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The venerable constellation, first recorded by the Babylonians, will be framed by the two planets in the southern skyAquarius, the water bearer, is one of the fainter zodiacal constellations – the constellations bisected by the plane of our solar system, and as such the ones through which the planets, the moon and the sun all move. Aquarius sits between Capricornus and Pisces and is best seen from the northern hemisphere in the autumn.This week, Aquarius is framed by Jupiter and Saturn. The two planets straddle the constellation and can be used to find the right patch of sky. The chart shows the view looking south from London at 6pm GMT on Monday 21 November. Those with a good southern horizon may also be able to catch sight of the relatively bright star Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish. The placement of this constellation is no accident. In classical Greek depictions, Aquarius is seen upending a jar of water that spills out into a river in which the southern fish is swimming. But Aquarius dates back further than that, to Babylonian star lore of around 1000BC, when it was associated with the water god Ea. Continue reading...

My mother, Cornelia Schroeder, who has died aged 73, was a virologist specialising in influenza and also the editor of her mother’s memoir.Cornelia spent the early years of her career in her native East Germany, but after its collapse, she went to work at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London. From 1990 to 1993, she was Wellcome research fellow at the institute’s division of virology, working on isolation of the influenza virus protein. There, she met an international crowd of like-minded people with whom she remained friends and went hiking in west Wales every year - long after she went back to Berlin in 1993, returning to the Charité Institute for Virology to take up a post as associate professor. Continue reading...

Bills will cause many to think twice about turning on the heating this winter. How does the body adapt to cold – and will wearing a hat really help?We, along with other mammals and birds, are endotherms. We use thermoregulation to maintain a consistent internal body temperature – between 37C and 37.5C. When the external environment changes, “A range of physiological responses is initiated, including the reduction of tissue temperature – skin, blood and muscle,” says Dr Joseph Costello, exercise and environmental physiologist at Portsmouth University’s extreme environments laboratories. “If the exposure is over a longer period of time, you may also observe a reduction in deep body temperature.”Thermoregulation is controlled by the hypothalamus, a structure deep in the brain that maintains internal balance – or homeostasis – by regulating processes such as heart rate and body temperature. If the hypothalamus senses the body growing cold, it sends signals to the skin, glands, muscles and organs, kickstarting responses that will keep the body warm and protect the vital organs. 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 conceptsWill we ever set up an outpost on another planet? Finnley Clarkson, SheffieldPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

Head of Orion lunar programme says Artemis 1 mission is ‘first step to long-term deep-space exploration’Astronauts are on course to be living and working on the moon before the end of the decade, according to a Nasa official.Howard Hu, the head of the US agency’s Orion lunar spacecraft programme, said humans could be active on the moon for “durations” before 2030, with habitats to live in and rovers to support their work. Continue reading...

Instead of rewarding us for our suffering, Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak are offering nothing but more hardshipThe Covid-19 era is not yet over. The worst might have long since receded – though deaths linked to the virus go on – and for most of us, infection now means nothing more serious than a few days in bed. But the pandemic’s grim and complex legacy is becoming clearer, in continuing tragedies that still seem cruelly overlooked: the prevalence of long Covid, a stark crisis of mental health, and developmental problems among children who spent long months deprived of the most basic human experiences.Partly because the NHS was so consumed by the pandemic, we now seem to be facing an upsurge in deaths from conditions such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes that were left undetected or untreated. Covid has hugely accelerated an exodus of adults from the workforce that is causing ministers no end of anxiety. More generally, millions of people are still living with the effects of two long years full of bereavement, fear and loneliness. Continue reading...

I grew up eating this comforting, warming dish and it remains just as important to me todayI remember my first taste of butter chicken. I must have been about 10 years old. My dad’s cousins used to marinate a whole chicken from their farm in yoghurt, spices, ginger, garlic and chilli, before cooking it over an open fire: not everyone owned a tandoor.Everything they used was from their own land: deliciously sweet and tangy tomatoes, homemade yoghurt, white makhan (a cultured butter). It was such an experience – and such a beautiful dish – that throughout the long train journey home after visiting them, I would hassle my mum to make it for us back home. Those delicate spices, though, and the smoky flavour from cooking over an open fire, are impossible for me to replicate, even now. Continue reading...

Last week’s Nasa launch is the first in a flurry of successors to the Apollo programme, reopening the debate on the value of sending humans into spaceIn a few weeks, Nasa will celebrate a remarkable anniversary. Fifty years ago the last astronauts to visit the moon returned to Earth, leaving behind the final tell-tale signs that our species had once visited another world. For three days in December 1972, Apollo 17 crewmen Gene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt explored the moon’s Taurus-Littrow valley, travelling over 30 kilometres in their lunar rover while collecting more than 100kg of rocks for return to Earth.Then, on 14 December, geologist Schmitt returned to the mission’s lunar lander while Cernan gave a brief speech that was broadcast to Earth. “We shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,” he pledged. Then Cernan closed the spaceship’s hatch and after adjusting the controls, placed his hand on the ship’s yellow ignition button and uttered the last words that a human would speak on the moon for the rest of the 20th century: “Okay, Jack, let’s get this mutha outta here.” Continue reading...

And is that answer different now in our Covid world? Linda Geddes looks at the evidence and talks to the expertsAs temperatures drop and November rain falls, the seasonal onslaught of coughs, sore throats and sniffles may feel inevitable, but does constant exposure to everyday infections such as colds or influenza drain us or make us stronger?Our immune systems are often said to have memory, meaning that if an individual has previously been exposed to an infectious bug, such as a virus, specialised immune cells that remember what it looks like will continue to circulate in the blood and body fluids, ready to trigger a rapid immune response should they encounter it again. The same principle underlies vaccination – only in this case, there is no need to risk a serious infection with a virus or bacterium to develop a memory of it. Continue reading...

Second added periodically to synchronise atomic time and Earth time can cause problems for GPS systems, software and telecomsScientists and government representatives meeting at a conference in France have voted to scrap leap seconds by 2035, the organisation responsible for global timekeeping has said.Similar to leap years, leap seconds have been periodically added to clocks over the last half century to make up for the difference between exact atomic time and the Earth’s slower rotation. Continue reading...

Ronna, quetta, ronto and quecto added to International System of Units in first such change for more than 30 yearsExperts have voted for an expansion of the universe – or at least the official terminology that can be drawn upon to describe the vanishingly small and the preposterously large.In a vote at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles on Friday, the International System of Units (SI) embraced four new prefixes with immediate effect, marking the first such changes in more than 30 years. Continue reading...

Scottish actor and physics professor describe their difficulty in checking in to same hotel using matching namesIt adds a whole new meaning to double booking. Or perhaps it’s more of a mathematical problem: solve Brian Cox squared? But when the question was raised by a hotel receptionist, it was left to an actor and a physicist to find an answer.Brian Cox, the former musician turned physics professor, was the first to encounter the problem when attempting to get a key to his room in the hotel in which Brian Cox, the Scottish actor best known for starring in Succession, was also staying before a joint TV appearance. Continue reading...

Nasa says space telescope is finding previously hidden early galaxies, including one that may have formed 350m years after the big bangNasa’s James Webb space telescope is finding bright, early galaxies that until now have been hidden from view, including one that may have formed just 350m years after the big bang.Astronomers said Thursday that if the results were verified, this newly discovered throng of stars would beat the most distant galaxy identified by the Hubble space telescope – a record-holder that formed 400m years after the universe began. Continue reading...

The weaponisation of private health information can feel like a violation of personal safety, but there are steps you can take to regain controlMillions of Australians have been left feeling violated in the wake of the Medibank cyber breach. The weaponisation of private health information can be deeply traumatic – particularly for those who have had sensitive health information released publicly.The promise of confidentiality and professional privacy helps us feel safe enough to enter into mental health or other medical treatment. However, having private information such as details of mental health issues, addictions, STIs or past abortions shared publicly can be shame-inducing and highly traumatic. It can feel like a real betrayal and a violation of personal safety. Continue reading...

Eight former employees file unfair labor practice charges, alleging they were retaliated against for criticizing company CEOFormer employees of SpaceX have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging they had been retaliated against for writing a letter that was critical of the company CEO, Elon Musk.The eight former employees, who were fired in June, helped organize employees to draft the open letter condemning Musk’s online behavior, according to the New York Times. The letter, in part, addressed a joke Musk tweeted about a report suggesting he paid a company flight attendant who accused him of sexual harassment a $250,000 settlement.Musk has denied the allegations. Continue reading...

The revolutionary DCVax-L vaccine has allowed Nigel French to live a normal life seven years after a brain cancer diagnosisIt’s been seven years since Nigel French was woken up in the middle of the night by his wife after having a seizure, which came out of the blue after experiencing a mild headache – something he had simply put down to blocked sinuses.“She told me that the ambulance had arrived and I was like: ‘what ambulance?’” recalls French, 53, a mechanic who was diagnosed with glioblastoma that required urgent surgery, without which he would have had only months to live. Continue reading...

Trial results suggest people with newly diagnosed glioblastoma could potentially be given extra years of lifeThe world’s first vaccine to treat deadly cancerous brain tumours can potentially give patients years of extra life, a global clinical trial has concluded.A senior NHS doctor who was one of the trial’s chief investigators said the evidence showed DCVax had resulted in “astonishing” enhanced survival for patients. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Sex educator Emily Nagoski is on an eight-part mission to inspire confidence and joy in Come As You Are. Plus: five podcasts to help you make a positive change

Bacteria can fertilise ecosystems but need to be studied closely to identify potential pathogens, scientists sayHundreds of thousands of tonnes of bacteria are being released by melting glaciers, a study has shown.The microbes being washed downstream could fertilise ecosystems, the researchers said, but needed to be much better studied to identify any potential pathogens. Continue reading...

I used to laugh at my friends’ frequent toilet breaks. I have a lot more sympathy since I decided to stay properly hydratedI have long been quietly proud of my bladder control. Not for me the frequent, often urgent, toilet visits of my middle-aged friends. Motorway pitstops not for petrol, just for a pee? Not me. Nor was I ever heard to say, before setting off, “Ooh, I’d better just pop to the loo.” No need, you see. And in pubs, the hours I’d spend drumming my fingers, lonely as a cloud, waiting for my friends to return from the gents. Poor souls, ageing quicker than me, I reflected, smugly.Hubris, sheer hubris. Last week, I read that a chap of my age and weight – 55, and 97kg (15st 4lb) – should be drinking 3.7 litres (6.6 pints) of water a day. Since I have endeavoured to comply with this guidance, my pride in my bladder has been flushed away. No wonder I could control it – I was hardly putting anything in it.Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading...

A year ago at Cop26, global environment editor Jonathan Watts caught up with two climate scientists to hear what they thought about the progress made. A lot has happened in the intervening 12 months, and the world hasn’t stayed on track with its previous promises and pledges. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are expected to increase by 1% in 2022, hitting 37.5 billion tonnes – a record high.Ian Sample called them both up to find out how they’re feeling now. Speaking to Prof Peter Stott, Ian asks whether the 1.5C goal is still alive, and questions Katharine Hayhoe on how she stays hopefulArchive: WION Continue reading...

Rock that crashed into family’s driveway provides compelling evidence water arrived on asteroidsWater covers three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and was crucial for the emergence of life, but its origins have remained a subject of active debate among scientists.Now, a 4.6bn-year-old rock that crashed on to a driveway in Gloucestershire last year has provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that water arrived on Earth from asteroids in the outer solar system. Continue reading...

Stunning infrared image from James Webb telescope’s Nircam captures never before seen cosmic cloudsThe James Webb space telescope has revealed its latest image of celestial majesty, an ethereal hourglass of orange and blue dust being shot out from a newly forming star at its centre.The colourful clouds are only visible in infrared light, so had never been seen before being captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (Nircam), Nasa and the European Space Agency said in a statement on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Successful launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida follows scuppered attempts in August and September

Civil Aviation Authority gives regulatory approval for Newquay site to send satellites into spaceThe prospect of a “historic” space mission being launched from the far south-west of Britain before Christmas has taken a giant leap forward after an operating licence was granted to Spaceport Cornwall.There had been growing concern at the time it was taking for the issuing of licences that would allow the first launch of satellites from UK soil, but on Wednesday morning, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that the site in Newquay could be used for sending satellites into space. Continue reading...

The unmanned lunar rocket Artemis 1 lifted off from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1.04am ET on Wednesday. Artemis 1 will be on its journey for 25 days, going beyond the dark side of the moon, then returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean in December. The success of this mission is crucial to the Artemis 2 and 3 flights that will follow and which will take humans to and from the moon

Rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, on its way to send its Orion capsule on a 25-day crewless test flight around the moon and backTwo hurricanes, two months and a number of technical fixes since previous launch attempts were thwarted, Nasa’s Artemis 1, the most powerful space rocket in history, is finally on course for the moon after lifting off from Florida early on Wednesday.Read our full report below:On behalf of all the men and women across our great nation who have worked to bring this hardware together to make this day possible, and for the Artemis generation, this is for you.” Continue reading...

Inadequate management and underinvestment in main Animal and Plant Health Agency facility has left country at risk, MPs warnThe UK’s main animal disease facility has been left to deteriorate to an “alarming extent” leaving the country vulnerable to major outbreaks on the scale of the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, MPs have warned.An inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge was “continually vulnerable to a major breakdown” because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had “comprehensively failed” in its management of the site. Continue reading...

Report says 100m screenings lost because of pandemic, which had ‘chilling effect’ on researchExperts have warned that Europe faces a “cancer epidemic” unless urgent action is taken to boost treatment and research, after an estimated 1m diagnoses were missed during the pandemic.The impact of Covid-19 and the focus on it has exposed “weaknesses” in cancer health systems and in the cancer research landscape across the continent, which, if not addressed as a matter of urgency, will set back cancer outcomes by almost a decade, leading healthcare and scientific experts say. Continue reading...

The fungi are common in homes, with babies and young children most at risk from potential dangers

The Vascones, an iron age tribe from whose language modern Basque is thought to descend, previously viewed as largely illiterateMore than 2,000 years after it was probably hung from the door of a mud-brick house in northern Spain to bring luck, a flat, lifesize bronze hand engraved with dozens of strange symbols could help scholars trace the development of one of the world’s most mysterious languages.Although the piece – known as the Hand of Irulegi – was discovered last year by archaeologists from the Aranzadi Science Society who have been digging near the city of Pamplona since 2017, its importance has only recently become clear. Continue reading...

Global figures suggest sperm concentration has halved in 40 years – and the rate of decline is acceleratingHumans could face a reproductive crisis if action is not taken to tackle a drop in sperm count, researchers have warned after finding the rate of decline is accelerating.A study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, based on 153 estimates from men who were probably unaware of their fertility, suggests that the average sperm concentration fell from an estimated 101.2m per ml to 49.0m per ml between 1973 and 2018 – a drop of 51.6%. Total sperm counts fell by 62.3% during the same period. Continue reading...

The Amazon Prime movie, aided by Steven Spielberg, tells the story of a Wall-E-esque rover 15-year mission to MarsOpportunity is quite a character. I’m talking about the star of Ryan White’s crowd-pleasing, Oscar-tipped documentary Good Night Oppy: a Nasa-engineered rover sent on a 90-day mission to Mars in 2003 that surprisingly stretched to 15 years.Opportunity, or Oppy as some affectionately call her for short, is a melange of wheels, wires, antennas and solar panels that come together with traits familiar to humans. She has a neck that looks retrofitted from a kitchen sink drainpipe. And her head has cameras spread horizontally in binocular formation like eyes. And when the rover – in an early scene from Good Night Oppy – halts before what she assumes to be a Martian obstruction but turns out to be her own shadow, we can’t help but attribute a comical personality to her. Continue reading...

Cop27 got off to a difficult start last week. Attendees struggled with a lack of food and drink, civil society group events were curtailed, and more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists hit the conference halls – more than the delegations of many of the most vulnerable countries combined.As we head into the second week, Madeleine Finlay hears from biodiversity reporter Patrick Greenfield about what it’s been like in Sharm el-Sheikh, and from environment editor Fiona Harvey about what’s happened so far and whether much progress is likely to be made in the final days of negotiations Continue reading...

Adult ape sharing information and just wanted mother to look at foliage with no motive otherwise, scientists sayChimpanzees show each other objects just for the sake of it, researchers have found, revealing it isn’t only humans who like to draw attention to items that have captured their interest.As anyone who has spent time with a child knows, even very young humans like to point out objects to others. However, it was previously thought this behaviour only occurs in our species. Continue reading...

After examining carp remains, researchers claim people who lived 780,000 years ago liked their fish well doneEarly human ancestors living 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done, Israeli researchers have revealed, in what they said was the earliest evidence of fire being used to cook.Exactly when our ancestors started cooking has been a matter of controversy among archaeologists because it is difficult to prove that an ancient fireplace was used to prepare food, and not just for warmth. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s equestriansEarlier today I set you the following two puzzles: Here they are again with solutions.1. Neigh bother Continue reading...

Swiss pharmaceutical firm carried out two identical phase 3 trials of gantenerumab, with about 1,000 volunteers in eachHopes of a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease have been dealt another blow by the failure of an experimental drug to slow the progression of the condition in global clinical trials.The Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche said its drug, gantenerumab, showed no clear benefit in twin trials which explored its impact on memory, problem solving and other cognitive skills in people with early stage Alzheimer’s. Continue reading...

With the world on course to exceed 1.5C warming, taking carbon out of the atmosphere, as well as lowering emissions, will become increasingly importantThe past year has seen an unending drumbeat of climate-driven disasters. And yet, the climate story of this past decade has been one of slow but steady progress. Global CO2 emissions have flattened, and countries representing 88% of global emissions have adopted or announced plans to get to net zero in the latter half of the 21st century.Another reason to be hopeful is that clean energy became cheaper much faster than expected. The cost of both solar energy and batteries fell tenfold in the last 10 years and the cost of wind energy by two-thirds. Solar is the cheapest form of new electricity to build in much of the world today, and electric vehicles now represent 13% of new vehicle sales globally. Continue reading...

Please answer the equestrianLet’s begin today’s challenges with a problem about horses, followed by an excellent pattern recognition puzzle that was recently doing the rounds on social media.1. Neigh bother Continue reading...

Dust grains forming meteor shower come from comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits sun every 33 yearsOne of the year’s major meteor showers takes place this week. The Leonids may not typically produce the most meteors but they can be very bright.The chart shows the view looking east-north-east from London at midnight as 17 November becomes 18 November. This is the night on which the shower is expected to peak but individual Leonids can be seen any time between 3 November and 2 December. Although rates can be as low as 15 meteors an hour, the dust grains that form these meteors are extremely fast. They hit our atmosphere at speeds of about 45 miles (70km) a second, and can be extremely bright and colourful. Continue reading...

Discovered in the deep: Scientists exploring the uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean uncover a multitude of dazzling sea creatures around a remote Australian island groupA shipload of scientists has just returned from exploring the uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean, where they mapped giant underwater mountains and encountered a multitude of deep-sea animals decked out in twinkling lights, with velvety black skin and mouths full of needle-sharp, glassy fangs.The team of biologists was the first to study the waters around the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory more than 600 miles off the coast of Sumatra. “It’s just a complete blank slate,” says the expedition’s chief scientist, Dr Tim O’Hara, from Museum Victoria Research Institute.The Sloane’s viperfish has huge fang-like teeth, visible even when the mouth is closed. It has light-producing organs on its belly and upper fin, which help disguise it from predators and lure prey. Photograph: Benjamin Healley Continue reading...

Study beginning on Monday will assess the risk of type 1 diabetes in 20,000 children aged three to 13Scientists are launching a trial screening programme for type 1 diabetes in the UK to detect the disease earlier and reduce the risk of life-changing complications.About 20,000 children aged between three and 13 are being invited to take part in the Early Surveillance for Autoimmune Diabetes (Elsa) study, with recruitment opening on Monday. Continue reading...

Approach brings smaller benefits to children’s teeth than previously suggestedWater fluoridation provides a modest benefit for children’s teeth in an era of fluoride toothpastes, but does not shrink inequalities in dental health between rich and poor communities, research has revealed.Fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral, has been added to drinking water for decades in areas where natural levels are low in a bid to tackle tooth decay. Continue reading...

While researching a book on kindness, I found that being kind enhances the mood of not just the receiver – but the giver, tooOne winter’s morning I was cycling to work when I saw a man in flip-flops and shorts walking fast in the opposite direction to me and calling out the name “Lola”. It seemed strange that anyone would be out in this freezing weather in those clothes, but I cycled on without thinking any more about it. Suddenly the cars in front of me screeched to a stop as a little terrier ran across the road. A woman in a raincoat called to the frightened dog “Poochy, Poochy!” Again, I cycled on, wondering why she had let her dog off the lead on such a busy street.I’d been cycling for another 10 minutes when I worked out what I’d witnessed. Of course! The little dog wasn’t called Poochy. She was Lola. She didn’t belong to the woman in the raincoat but to the man in flip-flops and shorts. Clearly Lola had somehow escaped and the man was searching for her. Continue reading...

Barring technical issues and Florida’s weather, Artemis 1 will launch after midnight Wednesday on a 15-day, 1.3m-mile journeyFifty years ago this month, mission managers at the US space agency Nasa gave the final go-ahead for what would turn out to be humanity’s most recent odyssey to the moon. Few realized at the time it would be more than half a century before Nasa would be ready to return, not least Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, whose belief as he stepped back into the lunar module in December 1972 was that it would be “not too long into the future” that astronauts were there again.At 1.04am EST (6.04am GMT) Wednesday, late technical issues and Florida’s weather gods notwithstanding, Artemis 1, the most powerful rocket ship in history, will attempt to close that decades-long gap. Continue reading...

Scientists demonstrated that a gene drive can be used to induce female infertility in the common house mouse, an invasive species in Australia

Australia’s green light for the procedure opens up potential to treat bacterial infections, as well as other diseases

Research programme buys doctors crucial time by spotting returning tumours before symptoms appearSeven years ago, Kelly Harrop was working at a stables while also running regularly in half marathons and 10k races. Then she began to suffer digestive problems. Scans eventually revealed marks on her lungs. The subsequent diagnosis was direct. “I had lung cancer. It was a shock. I was fit, healthy and had never smoked,” she told the Observer.Kelly had surgery to remove the tumour, followed by chemotherapy. But doctors knew there was a risk of the tumour reappearing, so they enrolled her in a new research programme, TRACERx. Funded by Cancer Research UK, the £14m project was set up 10 years ago to investigate how lung tumours arise and evolve. A total of 850 patients with early-stage lung cancer were studied and followed from diagnosis to treatment. Continue reading...

Study finds rats instinctively move in time to music – an ability previously thought to be uniquely humanMusic makes you lose control, Missy Elliott once sang on a hit that is almost impossible to hear without bopping along. Now scientists have discovered that rats also find rhythmic beats irresistible, showing how they instinctively move in time to music.This ability was previously thought to be uniquely human and scientists say the discovery provides insights into the animal mind and the origins of music and dance. Continue reading...