The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsHappier people live longer, more pleasant lives. Informed people are weighed down with the woes of the world. So, is ignorant bliss better than knowledgeable gloom? Mary Shider, MacclesfieldSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
Researchers say influences in the womb may play a role in increasing the risk of developing the conditionChildren of obese mothers have a greater risk of developing fatty liver disease in their 20s, according to researchers who say policymakers need to do more to tackle the promotion of poor-quality food and drink.Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) can be caused by obesity. If it progresses it can lead to serious health problems such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, while high levels of fat in the liver are also associated with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Continue reading...
Unvaccinated children have potential to drive third wave of highly transmissible Delta variant, says virologistThe drive to vaccinate all adults over the age of 18 in the UK could lead to the concentration of Covid-19 cases in schoolchildren, a leading British virologist has warned.Under-18s would then become reservoirs in which new variants of the virus could arise, said Julian Tang, of Leicester University. Continue reading...
The scientist and broadcaster discusses the drawbacks of calorie-counting and BMI in measuring obesity, and how our growing understanding of genetics is leading to new treatmentsSince the dawn of the 20th century, almost all weight loss guidelines have used calories as a simple measure of how much energy we’re consuming from our food. But according to Giles Yeo, a Cambridge University research scientist who studies the genetics of obesity, there’s one problem: not all calories are created equal. In his new book, Why Calories Don’t Count, Yeo explains that what really matters is not how many calories a particular food contains, but how that food is digested and absorbed by your body.Can you explain why you feel calorie-counting is a flawed approach to weight loss?
As psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry becomes our new agony aunt, she reveals why helping you with your worries will help us all. Plus, a special welcome from Jay RaynerJohn Dunton founded the Athenian Mercury in the 1690s. A paper that consisted of readers’ questions and the answers. His idea was that readers could send in dilemmas to be answered by a panel of experts, the Athenian Society. But his great innovation was that they could do so anonymously and this has remained a feature of problem pages ever since. Poor old Dunton could have done with some advice himself, because he ended his days in poverty as he was a better innovator than he was a business person. He blamed his woes on other people rather than taking responsibility for his own failings. I think an agony aunt today might have spotted that for him and possibly saved him from destitution.His panel of experts, depicted as 12 learned men with him in the centre in an engraving at the top of the pages, were largely fictitious. It was just Dunton and a couple of mates who went through all the letters in a coffee shop. Continue reading...
The astronaut reveals why he likes nothing more than a nice and relaxed down-to-earth day with the kidsWhat time do you get up? Whatever time my youngest comes bouncing into the room. He’s nine and has an uncanny ability to sleep in on school days and wake up early on weekends.What’s for breakfast? We’ll make pancakes with blueberries and raspberries. We’ve got a little pancake maker – it’s fun and our two boys like getting involved. Continue reading...
Sir David King hopes to emulate success of British Covid advisory body by issuing monthly reports on environmental crisisSeveral of the world’s leading scientists plan to launch an independent expert group this week to advise, warn and criticise global policymakers about the climate and nature crises.The new body has been inspired by Independent Sage – the cluster of British scientists who have held UK ministers and civil servants to account for their lack of transparency and mishandling of the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...
At the age of just 22, the very last thing you want to hear is that you have stage 4 cancer, but for some people the only response is to tackle it head on – which is just what Ellie Edna Rose-Davies didI barely noticed it at first. A bump on the right side of my neck, small but definite. I was 22 and had no health issues (I’d never even broken a bone), so I didn’t think much of the lump. But my boyfriend was concerned, so I made an appointment to go to the GP.For the next few months, I would see and feel more lumps spreading up my neck, and even larger ones under my armpits. I went to the doctor three times, where I was told: “It’s not cancer” and that I had “nothing to worry about”. Continue reading...
The moss scientist and bestselling author reveals the secrets of these primitive plants – and what they might teach us about surviving the climate crisisRobin Wall Kimmerer can recall almost to the day when she first fell under the unlikely spell of moss. “It’s kind of embarrassing,” she says. “I’ve always been engaged with plants, because I grew up in the countryside. That was my world. But mosses I’d set aside in my mind as not worthy of attention. I was studying to be a forest ecologist. That little green scum on the rocks: how interesting could it really be? Only then there came a point when I’d taken every botany class our university had to offer, except one: the ecology of mosses. I thought I’d do it, just so I could say that I’d taken them all. It was love at first sight. I remember looking with a lens at these big glacial erratic boulders that were covered in moss, and thinking: there’s a whole world here to be discovered.” Ever since, she has rarely left her house for a walk without such a lens on a string around her neck.Kimmerer, a professor of environmental biology and the director of the Centre for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York in Syracuse, is probably the most well-known bryologist at work in the world today. She may be, in fact, the only well-known bryologist at work today (bryology is the study of mosses and liverworts), at least among the general public. But her unlikely success – her fans include the writer Robert Macfarlane and the Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Richard Powers, who gives daily thanks for what he calls her “endless knowledge” – hardly arrived overnight. In 2013, Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, quietly published a book called Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants – a (seemingly) niche read from a small US press. Continue reading...
by Natalie Grover Science correspondent on (#5K84B)
Scientists find fossilised footprints of multiple dinosaur species preserved by sediment in FolkestoneFootprints of what could be the last dinosaurs to have walked in Britain have been found in Kent, researchers say.About 66m years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth and wiped out much of the Earth’s dinosaurs. But flooding rendered Britain’s dinosaurs extinct much earlier: about 110m years ago. Continue reading...
Sipping water through an L-shaped ‘suction and swallow tool’ cured 92% of attacks, according to studyFrom holding your breath to having a friend shout “boo!”, there is no shortage of alleged cures for hiccups. Now scientists say they have found a better solution: a drinking straw device.When you get hiccups – or singultus as they are known in medicine – the diaphragm and intercostal muscles suddenly contract. The subsequent abrupt intake of air causes the opening between the vocal folds – known as the glottis – to shut, resulting in a “hic” sound, often to the embarrassment of the afflicted and the amusement of others. Continue reading...
Female Olympic athletes have been fitted with individually designed sports bras to enhance performanceAs Tokyo hopefuls debate the marginal gains afforded by Vaporfly running shoes, Britain’s sportswomen have been keeping another secret weapon close to their chests.In the drive for marginal performance gains, British female athletes have been fitted with specially designed sports bras, to hoist, sculpt and support their path to victory. Continue reading...
A Chinese spaceship carrying a three-person crew has docked with the country’s new space station at the start of three-month mission, marking a milestone in its ambitious space programme. The mission is China’s first manned spaceflight in almost five years Continue reading...
Research sheds more light on the giant ‘living fossils’ once thought extinct but which have survived since the age of the dinosaursThe coelacanth – a giant, mysterious fish that has survived since the time of the dinosaurs – can live for 100 years, a study has found.The slow-moving fish, which grow to be the size of a human, are nicknamed a “living fossil”, and also grow at a very slow pace. Continue reading...
Scientists from agency and Noaa say Earth’s ‘energy imbalance’ roughly doubled from 2005 to 2019 in ‘alarming’ wayThe Earth is trapping nearly twice as much heat as it did in 2005, according to new research, described as an “unprecedented” increase amid the climate crisis.Scientists from Nasa, the US space agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), reported in a new study that Earth’s “energy imbalance approximately doubled” from 2005 to 2019. The increase was described as “alarming”. Continue reading...
Whitty says a Covid surge is under way and that cases would continue to rise for the next few weeks; UK records 11,007 new cases. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Research suggests humans cannot slow the rate at which they get older because of biological constraintsImmortality and everlasting youth are the stuff of myths, according to new research which may finally end the eternal debate about whether we can live for ever.Backed by governments, business, academics and investors in an industry worth $110bn (£82.5bn) – and estimated to be worth $610bn by 2025 – scientists have spent decades attempting to harness the power of genomics and artificial intelligence to find a way to prevent or even reverse ageing. Continue reading...
Shenzhou-12 carrying three astronauts docks with Tiangong space station after seven-hour flightAstronauts on board China’s first crewed spacecraft in nearly five years have reached the new Tiangong space station after blasting off from the Gobi desert.A Long March-2F rocket launched the three astronauts in the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, which docked with Tianhe – the main section of the Tiangong station – just over seven hours later. Continue reading...
Analysis: Lockdown extension brings questions on when and how UK can draw a line under social distancingThe Commons vote to delay step four of England’s roadmap out of lockdown has focused attention on when and how the country can draw a line under social distancing and, in the words of the prime minister, “learn to live with the virus”.While the surge in cases in Blackburn – one of the original Delta variant hotspots – may have peaked for now, Public Health England expects recent rises in the north-west to be mirrored across the UK. What that means for hospitals and lives will become clearer in the next four weeks. Continue reading...
China has launched three astronauts intoorbit ahead of their arrival to the country's partially-constructed space station. The trio will spend three months in lowEarth orbit in what is China's firstcrewed mission in nearly five years and will dock with themain section of the Tianhe spacestation that was launched in late-April. The astronauts' stay will coincide withmarking the 100th anniversary of theruling Communist party on 1 July.
by Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier) on (#5K4R8)
Latest updates: 60 MPs vote against government plans while former special adviser Dominic Cummings publishes messages purporting to show PM’s criticism of health secretary Matt Hancock
Covid-19 cases have fallen far below the winter peak, but the Delta variant has roughly doubled every two weeks in the USScientists in the United States are anxiously watching the Delta variant of Covid-19, as it spreads through an unevenly vaccinated American public and an economy that is rapidly reopening.The Delta variant, first identified as B.1.617.2 in India, is believed to be more transmissible than both the original strain of Covid-19 and the Alpha strain, first identified in the United Kingdom. Continue reading...
by Martin Farrer, and Helen Davidson in Taipei on (#5K4EB)
Combination of rise in demand for products as some countries reopen and lockdowns in some port cities mean prices could climbAn outbreak of Covid-19 in southern China has combined with the rapid reopening of the world economy and a shortage of shipping containers to cause a surge in transport costs that could fuel inflation and cause shortages of goods across the globe.China reported 21 new coronavirus cases in the mainland on Wednesday with 15 of them in the vital industrial province of Guangdong where restrictions have been in place for several weeks to contain an outbreak linked to the Delta variant first detected in India. Continue reading...
Brancepeth, County Durham: These small flowers are prone to an extraordinary parasiteA wild tangle of brambles covers this section of embankment beside a former railway line. A wren scolds from the undergrowth. Drone flies hover in the sun flecks filtered through overhanging branches of wild cherry. Butterflies chase through dappled shade. But what has stopped us in our tracks today are drifts of red campions.It’s a glorious display, although something strange is happening to many of the flowers. Where there should be stamens, shedding white pollen, there is brown powder resembling cocoa, staining the petals. They have a sexually transmitted fungal disease, a type of red campion “anther-smut” called Microbotryum silenes-dioicae. Continue reading...
Developed by Australian and European researchers, the film works by converting infrared light into light visible to the human eyeA transparent metallic film allowing a viewer to see in the dark could one day turn regular spectacles into night vision googles.The ultra-thin film, made of a semiconductor called gallium arsenide, could also be used to develop compact and flexible infrared sensors, scientists say. Continue reading...
by Presented by Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on (#5K3FN)
We often think of the illegal trade in wildlife as involving charismatic megafauna such as elephants and big cats. But some of the biggest victims are more inconspicuous. Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield from the Guardian’s age of extinction project explore wildlife crime in a two part series 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 conceptsHappier people live longer, more pleasant lives. Informed people are weighed down with the woes of the world. So, is ignorant bliss better than knowledgable gloom? Mary Shider, MacclesfieldPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published on Sunday. Continue reading...
Instead of cutting the aid budget – including 95% from the plan to stamp out the disease – Britain should take a global leadDespite the Covid pandemic, there have been just two recorded cases of wild polio in 2021 – in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two remaining hiding places for the disease. But eradication is not guaranteed. Polio is virulent and spreads quickly. Even one case poses a threat to unvaccinated children everywhere, which is why a new strategy launched last week by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) outlines a plan to utilise this small window of opportunity for the world to end polio for good.A 99.9% fall in polio cases globally in recent decades is thanks in large part to the GPEI and its supporters. The British government’s recent announcement that it will slash its contributions to the GPEI by more than 95% has been a body blow. The funding cut amounts to almost a quarter of the annual World Health Organization polio eradication budget. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5K2VY)
Production of chemical could help make recycling more attractive and tackle global plastic pollutionPlastic bottles have been converted into vanilla flavouring using genetically engineered bacteria, the first time a valuable chemical has been brewed from waste plastic.Upcycling plastic bottles into more lucrative materials could make the recycling process far more attractive and effective. Currently plastics lose about 95% of their value as a material after a single use. Encouraging better collection and use of such waste is key to tackling the global plastic pollution problem. Continue reading...
Vaccine thefts reported and hospitals unable to admit patients as cases leap 2,800% in a monthUganda has all but run out of Covid-19 vaccines and oxygen as the country grapples with another wave of the pandemic.Both private and public medical facilities in the capital, Kampala and in towns across the country – including regional hubs in Entebbe, Jinja, Soroti, Gulu and Masaka – have reported running out or having acute shortages of AstraZeneca vaccines and oxygen. Hospitals report they are no longer able to admit patients to intensive care. Continue reading...
Crew reportedly getting ready to blast off this week to the Tiangong on China’s longest crewed space mission to dateThe first crew for China’s new space station has reportedly begun final preparations to blast off this week.The mission is China’s first crewed spaceflight in nearly five years, and a matter of prestige for the government as it prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party on 1 July with a propaganda blitz. Continue reading...
The exponential spread of the Delta variant, and the uncertainties surrounding it, mean pausing the roadmap is justifiedSince February, when Boris Johnson unveiled a four-step roadmap to ending all Covid restrictions in England, progress has been steady and at times relatively serene compared with the periods of abject confusion and chaos that went before. The successful rollout of the vaccination programme allowed targets to be met, including the substantial “step three” easing of restrictions on 17 May.But as Boris Johnson recognised in his press conference today, the spread of the new Delta variant – which now accounts for 96% of Covid cases in the United Kingdom – has upended calculations. Latest data suggests it is 40-80% more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which originated in Kent. The variant partly evades vaccines and appears to increase the risk of hospitalisation. Hospital admission rates are increasing by 50% a week and 61% in the north-west. A significant third wave is thus under way and the government’s scientific advisers do not know the extent to which current rates of vaccination and acquired immunity will keep it in check. A summer surge in hospitalisations could overwhelm an already overstretched NHS. Continue reading...