Table of contents for February 2026 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

This colourful creature is a new species of pumpkin toadlet and, as you can see from the pencil tip it's clambering over, it's tiny. It was discovered recently in Brazil, hence it's been officially named Brachycephalus lulai, after Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was this little fellow's bright, neon-orange colouring that alerted researchers to its presence, but it was actually the toadlet's mating calls that gave it away. And the surprises don't stop there because, despite what its common name might lead you to believe, it's not a small toad. It's actually a frog. Over the past seven years, researchers have been looking to catalogue all the Brachycephalus frog populations in Brazil's Serra do Quiriri mountain range. Brachycephalus frogs live in the…

We like to think we can tell exactly how our dogs are feeling, but a new study suggests many of us are getting it very wrong. Researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) found that when people are in a good mood, they're more likely to think a dog looks sad. When people feel a bit down, however, they tend to view the same dog as being happy. This is the opposite of how we read each other. When we interact with other people, we tend to interpret their emotions as being similar to our own. “In this domain of how people understand dogs’ emotions, I'm continuously surprised,” said Prof Clive Wynne, a psychologist at ASU and co-author of the study. “We're just scratching the surface of what is turning out…

Africa's biggest animals may be rare, in part, because there isn't enough salt for them, says a new study. In research led by Northern Arizona University, scientists discovered that the availability of salt may limit the numbers of elephants, rhinos and giraffes (endangered animals known as megaherbivores) that areas like West and Central Africa can support. “We found that salt plays an important role in shaping the density and distribution of large mammals across Africa,” lead author Dr Andrew Abraham, now a research associate at City University of New York, told BBC Science Focus. Abraham's team generated high-resolution maps that displayed the saltiness of plants in different areas. Then, they tested animal dung for signs of salt deficiency. Together with data on animal populations, this revealed that there were fewer…

When a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu (H5N1) began sweeping across wild birds and poultry in 2020, experts were concerned. Five years on, the picture has grown darker and stranger than most would have imagined. The virus has spilled into mammals at an unprecedented scale, devastated wildlife and – in the US – established itself in dairy cattle, a species no one expected to be affected. Human cases remain rare. But virologists say the trajectory is troubling, the data patchy and the future uncertain. “It's now a global problem,” says Dr Ed Hutchinson, professor of molecular and cellular virology at the University of Glasgow. “As a disease of wild animals, it's completely out of control. It's raging around the world, and there's no feasible containment method other than just…

CES 2026 It was unofficially the year of the robot at CES. Sadly, it doesn't look like there's one robo-butler who's going to handle all of life's chores, but we might be reaching a point where an army of mechanical minions might handle most of them – though I haven't seen one that can sort through the mound of clothes on my bedroom floor. Vying for your dirty-underwear-clearing top spot were two house-bots: SwitchBot's Onero H1 1 and LG's CLOiD 2 . LG's demo saw CLOiD slowly fold some clothes, put a baking dish in the oven and think about pouring guests a drink. It was less a demo and more a statement of intent. SwitchBot's presentation focused on Onero H1's dexterity: it possesses “22° of freedom”, so it can…

Its technology has been used in wars and in hospitals, its services have helped with killings and life-saving treatments, and its bosses are – according to who you ask – either helping to dismantle Western democracy or save it. Welcome to the paradoxical world of Palantir Technologies, an American data analytics company whose clients include some of the most secretive organisations on the planet, as well as some of the most beloved. If you're reading this and wondering what Palantir is and what it does, well, that's how the Denver-based firm seems to like it. Descriptions of Palantir in the press often use terms such as ‘mysterious’, ‘shadowy’ and ‘secretive’. It's no surprise really, since the aura of intrigue around the company has been “meticulously cultivated” by its management, according…

Most of us, whether we admit it or not, would probably like to be a little smarter. After all, who wouldn't want to be a chess whizz, or at the heart of the cut and thrust in every dinner party debate? But beyond being born with the right genetics and into an environment that fosters learning from an early age, you might wonder whether boosting your brain's performance is even possible. And if so, how? Brain-training games claim to be one such way. Much like how people who want bigger muscles head to the gym, people who want to pump up their intellect turn to braintraining games. They've become increasingly popular in recent years, partly because apps and smartphones have put them within easy reach at all times, but also…

WRONG END OF THE STICK Humans are surprisingly bad at reading dogs’ emotions p20 CURATIVE CAMEMBERT? High-fat cheese could help you stave off dementia, study finds p22 SWEAR BY IT Cursing could improve your physical performance p22 Climate change isn't all flooding, wildfires and melting glaciers – it comes with a price tag too. And if you assume rising temperatures haven't hit your wallet because you haven't lost a home to a natural disaster, the latest research suggests otherwise. A new study finds that climate change has already cut incomes in the US by around 12 per cent since 2000. The figure is a significant increase on previous estimates and a signal that the costs of global warming aren't just future projections, but a present-day reality. “If we can't figure…

An unusual spacecraft reached orbit in November 2025, one that might herald the dawn of a new era. Called Starcloud-1, it was the size of a small fridge and carried an advanced NVIDIA chip designed to perform complex AI tasks – in space. Why? Because the startup behind the spacecraft, the US-based Starcloud, thinks that space might be the next great domain for data processing, to the extent that we could one day see giant city-sized structures being assembled in space that will perform a significant chunk of Earth's processing needs. “It enables us to access enormous amounts of renewable solar energy and we don't need to boil off huge amounts of fresh water to keep these data centres cool,” says Philip Johnston, Starcloud's co-founder and CEO. “It takes a…

HOW TO SEE THE SEVEN SISTERS WHEN: FEBRUARY The Pleiades is a beautiful open cluster, a group of stars that have formed out of the same gas cloud, located within the constellation of Taurus, the Bull. It can be found with the help of the straight line of three stars that forms Orion's Belt. Simply extend the line of the belt to the northwest, or to the upper-right as seen from the UK, and you'll eventually arrive at the bright orange star Aldebaran, which marks one of Taurus's eyes. Keep the line going and, with a bit of artistic license, you'll arrive at the Pleiades. The cluster is located 444 light-years away and is relatively young, at an estimated 75–150 million years old. It's easy to see with the naked…

PENCILS AT THE READY! ACROSS 7 Series is the first to complain (5) 9 Riches distributed by hard love (7) 10 Imprisoned right behind staff member (7) 11 I am illuminated about range (5) 12 Paul's newly registered star (6) 13 Did without new drapes (6) 16 Hate getting notes on trial (6) 17 Swear terribly about new reply (6) 19 Henry, with zeal, cultivated tree (5) 21 Husband in suit getting fireplaces (7) 22 Time for every relative to start last (7) 23 Not starting trouble - that's different (5) DOWN 1 Got undressed, with bands outside taking pressure (8) 2 Good boy mocks finery (4,4) 3 Alarming situation makes school head worry (5) 4 Fellow will shortly be in a bad place (4) 5 Turn it down and it's not as light (6,6) 6 Reach a trade-off with talk (4) 8 Complete nonentity, as low…

How do you blindfold a porpoise? It sounds like the start of a joke, but it was a genuine problem for the scientists at Fjord & Bælt, a research facility in Denmark. A problem they had to solve in order to test the animal's echolocation abilities. The solution, as you can see here, is suction cups. They're being worn by Freja, the oldest-living harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). She has been trained to participate in experiments like this, which are intended to help with conservation efforts geared towards the ocean mammals. Harbour porpoises rely on echolocation to navigate and hunt, and human interference in their environment – such as the underwater noise generated by boats – can disrupt their abilities. To observe how much harbour porpoises rely on echolocation, the Fjord…

“Grain ships likely carried fleas infected with Y. pestis to Mediterranean ports, where they jumped to rats, cats and humans” The Black Death may have decimated the medieval European population in part because of volcanic eruptions that took place several years prior, according to a new study. Researchers found that a spell of unusually cold summers in the mid-1340s – likely linked to one major volcanic eruption or several smaller ones – contributed to severe famine across the Mediterranean. The knock-on effects, they argue, ultimately brought plague-bearing fleas into European ports, where the disease went on to kill up to 60 per cent of the population. “This is something I've wanted to understand for a long time,” said Professor Ulf Büntgen, a palaeoclimatologist from the University of Cambridge's geography department.…

Ask parents around the world what their child does when they get home from school and chances are you'll get one answer: drop their bag, sit on the sofa and pick up their phone. Screen time for children is increasing – a recent Ofcom report suggested the average British child aged 8–14 now spends nearly three hours a day online on phones, tablets or laptops (not counting games consoles). Keeping in touch with friends outside the classroom often involves devoting hours to chatting on social media. It's a habit that some have called an addiction. The Anxious Generation, a 2024 book by American social psychologist Prof Jonathan Haidt, helped spark a movement to suggest something should be done to protect kids from spending so much time on social media. Whether…

Whether or not we have free will is a question philosophers have been debating for millennia. In the early 1980s, there was a brief moment when it appeared the debate may finally have been settled. The potential solution came not from philosophy, but neuroscience. The answer, somewhat depressingly, was that free will didn't exist. Experiments carried out by the neuroscientist Benjamin Libet appeared to show decisions being made in the brain before people were even aware of them. It was as if science had finally revealed the strings of the puppet master controlling our thoughts and actions. To even casual observers of the history of inquiries into free will, this pronouncement felt premature. Thankfully, they were right. Scientists today are much more sceptical not only of the idea that free…

You might expect to encounter a psychopath in a law office or managing a hedge fund, or perhaps in an operating theatre. Law, finance and medicine are often seen as favourable professions for those who have little capacity to feel guilt, embarrassment or compassion – and some research backs this notion up. But what about in a therapist's office? In a small study from Tasmania, a number of people in the welfare sector reported encountering coworkers who met many of the criteria for psychopathy, and who often bullied them and colleagues. It's a surprising finding in a field that prioritises compassion and empathy, two traits a psychopath lacks by definition. Also surprising was that the majority of these potential psychopaths were women. The study comes from Dr Fiona Girkin, a…

In 1977, the year the movie Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was released, marine geologists laid eyes on a deep-sea hydrothermal vent for the first time. They were diving inside the submersible, known as Alvin, in the eastern Pacific Ocean at a depth of around 2,500m (8,200ft). Peering through Alvin's small porthole, the scientists were gobsmacked to see the tall, rocky chimneys were not only belching out scorching hot fluids, but also that they were absolutely covered in animals. This oasis of life was just as strange as anything George Lucas created. Pompeii worms (Alvinella pompejana) were one of the species found in the first wave of hydrothermal vent explorations during the late 1970s and early 1980s. These pink worms grow to around 15cm (almost 6in) and…

If you look good, you feel good. That's the slightly spurious basis on which the UK spends an estimated £2.75bn ($3.68 bn) annually on cosmetic procedures like Botox and dermal fillers. Collectively, we have around 900,000 aesthetic treatments every year, each one described as “non-invasive” but nevertheless designed to rearrange our faces and disguise the ravages of time. What's surprising is that some of the reported benefits aren't about how young a person looks or how much better they feel in their newly-taut skin. They're about improvements in mental health. Users speak about how Botox injections have lowered their symptoms of depression or anxiety. Others make jokes about not needing another reason to go for their touch-ups. The commentary picks up on a steady drip of eyebrow-raising research from the…