Science | The Guardian

The mathematician and author talks about the exploitation of our feelings, cancel culture, and why she believes JK Rowling is an example of ‘punching-down shame’Cathy O’Neil is a writer, a mathematician and author of the bestselling Weapons of Math Destruction, which won the Euler book prize. Her latest book is The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation, which looks at the ways shame is manufactured and exploited in a range of industries, including prisons, welfare systems and social media, for coercive and commercial purposes. She argues that a common intention is to shift responsibility for social problems from institutions to individuals.This is a very different book to your previous one. What made you decide to write about the subject of shame?

Group received lottery funds while promoting unproven treatmentsA British autism charity that received hundreds of thousands of pounds in national lottery funding has links to the anti-vaccine movement and is being jointly run by a campaigner who likened the Covid-19 jab rollout to a Nazi war crime.Thinking Autism also promoted unproven autism treatments in testimonials on its website and directed families to clinicians linked to the disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield, an investigation has found. Continue reading...

Most of rare isotope of helium found on mid-ocean ridges dates to big bang, providing clue to planet’s formationA rare isotope of helium, bubbling up along mid-ocean ridges, is proving to be a vital clue to our planet’s origins.Just 2kg of helium-3 – enough to fill a balloon the size of your desk – leaks out of the Earth each year. Very little of this rare isotope is produced on the Earth’s surface today, and most of it dates to the big bang, where it would have been incorporated into planets as they grew out of the dust and debris spinning around the early sun. Continue reading...

Crew of four on way to space station in mission hailed by Nasa as putting ‘commercial business up in space’A SpaceX rocket ship has blasted off carrying the first all-private astronaut team ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight hailed by industry executives and Nasa as a milestone in the commercialisation of spaceflight.The team of four selected by Houston-based startup Axiom Space Inc for its debut spaceflight and orbital science mission lifted off on Friday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Continue reading...

Supporters of climbing therapy say it can help people focus on the here and now and provide relief from the whirlwind of modern lifeWhenever he’s stressed out, physicist Forrest Sheldon likes to defy the laws of gravity. He ditches his equations and enters a vertical world. A junior fellow at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, he credits climbing with getting him out of his head. “I go to the climbing gym,” he says with a smile, “and everything melts away.”Sheldon climbs three times a week, each session clocking in at a strenuous three hours. The practice has become essential to his well-being. As he puts it: “No matter what happened today, I’ll go climbing and I’ll have fun. And I’ll feel better after.” Continue reading...

With each new find, such as the dinosaur leg recently unearthed in North Dakota, scientists build a more colourful picture of the ancient reptilesAlthough they became extinct 66m years ago, dinosaurs are always news. The latest manifestation of that is the media shower generated by the discovery of the perfectly preserved leg, including remnants of skin, of a dinosaur in North Dakota.It is suggested that this dinosaur, discovered at the Tanis fossil site, died on the very day the asteroid that caused the mass extinction of all the dinosaurs struck the Earth. It sounds almost too good to be true, but should make for a fascinating TV documentary next week, Dinosaurs: The Final Days, presented by Sir David Attenborough, naturally.Dr Dave Hone is a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, specialising in dinosaurs and pterosaurs. He blogs at Archosaur Musings, and presents the Terrible Lizards podcast. His latest book is The Future of Dinosaurs Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pathologists find what is believed to be the first evidence of the infection in the planet’s longest-lived vertebrate speciesA stranded Greenland shark found off the coast of Cornwall died from meningitis, according to a postmortem, providing what is believed to be the first evidence of the disease in the species.The 4-metre long shark, thought to be about 100 years old, was first discovered by a dog walker on 13 March on a beach near Penzance but was washed back into the sea before it could be properly examined. After a two-day search it was discovered floating in the water off Newlyn harbour beach by a tourist boat and a postmortem was carried out. Continue reading...

Gama aims to show that solar sails can revolutionise access to deep spaceThe French aerospace company Gama has raised €2m to deploy a solar sail in space.Solar sails require no engines to move. Instead, they are pushed around by the pressure of sunlight. The angle of the sail determines the direction of motion. Continue reading...

