Science | The Guardian

My uncle David Ish-Horowicz, who has died aged 75 from a brain tumour, was a molecular biologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), now Cancer Research UK (CRUK), from the late 1970s.He was one of the pioneers in the application of molecular biology to developmental genetics. His research career focused on unravelling the intricate mechanisms that govern how embryos turn into complex organisms. He utilised both drosophila (fruit fly) and vertebrate models to identify and analyse the molecular and genetic pathways that establish and regulate spatial organisation within embryos. Continue reading...

When my father died my grief was deep - for him and the dad I wished he'd beenGrief is a thing with wings. It swoops in when and how it wants, often uninvited. When I think of my father, I think of sound. His laughter: a deep rumble from his slightly distended gut, ending with a sigh, as if he were reluctant to let it go. The gentle push of his windscreen-shaped glasses up the bridge of his nose. I think of 5am wake-up calls - me at five or six, my brother five years older, both of us trudging drowsily to the dining table for maths lessons. I think of his short afro, often patted into a near perfect square.An ex-military man, his life was ruled by discipline. He both scared and fascinated me. I was in awe of his mind: brilliant with numbers yet complex, shielded by an impenetrable layer. I admired his style: beige and unremarkable, distinctly his. His personality was uninhibited, exuberant, vivacious. He loved entertaining, clinking champagne glasses at our home on Victoria Island in Lagos, discussing Nigeria's woes. 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 conceptsWhat is the evolutionary purpose of blushing? Peter Walls, LiverpoolSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

The academic and author draws on quantum mechanics, English romantic philosophy and mysticism to explore a new theory of mind that embraces the paranormalJeffrey J Kripal is a professor of philosophy and religious thought at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is the author of 10 books on the history of mysticism, psychology and the paranormal. His latest, How to Think Impossibly, draws on a range of sources including gnosticism, quantum physics and English romantic philosophy, to attempt a new theory of mind and the imagination.At the root of some of your understanding of imagination, and your argument that current theories of mind leave too much off the table", seems to be an experience that happened to you in Kolkata in November 1989. Can you describe what that involved?

As a new play examines the work of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, we celebrate the women whose crucial discoveries were ignored or suppressedEighty-five years ago, several dozen eminent astronomers posed for a photograph outside the newly constructed McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis in Texas. All were men - with one exception. Half-concealed by a man in front of her, the face of a solitary woman can just be made out in the grainy black and white image.This is Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, whose impact on our understanding of the cosmos was profound. She showed stars were primarily made of hydrogen and helium, contradicting the scientific orthodoxy of the 1920s, which held that they were made of an array of elements. Her claims were suppressed and her work obscured, like her image on the McDonald Observatory photograph. Continue reading...

Maria Sibylla Merian's beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam's RijksmuseumMore than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was the bookshop of the world". Continue reading...

With a biologically significant birthday looming, it's time to take stock - and get ready to embrace whatever comes nextRecently I've been going through old photographs. My parents are clearing out their loft and I've been forced, finally, to confront the boxes of A-level sketchbooks and towers of 90s magazines, and let it all go. The photographs, though, are interesting. It's a cliche, I know, to look back at images of youth and tut at how lovely you were, and how blind to that loveliness you were at the time. But it still shocks me to look at a photo from my teens, covered in black eyeliner at a family seder night, or awkwardly leaning against the stairs in a 50s dress and 80s shoes, and feel that maternal tug towards my old self, and the memory of just how foolish and monstrous I believed myself to be.This autumn I will turn 44, an age (new research suggests) of dramatic change". The study tracked thousands of molecules in people aged 25 to 75, and detected two major waves of age-related changes, first at 44 and then again at 60. When I read this, I got up from my seat and stood for a little while in front of the mirror. I looked at my jawline and thought about ageing. Continue reading...

Last week's planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequalityNone of the African countries affected by the outbreak of a new variant of mpox have received any of the promised vaccine, pushing back a rollout that had been planned for last week.The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been at the centre of an outbreak of the new clade 1b variant, with 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

Lidded vessel is star object in rich Galloway Hoard and came from silver mine in what is now IranIt is a star object of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, buried in AD900 and unearthed in a field in Scotland. Now a lidded silver vessel has been identified as being of west Asian origin, transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago.When it emerged from the ground a decade ago, the vessel was still wrapped in its ancient textiles, whose survival is extremely rare. Its surface could be seen only through X-ray scans. Since then, the textiles have been partially removed and preserved and the vessel has had laser cleaning to remove green corrosion over much of its silver surface. It has also undergone scientific analysis. Continue reading...

