Science | The Guardian

When the oncologist and bestselling author of The Gene found himself drowning in a tide of sadness, he instinctively looked to cells for an explanation. Did the answers lie in the brain?In the spring of 2017, I was overwhelmed by the most profound wave of depression that I have ever experienced. I use the word “wave” deliberately: when it finally burst on me, having crept up slowly for months, I felt as if I were drowning in a tide of sadness I could not swim past or through. Superficially, my life seemed perfectly in control – but inside, I felt drenched in grief. There were days when getting out of bed, or even retrieving the newspaper outside the door, seemed unfathomably difficult. Simple moments of pleasure – my child’s funny drawing of a weeping shark (“Do the tears go up like bubbles, or just mingle into the saltwater?”) – seemed locked away in boxes, with all their keys thrown into the depths of the ocean.Why? I could not tell. Part of it, perhaps, was coming to terms with my father’s death a year before. In the wake of his passing, I had thrown myself manically back to work, neglecting to give myself time and space to grieve. Some of it was confronting the inevitability of ageing. I was at the edge of the last years of my 40s, staring into what seemed like an abyss. My knees hurt and creaked when I ran. An abdominal hernia appeared out of nowhere. The poems I could recite from memory? I would now have to search my brain for words that had gone missing (“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – / The Stillness in the Room / Was like” … um … like what?). I was becoming fragmented. It wasn’t my skin that had begun to sag, but my brain. I heard a fly buzz. Continue reading...

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Animal lovers describe what it’s like to care for an extremely talented animalWe bought Dexter as a puppy. He was an adorable bundle of energy, a pure-breed Brittany spaniel. My husband, two children and I fell in love with him straight away. We’d lost an elderly dog the year before, and had rescued another, who we tragically had to put to sleep. It devastated us. So we poured our love into Dexter. Continue reading...

Unlike previous waves fuelled by variants such as Alpha and Delta, the picture now is more complexAs the UK rides a new wave of Covid, we take a look at the variants causing infections, and what the future may hold. Continue reading...

After James Corden was accused of being ‘nasty’, psychologists explain why rudeness doesn’t payWhether it is clicking their fingers at the waiter, talking loudly on their phone or letting the kids go feral, there are few things as unappealing as a rude dining companion in a restaurant.But mistreating the staff is perhaps the cardinal sin of eating out, and has long been seen as indicative of a poor character. And this week, the talkshow host James Corden has found himself in hot water after such an allegation. Continue reading...

Many Australians living overseas wanted or needed to return – yet we made it impossibly difficult for tens of thousands of people

After decades of argument, psychologists finally seem to agree on the ‘facial feedback hypothesis’It won’t bring sunshine to the darkest days, but those in need of a little cheer may want to extend the corners of their lips towards their ears and lift their cheeks towards their eyes – using only their facial muscles, mind.After decades of argument and counter-argument, psychologists have apparently agreed that arranging one’s features into the shape of a smile helps brighten the mood. In other words, if you want to feel a little happier, try looking a little happier first. Continue reading...

‘Very small’ number of cases reported at Manston airfield, where about 3,000 people are staying in tentsThere has been an outbreak of diphtheria at an asylum seeker processing centre at a former MoD site in Kent.The Home Office refused to confirm the number of cases of diphtheria at Manston – an airfield in Ramsgate providing tented accommodation for about 3,000 people who have arrived in the UK on small boats – but said the number was “very small”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian detail effort to refute scientific research into paraquat and derail nomination of key EPA adviserFor decades, Swiss chemical giant Syngenta has manufactured and marketed a widely used weed-killing chemical called paraquat, and for much of that time the company has been dealing with external concerns that long-term exposure to the chemical may be a cause of the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson’s disease.Syngenta has repeatedly told customers and regulators that scientific research does not prove a connection between its weedkiller and the disease, insisting that the chemical does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier, and does not affect brain cells in ways that cause Parkinson’s. Continue reading...

Last week, a scientific assessment found wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years. Such rapid and significant losses are leaving many of us with a deep sense of grief and anxiety. To make sense of these emotions and channel them into action, people are increasingly performing rituals and commemorative acts for the natural world.Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Claire White about the power of rituals in bringing us together to process grief, and hears from author Andri Magnason about why he wrote a eulogy for Okjökull, the first Icelandic glacier officially lost to the climate crisisArchive: BBC News, CBS Mornings Continue reading...

Pictures attract most attention initially, but a profile’s text and information given is also importantWhen swiping through online dating profiles, the same topics come up with alarming regularity: Sunday roasts, pineapple on pizza and a love of travel being but a few.But rather than sticking with the crowd, the use of metaphor and personal information is more likely to land you a date, research suggests. Continue reading...

Organisers appeal to public for help tracking down ice age relics that were once subject of fascinationIt was about 450,000 years ago that a glacier from Wales scattered hundreds of large boulders over what is now Bromsgrove and south-west Birmingham.These ice age relics, some the size of a small car, became mini tourist attractions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, attracting visitors from across the country in their best clothes who posed in front of them for photographs. Continue reading...

Modellers say those within 4km of an infected piggery potentially vulnerable, meaning 740,546 people at risk of mosquito-borne virus

Analysis of remains found in southern Siberia shows interconnecting web of relationshipsThe first snapshot of a Neanderthal community has been pieced together by scientists who examined ancient DNA from fragments of bone and teeth unearthed in caves in southern Siberia.Researchers analysed DNA from 13 Neanderthal men, women and children and found an interconnecting web of relationships, including a father and his teenage daughter, another man related to the father, and two second-degree relatives, possibly an aunt and her nephew. Continue reading...

Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum for recognising the art, proficiency and photographic excellence involved in photomicrography, or the art of photography through a light microscope. Each year, the competition attracts hundreds of vivid pictures revealing details of a world unseen by the naked eye. Founded in 1975, this year’s entries numbered almost 1,300 and were drawn from 72 countries

Scientists find people with ERAP2 variant survived 14th-century plague at much higher ratesScientists have identified genetic traits that determined who survived the Black Death more than 700 years ago, but which are today associated with an increased susceptibility to some autoimmune diseases.The study of centuries-old DNA from victims and survivors of the bubonic plague that occurred in the 14th century found that people with what the scientists describe as a “good” variant of a particular gene, known as ERAP2, survived at much higher rates. Continue reading...

Researchers discover some humans produce certain chemicals tied to smell that mosquitoes find attractiveA new study finds that some people really are “mosquito magnets” and it probably has to do with the way they smell.The researchers found that people who are most attractive to mosquitoes produce a lot of certain chemicals on their skin that are tied to smell. And bad news for mosquito magnets: they stay loyal to their favorites over time. Continue reading...

Biotech firm’s data shows stronger immune response to Omicron than original vaccine three months after being givenThe updated Covid booster from Moderna produces a stronger immune response to the Omicron variant than the firm’s original vaccine three months after being given, according to data from the US biotech.The company said the findings indicated the “superior” immune response triggered by the booster was durable and should provide “important protection” against Covid in the months leading up to the winter. Continue reading...

Video of girl struggling to breathe is circulating online, with claims family’s pleas for help were ignoredReports that a 16-year-old girl has died in a Covid quarantine centre after pleas from her family for medical help were ignored have caused anger in China, where ongoing tight pandemic controls have started to take their toll on a weary population.Videos of the girl have spread across Chinese social media in the last 24 hours. The distressing footage, which the Guardian has not been able to independently verify, shows the teenager ill, struggling to breathe and convulsing in a bunk bed at what is purported to be a quarantine centre in Ruzhou, Henan province. Continue reading...

Test created by UCL and Innsbruck University also detects DNA markers for breast, womb and ovarian cancerScientists have developed a more accurate test for cell changes that can lead to cervical cancer.The revolutionary test can also pick up DNA markers for some other common cancers, meaning that it could in future be used as a predictive test for breast, womb, cervical and ovarian cancer. Continue reading...

Scientists in the Maldives were only able to reach the rose-veiled fairy wrasse by using specialised diving gearAround the Maldives, between 40 and 70 metres (130-230ft) beneath the Indian Ocean, there are flickering shoals of brightly coloured, finger-length fish that never venture up to the coral reefs at the surface.The rose-veiled fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa) is one of many species that deep-diving scientists have found in the mesophotic (or twilight) zone, which lies between the sunlit shallows and the dark, deep ocean. It extends about 150 metres down and contains its own distinct mix of species.

Artist Siobhán McDonald will turn recordings into an acoustic installation exploring humanity’s impact on the oceanAn expedition of scientists and an artist is deploying underwater microphones in the ocean off Greenland to record and preserve the soundscape of melting icebergs.The hydrophones will record sounds every hour for two years before being collected, harvested for data and the recordings turned into an acoustic composition. Continue reading...

Analysis of Arctic lake suggests viruses and bacteria locked in ice could reawaken and infect wildlifeThe next pandemic may come not from bats or birds but from matter in melting ice, according to new data.Genetic analysis of soil and lake sediments from Lake Hazen, the largest high Arctic freshwater lake in the world, suggests the risk of viral spillover – where a virus infects a new host for the first time – may be higher close to melting glaciers. Continue reading...

Magic mushrooms are no magic cure for society’s ills, and a substance as powerful as psychedelics can be dangerous if it falls into the wrong handsPsychedelic therapies are receiving unprecedented financial and political support – and much of it comes from the right. Peter Thiel has invested extensively in the emerging psychedelic therapeutic industry. Jordan Peterson is a psilocybin fan. In 2018, the Mercer Foundation donated $1m to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), the leading US psychedelics research organization, for studies of MDMA treatment of PTSD in veterans.The Mercer family also supports the American right wing and climate crisis denial. They’re a long way from Woodstock – but Maps and some other psychedelic advocates seem glad for any support they can get.Ross Ellenhorn is a sociologist, psychotherapist and author and the founder and CEO of Ellenhorn. His new book, Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life, is out on 1 November. Dimitri Mugianis is a harm reductionist, activist, musician, poet, writer, and anarchist, with over two decades of experience as a psychedelic practitioner. Ellenhorn and Mugianis are the founders of Cardea Continue reading...

Dr Paul McCrory is a world-renowned concussion expert whose work shaped concussion policy across global sport for the past 20 years. In his work, and through his role on the influential Concussion in Sport Group, McCrory had previously adopted a sceptical view on the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a progressive brain condition whose symptoms are similar to Alzheimer’s disease.Last week, the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) retracted nine of his articles and attached an ‘expression of concern’ to another 74. In an editorial, the BJSM, and its publisher, BMJ, stated that ‘their trust in McCrory’s work –specifically the articles that he has published as a single author – is broken’.Ian Sample speaks to senior sports writer Andy Bull about how the scandal unfolded, what it could mean for players and what is likely to happen nextArchive: BBC News, 5 News Continue reading...

Researchers find uterine cancer risk more than two and a half times higher for women who used straightening productsHair-straightening products may significantly increase the risk of developing uterine cancer among those who use them frequently, a large study published on Monday suggests.“We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70, but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%,” the study leader, Alexandra White of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS), said in a statement. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s questionsEarlier today I set you these three problems from Nick Berry’s fabulous DataGenetics blog. Nick died last week aged 55, as I wrote about in the original post.1. No-zero heroesIf he selects two odd numbers, the absolute difference between two odd numbers is always an even number. What has happened is that the quantity of odd numbers remaining has been reduced by two.If he selects two even numbers, the absolute difference between a pair of even numbers is also even. The quantity of odd numbers remaining stays the same.If he selects an odd and an even number, the absolute difference between this pair is odd. We lost one odd number, but gained a new one, so the quantity of odd numbers remaining stays the same. Continue reading...

Research finds participants’ recall of certain material decreased after being played audio while asleepPlaying sounds while you slumber might help to strengthen some memories while weakening others, research suggests, with experts noting the approach might one day help people living with traumatic recollections.Previous work has shown that when a sound is played as a person learns an association between two words, the memory of that word association is boosted if the same sound is played while the individual sleeps. Continue reading...

The status quo puts the onus on parents to monitor what their children are engaging with when they log on – which puts a lot of strain on us mortalsLast week, my six- and three-year-olds kept singing some irritating song with a repeated “diggity-dog” and butt wiggle in it. Was that from school? I asked. Oh no, from something on the iPad. Somehow, they’d navigated there from another app I’d approved. And I, of course, had no idea, because my head was under two pillows, a small puddle of drool accumulating on the sheet as I willed myself back to sleep for just another 20 minutes.“Do you know dolphins sleep with half their brain awake?” my first-grader told me, recently, after a trip to the museum.Sophie Brickman is a contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times and other publications, and the author of Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age Continue reading...

Attention and funding for research into mononucleosis, HIV, Lyme, Ebola, Sars and other infections have historically been limited – but long Covid changed that

A tribute to the British scientist and blogger who died last week aged 55UPDATE: The solutions can be read hereSome sad news to report. Nick Berry, the British data scientist who wrote DataGenetics – one of the best and longest-running maths popularisation blogs – has died aged 55 after a long battle with cancer.Nick was a Yorkshireman who studied Aeronautical Engineering at Southampton university. He later moved to Seattle, where he worked as a data scientist for firms including Microsoft and Facebook. He started DataGenetics in 2009 and it soon gathered a huge following for its accessible posts about interesting topics in maths, physics and computer science. Continue reading...

