Space junkyards | Additions to signs | No-joke planning reforms | Chris Rea | Last-ditch attempt | Trump class' | Moving obituaryI do hope countries agree to use the Jules Verne crater on the far side of the moon as a spacecraft graveyard to crash defunct equipment as they use Point Nemo in the South Pacific Ocean as a spacecraft cemetery (Patches of the moon to become spacecraft graveyards, say researchers, 22 December).

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we look skyward, where a new lunar contest mirrors humanity's struggle to live within planetary limitsDuring the cold war's space race, the Apollo moon missions were driven by the need to prove American superiority. Having made that political and technological point with the 1969 moon landing, the contest between Moscow and Washington petered out. A new dash across the skies kicks off in 2026, reigniting geopolitical competition under the guise of peaceful exploration". The moon's south pole is emerging as the most valuable real estate in the solar system, offering peaks of eternal light" for solar arrays and ice deposits in craters shielded fromthesun.The US and a China-led bloc are eyeing the lunar surface and its potential to control a post-terrestrial economy. Space had been humanity's last commons, supposedly shielded by the 1967 UN outer space treaty that bans state exploitation of the heavens. It is vague, however, on private claims - a loophole that is now fuelling a tycoon-led scramble for the stars. The aim is obvious: to act first, shape norms and dare others to object. Two lunar missions launching next year- Nasa's Artemis II and China's Chang'e 7 - are competing for strategic supremacy. Continue reading...

Texas governor among those to call for expanded access to ibogaine, said to help with treating veterans with PTSDFor half a century, psychedelics largely belonged to the cultural left: anti-war, anti-capitalist, suspicious of the church and state. Now, one of the most politically consequential psychedelic drugs in the US - ibogaine - is being championed by evangelical Christians, Republican governors, military veterans, and big tech billionaires.Many of them see ibogaine, an intense psychedelic derived from a central African rootbark, as a divine technology. In fact, some pointedly do not refer to it as a psychedelic, given the apparent baggage of the term in some circles. Continue reading...

Wintering Well boxes to counter effects of low light on mental health are super popular', says island librarianBoxes of light" are being used to help people who struggle with low winter mood while living in one of Scotland's darkest communities as part of a wider research initiative to support the million-plus sufferers of seasonal affective disorder across Britain.Residents of the Orkney Islands have been able to borrow a Wintering Well Box from their library since the clocks went back in October, with the kits already proving super popular" according to Sue House, an assistant librarian at Orkney Library - the oldest public library in Scotland and coincidentally an online sensation, thanks to its goofy social media presence. Continue reading...

Surgeon leading xenotransplantation trial aimed at solving shortage of human organs says edits can lessen risk of rejectionA leading surgeon behind a clinical trial of transplanting pig kidneys into living humans has said they could one day be superior to those from human donors.Dr Robert Montgomery, the director of NYU Langone's Transplant Institute, said the first transplant of the trial had already been carried out, with another expected to take place in January. Six patients are initially expected to receive the pig organs, which have been gene-edited in 10 places to reduce rejection by the human body. Continue reading...

Our circadian cycle doesn't just affect our sleeping and waking, but our motivations, mood, behaviour and alertness. Whether you are a lark or an owl, here's how to recognise your own rhythm Sign up here to get the whole series straight to your inboxIt's easy to hate clocks. Their unstoppable forward churn wakes us up and shames us for running late. They are a constant reminder that every enjoyable moment, just like life itself, is ephemeral. But even if we rounded up all our time-telling devices and buried them deep in the earth, we could never escape clocks. Because we are one.We don't need to have studied the intricacies of circadian rhythms to know that we are ravenous at certain times and not others, that the mid-afternoon slump is real, and if we party until 4am we're unlikely to sleep for eight hours afterwards, because the body clock has no sympathy for hangovers. But to better understand this all-encompassing daily cycle is to truly know our animal selves. Continue reading...

We can share images and sounds, so why not smells? Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie hopes her new atlas will make scentsChristmas may be associated with the aromas of oranges and mince pies but our towns and cities also boast special scents during the rest of the year. Now, one researcher is publishing an atlas attempting to capture these quirky smellscapes".Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie, a designer and researcher at the University of Kent, said she first became intrigued by the sense of smell 15 years ago. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scientists find a way to forecast hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which affects millions worldwideScientists are developing a simple blood test to predict who is most at risk from the world's most common inherited heart condition.Millions of people worldwide have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease of the heart muscle where the wall of the heart becomes thickened. It is caused by a change in one or more genes and mostly passed on through families. Continue reading...

Sarah Harper says society must create new ways of living and working amid potential silver economy'Concerns over an ageing population are overblown and society should learn to celebrate and capitalise on its massive cohort of healthy, active, older, creative adults", a leading population expert has said.While pundits and pressure groups have raised concerns over falling fertility rates, highlighting the challenges for the economy and healthcare, others are more upbeat, arguing the rise of the silver economy" brings new opportunities for growth. Continue reading...

Psychologists have typically believed that we become less curious as we age, but recent research has shown curiosity actually becomes more targeted and specific in our later years. In this episode from September, Madeleine Finlay hears from Dr Mary Whatley, an assistant professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, and Dr Matthias Gruber of Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Centre to find out why we change in this way, and how maintaining broad curiosity into older age can help keep our brains youngSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Flame retardants commonly used in furniture are linked to serious health issues, including cancer and thyroid diseaseRemoving old furniture made with flame retardants from people's homes can significantly reduce the amount of the toxic chemicals in blood, a new 10-year, peer-reviewed study by California regulators and public health groups has found.The drop that researchers found was a super big deal", said Arlene Blum, the director of the Green Science Policy Institute who has for decades worked to reduce the level of flame retardants in consumer goods. Continue reading...

Researchers share the easy ways to uncover moments of festive discovery, proving you don't need a lab coat to experiment this ChristmasChristmas may seem like a time for switching off and suspending disbelief but there are plenty of ways to introduce a little science into the celebrations.We asked experts for their top home experiments to challenge friends and family. Continue reading...

Richard Fishacre used his knowledge of light and colour to argue against fifth element' theories of the dayAbout 800 years ago, Richard Fishacre, a Dominican friar at the University of Oxford, challenged the scientific thinking of the day, using his understanding of the behaviour of light to show that stars and planets are made of the same elements as found on Earth. Though he faced heavy criticism at the time, Fishacre would probably have been delighted to learn that very similar principles are being used to make discoveries today.During his lifetime it was believed that Earth was made up of four elements - fire, water, earth and air - while the stars and other planets were made from a special transparent and unchanging fifth element. Continue reading...

Scientists working for government breed biological control agents in lab to take on species choking native wildlifeCrayfish, weevils and fungi are being released into the environment in order to tackle invasive species across Britain.Scientists working for the government have been breeding species in labs to set them loose into the wild to take on Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish and Himalayan balsam, and other species that choke out native plants and wildlife. Continue reading...

Studying chemical chatter as tiny balls of cells embed could shine a light on early pregnancy and glitches that lead to miscarriageResearchers have created the lining of a womb in a dish, which promises to shed light on the mysterious early stages of human pregnancy and the glitches that can lead to miscarriage and medical complications.In laboratory experiments, early-stage human embryos donated from couples after IVF treatment successfully implanted into the engineered lining and began to churn out key compounds, such as the hormone that results in a blue line on positive pregnancy tests. Continue reading...

Scientists are beginning to understand that ageing is not simply a linear process and we age, according to recent research, in three accelerated bursts: at about 40, 60 and 80 years old. In this episode from July, Ian Sample talks to Stanford University's Prof Michael Snyder, who explains what the drivers of these bursts of ageing could be, and how they might be counteractedScientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts - at 44, then 60Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Biologist says specimen filmed by a Victorian fisher is unusual', but not a rare albino as some had wondered

The answers to today's problemsEarlier today I set you the following set of numerical challenges to celebrate the arrival of 2026.Auld lang signsFive 9sSix 8s.Six 7s.Six 6s.Four 5s.Six 4s.Four 3s.Four 2s.a partridge in a pair tree. (Only joking) Continue reading...