Just interrupt and say, Sorry, I can't bear film plots'The question I am a woman in my 30s and I notice I can find conversation unfulfilling. When I am with new people, I find myself either having a bit of commentary in my head or doing lots of listening to their problems, as they might overshare things and I feel as if they are dumping on me. Such conversation feels unsatisfactory. This is not a feeling I get with older friends, where sharing and turn-taking is mostly natural and comfortable.I notice that on dates someone might tell me anecdotes and I feel they aren't connecting with me - sometimes a man will describe to me the plot of a film and I might be feeling desperately bored and be longing to be asked a question about myself or have a bit of back and forth about what is happening in the present moment. Do I have to push through that bit until I get to the comfortable conversation and parity stage? Continue reading...

Semaglutide - contained in Ozempic and Wegovy - has far-reaching benefits', with people dying at lower rate from all causesWeight-loss drugs are poised to revolutionise healthcare by slowing down the ageing process and by allowing people to live for longer and in better health. That is the dramatic message from leading scientists after studies were presented last week at the European Society of Cardiology Conference in London.Research has already found that semaglutide - also known by the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic - reduced the risk of death in people who were obese or overweight and had cardiovascular disease. Continue reading...

Programme that monitored thousands of women leads to findings that could lead to better health outcomes for decades to comeScientists say they are moving towards earlier indentification and prevention of heart disease. The development is the result of a programme that monitored thousands of women for three decades while assessing their susceptibilities to cardiac illness.The scientists presented the work as late-breaking research at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in London and published it in the New England Journal of Medicine. We hope these findings move the field closer to identifying even earlier ways to detect and prevent heart disease," said Paul Ridker, study author and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Continue reading...

Australian scientists hail finding as a step in unlocking secrets of planet's protective magnetic fieldBy travelling to the centre of the Earth via seismic waves scientists have discovered a ring-like structure within the swirling pool of molten metal known as the outer core.Research published in the journal Science Advances has identified a doughnut-shaped region within the outer core, parallel to the equator. Continue reading...

Two astronauts at International Space Station will board SpaceX rocket in September instead of Boeing StarlinerNasa on Friday cut two astronauts from the next crew to make room on the return trip for the two stuck on the International Space Station.Nasa's Nick Hague and the Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch in September onboard a SpaceX rocket for the orbiting laboratory. The duo will return with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in February. Nasa decided it was too risky for Williams and Wilmore to fly home in their Boeing Starliner capsule, marred by thruster troubles and helium leaks. Continue reading...

Physicist whose work on nuclear refrigeration has aided understanding of the big bang and the early universeAlthough absolute zero will for ever remain beyond our reach, we have achieved probably the next best thing." These were the words of George Pickett, who has died aged 85, discussing his work on nuclear refrigeration at Lancaster University, the purpose of which was to produce the lowest possible laboratory temperatures, a necessity for numerous scientific studies.At such low temperatures - close to -273.15C, or what is known as absolute zero, the point at which an object has no heat at all - the motion of atoms and subatomic particles ceases almost completely. The rules of classical physics break down, allowing scientists to study the enigmatic world of quantum mechanics, determining how elementary particles move and interact. Continue reading...

Researchers say males can see other mosquitoes flying around, but give chase only when they hear female buzzingWhile dulcet tones might sway humans looking for a partner, it seems they are also important for male mosquitoes: researchers have found the insects chase others only when they hear the buzz of a female.Male mosquitoes form swarms involving thousands of individuals to attract potential partners, but must avoid bumping into each other while pursuing the females that turn up. Continue reading...

Public health experts warn overinflated view of abilities' and restrictive laws could make next outbreak more lethalThe US is making the same mistakes with the H5N1 bird flu virus as with Covid, even as the highly pathogenic avian influenza continues spreading on American farms and raising alarms that it could mutate to become a pandemic, public health experts argue in the New England Journal of Medicine.We're closing our eyes to both the Covid pandemic and to a potential nascent bird flu [pandemic] on the horizon," said Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and co-author of the article. Our ability to react swiftly and decisively is the big problem." Continue reading...

