Man, known as T5, was able to write 18 words a minute with more than 94% accuracy on individual lettersA man who was paralysed from the neck down in an accident more than a decade ago has written sentences using a computer system that turns imagined handwriting into words.It is the first time scientists have created sentences from brain activity linked to handwriting and paves the way for more sophisticated devices to help paralysed people communicate faster and more clearly. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5HR0M)
Exclusive: Thinning indicates profound impact of humans and could affect satellites and GPSHumanity’s enormous emissions of greenhouse gases are shrinking the stratosphere, a new study has revealed.The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 metres since the 1980s, the researchers found, and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 without major cuts in emissions. The changes have the potential to affect satellite operations, the GPS navigation system and radio communications. Continue reading...
The UK must risk an in-person meeting in Glasgow if this crucial climate conference is to be a successWalkouts, standoffs, shouting, tears, bloodletting – the UN climate Cops have seen it all. The annual meetings, in which all countries bar a few failed states take part, under the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are the only global forum for discussing the future of the planet. They have veered between triumph and disaster, marked by dramatic and sometimes traumatic moments. At their best they can be momentous events, shifting the world’s response to the climate crisis into a higher gear, as at the landmark Paris Cop in 2015.This year’s 26th conference of the parties, postponed from last year because of Covid-19 and shaded by the pandemic, will be different. Scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November, these will be the most important talks since 2015. At Cop26, countries will lay out their plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions this decade – probably the last decade in which we still have a chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C, beyond which corals bleach, low-lying islands face inundation and extreme weather will take hold. Continue reading...
Sand samples examined by National Trust experts indicate hillside chalk figure was created in the 10th centuryOver the centuries the huge, naked, club-wielding giant carved into a steep hillside in Dorset has been thought prehistoric, Celtic, Roman or even a 17th century lampoon of Oliver Cromwell.After 12 months of new, hi-tech sediment analysis, the National Trust has now revealed the probable truth and experts admit they are taken aback. The bizarre, enigmatic Cerne Giant is none of the above, but late Saxon, possibly 10th century. Continue reading...
Button batteries and magnets found in certain types of children’s toys associated with complicationsThere has been a fivefold increase in magnet ingestion over the past five years in young children amid a steady rise in hospital admissions in London caused by the swallowing of foreign objects, doctors have said.While most of the time objects pass out of the body naturally without incident, button batteries and small permanent magnets found in cordless tools, hard disk drives, magnetic fasteners and certain types of children’s toys have been associated with complications. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Shivani Dave on (#5HPT6)
Prompted by an illness that took her to the brink of death and back, Jemma Wadham recalls 25 years of expeditions around the globe. Speaking to the professor about her new book, Ice Rivers, Shivani Dave uncovers the importance of glaciers – and what they should mean to us Continue reading...
Osiris-Rex has been flying around the ancient asteroid since 2018 and collected nearly a pound of rubble last fallWith rubble from an asteroid tucked inside, a Nasa spacecraft fired its engines and began the long journey back to Earth on Monday, leaving the ancient space rock in its rearview mirror.The trip home for the robotic prospector, Osiris-Rex, will take two years. Continue reading...
This poignant documentary about two young brothers with Duchenne muscular dystrophy celebrates the power of love and togethernessHere is a deeply personal documentary that raises awareness about a disability without neglecting the interiority of those living with the condition. Co-directed by Riccardo Servini and Nick Taussig, the film follows the Taussig family’s experience of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that affects their young sons, Theo and Oscar.Duchenne is incurable and fatal. By the time Theo and Oscar are in their teens, they will be using wheelchairs full time; their 20s will come with ventilators. Throughout the film, Taussig gently explains these realities to his sons, with no sugarcoating. Satisfying children’s curiosity has never been easy, and here the task is made even more difficult when science itself has yet to provide all answers. Continue reading...
Worried that your canine companion is disobedient, territorial and quick to bark? Research suggests it’s probably a clever clogsName: Grumpy dogs.Appearance: Just adorable. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#5HN3D)
In Kenya, the area of optimal tea-growing conditions will be reduced by more than a quarter by 2050Your morning cup of tea may never taste the same again if global heating increases and the climate crisis intensifies, according to research.Some of the world’s biggest tea-growing areas will be among the worst hit by extreme weather, and their yields are likely to be vastly reduced in the coming decades if climate breakdown continues at its current pace. Floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms are likely to have a severe impact on tea-growing areas around the world, according to a report from the charity Christian Aid. Continue reading...
Observers in the northern hemisphere can start tonight to look for the elusive targetThis May offers observers in the northern hemisphere their best chance of the year to see the planet Mercury in the evening sky. Continue reading...
Researchers create bat with similar performance from what they say is cheap and sustainable materialCricket has been bowled a googly by scientists who have suggested the traditional willow used to make bats could be replaced by bamboo to increase their sustainability and boost the sport’s reach.“Willow has been the principal material for cricket bats for centuries,” said Dr Darshil Shah at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study. Continue reading...
Pressure builds on Indian government to announce national lockdown; third of UK adults now fully vaccinated against Covid-19; Laos records first Covid death
by Presented by Rachel Humphreys with Shanna Swan. Pr on (#5HMR7)
Dr Shanna Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York City, talks to Rachel Humphreys about declining fertility in men. Over the past 40 years, average sperm counts among western men have more than halved.She tells Rachel how certain chemicals can interfere with reproductive health. Phthalates, used to make plastic soft and flexible, are of particular concern. They lower testosterone, which can affect sperm count, though they are bad for women, too, and can increase the risk of miscarriage and premature birth. The reproductive crisis is serious, she says. We need to try and limit our exposure to these chemicals otherwise human survival could be threatened.
Incandescent light, the thud of Tokyo nightclubs, particle physics … it all goes into Ryoji Ikeda’s extraordinary sensory symphonies. He talks about his upcoming show at 180 The StrandRyoji Ikeda has delivered some dazzling rushes on the senses over his 25-year career: a beach in Rio de Janeiro bathed in his unique palette of light; New York’s Times Square given over to his black and white flickering patterns. But for his next show, the Japanese artist and composer is taking things underground. Ikeda’s biggest exhibition in Europe to date concerns the exposed underbelly of 180 The Strand in London, which he has reimagined as staves, notes and bar lines – with himself as the conductor, “orchestrat[ing] everything into a symphony”.Beginning with a single light beam piercing the rafters, the exhibition carries the viewer through an incandescent corridor of white light and into a room filled with a ring of immense, super-directional speakers reverberating at concert pitch. To Ikeda, this is “opera” with light and sound. “There’s the intro, the welcome piece, then the crescendo [and] climax. It’s a long journey.” Continue reading...
When Rebecca Schiller swapped the city for a rural dream life seemed idyllic. But however far you go, you can’t escape your self…Winter has hung around this year as though even the seasons are waiting for government permission to unlock. Despite spring’s late arrival on the smallholding, Amber has gone into labour early. It’s just me and her in the kidding pen; me muttering soft, nonsensical words of encouragement, her bleating through contractions and resting against my hand. She pushes again but nothing happens. The hooves of the emerging kid have been static for too long and the out-of-hours emergency vet is on the way. I give into a two-minute power cry because I don’t know if this day will end with life or death, and then the vet arrives and I snap out of it. “I’ll give her an epidural first,” he says, getting to work matter-of-factly. A goat epidural – of course.Five years ago I lived in town, had just two cats and barely knew the difference between hay and straw. Now, somehow, I’m a person with an overdue account at the agricultural merchants and I know how to organise a spinal block for a goat. Continue reading...
US agency accuses Beijing of failing to meet expected standards regarding its space debrisRemnants of China’s biggest rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit and drawing US criticism over a lack of transparency.The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), put the point of impact west of the Maldives archipelago. Continue reading...
The discovery of a child laid to rest in Africa 78,000 years ago indicates a value placed on life that we shareScientists have discovered what may be the oldest known burial in Africa. The remains of a person, probably aged two or three, and buried some 78,000 years ago have been discovered in Panga ya Saidi, a cave system in Kenya. The child, given the name Mtoto, Swahili for “child”, appears to have been placed on their side with their legs tucked into the chest and the head resting on a long-perished support. The body may have been wrapped in some form of material, perhaps an animal skin, which again has perished.Mtoto is not the earliest human burial of which we know. There are several sites in the Middle East in which modern humans (Homo sapiens) were buried at least 120,000 years ago. We know also of Neanderthal burials. Some anthropologists suggest that an even earlier human species, Homo naledi, may also have buried their dead, though this is controversial. Continue reading...
According to some, not factoring hormone fluctuation into women’s mental healthcare can be dangerous. For others, it feeds into outdated stereotypes“It’s my hormones, doc. It’s my hormones, and no one’s listened to that.”It was the late 1980s, in what was once Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital in inner-city Melbourne. A brash young registrar doing her training in psychiatry had arrived at her first hospital placement, full of ideas and enthusiasm. Perhaps to put a bit of scuff on that bright ambition, she was assigned to look after the female patients in the “back ward”. Continue reading...
Gene-screening, as is used to detect some breast cancer risks, could save thousands of livesScientists have begun work to create a prostate cancer screening service for the UK. In a few years, middle-aged men could be tested to reveal their genetic susceptibility to the condition, with those deemed to be under significant threat of developing it being offered treatment or surgery.The service would tackle a disease that has become the nation’s most commonly diagnosed cancer and would parallel Britain’s breast cancer screening programme. Every year, more than 47,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer: 129 a day on average. More than 11,500 deaths from the disease occur each year, with one in eight men being diagnosed with prostate cancer at some time in their lives. Continue reading...
China has played down fears that its Long March 5B rocket could hit a populated area or a plane in flight but there is no shortage of problem debris in orbitSometime this weekend the upper stage of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket will plunge back to Earth and most of it will burn up on re-entry – but perhaps not all.Military experts in the US expect the booster stage to come down on Saturday or Sunday, but have warned it is difficult to predict where it will land and when and how much material might hit the ground – or if it could knock a plane out of the sky. Continue reading...
by Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent on (#5HJZQ)
Sinopharm jab will also be added to Covax programme for the developing world in the coming weeksThe World Health Organization has given emergency use approval to one of the Chinese-made Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccines in a major boost to the product’s credibility.The long-awaited decision made on Friday by a WHO technical advisory group would also see the Chinese vaccine being included in the Covax programme for the developing world in the coming weeks, and distributed through UN agencies, potentially benefiting millions of people in need worldwide. Continue reading...
Could it be that I, a committed extrovert who talks to strangers, had become an introvert during the pandemic?To quote James Brown: I feel good, I knew that I would. Britain has opened up. Into a restaurant I leap, on to a beautician’s bed I spring, and into a shop I hop, to try on sunglasses and flirt with the salesperson, who is almost certainly reciprocating for money. Still, in-person interaction with strangers! These days I skip home.But recently one evening I found myself alone, properly alone, for the first time in a while. No one in the flat, and no obligation to join a Zoom, or go out to care for someone – everyone I love was busy and catered for in this new world. And it was lovely. Continue reading...
Defense secretary is hopeful rocket will crash in the ocean; Aerospace Corp said it expects debris to hit the Pacific near the equatorThe US military has no plan to shoot down the remnants of a large Chinese rocket expected to plunge back through the atmosphere this weekend, the defense secretary said on Thursday.Speaking with reporters, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the hope was the rocket would land in the ocean and that the latest estimate was that it would come down between Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading...
by Siddak Gursang Singh Nirankari Jhamat on (#5HJ60)
I found a ball of mud with something pointy sticking out the top. I ran into the kitchen screaming. I was so excitedI love digging in the back garden; I’ve been doing it for ages. When I was younger, I hoped to reach other countries, or at least get to my neighbour’s back garden. During lockdown me and my mummy started digging in the flowerbeds together.Sometimes, I’d dig for pottery and stuff, but I’ve always wanted to find a fossil. I like finding out about the past. At school, my favourite subject is history. I’ve been watching Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures on CBeebies since I was three (I’m now six) and I’ve seen lots of YouTube videos of a guy who searches for megalodon teeth. I knew I had a good chance of finding a fossil, because my house was built on a muddy, limestone substrate, in Walsall, which means millions of years ago, my garden wasn’t my garden at all – it was a coral reef. Continue reading...
Analysis of more than 95,000 women under 50 suggests link between heavy consumption and the diseaseHeavy consumption of sugary drinks may raise the risk of developing bowel cancer before the age of 50, according to a major study into diet and disease in US nurses.Researchers analysed dietary and medical records of more than 95,000 women tracked from 1991 to 2015 as part of the US Nurses’ Health II study and looked for evidence linking sugary drinks to early diagnosis of bowel cancer. Continue reading...
I was just starting my career in paediatrics at Southmead hospital in Bristol in 1963 when Peter Dunn was appointed. He quickly fired everyone’s enthusiasm for neonatology. At the time, junior staff were trying to persuade more senior staff that low-birthweight babies should be fed early, rather than the practice of not feeding for 48 hours or until they seemed hungry. He strongly supported us and we managed to establish early feeding. We founded the Bristol Perinatal Club together, which at the time was unique in allowing obstetricians and neonatologists to meet to discuss mutual problems. Continue reading...
by Presented by Phoebe Weston and produced by Anand J on (#5HH07)
When the Guardian began reporting on the climate crisis 70 years ago, people were worried that warmer temperatures would make it harder to complain about the weather. Today it is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced.In the second special episode marking 200 years of the Guardian, Phoebe Weston is joined by Jonathan Watts, Prof Naomi Oreskes and Alice Bell to take a look at climate coverage over the years, how our understanding of the science has changed and how our attitudes and politics have shifted Continue reading...
New Shepard rocket-and-capsule combo aims to fly six passengers 62 miles above Earth into spaceBlue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s rocket company, aims to launch its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its New Shepard spacecraft on 20 July, a moment that could usher in an era of private commercial space travel.Blue Origin also said it would offer one seat on the first flight to the winning bidder of a five-week online auction, the proceeds of which will be donated to the space firm’s foundation. Continue reading...
Despite pandemic-enforced isolation, scientists from around the world have produced a vital climate change forecastSea levels are going to rise, no matter what. This is certain. But new
The best time to look skyward will be from 2.30am to 3am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning – and you won’t need a telescopeShooting stars will light up the early morning sky across Australia this coming weekend.Those willing to brave the cold over the next few days will be rewarded with a spectacular show of streaking lights. Continue reading...