When the city was a world centre of mathematical thoughtUPDATE: The solutions can be read hereLike many of you I’ve hardly been able to think about anything else these past ten days apart from the war in Ukraine. So today’s puzzles are a celebration of Lviv, Ukraine’s western city, which played an important role in the history of 20th century mathematics. During the 1930s, a remarkable group of scholars came up with new ideas, methods and theorems that helped shape the subject for decades.The Lwów school of mathematics – at that time, the city was in Poland – was a closely-knit circle of Polish mathematicians, including Stefan Banach, Stanisław Ulam and Hugo Steinhaus, who made important contributions to areas including set-theory, topology and analysis. Continue reading...

Having worked as an architect and photographer, run a bookshop and brought up four children, Bryony Harris has always sought new challenges. But becoming a therapist, she says, felt like coming homeAt 65, Bryony Harris withdrew her pension in a lump sum and enrolled on a psychotherapy course. “I like that I used my pension to train for a new career,” she says. Now, at 74, she has a thriving psychotherapy practice in Fredrikstad, Norway. “I just knew it was the right time, and I felt equipped to do it. It was the very best thing I ever did for myself.”The four-year course was on the coast of Denmark, where for a week a month Harris was “among sand dunes with this amazing empty wild beach right outside”. To get there, Harris drove for five hours through southern Norway. “It always felt like coming home,” she says. “I was a sponge, soaking up this stuff.”Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60? Continue reading...

Prepare yourself for the challenge of seeing the planet with naked eyes in NovemberFor the second month in a row, we’re going to use the moon as a signpost as we limber up for the big November challenge of seeing planet Uranus with our naked eyes.The chart shows the view looking west-south-west from London at 1930 GMT on 7 March 2022. The moon will be a waxing crescent with just 26% of its visible surface illuminated. Continue reading...

Those with a positive attitude to life may lower their anxiety levels by avoiding argumentsPeople who have a rosy outlook on the world may live healthier, longer lives because they have fewer stressful events to cope with, new research suggests.Scientists found that while optimists reacted to, and recovered from, stressful situations in much the same way as pessimists, the optimists fared better emotionally because they had fewer stressful events in their daily lives. Continue reading...

Our ideas about males and females are wildly out of date, says zoologist Lucy Cooke. Here, she reveals some radical truths about the birds, the bees… and the bonobosLondon Zoo at half-term is a cheerful cacophony with blue macaws out-screaming six-year-olds, but in the relative calm of the lush spider “walkthrough” exhibit (apologies, arachnophobes), Lucy Cooke is happily absorbed. “Let’s see if we can see a big predatory female,” she says. We can: a gorgeously colourful golden orb weaver sits in the centre of her vast gold-tinted web, 125 times bigger than her tiny mate. “I didn’t realise that the majority of spiders are sexual cannibals, that the big spiders in the middle of webs were always female; males are basically wandering useless sacks of sperm,” Cooke says loudly in earshot of several harried-looking human fathers.This is a very Lucy Cooke observation: uncensored, pithily expressed and startlingly informative. There is plenty more of that in her new book, Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution & the Female Animal, a dazzling, funny and elegantly angry demolition of our preconceptions about female behaviour and sex in the animal kingdom (queendom?). Continue reading...

A devastating fire in my studio forced me to approach painting and life in a new wayTwo weeks before the first lockdown I was in my studio putting the finishing touches to my most ambitious body of paintings to date. The studio was packed with hundreds of works of art. For the past four years I had been working with the Syrian writer Professor Ali Souleman and the documentary filmmaker Mark Jones. Ali lost his sight in a bomb blast in Syria in 1997 and we had been attempting to translate his experiences of war and displacement into a collection of paintings – to make the unseen seen. Ali and Mark were coming the very next day for an unveiling. The studio was overstuffed, no pause or resting place for the eye anywhere. It was, in hindsight, a self-portrait of a restless mind.I’ve always been driven by obsessive-compulsive tendencies: counting and control, endless tinkering, seeking a never-coming calm. A patch of work caught my eye. Could it be a bit more darkened and burnt? I felt an itch behind my eyelid, a twitching fidget. I should have waited until I could move the boxes. I couldn’t wait. I switched on the blowtorch and passed it over the surface. It would only take a moment. A moment was all it took. Continue reading...

A new generation of detectors will be many times better at tracking discharges of the dangerous greenhouse gasLast month, scientists working with data from Tropomi, a monitoring instrument onboard the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite, published some startling findings. Writing in the journal Science, the team reported that it had found about 1,800 instances of huge releases of methane (more than 25 tonnes an hour) into the atmosphere in 2019 and 2020. Two-thirds of these were from oil and gas facilities, with the leaks concentrated over the largest oil and gas basins across the world, as well as major transmission pipelines, the team said.Launched in 2017, Tropomi has been a huge step forward for scientists researching methane, being the first instrument in space that can see plumes of methane emissions directly, says Lena Höglund-Isaksson, a methane researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis . For example, the instrument led to the discovery of huge methane leaks in Turkmenistan that researchers were not aware of before, she says. Continue reading...

The US psychology professor talks about her new book on the experience of losing a loved one and the lessons we can learnMary-Frances O’Connor is an associate professor at the University of Arizona, where she leads the grief, loss and social stress (Glass) lab, investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body.Why do humans grieve? One of the earliest things that we learn is that we’re all going to die, so when it happens, why is it such a shock?

Zolgensma is a revolutionary gene therapy that can stop a deadly childhood condition called SMA in its tracks. It’s also one of the most expensive drugs in the worldElizabeth Wraige remembers the first time she delivered the diagnosis. “Parents feel as if they’ve been hit by a sledgehammer,” she says. Her patient, a baby boy, had been born tiny and perfect to overjoyed parents six months earlier. But they had begun to feel something was not right. He seemed floppy and was not moving normally. Tests showed he had spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the most deadly genetic condition in children under two, in which a deficit of a crucial protein causes motor neurons to die, and the body slowly loses the ability to move. Babies with untreated type 1 SMA, the most severe form, will never sit, crawl or speak and are slowly robbed of the ability to move, swallow and breathe. Most die before they are two.“In that conversation, any hope that it was something that could be remedied was taken away,” says Wraige, a paediatric neurologist at Evelina London children’s hospital. “It was devastation.” She could offer only one shred of consolation: SMA, an incurable condition that affects one in 6,000-10,000 children, is at least not painful.Arnaud Robert and Paolo Woods write: Zach, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, was born with SMA, and given Zolgensma in October 2019, when he was eight months old. His father’s trucking union funded the millions needed. Zach also takes a daily medication. Continue reading...

Our features have been obscured by masks, or viewed on screens, for months. We may never look at ourselves in the same way again, writes novelist Ruth OzekiLast April, I ran into a neighbour on the street. This was not a person I knew well, just someone I used to see from my window, walking masked around the neighbourhood during that first locked-down winter of the pandemic. But by spring 2021, the dangers seemed to be subsiding. People in our Massachusetts town were vaccinated and venturing outside unmasked, happy to stop and chat with anyone. It was a beautiful morning; the sunlight remaking the world so that everything looked a bit too bright and clear, as if racked into sudden and unsettling focus. And there was something unsettling about my neighbour, too. We were laughing and swapping lockdown stories, enjoying the in-person, face-to-face communion, when suddenly it struck me that it had been over a year since I’d seen a mouth belonging to someone other than my husband operating at close range.As mouths go, this one was quite ordinary, and a year earlier, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But masking had defamiliarised mouths, turning them into something strange. This mouth was so brazenly red, its lips rubbery and wet. Inside it, I could see teeth, gums, even a tongue, and all these parts were moving. The mouth did not look like it should belong to the man’s face; it was a body part, an orifice too intimate to be on display. I couldn’t stop staring. Continue reading...

Psychologists advise having age-appropriate conversations about nuclear weapons and staying optimistic

Study of UK adults shows negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drinkCutting back on the final drink of the evening could substantially improve brain health, scientists have said.A major study of more than 36,000 adults suggests that the negative effects of alcohol consumption grow stronger with each additional drink. So those who drink several units each day potentially have the most to gain by reducing their drinking. Continue reading...

