IN BRIEF:  10:00 28 January 2012

A quantum-mechanical twang has been detected in a bar of silicon – previously such movement had been measured only in particles

18:13 27 January 2012

Don't fear, ants haven't started constructing micromachines: this cog-wielding insect has been sealed in golden armour after death

18:00 27 January 2012

Democrat and Republican voters' views on touchstone issues are not as strongly polarised as they assume – but mistrustful activists may often swing elections

18:00 27 January 2012

All today's stories on newscientist.com, including: arsenic life does not exist after all and repeated drought in east Africa may prompt aid rethink

17:48 27 January 2012

Australia's native species die when they eat poisonous cane toads – but not the blue-tongue lizards of eastern Australia

16:48 27 January 2012

What does creativity in science look like? The most creative scientists may be those that collaborate with others from different disciplines, concludes a panel

16:47 27 January 2012

Taking in plastic sand, marmalade skies and methane rivers, a tour of Titan's sand dunes would be as trippy as a late Beatles song

NEWS:  15:53 27 January 2012

Animators will soon be able to construct startlingly realistic sylvan beauty in movies and video games with a new system for generating 3D virtual trees

THIS WEEK:  15:35 27 January 2012  | 1 comment

Rainfall patterns over east Africa have changed in a way that makes severe droughts more likely – aid agencies need to rethink the way they operate

14:15 27 January 2012

Nintendo's next console will have a near-field communications (NFC) chip, opening up the possibility of new kinds of games and new ways to pay for them.

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:  13:05 27 January 2012  | 2 comments

The best way to get teens interested in science is to wash its dirty laundry in public, says Michael Brooks

13:01 27 January 2012

Watch knitted stripes reveal a portrait of the famous physicist when viewed from an angle

FEATURE:  12:00 27 January 2012

Insights from brain science are finally coming into the classroom with a method based on seeing patterns, finds Peter Aldhous

UPFRONT:  10:18 27 January 2012  | 5 comments

Controversial claims that bacteria can exchange phosphorus in their DNA with arsenic have failed to be replicated

10:14 27 January 2012

In Design in Nature by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane a new theory of nature is mooted, but is the idea stretched beyond its reach?

19:00 26 January 2012

The Adanson's house jumper is the first animal found using out-of-focus vision to judge the distance to its victims

18:12 26 January 2012

A spider-silk cape that took a million spiders to make is a stunning example of nature's beauty, but silk has more to offer than a flashy outfit

18:05 26 January 2012

All today's stories on newscientist.com, including: a DIY smear test, sky shimmers after solar storm and dating in the multiverse

THIS WEEK:  16:00 26 January 2012

Bacteria that resist nearly all antibiotics have been found in seawater off Antarctic research stations, probably arriving there through human sewage

UPFRONT:  15:17 26 January 2012

A do-it-yourself smear test could enable millions of women in poorer countries to head off cervical cancer

FEATURE:  15:11 26 January 2012

The marvellous stuff that spiders and silkworms make has a big future in technologies from artificial corneas to brain implants, as Jessica Griggs finds out

12:02 26 January 2012

Newt Gingrich says he will get a moon base built by the end of 2020 if he is elected president – he faces a few tricky hurdles

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:  12:00 26 January 2012  | 1 comment

If fracking operations are managed properly the risk of accidents will be small, says Mike Stephenson

11:41 26 January 2012

Would your current partner be your true love in another universe? A new play explores the twists and turns a relationship can take across parallel universes

10:46 26 January 2012  | 4 comments

What was supposed to be a superweapon in the battle to find out whether nature's fundamental constants vary has turned out to be a damp squib

NEWS:  10:44 26 January 2012

A tablet with a touch-sensitive back allows novel control gestures with the device sandwiched between thumb and fingers

21:20 25 January 2012

Particles raining down on Earth's poles yesterday created spectacular auroral displays

20:10 25 January 2012

Federal law enforcement officials have asked contractors to build software that would watch for signs of criminal activity

19:00 25 January 2012

Metabolic diseases are difficult to diagnose – now DNA sequencing has been used for the first time to speed up the process