Science | The Guardian

Albert, Bernard and Cheryl returnTen years ago I published a maths olympiad question from Singapore on the Guardian website, and it changed my life.Cheryl's birthday problem' went viral. Its unexpected success led to the birth of this column in May 2015. And here we are, almost 250 puzzles later.May 15, May 16, May 19June 17, June 18July 14, July 16August 14, August 15, August 17 Continue reading...

The pinnacle of this celestial display will be the waxing crescent moon cruising past the Pleiades star clusterWe start April with a glorious tableau of planet, moon and stars. The chart shows the view looking west-south-west from London at 2030 BST on 1 April. The last of the twilight will still be visible in the west, but in the rest of the sky the night will be nearly fully gathered.The stars of the familiar constellations of Orion, the hunter, and Taurus, the bull, will be easy to spot, as will the brilliant beacon of Jupiter. The planet will be sitting between the horns of Taurus. The face of the bull is marked by the V-shaped collection of stars known as the Hyades, and its eye is denoted by Aldebaran. Continue reading...

Uncrewed Spectrum test rocket's failure seconds after blast-off said to have produced extensive data nonethelessA test rocket intended to kickstart satellite launches from Europe fell to the ground and exploded less than a minute after takeoff from Norway on Sunday, in what the German startup Isar Aerospace had described as an initial test.The Spectrum started smoking from its sides and crashed back to Earth in a powerful explosion just after its launch from from the Andoya spaceport in the Arctic. Images were broadcast live on YouTube. Continue reading...

An uncrewed test rocket intended to kickstart satellite launches from Europe fell to the ground and exploded less than a minute after takeoff from the Andoya spaceport in Norway. The German startup Isar Aerospace, which had warned the launch could end prematurely, said the test produced extensive data that its team could learn from

For one writer, tragedy led to comedy, the sudden loss of a colleague giving her the nudge she neededThere's nothing funny about your co-worker being assassinated. But it was the death of my beloved colleague and friend Hisham al-Hashimi that led me into the world of standup comedy. I knew it would trash my hard-won career in international security, but I didn't care any more.Hisham had run a workshop with me in Iraq six months prior to his death, and I'd taken everything so seriously, marching around the hotel yelling about how everything was going wrong. But Hisham always had a lightness in his step, a smile on his face. Every evening, he'd take me to a cafe, order me my favourite shisha and proceed to tell the most disgusting jokes. Continue reading...

A book about psychiatrist William Sargant's unethical treatments at a London hospital in the 1960s is all the more powerful for its vivid patient testimoniesA child of 14 is forced to walk on to a stage and strip to her underwear. Tiny and mute beneath the stacked rows of medical students, she is paraded for their benefit by a consultant psychiatrist some 44 years her senior. It is 1966 - the peak of Swinging 60s' hedonism, liberalism and youthful counterculture - but in a locked psychiatric ward in London's RoyalWaterloo hospital, unspeakable violations are being inflicted upon patients.The perpetrator-in-chief, William Sargant, is the subject of thriller writer Jon Stock's first nonfiction book, The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal. One of the most notorious figures in British psychiatry, Sargant initially wished to be a physician. He pivoted to psychiatry after one of his earliest pieces of research met with a humiliating reception at the Royal College of Physicians, causing him to suffer a nervous breakdown and spend time in a psychiatric hospital himself. At this time - the 1930s - effective psychiatric treatments were virtuallynon-existent. Serious mental illness usually led to lifelong incarceration in an asylum. But the therapeutic nihilism of psychiatry was shifting towards optimism. Psychiatrists began experimenting with so-called heroic" therapies, such as putting patients into insulin comas or givingthem electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to try to reset" their brains. Continue reading...

The common cooking ingredient has sparked fierce debate since the US health secretary urged people to avoid itIt's curious that something so bland could cause so much controversy. Most of us have a bottle of seed oil, normally called vegetable oil in the UK, in our kitchens - a nearly tasteless but very useful fat that has been a commonplace cooking ingredient for decades.And yet this previously unremarkable golden liquid has sparked online furore and vicious debate. Nutrition influencers on social media have described it as toxic", inflammatory", unnatural" and the root cause of the obesity epidemic. Continue reading...

The epidemiologist who advised on Ebola and Covid discusses the value of evidence in light of AI and social media, and how the notion of fact has long been divisiveAdam Kucharski is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. As a mathematician and epidemiologist, he has advised multiple governments on outbreaks such as Ebola and Covid. In his new book Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, he examines how we can appraise evidence in our search for the truth.What inspired you to investigate the concept of proof?

US academics, fearing persecution by their own government, are becoming ideological refugees. Europe, and Britain, must offer them sanctuaryAt international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with burner" phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.So what's up? Well, these academics have a finger on the pulse of Trump's America, and are concerned about what might happen when they return home. They've read on Robert Reich's Substack about the French scientist who was prevented from entering the country because US Border Patrol agents had found messages from him in which he had expressed his personal opinion" to colleagues and friends about Trump's science policies.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Tiny aquatic animal can also withstand desiccation, radiation and extreme heat, and reproduces asexually

Eclipse peaked in London at about 11am on Saturday and was visible in parts of UK between about 10am and noonPeople across the northern hemisphere have gathered to catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse.The eclipse peaked in London at about 11am on Saturday and was visible in parts of the UK between about 10am and noon. Continue reading...

While humans are more boisterous than ever, other species are talking too - this is what you will hear if you really listenIt's a spring day in northern Sweden, just 100km (62 miles) below the Arctic Circle. I tuck my sound gear into my backpack, clip into my cross-country skis and glide out on to a frozen lake, looking for a small ice-fishing hole.It's a quiet day, with no snowmobiles or other skiers about. Conditions are perfect for the fishing I hope to do: not for dinner, but for sounds. Continue reading...

The moon partly obscured the sun during an phenomenon that could be seen across the northern hemisphere Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read our story hereHere's a view of the sun from Dakar, Senegal:How visible today's partial eclipse will be depends, unsurprisingly, on how clear the sky is where you are. Continue reading...

A partial solar eclipse has been visible to varying degrees across the northern hemisphere, depending on the location. Eclipses occur when the sun, moon and Earth align. At its peak, the moon covered approximately 90% of the sun's disc. In the UK, between 30% and 40% of the sun was obscured Continue reading...

Ambitious project could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades, say opponentsScientists are refining plans to build the world's biggest machine at a site beneath the Swiss-French border. More than $30bn (23bn) would be spent drilling a 91km circular tunnel in which subatomic particles would be accelerated to near light speeds and smashed into each other. From the resulting nuclear debris, scientists hope they will then find clues that would help them understand the detailed makeup of the universe.It is an extraordinarily ambitious project. However, it is also a controversial one - for many scientists fear the machine, the Future Circular Collider (FCC), could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades and leave promising new research avenues starved of resources. Continue reading...

Dr Peter Marks was seen as a guardrail against any future politicisation of the FDA's approval of life-saving vaccinesA senior health official in the US, who was seen as a guardrail against any future politicisation of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of life-saving vaccines, has resigned abruptly, citing the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's misinformation and lies".Dr Peter Marks served as the FDA's top vaccine official. He had been lauded by Donald Trump during the US president's first term for his role in Operation Warp Speed, the initiative that developed, manufactured and helped distribute the Covid-19 vaccines. Continue reading...

About 30% to 40% of the sun will be obscured over the UK, and experts advise on viewing the celestial event safely

Airbus also built the Rosalind Franklin rover, due to launch in 2028 to search for signs of past lifeEurope's first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.The Rosalind Franklin rover - named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA - is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface. Continue reading...

Botulinum toxin injections are being used to treat the condition which affects more than one million Australian women

Exclusive: early stage trials of drug that uses antibiotics finds benefits for people whose pain is caused by infectionMillions of people worldwide with severe back pain may be able to get relief from a new drug that uses antibiotics rather than painkillers to tackle the condition.Doctors who have tested the drug said it could be a gamechanger" for the one in four people whose lower back pain is caused by an infection rather than a muscular or spinal problem. Continue reading...

AlphaFold, which uses AI to find a protein's structure, has only been around since 2020 but has already had a meteoric impactAlphaFold might be the most exciting scientific innovation of this century. From Google DeepMind, and first reported in 2020, it uses artificial intelligence to figure out a protein's 3D structure. The technology has already been used to solve fundamental questions in biology, awarded the Nobel prize (in chemistry - to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper) and revolutionised drug discovery. Like most AI, it's only getting better - and just getting started.A protein's structure gives us clues about its function, and helps us design new drugs. AlphaFold, which was trained on a huge database of experimentally solved structures called the Protein Data Bank, predicts a protein's structure based on its amino acid sequence.Solving a decades-old problem: the structure of the nuclear pore complex, one of the biggest structures in the cell. This complex is the guardian of entry to the nucleus, which holds the cell's DNA. It's implicated in cancer, ageing and neurodegeneration - and now we know what it looks like at the atomic level.Finding a new liver cancer drug. In a lab (not in patients), the drug, which targets the cancer protein CDK20, prevented liver cancer growth.Helping to design a molecular syringe", which delivers a therapeutic protein payload into human cells.Samuel Hume is a fellow at The Foulkes Foundation and pursuing PhD in the University of Oxford's department of oncology Continue reading...

Exhibition aims to help visitors get inside the minds that thought mercury and roasted apples would cure liceMedieval treatments might make you question the sanity of the doctors of the day, but a new exhibition is set to take visitors inside the minds of such medics and reveal the method behind what can seem like madness.Curious Cures, opening on Saturday at Cambridge University Library, is the culmination of a project to digitise and catalogue more than 180 manuscripts, mostly dating from the 14th or 15th centuries, that contain recipes for medical treatments, from compendiums of cures to alchemical texts and guides to healthy living. Continue reading...

The decision to put documents on the assassination of John F Kennedy into the public domain comes alongside a digital book burning' of dataWhat does the public need to know? The Trump White House boasts of being the most transparent administration in history - though commentators have suggested that the inadvertent leak of military plans to a journalist may have happened because senior figures were using messaging apps such as Signal to avoid oversight. Last week, it released thousands of pages of documents on John F Kennedy's assassination. Donald Trump has declared that Kennedy's family and the American people deserve transparency and truth".Strikingly, this stated commitment to sharing information comes as his administration defunds data collection and erases existing troves of knowledge from government websites. The main drivers appear to be the desire to remove woke" content and global heating data, and the slashing of federal spending. Information resources are both the target and collateral damage. Other political factors may be affecting federal records too. Last month, Mr Trump sacked the head of the National Archives without explanation, after grumbling about the body's involvement in the justice department's investigation into his handling of classified documents.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Naicker Scientific wins 150,000 for device that produces drinking water from icy lunar soilA 150,000 prize for a device that can produce clean water from icy lunar soil has been won by a pair of inventors whose solution involves a microwave oven, a motorised device for feeding woodchips into a barbecue and sound waves.The 1.2m Aqualunar Challenge, funded by the UK Space Agency's international bilateral fund and split between Canadian-led and UK-led teams, is designed to encourage innovative solutions to the problem of producing drinking water from ice-rich regolith - rocks and dust - around the moon's south pole. Continue reading...

Now I understand the terminology, it all seems so clear

The Oscar winner answers your questions about playing everyone from Peter Sellers to the Marquis de Sade, his home town of Toowoomba and new care-home horror The Rule of Jenny PenThe Rule of Jenny Pen looks terrifying! Does the prospect of sudden ageing frighten you? BenderRodriguez

Cambridge study finds algorithm is as effective as a pathologist in detecting disease - and much quickerAI could speed up the diagnosis of coeliac disease, according to research.Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition affecting just under 700,000 people in the UK, but getting an accurate diagnosis can take years. Continue reading...

Gene Likens, who first identified acidic rainwater in 1960s, said the Trump administration's rollbacks are alarming'The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration's rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned.A blitzkrieg launched by Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on clean air and water regulations could revert the US to a time when cities were routinely shrouded in smog and even help usher back acid rain, according to Gene Likens, whose experiments helped identify acidic rainwater in the 1960s. Continue reading...

Millions paid to give away their most personal data. At least in return they found out more about their earwaxInformation is the most valuable resource on Earth. We shed data from everything that we do, and megalithic corporations hoover it up. With that, they know us better than we know ourselves, and the information we readily give up is used to upsell to us, and manipulate our political and personal views. We are users of social media, but in reality we are the product. Google's mission was never simply to provide a search engine; it was to curate the world's information. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the commercial genetic testing company 23andMe was cofounded by Anne Wojcicki, once the wife of one of the Google creators; 23andMe's mission was to curate the single richest dataset in the known universe, the one you carry around in your cells: your genome.23andMe provided information purporting to be about your personal health and ancestry. All you had to do was spit in a tube and give them some money, and in return you'd get a very glossy map of your genetic genealogy, and some info on the probability that you like the taste of coriander, or your skin flushes when you're drunk, or whether you have sticky or wet earwax, or your eye colour - things you might have already known, if you have ever looked in a mirror, or stuck your finger in your ear. If you look carefully, they did give solid info on the science underlying the results, but who reads the small print?Dr Adam Rutherford is a lecturer in genetics at UCL and the author of How to Argue With a Racist Continue reading...

Changes to the thermosphere caused by climate crisis could lead to increase in collisionsChicken Licken warned that the sky was falling down, and now the climate crisis might be making that come true. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are cooling and contracting the upper atmosphere, even though these same gases warm the lower atmosphere.A new concern is now up in the thermosphere at around 125-620 miles (200-1,000km) above Earth, where the International Space Station and about 11,900 satellites are in low Earth orbit, with the number of satellites rapidly increasing. Continue reading...

The genetic testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, another twist in the story of a company that promised a pioneering approach to precision health. Now users are scrambling to delete their personal data, with the future ownership of the firm uncertain. To understand the highs and lows of 23andMe's journey, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian US tech reporter and editor Johana Bhuiyan, and from Timothy Caulfield, a professor of law at the University of Alberta, who has a special interest in health and biotechnologySupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Organ appears to function for 10 days, raising prospect of short-term use for those on transplant listA genetically modified pig liver that was transplanted into a brain-dead patient appeared to function successfully inside their body for 10 days, according to the scientists who performed the groundbreaking procedure.The surgery, at a Chinese hospital last year, is thought to mark the first time a pig liver has been transplanted into a human. It raises the prospect of pig livers serving as a bridging organ" for patients on the waiting list for a transplant or to support liver function while their own organ regenerates. Continue reading...

Expert says glimpse of UV light is akin to finding first buried arrowhead on an ancient battlefield'Astronomers have detected signals from a momentous event in the early universe in which a dense fog that cloaked the first stars began to lift, marking the end of the cosmic dark ages.Until now, the exact timing and nature of this critical transition has remained shrouded in mystery. The latest images, from the James Webb space telescope, reveal a galaxy dated to just 330m years after the big bang that appears to have cleared its surrounding fog. Continue reading...

Research suggests those who push themselves when working out perceive time to move more slowlyIf your sessions at the gym seem to drag on for hours, you are in good company. People who push themselves when working out report a form of time warp, making it feel as if they have been exercising for longer than they have, researchers say.Adults who took part in 4km cycling trials on exercise bikes perceived time to have slowed down, scientists said, with the cyclists overestimating how long they had been pedalling for by about 10%. Continue reading...

Contrary to claims by the US president, we have found that diversity initiatives result in better scientists and greater progress

Addition of ultramarine blue creates warmer hues and more skin-like finish, reducing the grey cast'Researchers believe they have found a solution to makeup for darker skin tones often appearing ashy or grey once applied.In recent years the market for beauty products designed for people with darker skin tones has boomed, with some brands now offering consumers a huge variety of shades. Continue reading...

Less than 2% of human genomes analysed so far have been those of Africans. Yemaachi Biotech's Africa Cancer Atlas aims to fill the research gapWhen Yaw Bediako lost his father to liver cancer, it set the Ghanaian immunologist on a journey to know more about the disease. He quickly realised the burden of cancer in Africa was much greater than he had thought - accounting for about 700,000 deaths every year - and that very few scientific papers about the disease on the continent were available.I realised that cancer is this huge disease in Africa that doesn't really get much research attention," he says. But it's not just an African problem, it's global ... It stands out as a problem that does not distinguish between geographies or socioeconomic class." Continue reading...

Expeditions may be more challenging than previously thought due to presence of toxic particlesFrom a distance Mars looks beautiful, but sending astronauts to explore the planet might be more challenging than first thought, due to the presence of toxic dust. A new study identifies some of the health hazards and discusses the kind of personal protective equipment that astronauts might need.During Apollo missions to the moon, astronauts suffered from exposure to lunar dust. It clung to spacesuits and seeped into the lunar landers, causing coughing, runny eyes and irritated throats. Studies showed that chronic health effects would result from prolonged exposure. Martian dust isn't as sharp and abrasive as lunar dust, but it does have the same tendency to stick to everything, and the fine particles (about 4% the width of a human hair) can penetrate deep into lungs and enter the bloodstream. Toxic substances in the dust include silica, gypsum and various metals. Continue reading...

Resentment is natural when you've been wronged, but over time it can become bitter and self-defeating. Psychologists explain how to move onAt some point in the late 70s, during a Brownies meeting, something happened to Deborah that she has never been able to forget. Well, she can't actually remember exactly what the incident was, but she knows the perpetrator - another girl, who still lives in her town. I think she might have pushed me," says Deborah. I think she might have said something mean to me." Whatever it was, she has held a deep grudge against her for 46 years".It affected her deeply at the time. Deborah (not her real name) had been bullied at school, but says she doesn't hold grudges against those people. Brownies was different - it was supposed to be a safe, happy place, and this girl ruined it for her. It hasn't had a huge impact on her life, but the grudge - and the negative association - seeps into her mind every time she spots the woman. It happens quite a lot." She might bump into her in a shop or drive past her. She's always been a shadow in my life." Continue reading...

Experiment onboard upcoming SpaceX mission will examine how nutrient-rich oyster mushrooms grow in microgravity

Exclusive: Fellows argue Musk has violated code of conduct but council believes investigation could do more harm than good'The Royal Society has decided not to take disciplinary action against Elon Musk over his conduct, saying that to do so could cause damage to the academy and science itself.Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who also owns the social media platform X, was elected a fellow of the UK's national academy of sciences in 2018, apparently in recognition of his work in the space and electric vehicle industries. Continue reading...

Plus: Nvidia bets on AI-powered robots, Musk juggles Tesla and politics, and AI fiction takes over InstagramHello, and welcome to TechScape. In this week's edition: 23andMe files for bankruptcy, Nvidia forecasts a fusion of AI and robotics, and AI enables the creation of fiction at the pace of social media.Genetic testing firm 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki has stepped down after several attempts at a buyout. Once valued as high as $5.8bn in 2021, the company's financial failure is the finale to a long decline.The question for 23andMe customers is what will happen to the trove of genetic data that 23andMe has amassed in its years of collecting spit in tubes.Why I regret using 23andMe: I gave up my DNA just to find out I'm BritishHackers got nearly 7 million people's data from 23andMe. The firm blamed users in very dumb' moveElon Musk tells Tesla employees to hold on to their stock amid harsh selloffTesla backer says Musk must reduce Trump work, as 46,000 Cybertrucks recalledTesla stake is no longer Elon Musk's most valuable asset amid stock market sell-offElon Musk lashes out at US judges as they rule against DogeTrump makes rare admission of Musk's conflicts of interest after Pentagon visitUS attorney general to bring charges for Tesla damage, citing domestic terrorism' Continue reading...

Swirl visible for several minutes is thought to have been caused by frozen exhaust plume from Falcon 9The truth is out there ... it is just not quite as exciting as was hoped.A large, glowing spiral that lit up the skies over the UK on Monday night and prompted speculation of an alien encounter is believed to have been caused by a SpaceX rocket. Continue reading...

Primates eat bitter bark to kill parasites, while sparrows use cigarette butts to keep ticks off their chicks. Could the wisdom of wildlife be the next frontier in medicine?In Mexico City, house sparrows and house finches are picking up cigarette butts and weaving individual fibres into the lining of their nests. When researchers first discovered the butts - while studying what plastics end up in nests - they assumed it was simply a fluffy material being used as insulation. But through a series of ingenious tests, they discovered that the butts were actually medicinal: the birds actively collected them because the toxin nicotine reduces mites and other blood-sucking parasites. The birds are treating themselves - and their offspring.It's one of many fascinating examples of animals medicating themselves revealed in Doctors By Nature, a new book by the US-based Dutch academic Jaap de Roode. Apes deliberately swallow leaves to dislodge intestinal worms. Caterpillars switch diets to repel parasitic flies. Bees incorporate sticky resins in their homes to combat disease. Continue reading...

UK Health Security Agency's tool highlights viruses and bacteria, many not yet seen in the country, that could pose biosecurity riskDeadly disease-causing organisms from pathogen families that include bird flu, plague and Ebola pose a threat to health in the UK and should be prioritised for research, government experts have said.The first tool of its kind from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) lists 24 types of viruses and bacteria where a lack of vaccines, tests and treatment, changes due to the climate crisis or growing drug resistance pose a biosecurity risk. Continue reading...

More than 800 objects unearthed near Melsonby show the north was definitely not a backwater' 2,000 years agoOne of the biggest and most important iron age hoards ever found in the UK has been revealed, potentially altering our understanding of life in Britain 2,000 years ago.More than 800 objects were unearthed in a field near the village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire. They date back to the first century, around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain under Emperor Claudius, and are almost certainly associated with a tribe called the Brigantes who controlled most of northern England. Continue reading...

It's a mystery that has long puzzled researchers. Why can't we remember our early childhood experiences? Freud called the phenomenon infantile amnesia, and for many years scientists have wondered whether it's a result of failure to create memories or just a failure to retrieve them. Now new research appears to point to an answer. To find out more, Ian Sample talks to Nick Turk-Browne, a professor of psychology at Yale University.Why can't we remember our lives as babies or toddlers?Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Academics from US hoping to escape funding freezes and ideological impositions are being actively recruitedLaced with terms such as censorship" and political interference", the Belgium-based jobs advert was far from typical. The promise of academic freedom, however, hinted at who it was aimed at: researchers in the US looking to flee the funding freezes, cuts and ideological impositions ushered in by Donald Trump's administration.We see it as our duty to come to the aid of our American colleagues," said Jan Danckaert, the rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in explaining why his university - founded in 1834 to safeguard academia from the interference of church or state - had decided to open 12 postdoctoral positions for international researchers, with a particular focus on Americans. Continue reading...

Presence of long-chain alkanes in rock raises new questions about possible existence of life billions of years agoNasa's Curiosity rover has found the largest organic compounds ever seen on Mars, raising tantalising questions about whether life emerged on the red planet billions of years ago.The compounds were detected in a 3.7bn-year-old rock sample collected in Yellowknife Bay, an ancient Martian lakebed that harboured all the necessary ingredients for life in the planet's warmer, wetter past. Continue reading...