Chris Hammans started coaching the side after his son Lewis took up the sport. Now, after Lewis’s death, Chris is determined to continueChris Hammans’ son Lewis was football-mad. He got it from his father. The two were close. “He was my best mate,” says Hammans, a 52-year-old pharmaceutical production manager from Haywards Heath.Lewis was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes muscles to weaken over time, at the age of four. “He didn’t have the mobility other children in his nursery had,” says Hammans. Continue reading...

University of Cambridge team’s work could significantly increase supply of organs for people with rarer blood typesResearchers have successfully altered the blood type of three donor kidneys in a gamechanging discovery that could significantly improve the chances of patients waiting for a transplant finding a match.The development could increase the supply of kidneys available for transplant, particularly within minority ethnic groups who are less likely to find a match, scientists say. Continue reading...

Earth undertakes the ringed planet every 378 days, passing directly between it and the sunThe beautiful ringed planet Saturn has arrived at its closest approach to Earth of the year.On 14 August, Saturn is 8.86 astronomical units from Earth. An astronomical unit is the radius of Earth’s orbit around the sun. Equal to roughly 150m km, that places Saturn 1.3bn km away currently. Travelling at an average speed of 9.69km a second, Saturn takes roughly 29.5 years to complete a single orbit of the sun. Moving almost three times as quickly, Earth undertakes Saturn every 378 days, passing directly between it and the sun. Continue reading...

M Shed, Bristol

Breakthrough research could see some genetic cancers neutralised before they take hold and is already being used for people at riskSue Hayward was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2017. Doctors acted swiftly and she was given a hysterectomy followed by sessions of chemotherapy.But her cancer returned within a year. “I carry a mutated version of a gene known as BRCA1 which makes me susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers,” said Hayward, who works at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. “It runs in families. My mother died of cancer and we assume her mother did as well.” Continue reading...

Did Sars-CoV-2 emerge from a Huanan market stall or a lab? For the American virologist, who has been abused online for defending a ‘natural’ origin, the evidence is clearAngela Rasmussen studies the interactions between hosts and pathogens and how they shape disease. Before the pandemic, she worked on the emerging viruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), Ebola, dengue and avian flu. Then, when Covid-19 erupted, the American virologist, who works at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, was drawn into the debate over where it came from. She has been among the most vocal scientists on Twitter defending a “natural” origin, as opposed to a lab leak. Last month, she and 17 co-authors published findings in Science that they feel should silence all rational critics on the question.In the Science paper, which started life as a preprint in February before going through peer review, you say that the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan was the “early epicentre” of the Covid-19 pandemic. To be clear, are you saying that the Huanan market was the origin of the pandemic?

Helping a hitchhiker should have given me a warm glow of generosity, but ended with me feeling like a gullible shmuckWhat’s the most money you’ve ever given a complete stranger? £20, £30, £50… maybe more? I’ve always been free and easy when it comes to handing out small change on the street, but a couple of months ago I found myself in a different league altogether. I gave a man I had never met before £200. I drove to a cashpoint at 10pm, got out 10 shiny new £20 notes and handed them over without any real idea if I’d ever see the man or the money again.Since then, this “good deed” has been polished up into a hilarious family anecdote in which “gullible old Martin” is taken advantage of once again by a smooth-talking huckster. My radar for a far-fetched sob story or bargain often lets me down. Let’s not dwell on the endless timeshare opportunities, rug purchases, sick puppies, random muggings, punctures, pregnancies, rare antiques and fake tickets that I’ve refused to let pass me by. Continue reading...

For years, the author and neurosurgeon dismissed symptoms of prostate cancer. Then he finally got the diagnosis he’d been avoiding …It seemed a bit of a joke at the time – that I should have my own brain scanned. I should have known better. I had always advised patients and friends to avoid having brain scans unless they had significant problems. You might not like what you see, I told them.I had volunteered to take part in a study of brain scans in healthy people. I was curious to see my own brain, if only in the greyscale pixels of an MRI scan. I had spent much of my life looking at brain scans or living brains when operating, but the awe I felt as a medical student when seeing brain surgery for the first time had fallen away quite quickly once I started training as a neurosurgeon. Besides, when you are operating you do not want to distract yourself with philosophical thoughts about the profound mystery of how the physical matter of our brains generates thought and feeling, and the puzzle of how this is both conscious and unconscious. Nor do you want to be distracted by thinking about the family of the patient under your knife, waiting, desperate with anxiety, somewhere in the world outside the theatre. You need to separate yourself from these thoughts and feelings, although they are never far away. All that matters is the operating and the self-belief it requires. You live very intensely when you operate. Continue reading...

Egg prickers | Anger management | Dario Fo play | Missing Keir StarmerStephen Walkley (Letters, 11 August) asks what an “egg prick” is, after I mentioned it in a letter. An unkind friend suggested, when my letter appeared, that it’s someone who writes letters to the Guardian about eggs. In fact, it’s a gadget that makes a tiny hole in an eggshell, thereby preventing the shell from breaking while the egg is being boiled. I now see that it’s marketed as an “egg pricker”, which is probably a safer name for it.

Serena Williams says she does not want to be pregnant again as an athlete – she got back to the top before but it can take its tollSerena Williams has never liked the word “retirement”. Her move away from tennis, announced in an essay in the September issue of Vogue, is an “evolution”, she says. In her transition, she will shift focus from tennis to “other things” that are important to her. One is her wish to have another child.Williams and her husband have been trying for a baby in the past year, a move apparently encouraged by their four-year-old daughter, who has hopes of becoming a big sister. But, as Williams told the magazine: “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.” Continue reading...

Health workers are leaving the field because of the abuse they’ve received over Covid. They urgently need supportLisa-Maria Kellermayr, an Austrian GP, was a doctor who dedicated her life to her patients and was vocal about the risks of Covid-19 on Twitter and in the media. She had endured months of death threats from Covid conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. Colleagues expressed frustration with the lack of support she received for dealing with the daily abuse. Last month, Kellermayr took her own life.When the news of Kellermayr’s death was shared among the medical community, the reaction was one of sadness but little surprise. During the pandemic, scientists have suffered huge amounts of abuse and blame while just trying to do their jobs. I suffered far less than many of my colleagues, but still got my share of online attacks during the pandemic. I was targeted in tweets, YouTube videos, blogs, viral Facebook posts and malicious revisions to my Wikipedia page. Someone pointed to a talk about global health I gave in 2018 as evidence that I had caused the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the “deep state”. The attacks came from all directions: anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, conspiracy theorists, anti-Bill Gates, anti-Wellcome Trust, anti-medicine, anti-Scottish government, Tory politicians, all muddled together in puzzling ways.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

The Discovery Boffins at the CSIRO have uncovered 139 new species! What are they and how are we going to kill them? Ahaha just kidding…

Simplification of larynx let humans have excellent pitch control with long and stable speech soundsScientists have identified evolutionary modifications in the voice box distinguishing people from other primates that may underpin a capability indispensable to humankind: speaking.Researchers said on Thursday that an examination of the voice box, or larynx, in 43 species of primates showed that humans differ from apes and monkeys in lacking an anatomical structure called a vocal membrane: small, ribbon-like extensions of the vocal cords. Continue reading...

Jakapil kaniukura was about 5ft long and probably walked upright in then-steamy Patagonian landscape about 100m years agoPalaeontologists have announced the discovery of a previously unknown small armoured dinosaur in southern Argentina, a creature that probably walked upright on its back legs roaming a then-steamy landscape about 100m years ago.The Cretaceous period dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, would have been well-protected with rows of bony disc-shaped armour along its neck and back and down to its tail, they said. It measured about 5ft (1.5 meters) long and weighed only 9-15lb (4-7kg), similar to an average house cat. Continue reading...

Unwarranted expressions of anger cause the aggressor much more long-term stress and distress than the receiver of the aggression, says Sophie ThompsonAs a psychotherapist and care coordinator in a busy, underfunded child and adolescent mental health services unit in the NHS, I field a lot of anger (‘Don’t take it out on our staff!’: How did Britain become so angry?, 4 August). Understandably, this has increased in recent years due to the pressure of the pandemic on an already broken system.Anger is within the same family of emotions as fear and anxiety. We are now all navigating each other’s fears, which are being projected through displays of anger and disappointment. I would suggest that we need to be better at naming our fears: I am frightened that my loved ones will die; I am scared that my child will not recover from this crippling anxiety and depression that has led them to make attempts on their own life. Continue reading...

Prolonged mental activity leads to buildup of potentially toxic neurotransmitter in brain, study findsIt’s a familiar feeling on a Friday evening. After finishing a gruelling day’s work, you finally agree with friends on where to meet for a night out.But by the time you have figured out what to wear and where you left your keys, a night on the sofa begins to sound more appealing than one on the tiles. Continue reading...

Specialised shape thought to have evolved to let dinosaur spread stress across skull as it chewed preyWith a huge body, sharp claws, and dagger-like teeth, Tyrannosaurus rex would not have relied on looks to kill. But research suggests its eyes may have contributed to its bone-crushing bite.A study has proposed the keyhole-shaped eye sockets of T rex may have helped to disperse stress across the skull of the fearsome predator as it chomped on its prey. Continue reading...

Between 2018 and 2020 China published 23.4% of the world’s scientific papers, eclipsing the USChina has overtaken the US as the world leader in both scientific research output and “high impact” studies, according to a report published by Japan’s science and technology ministry.The report, which was published by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTP) on Tuesday, found that China now publishes the highest number of scientific research papers yearly, followed by the US and Germany. Continue reading...

Research suggests some vegetarians may not get sufficient nutrients for good bone and muscle healthWomen who are vegetarian are more likely to experience hip fractures in later life than those who frequently eat meat, a UK study has found.Researchers analysed health and diet records from more than 26,000 women and found that over a roughly 22-year period, vegetarians were a third more likely to break a hip than those who regularly ate meat. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the celestial spectacle, the last super moon of of 2022

Could the food we eat and the air we breathe be damaging our immune systems? The number of people with autoimmune diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis to type 1 diabetes, began to increase around 40 years ago in the west. Now, some are also emerging in countries that had never seen the diseases before.In this episode from January 2022, Ian Sample speaks to the genetic scientist and consultant gastroenterologist James Lee about how this points to what western lifestyles might be doing to our health, and how genetics could reveal exactly how our immune systems are malfunctioningArchive: King 5 News, WXYZ Channel 7 Continue reading...

New deaths in Africa plummet 70% but rise 19% in Middle East, as World Health Organisation urges countries not to drop their surveillance of virus

Data from Australia’s square kilometre array radio telescope was processed by a new supercomputer called Setonix – named after WA’s quokkaWithin 24 hours of accessing the first stage of Australia’s newest supercomputing system, researchers have processed a series of radio telescope observations, including a highly detailed image of a supernova remnant.The very high data rates and the enormous data volumes from new-generation radio telescopes such as Askap (Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder) need highly capable software running on supercomputers. This is where the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre comes into play, with a newly launched supercomputer called Setonix – named after Western Australia’s favourite animal, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus). Continue reading...

It has emerged that sea sponges can sneeze, casting off accumulations of particles trapped in mucus on their surfaces in the process.Dr Jasper de Goeij, a marine biologist at the University of Amsterdam and the senior author of the paper, said the team made their discovery while examining timelapse videos of sponges in an effort to understand how the creatures poo.Writing in the journal Current Biology, De Goeij and colleagues report how they found the Caribbean tube sponge Aplysina archeri had a constant stream of mucus flowing out of its pores against the feeding current – not unlike a runny nose – carrying particles with it.

Public urged to take precautions after second large landslide along Jurassic region in two weeksExperts are urging the public to be hypervigilant on south coast beaches as this week’s heatwave could trigger cliff collapses.One geologist said the area seemed the most vulnerable and beachgoers should take heed of official guidance. Continue reading...

Study identifies mystery elements in Kaogong ji, shedding light on how early bronzes were producedResearchers have deciphered enigmatic recipes for metal-making contained in an ancient Chinese text, revealing unexpected complexity in the art at the time.Six chemical formulas are given in a Chinese text from 300BC known as the Kaogong ji. The manuscript, known as The World’s Oldest Encyclopedia of Technologies, forms part of a detailed archive of early imperial rule, which archeologists have been trying to decode since the 1920s. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research shows some people skip medical appointments because they feel humiliated by staffDoctors and nurses often “weight-shame” people who are overweight or obese, leaving them feeling anxious, depressed and wrongly blaming themselves for their condition, research has found.Such behaviour, although usually the result of “unconscious weight bias”, leads to people not attending medical appointments, feeling humiliated and being more likely to put on weight. Continue reading...

Virus, which causes symptoms including fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite and muscle aches, is believed to have spread from animals to humans

Survey by Cancer Research UK shows poorer people less likely to see their family GP, reducing survival chancesHalf of people with possible cancer symptoms in the UK do not contact a GP for at least six months, potentially reducing their chances of survival, research has found.Poorer people are less likely than the better-off to see their family doctor once they have eventually sought medical help, a survey by Cancer Research UK found. Continue reading...

Last week, debris from a suspected Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth, reportedly falling just metres from villages in Malaysia and Indonesia, and triggering a rebuke from Nasa. This follows the recent discovery of SpaceX debris on a sheep farm in regional NSW.

World Health Organization issues statement after reports of animals being poisoned in BrazilThe World Health Organization has stressed that monkeypox outbreaks are not linked to monkeys, following a number of reported attacks on the primates in Brazil.“What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans,” a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The singer’s advocacy enabled scientific advancements and offered hope and support to people affected by cancerIt’s not often a medical institute has to say it is unable to take calls because of overwhelming demand, but that was the case on Tuesday at Melbourne’s Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre, after the death of the 73-year-old singer and actor.Newton-John has been one of Australia’s most high-profile campaigners for the advancement of cancer research and treatment since her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1992 at the age of 44. Continue reading...

In early April this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report giving the world just 30 months to get greenhouse gas emissions falling. Beyond that, we’ll have missed our chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C. As this summer of heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods prove, going much above 1.5C will have truly devastating consequences for us and the planet.With the window of opportunity rapidly closing, some scientists feel like writing reports and publishing papers is no longer enough, and are leaving their desks and labs to take action on the streets. In this episode recorded back in April, Madeleine Finlay meets scientists protesting at Shell HQ in London and speaks to the conservationist Dr Charlie Gardner about civil disobedience – and why he thinks it’s the only option left Continue reading...

Pop star best known for her role in the film musical devoted her later life to activism in support of cancer research

Maths is the bedrock of all the sciences, but promised funding is yet to be delivered, writes Prof Ulrike TillmannThe aim of making the UK a “science superpower” is welcome, but the deficiencies in the government’s strategy highlighted in a Lords report are only the start (‘Science superpower’ plan risks making UK bureaucracy superpower, says peer, 4 August).Lord Krebs compared the amount of bureaucracy involved to “setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together”. However, the report barely mentions mathematics, the bedrock of all the sciences. Without a greater focus on the mathematical sciences, the nation is in danger of setting off on a marathon without any footwear. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you five ‘reverse engineering’ picture puzzles, in which I presented pictures of five structures and asked you to explain why they were built in that way. Below are the questions and the correct answers, but please do scroll below the line in the original article because some of the comedy wrong answers are very funny. Feel free to add to the tally at the bottom of this article too.1. Baffling bridge. Continue reading...

Study finds parents with young children decode babies’ cries better than adults with no childcare skillsIf the wails of your newborn baby leave you baffled as to what is wrong, just give it time. Deciphering a baby’s cries is all down to experience, new research suggests.Being able to tell whether a baby is in pain is vital information for new parents and caregivers. But rather than being an innate skill adults can rely on, understanding the difference between cries of pain and mild discomfort comes with experience. Continue reading...

Scientists have revealed their latest work on hardware that can supply the kind of background information, familiar with ebooks, for paper volumesWe’ve had ebooks, audiobooks, and of course good old-fashioned printed books – but could there soon be another way to read? So-called “augmented reality books” – dubbed “a-books” by their creators – are a step closer to mass-market production after a six-year project by researchers at the University of Surrey.While ebook readers are used to being able to access background information and extra features, a-books would allow users to swipe their fingers across a line in a physical, printed book and have related content flash up on their phones, laptops or smart TVs. Continue reading...

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?Elon Musk thinks you don’t exist. But it’s nothing personal: he thinks he doesn’t exist either. At least, not in the normal sense of existing. Instead we are just immaterial software constructs running on a gigantic alien computer simulation. Musk has stated that the odds are billions to one that we are actually living in “base reality”, ie the physical universe. At the end of last year, he responded to a tweet about the anniversary of the crude tennis video game Pong (1972) by writing: “49 years later, games are photo-realistic 3D worlds. What does that trend continuing imply about our reality?”

Baffling bridges and strange structuresUPDATE: You can read the answers hereIf you have ever strolled along the Macclesfield canal you may have walked across a ‘snake bridge’, like the one above, in which one side of the towpath spirals backward.The question is: why did they build bridges like this? Continue reading...

The annual Perseids shower lasts more than a month, but will peak this weekThe main meteor shower of the year for northern skywatchers has arrived. The annual Perseids meteor shower lasts for more than five weeks, starting on 17 July and lasting until 24 August, but it peaks on the night of 12-13 August.Under pristine observing conditions, this reliable meteor shower can reach peak rates of 60 to 100 visible meteors an hour. This year, however, the full moon will wash out many of the fainter meteors. The Perseids themselves are dust grains that were once part of the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. They now hit Earth’s atmosphere at a velocity of about 130,000 mph, and burn up high above our planet’s surface. Continue reading...

Institute of Cancer Research in London isolates gene that allows tumours to spread through the bodySkin cancer cells produce “molecular drills” to penetrate healthy tissues and spread around the body, according to research that raises the prospect of new therapies for the disease.Researchers used robotic microscopy to capture the formation of the drills by melanoma cells that were being grown in 3D skin-like material in the laboratory. Continue reading...

Potentially deadly, rheumatic fever has been eradicated in most of the developed world. Fresh research may help New Zealand finally follow suitNathanial Harland was four years old when his daycare teachers noticed the usually playful boy was lethargic and alone in a corner. That day a doctor listened to the child’s chest and told his family to take Nathaniel straight to hospital – he had a heart murmur.Further testing showed his heart had been damaged from an earlier, undiagnosed bout of rheumatic fever, a serious but entirely preventable disease that has been all but wiped out in most developed countries but which is still present in New Zealand and Australia. Continue reading...

Determining the way artificial intelligence is used and governed will be one of the century’s key political battlegrounds. Here’s what everyone needs to know“Google fires engineer who contended its AI technology was sentient.” “Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent.” “DeepMind’s protein-folding AI cracks biology’s biggest problem.” A new discovery (or debacle) is reported practically every week, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes not. Should we be exultant? Terrified? Policymakers struggle to know what to make of AI and it’s hard for the lay reader to sort through all the headlines, much less to know what to be believe. Here are four things every reader should know.First, AI is real and here to stay. And it matters. If you care about the world we live in, and how that world is likely to change in the coming years and decades, you should care as much about the trajectory of AI as you might about forthcoming elections or the science of climate breakdown. What happens next in AI, over the coming years and decades, will affect us all. Electricity, computers, the internet, smartphones and social networking have all changed our lives, radically, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, and AI will, too. Continue reading...

Collection bequeathed to National Museums Scotland includes species that are unknown to scienceA remarkable collection of fossilised birds that lived 55 million years ago has been bequeathed to the National Museums Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh and includes dozens of species that are unknown to science.Dating from the beginning of the Eocene epoch, they represent the early stages in the evolution of modern birds. Continue reading...

Cheerfulness can boost your energy levels, even in tough times – as philosophers and writers have long recognised“The surest sign of wisdom is a constant cheerfulness,” wrote the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne in the 16th century. “Be cheerful,” commands Prospero – arguably the wisest of all of Shakepeare’s characters – in The Tempest. Yet the impact of cheerfulness – and the power it gives us to get through difficult moments in our lives – is hard to define and easy to disregard or dismiss, even as we strive to be happy.And that is one of the reasons Timothy Hampton, a professor in the department of comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, decided to write a book about it. Cheerfulness: A Literary and Cultural History explores how “cheerfulness” functions as a theme in the works of great philosophers and writers from Shakespeare to Jane Austen, and how it is portrayed in everything from 16th-century medical books to the Boy Scout handbook. Continue reading...

When Nathan Brosnan went missing his family was plunged into the agony of ‘not knowing’. A national DNA program is trying to give families like theirs answers

From genes to environment to personality, we are all manipulated by forces seemingly outside our control. But there are ways to get back in the driving seatDo you ever feel as though you’re not in control of your thoughts and actions? Perhaps you become irrational when you’re tired or have skipped lunch. Pour yourself a drink when you swore you wouldn’t. If so, you are certainly not alone. All of us struggle to think clearly, understand our decisions or predict our actions at times. A little cognitive chaos is a very human trait.Many factors shape the way we think. Genes and personality play a role, but so do fleeting states, such as hunger, tiredness, hate or love. And the less we understand these and other emotions, the more likely we are to be driven by them. Continue reading...

People prefer to keep busy rather than to enjoy a moment of reflection, researchers findLosing oneself in one’s thoughts or letting the mind wander is an underrated activity that is more rewarding the more it is practised, an academic study has claimed.Psychologists who studied a group of more than 250 people encouraged to engage in directionless contemplation or free-floating thinking said that the activity was far more satisfying than the participants had anticipated. Continue reading...

Groups across political spectrum call for outbreak of virus to be treated as public health emergencyLGBTQ+ groups from across the political spectrum have joined forces to demand the government increase efforts to combat monkeypox or risk it becoming endemic in the UK.There have been more than 2,600 cases of monkeypox in the UK so far, which in the majority of the cases affects gay and bisexual men and men who have sex with men (GBMSM). The US on Thursday declared a public health emergency over the virus, which followed the World Health Organization (WHO) last month calling it a global emergency. Continue reading...