People with most compensatory sleep 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the leastPeople who catch up" on missed sleep at the weekend may have up to a 20% lower risk of heart disease compared with those who do not, according to a study.The findings, presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, looked at data from 90,903 adults taking part in the UK Biobank project, a database that holds medical and lifestyle records of 500,000 people in the UK. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former chief scientific adviser makes remark as DSIT announces reopening of recruitment for key roleThe Labour minister Patrick Vallance, who helped spearhead the country's response to the Covid pandemic, has said he would not have served as a minister in a Conservative government.The former UK government chief scientific adviser was made a peer and appointed science minister this year after Keir Starmer's party swept to victory in the general election. And he made clear on Thursday that, if he had been asked by Rishi Sunak to consider serving in a Tory government: I wouldn't have done, no." Continue reading...

Hopes that device may improve diagnosis and monitoring of conditions such as lung and kidney diseaseScientists say they have created a smart mask" that can analyse the wearer's breath and detect tell-tale signs of disease.Researchers hope the device - which can beam its data to an app over Bluetooth - will offer an affordable and convenient way to capture and immediately analyse breath biomarkers related to respiratory and metabolic processes. Continue reading...

Researchers say behaviour, identified for first time in non-human primates, aids social cohesionWhether referring to a politician, cheering on an athlete, or recounting what friends and family have been up to, names often crop up in everyday human communication. Now researchers say marmoset monkeys use similar labels.Besides humans, only dolphins and elephants were previously known to use vocal labels for other members of their species. Continue reading...

Survey of 95 labs in Australia and New Zealand finds 71% use antimicrobial drugs and in ways that a lot of the time' could be avoided

As multinationals and researchers harvest rare organisms around the world, anger is rising in the global south over the unpaid use of lucrative genetic codes found on their landEven in the warm summer sun, the stagnant puddles and harsh rock faces of Ribblehead quarry in North Yorkshire feel like an unlikely frontier of the AI industrial revolution. Standing next to a waterfall that bursts out from the fractured rock, Bupe Mwambingu reaches into the green sludge behind the cascade and emerges with fistful of algae.Balancing precariously on the rocks, the researcher passes the dripping mass to her colleague Emma Bolton, who notes their GPS coordinates and the acidity, temperature and light exposure on a phone app. Continue reading...

The psychologist Chris French has spent decades studying paranormal claims and mysterious experiences, from seemingly impossible coincidences to paintings that purportedly predict the future. In this episode from April 2024, Ian Sample sits down with French to explore why so many of us believe in what he terms weird shit', and what we can learn from understanding why we are drawn to mysterious and mystic phenomena Continue reading...

Revisited: Guardian journalist Michael Safi delves into the world of artificial intelligence, exploring the dangers and promises it holds for societyThis week we are revisiting the Black Box series. This episode was first broadcast on 14 March 2024.

Imperial College London study also found that a third of people at risk of a severe reaction do not carry an EpiPenThe number of people diagnosed with food allergies in England has more than doubled in a decade and a third of those with life-threatening reactions are not carrying adrenaline pens, research has revealed.Experts at Imperial College London analysed GP records for 7 million people. The number of new food allergy cases increased from 76 per 100,000 people in 2008 to 160 per 100,000 people in 2018, they found. Total prevalence grew over the 10-year period from 0.4% to 1.1%. Continue reading...

Study described as necessary first step' in discovering whether dogs and humans can use push-button devices to communicateIt has become a hot-button topic among dog lovers: can humans and canines communicate with each other using a soundboard? Now researchers say they have taken the first steps towards finding out, revealing that dogs trained to use such devices respond to the pre-recorded words just as they do to spoken words.Here we show that actually [dogs] do pay attention to the [soundboard] words and they produce appropriate behaviours independently of environmental cues and who produces the word," said Prof Federico Rossano, of the University of California San Diego, who led the research. Continue reading...

I didn't think I would ever break the law to try alternative medicine. But as Australia finds itself at the forefront of the therapy, I'm in a unique positionTo quote Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady, I'm a good girl, I am.I am scrupulous with my tax return, obey speed limits and send thank you cards after I've been invited to someone's place for dinner.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Fewer that 1.5% of drugs trials between 1960 and 2013 included expectant women. Now, campaigners and doctors are aiming to change thatWhen she was pregnant with her second child, Busisiwe Beko was living with HIV, but that didn't worry her. She had been taking antiretrovirals for years and as an experienced Aids activist in South Africa she knew that as long as she continued to take her pills every day, her second baby would be born free of infection, just like her first.But another illness was lurking in Beko's lungs: tuberculosis (TB) had been hiding behind the common signs of pregnancy. The illness turned her pregnancy into a nightmare. Continue reading...

