Idle minds succumb to temptation of electric shocks
People would rather give themselves an electric shock than be alone with their thoughts, according to new research, but are the results so shocking?
First data from space megacamera delayed nine months
A trio of technical troubles means that much-anticipated scientific results from the Gaia space telescope won't be released until the middle of 2016
Stopping harmful climate change is surprisingly cheap
We need to spend an extra $1 trillion a year to avoid global warming – but a lot of the money could come from the subsidies currently handed to fossil fuels
Tiny waves could build livers on a 'liquid template' 
Animal tissue and elaborate structures for microelectronics could be engineered by generating tiny swells in a dish of saline solution
Feedback: Gone to a better conference
Canine light of knowledge extinguished for ever, paper passes over space-time cracks, skeuomorphic symbol and sign and more
The AI boss that deploys Hong Kong's subway engineers
An algorithm schedules and manages the nightly engineering work on one of the world's best subway systems – and does it more efficiently than any human could
Visions of our future in a broken world
How will future generations live in a world transformed by climate change and overconsumption? Explore the imaginings of writers, artists and filmmakers
How to kill knotweed: Let slip the bugs of war
Mention biocontrol and people think of the cane toad catastrophe. But a sap-sucking bug could be the only way to win the war against the world's worst weed
Cool planet hints at potential for life in double stars
It is an unlikely spot for life, but a chilly exoplanet orbiting one star in a binary system suggests possible locations for more habitable worlds
First life-friendly exoplanet may not exist after all
Touted since 2007 as a top contender for hosting life, the rocky world Gliese 581 d may be no more than sunspots, according to a re-analysis of its signal
Magnetic messages let smartphones receive secret data
The magnetometer sitting in your smartphone can do more than just tell which way to go: it can also be used to receive messages
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