The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following two puzzles. The first is from the UK’s Mathematical Olympiad for Girls:Painting the houses Continue reading...

Nasa’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, the space agency has announced.The small helicopter successfully took flight on the red planet on Monday morning, hovering in the air at about 3 metres (10ft), before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface

While most followed restrictions, one in seven admitted to decreasing levels of compliance

Nasa has said its Ingenuity aircraft flew above the Martian surface in the first powered, controlled flight on another planet Continue reading...

Oxford scientists will track whether participants are reinfected when re-exposed to coronavirus

A colourful puzzle from the UK girls’ maths olympiadUpdate: the solutions can now be read here.Today’s puzzle celebrates the UK’s outstanding performance at last week’s European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad, which is the world’s most prestigious female-only maths competition for pre-university students.Yuhka Machino and Jenni Voon, both aged 17, placed 6th and 7th overall, each earning gold medals. Overall, the UK ranked fifth out of 55 countries, behind Russia, the USA, Peru and Romania. (The event was held online, allowing 17 non-European countries to participate as guests.) Continue reading...

Physicists are always looking for eureka moments – but we should be careful with headline-grabbing announcementsThere is something curious about the great experiments and discoveries in fundamental physics from the past few decades. They have covered black holes, gravitational waves, the Higgs particle and quantum entanglement. They have led to Nobel prizes, reached the front pages of newspapers and made the scientific community proud. But they haven’t told us anything new: they have confirmed what we expected about the world. All these phenomena were in the university textbooks I studied almost half a century ago. Their existence was predicted by our best established theories. I do not mean to diminish the awe. On the contrary. It is amazing that the phenomena were observed, and even more amazing that they were figured out before we could see them. Their detection is a celebration of the power of scientific thinking to see into the unseen. Yet a malignant voice could have whispered in our ears at each step: “What’s the great surprise? We expected this.” Fundamental experimental physics has long been, in this sense, quite conservative. It has simply been confirming the best theories of last century over and over again.Last week findings from Fermilab, the US’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory, appeared to contradict what we thought to be the case. The laboratory announced a new measurement of the “magnetic moment” of the muon – one of the universe’s elementary particles, a heavier brother of the electron. The measured value of the muon seems to disagree with the value predicted by the theory. It is an observation that does not complement our established theories; it clashes with them. Continue reading...

Once you’ve traced out the full Ursa Major constellation, look for Polaris and shooting starsThis week, take the time to look north. Start by identifying Ursa Major, the great bear. This large constellation stretches across the northern sky. It is the third largest constellation in the entire sky and has been recognised for millennia across many different cultures, mostly because of its seven brightest stars. Continue reading...

If all goes to plan, craft will ascend to 10 feet above the surface of Mars, hover for 30 seconds, then rotate before descendingNasa on Monday will attempt to fly a miniature helicopter above the surface of Mars in what would be the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.If all goes to plan, the 1.8kg helicopter will slowly ascend to an altitude of three metres above the Martian surface, hover for 30 seconds, then rotate before descending to a gentle landing on all four legs. The flight is due to take place at 3.30am US eastern daylight time (8.30am BST/7.30am GMT). But data confirming the outcome is not expected to reach Nasa until about three hours later. Continue reading...

Countless inquiries have found the same problems afflicting the mental health system, but cost and access barriers still leave those seeking and providing care in despair

Mike Whittaker has a suggestion to reduce test costs for those wishing to travel abroad, while Catherine Dunn says that if the government invested in public health infrastructure, we would have a more effective testing systemYour article (Airlines warn the cost of Covid tests will stop people going abroad, 9 April) considers the cost of Covid tests for a family, calculated as the cost of a single test, multiplied by the number in the travel group.But the tests are to detect if any person in the group has the virus. Hence in principle, the samples from all persons in a travel group could be combined into one single sample tube, which is then tested with a single test. A positive result would then show that somebody in the group had Covid, thereby preventing the whole group from travelling. This would allow costs to be reduced for each travel group.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsScientists and astronomers tell us that the universe is expanding. But what is it expanding into, ie what’s beyond the universe?

An exhibition at London’s Science Museum shows how far carbon capture research has comeTackling climate change may bring unexpected benefits, London’s Science Museum will reveal next month. A special exhibition on carbon capture, the fledgling technology of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and emissions from factories, will display bottles of vodka, tubes of toothpaste, pens and yoga mats made from carbon drawn out of thin air.In addition, the exhibition – Our Future Planet – will showcase prototypes of the gas-harvesting machines that can provide this carbon. They include the Lackner artificial tree which mirrors the actions of living plants by breathing in carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen. This Heath Robinson-like device – made up of dangling panels of carbon-absorbing material – was built by Klaus Lackner at Arizona State University and will be the first to be displayed in Britain. Continue reading...

Largest crowd at a major British stadium for more than a year will aid research into events reopening this summer

Scientists are concerned virus or medication used for treating Covid-19 is causing ear damage

Outdoor therapy can help people to become reflective and their body language while moving gives clues to their feelingsCovid has transformed the way many of us work and that includes the people who look after our mental health. For much of lockdown, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists have all had to venture into the world of online therapy, tackling their clients’ issues via a computer screen, and often the experience has felt less than ideal for all those involved.But throughout much of lockdown, another option has become increasingly popular: combining therapy with the benefits of the great outdoors. The British Psychological Society (BPS) issued guidance on this outdoor approach last summer, advising its members on how best to take their work outside, addressing issues such as confidentiality and the absence of a boundaried space. Yet many therapists ditched the four walls and a couch approach a long time ago and have been working out in nature for years. Continue reading...

The MIT researcher says that for humans to flourish we must move beyond thinking of robots as potential future competitorsDr Kate Darling is a research specialist in human-robot interaction, robot ethics and intellectual property theory and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. In her new book, The New Breed, she argues that we would be better prepared for the future if we started thinking about robots and artificial intelligence (AI) like animals.What is wrong with the way we think about robots?

Indian coronavirus variant has potential to ‘scupper’ lockdown easing, says professor of immunology

He believed orgasms could be a healing force and coined the term ‘sexual revolution’. Reich’s understanding of the body is vital in our age of protests and patriarchy, writes Olivia LaingThere are certain people who speak directly into their moment, and others who leave a message for history to decipher, whose work gains in relevance or whose life becomes uncannily meaningful decades after their death. It’s hard to think of a better example of the latter right now, in this year of protests and plague, than the renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, one of the strangest and most prescient thinkers of the 20th century.What Reich wanted to understand was the body itself: why you might want to escape or subdue it, why it remains a naked source of power. His wild life draws together aspects of bodily experience that remain intensely relevant now, from illness to sex, anti-fascist direct action to incarceration. The writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin read Reich, as did many of the second-wave feminists. Susan Sontag wrote Illness As Metaphor as a riposte to his theories about health, while Kate Bush’s song “Cloudbusting” immortalises his battle with the law, its insistent, hiccupping refrain – “I just know that something good is going to happen” – conveying the compelling utopian atmosphere of his ideas. Continue reading...

Human-generated sounds faded substantially at height of Covid lockdown, studies show

Space agency breaks with tradition by awarding $2.9bn contract to single company in ‘big step’ for moon-to-Mars strategyNasa has chosen SpaceX to build the next-generation spacecraft that will return humans to the moon, further strengthening Elon Musk’s grip on the burgeoning public-private space industry.The $2.9bn contract to build the lunar lander that will spearhead the Artemis program, Nasa’s ambitious project to return to the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972, was announced on Friday. Continue reading...

From Doug to Nelly and Eeek, we look at how mutations are affecting the battle against the virus

There is a greater need than ever for measured, up-to-date information about this condition, writes Prof Michael Sharpe. Plus letters from Robin Davies and Prof Paul GarnerGeorge Monbiot has written about post Covid-19 illnesses (Apparently just by talking about it, I’m super-spreading long Covid, 14 April). He referred to slides he had obtained from a talk I was invited to give because of my clinical expertise in this area. In my talk, I emphasised the need to listen to patients and assess them individually, as many different factors – biological, psychological and social – may be contributing to their illness.I said that while we find that most patients referred to post-Covid clinics by GPs do not have evidence of persisting and serious organ damage, some are very anxious that they may have. Mr Monbiot appears to be surprised to hear that this anxiety is not helped by media articles emphasising organ damage and permanent disability; most clinicians will not be. Continue reading...

Researchers worry that ‘variant under investigation’ contains mutations that could help it evade immune response

Experts worried about high use of drugs such as codeine and tramadol after prescriptions rose during Covid pandemic

Billionaire Jared Isaacman is chartering a SpaceX rocket to take him and three others into orbitThis week was the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The flight lasted 108 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 327km (203 miles).Following the re-entry of his space capsule, Gagarin parachuted the last 7km to Earth, landing in a potato field near Saratov. A woman and her granddaughter were planting the crop, and were startled to see him in his bright orange flight suit coming towards them. Continue reading...

Experts calculate the total number of the dinosaurs that lived over 127,000 generationsOne Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That’s how many of the fierce dinosaur king probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple of million years, a new study finds.Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity and the creatures’ energy needs, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, figured out just how many T rex lived over 127,000 generations, according to a study in the journal Science on Thursday. It’s a first-of-its-kind number, but just an estimate with a margin of error that is the size of a T rex. Continue reading...

New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, reducing need for air conditioningThe whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate crisis.The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled surfaces by 4.5C below the ambient temperature, even in strong sunlight. The researchers said the paint could be on the market in one or two years. Continue reading...

Exclusive: In leaked emails, Matt Hancock’s adviser says there is ‘urgent need for decisions’ on asymptomatic testing

Scientists confirm they have produced ‘chimera’ embryos from long-tailed macaques and humansMonkey embryos containing human cells have been produced in a laboratory, a study has confirmed, spurring fresh debate into the ethics of such experiments.The embryos are known as chimeras, organisms whose cells come from two or more “individuals”, and in this case, different species: a long-tailed macaque and a human. Continue reading...

The wealth of research going on around Covid and inequality could be used to help everyone lead healthier lives

Palaeontologist who studied the bony ancestors of salmon and cod, and what lungfish had in common with four-limbed animalsEarly in his scientific career, Brian Gardiner, who has died aged 88, was seduced by fossils – the remains, shapes or traces of ancient organisms preserved in rock. Brian wanted to learn how these should be interpreted and classified and what they reveal about evolution. In the 1950s, working at Queen Elizabeth College, London (which has now merged with King’s College London), and using the collections of the Natural History Museum (NHM), he first studied fish embedded in Jurassic limestone formed 170-200m years ago. This period contains fearsome, primitive cartilaginous sharks, and the biggest bony fish ever – Leedsichthys, reaching 20 metres long.Using anatomical clues, Brian unravelled a story of the “modernisation” of bony fishes as they evolved into the streamlined, fast-swimming, dominant group represented today by salmon and cod. Changes were discovered in fins, tails, teeth and jaws, and a reduction in the hitherto bulky external armour. Critically, there was the transition of softer cartilage into ossified discs in the backbone, a specialisation shared with amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans. Brian became keen to explore wider relationships. Continue reading...

Analysis rebuts claim by Boris Johnson that jab was developed ‘because of greed’

Why do we scream? Whilst past research has largely focused on using screams to signal danger and scare predators, humans scream in a much wider range of contexts – from crying out in pleasure to shrieking with grief. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Sascha Frühholz about his new study identifying what emotions humans communicate through screams, and how our brains react differently to distinct types of scream calls Continue reading...

Trial suggests psilocybin combined with psychological therapy is as effective as antidepressant drugMagic mushrooms have a long and rich history. Now scientists say they could play an important role in the future, with their active ingredient a promising treatment for depression.The results from a small, phase two clinical trial have revealed that two doses of psilocybin appears to be as effective as the common antidepressant escitalopram in treating moderate to severe major depressive disorder, at least when combined with psychological therapy. Continue reading...

Households in Southwark and Barnet added to test drive in effort to curb spread of South African variant

Remains of buildings near Yorkshire town said to be ‘most important Roman discovery of last decade’When developers broke ground on the outskirts of Scarborough, they were hoping to build a housing estate ideal for first-time buyers, families and professionals, with en suites, off-street parking and integrated kitchens galore. But before shovels had even hit earth, they found someone else had got there first: the Romans.The remains of a Roman settlement believed to be the first of its kind discovered in Britain – and possibly the whole Roman empire – has been uncovered near the North Yorkshire seaside town. Continue reading...

Intact remains, discovered in Morocco, may help engineers create stronger lightweight structuresPterosaurs, one of the first and largest vertebrates to learn to fly, have often been seen as the cool cousins of the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex.Now scientists have discovered the 100m-year-old secret to the success of the flying pterosaur: a neck longer than a giraffe. Continue reading...

Scientists say AstraZeneca vaccine has greater effect when it comes to cellular response

Outbreaks such as the South African variant that’s emerged in south London will require constant vigilance as lockdown easesAll viruses mutate. They do this to adapt and survive better in their specific host. The virus that causes Covid-19 is no different: it has moved from the animal realm, where it most likely originated in bats, to the human world. Since then, scientists have been locked in a battle between the spread of the virus and the ability to immunise against it. We now have the vaccines to protect us against Covid-19 – but what happens when this virus mutates further, as it likely will?As lockdown restrictions ease, south London has already seen a cluster of new cases related to the South African variant. Over the next six months, dealing with emerging variants will be one of the major challenges that scientists face. Some vaccines show promising signs of coping with new variants – the mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna seem to offer some protection against the variants first identified in Kent and South Africa. Most virologists think that Covid-19 vaccines will protect against severe disease and death, even in people who have been infected by a mutated strain of the virus. Continue reading...

New Netflix drama Stowaway is the latest in a crop of movies that suggests space travel is more random death and boredom than warp speed nineAnybody who fancies watching a new science fiction film this month can count their lucky stars. A Netflix drama, Stowaway, features Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette and Daniel Dae Kim as a trio of astronauts who are on their way to Mars when they discover that an unfortunate launch-plan engineer, Shamier Anderson, is still onboard. The trouble is, there is only enough oxygen for three of them. American viewers can also see Voyagers (due for release in Britain in July), in which 30 hormonal starship passengers are preparing to colonise another world. The trouble is, something goes wrong on their mission, too, and the trip turns into an interplanetary Lord of the Flies. The moral of both stories is that you should probably push “astronaut” a few slots down your list of dream jobs. But if you’ve caught any other science fiction films recently, it’s bound to be quite far down the list, anyway.Again and again over the past decade, cinema has warned us that venturing beyond the Earth’s atmosphere is uncomfortable, dangerous, exhaustingly difficult, frequently tedious, and almost certain to involve interplanetary angst and asphyxiation. George Clooney’s morose The Midnight Sky rounded off 2020 with a fatal spacewalk. Aniara and Passengers posited that existence on a colony ship was a lot grimmer than Wall-E had led us to believe. The “sad dads in space” sub-genre coalesced with Brad Pitt’s Freudian moping in Ad Astra, and Robert Pattinson’s in High Life. No wonder today’s youngsters would rather be YouTubers or influencers than astronauts. The overriding thesis of current science fiction films is this: space travel is rubbish. Continue reading...

A professor has suggested that press coverage could make people believe they have the condition

Sleeping sickness, strange behaviour and mass hysteria ... a neurologist makes sense of ‘psychosomatic’ illness

Researchers to examine whether mixing vaccines may give longer-lasting immunity against virus

To understand why so many are craving human touch we can look to our evolutionary history – and the secrets of our skin

They are 20 disparate diseases that, like mines, unduly affect the world’s poorest people. Now there’s a plan to eradicate them by 2030In January the World Health Organization launched a new strategy for eradicating neglected tropical diseases, boldly setting targets to eliminate 20 of them by 2030.But what are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)? There is no easy answer. The concept was first proposed in the early 2000s to bring to light a group of diseases that disproportionately affect poor people yet, despite their collective impact, do not attract as much attention as diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria or tuberculosis. Continue reading...

Colony does not perish when queen dies as ‘chosen’ workers shrink brains and expand their ovariesFew species in the animal kingdom can change the size of their brain. Fewer still can change it back to its original size. Now researchers have found the first insect species with that ability: Indian jumping ants.They are like catnip to researchers in the field. In contrast to their cousins, Indian jumping ants colonies do not perish once their queen dies. Instead, “chosen” workers take her place – with expanded ovaries and shrunken brains – to produce offspring. But, if a worker’s “pseudo-queen” status is somehow revoked, their bodies can bounce back, the research suggests. Continue reading...

A bright meteor shot across and lit up the night sky of south Florida and the Bahamas on Monday. The moment was captured by security cameras and dashcams across the region

Analysis: buying new and existing technologies ensured alternatives if a vaccine failed or had supply issues