New measurement of fundamental particle of physics after decade-long study challenges theoretical rulebook in scientific ‘mystery’After a decade of meticulous measurements, scientists have announced that a fundamental particle – the W boson – has a significantly greater mass than theorised, shaking the foundations of our understanding of how the universe works.Those foundations are grounded by the standard model of particle physics, which is the best theory scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe, and what forces govern them. Continue reading...

UK research could lead to development of techniques that will stave off diseases of old agePeople could eventually be able to turn the clock back on the cell-ageing process by 30 years, according to researchers who have developed a technique for reprogramming skin cells to behave as if they are much younger.Research from the Babraham Institute, a life sciences research organisation in Cambridge, could lead to the development of techniques that will stave off the diseases of old age by restoring the function of older cells and reducing their biological age. Continue reading...

Data from UK’s Zoe Covid study confirms reports Omicron patients recover more quickly and are less likely to lose sense of smell or tastePeople who have the Omicron Covid variant tend to have symptoms for a shorter period, a lower risk of being admitted to hospital and a different set of symptoms from those who have Delta, research has suggested.As the highly transmissible Omicron variant shot to dominance towards the end of last year, it emerged that, while it is better at dodging the body’s immune responses than Delta, it also produces less severe disease. Continue reading...

Research shows people believe they are less likely to catch virus from friends and family than strangersThe presence, or even the thought, of friends and family can lull people into a false sense of security when it comes to Covid, researchers have found.Marketing experts have revealed that those who believe they previously caught Covid from a friend or family member are less likely to think they would catch it again than those who were infected by an acquaintance or stranger. Continue reading...

Remains of thescelosaurus in North Dakota believed to date back to extinction of species 66m years agoScientists believe they have been given an extraordinary view of the last day of the dinosaurs after they discovered the fossil of an animal they believe died that day.The perfectly preserved leg, which even includes remnants of the animal’s skin, can be accurately dated to the time the asteroid that brought about the dinosaurs’ extinction struck Earth 66m years ago, experts say, because of the presence of debris from the impact, which rained down only in its immediate aftermath. Continue reading...

This week, the UK expanded its official Covid symptom list to 12 symptoms including sore throat, loss of appetite, and a blocked or runny nose. British scientists have long called for a broadening of the list, but the change comes at a time when free rapid tests have been scrapped, and the UK is seeing its highest ever levels of infection, according the the Office for National Statistics.Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Linda Geddes about why this has happened now, what symptoms still haven’t made the list, and what it could all mean going forwardArchive: Sky News, Sky News Australia Continue reading...

Infection with virus also associated with fivefold increase in risk of deep vein thrombosis, data suggestsCatching Covid is associated with a fivefold increase in the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and a 33-fold increase in risk of a potentially fatal blood clot on the lung in the 30 days after becoming infected, data suggests.The findings, published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday, could help explain a doubling in the incidence of, and deaths from, blood clots in England since the start of the pandemic compared with the same periods in 2018 and 2019. Continue reading...

New technique, already available in US, could aid in development of cardiovascular drugsScientists have developed a blood test that can predict whether someone is at high risk of a heart attack, stroke, heart failure or dying from one of these conditions within the next four years.The test, which relies of measurements of proteins in the blood, has roughly twice the accuracy of existing risk scores. It could enable doctors to determine whether patients’ existing medications are working or whether they need additional drugs to reduce their risk. Continue reading...

Scientists say remains belong to pterosaurs, who lived alongside dinosaurs more than 100m years agoScientists in Chile have unearthed a rare cemetery with well-preserved bones of ancient flying reptiles that roamed the Atacama desert more than 100m years ago.The remains belong to pterosaurs, scientists determined, flying creatures that lived alongside dinosaurs and had a long wingspan and fed by filtering water through long, thin teeth, similar to flamingos. Continue reading...