Most academics back research boycott but ‘there is a case for maintaining ties’, says Oxford professor

Researchers tap into self-regulatory methods such as setting goals and keeping a diarySetting daily meat reduction goals and keeping an online diary of intake helped frequent meat eaters to halve their consumption in just over nine weeks, a trial has found.The trial, by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Livestock, Environment and People (Leap) programme, also found the routine was popular with participants, who felt it supported them to change their diet. Continue reading...

Seven-step process to enable segments to work as a single mirror nears halfway pointNasa has completed three of the seven stages to bring the 18 hexagonal segments of the James Webb space telescope’s primary mirror into alignment.On 25 February, Nasa announced that the mirror segments were in place and their individual images stacking together. This means the separate images produced by the segments have been united to form a single image. Continue reading...

Description of ingredient as ‘ocean fish’ means owners are unwittingly giving their pets vulnerable species for dinnerPet food containing endangered sharks is being fed to cats and dogs by unwitting owners, a study has revealed.Scientists found that several brands contained endangered species but listed only vague ingredients such as “ocean fish”, meaning that consumers are often oblivious. Continue reading...

Imagine! Selling the moon!

Bashanosaurus is thought to have lived about 168m years ago, according to study of fossils found in ChinaA dinosaur that sported spine-like plates along its back is one of the earliest stegosaurs yet discovered, fossil hunters have revealed, and they say the find could shed light on the evolution of some of the most famous dinosaurs to roam Earth.The stegosaur, which has been named Bashanosaurus primitivus in a nod to the ancient name of the region in China in which it was found in 2016 and its position on the stegosaur family tree, is thought to have lived about 168m years ago. Continue reading...

Rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can reduce risk of death from severe Covid by about a fifth

Spent rocket body believed to be part of Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission expected to hit lunar surface at 5,500mphIn an unprecedented display of cosmic littering, a wayward rocket body will crash into the far side of the moon on Friday marking the first time that a piece of space junk has accidentally struck the lunar surface.The spent rocket booster, believed to be part of the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission which swung around the moon in 2014, is predicted to slam into the Hertzsprung crater at 12.25pm GMT, though the precise time and location are unclear. Continue reading...

After years in the wilderness, fungi are finally getting the attention they deserve from gardeners, scientists, designers and doctorsJoe Perkins, like most gardeners, has typically been more animated by what’s going on above the ground than below it. The quality of the soil was important, no question, but what was really going on down there felt mysterious and impenetrable. As for fungi, it usually meant one thing in a garden, and that wasn’t good news.“On a domestic level, our relationship and understanding of fungi in the past has very much been that it’s something about decay, it’s about disease, and it’s something that we don’t particularly want in our gardens,” says Perkins, a 45-year-old landscape architect based in Sussex, who won three awards at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2019. “It’s fair to say that, as gardeners, we’ve not always fully understood – and I still don’t – the importance of these systems.” Continue reading...

As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, gas prices remain high around the world. Europe is dependent on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas supplies, and despite the expansion of renewable energy over the past two decades, that dependency is increasing as countries shift to gas from dirtier coal. Putin’s attack on Ukraine has put this reliance into sharp focus as Europe considers how to respond.Madeleine Finlay speaks to our environment correspondent Fiona Harvey about how Putin has weaponised Russia’s fossil fuels, and how Europe could reshape its energy supplies for the future Continue reading...

This prolonged state of hypervigilance can be exhausting. Self-compassion is crucial – as is taking time away from doom-scrolling to stay connected to others and move your bodyWe can survive almost anything if we know it has an endpoint.Struggles that seem to stretch limitlessly into the distance hit harder. Ceaseless uncertainty can chip away at resilience. Continue reading...

Once the novelty of a 3D tour inside a patient’s frozen shoulder has worn off, this is a tedious show that doesn’t even bother to ask key questionsSocial media is currently infested with people professing to be “empaths” who are suffering cruelly (with no apparent discount for it being remotely and, uh, imaginatively) through the crisis in Ukraine. It is sickening to watch, not least because it clothes narcissism in one of humanity’s finer qualities. The ability to put oneself in another’s shoes and stand there, looking out alertly and intelligently from that point of view, marks us out from the beasts as surely as language.The ability to empathise on camera without appearing inauthentic and being emetic is a refinement of such a gift, and one without which many human interest programmes become unwatchable. That Your Body Uncovered With Kate Garraway (BBC Two) succeeds at all is down to her genuine interest in people and ability to say the right thing with the right degree of sentiment. The whole thing is heightened, of course, by the knowledge of what she is going through at home, caring for her husband Derek Draper. He has been incapacitated – possibly long-term – by the after-effects of Covid and, as she put it in a recent interview, she has been learning to love him in a different way. Continue reading...

Once the novelty of a 3D tour inside a patient’s frozen shoulder has worn off, this is a tedious show that doesn’t even bother to ask key questionsSocial media is currently infested with people professing to be “empaths” who are suffering cruelly (with no apparent discount for it being remotely and, uh, imaginatively) through the crisis in Ukraine. It is sickening to watch, not least because it clothes narcissism in one of humanity’s finer qualities. The ability to put oneself in another’s shoes and stand there, looking out alertly and intelligently from that point of view, marks us out from the beasts as surely as language.The ability to empathise on camera without appearing inauthentic and being emetic is a refinement of such a gift, and one without which many human interest programmes become unwatchable. That Your Body Uncovered With Kate Garraway (BBC Two) succeeds at all is down to her genuine interest in people and ability to say the right thing with the right degree of sentiment. The whole thing is heightened, of course, by the knowledge of what she is going through at home, caring for her husband Derek Draper. He has been incapacitated – possibly long-term – by the after-effects of Covid and, as she put it in a recent interview, she has been learning to love him in a different way. Continue reading...

Space junk to smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800mph on Friday and it may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impactThe moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semi-tractor-trailers.The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800mph (9,300km/h) on Friday, away from telescopes’ prying eyes. It may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images. Continue reading...

Experts hope research can lead to development of drugs that stop people catching Covid or passing it on

Dr Megan Mooney is suing Texas governor Greg Abbott to stop his classification of gender-affirming care as ‘child abuse’On 22 February, the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and state attorney general, Ken Paxton, released guidance to the state’s child protection services (CPS) classifying the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender adolescents as child abuse. The guidance threatened criminal penalties for licensed professionals, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, who fail to report suspicions of such “abuse” to the state. The policy’s implementation would also mean potentially removing trans kids from supportive parents and putting them in the state’s foster system.Considered the standard of care for transgender youth by the major medical associations in the US, gender-affirming care can include medical interventions such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies. (US medical guidelines do not recommend genital surgeries for youth under 18.) Continue reading...

Change in screening programme could come as result of dramatic reductions in cervical cancerThe HPV vaccine is leading to such dramatic reductions in cervical cancer that those who receive it may only need one smear test in their lives, according to a leading cancer prevention scientist.The academic director of King’s Clinical Trials Unit, Prof Peter Sasieni, said the screening programme – which currently needs to be performed every three to five years – could soon change due to the encouraging results from the new HPV vaccine. Continue reading...

Researchers have a new view of HR 6819: two stars, one of them a ‘vampire’Astronomers who thought they had discovered a black hole on our cosmic doorstep have said they were mistaken, instead revealing they have found a two-star system involving a stellar “vampire”.The system, known as HR 6819 in the constellation Telescopium, was in the headlines in 2020 when researchers announced it contained a black hole. At just 1,000 light years from Earth, it was the closest yet found to our planet. Continue reading...

Recent experiments highlight potential of some rocks to lock in more carbon than previously thoughtIn the not too distant future we’re probably going to have to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to address the climate emergency. Most carbon capture and storage methods involve injecting gaseous or dissolved carbon dioxide into underground reservoirs, but there is always a niggling worry that it could leak out again. The alternative is carbon mineralisation: a chemical reaction where the carbon from carbon dioxide is locked into a mineral.Carbon mineralisation happens naturally during rock weathering and stores carbon safely for thousands of years, but until now its potential was thought to be limited because mineralisation clogs up the pores in a rock, blocking entry and preventing further reactions. However, recent experiments indicate that in some rocks (such as olivine) the crystals created during the process of mineralisation expand the rock and force new cracks to appear, which create fresh surfaces and enhance the rock’s carbon storage capacity. Continue reading...

The study of fossils and prehistoric species is exploitative of local communities, says international teamThe public image of palaeontologists as dusty, but rather affable academics, could be due an update. The study of ancient life is a hotbed of unethical and inequitable scientific practices rooted in colonialism, which strip poorer countries of their fossil heritage, and devalue the contributions of local researchers, scientists say.Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, an international team of palaeontologists argue that there has been a steady drain of plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric spiders, and other fossils from poorer countries into foreign repositories or local private collections – despite laws and regulations introduced to try to conserve their heritage. Continue reading...

Frontline NHS staff will no longer require vaccination as Sajid Javid also drops requirement for care workersMandatory Covid jabs for health and social care workers in England will be scrapped on 15 March, Sajid Javid has said, as he confirmed staff will no longer be required by law to get vaccinated.The rules came into force for care home staff in November, and had been due to be introduced for frontline NHS and wider social care staff in regulated settings from 1 April. Continue reading...

A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has given humanity a stark warning: without immediate and rapid action on climate breakdown, a liveable and sustainable future for all is at risk. The assessment, which is based on 34,000 studies, documents the ‘widespread and pervasive’ impacts on people and the natural world, and analyses how humanity can adapt.It also offers a small piece of good news – a liveable future remains within grasp. But the window of opportunity for action is ‘brief and rapidly closing’. Ian Sample speaks to environment editor Damian Carrington about the IPCC’s findings and how fast humanity needs to actArchive: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Continue reading...

Space agency says Northrop Grumman and SpaceX could assist after Russia raises prospect of pulling out over sanctions punishing its invasion of Ukraine

Experts say there is enough variation in samples to argue there was also a Tyrannosaurus imperator and a reginaWith its immense size, dagger-like teeth and sharp claws, Tyrannosaurus rex was a fearsome predator that once terrorised North America. Now researchers studying its fossils have suggested the beast may not have been the only tyrannosaurus species.Experts studying remains thought to belong to T rex have suggested their variation shows evidence of not one species but three. Continue reading...

Researchers say it is unlikely that the variant found in deer could bypass vaccines, but urge better monitoring of Covid in animalsCanadian researchers believe they have found the first-ever instance of a deer passing the coronavirus to a human, warning that broader surveillance of wildlife is needed to prevent further mutations from developing and spreading undetected.In a paper published last week, but not yet peer reviewed, scientists say at least one case of Covid-19 in humans can be traced to a strain of the virus found in hunted deer. Continue reading...

Gemini constellation is well placed at this time of year from northern hemisphereThe constellation of Gemini, the twins, is well placed at this time of year from the northern hemisphere. It sits to the south-west of Orion, the hunter, in-between Cancer, the crab, and Auriga, the charioteer.The chart shows the view looking south from London at 2100 GMT on Monday night. Continue reading...

PTSD can untether a person from a stable sense of self. Treatment is all about gaining acceptance of the fragility and unpredictability of life

Groundbreaking findings by Australian Sports Brain Bank reveal prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, including in younger players

HS2 may have been controversial, but it has also given rise to the biggest archaeological excavation in British history. With more than 100 digs, entire lost towns have been unearthed along the route – radically changing our understanding of the ancient pastThe green fields and woods of rural Northamptonshire look as apparently immutable as much of the British countryside. Next to the remote farm of Blackgrounds, however, a thin layer of innocuous green pasture has been peeled back. Below the surface is revealed a cobbled Roman road, walls, wells, pathways and shops: a bustling, prosperous international settlement long lost to memory.The town, its people and stories are emerging because it is part of the biggest-ever archaeological excavation in British history. It is one of more than 100 digs and investigations along the 134 miles of the HS2 high-speed rail route being built between London and Birmingham. Part of £900m of “enabling works” for the much-criticised project. Continue reading...

Projects in jeopardy as EU revokes millions in grant offers after failure of trade talksBritish science is facing the threat of a highly damaging brain drain that could see scores of top young researchers leaving the UK. In addition, the futures of several major British-led international projects are also now in jeopardy following a delay in funding by the European Union.Senior scientists say the UK’s scientific standing is at serious risk while others have warned that major programmes – including medical projects aimed at tackling global scourges such as malaria – face cancellation. Continue reading...

Eerie photographs recovered from the 1857 wreck of the SS Central America are now being published for the first timeIt is one of the most famous treasure wrecks ever discovered, a steamer named the “ship of gold” after it sank in 1857 off the coast of South Carolina with one of the largest cargoes of gold ever lost at sea. Miners who had struck it rich in the California gold rush were among those bringing home to New York their hard-earned wealth, only to lose their lives when the SS Central America was struck by a hurricane, sinking nearly a mile and a half beneath the waves.When nuggets, ingots and coins were recovered from the seabed in various expeditions between 1988 and 2014, the world was dazzled. But, with reported values of tens of millions of pounds, it sparked a complex legal case that landed its original treasure-hunter in jail. Continue reading...

Making sure adults and older children are vaccinated, as well as mask wearing and social distancing, is the best thing to do if worried about under-fives not being eligible, expert says

For four extraordinary people, superpowers are not beyond the imagination – they are an ordinary reality that they smell, remember and see every dayYou can read the original articles here:‘It’s awful to be a medical exception’: the woman who cannot forget Continue reading...

The goal of a universal vaccine would have seemed a fantasy only a few years ago. But not now…This week the government announced additional vaccine booster jabs for the over-75s and suggested a further shot is likely to be needed in the autumn. But imagine if the next Covid vaccine jab you have were the last you would ever need. That’s a dream being actively pursued now by researchers, who feel it could be possible to make a “universal” vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that would work well not only against all existing variants but any that the virus could plausibly mutate into in the future.Some are thinking even bigger. In January, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and two other experts called for more research into “universal coronavirus vaccines” that would work not only against Sars-CoV-2 but against the many other coronaviruses in animal populations that have the potential to spill over into humans and cause future pandemics. “We need a research approach that can characterise the global ‘coronaviral universe’ in multiple species,” Fauci and colleagues wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, “and apply this information in developing broadly protective ‘universal’ vaccines against all [coronaviruses].” Continue reading...

Marianna Spring tackles Covid misinformation; Wendy Zukerman and Rose Rimler take Joe Rogan apart; and FunKids goes boldly and delightfully into spaceDeath by Conspiracy? (BBC Radio 4) | BBC SoundsScience Vs: Joe Rogan: The Malone Interview | Gimlet Media Continue reading...

Whether it’s making a heroine’s costume or using a traditional fabric, stitching garments can guide us in lifeIt was because of the movie Labyrinth that I learned to sew.When Jennifer Connelly’s character recites the monologue that I would, in turn, recite endlessly to an audience of Vermont pine (“My will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great”), she is wearing a loose, cream-coloured blouse with ample, pleated sleeves. Her costume marks her as a heroine, on a heroine’s quest. I had never seen anything so captivating. With the adamantine will and romantic imagination of an eight-year-old, I vowed not to rest until I could wear this most beautiful of all garments. Continue reading...

As we slowly rediscover a world of bad wifi and slow lifts, the US Office writer and creator of Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine explains why he can’t wait to get backOne of the first things we knew back in early 2020 was that we wouldn’t be going to work for a while. We thought that we would take a quick break – a week, maybe – and then reassess. So we cleaned out our cubicles and desks, and grabbed a few snacks from the kitchen (and toilet paper from the bathroom). One week became two, which became a month, which became a series of question marks spanning endlessly into the future, as the Zooms and FaceTimes and home office conversions gradually made the very idea of spending our workdays with other people seem like a quaint memory. Like childhood birthday parties, or answering machines, or properly functioning democracy.Some of us might never go back. Every so often we will hear about companies reassessing their relationship to the office, which has been proved unnecessary or at least outdated.‘In 1987,’ photographer Steven Ahlgren says, ‘when I was bored and unfulfilled, working as a banker in Minneapolis, I began taking frequent trips to look at a painting by Edward Hopper, Office at Night. What first drew me was its setting, which I related to each and every workday at the bank. But what kept pulling me back was its ambiguous narrative – who were these two people, what was their relationship, and why was the woman looking at that piece of paper on the floor?’ Continue reading...

Chief scientific adviser and England’s chief medical officer will focus on health inequalities and emerging technologies