South coast most likely to see snowflakes, though a full festive blanketing has been unlikely for decades nowWhile ongoing showers might suggest this Christmas will be a washout, experts say a wintry snap is on its way and some areas of the UK might even have a white Christmas.According to the Met Office, high pressure is building - meaning that, while some areas may experience showers, many will have drier and more settled weather. Continue reading...

As number of lunar satellites soars, sites will be marked out where defunct hardware can be crash-landedPatches of the moon are destined to become spacecraft graveyards where dead lunar satellites and other defunct hardware can be crashed into the ground, far away from sites of cultural and scientific importance, researchers say.The number of satellites circling the moon is set to soar in the next two decades as space agencies and private companies build moon bases and dabble with mining operations and constructing scientific instruments on the barren terrain. Continue reading...

Researchers have realised the records are a goldmine' to study changes in environmental conditionsYangang Xing had never heard of organ-tuning books, but his colleague Andrew Knight often played the pipe organ at churches as a teenager.When the pair, who are researchers at Nottingham Trent University, set out to study how environmental conditions in churches had changed over time, Knight explained that all over the country many organs had notebooks full of data tucked away in their recesses.This article was first published by The Reengineer Continue reading...

From HIV to TB, scientists and doctors made breakthroughs in treatment and prevention of some of the world's deadliest diseasesWith humanitarian funding slashed by the US and other countries, including the UK, this year's global health headlines have made grim reading. But good things have still been happening in vaccine research and the development of new and improved treatments for some of the most intractable illnesses. Continue reading...

This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industryThe Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.Professor Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-author with Peter Hotez of Science Under Siege; Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science Continue reading...

The year ahead in numbersUPDATE: Read the solutions hereAs we say goodbye to 2025, let's delight in its numerical charms one final time. The year was unique this century as being a square number.44 = 193645 = 202546 = 2116Five 9sSix 8s.Six 7s.Six 6s.Four 5s.Six 4s.Four 3s.Four 2s.a partridge in a pear tree. (Only joking) Continue reading...

Patient watchers should wrap up warm to witness one of nature's subtler events on night of 22 to 23 DecemberIf the Geminids whetted your appetite for meteor showers, then you are in luck. This week it is the turn of the Ursids. Admittedly, they are nowhere near as plentiful as the Geminids, producing a maximum of just 10 meteors an hour, but there is a unique satisfaction to witnessing one of nature's subtler events.The dust grains that make up the Ursids come from the comet 8P/Tuttle, which was discovered in 1858 by the American astronomer Horace Parnell Tuttle, a prolific comet hunter. Continue reading...

Survey adds to experts' concern about addiction risk and highlights support for plan to ban sales to under-18sOne in eight teenagers aged 14 to 17 have used nicotine pouches, a survey has found, adding to health experts' concern about their growing popularity.Users hold the small sachets, which look like mini-teabags and are often flavoured, in their mouths to enjoy the release of the nicotine they contain. They are also known as snus". Continue reading...

Cutting-edge therapies exist, but the market cannot deliver them cheaply. Britain must build NHS capacity so that cures become collective goods, not expensive productsJust a small fraction of our 20,000 genes can cause disease when disrupted - yet that sliver accounts for thousands of rare disorders. The difficulty is: what can a doctor do to treat them? In a common condition such as type 2 diabetes, the underlying biology is similar for millions of patients. The doctor can prescribe metformin. But with a genetic disorder, the mutation might only affect a small number of people worldwide. In many cases, doctors won't even know which mutation is responsible, let alone how to fix it.Novel gene-editing breakthroughs are making headlines. But therapies are expensive and complex to develop. The cost of bringing any new drug to patients is now around $2bn, in part because, as BrianDavidSmith notes in New Drugs, Fair Prices, thesuccess rate, from discovery to market, is tiny" and there are approved treatments for less than 10% of the 8,000diseases that affect humans". Commercialincentives, he argues, skew innovation towards lucrative cancer drugs and long-term treatments for large populations. Complex gene therapies for very rare conditions are seen as too costlyto develop and too small to profit from. Continue reading...

The commercialisation of the cosmos is already underway, and our current laws aren't fit for purposeIf there is one thing we can rely on in this world, it is human hubris, and space and astronomy are no exception.The ancients believed that everything revolved around Earth. In the 16th century, Copernicus and his peers overturned that view with the heliocentric model. Since then, telescopes and spacecraft have revealed just how insignificant we are. There are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, each star a sun like ours, many with planets orbiting them. In 1995, the Hubble space telescope captured its first deep-field image: this showed us that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our known universe, huge wheeling collections of stars dispersed through space. Continue reading...

Michaela Benthaus from Germany soared 65 miles above the Earth's surface in 10-minute Blue Origin flightA paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers on Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high.Severely injured in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user in space, launching from west Texas with Jeff Bezos's company Blue Origin. She was accompanied by a retired SpaceX executive also born in Germany, Hans Koenigsmann, who helped organize and, along with Blue Origin, sponsored her trip. Their ticket prices were not divulged. Continue reading...

UN body to study possibility of integrating centuries-old practices into mainstream healthcareFrom herbalists in Africa gathering plants to use as poultices to acupuncturists in China using needles to cure migraines, or Indian yogis practising meditation, traditional remedies have increasingly being shown to work, and deserve more attention and research, according to a World Health Organization official.A historical lack of evidence, which has seen traditional practices dismissed by many, could change with more investment and the use of modern technology, according to Dr Shyama Kuruvilla, who leads the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre. Continue reading...

Study finds dropping an expletive can raise confidence and help people push harder during physically demanding tasksIt may not be in keeping with the festive spirit, but if you find yourself dropping the F-word while wrestling a Christmas tree up a flight of stairs, scientists say you could be on to something. A study has found that swearing can enhance physical performance by lowering inhibitions and pushing the brain into a flow state".In many situations, people hold themselves back - consciously or unconsciously - from using their full strength," said Dr Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele University who led the research. Swearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident and less distracted, and go for it a little more." Continue reading...

Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and science educator who has worked on a number of instruments that are revolutionising our view of the cosmos, including the James Webb Space Telescope. This year she will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, Britain's most prestigious public science lectures, in which she will be exploring some of the big questions space science still has to answer.Nicola Davis sat down with Dame Maggie to discuss the lectures, why she is convinced there is life beyond our planet, and her dream of journeying to a distant exoplanet. Madeleine Finlay hears from them both in this Christmas special edition of Science Weekly.Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Vote on Isaacman, private astronaut and Mars missions advocate, passes 67-30 for him to be agency's 15th leaderThe US Senate has confirmed the billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become Donald Trump's Nasa administrator. The confirmation makes an advocate of Mars missions and an ally of the SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the space agency's 15th leader.The vote on Isaacman, who Trump nominated, removed and then renamed for the post of Nasa administrator this year, passed 67-30, two weeks after he told senators in his second hearing that Nasa must pick up the pace in beating China back to the moon this decade. Continue reading...

The unusual phenomenon is caused by sunlight passing through layers of fogThe skies over parts of Britain turned a soft shade of pink on Wednesday morning as the low sun shone through layers of widespread fog to produce the rare atmospheric treat.Meteorologists at the Met Office said the fog formed when temperatures dropped overnight. They issued a yellow warning across a large area of central and northern England where the fog would be slow to clear, which remained in effect until 10am.Pink fog enveloped the countryside at sunrise in Oxfordshire. Continue reading...

Governor Jared Polis warned that breaking up Boulder's NCAR would put public safety at risk'The Trump administration is breaking up a research center praised as a crown jewel" of climate research after accusing it of spreading alarmism" about climate change.Russell Vought, the director of the White House's office and management budget, said the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, would be dismantled under the supervision of the National Science Foundation. Continue reading...