The new IPCC report offers not only hope, but practical solutions. Governments that have signed off on it must now actAmid the triple crisis of the war in Ukraine, the still-raging pandemic and escalating inflation, climate scientists have just pulled off a truly impressive achievement. They have stood firm and persuaded the world’s governments to agree to a common guide to solving the climate emergency. Despite the despair of mounting global problems, the release of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows some grounds for hope.After the recent reports on the causes and effects of climate change, this one covers solutions – with a summary signed off by the world’s governments. The summary is blunt and clear, and in many places acknowledges realities that scientists and campaigners have known for years but governments often avoided directly admitting.Simon Lewis is professor of global change science at University College London and University of Leeds Continue reading...

Particles discovered in tissue of 11 out of 13 patients undergoing surgery, with polypropylene and PET most commonMicroplastic pollution has been discovered lodged deep in the lungs of living people for the first time. The particles were found in almost all the samples analysed.The scientists said microplastic pollution was now ubiquitous across the planet, making human exposure unavoidable and meaning “there is an increasing concern regarding the hazards” to health. Continue reading...

Softly-spoken public servant who became a household name says the role had been challenging and complex

Professor theorises electrical impulses sent by mycological organisms could be similar to human languageBuried in forest litter or sprouting from trees, fungi might give the impression of being silent and relatively self-contained organisms, but a new study suggests they may be champignon communicators.Mathematical analysis of the electrical signals fungi seemingly send to one another has identified patterns that bear a striking structural similarity to human speech. Continue reading...

Infections have been rising in England since early March, driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant

Sessions with virtual-reality headset helped people overcome anxiety and complete everyday tasksIt’s a sunny day on a city street as a green bus pulls up by the kerb. Onboard, a handful of passengers sit stony-faced as you step up to present your pass. But you cannot see your body – only a floating pair of blue hands.It might sound like a bizarre dream, but the scenario is part of a virtual reality (VR) system designed to help people with agoraphobia – those for whom certain environments, situations and interactions can cause intense fear and distress. Continue reading...

Alan Walker calls on the media to keep the death toll in the public eye as the pandemic is not over, Marcia Heinemann is relieved that the official symptom list has been expanded and Jonathan Hauxwell is concerned about the lack of free testsAdrian Chiles invites us to “pick your personal gripe about the state of the world” (When the same awful thing happens often enough, it ceases to be newsworthy – and that is a big problem, 30 March). Mine is the failure of most of broadcast and print media to report the continuing death toll from Covid. This plays into the hands of libertarians who care little about public health, still less about the hugely unequal distribution of those deaths, and fuels the myth that Covid is just another virus that we have to live with.Chiles’s distinction between “interesting” as the basis for what is newsworthy rather than “important” is spot-on. But he omits examples of dogged journalism that do keep a story alive precisely because it is important, such as Amelia Gentleman’s outstanding work on the Windrush scandal. I hope that someone of her calibre takes up the Covid death toll and keeps it in the public eye. Last week it was over 1,000. Covid has definitely not gone away.

Seminal works left in pink gift bag with ‘happy Easter’ note for librarian after going missing in 2001The plot was worthy of a Dan Brown thriller – two Charles Darwin manuscripts worth millions of pounds reported as stolen from Cambridge University library after being missing for two decades.The disappearance prompted a worldwide appeal with the help of the local police force and Interpol. Now, in a peculiar twist, the notebooks – one of which contains Darwin’s seminal 1837 Tree of Life Sketch – have been anonymously returned in a pink gift bag, with a typed note on an envelope wishing a happy Easter to the librarian. Continue reading...

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Great Britain brought in emergency legal orders to allow a ‘pills by post’ abortion service. For abortions within the first 10 weeks, women were able to take the two tablets needed to end a pregnancy in the privacy of their own home rather than having to take the first at a clinic or hospital. The scheme was due to be scrapped in September 2022, but last week MPs voted to keep it in England. Wales will also be making it permanent.Madeleine Finlay spoke to Dr Abigail Aiken about her study looking at the outcomes of self-managed medical abortions during the pandemic, the benefits of taking abortion pills at home, and whether ‘Plan C’ could ever become available in shops and pharmaciesArchive: BBC Parliament, CBS 8 San Diego Continue reading...