Focus on potential harms from staying unvaccinated found to be more effective than messaging on jab's benefitsPolicymakers who want to encourage the uptake of Covid vaccines should focus on communicating the risks of not having such jabs, research suggests.Researchers in China say they have found the approach, known as a loss frame strategy, is more persuasive in boosting people's willingness to get vaccinated than focusing on the benefits either to the individual themselves or to others. Continue reading...

It's been quite a revelation to discover that my version of reminiscing is nothing like other people'sHave you ever had the experience where a smell or a taste pulls you into a world of memory? One bite of a cookie of a similar kind to those in your old school cafeteria, and suddenly you can practically see the linoleum floors and hear the squeak of plastic chairs. Most people can have these sudden reveries - I can't.When I have come across descriptions of this phenomenon - Proust's madeleine scene, for instance, or the memory bubbles in the movie Inside Out - I've always assumed that it was some kind of metaphorical device. I had no idea that most people actually re-experience moments from their pasts in some sensory detail, even if it's a bit shaky or faint. Continue reading...

With talk of an Oasis reunion, experts explain how sibling relationships can be particularly intense and problematic and rewarding'For most of the 1990s and 2000s, the Gallagher brothers clashed on stage and traded high-profile insults in newspaper interviews and on social media. So rumours of an Oasis reunion tour in 2025 have prompted furious speculation about how the pair repaired a rift that for decades appeared intractable.Family therapists told the Guardian that although sibling rifts are common and often reparable, reunions like the Gallaghers' only succeed if both warring parties are ready to bury the hatchet. Continue reading...

Labradors are known for being greedy dogs, and now scientists have come up with a theory about the genetic factors that may be behind their behaviour.In this episode from April 2024, the Guardian's science correspondent and flat-coated retriever owner Nicola Davis visits the University of Cambridge to meet Dr Eleanor Raffan and Prof Giles Yeo to find out how understanding this pathway could help treat the obesity crisis in humansMuch more fixated on the sausage': study sheds light on obesity in labradors Continue reading...

Whether it's your partner that's getting on your nerves, or your friends, or even your pet, sometimes you just want to burn everything to the ground and start over. But will you feel the same way tomorrow?A friend of mine has a useful phrase to describe an experience I think many of us can relate to: she calls it getting divorcey". She isn't actually married, but you don't have to be, to recognise what she's talking about.Getting divorcey is what happens to her when her partner sneezes into his hand and then rubs it on his jeans, or when he chews his food very loudly, and when they disagree on how to raise their daughters and have arguments about money. Continue reading...

It's time to ditch the stereotypes about only children. The same goes for the cliches about conscientious and controlling eldest siblingsAre only children selfish, spoiled and lonely? Duh, no, a piece in the New Scientist recently concluded, unpicking all these stereotypes.There are many more only children now: in 2022, 44% of UK families with dependent children had just one child. According to researchers at University College London's Faculty of Education and Society, they are doing just fine. Rejecting the outdated preconceptions and stereotypes about only children", they found an overall reassuring picture of UK only children's lives and outcomes". Continue reading...

A red triangle, helmed by the baleful red eye of Aldebaran, will be visible before the light of dawnExtremely early risers will have a special treat this week, as the moon meets two planets in a patch of sky already studded with bright stars. The chart shows the view looking east from London at 04.00 (BST) on the morning of 28 August.The planets will have climbed to a comfortable altitude by this time, but the dawn will not yet have begun to encroach on the darkness. The bright white beacon of Jupiter will be easy to spot, as will the waning crescent moon. Continue reading...

Researchers will use artificial intelligence to match image data of patients from Scotland with linked health recordsScientists are to analyse more than a million brain scans using artificial intelligence with the aim of developing a tool to predict a person's risk of dementia.Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Dundee will examine CT and MRI scans of patients from Scotland captured over more than a decade, as part of a global research effort called NEURii. Continue reading...

