An analysis of a mathematical economic game suggests that even learning from past mistakes will almost never help us optimise our decision-making – with implications for our ability to make the biggest financial gains

The Red Planet launches large bursts of plasma into space from its upper atmosphere, much like the sun’s coronal mass ejections, despite not having a global magnetic field

I always add the carbon offset option when buying a flight, but I had a sneaking suspicion I was being greenwashed. Turns out I was right, says Graham Lawton

For decades, cosmologists have been fighting over the Hubble constant, a number that represents the expansion rate of the universe – it may have finally been pinned down

We are generally as reluctant to contact a long-lost friend as we are to talk to a stranger, but scientists have come up with an approach so it's easier to make the first move

A proposal to define the Anthropocene as a geological epoch was rejected this March, but humanity's impact on Earth is real, whether formalised or not, says Jan Zalasiewicz