Popcorn brain: could the snack be the key to understanding why it’s so hard to concentrate?

Struggling to focus? Overwhelmed by your phone alerts? Experts say the popping kernels are a useful metaphor to explain overstimulation in the digital age

Fungi: Web of Life review – Björk and Merlin Sheldrake guide trippy mushroom doc

Beginner’s guide to the wrap-your-brain-around-them facts of mycological science boosts the wonder with 3D time-lapse photography

AI helps scholars read scroll buried when Vesuvius erupted in AD79

Researchers used AI to read letters on papyrus scroll damaged by the blast of heat, ash and pumice that destroyed Pompeii

First UK patients receive experimental messenger RNA cancer therapy

The British clinical trial of the revolutionary new mRNA treatment will test its effectiveness in combating a range of cancers

‘The situation has become appalling’: fake scientific papers push research credibility to crisis point

Last year, 10,000 sham papers had to be retracted by academic journals, but experts think this is just the tip of the iceberg

Farmbots, flavour pills and zero-gravity beer: inside the mission to grow food in space

Astronauts currently content themselves with freeze-dried gruel, but with plans for crewed missions to Mars in the works, scientists need to create more delicious, nutritious menus

Forever Young review– anti-ageing fantasy drama kept alive by magnetic Diana Quick

Quick plays a 70-year-old writer who takes a new treatment that could enable her to have a child. She is emotionally transparent and intellectually engaged, unlike the film

Dr Karan is an online health sensation – but his videos are aimed at making us happier

Look after your body, and your body will soothe your mind

New app can reduce debilitating impact of tinnitus, say researchers

MindEar delivers CBT through chatbot with sound therapy allowing brain to learn to tune out condition

Did you solve it? Do you think like a software engineer?

The answer to today’s tantalising tech teaser

‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says

Pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their products

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches first phone service satellites

Starlink satellites, carried on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, can beam signals directly to smartphones from space

Could exercise pills help create a healthier society?

Finding drugs that mimic the benefits of a workout has long been a goal of science. As a new trial begins, the hope is to assist not just the time-poor or the lazy but elderly people and those with disease or disability

The Guardian view on the AI conundrum: what it means to be human is elusive

Editorial: Over the holidays, this column will explore next year’s urgent issues. Today we look at the challenge to regulate science that seems to defy comprehension

Academic paper based on Uyghur genetic data retracted over ethical concerns

Exclusive: Study published in 2019 used blood and saliva samples from 203 Uyghur and Kazakh people living in Xinjiang capital