Science | The Guardian

Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproductionScientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG). Continue reading...

Fish or bird ownership showed no significant link to slower cognitive decline in study with implications for ageing societiesAs global population ages and dementia rates climb, scientists may have found an unexpected ally in the fight against cognitive decline.Cats and dogs may be exercising more than just your patience: they could be keeping parts of your brain ticking over too. In a potential breakthrough for preventive health, researchers have found that owning a four-pawed friend is linked to slower cognitive decline by potentially preserving specific brain functions as we grow older. Continue reading...

From blockbuster movies like Jurassic World Rebirth to documentary series, the appetite for these ancient creatures appears inexhaustibleOn-screen discussions of DNA and off-screen scientific consultants notwithstanding, no one goes to see a Jurassic Park movie for its realism. Yet one of the less convincing moments in Jurassic World Rebirth, the latest in the franchise, is unrelated to oversized velociraptors. It's the palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis complaining of shrinking public interest in his field.This spring, the BBC revived its 1999 hit series Walking With Dinosaurs. Not a week goes by without headlines announcing the discovery of a new species or new theories on how they behaved. Publishers produce an endless stream of dino-related fact and fiction, particularly for children. Palaeontology - at least when focused on the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic, or our hominin forebears - has long exerted an extraordinary hold on the public imagination.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves's distress may help destigmatise an emotional response to pressure or professional frustrationRachel Reeves's tears this week triggered a fall in the pound and attracted widespread derision from political columnists, mostly male. What is wrong with Rachel Reeves?" the Telegraph asked. In an article headlined The meaning of the chancellor's tears", a New Statesman columnist told readers that Reeves's authority was beginning to melt away". The Daily Mail spoke disdainfully of her waterworks".But in the longer term the chancellor's display of distress may prove to have an unexpectedly positive legacy, helpfully normalising a still hugely stigmatised phenomenon: women's tears in the workplace. Continue reading...

The healing power of exercise should never be underestimated, but be cautious about what recent headlines seem to suggest

When Glen Manning discovered two cavalry swords, a later dig revealed two distinct chapters of British historyIt began with an extraordinary piece of fortune: a metal detectorist on only his second expedition coming upon two very rare cavalry swords on the brink of being lost for ever.A dig by professional archaeologists and volunteers at the spot in Gloucestershire has now found that the swords may have been buried in the grounds of a grand Roman villa built on the site of an iron age settlement. Continue reading...

Local clinics and technology could drive improvement if reorganisation doesn't slow things downThe NHS is a totemic institution in Labour's history and that of the country, and voters care more about it than most things the government does. So the publication of Labour's 10-year plan for health in England was a crucial opportunity for ministers to show that they are in tune with the public. Given that satisfaction with the health service has hit a record low of 21%, and doctors are again threatening to go on strike, the announcement was also a moment of peril - even before the damage suffered by the prime minister and chancellor earlier this week, when rebels forced a U-turn on planned cuts to welfare.The overarching principles of Labour's reforms were set out last year: more prevention, more technology, more care delivered in the community (as opposed to in hospital). So the challenge was to find something fresh, original and hopeful to say. The promise of science and the potential of localism are what Wes Streeting's team has come up with. The strand of DNA pictured on the document's cover points to high expectations of genomic medicine and other cutting-edge technology. Neighbourhood clinics, by contrast, represent a prosaic recognition of demand for more ordinary services and treatments, from an ageing and increasingly unhealthy population. The aim is to deliver most outpatient care away from hospitals by 2035.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Astronomer says object could be further evidence that interstellar wanderers' are common in galaxyIt isn't a bird, it isn't a plane and it certainly isn't Superman - but it does appear to be a visitor from beyond our solar system, according to astronomers who have discovered a new object hurtling through our cosmic neighbourhood.The object, originally called A11pl3Z and now known as 3I/Atlas, was first reported by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Political interference and chaotic cuts to staff, programs and grants at the National Science Foundation are producing devastating consequences'A generation of scientific talent is at the brink of being lost to overseas competitors by the Trump administration's dismantling of the National Science Foundation (NSF), with unprecedented political interference at the agency jeopardizing the future of US industries and economic growth, according to a Guardian investigation.The gold standard peer-reviewed process used by the NSF to support cutting-edge, high-impact science is being undermined by the chaotic cuts to staff, programs and grants, and by meddling by the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge), according to multiple current and former NSF employees who spoke with the Guardian. Continue reading...

Document detailing the new program says zebrafish and rats from a North Carolina lab will be up for adoptionThe US Environmental Protection Agency is launching a new program to adopt some of its 20,000 lab animals in the wake of Trump administration plans to dramatically cut the regulator's research arm.The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit obtained and revealed an EPA document announcing the adoption program. The document announced adoptions for zebrafish and rats from an EPA lab in North Carolina. Continue reading...

The number of women choosing to freeze their eggs has increased sharply, according to figures from the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The number deciding to embark on the process abroad also appears to be rising. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian journalist Lucy Hough, who recently travelled to Brussels to freeze her eggs. She explains what prompted her decision and how she feels now that the procedure is over. Madeleine also hears from Joyce Harper, a professor of reproductive science at University College London, about what the freezing of eggs involves and why the small odds of success could be driving women to travel to do itSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Chef with 10 Michelin stars has designed meals for Sophie Adenot's trip to International Space Station next yearWhen the French astronaut Sophie Adenot travels to the International Space Station (ISS) next year, she will be heading for the stars - not quite in celestial but certainly in gastronomic terms.Adenot will dine on not just freeze-dried space food staples but also French classics such as lobster bisque, foie gras and onion soup prepared specially for her by a chef with 10 Michelin stars, the European Space Agency (Esa) announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...

I'm not sure there is anything more terrifying than chatting to parents at the school gates - then lying awake at night reliving my most embarrassing momentsThe importance of 31 December is well documented, but no one ever talks about the angst of 22 July. Or 23, or 25, depending on where you live. But while the date may vary, the bittersweet feelings are surely universal. The end of the school year is an oddly profound moment.This one's hitting different in our house too, as our son is about to finish primary school. It's poignant and nostalgic - wasn't he just a baby yesterday? There is, however, one part of his cosy little school that I won't miss. Continue reading...

Unusual burial of man, thought to have been a potter, in sealed vessel may have helped DNA survive past four millenniaA man whose bones were shaped by a lifetime of hard labour more than 4,500 years ago has become the first ancient Egyptian to have his entire genetic code read and analysed by scientists.The skeleton of the man, who lived at the dawn of the Age of the Pyramids, was recovered in 1902 from a sealed pottery vessel in a rock-cut tomb in Nuwayrat, 165 miles south of Cairo, and has been held in a museum since. Continue reading...

Research finds that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-promoting mutations are presentAir pollution has been linked to a swathe of lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, in a study of people diagnosed with the disease despite never having smoked tobacco.The findings from an investigation into cancer patients around the world helps explain why those who have never smoked make up a rising proportion of people developing the cancer, a trend the researchers called an urgent and growing global problem". Continue reading...

Ellie Wilson's piece titled Moth x Human assigns different sounds to the species on Parsonage Down in SalisburyThey are vital pollinators who come out at night, but now moths have emerged into the bright light of day as co-creators of a new piece of music - composed using the insects' own flight data.Ellie Wilson composed Moth x Human in a protected habitat on Parsonage Down in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She assigned each of the 80 resident moth species a different sound, which was triggered when it landed on her monitor. Continue reading...

News comes as research finds record lows of Antarctic sea ice had seen more icebergs splintering off ice shelvesScientists analysing the cascading impacts of record low levels of Antarctic sea ice fear a loss of critical US government satellite data will make it harder to track the rapid changes taking place at both poles.Researchers around the globe were told last week the US Department of Defence will stop processing and providing the data, used in studies on the state of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, at the end of this month. Continue reading...

In an interview last weekend, Iran's ambassador to the UN said his country's nuclear enrichment will never stop' because it is permitted for peaceful energy' purposes. It is the latest development in an escalation of tensions over Iran's nuclear programme, which erupted when Israel targeted the country's nuclear facilities in June. To understand why enrichment is so important, Madeleine Finlay talks to Robin Grimes, professor of materials physics at Imperial College London. He explains what goes into creating a nuclear weapon, and why getting to the stage of weaponisation is so difficultIran's nuclear enrichment will never stop', nation's UN ambassador saysSupport the Guardian Continue reading...

Scientists have warned loss of data access to Noaa and Nasa experts could set hurricane forecasting back decades'The Trump administration on Monday announced a delay of one month to a plan to cut forecasters out of an atmospheric satellite data collection program that is seen as crucial for hurricane forecasting.There has been alarm among scientists about the plan to cut access to the data after it emerged last week in a public notice sent by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Continue reading...

Firm says results of research create path to medical superintelligence' but plays down job implicationsMicrosoft has revealed details of an artificial intelligence system that performs better than human doctors at complex health diagnoses, creating a path to medical superintelligence".The company's AI unit, which is led by the British tech pioneer Mustafa Suleyman, has developed a system that imitates a panel of expert physicians tackling diagnostically complex and intellectually demanding" cases. Continue reading...

These supposedly serious cetaceans have been spotted massaging each other with kelp stalks. This is the sort of performative nonsense you'd expect from dolphinsI've thought for a while that it would be nice to be an orca. Not because I hate boats and they sink them (though I get it - the briny depths are none of our human business). What actually appeals is the idea of being charismatic megafauna - I love that phrase - and also important as a post-menopausal female. Orcas are one of very few species that go through menopause, living for decades after their reproductive years. These older matriarchs remain an integral part of the community, improving pod survival rates thanks to being repositories of ecological knowledge", caring for young and even, research suggests, keeping their giant adult sons safe from being attacked. The fact that they're fashion-conscious is a bonus: the 80s orca trend for wearing jaunty salmon fascinators was revived, intriguingly, in some pods last December; other orcas have been observed draping themselves artistically in kelp.But new research is giving me pause. Now orcas in the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington state have been filmed picking kelp stalks and massaging" each other with them. In sightings of this behaviour, reported and dubbed allokelping" by the Center for Whale Research, the two whales then manoeuvre to keep the kelp between them while rolling it across their bodies ... During contact, whales roll and twist their bodies, often adopting an exaggerated S-shaped posture." Continue reading...

These starfish relatives have lots of remarkable features and are a keystone species. My hope is that we will recognise how vital these charismatic creatures areBrittle stars have a lot of remarkable features as a species. Many of them are bioluminescent and can flash blue light; some will have patterns and do displays. These slender relatives of starfish can be very beautiful to look at and come in a range of colours - in the tropics, for example, they can be red, black or orange. And they've got spines all over them, so they can look quite ornate.They can also regenerate. Fish and other creatures will often nip off bits of their arms - known as sublethal predation - so they are constantly regenerating themselves. You can even break off all their arms, and sometimes even half the disc, and the brittle star will still regenerate. Continue reading...

Occasional sensitivity to lactose can occur as we get older, or through stress, but for most people it's only temporaryMost of us aren't inherently dairy intolerant, but we can go through periods where we become more sensitive to lactose in our diet, says Amanda Avery, an associate professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Nottingham.She says that when people talk about being dairy intolerant", they're usually referring to lactose, the sugar found in milk and dairy products, such as milk, cheese and yoghurt. In most people, that sugar is broken down by an enzyme called lactase, which is found in our small intestine. It helps our bodies digest and absorb lactose without causing discomfort. We're born with plenty of lactase. But as our diets diversify, our lactase levels decline," says Avery. If there is minimal milk in the dairy diet then lactase levels may be zero, thus people from some cultural backgrounds and countries where dairy intake is negligible may be intolerant." Continue reading...

Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy is trying to find a photo of Annie Walker, who died in 1940, to give her star billingFor more than a century, astronomers assumed she had simply computed" complex calculations for the Victorian men who had exclusive use of Cambridge Observatory telescopes.But researchers now say that Annie Walker - a Victorian woman who began working at the observatory in 1879, when she was only 15 - actually observed thousands of stars herself. Continue reading...

The brightest star in the constellation Virgo, Spica appears as a single object but is in fact a binary starThis week, the bright star Spica greets the passing moon. The chart shows the view looking south-west from London at 22.15 BST on 3 July 2025.At 8.3 days old, and with 60% of its visible surface illuminated, the moon will be just past its first quarter (half moon) phase and into its waxing gibbous phase, on the way to becoming full next week. Continue reading...

Does a good apology contain five steps, seven steps - even eight? And why do we find it so difficult?

With close encounters due in 2029 and 2032, space scientists are getting to grips with an existential threatIt is a scenario beloved of Hollywood: a huge asteroid, several miles wide, is on a collision course with Earth. Scientists check and recheck their calculations but there is no mistake - civilisation is facing a cataclysmic end unless the space rock can be deflected.It may sound like science fiction, but it is a threat that is being taken seriously by scientists. Continue reading...

A revelatory cultural history of our relationship with native wildlife, from newts doing handstands to Mrs Tiggy-WinkleWhen newts go a-wooing, sometime in the spring, theirsignature move is the handstand. Girl newts cluster round to watch, while the boy newts flip on to their creepily human hands and shake their tails in the air. The waggiest newt is the winner, although the actual act of love is a strictly no-contact sport. The male deposits a packet of sperm on an underwater leaf for the female tocollect and insert into her own reproductive tract. The whole business is best thought of, says Karen R Jones, as a sexually charged game of pass-the-parcel".This kind of anthropomorphising often strikes naturalists as unscientific or even downright distasteful. But Jones is an environmental historian and her methodology allows, indeedimpels, her to start from the principlethat Britain's human and animal populations are culturally entwined. Consequently, we cannot see" a fox, hedgehog or newt withoutbringing to it a rich stew ofpresumptions and fantasy, drawn from childhood picturebooks, out-of-date encyclopedias and, in my case, the 1970s TV classic Tales of the Riverbank, in which small critters say funny things in the West Country burr of . Continue reading...

The winter crop growing season requires three days of steady rain - but many inland parts of southern Australia did not receive an autumn break this yearHow often do you mow your lawn in winter? It may seem like an odd way to start a conversation about drought, but the answer helps explain why our current drought has not broken, despite recent rain - and why spring lamb may be more expensive this year.Southern Australia has been short of rain for 16 months. Western Victoria, the agricultural regions of South Australia (including Adelaide) and even parts of western Tasmania are suffering record dry conditions. Those rainfall measurements began in 1900 - 126 years ago. Continue reading...

Subtle DNA changes in trees demonstrate Charles Darwin's natural selection - although human help may be neededNew generations of wild ash trees are rapidly evolving resistance to the fungus devastating their numbers, scientists have discovered.The discovery gives hope, the researchers said, and shows that allowing the natural regeneration of woodlands is vital to enabling this evolution to take place. However, it remains too early to say if the development of resistance in the ash trees can outpace the destruction being caused by the ash dieback fungus. Continue reading...

Move comes after health secretary replaced advisory board with ideological allies and several vaccine skepticsRobert F Kennedy Jr's reconstituted vaccine advisory panel recommended a new treatment to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants.The treatment, a new monoclonal antibody called clesrovimab, which will be sold under the brand name Enflonsia by Merck, was recommended by the powerful committee after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) roughly two weeks ago. Continue reading...

Study discovered abnormal process in womb lining, with potential for new treatments to prevent pregnancy lossScientists have developed a test to identify women with an increased risk of miscarriage, which could pave the way for new treatments to prevent pregnancy loss.About one in six of all pregnancies are lost, most before 12 weeks, and each miscarriage increases the risk of another one happening. Continue reading...

Five-year SynHG project aims to pave way for next generation of medical therapies and treatment of diseasesResearchers are embarking on an ambitious project to construct human genetic material from scratch to learn more about how DNA works and pave the way for the next generation of medical therapies.Scientists on the Synthetic Human Genome (SynHG) project will spend the next five years developing the tools and knowhow to build long sections of human genetic code in the lab. These will be inserted into living cells to understand how the code operates. Continue reading...

Our human microbiome is in decline, which is likely to be contributing to the sharp rise in non-communicable diseases, health conditions that cannot be directly transmitted between people, such as cardiovascular disease and cancers. Josh Toussaint-Strauss talks to Dr James Kinross, colorectal surgeon and author of the book Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome, about why the human microbiome is in decline, how modern life is impacting it and what we can do to look after it

It has been 25 years since Bill Clinton announced one of humanity's most important scientific achievements: the first draft of the human genome. At the time, there was a great deal of excitement about the benefits that this new knowledge would bring, with predictions about curing genetic diseases and even cancer. To find out which of them came to pass, and what could be in store over the next two-and-a-half decades, Madeleine Finlay is joined by science editor Ian Sample, and hears from Prof Matthew Hurles, director of the Wellcome Sanger InstituteSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Proportion of women giving birth after fertility treatment up by more than a third in a decade, figures revealThe proportion of women giving birth after fertility treatment in the UK has increased by more than a third in a decade, with the equivalent of one child in every classroom now born as a result of IVF, figures show.One in 32 births in 2023 were the result of in vitro fertilisation, up 34% from one in 43 in 2013, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Continue reading...

UK health officials launch study into side-effects of weight loss drugs after increased reports of acute pancreatitisHundreds of people have reported problems with their pancreas linked to taking weight loss and diabetes injections, prompting health officials to launch a study into side-effects.Some cases of pancreatitis reported to be linked to GLP-1 medicines (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) have been fatal. Continue reading...

Chinese and Hong Kong scientists succeed in animal trials, but potential problems include risk of devices being left in body and public suspicionsSwarms of tiny robots, each no larger than a speck of dust, could be deployed to cure stubborn infected sinuses before being blown out through the nose into a tissue, researchers have claimed.The micro-robots are a fraction of the width of a human hair and have been inserted successfully into animal sinuses in pre-clinical trials by researchers at universities in China and Hong Kong. Continue reading...

Evolutionary change driven by intensive fishing led cod to shrink' from average 40cm length in 1996 to 20cm in 2019Overfishing has led to a collapse in the eastern Baltic cod population, but over the past three decades the size of the fish themselves has also been dramatically and mysteriously shrinking.Now scientists have uncovered genomic evidence that intensive fishing has driven rapid evolutionary changes that have contributed to these fish roughly halving in average body length since the 1990s. Continue reading...

TWA 7b is 110 light years away and by far the smallest-mass planet to be observed by direct imageryThe James Webb space telescope has captured unprecedented direct images of a planet beyond our own solar system, in its first exoplanet discovery.The observations reveal a planet, which has been called TWA 7b, carving its way through a disc of glowing dust and rocky debris in orbit around a star 110 light years from Earth. Continue reading...

Countries send their first astronauts in decades into space on Axiom Mission 4, along with US commanderA US commercial mission carrying crew from India, Poland and Hungary blasted off to the International Space Station on Wednesday, taking astronauts from these countries to space for the first time in decades.Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, launched from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2.31am local time with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Continue reading...

While figures like Steve Bannon have exploited the issue, scientists have done themselves no favours by shutting down legitimate inquiryMore than five years after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, its origins remain a subject of intense - and often acrimonious - debate among scientists and the wider public. There are two broad, competing theories. The natural-origins hypotheses suggest the pandemic began when a close relative of Sars-CoV-2 jumped from a wild animal to a human through the wildlife trade. In contrast, proponents of lab-leak theories argue that the virus emerged when Chinese scientists became infected through research-associated activities.A perplexing aspect of the controversy is that prominent scientists continue to publish studies in leading scientific journals that they say provide compelling evidence for the natural-origins hypotheses. Yet rather than resolving the issue, each new piece of evidence seems to widen the divide further.Jane Qiu is an award-winning independent science writer in Beijing. The reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer CenterDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Women and older adults most likely to suffer dog walking injuries such as finger and wrist fractures, research saysWalking your dog may be good for you and your canine companion, but research shows it can also be dangerous.While the health benefits are numerous - encouraging increased activity levels and physical exercise, improving cardiovascular health and weight - researchers found that being pulled on the lead increases the risk of falls and injuries. Continue reading...

The Winston Red, one of only 24 red diamonds of more than one carat publicly recorded, is on display in Washington DCRed diamonds are some of the rarest gems on the planet: only 24 stones of more than one carat (200 milligrams) have been publicly recorded.Now, one of the finest red diamonds - the Winston Red - has gone on public display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Continue reading...

Ever since Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet in 2006, astronomers have been wondering whether Neptune really is the most distant planet from the sun. Now, a new telescope could uncover what lies in the farthest reaches of the solar system. The Vera C Rubin Observatory released its first images this week, and soon the world's most powerful digital camera will be pointing across the whole of the night sky. Scientists are hopeful that if planet nine exists, the telescope will find it within its first year of operation. Ian Sample is joined by Dr Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, to find out how Pluto lost its planetary status, why scientists think there could be another super-Earth, and why planet nine has been so hard to findClips: BBC, NBC, CBCFirst images of distant galaxies captured by ultimate' telescope Continue reading...

Researchers say satellites may be at risk and impact could create a spectacular meteor shower in the skiesIf a giant asteroid smashes into the moon in 2032 it could send lunar debris hurtling towards Earth, researchers have said, posing a risk to satellites but also creating a rare and spectacularly vivid meteor shower visible in the skies.Asteroid 2024 YR4 triggered a planetary defence response earlier this year after telescope observations revealed the city killer" had a 3% chance of colliding with Earth. Continue reading...

The answers to today's problemsEarlier today I set five logic problems. Here they are again with solutions.A questionable planet Continue reading...

Genetically modified E coli used to create painkillers from material produced from plastic bottlesBacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, researchers have found, opening up the possibility of a more sustainable process for producing the drugs.Chemists have discovered E coli can be used to create paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, from a material produced in the laboratory from plastic bottles. Continue reading...

Stunning pictures from Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile released at start of 10-year survey of cosmosSpectacular views of distant galaxies, giant dust clouds and hurtling asteroids have been revealed in the first images captured by a groundbreaking telescope that is embarking on a 10-year survey of the cosmos.The stunning pictures from the $810m (595m) Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile mark the start of what astronomers believe will be a gamechanging period of discovery as the telescope sets about compiling the best view yet of the universe in action. Continue reading...

Questions about questionsUPDATE: You can read the answers here.For readers who answered yes", you are correct.For readers who answered no", you are also correct. Continue reading...