Researchers say toxic chemicals pose a pollution risk as oil and gas companies are allowed to leave pipelines to rotDecaying oil and gas pipelines left to fall apart in the North Sea could release large volumes of poisons such as mercury, radioactive lead and polonium-210, notorious for its part in the poisoning of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, scientists are warning.Mercury, an extremely toxic element, occurs naturally in oil and gas. It sticks to the inside of pipelines and builds up over time, being released into the sea when the pipeline corrodes. Continue reading...
by Hosted by Savannah Ayoade-Greaves; written by Mari on (#6JVVR)
From Tucker Carlson to Johnny Depp, a celebrity bromance is the must-have accessory for modern dictators, says Marina Hyde (1m50); the Libertines on feuds, friendship and their tortured reunion by Simon Hattenstone (9m03); and how habituation, a simple behavioural trick, can help you experience less pain and more pleasure by Cass Sunstein and Tali Sharot (35m49). Continue reading...
Intuitive Machines CEO says Odysseus tipped over and ended up on its side as it landed on to south polar regionOdysseus, the first US-built spacecraft to touchdown on the moon in more than half a century, is tipped over on its side, according to an update from Nasa and Intuitive Machines, the company that built and operated the lander.The robotic lander descended on to the south polar region of the moon on Thursday at 6.23pm ET. But several minutes passed before flight controllers were able to pick up a signal from the lander's communication systems. Continue reading...
Experiment records minuscule gravitational pull as a step to understanding how force operates at subatomic levelScientists have detected the pull of gravity on the microscopic scale in a feat that lays the groundwork for probing its nature in the mysterious quantum realm.In an experiment involving sophisticated superconducting apparatus cooled to within a whisker of absolute zero, and brass weights stuck to an electrical bicycle wheel, physicists recorded a minuscule gravitational tug of 30 quintillionths of a newton on a particle less than a millimetre wide. Continue reading...
My father's partner, Felicity Grainger, who has died aged 80, began her working life as a research scientist before moving into the world of academic libraries, eventually becoming head of the library services serving three major medical schools.Born in Bournemouth to Stuart Grainger, a bank manager, and Phyllis (nee Brett), after gaining a first-class honours degree in zoology in 1964 from Queen Mary College, London, Felicity received a doctorate in anatomy from University College London, after which she spent 10 years as a researcher in neuroscience in London and Cambridge. Continue reading...
Researchers hope the findings will inform policymakers planning cities for a warming worldFew things are as soothing on a hot summer's day as a walk through a beautiful botanical garden, but they are not just oases of calm. As climate breakdown fuels soaring temperatures, they could prove crucial in moderating the heat in the streets around them.A comprehensive review of research into the heat-mitigating effects of green spaces during heatwaves has found that botanical gardens are the most effective. It is a finding the team at the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCCAR) hope will inform policymakers planning cities for a warming world. Continue reading...
Previously unknown settlement in Small Hythe was once an important infrastructure linkA very rare" clay figurine of the god Mercury, one of fewer than 10 ever found in Britain, has been discovered at a previously unknown Roman settlement that once sat next to a busy port - but is now 10 miles from the sea.The site of the settlement, in the modern hamlet of Small Hythe (or Smallhythe), near Tenterden in Kent, now sits among fields, but was once an important link in the Roman empire's import and infrastructure network in southern England and the Channel. Continue reading...
Intuitive Machines' spacecraft Odysseus lands after a 73-minute descent, touching down near moon's south poleThe United States has returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately-built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with a touchdown near the moon's south pole.Amid celebrations of what Nasa hailed a giant leap forward", there was no immediate confirmation of the status or condition of the lander, other than it had reached its planned landing site at crater Malapert A. Continue reading...
by Maanvi Singh (now) and Martin Belam (earlier) on (#6JTST)
This blog has now closed, but you can read our latest story hereOdysseus has started its powered descent initiative", as it readies for a landing. The engine on the lander has started up, and it is slowing itself down. As it lowers, sensors on the it will look for a safe spot for a landing,As an example of the mixed payloads that private space missions are taking, Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson said of today's mission Nasa scientific instruments are on their way to the moon, a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century." Continue reading...
by Jonathan Watts Global environment editor on (#6JT9W)
Proposal focuses on technique that fills atmosphere with particles, reflecting part of sun's heat and light back into spaceSwitzerland has initiated a global debate on whether the risks, benefits and uncertainties" of dimming the sun should be studied by a United Nations expert group.It is proposing that the world body should gather information about ongoing research into solar geoengineering, and set up an advisory panel that could suggest future options for the untested and controversial approach to reduce global heating, which would have implications for food supply, biodiversity, global inequality and security.This article was corrected on 22 February 2024. A previous version stated that 400 scientists had signed the appeal for a solar geoengineering non-use agreement, and also said that opponents of SRM had contributed to the One Atmosphere report. A further correction on 23 February 2024 clarified details around the research funding. Continue reading...
Arguments about sex differences in the brain have raged for centuries. As intriguing as they are, surely there are more urgent questionsThere seems to be an insatiable public appetite for information about sex differences in the human brain, eagerly harnessed by the media in many forms. A paper out this week from a research group at Stanford University made headlines for its innovative contribution to this form: using an AI neural network model to look at brain scans to see if it could reliably" and robustly" tell female and male brains apart. In other - more neutral - words, could the algorithm tell whether the brain patterns being looked at were from women or men?The answer was yes", though rather more guarded in the paper itself than in the reports about it. What was interesting about the study was that it seemed to have moved beyond the stereotypical size matters" agenda - asking whether male or female brains are bigger or smaller in different areas - instead measuring differences in the working brain using a method that looked at differences in blood flow to various brain regions.Prof Gina Rippon is emeritus professor of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, and the author of The Gendered BrainDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
If barrier controlling substances entering and exiting brain is off balance, it can drive changes in neural functionFrom forgetfulness to difficulties concentrating, many people who have long Covid experience brain fog". Now researchers say the symptom could be down to the blood-brain barrier becoming leaky.The barrier controls which substances or materials enter and exit the brain. It's all about regulating a balance of material in blood compared to brain," said Prof Matthew Campbell, co-author of the research at Trinity College Dublin. Continue reading...
Linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined. But it's also crumbling fastAt the heart of linguistics is a radical premise: all languages are equal. This underlies everything we do at the Endangered Language Alliance, an eccentric extended family of linguists, language activists, polyglots and ordinary people, whose mission is to document endangered languages and support linguistic diversity, especially in the world's hyperdiverse cities.Language is a universal and democratic fact cutting across all human societies: no human group is without it, and no language is superior to any other. More than race or religion, language is a window on to the deepest levels of human diversity. The familiar map of the world's 200or so nation-states is superficial compared with the little-known map of its 7,000 languages. Some languages may specialise in talking about melancholy, seaweed or atomic structure; some grammars may glory in conjugating verbs while others bristle with syntactic invention. Languages represent thousands of natural experiments: ways of seeing, understanding and living that should form part of any meaningful account of what it is to be human. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, produced by Madeleine Fin on (#6JT3F)
A record 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023. To find out what's driving this trend, Ian Sample speaks to Ivan Oransky, whose organisation Retraction Watch has been monitoring the growing numbers of retractions for more than a decade, and hears from blogger Sholto David, who recently made headlines when he spotted mistakes in research from a leading US cancer institute. Continue reading...
More than 50 top researchers sign letter asking for philanthropic support to transform cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatmentLeading cancer experts from around the world are calling on wealthy individuals and philanthropists to dig into their deep pockets to accelerate a new golden age of cancer research.More than 50 senior scientists from the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, including three Nobel laureates, say advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies have created a unique opportunity" to transform cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment in the next 10 years. Continue reading...
People in areas of high PM2.5 concentrations had higher amounts of amyloid plaques in brainAir pollution from traffic is linked to some of the more severe forms of dementia, and could be a significant cause of the condition among those who are not already genetically predisposed to it, research suggests.Research carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, found that people with higher exposure to traffic-related fine particulate matter air pollution were more likely to have high amounts of the amyloid plaques in their brains that are associated with Alzheimer's. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6JSDS)
ERS-2 breaks up into pieces and plummets into the ocean after reentering Earth's atmosphereAn uncontrolled satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere somewhere between Alaska and Hawaii on Wednesday, astronomers confirmed.The pioneering European satellite, known as ERS-2, entered the atmosphere at 17.16pm on Wednesday after almost 30 years in orbit, the European Space Agency said. It is thought to have broken into pieces, with the majority burning up and the remains plummeting into the ocean below. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6JSJH)
Scientists describe small study as long overdue deep dive into biology of conditionScientists have uncovered compelling evidence for abnormalities in the brain and immune systems of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).The findings, in one of the most rigorous investigations to date, begin to illuminate the biological basis for the illness that can cause disabling fatigue. The study is the first to demonstrate a link between imbalances in brain activity and feelings of fatigue, and suggests that these changes could be triggered by abnormalities in the immune system. Continue reading...
Researchers think undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testingThe Covid death toll in the US is likely at least 16% higher than the official tally, according to a new study, and researchers believe the cause of the undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing.The second year of the pandemic also had nearly as many uncounted excess deaths as the first, the study found. Continue reading...
Watching at least five hours of TV a day associated with higher risk of nocturia, or needing to get up and urinate twice or more a nightSitting down to binge watch the latest TV drama might seem like the perfect way to unwind, but researchers have found that people who spend lengthy periods in front of the box are more likely to need to pee multiple times a night.Writing in the journal Neurourology and Urodynamics, researchers in China report how they analysed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US, focusing on responses collected from 2011 to 2016. Continue reading...
Fresh growth sprouted from buds under bark and deep inside trees, some buds having lain dormant for 1,000 yearsIn August 2020, wildfire burned almost the entire Big Basin Redwoods state park in California, scorching ancient redwood trees, some dating back more than 1,500 years and among the tallest living things on Earth.Redwoods are naturally fire resistant thanks to their thick bark, but the wildfire was so intense and flames so high the trees' foliage was destroyed, even in tree canopies more than 300ft high. Continue reading...
Traits associated with the neurodevelopmental disorder could have helped early humans when foraging for foodTraits common to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), such as distractibility or impulsivity, might have been an evolutionary advantage for our ancestors by improving their tactics when foraging for food, researchers have said.ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms including impulsiveness, disorganisation and difficulty focusing. While estimates of prevalence have varied, diagnoses have been rising in many countries, including the UK. Continue reading...
People who tick at least three out of five boxes including not smoking and good sleep are found to have 42% lower riskCombining three healthy behaviours can reduce the risk of irritable bowel syndrome by 42%, a study suggests.IBS affects the digestive system and its symptoms include stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. People can suffer for days, weeks or months at a time, and symptoms can come and go. IBS is thought to affect up to one in 10 people worldwide. Continue reading...
Four-person crew will inhabit 3D-printed replica of red planet to help develop and evaluate systems for missions slated for 2030sFor anybody already jaded by the news and joking about a trip to outer space to avoid it all, Nasa might just have you covered.The space agency is seeking four volunteers to spend a year living on Mars - or at least a 3D-printed replica of the red planet. Isolation is pretty much guaranteed. Continue reading...
In documentary The Space Race, the people involved with major progress within Nasa talk about their highs and lowsIn space, Victor Glover orbited the Earth every 90 minutes, witnessing 16 sunrises and sunsets in a single day. In America, Victor Glover got behind the wheel of his car and knew that, as a Black man, he might be pulled over by police.You still have to drive home from work and be worried about a busted tail light stop," he recalls of his early years training to be astronaut. I am the son of a police officer so I knew all those tactics. I've been pulled over. I had police officers harass and I would give them my ID and they'd be like, Oh, this is Victor Glover's kid,' and then I got treated differently. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Robert Booth, p on (#6JRBP)
Social affairs correspondent Robert Booth tells Madeleine Finlay why a class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes, first developed in the 1950s, is leading to a worrying number of fatal overdoses in the UK. And she hears from toxicology and addiction specialist Dr Joseph D'Orazio about a tranquilliser called xylazine that has been showing up in alarming volumes in the US illegal drug supply and is now starting to appear in toxicology reports in the UKClips: Sky News, CBS News Continue reading...
Authors hope data encourages women who may not get enough exercise that even relatively small amounts can be beneficialWomen experience greater benefits than men from the same amount of regular exercise, research suggests when it comes to avoiding an early grave.According to the NHS, men and women aged 19 to 64 should clock up at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 of vigorous exercise a week, with muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. Continue reading...
British pathologist who helped to uncover the first evidence that cancer in humans could be caused by a virusIt did not seem like a good thing when a precious consignment of human tumour samples on its way from Kampala, Uganda, to Heathrow was diverted to Manchester. When the samples finally arrived at the Middlesex hospital in London, they were swimming in murky fluid in their vials as though they had been infected with bacteria.But when the pathologist Anthony Epstein looked at the fluid under the microscope he saw no bacteria, just individual cells that had been shaken loose from the tumours. And that was just what he needed in order to search for elusive virus particles and test his hunch that they were causing cancer. Continue reading...
The solutions to today's problemsEarlier today I set these two puzzles, which were given to me by a computer scientist at Microsoft. They are an analogy for how companies protect data centres from the random failures of hard drives. Here they are again with solutions and workings.The disappearing boxes Continue reading...
How to protect machines against random failuresUPDATE: The solutions can be read hereI've temporarily moved to Berkeley, California, where I am the science communicator in residence" at the Simons Institute, the world's leading institute for collaborative research in theoretical computer science.One nano-collaboration is today's puzzle - told to me by a computer scientist at Microsoft I befriended over tea. It's about data centres - those warehouses containing endless rows of computers that store all our data. Continue reading...
Researcher who established the value of genetics for understanding psychiatric conditionsPeter McGuffin, who has died aged 74, showed the importance of trying to establish how genetic and non-genetic factors act together to predispose people to psychiatric disorders: so-called gene-environment interplay. He was also one of the first to see the potential of the DNA revolution for understanding psychiatric disorders, and his work laid the foundations for the application of genomics to psychiatry.It used to be assumed that depression could be divided into two forms: one the result of adverse circumstances (reactive depression) and the other the result of intrinsic factors such as genetic risk (endogenous depression). Continue reading...
There has been a surge in cases of scabies and measles - both highly contagious - as well as rickets and scurvy, conditions we thought had been eradicated. Are public health cuts to blame?Before Covid-19, Dr Farzana Hussain says, it was rare for her to see a case of scabies at her GP surgery in Newham, east London, but since the pandemic, the number of patients with the parasitic skin infection has increased dramatically.By the time a patient comes to me for advice, everyone in the family has it, including all the children," she says. The itch is maddening. People demand immediate treatment." Continue reading...
My obsession with trying new activities finally led me to my greatest passion - horse riding - when the last lockdown liftedGrowing up, I thought of myself as a horse girl". I knew the importance of keeping your heels down and your back straight, how to braid your horse's mane for dressage, and that real horse girlies mucked out the stalls themselves. I could navigate the febrile politics of a stable, handle the intensity of competition and understood why everyone looked at the new girl sideways - she had to earn her place.Of course, I had never walked into a stable, let alone ridden a horse. I had no sleek jodhpurs folded in my closet, well-worn riding boots zipped up around my calves or favourite gelding to feed apples and Polo sweets to as a treat. My equestrian knowledge came entirely from reading books, starting with the wholesome Pony Pals and Saddle Club series from the local library, through to the tense Thoroughbred novels following the lives of young jockeys in Kentucky racing. Despite growing up in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia, less than a half-hour drive from multiple stables, I did not once think to ask my parents for riding lessons. It would take a move to London in my mid-20s, a pandemic lockdown in the big city and that old cliched desire to reconnect with nature" before my equine dreams came true. Continue reading...
In the 70s, weather forecasts were accurate just one or two days ahead. Now a specialist university project at Reading is trying to get them right a month into the futureThe mainstay of casual conversation - the unexpected state of the weather - is under existential threat. Scientists plan to make forecasts so accurate they will be able to determine weather patterns a month into the future.Barbecue misery and Wimbledon washouts could take a serious hit - thanks to the new 15-year research programme that has been launched by Reading University, in partnership with the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The aim is to transform our ability to unravel the minute influences that determine weather patterns and uncover the limits of predictability in the real world. Continue reading...
Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson convince as a perma-turbulent couple; a devastating docuseries pays homage to the doomed Columbia space shuttle crew. Plus, ill-fitting wartime drama with Coco Chanel and Christian Dior and a sweet, old-school reality showAlice & Jack (Channel 4) | channel4.com
Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh, whose sister died of a glioblastoma tumour, is to present a bill calling for new laws for clinical trialsPotential new treatments for brain cancer are being hampered by the failure of pharmaceutical companies to provide the drugs required for research and by regulatory delays, a leading cancer charity has warned.Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 in the UK than any other cancer, but research has been underfunded for years. About 12,000 are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour in the UK each year. Continue reading...
From deciding where to have lunch to choosing to walk away from a danger you haven't even identified yet, intuition plays a part in all our livesOn a rainy night in London, a young woman walks towards the entrance of a sidestreet, smiling to herself as she recalls the evening spent with the friend she just farewelled at the train station. She's about to walk down the poorly-lit shortcut that will take her back to her accommodation, when she stops.Something in her body tells her not to go down that street. She pauses, then turns back towards the busy, well lit but longer route home.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
The environmentally friendly LignoSat probe - set to orbit this summer - has been created to combat harmful aluminium particlesJapanese scientists have created one of the world's most unusual spacecraft - a tiny satellite that is made of timber.The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer. Continue reading...
A bronze age woman who suffered lower back pain 4,000 years ago and an iron age Pictish man who lived a life of hard labour 1,500 years ago are among our ancient ancestors who have been brought to life in dramatic facial reconstructions. Cutting-edge technology will enable visitors to Scotland's new Perth Museum to come face to face with four individuals from our past in modern-day Perthshire
Dramatic reconstructions of local people who lived up to 4,000 years ago will go on display thanks to advanced DNA techniquesA Bronze Age woman who suffered lower back pain 4,000 years ago and an Iron Age Pictish man who lived a life of hard labour 1,500 years ago are among our ancient ancestors who have been brought to life in dramatic facial reconstructions.Cutting-edge technology will enable visitors to Scotland's new Perth Museum to come face to face with four individuals from our past in modern-day Perthshire. Continue reading...
How social media companies have become the new information gatekeepers; a gripping real-life love affair - or is it?; a psychiatrist reflects on her work with violent offenders; and remembering the late, great Steve WrightThe Gatekeepers (Radio 4) | BBC Sounds
Joao Luis Barreto Guimaraes, a breast cancer specialist and prizewinning poet, is pioneering the teaching of poetry alongside medicine to help trainee doctors empathise with their patientsIn an unremarkable lecture hall on a rainy Monday afternoon, Candida Pereira is expounding passionately on the intricacies of a poem by the Portuguese politician-poet Vasco Graca Moura. Her classmates listen closely as the second-year university student enthuses about lyric form, poetic voice and Moura's use of perceptual imagery" and sensual tone". Nothing unusual for a standard poetry module, perhaps. Yet once the bell goes, Pereira will repack her well-thumbed poetry anthology and replace it with more prosaic textbooks on neuroanatomy and pharmacology. The 19-year-old is one of 20 or so trainee doctors at Porto University's medical faculty taking a new elective course on the fundamentals of modern poetry.In today's ever more transactional healthcare culture, the initiative signals a belief in the priority of people-centred care and old-fashioned notions of a doctor's bedside manner". As the course creator Joao Luis Barreto Guimaraes explains, poetry has a unique capacity to help students connect holistically with their future patients, as opposed to viewing them as a medical problem in need of fixing. Continue reading...
Space agency announces successful liftoff' and says rocket has already released one micro-satelliteJapan's space agency has successfully launched a second test model of its new flagship rocket H3, in a welcome boost to its space program after last year's inaugural flight failed.The launch further burnishes the country's space credentials after the historic pinpoint" moon landing of Japan's Slim spacecraft last month. Continue reading...
Research finds greater proportion of people diagnosed with more advanced melanoma since Covid restrictionsDelays in diagnosis and treatment of a dangerous type of skin cancer because of Covid lockdowns resulted in more than 100,000 years of life lost across Europe and cost the economy more than 6bn, research has suggested.While lockdowns saved lives from Covid, ramifications of the restrictions are apparent in many areas of healthcare, from lengthy waiting lists for surgery to delays in cancer diagnoses and treatment. Continue reading...
Georgia residents and animal rights activists unhappy at proposal to house long-tailed macaques in sprawling complexA plan to establish the largest monkey-breeding facility in the US, which would allow 30,000 macaques to roam within outfitted warehouses in Georgia, is facing a furious backlash from animal rights groups and some local residents.The sprawling, 200-acre complex would house an unusually large number of monkeys, which will then be sent out to universities and pharmaceutical companies for medical research. Over the next 20 years, the facility will assemble a mega-troop of about 30,000 long-tailed macaques, a species native to south-east Asia, in vast barn-like structures in Bainbridge, Georgia, which has a human population of just 14,000. Continue reading...
Fresh from controversially suggesting adding salt to tea, Michelle Francl says eating fruit can prolong caffeine rush from your cuppaIf you find yourself feeling the energising effect of your morning cuppa has worn off before the bus arrives, the scientist behind controversial advice to put salt in tea has some more palatable advice: try some grapefruit.Michelle Francl, a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, caused an international storm in a teacup last month after suggesting a pinch of salt would create the perfect brew. Continue reading...
Officials say space-based' weapon under development but not yet deployed is not immediate threat to anyone's safetyThe White House has confirmed that it is monitoring a new Russian anti-satellite weapon which it said is being developed but not yet deployed, calling it troubling" but not an immediate threat to anyone's safety.The national security spokesperson, John Kirby, would not directly confirm or deny reports that the new Russian weapon was nuclear, but he did say it was space-based" and that it violated the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the deployment in space of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian