To know the story of this dark science is to inoculate ourselves against its being repeated, argues the science writer and broadcasterThis is a short book about a big subject, with a thorny history stretching from the Spartans and Plato’s Republic, all the way to present-day science and policymaking. A glance at the index gives some idea of its scope. Ancient Greece rubs shoulders with Avengers: Infinity War and the “Do Not Resuscitate” notices of the Covid-19 pandemic with the doctors’ trial at Nuremberg.It takes patience to trace the complicated web linking these ideas, and Rutherford does so with much-needed nuance and an absence of alarmism. “For just over a century, we have referred to the deliberate crafting of society specifically by biological design with a word which was for half of its existence regarded as desirable, and for the other half, poisonous,” he writes. As a geneticist and author of books such as How to Argue with a Racist, Rutherford aims to distil a rounded, scientific analysis from the deeply tainted and overheated subject of eugenics. Continue reading...

Proxima d is the third planet to have been spotted circling Proxima Centauri four light years awayAstronomers have found evidence for a new planet circling Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun.The alien world is only a quarter of the mass of Earth and orbits extremely close to its parent star, at one tenth of the distance between the sun and Mercury, the solar system’s innermost planet. Continue reading...

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk’s company Neuralink posted a job advert recruiting for a ‘clinical trial director’ to run tests of their brain-computer interface technology in humans. Neuralink’s initial aim is to implant chips in the brain that would allow people with severe spinal cord injuries to walk again. But, Musk himself has said that he believes this technology could one day be used to digitally store and replay memories.Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Andrew Jackson about how brain-computer interfaces actually work, where the technology is at the moment, and if in the future we could all end up communicating telepathicallyArchive: Today, Fox 35 Orlando, Space X, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Neuralink Continue reading...

The US agency says Elon Musk’s expansion could flood Earth’s orbit with objects, making flights and observations more difficultNasa has raised concerns about SpaceX’s plan to deploy about 30,000 satellites for its Starlink, as have some major companies.Elon Musk’s SpaceX previously received authorisation for about 12,000 satellites to offer broadband internet and has requested the go-ahead for a second-generation constellation of 30,000 satellites. Continue reading...

Science Museum hopes fellow travellers of the late cosmologist will join visitors to display of his office miscellanyHaving devoted his life to the conundrums of the cosmos, Prof Stephen Hawking has left behind a mystery of his own amid the eclectic contents of his former office.The Cambridge cosmologist, who died in 2018 at the age of 76, treasured a blackboard that became smothered with cartoons, doodles and equations at a conference he arranged in 1980. But what all the graffiti and in-jokes mean is taking some time to unravel. Continue reading...

Keytruda treatment found to cut risk of aggressive cancer returning after surgery by more than a thirdThousands of lives could be saved with a “promising” immunotherapy drug that can cut the risk of an aggressive form of breast cancer returning by more than a third, according to “exciting” results from a long-term global study.Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. The drug works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells, and is already used to treat lung cancer, skin cancer, bladder cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma. It is administered in a solution via a drip into the patient’s bloodstream, with the number of sessions depending on the type of cancer. Continue reading...

Researchers find Homo sapiens moved into Madrin cave in France one year after Neanderthals abandoned itHomo sapiens ventured into Neanderthal territory in Europe much earlier than previously thought, according to a new archaeological study.Up to now, archaeological discoveries had indicated that Neanderthals disappeared from the European continent about 40,000 years ago, shortly after the arrival of their “cousin” Homo sapiens, barely 5,000 years earlier and there was no evidence of an encounter between these two groups. Continue reading...

Analysis: Plans to end isolation rules have been gleefully announced, but questions about infection control remain

A Texas-based group has drawn up a new list of as part of its quest to find species lost to science and possibly extinctA blind salamander, a tap-dancing spider and a “fat” catfish that has been likened to the Michelin man are among a list of vanished species that one US-based conservation group is aiming to rediscover in the wild and help protect.The Texas-based group, called Re:wild, has drawn up a new list of the “25 most wanted lost species” as part of its quest to find species lost to science and possibly extinct.This article was amended on 9 February 2022 to clarify that a fungus is not a type of plant. Continue reading...

Oxfordshire scientists’ feat raises hopes of using reactions that power sun for low-carbon energyThe prospect of harnessing the power of the stars has moved a step closer to reality after scientists set a new record for the amount of energy released in a sustained fusion reaction.Researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET), a fusion experiment in Oxfordshire, generated 59 megajoules of heat – equivalent to about 14kg of TNT – during a five-second burst of fusion, more than doubling the previous record of 21.7 megajoules set in 1997 by the same facility. Continue reading...

Health minister Gillian Keegan says she should have immediately ended the meeting when she got lateral flow result

Elon Musk’s firm says 80% of the satellites it launched last week are expected to burn up instead of reaching orbitSpaceX will lose up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites it launched last week as the result of a geomagnetic storm, the company has announced.Elon Musk’s firm launched the satellites into low-Earth orbit on 3 February from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but 80% of them are now expected to burn up instead of reaching their intended orbit. Continue reading...

Large parts of the world are opening up, but Hong Kong is still pursuing ‘dynamic zero’ despite rising cases and a public running out of patienceA viral open letter from a member of Facebook group, HK Moms, marked something of a shift in public opinion. The group is the type not usually preoccupied with the city’s political upheavals, but the letter revealed a limit had been reached.Addressing Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, it accused the government of holding its citizens hostage with new Covid measures – the toughest restrictions since June 2020. Continue reading...

Despite lawsuit filed against Dr Robert Karas by four inmates, local officials have praised him for a ‘job well done’An Arkansas doctor accused of prescribing ivermectin to inmates in his state without their consent has been praised by local officials for a “job well done” despite widespread outrage at his actions.In January, the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Dr Robert Karas, the physician at Arkansas’s Washington county detention center, on behalf of four inmates who said they were given ivermectin to treat Covid-19 as a form of “medical experiment”. Continue reading...

Covid has made it clear: the likes of Pfizer, in thrall to shareholders, only really care about their huge profitsPfizer has had an exceptionally good pandemic. Today it announced that its Covid-19 vaccine brought in $37bn billion last year, making it easily the most lucrative medicine in any given year in history.That isn’t all. For a company that was until recently the least trusted company in the least trusted industrial sector in the United States, Covid-19 has been a PR coup. Pfizer has become a household name over the last 12 months. The company was toasted on nights out in Tel Aviv, and there are cocktails named after its vaccine in bars across the world. The US president referred to Pfizer’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, as a “good friend”, and the great man parked his jet next to Boris Johnson’s at last year’s G7 summit in Cornwall.Nick Dearden is director of Global Justice Now Continue reading...

Research confirms a pet shop was the likely source of the recent Delta variant outbreak in Hong Kong

EU agreed to associate membership of Horizon Europe programme for UK but has not yet ratified dealThe EU is being urged to stop punishing scientists and end the year-long delay in letting British universities and laboratories access its flagship £80bn Horizon Europe funding programme.Scientists across the UK and Europe have launched a campaign to get the UK admitted into the programme amid continuing fears that Brussels is using the fund as leverage in negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol. Continue reading...

Nice approves use of semaglutide, opening door to new treatment for thousands of adults with obesityThousands of people with obesity in England will be able to get a new weight loss drug on the NHS after a watchdog approved its use.Patients on the weekly injections have seen their weight fall by an average of 12% after one year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said. Continue reading...

In overweight adults, extra sleep could lead to weight loss without daytime diet changes, researchers sayGetting an hour or so more sleep each night can help people to cut calories, according a small clinical trial in overweight adults.Researchers in the US found that people who typically slept for less than 6.5 hours a night shed an average of 270 calories from their daily intake when they got an extra 1.2 hours of sleep. Continue reading...

Use of drug could raise risk of heart disease and stroke over time, study of 110 people suggestsLong-term paracetamol use could increase the risk of heart disease and strokes in people with high blood pressure, a study suggests.Patients who have a long-term prescription for the painkiller, usually used for the treatment of chronic pain, should opt for the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time, researchers say. Continue reading...

The pandemic has proved that the Conservatives have no interest in protecting vulnerable people like my father

Research suggests electric shocks could be key to growing raindropsAn electric shock might be just the thing to persuade a cloud to produce some rain. New research suggests that supercharging a cloud could increase the attractive forces between droplets and help raindrops to grow. Have we finally found the recipe for making rain?Electric charge is all around us. Thunderclouds literally crackle with it, but even the air we breathe has some charged aerosols and droplets in it. Giles Harrison, a meteorologist at the University of Reading, and colleagues have been investigating the electric charge of drops in non-thunderstorm clouds. Continue reading...

Findings published in the journal Current Biology contribute to ongoing debate about empathy among animalsFor humans, the first instinct would be to disinfect it and then cover it with a bandage.But chimpanzees have invented a more creative method: catching insects and applying them directly to the open wound. Continue reading...

Late in November, the World Health Organization designated the Covid variant B.1.1.529, with its many mutations, as a variant of concern. Dubbed Omicron, within weeks it had rapidly spread across the globe and become the dominant variant. But not far behind has been its even more transmissible cousin, BA.2. Initially taking off in Denmark and India, BA.2 is now making headway in several countries around the world, including the US and UK.Ian Sample speaks to Prof Nick Loman about how worried we should be about BA.2, and what we still need to learn about this new subvariantArchive: DW News, WION Continue reading...

Rhesus macaques in Puerto Rico appear to have aged by about two years more than expectedMonkeys that survived a devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico were prematurely aged by the experience, a study has found.Scientists say the findings suggest that an increase in extreme weather around the world may have negative biological consequences for the humans and animals affected. Continue reading...

Level of maths anxiety within same school or classroom found to predict individuals’ maths achievementIf the thought of fractions or differential equations makes you break you out in a cold sweat, you are not alone. Maths anxiety – a negative emotional reaction to mathematics – is a global phenomenon, hampering maths achievement regardless of where people live, research has found.It’s not only a child’s own maths anxiety that affects their performance but that of their peers: the largest and most culturally diverse study to date shows that in about half of countries, including England, the average level of maths anxiety within the same school or classroom predicts individual students’ maths achievement, independently of their own anxiety levels. Continue reading...

Research by Venice student uncovers evidence explorer may have been father of woman called AgneseA researcher in Venice has found evidence revealing that Marco Polo had a daughter out of wedlock.Agnese is believed to have been born between 1295, the year the merchant and explorer returned to Venice after more than two decades travelling through Asia, and 1298, the year he was imprisoned in Genoa for his involvement in a naval conflict between the two cities. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesInspired by the success of Wordle, earlier today I set you these three word puzzles that also test lexical ingenuity and pattern-spotting skills.I also said I’d tell you what my Wordle starting word is. See below. Continue reading...

After a crash, Michel Roccati lost all movement in his legs – but his new implants mean he can now ride a bikeA man who was paralysed in a motorcycle accident in 2017 has regained the ability to walk after doctors implanted electrodes in his spine to reactivate his muscles.Michel Roccati lost all feeling and movement in his legs after the crash that severed his spinal cord, but can stand and walk with electrical stimulation that is controlled wirelessly from a tablet. Continue reading...

Play these ones by the letterUPDATE: you can read the solutions here.Unless you have been hiding under a rock this year, you’ve heard of Wordle. It has been thrilling to see a puzzle’s popularity explode and dominate the national conversation. This doesn’t happen often!Today’s challenges are for those of you caught up in the craze. If you enjoy Wordle’s playful mixture of pattern spotting, logical reasoning and vocab-hunting, these puzzles will be right up your street. Continue reading...

Uranus, the seventh planet of the solar system, hovers at the limit of visibilityOn Monday night, the moon serves as a signpost for one of the ultimate naked-eye astronomy challenges. Uranus, the seventh planet of the solar system, hovers at the very limit of naked-eye visibility.To stand any chance of seeing the planet, which orbits 19 times further from the sun than the Earth, you will need to be under the darkest sky you can possibly find. For most of us, a pair of binoculars will be needed. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsHow do you conquer your Fomo (fear of missing out)? Richard Orlando, QuebecPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published on Sunday. Continue reading...

Research suggests playing imaginary games can aid development of social skills and empathyPlaying with dolls encourages children to talk more about others’ thoughts and emotions, a study has found.The research suggests that playing imaginary games with dolls could help children develop social skills, theory of mind and empathy. The neuroscientist who led the work said that the educational value of playing with Lego and construction toys was widely accepted, but the benefits of playing with dolls sometimes appeared to have been overlooked. Continue reading...

An exhibition of vivid photographs and a restored documentary give fresh insight into the Antarctic explorer, who died a century agoOne hundred years ago, the leader of the last great expedition of the heroic age of polar exploration died from a heart attack as his ship, Quest, headed for Antarctica. The announcement of the death of Ernest Shackleton on 30 January 1922 was greeted with an outpouring of national grief.This was the man, after all, who had saved the entire crew of his ship Endurance – which had been crushed and sunk by ice in 1915 – by making a daring trip in a tiny open boat over 750 miles of polar sea to raise the alarm at a whaling station in South Georgia. Continue reading...

Changing minds is more complicated than simply exposing poor argumentsHow do you react when someone politely but firmly tells you that you’re talking nonsense about something that’s important to you? Do you gracefully and immediately give way to their greater expertise? Or do you double down?Most of us are in the latter camp. Voicing our beliefs tends to solidify them. We may like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, constantly assessing the world for new information that might change our minds, but this is not how our brains work. Explaining to someone that their belief is flat-out wrong is not a good way of getting them to drop it. And research shows that the process of “myth-busting” – setting out a common false statement, then explaining why it is wrong – backfires because it counterintuitively reinforces and helps spread the myths. Continue reading...

A successful pregnancy for Elizabeth Ann may help ensure her species avoids extinctionElizabeth Ann is poised to make history. The world’s first cloned black-footed ferret has just celebrated her first birthday and has reached an age when she can start to breed. And, if she is successful and produces healthy kits, the little predator will give a precious boost to attempts to save her seriously endangered species.However, scientists acknowledge that they will have to be extremely careful in screening possible mates for Elizabeth Ann, who is being kept at a conservation centre near Fort Collins, Colorado. In particular, the male they eventually select will have to display one key quality, they say: he will have to be gentle. Continue reading...

The consultant neurologist and BBC radio presenter has a new book exploring the relationship between sensory perception and the reality it createsGuy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals. His areas of expertise are epilepsy and sleep disorders. He has presented two BBC radio series, one on sleep and another on the neurology of our sensory world. His latest book is The Man Who Tasted Words, which explores the relationship between our sensory perception and the reality it constructs.A common phrase in cognitive neuroscience is “perception is nothing more than controlled hallucination”. What exactly does that mean?

Sir David Spiegelhalter tells Desert Island Discs he wouldn’t make a good government adviser because he is too optimistic

Nudged along by scientists and evolution, micro-organisms that digest plastics have the potential to create an efficient method of recyclingBeaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy. Continue reading...

Megan Nolan always dreamed of having her own lovely home. But now terrifying thoughts keep her awake at night. Here, the author wonders whyI live by myself in a good place, the best sort of place a woman like me could imagine. In fact, it’s all I did imagine for years on end. I rent rather than own it, but that’s no hardship. I’ve never felt any particular angst to own property, which is just as well since I live in London, a place where I could no sooner get a mortgage than a giraffe. Owning a home has always felt more like a burden, like an end to things, to me, than it has felt like comfort. I did always dream, though, of renting somewhere beautiful and living alone there – and now I do.On the days I spend here without anyone else, I wake up at 8.30 and feed my cat. I watch her eat her disgusting, stinky food with satisfaction, glad I’m able to keep another creature beyond myself alive. I make coffee and wander about the flat a bit, wiping surfaces, washing tomato-laden pots. I go for a walk or to the gym, and then I work. I write. I send emails. I complain or speculate about everything I’m doing constantly to my friends. For lunch I blitz the vegetables in the fridge into a soup, or else walk down the road to the pub for a sandwich, and come back and work some more. I gaze adoringly at the cat. It becomes evening and I might drink a glass of wine, sometimes a bottle. I cook dinner and eat it in 13 minutes while watching MasterChef. I read for an hour. I work a bit more. Sometimes I watch a film. This is the life I have designed for myself, the life I never thought I would be so lucky as to have. Then it is time to sleep. Continue reading...

The GSK executive has found her niche at ViiV Healthcare developing HIV drugs, and is optimistic a cure will be foundA lot has changed since the devastating 1980s Aids crisis depicted in the Channel 4 TV show It’s a Sin – but the stigma attached to the illness remains, says Deborah Waterhouse. As chief executive of ViiV Healthcare, a GlaxoSmithKline-controlled joint venture that develops HIV drugs, she leads one of the largest commercial developers of Aids treatments in the world.“I remember in 1987 GSK brought the first medicine out for HIV and at that point the life expectancy for someone living with HIV was 18 months,” she tells the Observer, speaking via video link from her study lined with novels, travel and music books in her home in Richmond, west London. 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 our first episode, Marina Hyde reflects on another less than stellar week for Boris Johnson (1m38s), Edward Helmore charts the rise of Joe Rogan (9m46s), Laura Snapes goes deep with singer George Ezra (18m30s), and Alex Moshakis asks, “Are you a jerk at work?” (34m40s).If you like what you hear, subscribe to Weekend on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts Continue reading...

Protecting wildlife to stop viruses jumping to humans would save far more than it costs, analysis showsPreventing future pandemics at source would cost a small fraction of the damage already caused by viruses that jump from wildlife to people, according to scientists.Each year on average more than 3 million people die from zoonotic diseases, those that spill over from wildlife into humans, new analysis has calculated. Stopping the destruction of nature, which brings humans and wildlife into greater contact and results in spillover, would cost about $20bn a year, just 10% of the annual economic damage caused by zoonoses and 5% of the value of the lives lost. Continue reading...

Being proved wrong lies at the heart of scientific progress. Here, experts reveal what they got wrong during the pandemic

Experts say underreporting of cases across country means toll likely to be far higher than official count

Landsat programme began in 1970s and will pass 50th anniversary of unbroken images of Earth this yearLandsat 9 has completed its post-launch assessment and begun its operational phase. Launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 27 September 2021, Landsat 9 is a joint venture between Nasa and the US Geological Survey (USGS).The Landsat programme has been running since the 1970s and will pass its 50th anniversary of unbroken images of Earth from orbit later this year. Landsat 1 was launched on 23 July 1972 and was initially called the Earth Resources Technology Satellite. Continue reading...

Six-year-old kelpie cross is leading program designed to track elusive monotreme and study how they raise young

Surprisingly little is known about the role played by our 400 or so receptors in identifying specific smellsWhen you are packed on a commuter train, the body odour of fellow passengers can at times be hard to ignore. Now scientists have shed light on how our noses pick up on the stench.While different scents can be highly evocative, only a fraction of our 400 or so odour receptors have been shown to be involved in the perception of specific smells. Continue reading...

Study of twins suggests desire to be in natural spaces is influenced by genetic factorsA person’s love of nature is partially inherited, a large-scale study of twins has found.Scientists from the National University of Singapore studied how much time twins spent in natural spaces compared with each other and found that they shared a similar level of desire to be in nature. Continue reading...

‘I just don’t think you wake up on Tuesday and it’s finished,’ says former Sage adviser Sir Jeremy Farrar