New Scientist

Smartphones could one day have screens that can break apart and be put together in different shapes, forming physical passwords or game controllers

The Pap smear cervical cancer test, which Georgios Papanikolaou developed by studying smears from his wife, was the first widely used screening test for cancer

Saturn’s moon Titan has liquid methane seas that are remarkably calm, which may be because a layer of organic “snow” fallen from the atmosphere kills any waves

If we found amino acids on icy moons like Europa, it could be a sign of recent biological processes

Seawater is full of far more uranium than we can mine from the ground, and specialised sponges could let us harvest it to use in nuclear power plants

E-commerce giant Alibaba has built an algorithm for suggesting outfits to shoppers in China. It has made over 5 million recommendations so far

Astronomers have calculated the magnetism of the entire universe by studying the space between galaxies, and it turns out to be very weak indeed

Virtual reality headsets are letting film directors walk around computer generated scenes to find the perfect angle for a shot before recording

The discovery that folic acid is important to the health of pregnant women is a classic story of serendipity in science

Instagram is trying to prevent misinformation about vaccinations spreading on the app by blocking hashtags that include "verifiably false" information

We may be on the brink of eradicating polio at last, now that Mongolia and Zimbabwe have added the inactivated polio vaccine to routine immunisations

Space flight company Blue Origin unveiled a new lunar lander that the firm says will deliver scientific instruments, rovers and astronauts to the moon

More than a quarter of people who regularly meditate say they have experienced negative mental states, including anxiety, fear and disturbed emotions

Several species of fish living in the deep ocean have evolved extra copies of genes that enable them to see a range of colour hues in the near-darkness

To get her mother a new kidney, Aliana Deveza instigated the world’s first swap of different organs between living donors, donating half her liver to a stranger

To get her mother a new kidney, Aliana Deveza instigated the world’s first swap of different organs between living donors, donating half her liver to a stranger

US hostility to arms control treaties has put Iran back on a path to building nuclear weapons, and inspectors could be left blind if the deal collapses

Nitrogen from penguin and seal faeces in Antarctica can spread to an area up to 240 times the original colony, which serves as a vital nutrient for other plants and animals

A group of chimpanzees took a dead antelope from a leopard that had apparently killed it, then ate parts of it in full sight of the big cat

More women report being misunderstood by voice assistants than men, adding to growing evidence that speech recognition is better with some groups over others