Associate Prof Alan Pearce says he signed a $60,000 contract with league for tests on retired players but believes the AFL hindered his research’s progress for nearly 18 months

Observers believe AB Aurigae b is at the earliest stage of formation ever observed for a gas giant, and isn’t forming the way planets usually doScientists have observed an enormous planet about nine times the mass of Jupiter at a remarkably early stage of formation – describing it as still in the womb – in a discovery that challenges the current understanding of planetary formation.The researchers used the Subaru telescope, near the summit of an inactive Hawaiian volcano, and the orbiting Hubble space telescope to detect and study the planet called AB Aurigae b, a gas giant orbiting unusually far from its young host star. Gas giants are planets, like our solar system’s largest ones Jupiter and Saturn, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with swirling gases surrounding a smaller solid core. Continue reading...

This pandemic and future pandemic threats will remain challenging – New Zealand needs to build on its achievementsTwo weeks ago marked the two-year anniversary of New Zealand’s adoption of the elimination strategy and a lockdown that successfully stamped out the first wave of Covid-19. By chance, it was also the week that the government announced a major relaxation of Covid-19 control measures in response to the Omicron variant wave sweeping the country.By most metrics, the New Zealand Covid-19 response – the initial elimination strategy which has now transitioned to a mitigation strategy – has been one of the most successful in the world. It got the country through the first 18 months of the pandemic until vaccines became widely available, giving it very low Covid-19 mortality rates. Life expectancy actually increased during this period. Protecting public health has also been good for protecting the economy, resulting in relatively good economic growth and low unemployment.Prof Michael Baker and Prof Nick Wilson are epidemiologists at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health in Wellington Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following six problems, created by The Grabarchuk family, who are from Ukraine, and who are well-known international creators of puzzles. For more about them see the previous post.I’ve presented the problems together, with the solutions together at the end. Continue reading...

Evidence linking Alzheimer’s to disruption in the brain’s immune system is hailed as ‘enormous clue’The largest genetic study of Alzheimer’s to date has provided compelling evidence linking the disease to disruption in the brain’s immune system.The study, using the genomes of 100,000 people with Alzheimer’s and 600,000 healthy people, identified 75 genes linked to an increased risk of the disease, including 42 that had not previously been implicated. Continue reading...

Growing numbers of wealthy people are turning to science to create copies of their beloved dog or cat. But they might not be identical in every wayName: Pet cloning.Age: 21. Continue reading...

Fun for you, craniumUPDATE: Read the solutions hereToday’s puzzles are all about helping Ukraine.They are written by the Grabarchuk family, who are one of the world’s most original and prolific puzzle creators. Originally from the Western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod, on the Slovakian border, the family moved to the USA in 2013 on the back of becoming internationally renowned for their puzzle books, websites and apps. Computer science legend Donald Knuth says that Serhiy Grabarchuk, the father of the clan, “has my vote as the world’s current puzzle laureate. His works are particularly beautiful, instructive and fulfilling.” Continue reading...

Damage evaluated as minor, but fractures to the rims of several prints cannot be repaired at the Mill Canyon track siteThey survived intact for 112m years through scorching summer heat and freezing winters at Utah’s Mill Canyon. But several of the world’s most important and historic dinosaur footprints were damaged beyond repair earlier this year when a construction crew arrived to build a new boardwalk for tourists.The extent of the harm to the footprints – and those of an ancient crocodile crossing in the canyon near Moab – was detailed in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report into the January incident published last week. Continue reading...

Extremely close planetary pairing rises above horizon at dawnOne of the perennial fascinations with the night sky is that the planets are always changing their configuration against the backdrop of fixed constellations. Occasionally, however, this proves frustrating.Such is the case at the moment in the higher northern latitudes, where the naked-eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) are all skulking low in the sky. This makes observing them difficult but not impossible and so we will begin and end this month with two close planetary conjunctions that are worth the effort. Continue reading...

