The Best of BBC Future

It's well-established that romantic relationships can improve your health and even help you to live longer. But does friendship bring the same benefits?

Controlling the action in a dream is an appealing concept that has attracted enormous attention over the years, but there could be risks if inducing them infringes on sleep quality

The handheld cellphone is 50 years old and has become an essential multi-tool that helps us run our lives. But is it altering the way our brains work?

Surprising new insights into the minds of this extinct human species suggest they may have been far more cultured than their outdated brutish reputation once suggested.

Modern singing – whether on the charts or Eurovision – is radically different to the kind familiar to our ancestors.

Aircraft currently leave a major footprint on the world's climate, so can the aviation industry hope to reach net zero by the middle of the century?

Airships could offer a much cleaner and quieter alternative for some aspects of the aviation market. In a former airship factory, a new generation are taking shape.

Home to the majority of the global human population, urban areas make an outsized contribution to carbon emissions. What can they do to reach net zero by the middle of the century?

«Another major contributor to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in cities is the energy required to build, maintain and run buildings. In 2015, buildings were responsible for 38% of global energy-related CO2 emissions – with the majority produced after construction finishes.»

Businesses shape how we talk about climate change, and sometimes this can stop us from paying attention to their actions.

Our world is awash with a rainbow of colours, but certain shades can have a surprising impact on our ability to concentrate, our mood and even our taste.

«And if you want a child to concentrate, you might consider painting a classroom in a vivid palette and so bolster their reading scores.»

The problems caused by plastic waste are rapidly increasing around the globe, but it still serves a useful purpose in food packaging. Can plastic still be a green option?

«brands have transitioned away from refillables to single-use packaging faster in the global North than in the South; it simply made more economic sense,»

It's not just domestication that has changed animals – simply sharing their environment with humans has radically altered the behaviour of some species.

«It's not just domestication that has changed animals – simply sharing their environment with humans has radically altered the behaviour of some species.»

Through apparently spontaneous change or through mishap or illness, our eyes can change colour in surprising ways.

We know fish as a healthy food, but pregnant women are told to limit consumption. Do the health benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks, particularly as stocks grow more depleted?

A growing and influential intellectual movement aims to understand why human progress happens – and how to speed it up. Garrison Lovely investigates.

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

The Kindness Test is the world's largest survey on what it means to be kind. It's shed light on the barriers that stop us being kind – but also that empathy truly is international.

In recent years, psychologists have gained a deeper understanding of human kindness and its benefits, but as Claudia Hammond writes, there's still so much to explore.

Most mammals, including our closest living relatives, have fur. So why did we lose ours?

Our sense of smell is one of our richest and wide-ranging windows into the world around us, but a threat in the air we breathe may be eroding our olfactory powers.

Morocco has become famous for its vast, world-leading solar arrays. But these mega-projects are just the start of the action on climate change that Morocco could be capable of.

Many countries are looking to floating solar power to save valuable space. The Netherlands is taking this one step further, with water-based arrays that follow the Sun.

Speaking a second or even a third language can bring obvious advantages, but occasionally the words, grammar and even accents can get mixed up.

«our languages aren't just static throughout our lives but shifting, actively competing and interfering with each other.»

When old age starts depend on where you live in the world. But it may also partly depend on how you view ageing. Can you delay it with a positive attitude?

Some 200 places around the world have now achieved Dark Sky status. Frankie Adkins explores the benefits nights with out light pollution can bring.

«LED lighting – despite its reputation for energy efficiency – often contains high proportions of blue light in its spectrum, which creates a harsh glar»

The Sumerians, Maya and other ancient cultures created texts that have lasted hundreds and even thousands of years. Here's what they can teach us about crafting an immortal message.

Fountain pens were a stylish statement but messy and impractical. Their replacement was a stroke of design genus perfectly in time for the era of mass production.