More than 50 meteors an hour may be seen as Earth ploughs through fragments left by comet

The commercial space company rejects criticism of satellite launches for the US militaryA New Zealand commercial space company, Rocket Lab, has faced new opposition to its activities on behalf of foreign militaries, with one New Zealand Green MP saying its actions could fly in the face of the country’s anti-nuclear stance.The American-New Zealand company, founded by Peter Beck in 2006, provides rockets to deliver payloads into orbit from its launch site on the Māhia Peninsula, in New Zealand’s north. A third of Rocket Lab’s activities have been on behalf of defence and national security agencies. These include launching US and Australian spy satellites, the controversial “Gunsmoke J” satellite, and most recently Nasa’s capstone spacecraft. Continue reading...

US-led project examines fraction of a second after big bang and ‘how all the structures in the night sky started’Researchers from the UK are joining an international effort to uncover what the universe looked like a fraction of a second after it burst into existence, and how the cosmic order we see today emerged from primordial chaos.Six UK universities are to crunch data and build new instrumentation for the Simons Observatory, a group of telescopes that scan the heavens from a vantage point on Cerro Toco, 5,300 metres above the Atacama desert in Chile. Continue reading...

Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci say mRNA Covid vaccine technology could be repurposed to help destroy cancer cellsVaccines that target cancer could be available before the end of the decade, according to the husband and wife team behind one of the most successful Covid vaccines of the pandemic.Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who co-founded BioNTech, the German firm that partnered with Pfizer to manufacture a revolutionary mRNA Covid vaccine, said they had made breakthroughs that fuelled their optimism for cancer vaccines in the coming years. Continue reading...

Bristol project aims to give glimpse of what life in colony on Mars may be like using recycled materialsThere is a “Martian guitar” manufactured out of recycled pieces of wood and metal with an amp fashioned from a coffee pot. A surprisingly comfortable chair, plus rug and curtains, have been created out of the sort of parachute material a Mars landing craft may have used.The bedding in the sleeping pods has been decorated with dyes from plants, while a “mist shower” has been made using bits of hose and garden irrigation sprays. Continue reading...

It’s long been known that certain drugs work better when taken at specific times of day. But now scientists are learning that our circadian rhythms affect everything from vaccines to meals – and even the results of exerciseYour doctor tells you how many times a day you should take a pill, and whether to take it with or without food – but they very rarely tell you the exact time at which it has to be taken. Chronopharmacology (also known as chronotherapy or circadian medicine) – the idea that a pill popped at exactly the right time has maximum benefit – could be a major influence on the future of medicine. Increasing studies are showing that what time of day we treat disease can be crucial, and that it’s possible to pinpoint the time of day when certain disease is at its worst.In 1997, doctors in Denver split 59 asthmatics into three groups. The first group used steroid inhalers at 8am every day for four weeks. The second used the same inhalers, but much later in the day, at 5.30pm. The third group dosed four times a day at 7am, 12 noon, 7pm and 10pm – at the time, this was believed to be the optimal regime. Continue reading...

UPFs form 50% of Britons’ calorie intake – and vegans beware, this includes many plant-based meals. Now food scientists are learning more about what makes them so damagingFor a long time it has been known that diets dominated by ultra-processed food (UPF) are more likely to lead to obesity. But recent research suggests that high UPF consumption also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and, according to a recent American study involving 50,000 health professionals, of developing colon cancer.On a more general note, last month a study in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology found that people born after 1990 are more likely to develop cancer before they’re 50 than people born before 1970. It’s suspected that UPF might be a contributing factor to this development. Continue reading...

Researchers identify medications that could be repurposed, including treatments for heart conditions and stomach ulcersScientists have pinpointed a range of commonly used medicines that could be repurposed to treat people suffering from obesity and diabetes.The medicines – to be outlined at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne this weekend – include treatments for stomach ulcers and heart rhythm disorders and were identified using sophisticated computer programs. Continue reading...

Lady Gaga was my idol, but I didn’t dare tell anyone. Now a new wave of books and films shows us why female obsession is such an important part of growing upIt’s the summer of 2009. The sun is offering the bare minimum for June, but I have my back to the window, methodically typing out a letter to Lady Gaga. The two-page-long document is full of personal details and intimate thoughts, such as the worry I’ll never feel good enough or fit in at school. I pour my heart out to her and swim in the subsequent dopamine hits of a perfect one-way relationship.I never told anyone about my love for Lady Gaga due to the shame of looking like an over-obsessive fangirl. While there’s now a cultural roadmap for teen girls idolising their favourite boybands, back then I had no idea how to showcase my obsession without looking unhinged. Continue reading...

The story of long Covid is just beginning, and no one knows how it will play out. Experts from around the world share their insights, questions and fears

By favouring verbal thinkers, says the author and animal scientist, essential skills are being lost. Her new book aims to demonstrate the power of processing information in different waysTemple Grandin is perhaps the world’s most famous scholar living with autism. In more than 50 years working in animal agriculture – specialising in designing more humane livestock handling facilities – she has improved cattle treatment internationally. She is also a prominent activist, author and speaker on autism. Her insights shared about her personal experiences – she struggled to talk as a child – have done much to increase our understanding of the condition. Her new book, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions, argues that, in a world dominated by verbal thinkers, those with visual brains are being overlooked and underestimated – to the detriment of all of us. Grandin, 75, is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.What are the different ways of thinking, as you conceive them?

The astronaut on shyness, spacewalks and the time his wife gave him an ultimatumBorn in West Sussex, Tim Peake, 50, spent 18 years in military service. He was working as a test pilot when he applied to be an astronaut with the European Space Agency. In 2015, he became the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station, where he spent six months. His latest children’s book, The Cosmic Diary of Our Incredible Universe, has just been published and he is currently on his first UK speaking tour. He lives with his wife and two sons in West Sussex.When were you happiest?

Firm reportedly asks US government to pick up bill as relationship between Musk and Kyiv breaks down

For some people living with long Covid, their symptoms have improved. One thing is clear, though: in recovery, one size does not fit all• Read the Guardian’s new series, Living with long CovidFlorence Mutesva fell ill on the ward. A nurse for 18 years, she had been caring for patients with respiratory problems at University College London hospitals (UCLH) when her symptoms came on. Beyond feeling ropey, she was scared. It was March 2020 and people were dying as the first wave of Covid – a mysterious new disease – swept across Britain.Mutesva signed off sick on 23 March, a date branded on the brains of many in Britain as the day the prime minister announced the nation’s first lockdown. Mutesva had little choice in the matter: the infection took hold and incapacitated her. She was coughing and struggling to breathe. She had palpitations and pains in her chest. She couldn’t get to the shower without stopping for breath. Continue reading...

Astrophysicist and astronomer whose Project Ozma searched for radio signals from planets that could support extraterrestrial lifeThe radio astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake, who has died aged 92, was a pioneer of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He carried out the first search for signals from extraterrestrial civilisations, Project Ozma, in 1960 and shortly afterwards invented the “Drake equation”, which estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilisations in our galaxy.As a radio astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, he made the first observations of Jupiter’s radiation belts, analogous to the Van Allen belts around the Earth, and was one of the first astronomers to measure the intense surface temperature on Venus, a consequence of the greenhouse effect of its thick atmosphere. But it is for Project Ozma, named after Princess Ozma in L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books and carried out with Green Bank’s 85ft radio telescope, that he will be remembered. Continue reading...

Research suggests species coexisted for more than 1,000 years and uncovers possible ‘exchange of ideas’Modern humans lived alongside Neanderthals for more than 1,000 years in Europe, according to research that suggests the two species may have imitated each other’s jewellery and stone tools.Previously, it was known that humans and their ancient relatives existed at the same time on the European continent for more than 6,000 years and that the two species interbred on several occasions. But the extent of their interactions remains the focus of scientific investigation. Continue reading...

There is indeed a correlation between Covid cases and the number of reviews complaining that Yankee Candles don’t have a smell, research showsYankee Candle calls itself “America’s favorite brand of premium scented candles”, and offers over 600 fragrances, like “Spiced pumpkin” and “Warm apple pie” designed to fill your living room with homey holiday vibes.Days before Thanksgiving 2020, a Twitter user pointed out a sharp rise in negative reviews complaining the famously pungent candles had no smell. Could it be a hidden sign of the Covid wave, the user wondered? In total, the candles have well over 100,000 reviews on Amazon – a potentially rich trove of epidemiological data. Continue reading...

Findings by Cambridge researchers raise possibility of early interventions for those at riskScientists have discovered that it may be possible to spot signs of dementia as early as nine years before patients receive an official diagnosis.The findings raise the possibility that, in the future, at-risk people could be screened to help select those who could benefit from interventions, or help identify patients suitable for clinical trials for new treatments. Continue reading...

Plastic pollution is damaging the health of the environment, wildlife and us. It has been found on remote islands, in Antarctic snow and in human blood, breast milk and lungs. Alongside rapidly reducing how much plastic we produce, we also need to find new ways to tackle the waste we have created.Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, about the discovery of an enzyme that can rapidly break down plastic bags – found inside the saliva of wax worms – and where else we might find solutions in the natural worldArchive: BBC News, CBS News, PBS News Hour Continue reading...

Space agency attempted first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s wayA spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles from Earth succeeded in shifting the orbit of the space rock, Nasa said on Tuesday, announcing the results of its first such test.The US space agency strategically launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft into the path of the asteroid, thereby throwing it off course. Continue reading...