Findings mean more than 1 million people could meet NHS criteria for treatment with anti-amyloid drugsOne in 10 people in the UK aged 70 and older could have Alzheimer's-like changes in their brain, according to the clearest, real-world picture of how common the disease's brain changes are in ordinary, older people.The detection of the proteins linked with the disease is not a diagnosis. But the findings indicate that more than 1 million over-70s would meet Nice's clinical criteria for anti-amyloid therapy - a stark contrast to the 70,000 people the NHS has estimated could be eligible if funding were available. Continue reading...

At least 27 of 38 countries in WHO's European region are reporting high or very high influenza activity, body says

Exclusive: DNA advances show Roman-era skeleton, once hailed as first black Briton, came from southern EnglandBeachy Head Woman, a Roman-era skeleton once hailed as the earliest known black Briton and who scientists later speculated could be of Cypriot descent, has now been shown to have originated from southern England.The mystery of the skeleton's shifting identity was finally resolved after advances in DNA sequencing produced a high-quality genetic readout from the remains. Continue reading...

Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, was shot multiple times at his home, and no details about a suspect or motive have been releasedThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is grieving after the shocking" shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials.Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, was shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston suburb of Brookline on Monday night. Loureiro was taken by emergency responders to hospital, and he was pronounced dead there on Tuesday morning, the Norfolk county district attorney's office said in a statement. Continue reading...

A brilliant history of psychiatric ideas suggests we are on the cusp of a transformation in our understanding of severe mental illnessIn 1973, an American psychologist called David Rosenhan published the results of a bold experiment. He'd arranged for eight pseudo-patients" to attend appointments at psychiatric institutions, where they complained to doctors about hearing voices that said empty", hollow" and thud". All were admitted, diagnosed with either schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis. They immediately stopped displaying any symptoms" and started saying they felt fine. The first got out after seven days; the last after 52.Told of these findings, psychiatrists at a major teaching hospital found it hard to believe that they'd make the same mistake, so Rosenhan devised another experiment: over the next three months, he informed them, one or more pseudopatients would go undercover and, at the end, staff would be asked to decide who had been faking it. Of 193 patients admitted, 20% were deemed suspicious. It was then that Rosenhan revealed this had been a ruse as well: no pseudopatients had been sent to the hospital at all. Not only had doctors failed to spot sane people in their midst; they couldn't reliably recognise the actually insane. Continue reading...

Nepenthes khasiana oozes an enticing liquid on the rim of its pitchers that tempts its prey into a deadly trapA carnivorous pitcher plant has recently been found to use a chemical nerve agent to drug its prey and lead them to a deadly end, being consumed in digestive juices at the bottom of the pitcher traps.The pitcher plant Nepenthes khasiana oozes an enticing sweet nectar on the rim of its pitchers for visiting insects, particularly ants, to feed on to lure them into the trap. But the nectar is laced with a toxic nerve agent called isoshinanolone, which strikes at the ant's nervous system, leaving it with sluggish movements, weakened muscles, and causing it to groom itself excessively. Eventually the prey falls upside down in spasms, with the nerve agent sometimes killing it outright. But apart from isoshinanolone, the nectar also contains three types of sugars that can all absorb water and make the rim of the pitcher especially slippery, so the prey is more likely to slide down into the pitchers. Continue reading...

Organisers of award in honour of late primatologist hope it will inspire and encourage people to take actionEarth might be under pressure, but the Queen guitarist Sir Brian May is hopeful a new award from the science, music and arts festival he co-founded will encourage people to take action.The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will be given in honour of the British primatologist who died this year and will recognise those who champion life on Earth. Continue reading...

The oil and gas industry must be legally bound to cut methane emissions. With climate tipping points approaching, time is running out Mia Mottley is the prime minister of BarbadosThe timing is brutal. Just as the world celebrates the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Paris climate agreement this month, new evidence shows that the world is crashing through the main defence that was constructed against climate catastrophe.The three-year temperature average is - for the first time - set to exceed the Paris guardrail of 1.5C above preindustrial levels. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2025 will join 2023 and 2024 as the three warmest since the Industrial Revolution, reflecting the accelerating pace of the climate crisis.Mia Mottley is the prime minister of Barbados Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: As species across the world struggle to keep pace with global warming, how do we report the rare glimmers of hope without downplaying the accelerating ecological crisis?Good morning. Amid the constant drumbeat of bleak news about the planet's environment and the accelerating climate emergency, the occasional bright spot still emerges. One example came last week, when researchers published the first statistical evidence that polar bears are changing their DNA in response to a warming Arctic.But is it really good news that human activity - the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of habitats - is forcing animals to alter their genetic makeup? The picture, as ever, is complicated.Donald Trump | Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the BBC over its editing of a speech he made to supporters in Washington before they stormed the US Capitol in 2021, requesting at least $5bn in damages.Australia | Australia's national security agency Asio investigated one of the alleged Bondi shooters in 2019 over potential extremist links but decided he was not a person of interest", prime minister Anthony Albanese has revealed, despite two of the man's associates being jailed.International trade | The US has paused its promised multi-billion-pound investment into British tech over trade disagreements, marking a serious setback in US-UK relations.Health | Resident doctors in England will go on strike as planned this Wednesday for five days, after they voted to reject the government's latest offer to end the long running pay and jobs dispute.Ukraine | Europe is ready to lead a multinational force" in Ukraine as part of a US proposal for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, European leaders have said. Continue reading...

First new treatments for sexually transmitted disease in decades approved by US Food and Drug Administration as number of cases worldwide surge to 82mThe first new treatments for gonorrhoea in decades could be a huge turning point" in efforts to combat the rise of superbug strains of the bacteria, researchers have said.Gonorrhoea is on the rise around the world, with more than 82m infections globally each year and particularly high rates in Africa and countries in the World Health Organization's Western Pacific region, which reaches from Mongolia and China to New Zealand. Cases in England are at a record high, and rates in Europe were three times higher in 2023 than in 2014. Continue reading...

We all know eating too much sugar is bad for our health - but would we be better off replacing it with artificial sweetener? It's a question Science Weekly listener Marion posed recently and, as Madeleine Finlay tells Ian Sample, the answer is complicated. She explains what the science says about sugar v sweeteners with the help of Prof Havovi Chichger, from Anglia Ruskin University, and Prof Jim Krieger, from the University of Washington's school of public healthSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

An early flu season, a new variant and poor takeup of vaccines leave the already vulnerable health service in a dangerous position

Synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast fashion retailers, can be treated with a range of hazardous chemicals which can cause an allergic reaction. If you think this is happened to you, we'd like to hear from youHave you suffered any personal health repercussions you suspect may have been caused by your fashion purchases?Research has shown that synthetic fabrics, particularly from fast fashion retailers, are often treated with a range of hazardous chemicals - including dyes containing heavy metals such as lead, antimicrobial agents, and anti wrinkle treatments - that can cause allergic reactions such as skin irritation or respiratory issues in some people. Continue reading...

Winter solstice marks moment when Earth's north pole is tilted as far away from the sun as possibleAstronomical winter begins this week for the northern hemisphere, with the winter solstice taking place on 21 December. This is the shortest day of the year, and therefore the longest night. It has been greeted with many cultural celebrations through the ages. Ancient Rome's Saturnalia, for example, involved a week of feasting and gift-giving in which the masters served their slaves.The winter solstice marks the moment when Earth's north pole is tilted as far away from the sun as possible. This means that the sun appears at its most southerly position in the sky, and rises only to its lowest noon altitude, as seen from the northern hemisphere. Continue reading...

Australian researchers think the skeleton found in South Africa is not the same species as two found in the same South Africa cave systemLittle Foot, one of the world's most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa 1994, leading to a painstaking excavation over 20 years in the Sterkfontein cave system. Continue reading...