Nobody could read my writing but, desperate to conjure another world, I eventually became an authorStories for me have always been an escape. At first it was those written by other people – I slid into them when things in the real world became overwhelming. I can map my childhood through The Secret Garden via A Town Like Alice. As a dyslexic child who struggled to read, I listened endlessly to story tapes from the library, and my tastes were dictated by what was available.I used the story tapes to block out the small unhappinesses of my life – my loneliness at school, my mother’s long illness. She was one of the first sufferers of ME and for years struggled with exhaustion and depression, plotting her energy levels and despair on graphs, visiting doctor after doctor with increasing desperation. My father, tired himself from a full-time job, often had to look after three angry and confused children. It’s only decades later, as a mother myself, that I can begin to understand how difficult that time must have been for both of them. Continue reading...

ExoMars mission, of which the £840m British-built vehicle was part, depended on a Russian Proton rocketIt has cost £840m to develop and taken 15 years to build. But now fears are mounting that the British-built robot rover – which was to have flown on Europe’s ExoMars mission in September – may never make it to the red planet.The craft was to have drilled deep below the Martian surface to collect samples that could bear signs of past or present life, but had its launch on a giant Russian Proton rocket postponed last month after the invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Centre established in London with philanthropic donation to exploit promising new techniquesScientists are perfecting a new anti-cancer treatment that exploits the body’s own cellular waste disposal system. Some drugs are already producing promising results, and the number of new medicines is expected to rise in the near future with the opening of a British centre dedicated to using the technique.Fifteen researchers will work at the Centre for Protein Degradation which has been set up through a £9m donation to the Institute of Cancer Research, in London, by philanthropists David and Ruth Hill. Continue reading...

Whether it’s about Covid or badger culls, the science can be unclear. But the public must hear about it from the researchers not government press officersTwenty years ago, when I set up the Science Media Centre, researchers were notably absent from the nation’s airwaves. Frenzies about Frankenstein foods, designer babies and MMR may have gripped the media but most scientists put their heads down and tried to avoid controversy. The price was the British public’s rejection of GM technologies and levels of MMR vaccinations that dropped to a dangerous low.Today, researchers recognise it is not enough just to do great science – they must also communicate its implications. As a result, the UK now gets most of its science news directly from the best researchers, translated by our outstanding science correspondents. Continue reading...

Ruth Wilson is mesmerising as an unhappy benefits officer who develops an unhealthy attraction to a charismatic stranger in Harry Wootliff’s assured psychological dramaAfter her wonderfully engrossing feature debut, Only You, writer-director Harry Wootliff turns to a rather more toxic relationship, balancing elements of romantic melodrama and psychological thriller in a film powered by modern gothic passions. Loosely adapted from Deborah Kay Davies’s book True Things About Me, it’s a disturbingly seductive (and often unexpectedly funny) portrayal of manipulation and deceit that gets right under the skin of its protagonist, brilliantly played by Ruth Wilson, who walks a tightrope between enchantment and endangerment. With great physical poise and precision, Wilson (who optioned and developed the source book) engages the audience on a visceral level, her deceptively low-key performance taking us deep inside her character’s dreams, desires and insecurities.Wilson plays Kate, a somewhat tremulous thirtysomething daydreamer whose personal life has stalled and who is just about holding down a humdrum job at a benefits office in Ramsgate. When a charismatic claimant (Tom Burke) cockily asks what she’s doing for lunch, Kate flirtatiously throws caution to the wind and soon finds herself in an unexpectedly erotic car-park encounter that is as thrilling as it is risky. Like Kate, we know little or nothing about her mesmerising new lover, whom she names Blond, but whose particulars (his history, his status, even his whereabouts) remain enigmatically vague. What we do know is that Kate becomes instantly addicted to his pointedly unpredictable attentions, craving his calls and his company, infatuated with his presence – all the more so in his frustratingly frequent absence. Continue reading...