The US-based journalist has fashioned a wide-ranging and thought-provoking study of how everything from microbes to mammoths transformed our world into a living organismWhy read popular science? The best books manage to entertain, educate, astonish and even galvanise the reader, bringing an appreciation of new realms of knowledge. They expand awareness, not just of the beauty and complexity of the universe, but our place in it as human beings. They serve as celebrations and warnings, challenges and pleas. Traditionally, the genre tends to garland hard data with lashings of anecdote and well-turned, elegant metaphor. With Becoming Earth, Oregon-based journalist Ferris Jabr achieves all of these aims and more. He takes James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which proposed a reframing of Earth as a living being, and shows how the history of life on Earth is the history of life remaking Earth" in perpetual feedback spirals. Becoming Earth is an exploration of how life has transformed the planet, a meditation on what it means to say that Earth itself is alive, and a celebration of the wondrous ecology that sustains our world."It's a vision thick with baroque possibilities, potentially endless, and Jabr simplifies his mission by dividing his book into three sections: rock, water and air. In Rock, he journeys a mile underground and learns that as much as 20% of the Earth's biomass - the collective weight of all living things - may be simple organisms that live deep within the earth. There are some microbes that flourish in the cracks between rocks, magma-heated to 60C, and which get their energy from radioactive uranium; he describes others that live for millions of years. The weathering effect of bacteria, fungi and lichens has, over eons, created the silts that have lubricated plate tectonics, creating our continents. Computer models suggest that on a barren planet, the expansion of the continents would have been severely stunted and Earth would have remained a water world flecked with islands." 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 conceptsWhat is the evolutionary purpose of blushing? Peter Walls, LiverpoolPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

How our mutual love of music - and interest in each other's tastes - brought my daughter Laila and me closer togetherIt is a cloudy Saturday evening in Edinburgh in early June and I am in a rugby stadium surrounded by young women who are wearing glitter and homemade friendship bracelets. Pink stetsons and shiny bodysuits abound, middle-aged men in TK Maxx less so. This is not my tribe - I am here with my 12-year-old daughter, Laila, to see Taylor Swift in concert. She has been looking forward to this night for months, having seen the Eras tour countless times online. Every night since the tour began, Laila would watch live streams, but nothing could have prepared her for the moment Swift appears on stage and the stadium screams along to Cruel Summer. Laila sings the lyrics with passion and delight. I can tell by her expression that today is the greatest day of her life.Trying to recall a time when Laila was not a Swiftie is like trying to remember a time before I had children. It must have existed, but it is hard to believe. It feels like Taylor has been an unofficial part of our family for years. She pops up in almost every conversation with my daughter, particularly in recent weeks, albeit in sombre tones, following the tragic events in Southport, with the death of three children, all Swift fans, and the riots that followed - such a far cry from the inclusiveness and joy Taylor Swift embodies. Continue reading...

Team at University of Edinburgh using microbes to recycle lithium, cobalt and other expensive mineralsScientists have formed an unusual new alliance in their fight against climate change. They are using bacteria to help them extract rare metals vital in the development of green technology. Without the help of these microbes, we could run out of raw materials to build turbines, electric cars and solar panels, they say.The work is being spearheaded by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and aims to use bacteria that can extract lithium, cobalt, manganese and other minerals from old batteries and discarded electronic equipment. These scarce and expensive metals are vital for making electric cars and other devices upon which green technology devices depend, a point stressed by Professor Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at Edinburgh. Continue reading...

The continent will belatedly get 10,000 shots amid criticism of delays to the process caused by WHO red tapeAfrica's first batch of mpox vaccines will this week finally reach the continent, weeks after they have been made available in other parts of the world.The 10,000 shots, donated by the US, will be used to tackle a dangerous new variant of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, after a 2022 outbreak triggered global alarm. Continue reading...

Campaigners hail decision to give thousands of sufferers access to new set of drugs known as modulators'Alix Oxlade was 30 weeks into her pregnancy when scans showed fluid building up in the stomach and bowels of her unborn son, Rufus. The cause was unclear, though there was an early suspect: cystic fibrosis.One of the most common inherited illnesses in the west, cystic fibrosis is caused by a defective protein that allows mucus to build up in the lungs, bowels and other organs and can lead to chronic infections that worsen through life. Tests subsequently showed Alix and her partner, Ben, who live in East Yorkshire, were both carriers of the disease. Continue reading...

Sunita Suni' Williams and Barry Butch' Wilmore have been on the International Space Station since 6 JuneNasa has decided that the two astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station will return next February on a SpaceX-crewed Dragon flight where two seats have been made available for Sunita Suni" Williams and Barry Butch" Wilmore.Space agency officials said there was too much uncertainty" for the astronauts to return on the craft that brought them to the space station, Boeing's Starliner, which has had problems after the capsule sprang small leaks and some of its thrusters failed. Continue reading...

