT US Advertising David.DSouza@ourmedia.co.uk 0117 300 8110 Letters for publication reply@sciencefocus.com Editorial enquiries editorialenquiries@sciencefocus.com 0117 300 8755 Subscriptions ourmediashop.com/contact-us 03330 162113* Other contacts sciencefocus.com/contact *UK calls will…

GIRONA, SPAIN How’s this for a poke in the ribs? It’s an arrowhead that was shot into someone’s ribcage around 4,000 years ago. What makes it unusual is that the wound clearly wasn’t fatal – new bone has grown around the arrowhead, indicating that the victim not only survived the injury, but lived long enough for a significant amount of healing to take place. The unique artefact was discovered in the Roc de les Orenetes, a cave nestled 1,800m (5,900ft) above sea level in the Catalan Pyrénées of northeast Spain. The cave was used as a burial site during the Bronze Age and archaeologists have been excavating it since 2019. This is the latest evidence of conflict they’ve discovered there (the position of the arrow in the rib shows that…

“We don’t know the long-term consequences of this. But, if a long-term consequence occurs, it will occur on a global scale” Scientists have warned about a new kind of acid rain that is everywhere, is almost impossible to clean up, and could be a threat to every living thing on the planet. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) – a type of persistent ‘forever chemical’ – is now present in every rain shower and snowfall on the planet, in concentrations far higher than in previous decades. It’s not yet known exactly what TFA means for human health or the environment, but some researchers have said that the chemical could be an existential threat. “There’s emerging evidence that TFA can disrupt vital Earth system processes, such as mammal embryo development and decreasing soil respiration,”…

Feeling tired? Bloated? Having trouble sleeping? Your cortisol levels might be too high – or, at least, that’s what social media would have you believe. Cortisol is the latest chemical to fall under the spotlight as, in many health and wellness influencers’ eyes, it’s to blame for all manner of problems – problems that the correct combination of supplements can, of course, fix. But what exactly is cortisol? And why is it causing so much trouble? Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone. When you sense a potential threat, the amygdala in your brain triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response: adrenaline and noradrenaline are released to prepare you to do battle or run away. This is what you feel when you’re made to jump during a scary movie or…

Imagine waking up to find that you’re not awake at all. Your body is asleep, but your mind is running free in a dream where everything feels vivid and real and – because you know you’re dreaming – you can control what happens. In this hybrid state of consciousness, known as lucid dreaming, you can go where you want, see who you please and do the impossible. And you can feel the sensations of it, too: the wind in your hair as you fly over a city; the sun on your skin as you land on a desert island of your own design. You can sit down on the sand and smile, knowing you can do it all again tomorrow night at the simple touch of a button. If all…

HOW TO SEE THE ORIONIDS (EVIDENCE OF HALLEY) WHEN: OCTOBER Between 2 October and 7 November, Earth passes through some of the fine dust debris strewn around the orbit of Halley’s Comet. Over time, dust is released when the comet returns to the inner Solar System and spreads it around the entire orbit. Halley is estimated to have been around for at least 16,000 years, perhaps even as long as 200,000 years, returning roughly every 76 years. At present, it’s about as far away as it can get, 35 times further than the average distance between Earth and the Sun. The encounter with the comet’s dust is a reminder of its existence and happens twice a year. Once in early May, producing the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, and again at…

With the possible exception of caffeine, there’s no (legal) performance-enhancing substance more potent, trusted or well-studied as creatine. In the last three decades, sports science has shown it can significantly increase an athlete’s strength, muscle mass, speed and power. In recent years, though, researchers have built a persuasive case file for creatine’s role in wider health and wellbeing. Studies have shown it can improve metabolic health and cognitive performance. It can aid recovery from serious injury and facilitate healthy ageing. There’s also growing evidence that it can help not just physical strength, but mental toughness, too. In 2024, a review concluded that creatine supplementation had multiple positive effects as an adjunctive treatment for depression. Papers have found, for example, that when combined with SSRI antidepressants, the effects of the medication…