Daily case numbers are some of the largest seen in China since the virus was first detected in WuhanCovid-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai have risen again as millions remain isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown.Health officials on Sunday reported 438 confirmed cases detected over the previous 24 hours, along with 7,788 asymptomatic cases. Both figures were up slightly from the day before. Continue reading...

I’m 23 and have been seriously ill for a year. Why don’t we spend more on treating this debilitating disease?Britain’s next public health crisis is already looming: long Covid. The numbers are stark. According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.5 million people in the UK have long Covid, 281,000 of whom are so ill that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities has been limited “a lot”. That’s roughly the population of Bradford.I know first hand how debilitating long Covid can be. I’m only 23. Before Covid struck, I had just graduated from Stanford University and was halfway through a master’s degree at Tsinghua University, Beijing, as a Schwarzman scholar. However, I’ve been seriously ill for a full year. My main symptom has been an intense fatigue that has forced me to spend up to 16 hours a day in bed and, when I do get up, I can’t do any strenuous activity without my symptoms worsening. Long Covid has put my life almost completely on hold. Continue reading...

From the scary to the truly weird, our nights were full of apt visions in the early days of the pandemic, a study at University College London found

Analysis: Scientists think we may be reaching a peak, but many cases will go undiagnosed

Kanye West and Lorde say they are HSPs. What’s the science behind this newly popular label for understanding our ability to process feelings?Do you find yourself noticing faint sensations that no one else can perceive? Are you startled easily? And is your mood easily swayed by the feelings of the people around you? If so, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP), a personality profile that is of increasing interest to both scientists and armchair psychologists.As an HSP myself, the trait is most obvious in my embarrassing squeamishness; at the merest hint of violence or pain on TV, I will reflexively cover my eyes with my hands. For other HSPs, their greater sensitivity may be especially evident in an intolerance of strong scents or bright lights, or great discomfort in large crowds.Do you find yourself needing to withdraw during busy days, into bed or into a darkened room or any place where you can have some privacy and relief from stimulation?When people are uncomfortable in a physical environment do you tend to know what needs to be done to make it more comfortable (such as changing the lighting or the seating)?Do you find it unpleasant to have a lot going on at once?Does being very hungry create a strong reaction in you, disrupting your concentration or mood?Are you deeply moved by the arts or music?David Robson’s The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life is published by Canongate (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...

Director of space agency Roscosmos says partnership will be restored only when ‘illegal sanctions’ are removed

Study into health and behaviour, which began in New Zealand in 1972, marks its half century this week as its subjects prepare for old ageIn 1972, a researcher in a small city at the bottom of New Zealand set out to track the development of more than 1,000 newborn babies and their health and behaviour at age three, not realising then that over the next 50 years, the research would morph into one of the world’s most important longitudinal studies.The study did not stop at three years, instead it gathered pace, following the lives of the participants from birth into adulthood, and creating a comprehensive body of data that has yielded more than 1,300 peer-reviewed research papers, reports and books. Continue reading...

Ease into the weekend with our brand new podcast, showcasing some of the best Guardian and Observer writing from the week, read by talented narrators.In this episode, Marina Hyde looks at the new additions to Downing Street (2m00s), Hadley Freeman interviews Hollywood actor Will Arnett (9m56s), Sirin Kale tries her hand at quiz show Mastermind (26m32s), and David Robson examines why we’re so stressed about stress (41m08s).If you like what you hear, subscribe to Weekend on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Continue reading...

Researcher who co-created substance says it is not an April fool’s joke and they hope to deploy it like a robot

Scientists have created a magnetic slime that is capable of squeezing through narrow spaces, encircling smaller objects and healing itself. The slime can be controlled by magnets and can act as both a solid and a liquid.The dark blob has been compared on social media to Flubber, the eponymous substance in the 1997 sci-fi film, and described as a 'magnetic turd' and 'amazing and a tiny bit terrifying'. The scientists envisage the slime could potentially be useful in the digestive system, for example in reducing the harm from a small swallowed battery.► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube