Science | The Guardian

AI program GenCast performed better than ENS forecast at predicting day-to-day weather and paths of hurricanes and cyclonesFor those who keep an eye on the elements, the outlook is bright: researchers have built an artificial intelligence-based weather forecast that makes faster and more accurate predictions than the best system available today.GenCast, an AI weather program from Google DeepMind, performed up to 20% better than the ENS forecast from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), widely regarded as the world leader. Continue reading...

Research shows common air pollutants can be detrimental to egg, sperm and embryo developmentMaternal and paternal exposure to common air pollutants may increase the risk of infertility because it can be detrimental to egg, sperm and embryo development, new research in the US finds.Previous papers have established that air pollution exposure probably contributes to infertility, but it has been unclear whether the toxins affected men or women because both parents face similar exposures. That also made it difficult to establish when in the conception process damage occurred. Continue reading...

World's largest longitudinal cohort study' reports that older teens and society's most disadvantaged most likely to be affectedMost teenagers who have suffered from long Covid recover within two years, according to the largest study of its kind.But the researchers said more work was needed to understand why some children still had ongoing health problems two years after infection. Continue reading...

Bursts of intense movement such as climbing stairs can make big difference to health, finds UK Biobank researchWomen who add four minutes a day of high-intensity routine activities such as climbing the stairs instead of taking a lift could halve their risk of heart attacks, a study suggests.Less than five minutes of brief bouts of exertion in everyday life could have a significant effect on heart health, reducing the risk of serious cardiovascular events, researchers found. The results were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Continue reading...

Device inflates before eating and contracts afterwards, simulating the effects of having a meal, say scientistsFrom weight loss jabs to vibrating pills, the obesity crisis has spawned myriad innovations to help people shed pounds.Now scientists have overhauled the humble gastric balloon - producing a device that inflates and deflates to keep it effective for longer. Continue reading...

What if you could take a pill or a shot that could reduce your blood alcohol level and make you feel better in the morning? That's the promise of a range of wellness products aiming to be the next big hangover antidote. But what exactly are hangovers, and which methods of preventing them are backed by science? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Sally Adams, an alcohol researcher and associate professor of psychology at the University of BirminghamClips: @drinklikecut, @visitourmedia, @thegutgirlie, @settingthebrowlow Continue reading...

I gave away my genetic information to a now imploding company for results that inspired nothing but ambivalence23andMe is facing implosion. As the once-promising genetic testing company flounders - losing 98% of its $6bn value, all its independent board members, nearly half its staff - many of its 15 million customers are scrambling to delete their DNA data from the company's archives. I am one of them.My reluctant path to 23andMe began in 2016, when I ordered a kit in the mail. After letting the box sit on my desk for weeks, I finally spit in a tube and sent it to the company for analysis. I am a technology journalist - I like to think I am thoughtful about what data I share with corporations. When it comes to genetic data, which unlike a password or credit card number cannot ever be changed, I was particularly wary. Continue reading...

Research indicates planet's interior is dry in blow to theories that it was previously habitableWith a surface hot enough to melt lead and with clouds of sulphuric acid above it, it is a planet often called Earth's evil twin" - similar in size, yet worlds apart.Some scientists have long believed it was once much more hospitable, home to cooler temperatures and oceans of liquid water. But now researchers have dealt a blow to the idea that Venus ever hosted life as we know it. Continue reading...

Scientists are increasingly finding that behaviours once seen as depraved often have a direct physical causeThe first thing that strikes me when I visit Alex in her supported accommodation is the huge lock on the kitchen door. The accessible rooms are devoid of any food or drink, the exception being two dispensers of sugar-free squash in the living room. Even the food-waste bin outside the back door is padlocked. Packages delivered to the home's residents are opened in front of staff and searched for surreptitiously ordered food. These extraordinary efforts are crucial to prevent the housemates from eating too much.For Alex and her fellow residents, their perpetual and insatiable hunger is not a matter of gluttony. It is not a marker of immorality, or depravity of the soul. It is a function of their biology. All those living in that house have a rare genetic disorder, Prader-Willi syndrome, which affects the region of the brain that controls appetite and hunger. For them, the signal to stop eating never materialises. People with this condition are destined never to feel full, sometimes even eating non-food items in the search for satiety. So extreme is their hunger that occasionally they will overeat to the point that they die of a perforated stomach, or choke on regurgitated food.Guy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital trust. He is the author of Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human Continue reading...

Slender curve of the moon and bright beacon of Venus will be visible in the south-south-west on 5 DecemberNo matter how many times you may have seen it, the crescent moon and the planet Venus make a beautiful pairing. This week, as twilight closes around the landscape, the duo will appear in the south-south-west. The chart shows the view looking from London at 16.30GMT on 5 December 2024.Venus will be an unmistakably bright beacon in the gathering night, and the moon will be a slender crescent. The new moon was just over four days ago and will have approximately 20% of its visible surface illuminated. Continue reading...

Expression chosen after public vote describes impact of endless scrolling of mind-numbing contentBrain rot" has been announced as the Oxford word of the year for 2024, amid concerns over endless social media scrolling and mind-numbing content.More than 37,000 people voted to help choose the winner from a shortlist of six words drawn up by Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary. Continue reading...

A brilliant young scientist believes that if we preserve our brains, they could be revived in the future, helping us live for centuriesElizabeth Hughes Gossett shouldn't have survived beyond 11, the age at which she developed type 1 diabetes. Born in Albany, New York, Gossett received her diagnosis in 1918 when diabetes had no known treatment. Tragically, her life expectancy was just a matter of months. Her parents desperately searched for any way to keep their daughter alive. A New Jersey physician had developed a radical course of action: keeping the blood sugar levels of diabetic children low by feeding them the bare minimum needed to survive. This could see a prognosis of months extended to years. These young patients weren't exactly living, but they were alive.In the spring of 1919, Gossett went into this starvation clinic. She'd have been constantly cold and hungry. Emaciated, unable to move or grow. At its lowest, her weight dropped to 20kg. Three years later, Gossett was lingering on death's threshold but, crucially, hadn't crossed to the other side. Continue reading...

Long thought to be sterile, our brains are now believed to harbour all sorts of micro-organisms, from bacteria to fungi. How big a part do they play in Alzheimer's and similar diseases?Nine years ago, Nikki Schultek, an active and healthy woman in her early 30s, experienced a sudden cascade of debilitating and agonising symptoms - including cognitive and breathing problems and heart arrhythmia - and was investigated for multiple sclerosis. But three brain scans and numerous X-rays later, there was still no diagnosis or treatment plan. It was like living in a nightmare, imagining not watching my children - three and five years old - grow up," says Schultek.Now, speaking on a video call from North Carolina, she is as bright as a button and shows no signs of degenerative brain disease. It turned out she had multiple chronic infections, including Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, which causes Lyme disease and which had stealthily reached her brain. Antibiotics restored her health, but B burgdorferi is hard to eradicate once in the brain. She may need maintenance treatment to keep the disease at bay. Continue reading...

Facing an enormous decision about her health filled Kat Lister with wonder at her body's ability to fight for herThe 2cm wound to the right of my bellybutton had been oozing for days. A syrupy weep in the well of my abdomen. A surgical pothole so small that it felt almost indulgent to photograph it in my bathroom mirror. As if these tiny keyhole incisions dotted around my swollen stomach - one, two, three, four, five of them - bore no relation to the magnitude of the plunder beneath.Magnitude. Or, should I say: weight. Do you feel lighter?" a friend asked me a week after I had a total colectomy to save my life. To which I replied (somewhat contradictorily): yes and no. It didn't take long for my doctors to start referring to my large bowel, laden with more than 400 precancerous polyps, as a heavy burden" - and I think there is something poetic in that choice of words. A flash of humanity in an otherwise sterile place. Which is where I found myself in May last year, staring numbly at pictures of stoma bags in St Mark's hospital in north-west London, the only hospital in the world to specialise entirely in intestinal and colorectal medicine. Continue reading...

After wowing the court of Versailles over 200 years ago, the jet-black beast is back in the spotlight at the Science MuseumKing Louis XV's rhinoceros was the star of the court of Versailles. Fed on a diet of bread, its tough hide was regularly massaged with oil. But it proved not an easy pet to keep and unfortunately killed two people who entered its enclosure.Now, the magnificent beast, since stuffed and preserved, has left Paris for the first time since it arrived in 1770, travelling to London to take up a temporary place under the spotlight at the Science Museum in London. Continue reading...

A way to personally connect with wildlife is vital when statistics alone can't convey the scale of the lossSixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth, causing the extinction of around 75% of all species. This event was so significant that we now use it to define the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. There hadonly been four extinction events of this magnitude up until then; today, we are living through the sixth - and we are its cause.News of the sixth mass-extinction often comes in the form of statistics - 1 million species threatened with extinction; extinctions now occurring up to 1,000 times more frequently than before humans - and we are left none the wiser about what it is we are losing. A few years ago, I asked the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for a list of species that had recently gone extinct. I wanted to understand what was happening to the natural world, beyond the numbers. The list they sent back contained species from all over the world. One in particular, however, stood out to me. Continue reading...

Tracking the behaviour of tagged animals from space could transform the research into a host of natural phenomenaScientists are enlisting some unusual recruits in their efforts to forecast earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other natural phenomena. They are enrolling thousands of dogs, goats, and other farmyard animals - as well as a wide range of wildlife - in studies that will monitor their movements from space.The programme uses tiny transmitters that are being fitted to mammals, birds and insects. The detailed movements of these creatures will then be monitored from a dedicated satellite to be launched next year. Continue reading...

Two satellites in Proba-3 mission expected to be launched on Wednesday in India and will work in tandem to study sun's coronaFinal preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency's first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail. Continue reading...

A covalent organic framework' can be used to capture carbon to store it or convert it for industrial useAn innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air.Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.This article was amended on 30 November 2024 to clarify Farzan Kazemifar's job title. Continue reading...

Researchers say fossilised marks were apparently made in same place within days of each other about 1.5m years agoAbout 1.5m years ago a big-toothed cousin of prehistoric humans walked quickly along a lakeside in Kenya, footprints marking the muddy ground. But they were not our only distant relative on the scene: treading the same ground was the early human Homo erectus.Researchers say an analysis of fossilised footprints discovered in deposits of the Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, suggest the marks were made by two different species on the human family tree who were in the same place within hours or days of each other. Continue reading...

What lies beneath this ice giant's surface might be the potential for life - but not as we know itFor nearly 40 years, Uranus and its five largest moons have been dismissed as frozen and lifeless. This view was formed by humanity's only close encounter with the Uranian system at the edge of our cosmic neighbourhood. Data sent back by Voyager 2 in 1986 indicated that the distant ice giant was sterile and inactive. But that probe had the misfortune of flying past Uranus just when a powerful solar storm hit, creating a distorted impression of its true nature. Far from the barren worlds previously assumed, a new analysis suggests that the celestial bodies could hold hidden oceans, and perhaps even the conditions necessary to support life.This news should put rocket boosters on the $4bnplan by Nasa, the US space agency, for a mission to return to Uranus. The clock is ticking to make it there by 2050, just in time for its planetary equinox, when sunlight floods Uranus and its moons from pole to pole. Nasa wants to launch a mission by 2032 - a timeline that allows the spacecraft to use Jupiter's massive gravity like a slingshot and shoot a probe out to Uranus in time for its seasonal transition. Continue reading...

In the earnest press tour for the film, actor Cynthia Erivo was in tears at the idea that fans were holding space' for the song Defying Gravity. But is it more self-help jargon or something more powerful?The journalist Tracy E Gilchrist had just four minutes with the Wicked actors Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande - and she had to make them count. She just didn't bargain on becoming part of one of the year's most-used memes as a result of saying the phrase holding space". I just went in and did my job, which was to try to get an authentic answer to a question in a very short amount of time," she says. It felt like the right term for what I was trying to get across to Cynthia, which is the idea that you can interact with a work of art like Defying Gravity and feel something within yourself."In the interview - a standard junket affair of rotating film journalists - Gilchrist, teeing up her question, informs Erivo that people are taking the lyrics of Defying Gravity and really holding space with that and feeling power in that". Continue reading...

The conversation about fluoride's health benefits has exploded recently after a US federal toxicology report, court ruling and independent scientific review all called for updated risk-benefit analysis. Ian Sample hears from Catherine Carstairs, professor of history at the University of Guelph in Canada, about how attitudes to fluoridation have evolved, and Oliver Jones, professor of chemistry at RMIT University in Australia, about where the science stands todayClips: the New York Sun, Columbia PicturesThe science of fluoride is starting to evolve': behind the risks and benefits of the mineral Continue reading...

Results of trial of benralizumab injection could be gamechanger' for millions of people around the worldDoctors are hailing a new way to treat serious asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease attacks that marks the first breakthrough for 50 years and could be a gamechanger" for patients.A trial found offering patients an injection was more effective than the current care of steroid tablets, and cuts the need for further treatment by 30%. Continue reading...

Structures thousands of times narrower than a human hair suggest future uses for nanobot technology

With RFK Jr and a court ruling, conversation on fluoride, in about 72% of US community water supplies, has explodedA national conversation about fluoride's health benefits exploded this fall after a federal toxicology report, court ruling and independent scientific review all called for updated risk-benefit analysis.Fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral in some regions, has been added to community water supplies since the mid-20th century when studies found exposure dramatically reduced tooth decay. Continue reading...

A brave memoir from a psychiatrist with severe mental illness that describes a failing system from withinThis brave memoir by apsychiatrist who has severe mental illness shows how lost and confused psychiatry and its patients have become. Future readerswill be amazed, we must hope,by how poorly we understood and how ineffectively wetreated the troubled mind.Rebecca Lawrence has experienced recurrent and horrendous depressions throughout her life, mixed with periods of elevated mood. Despite multiple breakdowns and admissions to hospital, her determination and resilience, alongside the support of her remarkable husband, Richard, enable her to survive and prosper, becoming a consultant psychiatrist and mother of three. Continue reading...

Underwater chimney structures spewing jets of brine can help alert to dangerous regional issue, research showsVenting chimneys have been discovered on the floor of the Dead Sea. These previously unknown white smokers" spew out salty water and provide early warning of sinkhole formation on nearby land.The Dead Sea is sinking fast. Over the past 50 years, intense evaporation has resulted in it dropping by about 1 metre a year, with its surface now approximately 438 metres beneath sea level. This drop has opened up new fissures in the rock strata and researchers wanted to understand how this might be contributing to an alarming fall in freshwater aquifer levels seen in Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. Continue reading...

Choosing Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH signals return to controversial and scientifically questionable health policies

Variations in time a person goes to sleep and wakes up strongly associated' with higher risk of negative impactsFailing to stick to a regular time for going to bed and waking up increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and heart failure by 26%, even for those who get a full night's sleep, the most comprehensive study of its kind suggests.Previous studies have focused on the links between sleep duration and health outcomes, with people advised to get between seven and nine hours shut-eye a night. Continue reading...

Every three months in Kazakhstan, a trio of cosmonauts and astronauts head off to the International Space Station - then return in small capsules. What do the locals make of it? Continue reading...

Analysis involving more than 85,000 people showed risk of worsening function was reduced by 22%Weight-loss drugs can reduce the risk of worsening kidney function, kidney failure and dying from kidney disease by a fifth, according to a study.Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are a family of medications that help people shed the pounds, manage blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes and prevent heart attacks and strokes in people with heart disease. Continue reading...

Video posted by Emily Calandrelli about awesome view of Earth was flooded with hateful, objectifying commentsThere isn't a galaxy far, far away enough where women can escape sexist online trolls.Emily Calandrelli became the 100th woman to go to space when she joined a group of six space tourists in a launch led by Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by the billionaire Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, about the controversial climate finance deal that brought Cop29 negotiations to a close in the early hours on Sunday morning in Baku, Azerbaijan. Developing countries asked rich countries to provide them with $1.3tn a year to help them decarbonise their economies and cope with the effects of the climate crisis. But the final deal set a pledge of just $300bn annually, with $1.3tn only a target. Damian tells Madeleine how negotiations unfolded, and what we can expect from next year's conference in BrazilFind all the Guardian's reporting on Cop29Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Prof Dorothy Bishop said fellowship was a contradiction of all the values' of UK's national academy of sciencesA leading scientist at the University of Oxford has resigned from the UK's national academy of sciences over concerns about Elon Musk's continuing fellowship.Prof Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology and a leading expert on children's communication disorders, said she handed back her fellowship of the Royal Society last week. Continue reading...

The answers to today's puzzlesEarlier today I set you three problems from a maths competition for Martian schoolchildren. By Martian, I mean Hungarian.In the mid-twentieth century, a generation of outstanding mathematicians and physicists from Hungary were humorously called Martians, as their intelligence was from another planet. Continue reading...

Study detects synergistic effect making substances more dangerous, raising alarm since humans are exposed to bothFew human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests.The study's authors exposed water fleas to mixtures of the toxic substances and found they suffered more severe health effects, including lower birth rates, and developmental problems, such as delayed sexual maturity and stunted growth. Continue reading...

School-bus-sized asteroid known as 2024 PT5 and currently 2m miles from Earth will begin journey towards sunA so-called mini-moon of Earth that has been lingering in the heavens since September will begin a journey towards the sun on Monday as it prepares to disappear until 2055.The school-bus-sized asteroid known as 2024 PT5 might actually be a huge boulder that broke from the moon after another space rock crashed into it centuries ago, astronomers say. Continue reading...

Do you have alien intelligence?UPDATE: Solutions can be read hereHungary acquired a reputation for brilliance in maths and physics in the middle of last century, thanks to scientists like John von Neumann, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner.The stellar cohort become known as the Martians. The Hungarians, so the joke went, were evidence that superior alien intelligence had already landed on Earth. Even their language was impenetrable. Continue reading...

The moon will have just 14% of its visible surface illuminated and Spica will be shining a brilliant white lightOn these cold wintry mornings it can often take a lot of effort or the promise of something good to drag us out of bed. On 27 November, nature will provide a beautiful sight that will reward the early risers: an exquisitely thin waning crescent moon will be sitting next to the bright star of Spica.Spica is the 16th brightest star in the entire night sky and the brightest star in its constellation of Virgo, the virgin. The moon will have just 14% of its visible surface illuminated, and Spica will be shining a brilliant white light. Continue reading...

Scientist James Lovelock gave humanity new ways to think about our home planet - but some of his biggest ideas were the fruit of a passionate collaboration. By Jonathan Watts Continue reading...

Scientist and banker benefited from gold mined primarily by enslaved Africans in Brazil, book claimsSir Isaac Newton, whose theory of gravity revolutionised science and who later rose to the upper echelons of London's financial world, had closer financial ties to the transatlantic trade in enslaved people than was previously understood, a new book has claimed.The book, Ricardo's Dream, covers the life and work of David Ricardo, a pioneer of economic theory and the wealthiest stock trader of his day. It also re-examines Newton's time as master of the mint at the Royal Mint, where the scientist wielded political influence and amassed vast personal wealth after leaving his academic position in Cambridge.Ricardo's Dream by Nat Dyer (Bristol University Press, 14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Continue reading...

Early instruction that teaches young people how to recognise negative thought patterns and manage their mental health may help to avoid problems in later lifeI was about 16 when I had my first bout of depression, but 29 when I sought help and received a diagnosis. In the intervening period, I thought I could weather my low moods alone, but the waves of hopelessness didn't lessen; they only gained momentum. I was left with a strong desire to evaporate, leaving no trace of my existence in the world.I am extremely lucky to have responded well to a course of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but I can't help wondering how much pain I could have avoided if I'd learned to manage my mental health better at a younger age, before my symptoms had even started to develop. Continue reading...

Marina Hyde asks us to spare a sob for Don Jr, replaced in Daddy's affections by Elon Musk. The Bank of Mum and Dad - the unspoken dynamic behind society's growing inequality of inheritocracy'. I've been called worse than a Nazi': Simon Hattenstone meets Jacob Rees-Mogg. And psychologist Lucy Foulkes on why we should take teenage love more seriously Continue reading...

New research revealed canals used for about 1,000 years to channel and catch freshwater fish on the Yucatan peninsulaLong before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America's Yucatan peninsula.Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what's now Belize. The findings were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances. Continue reading...

Experts are optimistic about energy and drug production breakthroughs but also fear its potential misuseWhen better to hold a conference on artificial intelligence and the countless ways it is advancing science than in those brief days between the first Nobel prizes being awarded in the field and the winners heading to Stockholm for the lavish white tie ceremony?It was fortuitous timing for Google DeepMind and the Royal Society who this week convened the AI for Science Forum in London. Last month, Google DeepMind bagged the Nobel prize in chemistry a day after AI took the physics prize. The mood was celebratory. Continue reading...

In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients' inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astounding. By Jenny Kleeman Continue reading...

Researchers identify collision hotspots around world but reveal almost all these lack preventive measuresCollisions between whales and ships can prove fatal for the marine mammals, but researchers say expanding mitigation measures to just 2.6% of the ocean's surface would reduce the chance of such strikes in all risk hotspots.While experts say many whale-ship collisions go unobserved and unreported, making it difficult to put a figure on the scale of the problem, some estimates suggest tens of thousands of the animals are killed each year. Continue reading...

Peter's chapel in Lucerne swaps out its priest to set up a computer and cables in confessional boothThe small, unadorned church has long ranked as the oldest in the Swiss city of Lucerne. But Peter's chapel has become synonymous with all that is new after it installed an artificial intelligence-powered Jesus capable of dialoguing in 100 different languages.It was really an experiment," said Marco Schmid, a theologian with the Peterskapelle church. We wanted to see and understand how people react to an AI Jesus. What would they talk with him about? Would there be interest in talking to him? We're probably pioneers in this." Continue reading...

Astrophysicists say material may suggest star is dying and ejection of matter signals coming supernovaA star cloaked in an egg-shaped cocoon has been revealed in the first detailed images of a star beyond the Milky Way.Until now, stars in other galaxies have been visible as little more than points of light, even when observed using telescopes. Now, thanks to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), astronomers have captured the first zoomed-in image. Continue reading...