People with highest levels of prostasin twice as likely to have diabetes and 43% more likely to die from cancerDoctors have identified a protein in the blood they believe could serve as an early warning sign for patients who are at risk of diabetes and death from cancer.Researchers in Sweden and China analysed two decades of health records from more than 4,500 middle-aged adults on the Malmö diet and cancer study. They found that those with the highest levels of prostasin, a protein that circulates in the blood, were almost twice as likely to have diabetes than those with the lowest levels. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis shows human-caused global heating is driving more frequent and deadly disasters across the planet, in most comprehensive compilation to dateThe devastating intensification of extreme weather is laid bare today in a Guardian analysis that shows how people across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more deadly and more frequent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts brought by the climate crisis.The analysis of hundreds of scientific studies – the most comprehensive compilation to date – demonstrates beyond any doubt how humanity’s vast carbon emissions are forcing the climate to disastrous new extremes. At least a dozen of the most serious events, from killer heatwaves to broiling seas, would have been all but impossible without human-caused global heating, the analysis found.The 12 events deemed virtually impossible without humanity’s destabilisation of the climate span the globe, including intense heatwaves in North America, Europe and Japan, soaring temperatures in Siberia and sweltering seas off Australia.Seventy-one per cent of the 500 extreme weather events and trends in the database were found to have been made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change, including 93% of heatwaves, 68% of droughts and 56% of floods or heavy rain. Only 9% of the events were less likely, mostly cold snaps and snowstorms.One in three deaths caused by summer heat over the last three decades was the direct result of human-caused global heating, implying a toll of millions.Huge financial costs are also now attributable to human influence on the climate, such as $67bn of damages when Hurricane Harvey smashed into Texas and Louisiana in 2017, which was 75% of the total damages from the storm.Global heating has been hurting us for far longer than commonly assumed, with traces of its influence as far back as the heatwaves and droughts that triggered the infamous Dust Bowl in the US in the mid-1930s. Continue reading...

Palliative doctors call for relaxation of laws to redress huge unmet need for drugs among majority of world’s populationPatients suffering chronic pain are being denied treatment in low-income countries because of restrictive laws and concerns about opioid addiction, which have been fuelled by the crisis engulfing the US.Palliative doctors, who say there is a huge unmet need for pain-relief drugs in poorer countries, have called for laws to be relaxed and for the stigma around opioids to be addressed. Continue reading...

Veteran diver struck by ‘intricate detail’ sent footage to be uploaded to Jellyfish app

Xenotransplantation promises to solve organ shortage and to reshape how we think about human longevity, but it also raises a host of questionsShards of electricity burned through Mr P’s flesh. Layers upon layers of subcutaneous fat unraveled, filling the operating room with a pungent, metallic odor, like singed hair at the neighborhood barbecue. Within a few minutes, the pearly white bone of the sternum stuck out before a vein split open, filling the operative field with blood.Zap! Maroon juice turned into a crackly black mass. Continue reading...

Psychology professor draws on 20 years of studying often crippling issue that can affect sufferers’ careers and even healthHave you thought about tackling your procrastination but, you know … dog videos, shopping lists, catching up on Twitter, the last-ever episode of Neighbours with Mike and “plain Jane superbrain”, apparently.A Durham University professor and world-leading authority on procrastination is bidding to help. Fuschia Sirois has, over two decades of studying procrastination, heard so many heartbreaking stories that she is now publishing a research-based self-help guide offering insights and practical strategies to deal with it. Continue reading...

James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, died last Tuesday on his 103rd birthday. Known as something of a maverick, the scientist and inventor was one of the most influential thinkers of the past century. Our global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, tells Madeleine Finlay about spending time with Lovelock for his forthcoming biography, the impact of the scientist’s ideas and inventions on the modern world, and how his immense influence will continue to be felt in the critical decades aheadArchive: Met Office, NBC News, DW News Continue reading...

The annual meteor shower will peak on 13 August. Find out the best time to view

Astrophysicist expects more debris to be found in area ‘over the years’ from SpaceX capsule from rocket launched in 2020

Author of Lords report says government’s approach ‘feels like setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together’Britain’s plan to become a “science and technology superpower” is so lacking in focus and so full of new organisational structures that the country risks becoming a “bureaucracy superpower” instead, an influential crossbench peer has said.Prof John Krebs, the co-author of a Lords report on the government’s global ambitions for science and technology, said despite laudable rhetoric, there was no clear strategy as to how the “superpower” ambition might be realised, and reasons to doubt it would succeed. Continue reading...

Study finds reduced risk of cervical cancer recurring after HPV vaccination post-surgery, though further research is neededGiving women the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when precancerous lesions are removed from their cervix may cut the risk of cells recurring and them getting cervical cancer, a study has found.Cases of cervical cancer in the UK have fallen hugely since school pupils aged 13 and 14 – first girls and later boys – began being offered HPV jabs in 2008 as protection against the disease. Continue reading...

When the CEO of the Australian Meat Industry Council is urging politicians to keep calm and stick to the science, we should all listen

Findings point to improvements in organ transplants and raise questions over nature of deathOnce the heart stops pumping blood, death quickly follows. Or does it?Scientists have developed a way to restore function in pig organs an hour after their hearts have stopped beating, raising fresh questions about the nature of death and pointing to ways to improve organ transplantation rates. Continue reading...

Researchers use stem cells from mice to form embryo-like structures with intestinal tract, beginnings of a brain, and a beating heartResearchers have created the world’s first “synthetic embryos” in a groundbreaking feat that bypassed the need for sperm, eggs and fertilisation.Scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel found that stem cells from mice could be made to self-assemble into early embryo-like structures with an intestinal tract, the beginnings of a brain, and a beating heart. Continue reading...

CAB-LA injections offer stigma-free protection for those at risk – particularly women in Africa. A deal with pharmaceutical companies is crucialSomeone was blowing a whistle. A crowd with placards surged into the conference room, chanting “PrEP costs pennies, ViiV’s greed kills”. Not an obvious slogan, but everyone in the room knew what it meant.The protesters took over the stage, denouncing “pharma’s greed” at the microphone. On the platform, those whose session had been interrupted smiled, even applauded. “Thank you for your advocacy. Please allow the session to continue,” read prepared slides on the overhead screens. Continue reading...

‘Substantial chance’ married or university-educated men outlive women without spouse or high school diplomaA study has called into question the long-held belief that women outlive men, especially men who are married or have a university degree.The analysis spanning two centuries across all continents concluded that although men have a lower life expectancy than the opposite sex, they have a “substantial chance of outliving females”. Continue reading...

Medicine is pragmatic. It has often established that a treatment works well before it has understood howThe chemical imbalance theory of depression is well and truly dead. A paper by Joanna Moncrieff and colleagues, longtime critics of the effectiveness of antidepressants, has caused a splash. The paper provides a summary of other summaries that confirm there is no evidence to support the idea that depression is caused by disturbance of the brain’s serotonin system.They have done us a favour by corralling the evidence that says as much, even if we knew this to be the case.This article first appeared in the Conversation. Christopher Davey is head of the department of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne Continue reading...

Jarlsberg is rich in vitamin K2, which has previously been found to improve bone healthEating Jarlsberg cheese may help to prevent bone thinning and stave off osteoporosis, research suggests.Jarlsberg is a mild cheese made from cow’s milk, with regular holes that mean it is classified as a Swiss-type cheese, although it originates from Norway. It is rich in vitamin K2, which has previously been found to improve bone health. Continue reading...

At least 2 million people in the UK are struggling with symptoms months or years after falling ill. They need support as well as treatmentHow do you tackle a problem when you don’t know what it is? Covid-19 was an unknown enemy, but was quickly identified. Long Covid, its equally unwelcome offspring, is a lesser threat, but is proving harder to pin down. Doctors are clear that it is widespread – yet are not sure how common it is, or how to respond.This is in part because it is an umbrella term for a wide range of symptoms; the World Health Organization says that up to 200 have been recorded, with shortness of breath, brain fog and fatigue the most common, while others range from loss of smell and tinnitus to stomach aches and depression. It may be that five or six separate syndromes are involved. Most of the symptoms have numerous potential non-Covid causes, making it still harder to isolate which are related to the infection. Continue reading...

The Australian Space Agency is investigating space debris found in farmland in the Snowy Mountains in southern NSW, after being notified by an astrophysicist who believes it to be from a SpaceX mission.Dr Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, received a call last Thursday from Mick Miners and Jock Wallace, two sheep farmers in the small town of Dalgety, who reported having found a scorched object.Their report matched a SpaceX spacecraft which re-entered the earth’s atmosphere at 7am on 9 July, 20 months after its launch in November 2020► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

Charred ring of metal five metres in diameter found in Kalimantan and smaller piece discovered in Sarawak, MalaysiaDebris suspected to be from a Chinese booster rocket that made an uncontrolled return to Earth on Saturday has reportedly been found metres from villages in Malaysia and Indonesia.A charred ring of metal about five metres in diameter was found on Sunday in Kalimantan, Indonesia, according to a Malaysian news outlet. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the metal appeared to be the exact size of the Chinese rocket’s core stage. Continue reading...

For decades, the absolute priority when rescuing victims after traffic accidents has been to minimise movement of the spine. Emergency services go to great lengths to keep the patient still while they are cut free from the wreckage, because a shift of just a millimetre could potentially lead to the person needing to use a wheelchair. Or at least, that’s what firefighters used to think. Now, thanks to new research using simulated accident rescues, that wisdom is starting to change.Anand Jagatia speaks to the Guardian’s science correspondent, Linda Geddes, and emergency medicine consultant Dr Tim Nutbeam about the findings, and what they mean for survivors of motor vehicle collisions. Continue reading...

Scientists say there are ample reasons to suspect global heating could lead to catastropheThe risk of global societal collapse or human extinction has been “dangerously underexplored”, climate scientists have warned in an analysis.They call such a catastrophe the “climate endgame”. Though it had a small chance of occurring, given the uncertainties in future emissions and the climate system, cataclysmic scenarios could not be ruled out, they said. Continue reading...

Some in space industry bewildered by Australia’s lack of fanfare about the launch of the satellites, which will be used to collect intelligence for allied nations

Astrophysicist Brad Tucker says he often gets calls from people who think they’ve found space junk but the scorched metal found by two farmers is ‘very real’

Analysis: Reflecting a recent trend, 29 June was the shortest day on our planet since the 1960s. What’s going on?If time feels tighter than ever of late, blame it on the revolution. On 29 June this year, Earth racked up an unusual record: its shortest day since the 1960s, when scientists began measuring the planet’s rotation with high-precision atomic clocks.Broadly speaking, Earth completes one full turn on its axis every 24 hours. That single spin marks out a day and drives the cycle of sunrise and sunset that has shaped patterns of life for billions of years. But the curtains fell early on 29 June, with midnight arriving 1.59 milliseconds sooner than expected. Continue reading...

Fears of future threats to food security if more extreme heat caused by climate crisis hits productionThe UK heatwave has caused fruit and vegetables to die on the vine as growers fear the drought and further hot temperatures could ruin harvests this year.Fruit and vegetable suppliers have been counting their losses after record temperatures in July caused crops to fail. Continue reading...

TV forecasters have been targeted by climate deniers during recent extreme temperaturesDiscussing the weather has long been a harmless British pastime, with forecasters relied on to ruin bank holidays with their predictions of drizzle or give good news of some gentle summer sunshine.But now TV meteorologists have found themselves on the frontline of the climate culture war after extreme temperatures hit England last month, with records smashed and highs of 40.3C (104.5F). Continue reading...

Seventh planet technically visible as pale blue dot with help of binocularsIt is a tale of two planets this week: Mars and Uranus. While Mars, the fourth planet of the solar system, will be relatively easy to see with the unaided eye, the seventh planet, Uranus, will be almost impossible unless you live somewhere with pristine skies and no light pollution.So, if you have a pair of binoculars, take those with you as that will help ensure success in tracking down this planet that is technically visible to the naked eye but hardly ever seen that way. Continue reading...

A Chinese booster rocket has made an uncontrolled return to Earth. US defence department officials have chided Beijing for not sharing information on the potentially hazardous object’s descent. The Long March 5B rocket re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian ocean on Saturday. People in several parts of Malaysia reported seeing the fragments. 'At first we thought it was a shooting star,' said Aizul Sidek, who was in the city of Kuching in Sarawak state when he captured footage with his smartphone

Scientists think we need to pay attention to a measure of heat and humidity – and it’s edging closer to the limits of human survivabilityIn March, April and May this year, India and its neighbours endured repeated heatwaves that exposed more than a billion people to dangerously hot conditions. India broke several temperature records. The warmest March in more than a century was recorded across the country and a new high of more than 49C was hit in Delhi in May.Record-breaking heat has also been recorded elsewhere this year, including the UK, which smashed its previous record by an incredible 1.6C, reaching more than 40C. Portugal reached 47C on the 21st of this month, the hottest July day on record, while several places in France recorded new highs. Continue reading...

Screening programme will detect people with the deadly infection, which is often symptomless in early stagesThe NHS is to use artificial intelligence to detect, screen and treat people at risk of hepatitis C under plans to eradicate the disease by 2030.Hepatitis C often does not have any noticeable symptoms until the liver has been severely damaged, which means thousands of people are living with the infection – known as the silent killer – without realising it. Continue reading...

We both loved music growing up but when he sent me his demo CD I was afraid he would be mocked. Now Interpol is my favourite band – and we’re the best of friendsThis story ends at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2018. I’m standing alongside the rest of the sold-out arena, punching the dry ice, roaring along to Lights during Interpol’s sold-out show, as my youngest brother, Daniel, strides across the stage slashing at his guitar, singer Paul Banks leading the throng. “That’s why I hold you,” we all sing, “that is why I hold you dear.”But that’s not how this story begins. It starts in 1985 in Paris, where I’ve just told my mother that I will not be joining her when she emigrates to Washington DC with my two brothers, Mark, 13, and Daniel, 10. I am 16, soon to be 17. We moved from London four years ago for my father’s work, but my parents are divorcing. I’m going back to London where, I tell Mum, I will become someone who listens to music professionally. Eventually I do, working as staff on NME throughout the 90s. Continue reading...

New moon will provide ideal viewing conditions for the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers this July weekend as cosmic debris from comets enters Earth’s atmosphere, before the Perseid meteor shower peaks in August

Marine archaeologists stunned by priceless cache long hidden beneath the Bahamas’ shark-infested watersIt was a Spanish galleon laden with treasures so sumptuous that its sinking in the Bahamas in 1656 sparked repeated salvage attempts over the next 350 years. So when another expedition was launched recently, few thought that there could be anything left – but exquisite, jewel-encrusted pendants and gold chains are among spectacular finds that have now been recovered, having lain untouched on the seabed for hundreds of years.The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) went down on the western side of the Little Bahama Bank, over 70km offshore, but the newly discovered treasures were found across a vast debris trail spanning more than 13km. Continue reading...

Beijing accused of being irresponsible after it failed to share data on where Long March 5B booster weighing more than 20 tonnes would landA Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth on Saturday, US defense department officials said, as they chided Beijing for not sharing information on the potentially hazardous object’s descent.US Space Command confirmed the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian ocean on Saturday but referred any question regarding potential debris dispersal and impact location to China. Continue reading...

Embarrassingly, the culture secretary thinks the Midlands need sport in order to make a markI always loved those children’s books that offered a map that folded out of the cover. The Lord of the Rings set the standard, allowing you to trace Frodo’s travels through Middle-earth to the far-off lands of Mordor. It was only as an adult that I discovered that those fantasy worlds had been very much closer to home than I’d imagined.Like Tolkien, I grew up in Birmingham and it was a smile-inducing wonder to realise that many of the landmarks in the books were based on the geography of the author’s childhood – that the Shire itself was a recreation of the happiness of his infancy at Sarehole Mill; that the Old Forest where Tom Bombadil lived recalled Moseley Bog where the author had his childhood adventures (now preserved as a nature reserve by the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust); that the Towers of Gondor were said to be based on two distinctive structures in Edgbaston: the 100ft Gothic Perrott’s Folly and the Waterworks tower built by John Henry Chamberlain in 1870; and that the haunting Eye of Sauron was reportedly evoked by a memory of the grim weeks Tolkien spent recuperating at the university hospital from “trench fever” contracted in France in 1916, where the illuminated clock tower he could see through the window kept him awake. Continue reading...

A good debate isn’t about one person declaring victory, it’s about both people making a discovery, says psychologist Adam Grant• What happened when we paired up celebrities across the political spectrum?A few years ago, I had an argument with a close friend who had decided not to give his children any vaccinations. To preserve our relationship, I vowed never to talk about vaccines with him again. When Covid-19 arrived, I broke that vow. For the next nine months, we duked it out in email threads so long that we ran out of new colours for our replies. One day, he made a comment that caught me off guard. We’d argued more in the past year than we’d spoken in the preceding decade. “I don’t know about you,” he wrote, “but I love it.”He wasn’t alone. I found myself looking forward to our cognitive cage fights. Instead of pushing us apart, arguing brought us closer together. And rather than closing our minds, we both opened up. We admitted we were wrong on some points – and discovered harmony on others. Continue reading...

Getting a good shot is tricky so here are some tips to capture a picture of the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers tonight and over the weekend

Detectorists uncover 12th century horse harness pendant with England’s heraldic emblemFootball may or may not be coming home to England in Sunday’s Euros 22 final at Wembley, but a new archaeological discovery illustrates quite how long the Three Lions have been cherished in the team’s home country.A tiny medieval pendant, made from copper alloy and featuring the famous heraldic emblem, has come to light after being found late last year by metal detectorists in Wormleighton, Warwickshire. Dating from the 12th century, the pendant was designed to hang from a horse harness, its motif picked out in red enamel and gold. Continue reading...

It’s not that Britons are becoming less intelligent, it’s that the quiz canon has expanded, say top quizzersAs if everything wasn’t bad enough, now we’re all getting stupider. That, at least, was one interpretation of an interview earlier this week with the presenter of Radio 4’s long-running quiz Brain of Britain, in which he said today’s contestants were struggling more than before to get the answers right.It’s not that the questions are getting harder – the host Russell Davies and the regular question-setter Elissa Mattinson told Radio Times they were often asked by producers to simplify their submissions. But the quiz’s elusive bonus point – offered when a contestant gives five correct answers in a row – was being achieved more and more rarely, Davies said. Just when we could really do with some smart people around, it seems even the eggheads on Britain’s toughest quiz are dumbing down. Continue reading...

Consider why your brother taking it easy for a change bothers you. Be curious and don’t expect him to be more motivatedMy brother and I have a very close relationship and were fortunate to have a very happy childhood.He is the baby of the family and graduated last year. Since then he hasn’t done much at all. Not getting the result he hoped for in his degree, he said he wanted to take a bit of time to relax before looking for a job. The summer passed and we all assumed he’d start to look, but he never did. Continue reading...

My father, Donald Singer, who has died aged 67 of a cardiac arrest, was a clinical academic who worked at St George’s Hospital Medical School in London for much of his career before moving to the University of Warwick as its founding professor of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.Donald was born in Forres, north-east of Inverness, to Isabel (nee Brown), a maths teacher, and her husband, Dennis Singer, a chemistry teacher. Part of Donald’s childhood was spent with his family in Iraq and Bahrain, where his father worked for a period as a lecturer at the technical centres of Iraq Petroleum and then Bahrain Petroleum. His secondary schooling took place back in Scotland, at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, and then he did his medical training at the University of Aberdeen, where he met Fiona Carswell, a fellow student, in 1972. She became a languages teacher, and they married in 1978. Continue reading...

Parts of a 23-tonne piece of rocket will come crashing down – somewhere – in the next few daysIn the next few days, a 23-tonne piece of rocket will plummet to Earth at about 15,000 miles an hour. Much of it may burn up on re-entry, but a significant amount will not.It could land as one piece but more probably as many, scattered over an area up to several hundred miles across. Scientists have narrowed down the likely impact zone to within the latitudes of 41 degrees north and 41 degrees south, a region covering much of the US and South America, Africa, the Middle East, most of Asia, and all of Australia except the island of Tasmania. Continue reading...

Getting a good shot is tricky so here are some tips to capture a picture of the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers tonight and over the weekend

New moon will provide ideal viewing conditions for the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers this week as cosmic debris from comets enters Earth’s atmosphere, before the Perseid meteor shower’s peak in August

New moon will provide ideal viewing conditions for the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers this week as cosmic debris from comets enters Earth’s atmosphere, before the Perseid meteor shower’s peak in August

Team of experts from UK, US and Singapore to design jab to save thousands of lives by rewriting DNAScientists are to develop the world’s first cure for genetic heart conditions by rewriting DNA in a move hailed as a “defining moment” for cardiovascular medicine.A global team of experts from the UK, US and Singapore are joining forces to design a jab in the arm for patients to save thousands of lives after being awarded a £30m grant from the British Heart Foundation. Continue reading...

Wearable technology can scan a person’s insides for up to 48 hours as they go about their daily lifeA stick-on patch that can take an ultrasound scan of a person’s insides as they go about their daily life has been hailed as a revolution in medical imaging.The wearable patch, which is the size of a postage stamp, can image blood vessels, the digestive system and internal organs for up to 48 hours, giving doctors a more detailed picture of a patient’s health than the snapshots provided by routine scans. Continue reading...

Rebecca May and Jen Fritz on the menstrual problems that they and their friends have had after having coronavirus jabsI feel that some complexity has been lost in the studies that Viki Male cites in her article about vaccinations affecting menstruation (Does the Covid vaccine really affect your period? Here’s what our study found, 27 July). I had two AstraZeneca vaccine doses, in March and September last year. After each one, my period stopped completely for five months.For some women, it might be a pleasant experience to miss menstruation – unfortunately I, like many other women, have endometriosis and adenomyosis. The result was that my abdomen swelled for a year – from a 36in waist to a 52in one – and I was in constant pain. This has only now started to subside after four normal periods. Continue reading...