The Sun would rise in the west on Venus, but that is only the beginning of how strange a day there would feel. A day is usually one of the simplest measurements we have. The Sun comes up, crosses the sky and disappears below the horizon. We mark the passing hours almost without thinking about…

For thousands of years, humans have relied on the movement of the Sun to understand the passage of time. But one ancient habit may have quietly shaped something people see every day: the direction in which clock hands move. The familiar clockwise motion of modern clocks was not decided by engineering rules or scientific necessity….

People, pets and livestock have long been protected through vaccines, but scientists are now extending that approach to creatures once thought impossible to immunise. Researchers have already developed the world’s first vaccine for honeybees and are testing similar technology in shrimp, despite the fact that these animals lack the antibody-based immune systems that conventional vaccines…