In Short

Western societies are missing important gut bacteria due to modern sanitation practices.

How does your brain interpret a noise?

GM Salmonella can be used to combat cancer

The elusive substance could be interacting with itself, massive galaxy collision reveals.

It's the strongest known biological material and one of the earliest pigments - Helen Scales discovers goethite

The Moon's origins are mysterious, but new evidence has shed some light on the matter...

A relative of T. rex has been shown to have exhibited cannibalism.

Brian Clegg discusses the vitamin found in both breakfast cereal and meteorites: Niacin

What is it about yeast which makes it so useful in bread making?

Start your engines! Simon Cotton looks into one of the few chemical names known well to the public: Octane

Scientists have discovered how bats avoid collisions using a simple set of rules...

Sensible approach to dental rot or sinister communist plot? Brian Clegg examines the much-maligned fluorides

Simon Cotton introduces the first of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants: Prozac

When did humans begin to change the world beyond recognition?

Scientists have come up with a new technology that uses the room lighting to transmit data

Once thought to extract the truth and now used to enact the ultimate punishment, this week's compound is sodium...

People in the Andes have adapted to the high levels of arsenic in their surroundings.

Dr Kat Arney meets Sophie the Stegosaurus, and her researcher Charlotte Brassey

NASA's Dawn probe is bearing down on Ceres. What do we hope to learn from the asteroid?

It may have been largely superceded in the clinic but Phil Robinson discovers there is no rest yet for barbituric acid

In this FameLab talk, hear all about the underwater assassin: the snapping shrimp!

RNA may be less famous than it's more stable cousin, but is central to cellular function

Tiny atom sized holes can transform the colour of diamonds.

Breaking Bad may have exaggerated its body-dissolving effects, but Katrina Krämer finds the truth about hydrofluoric...