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Black room' with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern ItalyA banquet room replete with well preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war has been unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most striking discoveries ever made at the southern Italy archaeological site.The 15-metre-long, six-metre-wide room was found in a former private residence in Via di Nola, which was ancient Pompeii's longest road, during excavations in the Regio IX area of the site. Continue reading...

This absorbing exploration of nostalgia raises questions about its slippery nature, and shows how it has been chillingly deployed in politics, from the cold war to TrumpismIn the 1970s there were American pressreports of an Iowa man who wastormented by his yearning forthe16-year stretch of time that ranfrom 1752 to 1768. His misery was theresult of not being able to find anyone who shared this deep nostalgia for aperiod when electricity was still arumour and America was proud to think of itself as British.But does this really count as nostalgia? Is it not, actually, a bid for attention, a way for the man from Iowa to signal that, while his body might betethered to the cornfields, his mind isfree to roam in exquisite pastures where gentlemen routinely wear wigs and night-time travel is best reserved for a full moon? Agnes Arnold-Forster doesn't say, but deploying the anecdote allows her to draw attention to the slipperiness of the very concept ofnostalgia. Is it a legitimate and trans-historical emotion, like sadness or rage? Or could it be rather a cultural confection, a passing fancy expressive of a particular time and place (in thecase of the man from Iowa, this wouldbe Gerald Ford's post-Vietnam America)? Most fundamentally of all,can you feel nostalgic for a time oraplace that you never actually experienced yourself? Continue reading...

This week, in a landmark case, the European court of human rights ruled that Switzerland's weak climate policy had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life. Ian Sample talks to Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan about why the women brought the case and what the ruling could mean for future climate policy.Read Ajit Niranjan's article about the court case Continue reading...

The Nobel prize-winning British physicist Peter Higgs has died aged 94. The confirmation in 2012 of the existence of the Higgs boson particle, five decades after Higgs had first theorised its existence, paved the way for his 2013 Nobel win. Nicknamed the god particle', the Higgs boson was part of an attempt to explain why the building blocks of the universe have mass. Ian Sample and Madeleine Finlay look back on the life and legacy of a giant of scienceRead an obituary of Peter Higgs Continue reading...

Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years agoThe remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700-900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with. Continue reading...

Theoretical physicist whose name was attached to the Higgs boson, a sign of the mechanism underlying the structure of atomsIn 1964 the theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, who has died aged 94, suggested that the universe contains an all-pervading essence that can be manifested in the form of particles. This idea inspired governments to spend billions to find what became known as Higgs bosons.The so-called Higgs mechanism" controls the rate of thermonuclear fusion that powers the sun, but for which this engine of the solar system would have expired long before evolution had time to work its miracles on earth. The structure of atoms and matter and, arguably, existence itself are all suspected to arise as a result of the mechanism, whose veracity was proved with the experimental discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Alex Blasdel's long read on the studies of brain activity immediately after deathAlex Blasdel's long read contains some fascinating facts and speculations (The new science of death: There's something happening in the brain that makes no sense, 2 April). However, it is odd to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences - physicalist, parapsychological and spiritualist.While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of kooks and grifters", many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are neither parapsychologists nor spiritualists, are now openly debating alternatives to physicalism. There are other, arguably better, metaphysical lenses through which to interpret the evidence, such as panpsychism and idealism (most notably, in my view, the rigorously rationalist analytic idealism" put forward by the philosopher and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup).

Nobel-prize winning physicist who showed how particle helped bind universe together died at home in EdinburghPeter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed a new particle known as the Higgs boson, has died.Higgs, 94, who was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964 showing how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass, died at home in Edinburgh on Monday. Continue reading...

Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it or scrunching and throwing in the bin eliminates angry feelings, study findsSince time immemorial humans have tried to devise anger management techniques.In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong" and offered avoidance tips in his AD45 work De Ira (On Anger). Continue reading...

I'd love to feel the beautiful mysteries of the universe. But I have other interestsThe total solar eclipse, visible in parts of Mexico, the US and Canada yesterday, was experienced in the UK only as a small grazing" (that's what the astronomers call it), and then only in the north and west of the country. Happily, I went to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for the eclipse of 2015, where coverage was 98% and people (not just me) had travelled for it from all over the country.It was news to me that people even existed who were that into eclipses. In further news: it doesn't even have to get that dark to fill eclipse-heads" with wonder, and it duly didn't - it just looked like a sad, wintry day. People talk of eclipse winds, whipping up at no notice and going in weird directions; it was quite windy, but that turned out to be normal for March. I'd heard tell that animals take on an expression of intense concentration - some call it wonder - and this I couldn't verify, as there were only dogs there and not enough of them (two). But fair play, there are never enough dogs for me anywhere. Continue reading...

Huge gravity of these dense stars, which have burned all their own fuel, rips apart smaller planetary bodiesIt's the end of the world, not quite as we know it.Scientists from the University of Warwick and other universities have studied the impact white dwarfs - end-of-state stars that have burned all their fuel - have on planetary systems such as our own solar system. Continue reading...

How can you change your life for the better today? Learn not just to appreciate happiness - but to anticipate itBe honest: there are times when you have felt schadenfreude, or delight in another's misfortunes". But what about vorfreude? I recently came across this lovely word, which my German-speaking friend translated as the anticipation of joy". It struck me as such a hopeful concept - surely we could all do with less schadenfreude and more vorfreude. So what exactly is anticipatory joy, how do we cultivate it and will it make us happier?The idea is to find joy in the lead-up to an event," says Sophie Mort, a clinical psychologist and mental health expert at the meditation and mindfulness app Headspace. For example, we often feel joy and excitement when planning a trip, thinking about going on a date or anticipating a special meal." It's easy to look forward to holidays and special occasions, but a joy-filled life is also about everyday occurrences. Rory Platt, a writer at the personal development company The School of Life, says: The trick lies in filling our calendar with lots of little moments to look forward to - like tiny baubles that, when seen from adistance, combine to make a moreglittering future." Continue reading...

For most people seeing a total solar eclipse is a once in a lifetime experience. But for scientists it can be a fleeting chance to understand something deeper about their field of research. Madeleine Finlay meets solar scientist prof Huw Morgan, of Aberystwyth University, and Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at NC State University, to find out what they hoped to learn from 8 April's four minutes of darkness.Find out more about how animals behave during a solar eclipse Continue reading...

Chemical analysis reveals origin of coinage that stimulated trade and helped fuel development of new towns from seventh centurySeveral decades after the Sutton Hoo burial, starting in about AD660, there was a sudden rise in the number of silver coins in circulation in England, for reasons that have long puzzled archaeologists and historians.The new rush of silver coinage stimulated trade and helped fuel the development of the new towns springing up at the time - but where did it come from? Were the Anglo-Saxon kings recycling old Roman scrap metal? Or had they found lucrative sources from mines in Europe? Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories on the total eclipse below:

Almost 32 million people in the path of totality as moon's shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border and then traversed 15 states

People in 15 US states, Mexico and Canada witnessed the awe-inspiring spectacle of a a total solar eclipse on Monday. Cities were plunged into sudden darkness and their inhabitants experienced a sharp drop in temperatures. The first such eclipse to cross the US in seven years swept ashore at the Mexican beach resort Mazatlan before crossing the Texas border at Eagle Pass and heading north-east towards Canada

The moon blocks the sun along a path that cuts across several countries

The weather largely cooperated as eclipse watchers were awarded with a heavenly event as clouds parted and sun and moon mergedIgnas Barauskas almost missed it.He bought plane tickets from his home in Lithuania to the United States about a month ago. After a series of flight delays, he landed in Dallas around midnight, ready for a once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse of the sun. Continue reading...

Each pregnancy is linked with an additional two to three months of biological ageing, researchers sayPregnancy may speed up biological ageing in women, a study has found.Scientists at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York looked at the reproductive histories and DNA samples from 1,735 people in a long-term, continuing health survey in the Philippines to investigate the influence pregnancy has on the ageing process. Continue reading...

Observers in Mazatlan were the first to witness a rare solar eclipse as the moon obscured the sun over Mexico. People in the US and Canada were also able to enjoy the spectacle. The most recent total solar eclipse in the USwas in 2017, but an interval of only seven years is unusual. The previous one before that took place in 1979, and the next one visible in the US will not be until August 2044

You might have to travel a bit - and wait a few years - but there will be another eclipse as long as the sun, moon and Earth are in orbit

More consensual touch helps ease or buffer against mental and physical complaints, meta-analysis showsWhether it is a hug from a friend or the caress of a weighted blanket, the sensation of touch appears to bring benefits for the body and mind, researchers say.The sense of touch is the first to develop in babies and is crucial in allowing us to experience the environment around us as well as communicate. Indeed, the loss of touch from others during the Covid pandemic hit many hard. Continue reading...

