Scientists say ozone hole is unusually large for this stage in season and growing quicklyThe hole in the ozone layer that develops annually is “rather larger than usual” and is currently bigger than Antartica, say the scientists responsible for monitoring it.Researchers from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service say that this year’s hole is growing quickly and is larger than 75% of ozone holes at this stage in the season since 1979. Continue reading...
As Cop26 meeting approaches, analysis shows world is on track for 3C temperature increase if present trends continueEvery one of the world’s leading economies, including all the countries that make up the G20, is failing to meet commitments made in the landmark Paris agreement in order to stave off climate catastrophe, a damning new analysis has found.Less than two months before crucial United Nations climate talks take place in Scotland, none of the largest greenhouse gas emitting countries have made sufficient plans to lower pollution to meet what they agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord. Continue reading...
Four-person Inspiration4 mission will orbit Earth for up to four days, marking latest step in space tourismThe world’s first crew of “amateur astronauts” is preparing to blast off on a mission that will carry them into orbit before bringing them back down to Earth at the weekend.The four civilians, who have spent the past few months on an astronaut training course, are due to launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8.02pm local time on Wednesday (1.02am UK time on Thursday). Continue reading...
Sticky-haired Triantha occidentalis raises prospect of finding carnivorous relatives of tomatoes and potatoesA plant has been found turning to carnivory only when it flowers. Triantha occidentalis has flower stalks smothered in small sticky hairs that are a deathtrap for small flies and beetles. Although many other plants have sticky hairs to protect against insects, Triantha actually feeds on the bodies of its victims.
Nasa deputy administrator says Australia’s commitment to space exploration puts it at forefront of global leadershipNasa has revealed it is looking forward to seeing an Australian flag on the moon.The disclosure was made by Pam Melroy, who was integral to establishing the Australian Space Agency and is one of only two women to captain the space shuttle. She was sworn in to her new role of Nasa deputy administrator in June, and on Wednesday beamed in to the Australian Space Forum hosted by the Andy Thomas Space Foundation in Adelaide. Continue reading...
Oncologist who pioneered modern treatments for testicular cancer – the jockey Bob Champion was one of his patientsMichael Peckham, who has died aged 86, did much to advance the acceptance of evidence-based medicine. This approach – using well-controlled clinical trial data for improving the treatment of patients – has never received greater attention than now, during the Covid-19 pandemic.In 1986 he moved from trailblazing clinical work as a professor at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden hospital, London, to become director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, then a loose association of seven institutes based in the capital. His restless mind envisaged an opportunity for much closer collaborative work between those high-level centres, aiming at advances that would otherwise have been impossible. 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 conceptsI understand that tears flush away foreign objects from the eye. But what advantage does crying have when one is feeling sad (or happy)? Perhaps it is to signal an extreme of emotion, but then why would a solitary sad person cry when there was no one around? David DobbsPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published on Sunday. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with re on (#5PGV5)
In a report earlier this summer, the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) noted there could be a 50% increase in cases of influenza in comparison to other years. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Ian Sample about the factors at play, from weakened immunity to the expanded vaccine programme, and hears from Derek Smith, professor of infectious disease informatics about how the World Health Organization has decided on which influenza strains to vaccinate against this year Continue reading...
In the UK, the majority of those now in hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Many face their last days with enormous regret, and their relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others like themMatt Wynter, a 42-year-old music agent from Leek, Staffordshire, was working out in his local gym in mid-August when he saw, to his great surprise, that his best friend, Marcus Birks, was on the television. He jumped off the elliptical trainer and listened carefully.The first thing he noticed was that Birks, who was also from Leek and a performer with the dance group Cappella, looked terrible. He was gasping for breath and his face was pale. “Marcus would never usually have gone on TV without having done his hair and had a shave,” Wynter says. Continue reading...
People with macular degeneration, cataracts and diabetes-related eye disease at greater riskMillions of people with eye conditions including age-related macular degeneration, cataracts and diabetes-related eye disease have an increased risk of developing dementia, new research shows.Vision impairment can be one of the first signs of the disease, which is predicted to affect more than 130 million people worldwide by 2050. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#5PFWX)
Calves taught to use toilet area with rewards and mild punishments, limiting ammonia releaseA herd of cows has been “potty-trained” in an experiment that scientists say could pave the way for more environmentally friendly farms.Waste from cattle farms often contaminates soil and waterways and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and the acidification of soil. For this reason, toilet-training cattle has long been viewed as desirable, but several previous attempts have been unsuccessful. Continue reading...
Climate scientists believe that if Greenland continues to rapidly melt, tens of millions of people around the world could face yearly flooding and displacement by 2030Many people believed he couldn’t do it. Ski across the Greenland ice sheet, a vast, unmapped, high-elevation plateau of ice and snow? Madness.But Fridtjof Nansen, a young Norwegian, proved them wrong. In 1888, he and his small party went light and fast, unlike two large expeditions a few years before. And unlike the others, Nansen traveled from east to west, giving himself no option of retreat to a safe base. It would be forward or die trying. He did it in seven weeks, man-hauling his supplies and ascending to 8,900ft (2,700 meters) elevation, where summertime temperatures dropped to -49F (-45C). Continue reading...
A couples therapist told me: ‘It can be very shocking to encounter a person you’re unfamiliar with, especially if we don’t like that version’“Daddy, you workin’?” my two-year-old daughter asks throughout the day, as my husband saunters around the living room in a fugue state conducting back-to-back business calls, AirPods locked and loaded, eyes fixed to the middle distance.Charlotte turned one a couple months after New York City entered pandemic lockdown, so for the majority of her life, her parents have been around. Work-life boundaries are so blurry that unless Dave removes his AirPods, which he rarely does during most daylight hours whether or not he’s on a call, she assumes he’s “doing da business”, as she calls it. When she wants to get his attention – like when he’s, say, talking passionately about robots who mow the lawns of commercial spaces and not reading her the book Yummy, Yucky – she’ll occasionally take his AirPods out of his ears, put them in her own, backwards, so she looks like she’s trying to commune with Little Green Men, then walk around the room saying: “Nice to do da business with you!” Continue reading...
£200m project to eliminate avoidable blindness and disfigurement in Africa ends after funding is prematurely axedA chandelier sparkling in the background, the grandeur of Downing Street gleaming behind him, Boris Johnson looks into the camera and speaks with solemnity. He is marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, he says, to raise awareness of these “terrible afflictions … which impose an immense burden of suffering in developing countries”.Huge progress has been made, he says, in the fight against the diseases, not least as a result of British aid to some of the poorest parts of the world. But there is more – much more – to be done: more than a billion people are still at risk, he warns, and that is why the UK “fully supports” the World Health Organization’s big elimination push over the next decade. Continue reading...
Autumn in the northern hemisphere is a good time of the year to see Perseus in the evening sky. But rather than simply searching out the constellation, how about watching the star Algol change in brightness? Continue reading...
More than 100,000 volunteers aged between 50 and 77 sought to take part in Galleri blood screeningThe NHS has launched the world’s largest trial of a potentially gamechanging blood test that aims to detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.More than 100,000 volunteers are being sought to provide blood samples at mobile test clinics in regions across England from Monday to assess how well the test works in the health service. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti Political correspondent on (#5PEVG)
Exclusive: Labour says analysis exposes ‘gaping flaw’ in PM’s plan to resolve social care crisisNearly 70,000 people in England are likely to die waiting for access to adult social care before the changes revealed this week by Boris Johnson come into force, reveals analysis that Labour says “exposes a gaping flaw” in the plan.Criticism has continued to mount after the prime minister announced a 1.25% tax to be paid by workers and businesses aimed at finally resolving the social care crisis he promised he had a strategy to fix more than two years ago on the steps of Downing Street. Continue reading...
The calculations behind filling supermarket shelves are dizzyingly complex – but it all starts with the x and y you know from schoolNando’s put it succinctly on its Twitter feed last month: “The UK supply chain is having a bit of a mare right now.” Getting things on to supermarket shelves, through your letterbox or into a restaurant kitchen has certainly become problematic of late. It’s hard to know exactly where to pin the blame, though Covid and Brexit have surely played a part. What we can do is give thanks for algebra, because things would be so much worse without it.It’s likely that you have mixed feelings about algebra. Even if you could knuckle down and manage it in school, you probably wondered why it was important to solve an equation involving x raised to the power of 2 or why you should want to find a and b when a + b = 3 and 2a – b = 12. You might even feel that your scepticism has been vindicated: the chances are that you have never done algebra in your post-school life. But that doesn’t mean that the jumble of letters, numbers and missing things that we call algebra is useless. Whether it’s supermarket groceries, a new TV or a parcel from Aunt Emily, they all reach your home through some attempt to solve an equation and find the missing number. Algebra is the maths that delivers. Continue reading...
Clinicians tend to pay less attention to how patients with severe illness do once they are out of mortal danger, or once symptoms extend beyond an arbitrary time frameIn recent months, long Covid has received a great deal of media and public attention. Research has found that as many as one in four of those infected with Covid – perhaps millions of people in the US alone – suffer from chronic long-term symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, abdominal pain, heart problems, fatigue, anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and other conditions.Related: When it comes to breakthrough cases, are we ignoring long Covid once again? | Hannah Davis Continue reading...
Novelist campaigns for statue of terrier experimented on by scientists to regain its place in a London parkAn animal in peril can inflame British public opinion like nothing else. Nearly 120 years ago, the fate of one small brown dog caused rioting in the streets of London, to say nothing of the protest marches to Trafalgar Square and questions asked in parliament.Now the astonishing, little-known story – involving anti-vivisectionist campaigners, an eminent doctor, a legal battle and a controversial memorial statue in a park – is the subject of a new book and of a fresh campaign to honour the lowly terrier at the heart of it all. Continue reading...
The Pentagon has been quietly investigating unidentified flying objects since 2007. The fact that they think they might exist is good news to those who claim to have seen themIn June, the US government published a long-awaited report into UFOs. Although the report did not, as many had hoped, admit to the existence of little green men, it did reveal that not only were objects appearing in our skies that the Pentagon – which controls the US military – could not explain, but some clearly pose “a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security”.The Pentagon also revealed that it has been taking UFOs so seriously that in 2007 it discreetly set up the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which has been gathering data on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) ever since. Continue reading...
Stock schemes are a nice perk but they inevitably link workers’ happiness with the fluctuating priceInvestor types like to pretend that trading shares is an emotion-free science. Apparently, it’s a serious business and definitely not a socially acceptable form of gambling for the upper-middle class. Back in the real world, it’s called playing the stock market for a reason, and lots of emotion was involved this year when Redditors sent shares in GameStop soaring (and the mood of regulators and hedge funds plummeting).Now it’s common knowledge that a rising stock market improves public wellbeing – everyone perks up during a boom. Unsurprisingly, the impact is biggest for those with lots of shares, for good or ill: big shareholders saw the biggest rise in depression and antidepressant use during the great recession. Continue reading...
Experts say screening smokers and ex-smokers would significantly reduce mortality rate from diseaseScreening smokers and ex-smokers could dramatically reduce deaths from lung cancer – Britain’s biggest cancer killer – a major new study has found.Low-dose computerised tomography (CT) scans can detect tumours in people’s lungs early and cut deaths by 16%, according to the UK Lung Cancer Screening Trial (UKLS). Continue reading...
The Liverpool site will work with other international centres to research the threat of emerging disruptive diseasesA new scientific institute which aims to prevent future pandemics might have been able to save thousands of lives by accelerating vaccine development had it existed before December 2019, its researchers believe.Liverpool’s new Pandemic Institute will include a new human challenge facility, where volunteers will test new vaccines and treatments under controlled conditions. Continue reading...
The behaviour geneticist explains how biology could have an influence on academic attainment – and why she takes an anti-eugenics approachKathryn Paige Harden argues how far we go in formal education – and the huge knock-on effects that has on our income, employment and health – is in part down to our genes. Harden is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she leads a lab using genetic methods to study the roots of social inequality. Her provocative new book is The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality.To even talk about whether there might be a genetic element to educational attainment and social inequality breaks a huge social taboo – particularly on the political left, which is where you say your own sympathies lie. The spectre of eugenics looms large, and no one wants to create a honeypot for racists and classists. To be clear, it is scientifically baseless to make any claims about differences between racial groups, including intelligence, and you are not doing that. But why go here?
While Covid sent many firms to the wall, others prospered by spotting opportunities, from test kits to mask coatingsThe pandemic has taken a heavy toll on business, gutting high streets as familiar names fell into receivership. But for some less well-known firms, the past 18 months have been transformational. Those that have thrived did so by carving out a new niche – with products as varied as Covid sequencing technology kits and surgical masks with virus-killing coatings. We asked some of them about the year everything changed. Continue reading...
Coming to terms with the loss of my friend Amy Winehouse, amid the media frenzy that surrounded her death, has taken me 10 yearsGod knows what I must have looked like: a bedraggled 25-year-old dressed as a psychedelic game hunter with glitter smeared across my face crying hysterically in a Cambridgeshire field. It was 4pm on 23 July 2011, and a friend of mine had broken the news to me: Amy was dead. I was totally inconsolable, while around me fellow-revellers danced.It was the Saturday of Secret Garden Party and my friends had been deliberating among themselves how best to tell me. Their hands were forced when they realised it was about to be announced on the festival stage. In the end, a guy called Jamie opted for directness: “Amy Winehouse is dead.” Continue reading...
The Ig Nobels are a reminder that Jonathan Swift was wrong about reason. Without research driven by curiosity, there would be far fewer breakthroughsIn Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift mocked the assumption that the scientific revolution had transformed European culture for the better. The satirical novel, published in 1726, has its eponymous hero stumbling upon “the Academy” in the fictional city of Lagado, and pokes fun at the idea that a scientific temperament could be useful. Swift describes pointless experiments to extract sunbeams from cucumbers and to build houses from the roof downwards. His book is laced with sardonic wit. But unorthodox, even absurd, thinking is necessary for science to progress.That point has been underlined by this week’s winners of the Ig Nobel prize, established in 1991 by an American magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research. One of the honoured investigations this year was by Robin Radcliffe, of Cornell University, who looked at whether it was safer to transport an anesthetised rhinoceros upside down airborne or lying on its side on a sledge. Prof Radcliffe showed animals’ health would not be jeopardised by being hung by their legs beneath a helicopter, a technique becoming more popular in African conservation. Continue reading...
The multi-national International Space Station gets it story told through the men and women who worked on itWith such strong base-level material, you could hardly go wrong, and so it proves with this history of the International Space Station, which has been orbiting the Earth 250 miles up since 1998. This is very much the authorised version, told largely through interviews with a select multi-national group of the over 200 astronauts who have spent time on it. With copious footage of rockets blasting off, the ISS streaking along above the atmosphere, and many God-shots of Earth itself, this has the awe-generators turned up to 11.The interviewees are of perhaps slightly less dramatically impressive character, despite their undoubted achievements – possessing a workable sense of humour doesn’t seem to be high on astronaut qualification lists. They are not especially well-served by the film-makers’ embellishments, with over-produced childhood-memory sequences, distracting musical choices on the soundtrack, and bland segment-introduction quotes. Still, they are empathetic enough, especially when the accent is on their personal and family experiences: standout, surely, is Cady Coleman, who went to the ISS in 1995, and her glass-blower husband Josh Simpson, who both speak movingly of the crisis of separation. Continue reading...
Groundbreaking studies into how well beards soften punches to the face, the benefits of transporting rhinoceroses upside down, and orgasms as a nasal decongestant have taken one of the most coveted awards in science: the Ig Nobel prize. Not to be confused with Nobel awards, the Ig Nobels celebrate the quirkier realms of science, rewarding research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think
The US diseases expert has been spoofed by Brad Pitt and lauded as the ‘sexiest man alive’. Now the pop culture phenomenon is the focus of a documentaryBeer and bobbleheads. Candles, colouring books, cupcakes and cushions. Dolls, doughnuts, hoodies, mugs and socks. T-shirts and yard signs that declare “Dr Fauci is my hero” and “In Fauci we trust”.Anthony Fauci, an 80-year-old scientist, doctor and public servant, has become an unlikely cult hero for millions of people during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...
Patients in England first to benefit from Sotorasib after drug proven to halt growth of tumours for seven monthsLung cancer patients in England will become the first in Europe to benefit from a “revolutionary” new drug that can halt the growth of tumours by targeting the so-called “Death Star” mutation.The medication, Sotorasib, will be fast-tracked to NHS patients after it was proven in clinical trials to stop lung cancer growing for seven months. Continue reading...
Research from the more unusual realms of science is recognised every year at this alternative awards ceremonyGroundbreaking studies into how well beards soften punches to the face, the benefits of transporting rhinoceroses upside down, and orgasms as a nasal decongestant were honoured on Thursday night with one of the most coveted awards in science: the Ig Nobel prize.Not to be confused with the more prestigious – and lucrative – Nobel awards, to be announced from Stockholm and Oslo next month, the Ig Nobels celebrate the quirkier realms of science, rewarding research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think. Continue reading...