A technique for making curved batteries and a heat sink made with one-atom-thick graphene provide clues to tiny applications ahead for the gadget maker    

The precious resources we need to develop solutions to our energy problems are too costly on Earth, says entrepreneur Naveen Jain    

Forty years on from Skylab’s launch, we look back at how the space station taught us much about how humans perform in orbit and how to design future craft    

A startup that lets you have your own cloud servers at home is part of a movement that is turning its back on conventional cloud computing    

Imagine having an illuminated keypad projected onto your hand which stays in place even as you move, and tingles gently when you press a “button”    

A quantum microscope has imaged the hydrogen atom’s wave function – the mathematical entity that governs its properties – for the first time    

A robot arm wrapped in a sensor-laden skin has shown it can work closely with humans on delicate tasks    

Can desert be turned into fertile oases using nothing but seawater and sunshine? Yes, discovers Fred Pearce on a trip to Qatar – but at a price

A “Marauder’s Map” system uses security cameras to map people’s locations in real time – it could find intruders or guide people around malls    

The raw material for a 5300-year-old iron necklace bead found in an Egyptian tomb has revealed itself to have fallen to Earth in a meteorite    

For $1 million, private firm Planetary Resources will launch a space telescope and let its backers choose its targets – or take “space selfie” snapshots    

Confronting a digital representation of the voice inside their head may help people with schizophrenia overcome their auditory hallucinations    

The British government spends billions guarding its plutonium stockpile against terrorists. The best option for getting rid of it is deep burial – but where?

Questions over safety, disposal of waste and the possibility that plants could make material suitable for weapons have slowed the spread of nuclear technology    

Fission power could fulfil our energy needs without generating any greenhouse gases, but not unless we find novel ways to use it with less risk    

Hundreds of reactors around the world are splitting heavy atoms in the process called fission – providing about 13.5 per cent of the world’s electrical energy

A new gestural vocabulary for controlling computers is at our fingertips – it will transform the way we navigate the digital world, finds MacGregor Campbell

Microsoft’s depth-sensing camera will gain unprecedented information about us while we play, allowing games to adjust their difficulty in response