Zoologger: Punk Amazon pheasant is a European emigrant
The mysterious hoatzin has claws on its wings and can ferment leaves in its gut like a cow. And in past ages, these smelly birds lived all over the world
Spectacular Mars crater is a big blue boom
The Red Planet is feeling blue after taking a hit from an asteroid, as shown in this stunning high-resolution image of the resulting crater
Antipsychotic drugs are schizophrenia's hidden gulag
The asylum may be history but many people with schizophrenia are still imprisoned by a modern equivalent of the chemical cosh
SolarCoin cryptocurrency pays you to go green
Based on Bitcoin, the new currency rewards people with coins in return for proof that they have generated solar energy
Bitcoin: Problems already cloud the currency's future
Those close to the world's most feted cryptocurrency are concerned for the security of its assets and the stability of the economy it has built
Brain zapping makes role of mirror neurons clearer
Damping down brain activity with a powerful magnetic field may reveal the workings of mirror neurons, thought to help us interpret what other people do
Bitcoin: The future of money is at stake
What connects self-driving cars and cloud storage with digital currencies? The answer lies in the digital basis for trust that the Bitcoin protocol provides
Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs
Antipsychotic drugs may do more harm than good. The tide is turning towards gentler methods, from talking therapies to brain training, says Clare Wilson
Starfish ripper hunted in wake of marine deaths
A grisly wasting disease is attacking Pacific sea stars, causing their arms to crawl away from their bodies – but no one knows what causes it
Natural sense of touch restored with bionic hand
Prosthetic hands that feed signals directly into the nervous system could soon let people who have lost an arm reconnect with the world through touch
Extraordinary stem cell method tested in human tissue
First mouse cells were turned into "totipotent" stem cells, and now early work suggests the same might have been achieved with human cells
Bitcoin: How its core technology will change the world
The virtual currency is about more than money – the real innovation is what people are doing with the technology it is based on
Robot sculptor finds Darwin in a block of resin
Watch a robot milling machine whip up a bust of Darwin in record time to inspire artists vying to create unusual images of the great naturalist
Optical trick made Amazon seem to grow more when dry
A decade ago, NASA remote sensors suggested that rainforests grow best in drought – a new study pins the result on a trick of the light
Woolly mammoths died for want of a few herbs
Mammoths may have starved to death when changes in the climate deprived them of their best food: flowering herbs related to the nutritious clover
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