TikTokers and brands are getting in on the rare phenomenon, as astrological warnings and conspiracy theories abound

Frantic giraffes, barking gibbons, randy tortoises ... previous solar eclipses have revealed varied responses to sudden onset of darkness

Not half as much as we think, according to the evidence - and there are ways to break the cycle of mutual mistrustPolitics is a firestorm, sometimes literally. In 2023 in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts, someone threw petrol on a pro-Trump sign nailed to a tree and set light to it. Three years earlier in the same area, a 49-year-old Trump supporter started a huge blaze after igniting some hay bales that were emblazoned with a pro-Biden sign. This bucolic area of Massachusetts is not known for arsonists, but both here and everywhere else in the world, it's as though people are consumed by hate.And it's not just America where liberals and conservatives seem to detest each other. A UK survey in 2017 found that both Conservative and Labour supporters viewed the other side as much less intelligent, open-minded and honest than their own. Only 24% and 19%, respectively, would be happy with their child marrying someone from the other side of the ideological divide. Continue reading...

Patric Gagne has spent most of her life fighting terrible urges. She is also a loving sister, daughter, mother and wife. She talks about her remarkable journeyThere is a slight flash in her eyes as Patric Gagne describes what she calls the tug" - the moment she imagines something she really shouldn't do and thinks: Wouldn't that be fun?"She laughs. What would once have been a compulsion can now be overpowered by logic and consequences. You want to take that car for a joyride? Yes, but if I did that, I'm probably going to have to answer for it. And do I want to? Not really." This isn't to say that Gagne wouldn't jump at an opportunity, if she could argue she wasn't at fault. It happened recently, she says. Waiting for her car, parked by a valet, she was given the keys to someone else's and drove off in it. They handed me the keys! And then I was like" - she puts on a mock-surprised voice - Oh, this is not my car.'" Her husband, when he heard, didn't love it", she says. She smiles as if to say: but what did he expect? Continue reading...

The total eclipse visible in North America may be seen as a partial one in some UK areas - weather permittingMillions of people in the US, Canada and Mexico are planning to gather to watch Monday's solar eclipse, when the daylight skies will be momentarily engulfed in darkness as the moon passes between the sun and the Earth.More than 31 million people live in what is known as the path of totality - the area that will see a full total eclipse. Continue reading...

Georges-Louis Leclerc proposed species change and extinction back in the 1740s, a new book revealsShortly after Charles Darwin published his magnum opus, The Origin of Species, in 1859 he started reading a little-known 100-year-old work by a wealthy French aristocrat.

Global concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide climbed to unseen levels in 2023, underlining climate crisisThe levels of the three most important heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached new record highs again last year, US scientists have confirmed, underlining the escalating challenge posed by the climate crisis.The global concentration of carbon dioxide, the most important and prevalent of the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity, rose to an average of 419 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2023 while methane, a powerful if shorter-lasting greenhouse gas, rose to an average of 1922 parts per billion. Levels of nitrous oxide, the third most significant human-caused warming emission, climbed slightly to 336 parts per billion. Continue reading...

Travel agency rearranged lodging for dozens of people after two-year-old bookings were canceled - and resold at higher ratesHotel rates in states in the path of the solar eclipse on Monday have surged to astronomical prices, with some eclipse watchers traveling from across the country to find their reservations canceled and sold for several times the original price.Millions of Americans are expected to travel to witness one of the most spectacular celestial events in recent memory, with the moon's path of totality set to sweep across 15 states, along with parts of Mexico and Canada, bringing with it more than a billion dollars for local economies. Continue reading...

The Harvard professor reveals how everyday rituals can help us cope with pressure, unlock our emotions and define our identities - but can also become unhelpful and divisiveMichael Norton studied psychology and was a fellow at the MIT Media Lab before becoming professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Known for his research on behavioural economics and wellbeing, Norton published his first book, Happy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending, with Elizabeth Dunn, in 2013. For his latest, The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions, out on 18 April, Norton spent more than a decade surveying thousands of people about the role of ritual in their lives.Rituals seem a tricky subject for scientific study. How do you categorise them and measure their effect?

Groundbreaking research finds dropping the third stage of standard MRI test for the disease doesn't hamper detection rates, and cuts costs in halfCutting the duration of MRI scans for prostate cancer by a third would make them cheaper and more accessible without reducing their accuracy. That is the key result of a UK trial which indicates that lowering costs could ensure more men are offered scans.According to Cancer Research UK, there are about 52,300 new prostate cancer cases every year in the UK, equal to more than 140 a day. Continue reading...

On Monday, the moon will block the sun in what many say will be one of the most spectacular celestial events in recent timesThe total solar eclipse that will traverse a large chunk of the continental US on Monday, along with parts of Mexico and Canada, will be one of the most spectacular celestial events in recent memory. Here's what you need to know: Continue reading...

The survival of ancient dialects matters not just for scholarship, but because of the wisdom they convey about how to live with natureThe launch of a last chance" crowdsourcing tool to record a vanishing Greek dialect drew attention back this week to one of the great extinctions of the modern world: nine languages are believed to be disappearing every year. Romeyka, which is spoken by an ageing population of a few thousand people in the mountain villages near Turkey's Black Sea coast, diverged frommodern Greek thousands of years ago. It has nowritten form.For linguists, it is a living bridge" to the ancient Hellenic world, the loss of which would clearly be a blow. But some languages are in even bigger trouble, with 350 that have fewer than 50 native speakers and 46 that have just one. A collaboration between Australian and British institutions paints the situation in stark colours, with a language stripes chart, devised to illustrate the accelerating decline in each decade between 1700 and today. Its authors predict that between 50% and 90% of the world's 7,000 languages will be extinct by 2150. Even now, half of the people on the planet speak just 24 of them. Continue reading...

Settlement in case allows six people to view the total eclipse after suing to oppose state's decision to lock down prisonA group of incarcerated people in New York will be allowed to watch Monday's total eclipse of the sun after suing the state's correctional department for its decision to lock down the prison during the celestial event.Six people at the Woodbourne correctional facility in southern New York state will be allowed to view the solar eclipse in outdoor space in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs", according to a statement from the group's lawyers. Continue reading...

The lauded burns pioneer and plastic surgeon on a paradigm shifting' project, coping with tragedy and the patients she will never forget

Cities expect huge crowds with millions gathering in 115-mile wide path of totality' for Monday's exceptionally large and long eclipseShould the weather gods grant their blessing, a celestial show for the ages will darken the heavens over a large swathe of the US from Texas to Maine on Monday, giving tens of millions of people a grandstand view of a rare phenomenon being billed as the Great American Eclipse".It will be another 20 years until the next total solar eclipse can be viewed anywhere in the contiguous US, lending extra incentive for many who live outside the 115-mile wide path of totality" to travel in and experience the moments of twilight, stillness and a sudden temperature drop the event will bring. Continue reading...

From Rafael Nadal's ball-bouncing to families' Christmas traditions, what purpose does ritualistic behaviour serve?The adjective ritual", from Latin via French, means related to religious rites. (A rite, according to the OED, is a prescribed act or observance in a religious or other solemn ceremony".) As soon as it appeared, however, the word ritual" could be used in a derogatory fashion to denote things empty of authentic spiritual content. In his Ecclesiastical History (1570), for example, the martyrologist John Foxe complained about two epistles erroneously (so he argued) attributed to the third-century pope Zephyrinus: they contained no manner of doctrine" but only certain ritual decrees to no purpose". Today one may disparagingly speak of some writer's ritual genuflection" to fashionable norms, to accuse them of a kind of moral and intellectual cosplay.

Largest study of its kind predicts 85% increase in deaths from the disease in same period as more men live longerThe number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide is projected to double to 2.9 million a year by 2040, with annual deaths predicted to rise by 85%, according to the largest study of its kind.Prostate cancer is already a major cause of death and disability, and the most common form of male cancer in more than 100 countries. But with populations ageing and life expectancy rising globally, a new analysis forecasts a dramatic surge in cases and deaths over the next 15 years. Continue reading...

Newsstand influence | Tax relief for charitable giving | Starter for 10 | Mind-body dualism | A period of silence from MPsArchie Bland notes the declining circulation of the Sun and the Times (Winning over the Times and the Sun won't decide the next election - but Starmer's Labour can't kick the habit, 2 April). But newspaper displays in supermarkets and motorway service areas act as billboards. Thousands of non-buyers still see the screaming tabloid headlines every day. Whether they are influenced would be an interesting research topic.

Researchers say findings from map with three times more galaxies than previous efforts could challenge standard idea of dark energyThe biggest ever 3D map of the universe, featuring more than 6m galaxies, has been revealed by scientists who said it raised questions about the nature of dark energy and the future of the universe.The map is based on data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (Desi) in Arizona and contains three times as many galaxies as previous efforts, with many having their distances measured for the first time. Continue reading...

Some US schools are closing for the day, while other families plan to travel to more remote locations to watch the solar eventThe moon will completely block the face of the sun on Monday and, for a few minutes, people in the US, Mexico and Canada will experience a total solar eclipse.The alignment between the sun and the moon has to be precise and this gives rise to a narrow track of totality - roughly 71 miles (115km) across - from which the total eclipse can be seen. Continue reading...

Influential psychologist who studied how people make decisions and changed the way economists thinkThe psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who has died aged 90, won the 2002 Nobel prize for economics despite describing himself as mostly cheering ... from the sidelines" of the subject. He achieved celebrity status in 2011 with the pop psychology book Thinking, Fast and Slow, at the age of 77 and after a lifetime of rigorous academic research. Such unpredictable events were typical of his long and eclectic career, while also provoking him to ask the myriad questions about human behaviour that formed the basis of his often counterintuitive theories. His work revealed the extent to which human beings make erroneous judgments in everyday situations and base decisions on those judgments. Steven Pinker called him the world's most influential living psychologist".From early in his career, working at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Kahneman had been interested in obtaining results that could be applied to real-world situations. One of his first insights came when he was trying to persuade flight instructors that reward was more effective than punishment when training people in new skills. A member of his class flatly contradicted him, saying that cadets he praised for a successful manoeuvre invariably did worse the next time, and those he reprimanded for fluffing a skill did better. Continue reading...

More than 50 clinics will offer tests to about 5,000 people who are worried about their memory in five-year trialThousands of people across the UK who are worried about their memory will receive blood tests for dementia in two trials that doctors hope will help to revolutionise the low diagnosis rate.Teams from the University of Oxford and University College London will lead the trials to research the use of cheap and simple tests to detect proteins for people with early stages of dementia or problems with cognition, with the hope of speeding up diagnosis and reaching more people. Continue reading...

Psychologist Chris French has spent decades studying paranormal claims and mysterious experiences, from seemingly-impossible coincidences to paintings that purportedly predict the future. Ian Sample sits down with French to explore why so many of us end up believing in, what he terms, weird shit', and what we can learn from understanding why we're drawn to mysterious and mystic phenomena Continue reading...

Researchers say findings that diabetes drug lixisenatide can slow progression of motor symptoms could be exciting step forwardA drug similar to those used in skinny jabs" could help to slow the progression of symptoms of Parkinson's disease, research suggests.According to the Parkinson's Foundation, more than 10 million people around the world are living with Parkinson's - a condition in which nerve cells in the brain are lost over time causing problems with movement, balance and memory, among other effects. Continue reading...

Laverne Biser has traveled the world to witness the phenomenon - and what might be his final one will pass directly over his Texas houseLaverne Biser has traveled to several US states as well as a handful of foreign countries to gaze at and fawn over a dozen solar eclipses. But for what the 105-year-old retired engineer realizes may be his final one on 8 April, he won't have to go far.The total eclipse is expected to pass over his home in Fort Worth, Texas. And he has plans to soak in the occasion - what stands to be his 13th solar eclipse - with his daughter and granddaughter in nearby Plano. Continue reading...

Monitoring station detects predatory species using artificial intelligence and sends alert so nests can be tracedAn early warning system designed to track and trace predatory Asian hornets using artificial intelligence has been unveiled by experts from a British university.Researchers from the University of Exeter have invented a system that draws hornets to a monitoring station. They land on a sponge cloth impregnated with food and an overhead camera captures images. Continue reading...