Genome sequencing of children with rare conditions should improve speed and accuracy of NHS diagnosesAbout 5,500 people with severe developmental disorders now know the genetic cause of their condition thanks to a major study that will be used to improve the speed and accuracy of NHS diagnoses.More than 13,500 families with a child with a severe developmental disorder across the UK and Ireland had their genomes sequenced to establish what genetic change had led to their condition, and whether it was inherited or the result of a mutation. All the children had previously been undiagnosed despite being tested. Continue reading...
A total solar eclipse will be experienced in WA’s Ningaloo region, while a partial eclipse on display in the rest of the countryOn Thursday 20 April, the Ningaloo region of Western Australia will experience a total solar eclipse. Eclipse chasers from around the world are converging on the town of Exmouth in hopes of experiencing the profound awe of standing in the moon’s shadow as it quickly races by.Only a narrow path across Earth, which includes Exmouth and Barrow Island in WA, eastern parts of Timor-Leste and also parts of Papua in Indonesia, will experience totality – when the moon fully blocks the light of the sun. Continue reading...
Study provides best evidence yet to suggest hearing aids could mitigate potential impact of hearing loss on dementiaWearing hearing aids could help cut the risk of dementia, according to a large decade-long study, which suggests that tackling hearing loss early may help reduce the global burden of the disease.Dementia is one of the world’s biggest health threats. The number of people living with the condition worldwide is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and experts have said it presents a major and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent. Continue reading...
Corallivorous fish were regarded as harmful to coral but research suggests their poo could be keeping reefs healthyThe faeces of coral-eating fish may act as “probiotics” for reefs, according to a study.Previously it was thought that corallivore – fish such as pufferfish, parrotfish and butterfly fish that eat coral – weakened marine surfaces. But new research suggests that by eating some parts of the coral and then pooing in different areas of the reef, they are part of a cycle that redistributes beneficial microbes that can help coral thrive. Continue reading...
European Space Agency pushes back launch of Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer project for 24 hoursThe European Space Agency has postponed its mission to Jupiter after weather forecasters flagged a risk of lightning strikes at its spaceport in French Guiana.Mission controllers on Thursday scrapped the launch about 10 minutes before the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, spacecraft was due to blast off on an eight-year voyage to survey a trio of Jovian moons where life may once have gained a foothold. Continue reading...
The rationalist in me knows that coincidences are inevitable, mundane, meaningless. But I can’t deny there is something strange and magical in them, tooIn the summer of 2021, I experienced a cluster of coincidences, some of which had a distinctly supernatural feel. Here’s how it started. I keep a journal, and record dreams if they are especially vivid or strange. It doesn’t happen often, but I logged one in which my mother’s oldest friend, a woman called Rose, made an appearance to tell me that she (Rose) had just died. She had had another stroke, she said, and that was it. Come the morning, it occurred to me that I didn’t know whether Rose was still alive. I guessed not. She’d had a major stroke about 10 years ago and had gone on to suffer a series of minor strokes, descending into a sorry state of physical incapacity and dementia.I mentioned the dream to my partner over breakfast, but she wasn’t much interested. We were staying in the Midlands at the time, in the house where I’d spent my later childhood years. The place had been unoccupied for months. My father, Mal, was long gone, and my mother, Doreen, was in a care home, drifting inexorably through the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. We’d just sold the property we’d been living in, and there would be a few weeks’ delay in getting access to our future home, so the old house was a convenient place to stay in the meantime. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Stuart Clark, p on (#6AR8M)
The European Space Agency’s long-awaited Juice Mission is about to blast off for Jupiter’s moons. Its goal: to find out whether the oceans below their icy surfaces could be capable of supporting life. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Stuart Clark about why moons are the new Mars for scientists seeking life, how magnetic fields can help us understand these mysterious lunar oceans, and what Juice might mean for our understanding of life beyond the solar systemYou can read Stuart Clark’s reporting on this story hereClips: BBC News Continue reading...
US researchers say they have found method that could pinpoint disease before symptoms show, allowing earlier treatmentScientists have developed a new technique that could help diagnose Parkinson’s disease before symptoms show, and speed up the hunt for a cure.Parkinson’s is difficult to diagnose because at present there is no specific test for the condition. Symptoms vary and several other illnesses have similar symptoms, which means the condition can often be misdiagnosed. Continue reading...
Starting this June, four volunteers will spend a year pretending to live on the red planet inside the Mars Dune Alpha habitatRed sand shifts under the boots of the crew members. In the distance, it appears that a rocky mountain range is rising out of the Martian horizon. A thin layer of red dust coats the solar panels and equipment necessary for the year-long mission.This landscape isn’t actually 145m miles away. We are in a corner of the Nasa Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a large white warehouse right next to the disc golf course and on the tram route for tourists and school groups. Continue reading...
The climate crisis can seem overwhelming, but there are radical, pragmatic solutions – and they all begin with an ideaIs there any hope? Are we all doomed? I write books about the climate crisis, so I am often asked fearful questions like these. But I’m being asked them more and more often and by younger people, an alarming trend not unconnected to the number of scientific reports detailing how humans are pushing the Earth’s systems to dangerous extremes.I write about planetary-scale ecosystem destruction but, importantly, I also focus on our species’ extraordinary capacity to adapt; this has been key to our success in the past – and it is key to surviving our future. There are radical, yet pragmatic, solutions to our crises. But fear of what will happen if we don’t act is imprisoning people in a mindset that makes alternatives seem unthinkable. I am frequently told my solutions are unrealistic and will never happen; that people would rather fight each other in wars than adapt to share food and land, for instance. We make our own future, even if it’s hard to see the process. So let me try to make the case for hope.Gaia Vince is an author, journalist and broadcaster. Her latest book is Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with Sa on (#6ANVK)
Installing artificial grass is becoming an increasingly popular way to achieve a neat, green lawn without much effort. But with environmental and potential health costs associated with plastic turf many campaigners and gardeners would like to see it banned. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Guardian feature writer Sam Wollaston and urban ecologist Prof Rob Francis about why people go for artificial grass, its environmental impact, and whether it’s time we rid ourselves of the idea of the perfect lawn altogether Continue reading...
A move to allow Australian psychiatrists to treat depression with psilocybin may herald a new eraSo-called magic mushrooms (those that contain the molecule psilocybin) have been used by people around the world medicinally and ceremonially for a very long time. Rock art in Kimberley, Western Australia, that depicts mushroom-headed beings, suggests people were using them 10,000 years ago to attain trance-like states. Strikingly similar images have been found in the Sandawe paintings of eastern Tanzania and in the Algerian Sahara. Now, after decades of these hallucinogenic fungi being consigned to the grubby margins of legality, humans appear to be rediscovering their benefits.From July, authorised psychiatrists in Australia will be permitted to prescribe psilocybin to patients with treatment-resistant depression. This hasn’t come out of the blue: the drug is a major ingredient in what has been dubbed the psychedelic renaissance – a resurgence of public interest and research in substances that began to be recognised for their medicinal qualities in the 1950s, before a wave of moral panic and irrational legislation placed them off-limits for years. Continue reading...
From creating a proper support network to practising saying no, experts suggest their best tips for a healthier, happier lifeLife changes can make us feel unsettled, taking away our ability to focus. Starting a new hobby or class is a great way to develop a renewed sense of purpose, leaving more space for creativity in our lives. Whether it’s learning a new language or trying a different sport, it really helps to take you away from that “mind clutter” you don’t want.
Zodiacal constellation of the lion was recognised by Mesopotamians as early as 4000BCNorthern spring is the perfect time to see the constellation of Leo, the lion. Being a zodiacal constellation, it sits in the plane of the ecliptic, which marks the path followed by the sun throughout the year. It is bordered to the west by Cancer, the crab, and to the east by Virgo, the virgin.Leo is a highly recognisable constellation because of its size and the number of bright stars it contains. The lion’s head is marked by the star Algenubi, and together with the stars that represent the mane and chest, forms an asterism known as “the sickle” because of its shape. The lion’s body is marked by four stars, Regulus, Algieba, Zosma, Denebola; the last star is named after the Arabic phrase meaning lion’s tail. Continue reading...
