Exclusive: Stuffed specimen was only proof of bird’s existence until discovery in rainforest last yearIn the 1840s, a mystery bird was caught on an expedition to the East Indies. Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon, described it to science and named it the black-browed babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata).The species was never seen in the wild again, and a stuffed specimen featuring a bright yellow glass eye was the only proof of its existence. But now the black-browed babbler has been rediscovered in the rainforests of Borneo. Continue reading...
Discovery of 19.5-metre tree with roots, branches and leaves is unprecedented, say expertsFirst came the tree, all 19.5 metres of it, with roots and branches and leaves. Then, weeks later, the discovery of 150 fossilised logs, one on top of the other, a short distance away.Nikolas Zouros, a professor of geology at the University of the Aegean, couldn’t believe his luck. In 25 years of excavating the petrified forest of Lesbos, he had unearthed nothing like it. Continue reading...
by Presented by Natalie Grover and produced by Madele on (#5EMFX)
The first UN climate change conference was held in 1995 in Berlin. More than two decades later, our planet remains on track for three degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. The answer to avoiding this catastrophe is both simple and staggeringly complicated: drastically reducing and reversing the amount of carbon dioxide entering our atmosphere. How do we do this? Science correspondent Natalie Grover speaks to Prof Mike Berners-Lee, author of There is No Planet B, who has crunched the numbers on everything from carbon offsetting and green investments to e-bikes Continue reading...
Special 50p coins will feature some of the Jurassic creatures discovered by 19th-century palaeontologistOne of the most terrifying Jurassic sea creatures is to appear on commemorative 50p coins to celebrate the work of the pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning.The temnodontosaurus coins will shine a light on the 19th-century palaeontologist, who made a series of discoveries near her home in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Continue reading...
UK researchers seek to dispel concerns over pills prescribed for those at higher risk of heart attack and strokesStatins are generally not the cause of the muscle aches and pains that stop some people taking the pills prescribed to protect them against serious heart problems, according to a novel study that hopes to dispel some of the concerns.Two million people in the UK who are at higher risk of heart attack and strokes are eligible for statins, but many people refuse them or have stopped taking them because of sometimes alarming and widespread reports of muscle pain. But the study funded by the National Institute of Health Research showed that most people had the same aches and pains whether they were taking a statin or taking a dummy pill that looked and tasted just like a statin. Continue reading...
Nasa scientists release the first sounds ever recorded on Mars, a light gust of wind on the planet's surface on Monday.'I invite you now to, if you would like to, close your eyes and just imagine yourself sitting on the surface of Mars and listening to the surroundings,' says Dave Gruel, camera suite lead for the Perseverance rover Continue reading...
Practical and ethical concerns are valid, but a well-designed policy with the right legal safeguards could make a valuable differenceBoris Johnson appears, at last, to have learned the folly of overconfidence in fighting the pandemic. He used to make rash promises with grandiose optimism. Now his plans are laden with caveats. The adjustment is welcome, albeit too late for those whose lives were lost when denial and bluster spoke louder than caution and evidence to dictate government policy. The coming months will test the prime minister’s newly judicious method. Many in his party are impatient for lockdown to be eased faster. Public tolerance of onerous restrictions has a limit.The question then arises of whether proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test might accelerate the reopening of services and advance a revival of social and economic activity. Downing Street was against the idea when it was first raised last year, but this week Mr Johnson was more circumspect. To issue some kind of certificate raised “deep and complex” issues, the prime minister said. But he did not rule it out. Instead it is to be the subject of a Cabinet Office review. Continue reading...
Sir James Bevan says extreme flooding in UK indicates urgent need for change if humanity is to surviveThe climate emergency is already hitting “worst case scenario” levels that if left unchecked will lead to the collapse of ecosystems, with dire consequences for humanity, according to the chief executive of the Environment Agency.Warning that this is not “science fiction”, Sir James Bevan said on Tuesday that in recent years several of the “reasonable worst case scenarios” had happened in the UK, with more extreme weather and flooding. And he urged politicians to take action to reduce emissions and adapt to the “inevitable” impacts of the climate emergency. Continue reading...
Spectacular eruptions of red lava from Mount Etna, on the Italian island of Sicily, continued overnight from Monday into Tuesday, illuminating the night sky. The volcano’s lava fountains soared to 1,500 metres, according to the Etna Observatory at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology
London-based group says video evidence casts doubt on claims Ahmad Erekat was conducting an attackIsraeli forces executed a 26-year-old Palestinian at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank last year, a report has alleged, challenging Israeli police claims that the man was a “terrorist” conducting an attack.Forensic Architecture, a British research body based at Goldsmiths, University of London, said it had conducted an analysis into the death of Ahmad Erekat, who was shot seconds after his car crashed into a booth and lightly wounded an Israeli border guard. Continue reading...
Social media users say message is encoded in red-and-white pattern on parachuteInternet sleuths claim to have decoded a hidden message displayed on the parachute that helped Nasa’s Perseverance Rover land safely on Mars last week. They claim that the phrase “Dare mighty things” – used as a motto by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – was encoded on the parachute using a pattern representing letters as binary computer code.Reddit users and social media posters on Twitter noticed that the red-and-white pattern on the parachute looked deliberate, and arrived at the result by using the red to represent the figure one, and the white to represent zero. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Madelein on (#5EHFJ)
What would it be like if the Earth’s magnetic pole switched? Migrating animals and hikers would certainly need to reset their compasses, but could it play real havoc with life on Earth? Analysing the rings of an ancient tree pulled from a bog in New Zealand, researchers have been investigating what happened the last time north and south flipped – 42,000 years ago. Nicola Davis speaks to Prof Chris Turney about how it changed the chemistry of the atmosphere and, if combined with a period of lower solar activity, what impact this could have had on the environment and evolution Continue reading...
Just before Alex Godfrey’s grandmother died from dementia, she snapped back to lucidity and regaled him with stories of her youth. Could moments like this teach us more about the workings of the brain?It was the red jelly that did it. It was Christmas 1999 in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Ward Porterfield, 83, was in a nursing home. He had been diagnosed with dementia three years earlier; he was confused and disoriented and eventually he no longer recognised his daughter, Kay. “When I went in,” she says of her later visits, “he didn’t know me at all.” That Christmas, he refused to eat. “Finally I just told them: ‘Bring him jello, he likes jello. Red jello.’ And he looked at me, really deeply, and said: ‘So. I suppose the jello’s gonna be my last meal. You’re gonna try to starve me, eh?’ That was like: ‘What’s going on here?’”Her surprise wasn’t just at his coherence, but that the tone of this reply was undeniably her father’s dry humour. Later that night, nurses told Kay, when children visited to sing carols, tears streamed down Ward’s face. Kay becomes emotional recounting it. “Don’t cry,” a nurse told him. Ward looked at her. “If you were in my position, you’d cry too,” he said. “These are the last Christmas carols I’ll ever hear.” Continue reading...
Without the technology to produce mRNA vaccines such as the Pfizer jab, Australia and region remain ‘vulnerable to supply shocks’, scientists warnLeading Australian scientists have called on the federal government to urgently develop additional onshore Covid vaccine manufacturing capability to protect against supply disruption as the country completes its second day of vaccinations.In a pre-budget submission published on Tuesday, the Australian Academy of Science said without the ability to produce mRNA vaccines, Australia and the region remain vulnerable to supply limitations. Continue reading...
Scott Morrison says Coalition is ‘getting on with’ reductions, but analysis finds end of lockdowns and drought will reverse trendMost of the reduction in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions last year is likely to be wiped out as transport rebounds after Covid-19 lockdowns and farming recovers from the long-term-drought, according to an audit of national climate data.Scott Morrison told the National Press Club earlier this month the government was “getting on with” reducing emissions, citing official data that found emissions were down 3% in the year to June to their lowest levels since 1998. He declared “these are the facts”. Continue reading...
Nasa has released first-of-its-kind footage of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars. The video shows the final minutes of last week's descent, up to the point where the rover touches down on Mars' surface.The rover is covered with cameras, including seven dedicated to recording the rover's landing. More than 30GB of information has already been collected from the rover – along with 23,000 images as the vehicle descended Continue reading...
by Natalie Grover Science correspondent on (#5EGVC)
Space agency also reveals audio recorded by Perseverance on surface of red planetNasa has unveiled a first-of-its-kind video of its car-sized rover Perseverance making its sensational landing on Mars, and released the first audio recorded on the surface of the red planet.The American space agency shared the footage on Monday, days after the spacecraft made its dramatic descent to the Martian surface. Continue reading...
The solutions to today’s artful problemsEarlier today I set you the following puzzles. The first is a starter problem and the other three were suggested by puzzle guru Rob Eastaway.The nine dots Continue reading...
Hayley Arceneaux, 29, will become youngest American in space when she joins Jared Isaacman and two contest winners on flightHayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician’s assistant and former bone cancer patient, will become the youngest American in space later this year, when she participates in the first SpaceX private flight.St Jude Children’s Research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arceneaux was once a patient and now works, announced on Monday that she will blast off later this year with the entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two contest winners. Continue reading...
Thinking in and out of the boxUPDATE: The solutions are now up hereWhat makes for a great puzzle? Here’s a golden oldie that certainly qualifies.The nine dots Continue reading...
The constellation is a constant feature of the night sky from mid-latitude northern countriesCassiopeia, the queen, can be found in the north-western sky this week. The chart shows the view from London at 1900 GMT each evening. Continue reading...
Cambridge University team say their findings could be used to spot people at risk from radicalisationOur brains hold clues for the ideologies we choose to live by, according to research, which has suggested that people who espouse extremist attitudes tend to perform poorly on complex mental tasks.Researchers from the University of Cambridge sought to evaluate whether cognitive disposition – differences in how information is perceived and processed – sculpt ideological world-views such as political, nationalistic and dogmatic beliefs, beyond the impact of traditional demographic factors like age, race and gender. Continue reading...
Neanderthals | Royal family | Unicorn shortage | Grace Dent | CrosswordsThe fanciful painting used to illustrate the print version (19 February) of your article discussing possible reasons for the demise of the Neanderthals offers yet another explanation. There appears to be just one identifiable female individual shown, breastfeeding a baby. Though the painter has modestly covered all genital areas, it’s obvious to the viewer that the other 14 or so are intended to be male. No wonder they died out.
Procedure previously deemed suitable only for adults saved the lives of six young patients last yearNHS doctors have pioneered the use of a “dead” heart transplant technique – previously deemed suitable only for adults – in children, saving the lives of six young patients last year.Surgeons typically use for transplants hearts donated by patients who are declared brain stem dead but whose hearts are still beating. Retrieving the hearts of patients who have suffered cardiac death (which are far more common than brain stem deaths) is considered too risky a prospect. Continue reading...
Hailed as the ‘molecular scissors’ that will allow us to rewrite our genes, the DNA tool is being trialled in treatments for everything from sickle-cell anaemia to cancerWhen last year’s Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded to biochemist Jennifer Doudna and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work in developing the technique of gene editing known as Crispr-Cas9 (pronounced “crisper”), headlines hailed their discovery as “molecular scissors” that would allow us to “rewrite the book of life” – with all the complicated ethical questions that ability raises. But much of the excitement has nothing to do with visions of designer babies. The real promise of Crispr is for treating diseases caused by genetic mutations, from muscular dystrophy to congenital blindness, and even some cancers.The first human trials of Crispr therapies are happening already, and researchers hope that they are on the brink of reaching the clinic. “The speed at which Crispr research has progressed has been truly astonishing,” says Doudna from the University of California at Berkeley. Continue reading...
If he’s honest with the public, the prime minister will stress there is no quick or easy escape back to normalityIt is a sign of our times that the only live theatre currently available is that staged by politicians. Boris Johnson will tomorrow unveil his “roadmap” for easing out of coronavirus restrictions, a moment that is being fanfared as a big, dramatic event. The journey planner will be shown to the cabinet on Monday morning and then presented to the Commons before a prime ministerial news conference in the evening.I can’t tell you exactly what will be in the document, because it is still being wrangled over within government as I write. At this juncture of the crisis, as at every similar one, cabinet ministers are making last-minute special pleas to have the plan amended to advance one client group or another up the list of priority areas for coming out of restrictions. My conversations suggest that the plan is likely to be heavily hedged and highly tentative. The title “roadmap” will invest it with more solidity than it will truly possess. Anyone yearning to know when precisely they will be permitted to go to the pub, visit the cinema or holiday abroad will be disappointed. Continue reading...
Britain’s top vet was newly qualified when the outbreak hit. Here, she talks about the devastating slaughter and tracking virus variantsChristine Middlemiss was a young vet working in Scotland in February 2001 when foot and mouth disease struck Britain. Having grown up on a farm, and having later worked in veterinary care in Cumbria, she volunteered to help battle an affliction that would eventually take a terrible toll on UK livestock.“I volunteered as a temporary veterinary inspector at 4pm and was told to report to a farm in Cumbria by 8am the next day,” Middlemiss told the Observer last week. “I got there and was given an A5 piece of paper with instructions about what I had to do. That was all the recorded advice that was available at the time.” Continue reading...
This bungling, populist government is basking in the reflected glory of the experts who created the Covid vaccinePhilip Stephens, the chief political commentator of the Financial Times, tells a wonderful story about how he was playing football in the playground at school – in those days playground football was with tennis balls – and a ball hit the Latin master as he was passing.The Latin master immediately clipped Stephens round the ears – which, these days, would no doubt have led to the master’s dismissal. Stephens protested: “It wasn’t me, sir.” To which the reply was: “Let this be a lesson to you, my boy. There is no justice in this world.” Continue reading...
As with space travel, co-operation is crucial in solving the country’s infrastructure problemsAs a contrast in extremes, last week’s extraordinary developments in space and the southern United States take some beating. At the very moment Nasa’s Perseverance rover scored a technological triumph with its flawless landing on the surface of Mars, millions of American citizens in Texas were thrust back into a chaotic, pre-industrial dark age of no electricity, no water and, for some, no food by unprecedented freezing temperatures.Many lessons may be drawn from the confluence of these two events, positive and negative. The performance of the Perseverance mission is frankly breathtaking. Having travelled the 38.6m miles from Earth – measured by Mars’s closest approach in 2020 – over seven months, the rover touched down without any apparent damage to its sophisticated scientific equipment and cameras. Continue reading...
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Boris Johnson makes pledge ahead of ‘roadmap’ announcement on Monday; Micheál Martin rules out reopening hospitality sector soon; This blog has closed. Follow our coverage below
For some the pandemic has worsened their symptoms, but others say social distancing and hygiene measures have made life easierLuka Buchanan has always been consumed by the fear of contamination and germs, washing their hands until they were raw, and terrified the food they ate would poison them.Diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at age 19, Buchanan, who uses they/them pronouns, spent years in therapy telling themselves over and over that there was nothing to fear – that the chances of a global contagion were minuscule, and that they weren’t infected and dangerous to those around them. Continue reading...
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