It's a dangerous emotion that makes us crave drama, and one exacerbated by the modern worldThe age of boredom... has now passed". So begins On Boredom, a 2021 essay collection that claims the likes of TikTok and YouTube have driven it to extinction. These days, the time needed to be bored is no longer available". This view, that boredom has been blotted out, is widely held - so much so that psychologists have started to worry that we have lost something in the process: attention spans, or the state of blankness from which creative thoughts must spring.But last week a study came along to confirm what has been lurking at the back of our distracted minds all along - scrolling through endless content actually makes boredom worse. Of course it does. Open up your phone while in a queue or on the bus, and your brain goes into a restless kind of limbo. If I'm honest, it's not boredom that makes me reach for Instagram but the urge to quiet other thoughts and emotions under a hum of static, like putting a blanket on a bird cage. Watching other people's travel slides and home videos was once seen as the epitome of tedium - now it's all some of us do. Continue reading...

In an extract from his new book on making the most of our finite time on Earth, the writer argues that worrying about how friends and colleagues are feeling is an agonising way to liveGreat news! I found the cure for my anxiety!!" the author Sarah Gailey once announced on social media. All I need is for everyone I know to tell me definitively that they aren't mad at me, once every 15 seconds, for ever." I know how she feels. For years, I possessed a remarkable superpower: I could turn almost any work opportunity that came my way, no matter how exciting, into an unpleasant emotional drama, simply by agreeing to do it. Once I'd accepted a deadline or signed a contract, there was now another person in the world who might be growing impatient that I hadn't finished yet, or who might end up disappointed in what I produced - and the thought that they might be harbouring any negativity towards me felt hugely oppressive. This same overinvestment in other people's emotions meant I was always saying yes to things I should really have declined, because I flinched internally at the thought of the other person feeling crestfallen. And that I rarely enjoyed myself fully at social gatherings, owing to a deep suspicion that the others present, however happy they appeared, might secretly only be spending time with me reluctantly.People-pleasing tendencies develop for different specific reasons, but right at the core of all of them lies a fundamental denial of what it means to be a limited human being. When it comes to the challenge of building a meaningful life, it's easy enough to see that our limited quantity of time is a major stumbling block. (A vast proportion of conventional productivity advice consists of techniques for maintaining the illusion that you might, one day, find a way to fit everything in.) But we're saddled with many other limitations, too, including the one that makes people-pleasing such an absurd and fruitless endeavour - which is that we don't have nearly as much control over other people or their emotions as we might wish. Essentially, it's a form of perfectionism, a felt need to perfectly curate what's going on inside other people's heads, if you're ever to let yourself relax or feel secure. Like all flavours of perfectionism, it diverts energy and attention from what really matters most; and it encourages the sufferer to lead what the Swiss psychotherapist Marie-Louise von Franz called a provisional life" - a life that somehow doesn't quite count as the real thing", not just yet, because you haven't yet developed the skills to keep everyone around you permanently happy with everything you're doing. Continue reading...

Scientists still trying to work out why some people live beyond 100, but agree it is best to avoid taking advice from centenarians themselvesThe death of the world's oldest person, Maria Branyas Morera, at the age of 117 might cause many to ponder the secrets of an exceptionally long life, but scientists say it could be best to avoid taking advice on longevity from centenarians themselves.According to the Guinness World Records website, Branyas believed her longevity stemmed from order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people". Continue reading...

Actor Gillian Anderson on prudes, powerful women, and collecting secret fantasies; How singer-songwriter Chappell Roan slow-burned her way to stardom; and Oliver Burkeman tells you how to stop being such a people-pleaser. Continue reading...

Fate of Starliner crew to be revealed as early as Saturday as rival SpaceX prepares to launch private spacewalk missionNasa is expected to announce as early as Saturday whether the US astronauts stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) can come home with the glitchy Boeing Starliner spacecraft that took them there or will need to wait for a SpaceX vehicle - which would be another embarrassment for the embattled rival plane-maker.Then SpaceX plans next week to launch one of its riskiest missions yet, to attempt the first ever private-sector spacewalk, with innovative slim spacesuits and a cabin with no airlock. Continue reading...

First patient in UK gets dose of jab designed to kill most common form of lung cancer - and stop it coming backDoctors have begun trialling the world's first mRNA lung cancer vaccine in patients, as experts hailed its groundbreaking" potential to save thousands of lives.Lung cancer is the world's leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8m deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor. Continue reading...