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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Award-winning rose varieties are being retired due to changing garden conditions and evolving pestsThink of the quintessential English garden and a rose will invariably spring to mind. Their sweet scent and plush petals have long been prized by gardeners, but now some of the most beloved varieties are being retired by growers due to climate breakdown and pests.Though their use in gardens is thought to have originated in China and Iraq, for hundreds of years they have been a prize bloom across England. And the undisputed king of rose-growing in the past six decades has been David Austin, who died in 2018 but whose roses fill gardens all over the country with their colour and intoxicating smell. His company, which is still going, has said it is to retire some of its most well-loved species because they are no longer practicable to grow. Continue reading...

San Casciano dei Bagni’s fortunes expected to change after opulent Etruscan-Roman sanctuary foundSince she was a child, Martina Canuti has been venturing down the steep hill flanking the Tuscan town of San Casciano dei Bagni, known by residents as “the sacred mountain”, to take a dip in the two ancient hot springs famed for their therapeutic benefits.Little did she know that just a few metres away lay a sanctuary built by the Etruscans in the second century BC, containing a trove of treasures that could now reverse the fortunes of this relatively isolated town of 1,400 inhabitants near Siena. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Gamma-ray burst from colliding stars unexpectedly gave way to day-long sight of hypermassive bodyAn “overweight” neutron star has been observed by astronomers, who say the mysterious object confounds astronomical theories.The hypermassive star was produced by the merger of two smaller neutron stars. Normally such collisions result in neutron stars so massive that they collapse into a black hole almost instantaneously under their own gravity. But the latest observations revealed the monster star hovering in view for more than a day before it faded out of sight. Continue reading...

My ears blocked and I felt something unimaginable – I wished I could hear them!Overall, I don’t have too many positive things to say about the coronavirus thus far. When I caught Covid for the first time in August this year, it was gastro Covid (not as fun as it sounds), and I spent weeks with constant nausea and vomiting, simultaneously scared of and hoping for death. During that time, I must admit, I still couldn’t really see many silver linings. But against all odds, a bright side emerged. To understand this miraculous turnabout, you must first understand a condition I have called misophonia.The word “misophonia” literally means “hatred of sound”, which might give the sleuths among you a clue. I first heard of misophonia about five years ago when my mother sent me an article, saying, “This explains everything about you since you were a weird child!” At about 13, I stopped being able to eat dinner at the table with my family, due to the scraping of cutlery on plates, the slurping of drinks, and the three growing brothers madly shovelling food into their gaping maws (in my defence, yuck). The timing was consistent with the (still minimal) research – something hinky started going on with my neuro-physiological system for some reason, and my brain and body started being triggered by certain sounds and movements. I was also becoming a lesbian, but I think that was unrelated. Continue reading...

Giant rocket, designed to withstand winds of 85mph, will remain on launchpad, with new launch date set for 16 NovemberThe imminent arrival of Tropical Storm Nicole in Florida has prompted Nasa to further delay its first crew-capable moon mission in half a century, although mission managers say they are comfortable leaving the multibillion-dollar Artemis spacecraft on its coastal launchpad.The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule are designed to withstand winds of up to 85mph, officials say, above those currently predicted for the rare late-season Atlantic cyclone that was set for an early Thursday landfall on Florida’s east coast south of the Kennedy space center. Continue reading...

A key goal of governments around the world is economic growth – continually increasing production and consumption to keep GDP rising. But can our economies grow on a rapidly warming planet with finite resources? According to a recent UN report, the only way left to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”.In our third Cop27 special, Ian Sample speaks to ecological economist Tim Jackson about the myth of eternal growth, other ways to think about progress and prosperity, and what an economic system in balance with our planetary system might look likeArchive: The Independent, Evening Standard Continue reading...

Research on lead poisoning suggests countries could face an explosion of people seeking support for dementiaLead exposure during childhood may lead to reduced cognitive abilities in later life, meaning people experience symptoms of dementia sooner, data suggest.The study, one of the first to investigate the decades-long consequences of lead poisoning, suggests countries could face an explosion of people seeking support for dementia as individuals who were exposed to high lead levels during early life progress into old age. Continue reading...

Scientists suggest octopuses propel material as part of den cleaning, but also in interactions and with purposeThey hunt alone, are prone to a scrap, and even cannibalise one another. And octopuses appear to have another antisocial arm to their behaviour: they hurl jet-propelled clouds of silt, algae and even shells.Researchers studying Octopus tetricus, the common Sydney octopus, have filmed the cephalopods gathering debris in their front arms and web and jet-propelling it away from their body using water ejected from their siphon – the latter having been shifted between their rear arms for the purpose. Continue reading...

