Science | The Guardian

US technology company's engineers want to exploit solar power and the falling cost of rocket launchesGoogle is hatching plans to put artificial intelligence datacentres into space, with its first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027.Its scientists and engineers believe tightly packed constellations of about 80 solar-powered satellites could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth's surface equipped with the powerful processors required to meet rising demand for AI. Continue reading...

As global leaders and environmental activists descend on Brazil for next week's Cop30 climate summit, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian's global environment editor, Jon Watts, who recently sat down for an exclusive interview with the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres. As he approaches his penultimate summit as the UN chief, Guterres reflected on humanity's progress in attempting to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, why Indigenous voices must be listened to and how he remains positive in the face of the climate crisisChange course now': humanity has missed 1.5C climate target, says UN headSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Scientists find even modest amounts of exercise appear to delay brain changes and cognitive decline in patientsEven modest amounts of daily exercise may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease in older people who are at risk of developing the condition, researchers have said.People are often encouraged to clock up 10,000 steps a day as part of a healthy routine, but scientists found 3,000 steps or more appeared to delay the brain changes and cognitive decline that Alzheimer's patients experience. Continue reading...

On 5 November, the moon will be just under 357,000km from Earth, making it appear bigger and brighterThis week brings the largest supermoon of the year. Supermoons occur because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular around the Earth. Instead, it is an ellipse, meaning that sometimes the moon will be closer to the Earth than at other times.When a full moon coincides with the moon being within 10% of its closest point to Earth, we call it a supermoon. Its proximity makes it appear subtly bigger and brighter than other full moons. Continue reading...

Esther Addley reports on a class action suit of more than 3,000 cancer survivors and their loved ones against Johnson & JohnsonI remember lying on a bed,' says Sue Rizello of her earliest memory nearly 60 years ago, with my mum leaning over me and using baby powder on me.'Baby powder, or, more specifically, the talcum powder sold by pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is one of those things which was there all my life ... it's very deeply embedded in the psyche that this was a gentle, safe product', she tells Annie Kelly. It was good for your baby. It's good for you.' Continue reading...

Three-year study will test biopsy analysis tool shown in trials to identify men likely to benefit from certain drugsA tool that uses artificial intelligence to help diagnose men with prostate cancer and guide decisions about treatment is to be tested in NHS hospitals, researchers have announced.The 1.9m Vanguard Path study, funded by Prostate Cancer UK and led by researchers at the University of Oxford, is expected to last three years and will test an AI tool called the ArteraAI Prostate Biopsy Assay. In total, biopsies from more than 4,000 men will be used. Continue reading...

Researchers tracking large cohorts are discovering the effects of sleep, light and therapy on people impacted by winter's arrivalFor some, the darkening days of autumn bring more than the annual ritual of reviving woolly jumpers and turning on the central heating. As the evenings close in and the mornings grow murky, energy ebbs and a heavy sadness settles in.Although seasonal affective disorder (Sad) was only formally recognised by psychiatrists in the 1980s, the link between the seasons, mood and vitality has long been observed. Continue reading...

Risk to general public is low but cases in California suggest virus is spreading undetected in some communitiesA newer variant of mpox, the virus formerly known as monkeypox, is now spreading through some communities in the US and Europe.The risk to the general public is low, but community transmission in new places signals greater challenges for public health to detect cases and stop the spread. Continue reading...

Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and SpainBritain is one of the least nature connected" nations in the world, according to one of the first ever global studies of how people relate to the natural world.Britain ranks 55th out of 61 countries in the study of 57,000 people, which looks at how attitudes towards nature are shaped by social, economic, geographical and cultural factors. Continue reading...

Huge increase in tree-killing disease is result of climate crisis, experts sayA golden mushroom that grows in clusters and can attack and kill trees has increased by 200% in the UK in a year because of the hot summer and damp autumn.Recorded sightings of honey fungus are up by almost 200% compared with the same period last year, according to iNaturalist. Continue reading...

Modern life is waging a war against ecosystems around us and inside us. Keeping our own microbes healthy is another reason to demand action to preserve the natural worldRead more: The luxury effect: why you'll find more wildlife in wealthy areas - and what it means for your healthHuman bodies are like cities, teeming with microcitizens - vast communities of viruses, fungi and bacteria that live all over our skin and inside us. Unsung public servants help us digest food, regulate our immune system, defend against pathogens, and keep hormones in check. Together, they make up what we call the human microbiome.Most people have probably heard of the gut microbiome, but different microbes thrive all over our bodies - in our nostrils, on our feet, in our eyes. They are slightly different, like boroughs are composed of different communities of people. Ninety per cent of cells in our body are microbes, and clouds" of bacteria come off someone's body as they enter a room. We are all walking ecosystems, picking up and shedding material as we move through life. Continue reading...

Nasa chief Sean Duffy confirms 1969 landing was indeed real after US celebrity on TV show says I think it was fake'Nasa has rejected comments made by Kim Kardashian about the 1969 moon landing and confirmed that it did, in fact, happen.During Thursday's episode of The Kardashians, the Skims founder questioned whether the space mission ever took place while noting her interest in conspiracy theories. Continue reading...

Analysis of Montana fossils shows the battling predator was a fully grown Nanotyrannus, not a young T rexThe fossilised remains of two dinosaurs locked in combat have unleashed a fresh drama, suggesting diminutive specimens thought to be Tyrannosaurus rex teenagers could instead be separate, smaller species.The duelling dinosaurs" fossil, which reveals a triceratops in battle with a medium-sized tyrannosaur, was unearthed in Montana by commercial fossil hunters in 2006 and dates to shortly before the asteroid strike that ended the reign of the dinosaurs 66m years ago. Continue reading...

The pricing standoff between government and industry has stalled research and put thousands of jobs at riskWe want to see more investment flow to Britain," the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urged of big pharmaceutical companies this month, as she indicated that the government was willing to increase the price it pays for NHS drugs. Ministers are likely to announce a rethink on pricing soon, potentially by the end of this week.But the size of that rise remains uncertain. The big question is whether it will be generous enough to convince pharmaceutical companies, which account for a near-100bn slice of the UK economy, to resume the investments they had paused in a strong-arm campaign to secure concessions from government. Continue reading...

Science correspondent Nicola Davis investigates the strange story of Tam O'Braan and his attempts to grow tea in Scotland.In episode three, all of Tam's lies come to a head and Stuart uncovers exactly where Tam was sourcing tea to supply to hotels and shops. At trial, Tam takes the stand and Richard and the Scottish growers finally get some answers. But what remains today of the nascent Scottish tea industry that Tam instigated?Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Lawyer says difficult to understand' rules on storage consent led to confusion and left clients in limbo'A group of at least 15 fertility patients are taking legal action to prevent their frozen embryos being destroyed as a result of administrative errors that could deny them a chance to have children.The group, which includes people with cancer and fertility problems, froze gametes or embryos to improve their chances of conceiving later on, but were informed by their clinics that owing to administrative errors they had not renewed their consent in time and would not be able to access their embryos or extend their storage without a court order. Continue reading...

Researchers find the longest-living mammal is particularly good at fixing faulty DNA - and cold water may helpWith a maximum lifespan of more than 200 years, the bowhead whale lives longer than any other mammal. But how the 80-tonne beasts survive so long has never been fully explained.Now scientists have found hints of an answer and are drawing up plans to see whether the same biological trick can be performed in humans. If so, it raises hopes for boosting healthy ageing and protecting organs and tissues during surgery and transplantations, they say. Continue reading...

Videos about personality science are going viral on social media, but beware of giving them credence ...In the 1950s, a secretary in a San Francisco medical office noticed something weird: some of the chairs in the waiting room needed to be reupholstered more frequently than others. Patients with coronary disease, she realised, nearly always arrived on time and gravitated towards hard upholstered chairs rather than comfy sofas. They'd then sit on the edge of the chair, fidget, and aggressively leap up when their names were called.This insight took on a life of its own. First it helped inspire the cardiologists she reportedly mentioned it to - Dr Ray Rosenman and Dr Meyer Friedman, who wrote a 1959 paper that essentially invented the idea of a type A" personality. It classified competitive, productivity-obsessed workaholics as demonstrating overt behaviour pattern A", and argued they were more likely to get heart attacks. They later wrote a book, Type A Behaviour and Your Heart, which became a bestseller. Familiar story, eh? A woman has an insight which is then monetised by two men. Continue reading...

Study finds lapses of attention in sleep-deprived people coincide with wave of fluid flowing out of the brainIt's never a great look. The morning meeting is in full swing but thanks to a late night out your brain switches off at the precise moment a question comes your way.Such momentary lapses in attention are a common problem for the sleep deprived, but what happens in the brain in these spells of mental shutdown has proved hard to pin down. Continue reading...

Young people are eschewing medical trials, to their own detriment. Maybe my tales of pills, tubes and paydays can inspire a generationGen Z has a reputation for being boring". Not only do they reportedly prefer going to the gym than the pub, and staying at home and going to bed at 9pm rather than going clubbing, now they are refusing to sign up for medical trials. Back (way back) when I was a lad, it was all pubbing, clubbing and medical trials. And I've still got the scars to prove it.The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency states that all human medicines must undergo human testing before they are made widely available. This is mainly to investigate any unwanted side-effects. The cure for the common cold is no good if it also makes your genitals fall off. Alternatively, the side-effect may be useful when studied further: aspirin works as a blood thinner; some antidepressants curb nicotine withdrawal. It must have been a hell of a day when they tested Viagra and discovered some unexpected side-effects: its original purpose was to treat chest pain caused by angina. Continue reading...

A charismatic, tweed-wearing grower from Perthshire falsely claimed to be able to create thriving tea plantations in Scotland. His elaborate deception took in luxury hotels, media outlets and tea growers across the countryWith its large silver pouch, artistic label and delicate leaves, Dalreoch Scottish white tea might be expected to grace elegant cups with saucers, perhaps with a scone served on the side. Instead, it is nestled with an array of numbered polythene packets in a room just off a laboratory at the University of Aberdeen.This is not an ordinary afternoon tea but evidence in a crime that science helped solve. Continue reading...

Science correspondent Nicola Davis investigates the strange story of Tam O'Braan and his attempts to grow tea in Scotland.In episode one, Nicola looks back on her first meeting with Tam while working on a feature about tea plantations in the UK. He was selling his award-winning Scottish-grown tea to some of the UK's finest hotels, but something didn't quite add up. And Nicola wasn't the only person taking an interest in his storyClips: BBC, Food.NDTVSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

The answers to today's puzzlesEarlier today I set these puzzles by quizmaster extraordinaire Frank Paul. Here they are again with solutions.It strikes me that it would be a good coding challenge to find all possible examples of these puzzles using words in a standard English dictionary. Particularly number 2 - are there any strings of more than three words? I'd love to know. Continue reading...

Researchers suggest sex-specific strategies' after analysis of cardiovascular health improvementsMen may need to exercise twice as much as women to achieve the same reduction in coronary heart disease risk, according to researchers, who say healthy living guidelines should take account of the sex differences.Scientists analysed physical activity records from more than 80,000 people and found that the risk of heart disease fell 30% in women who clocked up 250 minutes of exercise each week. In contrast, men needed to reach 530 minutes, or nearly nine hours, a week to see the same effect. Continue reading...

Research shows 4K or 8K screens offer no distinguishable benefit over similarly sized 2K screen in average living roomMany modern living rooms are now dominated by a huge television, but researchers say there might be little point in plumping for an ultra-high-definition model.Scientists at the University of Cambridge and Meta, the company that owns Facebook, have found that for an average-sized living room a 4K or 8K screen offers no noticeable benefit over a similarly sized 2K screen of the sort often used in computer monitors and laptops. In other words, there is no tangible difference when it comes to how sharp an image appears to our eyes. Continue reading...

Conundrums for the crossword connoisseurToday's teasers come from pub quiz legend, Only Connect champion, and wizard of wordplay Frank Paul.One of his fortes is puzzles based on letter or word patterns, such as the ones below. Continue reading...

Catching this distinctive but faint zigzag constellation will require a dark sky, well away from street lightsTime to track down a faint gem of the northern skies. Nestled between the bright constellations of Cygnus, the swan, and the mythical mother-daughter pair of Cassiopeia and Andromeda, Lacerta, the lizard, is admittedly a faint constellation.However, picking out its distinctive shape on a cold, dark night brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment at knowing the night sky. Continue reading...

Electronic implants are helping people to see again. Their promise is profound, but so are the risks. Progress must be guided by ethics and accessibilityIn medical terms, the eye is not the window to the soul, but to the mind. The retina and the optic nerve are outgrowths of neural tissue, and the remarkable success of electronic implants in restoring sight shows how far brain-computer interfaces have come. These have not delivered a sci-fi vision of augmented humans with incredible new powers but, perhaps more happily, significant progress has been made, restoring ability and agency to those who have suffered injury or disease.People with age-related macular degeneration face a fading world. The disease, affecting about 600,000 people in the UK, causes progressive loss of central vision. There is no cure, but new trials offer something else: a new way of seeing. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy aren't more animals hermaphrodites? Snails and worms seem to have been successful using that method for sharing genes between any two individuals, but vertebrates evolved away from it. Why? Janet Lesley, Kent, UKSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

Given that we've literally grown up with them, we often know surprisingly little about how our bodies work. This new series aims to fill the gapsAll vertebrates yawn, or indulge in a behaviour that's at least recognisable as yawn-adjacent. Sociable baboons yawn, but so do semi-solitary orangutans. Parakeets, penguins and crocodiles yawn - and so, probably, did the first ever jawed fish. Until relatively recently, the purpose of yawning wasn't clear, and it's still contested by researchers and scientists. But this commonality provides a clue to what it's really all about - and it's probably not what you're expecting.When I poll audiences and ask: Why do you think we yawn?', most people suggest that it has to do with breathing or respiration and might somehow increase oxygen in the blood," says Andrew Gallup, a professor in behavioural biology at Johns Hopkins University. And that's intuitive because most yawns do have this clear respiratory component, this deep inhalation of air. However, what most people don't realise is that that hypothesis has been explicitly tested and shown to be false." Continue reading...

Vaccine production must be expanded to combat this ancient disease, especially in Africa. But a lack of political will is holding us back

Oxfordshire: One minute you're looking at an old, wet tree stump, the next you're looking at some veiled poisonpie or smoky polyporeMy local nature reserve used to be a Victorian rubbish dump, but now it is full of wildlife. And if you look closely on old logs on a mild, damp day you will probably see some wonders: fungi.I went to visit last week. The brightly coloured leaves were painted across the forest floor and the droplets of water on some of the berries were like diamonds. In the winter and autumn, fungi are very common. At first I didn't see many, but the deeper we went into the woodland the more we saw. They were all hard to identify, but we managed it using a couple of nature books and Shroomify, an app that identifies mushrooms. Continue reading...

Analysis of DNA from teeth of troops buried in mass grave suggests soldiers had paratyphoid fever and relapsing feverWhen Napoleon ordered his army to retreat from Russia in October 1812, disaster ensued. Starving, cold, exhausted and struggling with sickness, an estimated 300,000 soldiers died.Researchers now say they have identified two unexpected diseases among soldiers who died in the retreat - paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever - which provide fresh insights into their plight. Continue reading...

A new wave of socially engaged movies is storming the box office and changing how we think about the genreIt should surprise no one to learn that 2025 is being hailed as a golden year for horror films. All horrormovies are a reflection of their time, and oursare pretty scary.Tech dystopianism means that Frankenstein's monster has become a byword for AI, while Bram Stoker's Dracula has always drawn on a dark strain of English xenophobia. So it is no coincidence that these 19th-century gothic villains, stars of the earliest horror films in the 1920s and 30s, are back in cinemas with new adaptations from directors Guillermo del Toro and Luc Besson. Maggie Gyllenhaal is bringing out another Frankenstein, The Bride!, next year.Do 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...

Successive governments criticised for doing virtually nothing' to reduce risk in decade since cancer link foundBacon and ham sold in the UK should carry cigarette-style labels warning that chemicals in them cause bowel cancer, scientists say.Their demand comes as they criticise successive British governments for doing virtually nothing" to reduce the risk from nitrites in the decade since they were found to definitely cause cancer. Continue reading...

Scientists warn of insidious risks' of increasingly popular technology that affirms even harmful behaviourTurning to AI chatbots for personal advice poses insidious risks", according to a study showing the technology consistently affirms a user's actions and opinions even when harmful.Scientists said the findings raised urgent concerns over the power of chatbots to distort people's self-perceptions and make them less willing to patch things up after a row. Continue reading...

Bharatiya Janata party launches first test flight as brown haze blankets city after Diwali - but experts decry gimmick'The Delhi regional government is trialling a cloud-seeding experiment to induce artificial rain, in an effort to clean the air in the world's most polluted city.The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has been proposing the use of cloud seeding as a way to bring Delhi's air pollution under control since it was elected to lead the regional government this year. Continue reading...

Dating of rock formation in New Mexico casts doubt on theory that species was already in declineDinosaurs would not have become extinct had it not been for a catastrophic asteroid strike, researchers have said, challenging the idea the animals were already in decline.About 66m years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, a huge space rock crashed into Earth, triggering a mass extinction that wiped out all dinosaurs except birds. However, some experts have argued the dinosaurs were already in decline. Continue reading...

Study of the drink beloved by Hollywood reveals chemical difference in beans passed through civets' digestive systemIt is a coffee beloved by Hollywood and influencers - now researchers say they have found an ingredient that could help explain the unique flavour of kopi luwak.Also known as civet coffee, kopi luwak is produced from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive system of the Asian palm civet. The resulting product is not only rare, but very expensive - costing about 130 for 500g. Continue reading...

Humans have been selectively breeding animals for millennia. If we can help species survive by tweaking their DNA in a lab, I say bring it onDo you think we should genetically modify wildlife? What if we could make seabirds resistant to the flu that has been exterminating them en masse, just by tweaking their DNA a smidgen? Or make fish that can shrug off pollution, or coral that can survive warming waters? Engineer in the sorts of change that could occur naturally, given enough time, if only the wildlife would stop dying already.Thanks to newly emerging methods, such as Crispr, these feats are within reach. Recently, conservationists met at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2025 World Conservation Congress where they debated GM wildlife and voted on a proposed moratorium that would stymie their release into the wild. Ahead of the meeting, a group of more than 90 NGOs issued a press release urging the IUCN to say no to engineered wild species." But humans have been altering the DNA of other species for millennia.Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction Continue reading...

Deal between Airbus, Leonardo and Thales is expected to create company with annual revenue of 5.6bnAirbus, Leonardo and Thales have struck a deal to combine their space businesses to create a single European technology company that could rival Elon Musk's SpaceX.The deal is expected to create a company with annual revenue of about 6.5bn (5.6bn). The French aerospace company Airbus will own 35% of the new business, with Leonardo and Thales each owning stakes of 32.5%. Continue reading...

The NHS warns against using GLP-1s while breastfeeding - for the baby's sake as well as the mother's. But how much does that count when they're so readily available and there's so much pressure to bounce back'?Lydia* first started thinking about weight-loss drugs during pregnancy. Everyone was talking about them and the advertisements were everywhere," she says, as her baby son naps upstairs. I remember thinking: That's how I'll lose weight for my wedding next year.'"When Lydia explains that most of her life before pregnancy was spent in a welter of yo-yo dieting and body dissatisfaction, I say to her that I think most of us can relate. Her pregnancy, however, brought a level of body acceptance and contentment that the 33-year-old from Wales had never had before. Continue reading...

An electronic eye implant half the thickness of a human hair has helped people with incurable sight loss to see again, opening up a potential new era' in tackling blindness. Madeleine Finlay hears from Mahi Muqit, a surgeon from Moorfields eye hospital in London, about what this implant has meant for his patients and what the future could hold for vision-loss therapiesClips: BBC Continue reading...

Semaglutide study suggests such drugs could have wider benefits, though researchers find shrinking waistlines linked to better heart outcomesThe weight-loss drug semaglutide cuts the risk of heart attack or stroke regardless of how many kilograms people lose, the largest study of its kind has found.However, shrinking waist size - a sign of less belly fat - was linked to better heart outcomes, according to the research. Continue reading...

Scientist whose research into transuranic elements revised the understanding of nuclear fissionDarleane Hoffman's research into superheavy radioactive elements at the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and, prior to that, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, enhanced and extensively revised our knowledge of those elements and, consequently, our understanding of nuclear fission. Her success led, in 2002, to Discover magazine declaring her one of the 50 most important women in science.Hoffman, who has died aged 98, explored the chemical and nuclear properties of transuranic elements - those heavier than uranium. All are radioactively unstable. Most have a short half-life: existing for only a brief period before decaying, sometimes mere milliseconds. This makes them difficult to study, but, during the 1950s, Hoffman realised that characterising their properties could help us better comprehend the emerging science of nuclear fission, which involved splitting the atoms of these heavy elements to release the large amounts of energy necessary to power the first generation of commercial nuclear reactors. Continue reading...

Notable variations between different medications were found in weight gain or loss, heart rate and blood pressurePeople taking certain types of antidepressants can gain up to 2kg (4.5lbs) in weight within the first two months of treatment, while patients taking other drugs can lose the equivalent or more, according to a major review of potential side-effects.The research, led by academics at King's College London and the University of Oxford, found that while some antidepressants can cause notable changes in body weight, heart rate and blood pressure, others do not cause such physical changes. Continue reading...

Gene-edited animals remained healthy when exposed to highly contagious deadly diseasePigs that are resistant to a deadly viral disease have been created by scientists at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute.The gene-edited animals remained healthy when exposed to classical swine fever (CSF), a highly contagious and often fatal disease. The virus was eradicated in the UK in 1966, but there have been several outbreaks since and it continues to pose a major threat to pig farming worldwide. Continue reading...

In writing about my mother, Jenny Cox, I mentioned that she was refused permission to do her botany PhD research on the island of South Georgia purely because she was a woman. Though she saw this as an injustice for the rest of her life, she never revealed any details of what happened.The efficient archive service at the British Antarctic Survey have now made available a letter from Sir Vivian Fuchs dated 7 October 1959. He still wanted my mother to do UK-based lab work on existing specimens. However, he refused her or any other women access to the island, citing accommodation and severe conditions in the field. Continue reading...

Scientists are using DNA from sediments to learn more about Earth's past, including new revelations about the woolly mammothFossilisation is rare. Most living things disappear without trace, recycled back into planet Earth.But in some environments the DNA from living things binds to the soil and rock, leaving a marker of their existence for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Continue reading...