A new study re-emphasises the fact that oversleeping can be harmful for us – and especially for older peopleName: sleep affluence.Zzzzz. Hey! This is a very interesting and very informative column! Continue reading...

Tube came unglued during SpaceX’s first private flight last month, spilling urine on to fans and beneath the floorSpaceX is facing toilet troubles in its capsules before it launches more astronauts into space.The company and Nasa want to make sure the toilet leaks will not compromise the capsule launching early on Sunday from Kennedy Space Center, or another one that has been parked at the International Space Station since April. Continue reading...

Tarot used to be seen as the domain of the credulous. It’s now seen as a means of coping with the present, thanks to psychology-minded practitioners like Jessica DoreWhen Jessica Dore was growing up, her mother had a tarot deck from which she’d pull cards – much to the mounting mortification of her daughter. As a child, Dore went along with it as fortune-telling fun. But “as an adolescent, it was sort of like ‘Mind your own business’”, she says wryly.It meant Dore was at least familiar with tarot. The deck of 78 cards, split between major arcana and minor arcana (“greater” and “lesser secrets”), is used with varying degrees of sincerity to divine past, present and future. “But I never had any sense that it could be something that would be of value for me in my life,” Dore says. Continue reading...

If William Shatner’s foray into space got you interested, let Coxy fill in the gaps. Plus: DI Perez continues the case in Shetland. Here’s what to watch this evening Continue reading...

Analysis: early uncertainty around vaccination advice for expectant mothers has left them confused and hesitant

Royal Brompton and Harefield send teams to save cardiogenic shock patients at other hospitals

Saturn-sized planet candidate has been identified in Whirlpool Galaxy 28m light years awayA possible Saturn-sized planet identified in the distant Whirlpool Galaxy could be the first exoplanet to be detected outside the Milky Way.The exoplanet candidate appears to be orbiting an X-ray binary – made up of a normal star and a collapsed star or black hole – with its distance from this binary roughly equivalent to the distance of Uranus from the sun. Continue reading...

In England, masks are expected and recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces – but not legally required. Many have abandoned them altogether. What would convince everyone to put them back on?Dave stopped wearing his face mask “the second I didn’t have to. I grudgingly wore it, because it was the right thing to do and because it was mandatory,” says the teacher from East Sussex. “But I felt, and still do, that the reason we were told to wear masks was to make scared people feel less scared.” He didn’t feel awkward abandoning his mask, he says, as “hardly anybody bothers”, but he will put one on when visiting the vet, pharmacist or doctor, because he knows they want him to. “I feel it’s the respectful thing to do, but it’s a bit of theatre.”Every month since July, when the legal requirement to wear face masks – along with other restrictions – ended in England, the number of mask-wearers has dropped. In figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week, 82% of adults reported they had worn a mask outside their home in the previous seven days – a drop from 86% the previous month. But that seems high to me. In my own highly unscientific survey of people coming out of a shopping centre in a south coast town centre last week, only around one in 25 were wearing a mask and overwhelmingly they tended to be older people – the most vulnerable social group. “When everyone else stopped, I stopped,” says Holly. Her friend Chantelle works in a supermarket and also hasn’t worn a mask since July. Does she mind customers not wearing masks? “Not really,” she says, “because I’m not wearing one. Doing an eight-hour shift in it was horrible.” Would they go back to wearing masks? “If we had to, then yeah, I would,” says Holly, but neither would by choice. Continue reading...

Many experts have called for the reintroduction of some public health measures to reduce transmission rates. However, the government has repeatedly said it is not yet bringing in its ‘plan B’ for England. Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Nicola Davis about what it could entail and whether it would help us avoid the need for more stringent and longer-lasting measures down the line Continue reading...

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is calling for a coherent action plan to counter future health emergencies

Follows attacks on Covid nurses in the country where less than 1% of the population is fully vaccinatedPapua New Guinea authorities have approved a mass burial to take pressure off Port Moresby’s hospital morgue where bodies are stacked on top of each other as Covid-19 cases surge.The burial of more than 200 bodies comes as health teams around the country report being attacked as they took part in vaccination programs. Continue reading...

Minister ‘quite concerned’ about delay to finalising UK’s participation in €80bn Horizon Europe schemeA fresh Brexit row has been blown open with Brussels after David Frost accused the EU of being close to breaching the trade deal struck last Christmas.He said the UK was “getting quite concerned” about Brussels delaying ratification of the UK’s participation in the €80bn (£67bn) Horizon Europe research programme, costing British scientists their place in pan-European research programmes. Continue reading...

Dr Karen Postle says Tory MPs’ views on masks would be mildly amusing if it weren’t for the gravely serious consequences, while Susannah Kipling despairs that ‘virtue’ is being hijacked as a term of abuse. Plus letters from Emma Blashford-Snell, Mike Terry, Rosemary Gill and Christine GallagherAre Tory ministers vying with one another in a contest to portray the most libertarian, populist views in the face of scientific and medical evidence and advice? First we have Jacob Rees-Mogg’s arrant nonsense about the Tories not needing masks because their convivial spirit is preventing the spread of Covid.Then the care minister, Gillian Keegan, bizarrely opines that wearing masks is virtue signalling and should be purely personal choice (Tory minister says face masks should not become a ‘sign of virtue’, 22 October). It could be mildly amusing if it weren’t for the gravely serious consequences of such ignorant nonsense. Continue reading...

Australia’s Parkes Observatory detected an ET-like pattern that suggested something was out there. But it was just a case of mixed signals

Indris sound like ‘bagpipes being stepped on’ but their 1:2 beats are the first to be identified in non-human mammalsThey have fluffy ears, a penetrating stare and a penchant for monogamy. But it turns out that indris – a large, critically endangered species of lemur – have an even more fascinating trait: an unexpected sense of rhythm.Indri indri are known for their distinctive singing, a sound not unlike a set of bagpipes being stepped on. The creatures often strike up a song with members of their family either in duets or choruses, featuring sounds from roars to wails. Continue reading...

Does your internal monologue play out on a television, in an attic, as a bickering Italian couple – or is it entirely, blissfully silent?Claudia*, a sailor from Lichfield in her late 30s, is not Italian. She has never been to Italy. She has no Italian family or friends. And she has no idea why a belligerent Italian couple have taken over her inner voice, duking it out in Claudia’s brain while she sits back and listens.“I have no idea where this has come from,” says Claudia, apologetically. “It’s probably offensive to Italians.” The couple are like the family in the Dolmio pasta sauce adverts: flamboyant, portly, prone to waving their hands and shouting. If Claudia has a big decision to make in her life, the Italians take over. Continue reading...

Discovery of foundations of ‘industrial scale’ medieval tannery at abbey has astonished expertsIt is Britain’s biggest and most famous monastic ruin and one that conjures up bucolic images of peace, reflection and very little noise apart, perhaps, from the occasional waft of Gregorian chanting.In reality, archaeologists have revealed, Fountains Abbey near Ripon was as busy, noisy and industrialised as anywhere in 12th- and 13th-century Britain. Continue reading...

Seventh-largest constellation is most easily spotted by finding the square denoting the horse’s bodyWe began the month with a look at the constellation of Cassiopeia, the vain queen who inspired the wrath of Poseidon, so we will end it with a look at another constellation derived from that same myth: Pegasus, the winged horse.In the Greek myth, the hero Perseus rode Pegasus to the shoreline to save Cassiopeia’s daughter, Andromeda, from Cetus, the sea monster unleashed by Poseidon. As such, Pegasus is another of the original 48 constellations listed in the 2nd century by the astronomer Ptolemy. Continue reading...

Latest updates: NHS chief says Saturday was ‘biggest day yet for booster jabs’; tighter restrictions will come into effect to ease Romania’s struggling hospitals

Bill Cash says UK still not being made full member of Horizon Europe science programme linked to dispute over NI protocolUK scientists are being “frozen out” of the £80bn EU research programme Horizon Europe because of the ongoing dispute over the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol, a House of Commons committee has claimed.Participation in the science research programme is being hampered by the ongoing dispute, the European scrutiny committee chair, Sir Bill Cash, said. Continue reading...

Study shows that our knowledge of why tumours form is still inadequateScientists will have to rethink how environmental triggers allow tumours to form and develop, one of Britain’s leading cancer experts warned last week. Michael Stratton, director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said recent results from an international cancer research study – which aimed to pinpoint environmental triggers involved in oeosophageal cancer – indicated current scientific understanding of tumour formation was inadequate.The research – on a type known as oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma – was aimed at uncovering why certain parts of the world suffer extremely high rates of the disease. These areas include parts of Iran, Turkey, Kenya and China where the disease is the most common form of cancer. In many other parts of the world, its incidence is relatively low. Continue reading...

Discovery of nobleman Khuwy shows that Egyptians were using advanced embalming methods 1,000 years before assumed dateThe ancient Egyptians were carrying out sophisticated mummifications of their dead 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence which could lead to a rewriting of the history books.The preserved body of a high-ranking nobleman called Khuwy, discovered in 2019, has been found to be far older than assumed and is, in fact, one of the oldest Egyptian mummies ever discovered. It has been dated to the Old Kingdom, proving that mummification techniques some 4,000 years ago were highly advanced. Continue reading...

Don’t beat yourself up if Covid times get to you. We need release from all the stressFor me, it was a shoe. One missing shoe. Honestly, it wasn’t even a great shoe, just one that I wear to walk the dog. But it was gone. Apparently to the same place all the solitary socks have gone, up there in footwear heaven. And, really, after the two years that we’d had, one would be forgiven for expecting me to roll right on through that. After all, I am a pandemic survivor.But instead, I sat on the bottom step and cried. Continue reading...

Survey shows minister is falling short in pledge to send out 300,000 devices

Health authorities compared vaccination rates with Zodiac signs, but the results may require further investigationExciting news for people who believe in science enough to want mass vaccination, but not enough to think horoscopes are made up: Utah’s Salt Lake county health department says there’s a big difference in vaccination rates depending on your Zodiac sign.At least, that’s what officials found when they analysed anonymised data on 1.2million residents, providing a table of the least and most vaccinated star signs.How many people of each Zodiac sign are vaccinated: Salt Lake county did this using anonymized state data. That’s likely quite accurate.How many people of each Zodiac sign live in the county overall: They estimated this by looking at the nationwide distribution of Zodiac signs, using data from the University of Texas-Austin. Then they assumed their county would have a similar distribution. Continue reading...

Frances Haugen’s ‘testimony tour’ of revelations about the tech company makes good copy, but will its executives listen?If you wanted a paragon of astute, thoroughly modern whistleblowing, then Frances Haugen is your woman. She is the former Facebook employee who revealed that the company knew about the harm that some of its products, especially Instagram, were causing but did little or nothing about them because it prioritised growth and revenue above all else.A good CV is essential to establish your street cred and Haugen ticks all the Silicon Valley boxes. A degree in electrical engineering? Check. An MBA from Harvard? Check. Specialised in algorithmic management? Check. Experience with, and knowledge of, ranking algorithms at a number of tech companies? Check (Google, Pinterest, Yelp). And of course you’ll have held down a substantial position in the company about which you are blowing the whistle. Again, Haugen ticks that box: at Facebook, she was the lead product manager on the civic misinformation team, which dealt with issues of democracy and misinformation; she later worked on counterespionage. Continue reading...

Uncanny and creepy, premonitions that turn out to be authentic can feel profound. But is there science to explain them?Around seven years ago, Garrett, was in a local Pizza Hut with his friends, having a day so ordinary that it is cumbersome to describe. He was 16 – or thereabouts – and had been told by teachers to go around nearby businesses and ask for gift vouchers that the school could use as prizes in a raffle. There were five other teenagers with Garrett, and they’d just finished speaking to the restaurant manager when suddenly, out of nowhere, Garrett’s his body was flooded with shock. He felt cold and clammy and had an “overwhelming sense that something had happened”. He desperately tried to stop himself crying in front of his peers.“It was like I’d just been told something terrible,” the now 23-year-old from the southwest of England says (his name has been changed on his request). “I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was, but I just knew something had happened.” Garrett returned home and tried to distract himself from a feeling he describes as grief. The phone rang. His mum answered it. A few hours earlier – around the time Garrett was in the restaurant – his grandfather had died from a sudden heart attack while on a cruise. Continue reading...

Senior scientists say problems at Immensa site show private firms should not be carrying out PCR tests

The Orion capsule will be launched on the Space Launch System, paving the way for the resumption of people to walk on Earth’s satellite againNasa has announced plans to launch an uncrewed flight around the Moon in February 2022, paving the way for astronauts to once again set foot on Earth’s satellite.The US space agency said on Friday that it was in the final phase of testing to send its Orion capsule on an orbit around the Moon on its Space Launch System rocket. Continue reading...

Chris Boshuizen was one of four astronauts – including William Shatner – who flew into space with Blue Origin. Here he describes the wonder of the journeyIt was a balmy morning in the west Texas desert when Chris Boshuizen stepped into Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket capsule for a journey most of us will never experience.He waved a quick goodbye to the Amazon billionaire and took his seat next to William Shatner as the capsule door bolted shut. Continue reading...

Are you finding it harder than ever to concentrate? Don’t panic: these simple exercises will help you get your attention backPicture your day before you started to read this article. What did you do? In every single moment – getting out of bed, turning on a tap, flicking the kettle switch – your brain was blasted with information. Each second, the eyes will give the brain the equivalent of 10m bits (binary digits) of data. The ears will take in an orchestra of sound waves. Then there’s our thoughts: the average person, researchers estimate, will have more than 6,000 a day. To get anything done, we have to filter out most of this data. We have to focus.Focusing has felt particularly tough during the pandemic. Books are left half-read; eyes wander away from Zoom calls; conversations stall. My inability to concentrate on anything – work, reading, cleaning, cooking – without being distracted over the past 18 months has felt, at times, farcical. Continue reading...

Dame Joan Collins and Brian Cox unimpressed by historic trip, saying ‘let’s take care of this planet first’The Star Trek actor William Shatner’s recent historic space flight saw him boldly go where some fellow actors refuse to follow, as the nonagenarian was labelled a “fool” for taking part in his record-breaking jaunt.Dame Joan Collins, who once appeared in an episode of the science fiction series, and the Succession star Brian Cox, are both unimpressed by Shatner, at 90, becoming the oldest person to travel into space when earlier this month he flew in a rocket built by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...

How the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker became one of the world’s most contentious thinkers. By Alex Blasdel Continue reading...

Researcher ‘staggered’ that institutes used newspaper photos to assess mask use and effect on Covid rates

Researchers say findings in Mozambique demonstrate impact of human interference in natureIvory poaching over decades has led to the evolution of tuskless elephants, researchers have found, proving that humans are “literally changing the anatomy” of wild animals.A previously rare genetic mutation causing tusklessness has become very common in some groups of African elephants after a period in which many were killed for their tusks, according to a study published in the journal Science. Continue reading...

Infections in UK at highest level since July but prime minister says ‘we are within the parameters of what the predictions were’. This live blog is now closed. Please follow the global Covid live blog for further updates

Chance encounters, serendipity, the glint in the eye – as we open up from lockdown, they’re back baby!It was June 2020, really early in the morning, still dark around the edges, and I was crossing the big intersection at Spencer and Bourke streets in Melbourne.I was half asleep and the only people around were tradies. At the other end of the crossing, I locked eyes with one of them and, out of nowhere, suddenly felt weak with lust. Continue reading...

US collector ‘falls in love’ with 8-metre-long dinosaur found in South Dakota and reassembled in ItalyAn 8-metre-long dinosaur skeleton has sold at auction for €6.6m (about £5.5m), more than four times its expected value, to a private collector in the US said to have fallen in love with the largest triceratops ever unearthed.The 66m-year-old skeleton, affectionately known as Big John, is 60% complete, and was unearthed in South Dakota, in the US, in 2014 and put together by specialists in Italy. Continue reading...

Analysis of wood from timber-framed buildings in Newfoundland shows Norse-built settlement 471 years before ColumbusHalf a millennium before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, the Vikings reached the “New World”, as the remains of timber buildings at L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Canada’s Newfoundland testify.The Icelandic sagas – oral histories written down hundreds of years later – tell of a leader named Leif Erikson and a settlement called “Vinland”, assumed to be coastal North America. But while it is known that the Norse landed in Canada, exactly when they set up camp to become the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic, marking the moment when the globe was first known to have been encircled by humans, has remained imprecise. Continue reading...

Our comparatively good position has been eroded and now, heading into the winter, the data looks truly alarming

President hails ‘excellent’ test, as rocket gets high enough, but fails to put dummy payload into orbitSouth Korea’s first domestically produced space rocket reached its desired altitude but failed to deliver a dummy payload into orbit in its first test launch.The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, still described the test as an “excellent accomplishment” that takes the country a step further in its pursuit of a space launch programme. Continue reading...

Deadly side-effect of heat stress is threat to rising numbers of workers in hot climates, doctors warn

Analysis: soaring cases in schools are adding to the pool of the immune – which could soon see some community infections fall

Only 30 Menai whitebeam remain, all in a narrow strip of steep land in a nature reserve

For the past few months Insulate Britain have been blocking roads in an effort to pressure the government into sealing up the UK’s leaky, draughty housing-stock. So why are a group of eco-activists facing confrontations from angry drivers, and even risking injury, for insulation? Shivani Dave speaks to environment correspondent Matthew Taylor about Insulate Britain’s demands and explores the possible health benefits of properly insulated homes with Dr James Milner Continue reading...

Analysis: a winter plan has been set out but implementing it could be hampered by political squeamishness

Health secretary says ‘pandemic is not over’ but confirms UK will not implement its ‘plan B’ measures just now. This live blog has now closed – for global Covid updates, please follow this live blog

Trials show one of drugs cuts risk of hospitalisation or death for patients by half

Identical twins have more similar views on environmental issues than non-identical ones, research findsSome people are more environmentally conscious than others, and scientists say the reason could be in their genes.A study has found that identical twins have more similar views on conservation and environmentalism than non-identical twins. The researchers say this suggests there could be a link between people’s genetic makeup and their support for green policies. Continue reading...

Researchers in US say trial on dead person is a ‘significant step’ toward animal-to-human organ transplantsSurgeons have attached a pig’s kidney to a human and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but a sugar in their cells, which is foreign to the human body, causes immediate organ rejection. The kidney for this experiment came from a gene-edited animal, engineered to eliminate that sugar and avoid an immune system attack. Continue reading...