Research tells us living near our loved ones makes us happier and strengthens our relationships. But is that possible, and how can we be better friends if not?I had a little spasm of unease recently, listening to Elizabeth Day talking on the radio about her new book Friendaholic and the problems that having too many friends has caused her. It’s the same twitch I get reading psychologist Robin Dunbar’s famous research on how many relationships we can maintain. Five intimate friendships is the optimal amount – I scrape two – and Dunbar posited that we can maintain a network of 150 people close enough that it wouldn’t be awkward to have a drink with them. That’s Dunbar’s number: 150! I’d have to include everyone who walks their dog on my route, my whole pilates class and half the street to get there, and not knowing most of their names would surely push it over the awkwardness barrier. I mean, I can be awkward with my two intimate friends on bad days.It’s easy to feel inadequate about friendships, and I haven’t, historically, been a good friend. I don’t mean I steal boyfriends or betray confidences, but I’m chaotic, bad at prioritising and time slips through my fingers like water. I lived for a long time in a transient city – Brussels – where friendships seemed to be easily formed then easily forgotten and it gave me bad habits, I think, which make me seem thoughtless and careless. I suppose I have been thoughtless and careless.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist 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 conceptsCould rocks be conscious? Why are some things conscious and some not? Nigel J G Baptiste, WorcsSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
The eight-year, £1.4bn voyage into deep space will explore the frozen oceans of Ganymede, Europa and CallistoIn a few days, a £1.4bn probe will be blasted into space on an eight-year mission to find signs of life on other worlds in our solar system. The spacecraft will not head to local destinations such as the planet Mars, however. Instead, it will fly into deep space and survey the icy moons of distant Jupiter. In doing so, it will open up a new chapter in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - or Juice - will exploit an unexpected feature of our solar system. The greatest reserves of water turn out to exist on worlds very far from Earth, in deep space, and in orbit around the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. Juice is the first mission to be launched specifically to explore these remote worlds. Continue reading...
A lifestyle approach developed by Dr David Unwin shows benefits that could have significant health implicationsA red-brick surgery in the seaside resort of Southport in the north-west of England is on the frontline of one of the biggest questions facing the NHS: what’s the best fix for our growing obesity crisis?Dr David Unwin thinks he has the answer. He has championed a low-carb lifestyle that not only helps patients lose weight but also, in more than half of his patients who were on the diet, has even managed to reverse type 2 diabetes, once thought to be an irreversible and progressive disease. Continue reading...
Experts insist successes of Brussels’ €95bn programme could never be replicated by a UK-only substituteLeading UK scientists have dismissed government plans to provide a UK alternative to the EU’s €95bn research and innovation programme, Horizon, saying that being a member of a major international programme is essential to the country’s future.Last week, in an attempt to reassure the science sector, the government announced plans to set up a £14bn post-Brexit alternative to the UK’s membership of Horizon, which would come into operation if ministers could not agree on the terms of an “associate membership” of the EU scheme with Brussels. Continue reading...
More and more people were glimpsing light at the end of the tunnelIn April 1979, the Observer peeped behind the veil at near-death experiences. Improved cardiac care and the fact that ‘even boy scouts are now taught cardio-pulmonary resuscitation’ meant more people were glimpsing a bright light at the end of a tunnel – or something else – before being dragged back into this realm by medical science.NDEs fell into two broad categories, the article explained. First, ‘transcendence’, described as ‘the passage of consciousness into a foreign region or dimension’, but also encompassing that ‘life flashing before your eyes’ phenomenon. The other was ‘autoscopy’: feeling as if you were outside, and viewing, your own body. Continue reading...
From rhymes to chunking and large displays, neurology professor Richard Restak provides key tips to improve your memoryMethods for strengthening memory can be traced back hundreds, if not thousands of years. The key insight was learning to think in pictures, rather than words. And when you think of it, this makes sense. We are primarily visual creatures who best remember images, rather than words. The real challenge for our memory (and intelligence) is to correlate things that aren’t ordinarily thought of together. For example: my dog, Leah, is a Schipperke, which is a hard word to remember. Solution? Imagine a tiny boat (representing a tiny dog) with a huge portly captain – the skipper – standing in it while holding a key, skipper key. As in this example, images are most effective as memory prompts when they are whimsical, inappropriate and even outrageous compared to the objects that inspired them. Here are a few key tips to practise for retention and recall of memory. Continue reading...
Understanding why some animals are more susceptible to the disease could lead to improved screening for humansScientists are homing in on one of medicine’s most baffling mysteries: why some species avoid getting cancers while others are plagued by tumours that shorten their lives.Whales tend to have low rates of cancer but it is the leading cause of death for dogs and cats. Foxes and leopards are susceptible while sheep and antelopes are not. Bats are also relatively well protected against cancer but not mice or rats. In humans, cancer is a leading cause of death that kills around 10 million people a year. Continue reading...
Scientists warn of more marine heatwaves, leading to increased risk of extreme weatherThe temperature of the world’s ocean surface has hit an all-time high since satellite records began, leading to marine heatwaves around the globe, according to US government data.Climate scientists said preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) showed the average temperature at the ocean’s surface has been at 21.1C since the start of April – beating the previous high of 21C set in 2016. Continue reading...
Pandemic accelerated advances in vaccine technology, opening up possibilities for combating array of diseasesThe Covid-19 pandemic has been awful for many reasons. But if there is a bright side to the past three years, it is vaccines. Development and testing has advanced at an unprecedented pace since the arrival of Covid-19, enabling technologies that might otherwise have taken another decade to undergo late-stage clinical testing, regulatory approval and manufacturing scale-up to prove their mettle in millions of people.These advances have set the stage for further breakthroughs in the next five to 10 years that could help to combat some of the greatest scourges of humanity, from common respiratory infections to cancer. Continue reading...
With growing concerns inside as well as outside industry, it is clear that counting on developers to police themselves is not sufficientThe horse has not merely bolted; it is halfway down the road and picking up speed – and no one is sure where it’s heading. The potential benefits of artificial intelligence – such as developing lifesaving drugs – are undeniable. But with the launch of hugely powerful text and image generative models such as ChatGPT-4 and Midjourney, the risks and challenges it poses are clearer than ever: from vast job losses to entrenched discrimination and an explosion of disinformation. The shock is not only how greatly the technology has progressed, but how fast it has done so. The concern is what happens as companies race to outdo each other.The alarm is being sounded within the industry itself. This month more than 1,000 experts signed an open letter urging a pause in development – and saying that if researchers do not pull back in this “out-of-control race”, governments should step in. A day later Italy became the first western country to temporarily ban ChatGPT. Full-scale legislation will take time. But OpenAI, which released ChatGPT-4, is unlikely to agree to voluntary restraints spurned by competitors. Continue reading...
Study shows traits such as fluffy coats were encoded and became more pronounced as animals adapted to harsh Siberian climateWoolly mammoths’ distinctive traits, including smaller ears, large fat deposits and fluffy coats, became more pronounced over 700,000 years as they adapted to the harsh climate of the Siberian steppes, a study suggests.Researchers compared the genomes of 23 Siberian woolly mammoths with 28 modern-day elephants and found that many of the woolly mammoth’s traits were already genetically encoded in the earliest animals. However, as they evolved, their bodies adapted to their environment, enabling them to retain more heat. Continue reading...
An eloquent but relentless attempt to prove the superiority of polyglots fails to convinceDisclosure: this reviewer is pi-lingual, a word coined by Douglas Hofstadter to describe people who speak three languages and can also have a cringingly inept conversation with a taxi driver in a couple more. Any book like this one, which purports to prove scientifically that polyglots are superior, has my vote. All the more since no great diligence was required of me to achieve this, aside from tagging along with my parents and a couple of patient English girlfriends met at an impressionable age. I therefore picked up this account of the virtues of multilingualism in smug mode, channelling my son who, at age 7, was fond of starting conversations with strangers with “I speak three languages, how many do you speak?”, which unsurprisingly won him few friends.I was not prepared for the number of scientific reasons this (overlong) book provides for additional smugness and fewer friends. Viorica Marian, who was born in Moldova, speaking Russian and Romanian, immigrated to the US and is now a professor at Northwestern University, has clearly made a living out of making monolingual colleagues – which in her neck of the woods must be a majority – feel inadequate. The first half of The Power of Language is a relentless, and eloquently written, studies-have-shown gallop through her work and that of her peers. All of which supposedly demonstrates, ad nauseam, that polyglots are measurably better than monoglots at almost everything: smarter, more inventive, more adaptable. Continue reading...
Hormone-disrupting chemicals are entering our bodies. We eat 44lbs of plastic in our lifetimesWhen it comes to keeping off extra pounds, watching what we eat may not be enough – we have to keep an eye on our food’s packaging, too.Rates of obesity among US adults have increased from 14% in 1980 to 42% today, and half the world is expected to be overweight or obese by 2035, with children and teens facing the sharpest increase in obesity and its consequences. Because data doesn’t support the idea that overeating and lack of exercise are squarely to blame, the scientific community is exploring other factors that may contribute – including metabolic disruption caused by eating products packaged in plastic.Adrienne Matei is a freelance journalist Continue reading...
Human hair from Spanish island indicates consumption of substances during ritualistic ceremoniesResearchers have found evidence of drug use during bronze age ceremonies.Analysis of strands of human hair from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, indicates ancient human civilisations used hallucinogenic drugs derived from plants. Continue reading...
by Thaslima Begum in Sylhet and Kaamil Ahmed on (#6AJQ0)
Despite the WHO declaring it eliminated in 1998, thousands of tea pickers have caught the diseaseAloka Gonju didn’t take much notice of the discoloured patch of skin on her left hand until her fingers began to stiffen and hurt. It became a struggle to pick leaves at the tea plantation where she works in Bangladesh.“I had no idea what was happening to me,” says the 47-year-old, whose wages support her husband, four children and three grandchildren. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with ad on (#6AHHP)
A giant mass of seaweed is heading towards beaches in Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean, bringing with it toxic gases and a smell similar to rotting eggs. Visible from space, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt stretches from the coast of Africa all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the biggest seaweed bloom on the planet, and for more than a decade researchers have watched as it has continued to grow in size. 2023 is predicted to be another record year. Madeleine Finlay speaks to sargassum expert Prof Brian Lapointe about why it’s getting bigger, what happens when it washes up on coastlines, and if anything can be done to deal with itClips: PBS NewsHour, News4JAX The Local Station Continue reading...
Short-term memory illusions can happen when we ‘start filling in based on our expectations’, study suggestsFrom squabbling over who booked a disaster holiday to differing recollections of a glorious wedding, events from deep in the past can end up being misremembered. But now researchers say even recent memories may contain errors.Scientists exploring our ability to recall shapes say people can make mistakes after just a few seconds – a phenomenon the team have called short-term memory illusions. Continue reading...
Brass used for west African artworks was acquired from manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the slave tradeScientists have discovered that some of the Benin bronzes were made with metal mined thousands of miles away in the German Rhineland.The Edo people in the Kingdom of Benin, modern Nigeria, created their extraordinary sculptures with melted down brass manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries. Continue reading...
Big cat’s traits are on scale loosely comparable to ‘introverts’ and ‘extroverts’ in humans, experts sayFrom wily Shere Khan to exuberant Tony, tigers have often been depicted as full of character. Now research suggests that’s no fiction, with scientists identifying two aspects of their personality.Experts say that just as five dimensions of personality, including openness and neuroticism, are often used to describe humans – with everyone sitting somewhere on a scale for each trait – Siberian tigers all sit on two scales dubbed “majesty” and “steadiness”. Continue reading...
My friend and former colleague Reg Sell, who has died aged 93, devoted his life to championing worker wellbeing through his 60-year career as an ergonomist and human factors expert. He believed in “fitting the job to the person” – the opposite of the thinking that prevailed when he started his career in the 1950s.Born in Twickenham, south-west London, to George Sell, the editor of BP magazine, and his wife Gladys (nee Francis), Reg attended Latymer school for boys in north London, before studying psychology at UCL, graduating in 1953. He returned to Birkbeck College, London, in 1955 to gain a diploma focusing on occupational psychology before embracing ergonomics and human factors – an approach that focuses on designing jobs and equipment around people. Reg met Peggy Bangay while they were both doing their national service, and they married in 1957. Continue reading...
Company’s own website went down and internet was inaccessible for several hours. Follow all our live coverage of business, economics and financial marketsIt has not been a great day for companies bearing the Virgin brand. Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company started by Sir Richard Branson, has filed for US bankruptcy protection.Last-ditch efforts to find funding for the struggling space firm fell through, the Guardian’s Kalyeena Makortoff reports.While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business.We believe the cutting-edge launch technology this team has created will have wide appeal to buyers as we continue in the process to sell the company. At this stage, we believe the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward to identify and finalise an efficient and value-maximising sale. Continue reading...
Called ‘the hat’, the 13-sided shape can be arranged in a tile formation such that it never forms a repeating gridOne of mathematics’ most intriguing visual mysteries has finally been solved – thanks to a hobbyist in England.The conundrum: is there a shape that can be arranged in a tile formation, interlocking with itself ad infinitum, without the resulting pattern repeating over and over again? Continue reading...
Poor sleep patterns may increase genetic susceptibility and chance of developing condition, study showsRegularly enjoying a good night’s sleep could significantly reduce your risk of developing asthma, a decade-long study suggests.Asthma affects about 300 million people worldwide. Scientists do not know why some people develop the condition while others do not. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample with Nicola Davis; produce on (#6AF5Z)
The UK government recently announced plans to make the possession of laughing gas for recreational use a criminal offence. Nitrous oxide, also known as “nos”, is hugely popular among young people, and doctors have raised concerns about a rise in cases of nerve damage linked to the use of the drug. Ian Sample speaks to science correspondent Nicola Davis about the reasons behind the ban, the risks associated with using nitrous oxide and what experts have made of the government’s decisionClips: BBC News, Channel 4 News Continue reading...
Readers express their hopes, and fears, about recent developments in artificial intelligence chatbotsEvgeny Morozov’s piece is correct insofar as it states that AI is a long way from the general sentient intelligence of human beings (The problem with artificial intelligence? It’s neither artificial nor intelligent, 30 March). But that rather misses the point of the thinking behind the open letter of which I and many others are signatories. ChatGPT is only the second AI chatbot to pass the Turing test, which was proposed by the mathematician Alan Turing in 1950 to test the ability of an AI model to convincingly mimic a conversation well enough to be judged human by the other participant. To that extent, current chatbots represent a significant milestone.The issue, as Evgeny points out, is that a chatbot’s abilities are based on a probabilistic prediction model and vast sets of training data fed to the model by humans. To that extent, the output of the model can be guided by its human creators to meet whatever ends they desire, with the danger being that its omnipresence (via search engines) and its human-like abilities have the power to create a convincing reality and trust where none does and should exist. As with other significant technologies that have had an impact on human civilisation, their development and deployment often proceeds at a rate far faster than our ability to understand all their effects – leading to sometimes undesirable and unintended consequences. Continue reading...
Artemis II mission is part of programme aiming to return to moon’s surface and establish a sustainable outpostNasa has named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly as early as next year on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.Christina Koch, an engineer who already holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, was named as a mission specialist, along with Victor Glover, a US Navy aviator, who was selected as the Artemis II pilot. Continue reading...
Perfect paths for pasting pawnsToday’s puzzles are about pawns on a chessboard. They require no expertise at chess. All you need to know is that the queen can move in any direction, for any number of squares. (Usually the Monday puzzle is published on a Monday but these puzzles went live yesterday by mistake.)Here they are again with the solutions. Continue reading...
US researchers also find that starting HRT around the time of diagnosis may reduce riskWomen who enter the menopause early may be more likely to develop dementia, according to US researchers, who found that starting hormone replacement therapy around the time of diagnosis appeared to remove the risk.The findings are tentative, and need to be confirmed by larger studies, but suggest that starting hormone therapy soon after the first symptoms occur may be better for brain health as well as reducing heart disease and other medical issues linked to the menopause. Continue reading...
A meteor shower is the central mystery of a documentary set in the Moroccan desert that feels like a cinematic sleeping pillHere is an arthouse documentary from Morocco that moves at geological speed, demanding every single last shred of your attention. It’s a cinematic essay about the origins of human life, but for me many of the scenes felt too opaque and ponderous to really dig into the ideas.It begins in the bleak emptiness of the Moroccan desert, where a nomad shepherd called Mohamed describes watching a meteor shower: blue fire lighting up the sky followed by a noise so loud people thought it was an earthquake; the ground beneath him trembled. Mohamed lives in a tent with his family, but his way of life is disappearing. The land is so dry (presumably as a result of climate change) that there is not enough grass for sheep to graze. So Mohamed joins men looking for the debris from the meteorite shower. Director Adnane Baraka uses a contrived technique of having Mohamed and his family speak their innermost thoughts and feelings to each other in a whispery voiceover, like a Terrence Malick movie. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6AE5H)
Exclusive: Experts say delays of more than a year risk children not getting relevant treatments or supportFamilies of children with rare genetic disorders are being made to wait more than a year for genome sequencing results under a flagship NHS programme, the Guardian has learned.Senior doctors said worsening backlogs in the Genomics Medicines Service risked children not accessing treatments or support designed to give them the best outcomes. In other cases, parents wishing to know if their child has an inherited genetic condition in order to plan future pregnancies are being left in limbo for unacceptable time periods, experts said. Continue reading...
Enjoy the contrasting colours of these two celestial objects during the night of 9-10 AprilThis is advance warning for a beautiful sight taking place next weekend during the night of 9-10 April.The silvery moon will move into a close conjunction with the bright red star of Antares. The contrasting colours of these two celestial objects, one near and the other far, is a true pleasure for the eye. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian