Science | The Guardian

Straddling the celestial equator, the constellation is visible in both hemispheresOrion, the hunter, one of the most recognisable constellations in the night sky, is well placed for observation from the northern hemisphere during February. Straddling the celestial equator - the projection of Earth's equator on to the night sky - the constellation is also visible from the southern hemisphere.From the UK this week, Orion rises in the east shortly after sunset and is highest in the south at about 2100 to 2200 GMT. By late evening, the constellation dominates the southern sky before setting in the west after midnight. The chart shows the view looking south from London on 2 February at 2000 GMT, although the view will be mostly unchanged for the entire week. Continue reading...

Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains, which then efficiently prioritise them. We need to learn to work with the process, rather than against itIt's believed that we have about 50,000 thoughts a day: big, small, urgent, banal - Did I leave the oven on?". And those are just the ones that register. Subconsciously, we're constantly sifting through a barrage of stimuli: background noise, clutter on our desks, the mere presence of our phones.Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains. Just 0.0004% is perceived by our conscious minds, showing just how hard our brains are working to parse what's sufficiently relevant to bring to our attention. Continue reading...

We are living longer and longer, but many of us are unprepared for the challenges age brings, says the novelist and psychotherapist Frank TallisWe have never lived so long, so well, nor had more available advice on how to do so: don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat ultraprocessed foods; lift weights, get outside, learn a language. Cosmetics - or surgery - have never been so available, so advanced, nor so widely used; we take for granted medical procedures that previous ages would have considered miracles. And something's clearly working: average global life expectancy is the highest in recorded history. The fastest growing demographic is now the over-80s.There is much public hand-wringing about the burdens this ageing population will place on health and care systems, and on younger people. But what is far less talked about, argues the clinical psychologist Frank Tallis in his new book, Wise, is how to get older well: not just in physical, but in mental good health. Continue reading...

Recreating cosmic dust may help answer questions about how meteorites hitting Earth came to contain organic matter

Nick Carter says easing controls on MDMA will allow drug to be used as alternative treatment for those with PTSDA former head of the British military is calling for the government to ease restrictions on the party drug MDMA so that it can be tested more cheaply as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Sir Nick Carter, who was chief of the defence staff until 2021, said existing regulations meant a single gram of medical grade" MDMA cost about 10,000 compared with a street price of about 40, inflating the cost of trials. Continue reading...

Researchers tell human story' about crisis during plague of Justinian, which killed millions in Byzantine empireA US-led research team has verified the first Mediterranean mass grave of the world's earliest recorded pandemic, providing stark new details about the plague of Justinian that killed millions of people in the Byzantine empire between the sixth and eighth centuries.The findings, published in February's Journal of Archaeological Science, offer what researchers say is a rare empirical window into the mobility, urban life and vulnerability of citizens affected by the pestilence. Continue reading...

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Weather service research concludes that less accurate probability-based predictions are still considered helpfulThe Met Office is to lean into one of Britain's favourite pastimes - talking about the weather - by launching a new two-week forecast.At present, the publicly funded weather and climate service offers a seven-day forecast on its website and app with an hourly breakdown for the first five days and then a three-hourly breakdown for the final two days. Continue reading...

Champion of respiratory medicine who was passionate about building bridges between academics and cliniciansMike Morgan, who has died aged 75, was a leading figure in respiratory services in Leicester for more than 30 years. He also championed respiratory medicine at the highest level. It had long been a poor relation compared to other areas of medicine but, as the national clinical director for respiratory disease at NHS England from 2013 to 2019, Morgan ensured it was prominent in the national long-term strategy set out in NHS England's 10-year health plan in 2019. The aim was to transform outcomes by diagnosing diseases earlier with greater access to spirometry (a lung function test) and to increase provision for the key treatment, pulmonary rehabilitation.When Morgan began working as a consultant respiratory physician at Glenfield hospital in Leicester in 1988, he joined a small team, with two other doctors (today there are more than 20 respiratory specialists). They faced a huge challenge: respiratory diseases such as chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) were widespread. Not only can they result in disabling breathlessness and blight sufferers' lives, they are also a leading cause of death. Continue reading...

Rocket company examining feasibility of both options before potential $1.5tn stock market flotation, report says

Swedish study of 100,000 women found higher rate of early detection, suggesting potential to support radiologistsThe use of artificial intelligence in breast cancer screening reduces the rate of a cancer diagnosis by 12% in subsequent years and leads to a higher rate of early detection, according to the first trial of its kind.Researchers said the study was the largest to date looking at AI use in cancer screening. It involved 100,000 women in Sweden who were part of mammography screening and were randomly assigned to either AI-supported screening or to a standard reading by two radiologists between April 2021 and December 2022. Continue reading...

Agency updates guidance after increase in reports of condition to its yellow card schemePatients on weight-loss jabs and diabetes injections should be aware there is a small risk of developing severe acute pancreatitis, the UK medicines regulator has said.About 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used GLP-1 medication, such as semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), between early 2024 and early 2025 to lose weight, according to recent research. Continue reading...

New study into heritability' shows that 50% of the variation in human lifespan could be down to geneticsSome people who live to a great age put it down to an evening tot of whisky, others to staying out of trouble. Now scientists think they may have unlocked a key secret to long life - quite simply, genetics.Writing in the journal Science, the researchers described how previous studies that had attempted to unpick the genetic component of human lifespan had not taken into account that some lives were cut short by accidents, murders, infectious diseases or other factors arising outside the body. Such extrinsic mortality" increases with age, as people often become more frail. Continue reading...

Light scattering creates the shade we see when we look skyward, and studies show the process varies around the worldOn holiday the sky may look a deeper shade of blue than even the clearest summer day at home. Some places, including Cape Town in South Africa and Briancon in France, pride themselves on the blueness of their skies. But is there really any difference?The blue of the sky is the product of Rayleigh scattering, which affects light more at the blue end of the spectrum. The blue we see is just the blue component of scattered white sunlight. Continue reading...

If TikTok influencers are to be believed, testosterone, or T, is the answer to everything from fitness frustrations and fatigue to low libido. But doctors are warning that social media misinformation is driving men to seek testosterone therapy that they don't need. This in turn comes with risks for health and fertility. In part one of a miniseries exploring the popularity of testosterone, Madeleine Finlay hears from Prof Channa Jayasena of Imperial College London, who is chair of the Society for Endocrinology, about how this craze is manifesting in NHS clinics, and from Sam' who tells Madeleine about his own journey with the hormoneSocial media misinformation driving men to seek unneeded NHS testosterone therapy, doctors saySupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

The Earth-size planet HD 137010 b has a 50% chance of residing in the habitable zone' of its sun-like star, scientists sayAstronomers have discovered a potentially habitable new planet about 146 light-years away which is Earth-sized and has conditions similar to Mars.The candidate planet, named HD 137010 b, orbits a sun-like star and is estimated to be 6% larger than Earth. Continue reading...

AlphaGenome can analyse up to 1m letters of DNA code at once and could pave way for new treatmentsResearchers at Google DeepMind have unveiled their latest artificial intelligence tool and claimed it will help scientists identify the genetic drivers of disease and ultimately pave the way for new treatments.AlphaGenome predicts how mutations interfere with the way genes are controlled, changing when they are switched on, in which cells of the body, and whether their biological volume controls are set to high or low. Continue reading...

World's richest person targeting symbolic date in June for flotation of rocket companyElon Musk's SpaceX is considering a flotation valuing the rocket company at $1.5tn (1.1tn) that will reportedly be timed for early summer to coincide with a planetary alignment and the multibillionaire's birthday.The world's richest person is targeting a symbolic date of mid-June for the initial public offering, according to the Financial Times. This would be around the same time as Jupiter and Venus appear in close proximity to each other and shortly before Musk turns 55 on 28 June. Continue reading...

Virus primarily spreads from animals to humans, has a high fatality rate and there is no vaccineAirports across Asia have been put on high alert after India confirmed two cases of the deadly Nipah virus in the state of West Bengal over the past month.Thailand, Nepal and Vietnam are among the countries screening airport arrivals over fears of an wider outbreak of the virus, which can spread from animals to humans and has a high fatality rate. Continue reading...

Island's mineral and resource wealth is result of mountain building, rifting and volcanic activity over 4bn yearsAs recent manoeuvres over Greenland have made plain, this mostly ice-covered island contains some of the greatest stores of natural resources in the world, with huge volumes of oil and gas, rich deposits of rare-earth elements and rocks bearing gems and gold. So why did all the planetary goodies end up here?Writing in The Conversation, the geologist Dr Jonathan Paul from Royal Holloway, University of London, explains how this mineral and resource wealth is tied to the country's geological history over the past 4bn years. Greenland is a bit of a geological anomaly, with land that has been pummelled in three different ways: mountain building, rifting and volcanism. Continue reading...

Study also says almost half have a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression

Last week, a UN report declared that the world has entered an era of global water bankruptcy' with many human water systems past the point at which they can be restored to former levels. To find out what this could look like, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian's diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, who has been reporting on Iran's severe water crisis. And Mohammad Shamsudduha, professor of water crisis and risk reduction in the department of risk and disaster reduction at University College London, explains how the present situation arose and what can be done to bring water supplies back from the brinkEra of global water bankruptcy' is here, UN report saysClimate crisis or a warning from God? Iranians desperate for answers as water dries up Continue reading...

Researchers say artificial intelligence system matches human expert classification about 90% of the timeExperts have created an app that uses artificial intelligence to identify dinosaurs from the footprints left behind after they stomped across the land tens of millions of years ago.When we find a dinosaur footprint, we try to do the Cinderella thing and find the foot that matches the slipper," said Prof Steve Brusatte, a co-author of the work, from the University of Edinburgh. But it's not so simple, because the shape of a dinosaur footprint depends not only on the shape of the dinosaur's foot but also the type of sand or mud it was walking through, and the motion of its foot." Continue reading...

My mother, Barbara Hurman, who has died aged 100, was an archaeologist specialising in the identification and illustration of finds - the items disinterred during the course of excavations.She worked on a number of sites for the Bucks Museum, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the Milton Keynes Archaeological Unit, the Department of the Environment and the Museum of London, and in her late 70s completed four summer seasons as the finds supervisor and ceramic analyst on Nottingham University's excavation of the Roman site at Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. Continue reading...

Traditional bodybuilding advice has been to push workouts to the point of failure, and that soreness is an indicator of effectiveness. But recent studies show there's another wayUntil pretty recently, the conventional wisdom about building muscle was that it worked via a system you might think of as tear and repair" - the idea being that working out causes microtears in the muscle fibres, which trigger the body's repair processes, encouraging the muscles to come back bigger and stronger.That's why many old-school trainers will tell you that there's no gain without pain, and why a lot of bodybuilding advice includes increasingly byzantine ways of pushing your biceps and triceps to the point where you can't do another repetition: the more trauma you can cause, the thinking goes, the more swole" you can become. Continue reading...

Seven sisters constellation's brightest members will be hidden from view for about an hourOn the night of 27 January, the moon passes in front of the Pleiades star cluster, temporarily hiding (occulting) some of its brightest members from view.The Pleiades, also known as the seven sisters, lie about 440 light years away in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. They are one of the most recognisable structures in the winter sky. The stars were all born from the same giant cloud of molecular gas. Although in time they will be dispersed through the galaxy, at only 100m years old, they remain a relatively tight-knit community of stellar siblings. Continue reading...

Researchers observed the primates switching social groups and passing information on where to find the ripest fruitSpider monkeys share tips about where to find food by changing their social groups in a clever system for sharing insider knowledge", research has shown.They were observed to frequently switch subgroups of three or more individuals in a way that enabled them to share information about the location of fruit trees and timing of when they would ripen. Continue reading...

Bennell-Pegg tells ceremony in Canberra she hopes to use award to inspire young people to chase their dreams

Better regulation and enforcement urged before launch of oral treatments, which criminals are likely to try to exploitExperts are warning that fake weight-loss treatments could become more prevalent as tablet forms of the medications, currently available only via injections in the UK, are launched.They say stronger regulation and enforcement are needed to prevent fraudsters from cashing in on tablets which will be easier to counterfeit. Continue reading...

Why do some people age better than others? Five extraordinary individuals - who scientists are studying - share their tipsLajuana Weathers is determined tobe the healthiest version of herself. She starts each day with a celery juice, is always trying to increase her step count, and meditates daily. Weathers is also 89years old. And she has no plans to slow down. Iwake up in the morning and feel blessed that I have another chance at a day of life," says the grandmother of six, and greatgrandmother of six more, who lives in Illinois in an independent living facility for seniors. I look at my life as a holistic entity, and in that life is my physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. I have to take care of all of those. That's what I like about the ageing process. All the clutter of raising children is out and Ican concentrate on the wellness of me."Weathers is a superager. This isn't a self-proclaimed label, but one backed up by science - she is part of the SuperAging Research Initiative at the University of Chicago. To qualify for the study, you have to be over 80 years old and have memory performance that's at least as good as the average 50- to 60-year-old. There are about 400 superagers enrolled across North America. Continue reading...

Despite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concernsUS health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau - one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines.The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries. Continue reading...

Researchers found a new way to filter and destroy Pfas chemicals at 100 times the rate of current systemsNew filtration technology developed by Rice University may absorb some Pfas forever chemicals" at 100 times the rate previously possible, which could dramatically improve pollution control and speed remediations.Researchers also say they have also found a way to destroy Pfas, though both technologies face a steep challenge in being deployed on an industrial scale. Continue reading...

US aerospace tech company reportedly held talks last year over private share sale that values business at $800bnElon Musk's SpaceX is reportedly lining up four Wall Street banks to help the company list on the stock market as investors prepare for an expected rush of US tech listings.SpaceX is considering Bank of America, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for leading roles in an initial public offering, according to the Financial Times and Reuters. Continue reading...

Fetal tissue has been used to advance research into diabetes, Alzheimer's, infertility and vaccinesThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) will no longer fund research that uses human fetal tissue obtained from elective" abortions, the world's biggest public funder of biomedical research announced on Thursday.The ban marks the latest, and most dramatic, effort by the Trump administration to end research that uses fetal tissue from abortions - a goal that anti-abortion advocates, who oppose the research, have sought for years. In 2019, during Donald Trump's first term in office, the NIH stopped funding internal research that involved the tissue and implemented a review committee to evaluate research proposals from scientists outside the government. Joe Biden ended that policy in 2021. Continue reading...

Researcher points to medicalisation of masculinity' after investigating how men's health is being monetised onlineIf you're not waking up in the morning with a boner, there's a large possibility that you have low testosterone levels," an influencer on TikTok with more than 100,000 followers warns his viewers.Despite screening for low testosterone being medically unwarranted in most young men, this group is being aggressively targeted online by influencers and wellness companies promoting hormone tests and treatments as essential to being a real man", a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine has found. Continue reading...

OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are rumoured to be among ten of the biggest companies considering IPOsYou've probably heard of unicorns" - technology startups valued at more than $1bn - but 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the hectocorn", with several US and European companies potentially floating on stock markets at valuations over $100bn (75bn).OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are among the big names said to be considering an initial public offering (IPO) this year. Continue reading...

The Guardian's science editor, Ian Sample, talks to Madeleine Finlay about three eye-catching science stories from the week, including a study that suggests positive thinking can boost immune response. Also on the agenda is the mysterious rise of scabies in the UK, and the discovery that cows are more adept with tools than previously knownClips: The Morning ShowPositive thinking could boost immune response to vaccines, say scientists Continue reading...

Deployment will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into market dominated by SpaceXJeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will serve data centers, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.Deployment of satellites is planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network will be designed to have data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth". That speed, possible with the satellites' planned optical communications, is extreme by consumer standards and would make the network key for data processing and large-scale government programs. Blue Origin said the network would be meant to serve a maximum of roughly 100,000 customers. Continue reading...

Joe Yates, Prof Philip J Landrigan, Prof Jennifer Kirwan and Prof Jamie Davies respond to an article on doubts raised about studies on microplastics in the human bodyWhile it may be a belated Christmas present for the petrochemical industry, your article (A bombshell': doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body, 13 January) was less surprising to the scientific community, where constructive debate around microplastic detection in humans has been ongoing for some time. Such debate is entirely normal - and essential - for scientific inquiry.New and novel methods must be tried, tested, critiqued, improved and tried again. Science is incremental and gradual - unlike the uncapped production and pollution of plastics, which contain thousands of hazardous chemicals. Decades of robust evidence demonstrates the harms that theseinflict on people and planet. Continue reading...

Archaeologists say stencil painted with ochre in limestone cave on Muna Island was created at least 67,800 years agoThe faded outline of a hand on a cave wall in Indonesia may be the world's oldest known rock art, according to archaeologists who say it was created at least 67,800 years ago.The ancient hand stencil was discovered in a limestone cave popular with tourists on Muna Island, part of south-eastern Sulawesi, where it had gone unnoticed between more recent paintings of animals and other figures. Continue reading...

She set the record for most spacewalk time by a woman and spent nine months at the International Space StationSuni Williams, one of two Nasa astronauts whose 10-day test flight mission turned into a nine-month odyssey on the International Space Station (ISS), has retired from the US space agency.The 60-year-old former navy captain left in December after 27 years with Nasa, according to a press release from the agency on Tuesday. Jared Isaacman, the agency's new administrator, praised her as a trailblazer in human spaceflight". Continue reading...

Aurora lights shimmering over Earth were filmed on camera by Russia's space agency Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov from the International Space Station. The phenomenon is caused by solar storms emitting high-speed charged particles colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere. The most common colour seen during this display is green, although other colours such as pink and red are sometimes visible as well.'During yesterday's strongest storm in two decades, there was plenty of red glow. It felt as if we were literally sailing inside that light,' Kud-Sverchkov wrote on his Telegram channel on 20 January Continue reading...

Veronika's improvised grooming device has caused great surprise - but that tells us more about humans than cowsI have a farmer friend who regularly regales me with colourful stories of her cattle. Take the time when a beef cow called Noisette used her tongue to pull back the catch on the door of her pen so she could steal cattle nuts from the nearby feed bin. Or the time when she did it again, not to let herself out, but seemingly to stand back and watch as her freed compatriots mooched around and caused mayhem."Where others see a herd of cows standing around looking bored, my friend sees a soap opera, with characters and plot twists. Cows, she tells me, learn quickly, bore easily and have an indefatigable penchant for mischief.Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction Continue reading...

A study of Arabidopsis thaliana plants found that plants growing together activated genes to protect themselves, while isolated plants did notPlants growing close to each other can warn each other about stresses in their lives.Thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants were grown on their own or crowded so close together they were touching each other. When all the plants were then stressed with intense light, the isolated plants suffered severe damage, but the crowds of plants were able to cope with the stress. In fact, it just took an hour for the crowded plants to switch on more than 2,000 of their genes that were involved in protecting against a host of different stresses; in contrast, the isolated plants showed little sign of any extra gene activity. Continue reading...

Overuse and pollution must end urgently as no one knows when whole system might collapse, says expertThe world has entered an era of global water bankruptcy" that is harming billions of people, a UN report has declared.The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report's lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social cohesion. Continue reading...

Trial involving 4,000 children will explore impact on mental health, sleep and time spent with friends and familyA pioneering investigation into the impact of restricting social media access for children in the UK has been announced as politicians around the world consider action on the issue.In December, Australia became the first country to ban under-16s from social media, with governments in other countries, including the, coming under pressure to do the same. Continue reading...

British Museum hails record-breaking year for archaeological discoveries - thanks largely to metal detectoristsA hoard of pennies linked to Harold II and most likely buried on the eve of battle in 1066, a rare Roman vehicle fitting, and a group of early medieval objects are among the archaeological finds and treasure discovered in Britain in 2024.It was a record-breaking year for archaeological and treasure finds in Britain, with the highest number recorded in a single year - thanks in large part to metal detectorists. Continue reading...

The spectacular aurora australis, also known as the southern lights, may be visible as far north as Victoria and New South WalesA severe' solar storm, which is being monitored by the National Emergency Management Agency, could make auroras visible in Australia as well as cause disruptions to the power grid.

Studies detecting microplastics throughout human bodies have made for alarming reading in recent years. But last week, the Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, reported on major doubts among a group of scientists about how some of this research has been conducted.Damian tells Ian Sample how he first heard about the concerns, why the scientists think the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives, and where it leaves the field. He also reflects on how we should now think about our exposure to microplasticsClips: Vox, Detroit Local 4 Continue reading...