It’s on course to guzzle half the world’s carbon budget, so why are governments so afraid to discuss it?There are just two actions needed to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown: leave fossil fuels in the ground and stop farming animals. But, thanks to the power of the two industries, both aims are officially unmentionable. Neither of them has featured in any of the declarations from the 26 climate summits concluded so far.Astonishingly, the sectors themselves are seldom mentioned. I’ve worked through every final agreement produced by the summits since they began. Fossil fuels are named in only six of them. Just one hints at using less overall: the others propose only to improve efficiency (which, as we have known since the 19th century, can often paradoxically increase fossil fuel use), attempt technical fixes or, in the case of last year’s agreement in Glasgow, phase down “unabated” coal burning, while saying nothing about reducing oil or gas. Not one of them suggests extracting less. If fossil fuels are removed from the ground, they will be used, regardless of governments’ vague declarations about consumption. Continue reading...

If the H5N1 virus jumps into the human population and more dangerous strains emerge, it could set off a new pandemicLockdowns are a horrible experience, but fortunately one that is in the past now. Unless, that is, you’re a domestic bird in Britain. Since 7 November, a UK directive has instructed all farmers to keep their birds indoors as part of a stringent measure to stop the spread of avian flu, or the H5N1 virus. This measure is intended to avoid infection of domestic birds from wild birds, and will result in tens of millions of chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys being brought inside for the foreseeable future. We’ve also seen island birds affected, resulting in the shutdown of human visitors to the Isle of May in Scotland for five weeks, among other measures.Avian flu is known as one of the most infectious diseases: the R number, which was often discussed for the spread of Covid-19, can be as high as 100 for avian flu, meaning one bird can infect as many as 100 others. And the past few months have seen exponential spread of the virus, with Britain and Europe hit especially hard. A lab in Surrey that tests samples says it has seen a 600% increase in cases in the past three months.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2019: Human activity has transformed the Earth – but scientists are divided about whether this is really a turning point in geological history Continue reading...

Timeless fret over hygiene picked out on engraved Bronze age comb from ancient kingdom of JudahIt’s a simple sentence that captures the hopes and fears of modern-day parents as much as the bronze age Canaanite who owned the doubled-edged ivory comb on which the words appear.Believed to be the oldest known sentence written in the earliest alphabet, the inscription on the luxury item reads: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.” Continue reading...

American crew and technicians in UK for historic mission find persistent rain and wind ‘interesting but fun’They are used to operating in extreme temperatures at their home base in the Mojave desert but American crew and technicians who are in the UK for a historic space mission are facing a very different challenge – the persistence of the Cornish rain and wind.Asked what the issues were in organising a space adventure from the far south-west of Britain, launch director Deenah Sanchez immediately flagged up the Cornish climate. “Honestly, getting used to the weather. In southern California we have extreme heat. Our systems are designed to take heat, humidity. Here it’s different.” Continue reading...

Fossil named Maximus unearthed in South Dakota rated one of most complete T rex skulls ever foundA Tyrannosaurus rex skull discovered in South Dakota is expected to sell for between $15 and $20m (£13m-£17m) when it is auctioned next month in New York, Sotheby’s has said.The 76m-year-old skull, nicknamed Maximus, is being sold by an anonymous seller at a live auction on 9 December. Continue reading...

A selection of images of the ‘beaver moon’. According to Nasa this is the final total lunar eclipse until March 2025, and was visible in North and Central America, Asia, Australia, the Pacific islands and parts of South America Continue reading...

Active ingredient of magic mushrooms still classified as having no medical value, despite clinical successDraconian licensing rules and a lack of public funding are holding back the emerging field of psychedelic medicine in the UK, leading scientists have warned after the release of groundbreaking results on the use of psilocybin to treat depression.The latest clinical trial found that a single dose of the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, combined with psychotherapy, helped alleviate depression in nearly a third of patients with severe depression. The finding follows other promising results suggesting that psychedelic drugs could be used in treating conditions including anxiety, PTSD, addiction and anorexia. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the moon. Tuesday night’s total lunar eclipse will be the last one visible from the region until 2025.

As world leaders began to gather at Cop27 yesterday, speeches began on the main stage in Sharm el-Sheik. Presidents and prime ministers spoke of the need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions and the horrendous impacts of climate breakdown. But, if previous years are anything to go by – these words may not turn into concrete actions. Instead, indigenous and community groups are leading the charge on saving the planet.Madeleine Finlay speaks to Nina Lakhani about the need for climate justice, and hears from activist Nonhle Mbuthuma about her fight to protect South Africa’s Wild CoastArchive: UN Climate Change Continue reading...

Women with triple negative breast cancer will gain access to pembrolizumab after deal with its manufacturerWomen with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer have been given access to a “potentially life-saving” drug after NHS bosses struck a deal with its manufacturer.Up to 1,600 women a year will be able to get pembrolizumab, which has the potential to leave some of those who take it completely free of cancer, NHS England said. Continue reading...

Moon will take on a red hue as light reaching it passes through dust in the Earth’s atmosphere

Fifteen-week-old Hope found to have no sex organs, possibly because of rare development failureA homeless kitten has stunned vets at a UK animal charity, being the first cat they have seen that is neither male nor female.Hope, a 15-week-old tabby and white cat, was originally thought to be female when it was admitted to the Cats Protection rescue centre in Warrington, but vets found no external sex organs. Continue reading...