Science | The Guardian

With awards for the discovery of microRNA and the creation of new proteins, plus recognition for artificial intelligence via the physics and chemistry prizes, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian science team - Nicola Davis, Ian Sample and Hannah Devlin - as they break down the news, science and surprises from this year's NobelsClips: Nobel prizeNobel prize in medicine awarded to scientists for work on microRNA Continue reading...

Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of DeepMind and computational biologist David Baker share prize for protein structure breakthroughsTwo scientists at Google DeepMind and an American biochemist have been awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry for breakthroughs in predicting and designing the structure of proteins.Demis Hassabis, DeepMind's British founder, and John Jumper, who led the development of the company's AI model AlphaFold- which predicts the structure of proteins based on their chemical sequence - share half of the prize. Continue reading...

Google DeepMind chief believes in benefits of AI but says risks must be taken as seriously as the climate crisisMost 17-year-olds spend their days playing video games, but Britain's latest Nobel prize winner spent his teenage years developing them.Sir Demis Hassabis, who was jointly awarded the chemistry prize on Wednesday, got his big break in the tech world as co-designer of 1994's hit game Theme Park, where players create and operate amusement parks. Continue reading...

Director Peter Jackson has given $10m to a startup aiming to revive extinct animals. Did he learn nothing from Jurassic Park?The dodo is dead. That's kind of its claim to fame. Had a bit of an awkward-looking beak. Couldn't fly. Poor relation to the pigeon. Generally mediocre all around, really. But it did manage to waddle its way into the history books due to an unfortunate extinction event.Like a rather clumsy phoenix, however, the dodo may rise again. In 2023, Colossal Biosciences, a gene-editing company that had already made headlines for its plans to revive the woolly mammoth, announced it was trying to bring the dodo back to life". At the time, Beth Shapiro, the lead palaeogeneticist at the Texas-based startup, told the Guardian that she had been fascinated by the dodo ever since she saw a preserved specimen in an Oxford museum in 1999, and tried to persuade the museum to let her extract its DNA. Which was certainly enterprising of her. Continue reading...

Humboldt University of Berlin research also shows Asian elephants have more wrinkles than African cousinsWhile humans are split between right-handers and left-handers, elephants have a preference for which side of their trunk they use. Now scientists have discovered it is possible to determine an elephant's trunkedness" by looking at its wrinkles.While, overall, the pachyderms show an almost 50:50 split in terms of which way they prefer to bend their trunks, scientists have found it is possible to determine an individual adult's preference. Continue reading...

Longitude prize will give one of five finalists money towards creating an innovation for independent livingWith their thick plastic frames and wide arms, the chunky glasses look like 3D specs handed out in a 1990s cinema - not the kind of technology you associate with 21st-century science prizes.But put them on, and it is the real world that takes on a new dimension. Continue reading...

Researchers in China say their suture can speed up wound healing and reduce risk of infection by producing a chargeThe humble stitch plays a crucial role in surgery, holding a gash together while tissues repair. Now scientists have created a type of suture they say can help speed up wound healing and reduce the risk of infection.Researchers in China have created a suture that when put under strain - as occurs during movement - electrically stimulates the wound. Continue reading...

Record emissions, temperatures and population mean more scientists are looking into possibility of societal collapse, report saysMany of Earth's vital signs" have hit record extremes, indicating that the future of humanity hangs in the balance", a group of the world's most senior climate experts have said.More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, says the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found that 25 were worse than ever recorded, including carbon dioxide levels and human population. This indicates a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis", it says. Continue reading...

Geoffrey Hinton, godfather of AI', and John Hopfield honoured for work on artificial neural networksTwo researchers who helped lay the foundations for modern artificial intelligence - although one later warned of its potential harms - have been awarded the 2024 Nobel prize in physics.Inspired by the workings of the brain, John Hopfield, a US professor emeritus at Princeton University, and Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Canadian professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, built artificial neural networks that store and retrieve memories like the human brain, and learn from information fed into them. Continue reading...

Items such as cables and old tech could contain 266m worth of metal vital for decarbonisation drive, study findsScientists have called for people to go urban mining" after a study revealed that old cables, phone chargers and other unused electrical goods thrown away or stored in cupboards or drawers could stave off a looming shortage of copper.The research found that in the UK there are approximately 823m unused or broken tech items hiding in drawers of doom" containing as much as 38,449 tonnes of copper - including 627m cables - enough to provide 30% of the copper needed for the UK's planned transition to a decarbonised electricity grid by 2030. Continue reading...

We're used to hearing about the power of artificial intelligence to spread misinformation - but could it also be a tool for persuading people of the truth? Ian Sample speaks to Thomas Costello, an assistant professor of psychology at American University, who has published a study exploring the potential for AI chatbots to lead people away from conspiracy beliefsSupport the Guardian today: theguardian.com/sciencepodClips: CNN, CBC News, ET LiveAI can change belief in conspiracy theories, study finds Continue reading...

Food Standards Agency says applications for cultivated steak, chicken and foie gras have already been submittedCell-cultivated meat could be on sale in the UK within a few years, the food regulator has said, with applications for lab-grown steak, beef, chicken and foie gras already submitted, while another 15 applications are expected in the next two years.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was awarded 1.6m of government funding on Tuesday to develop an efficient safety assessment process for the novel foods. It said the UK was an attractive market as it had a high number of vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians, a higher openness to new foods than many other European countries and a large financial sector to back startup companies. Continue reading...

Scans of people hospitalised with Covid may explain the long-term breathlessness and fatigue some patients experienceSevere Covid infections can drive inflammation in the brain's control centre", researchers say, leading to damage that may explain the long-term breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety some patients experience.High-resolution MRI scans of 30 people hospitalised with Covid early in the pandemic, before the introduction of vaccines, found signs of inflammation in the brainstem, a small but critical structure that governs life-sustaining bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. Continue reading...

Rapid rises achieved in 20th century have slowed significantly, with life expectancy in the US fallingIf blowing out the candles on your 100th birthday cake is a pillar of your retirement plan, you might want to skip to the next article.An analysis of death data from the world's longest-lived populations reveals that the rapid improvements in life expectancy achieved in the 20th century have slowed dramatically in the past three decades. Continue reading...

Research reveals sea walnuts' fuse together if they become injured, and nervous systems mergeIt might not be what the Spice Girls envisaged when they sang 2 Become 1, but scientists have found comb jellies do actually fuse together if they are injured.Researchers studying a species of the gelatinous marine invertebrates known as sea walnuts" said they made the discovery after spotting an unusually shaped individual in the laboratory tank. Continue reading...

Prize given to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulationThe Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2024 has been awarded to two scientists for their work on tiny RNA molecules that help cells control which proteins they produce.Victor Ambros of the University of Massachusetts medical school, and Gary Ruvkun of Harvard medical school and Massachusetts general hospital, have been awarded the prize for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Continue reading...

Acknowledging your disappointment, rage or despair is a gift to yourself. This truth is the foundation from which a better life might growOnce you notice it, you feel it everywhere. This relentless, suffocating exhortation to be happier, to improve yourself, to get better - to build a better life. It might come from your parents, it almost certainly comes from the Instagram accounts you follow, you might even assume it comes from these columns. Most potently of all, it likely comes from your own mind.It might sound obvious, but I'm not sure it really is, so I will say it: there are times when life feels very difficult, painful and overwhelming. When things go wrong, when things go right but that feels even worse, when the washing machine leaks and jobs are lost and homes are lost and people are lost and and and ... when it takes all your energy just to survive. When telling yourself that you need to be building a better life is not only exhausting but cruel. Continue reading...

European Space Agency testing Paralympian sprinter to see how conditions in space would affect his prosthesisWhen a colleague sent John McFall a job advert for would-be astronauts, his reaction was swift. To be honest all I had in my head was: It would be awesome to go to space.'"Doing so, however, would entail shattering through a glass ceiling - one that has held firm during more than six decades of space exploration. Continue reading...

The recurrent binary-star nova goes boom approximately every 80 years and we've been on alert for it since AprilWhat on earth is T Coronae Borealis playing at? We've been on alert for it to explode since April, when we confidently expected it to go boom some time before September. But we are still waiting.The star is a recurrent nova. This means it actually consists of two stars: a red giant and a white dwarf. The white dwarf is a dense stellar core about the size of the Earth, whose gravity is stripping gas from the red giant. The gas accumulates on the white dwarf's surface before detonating in a thermonuclear explosion, causing the star to temporarily brighten. This does not destroy the white dwarf, which then returns to normal and the cycle repeats. Continue reading...

Obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other diseases all affecting people at younger ages, say expertsBaby boomers and people in their 50s are living longer but are in worse health than previous generations were at the same age, despite advances in medicine and greater awareness of healthy lifestyles, a global study shows.Researchers found people in their 50s, 60s and 70s were more likely to have serious health problems than people who were born before or during the second world war when they reached that age. Continue reading...

My friend Charles Ilsley, who has died aged 74 of pancreatic cancer, was a cardiologist and a pioneer in the field of angioplasty - widening arteries to allow blood to flow more freely to the heart. As clinical director at Harefield hospital in the London borough of Hillingdon, he developed a 24-hour primary angioplasty service for treating heart attack patients.After studying medicine at St Mary's hospital, London (1968-73), Charles worked as registrar for Stanley Peart who suggested that he should go into cardiology. At that time interventional cardiology was in its infancy. In 1977 he first went to Harefield as a registrar in cardiology, then moved to the National Heart hospital for a period of research with Tony Rickards, who, in 1980, assisted by Charles, performed the first balloon angioplasty in London. Continue reading...

It lives outside religion, promising a feeling of connection to others, the planet and our long, shared history

But in the end, Simonetta Wenkert managed to combine her two vocationsIt was only meant to be for a year. The restaurant was my husband Avi's dream, not mine. As a time-poor novelist and mother of three, the very last thing I needed was another commitment to take me away from my desk. But I also knew that my comfortable London life as a freelance writer and stay-at-home mother was only possible because Avi was our family's main bread winner. So when, in 2006, he was made redundant from his detested job in IT, I felt I owed it to him to help make his dream a reality.It was the late Anthony Bourdain who declared that the desire to be a restaurateur was a strange and terrible affliction", but it was one which I, thankfully, had been spared. Don't get me wrong: I liked restaurants as much as the next foodie and I could appreciate the provocative plainness and simplicity of Italian cuisine, which left the dishonest cook nowhere to hide. But I was also a child of the 70s and had been brought up in London by a restless Tuscan mother who not only didn't cook, but who believed the very worst fate that could befall a woman was to be tied to the stove. As a result, we didn't eat especially well when I was growing up and it was only when I moved to Rome in my 20s and met Avi that I started to understand the beauty and transcendence of sitting around a table. Continue reading...

Research suggests that our minds benefit from our encounters with aspects of nature - be it cold water and calming scents, or vivid colours and certain types of landscape - and Kielderhead ticks all the boxesThere's an old saying that the perfect walk has something to see, somewhere to pee, and somewhere to get a cup of tea". While those things do indeed make for a respectable hike, scientists have discovered that aspects of nature will turn a good walk into a great one, in intriguing ways.Over recent years, it has become apparent that interacting with the great outdoors does wonders for our health, not only because it keeps our bodies physically fit but our brains, too. Last year, a long-term study of 2.3 million people in Wales revealed that the closer you live to nature, the lower your chances of having a mental health condition. If people interacted with nature every day, it would be a gamechanger in terms of mental health," says Michele Antonelli, a doctor at the Azienda Unita Sanitaria Locale (local health authority) for Reggio Emilia in Italy. Continue reading...

If you have a sense of adventure and know your squills from your spurges, Cambridge University Botanic Garden may have the job for youWith the promise of travel, adventure and the chance to follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, applications have opened for what might be the best job in the natural world: an expedition botanist to go on plant-collecting adventures for Cambridge University Botanic Garden.It is understood to be the first time such a post has been offered by a British botanic garden in modern history. It's very unusual - there was no template for this," said Samuel Brockington, professor of evolutionary biology and curator at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG). Continue reading...

Large-scale clinical project could give real-time view of how well treatments are working and lead to earlier diagnosesScientists are embarking on a large-scale clinical study of new personalised cancer therapies that could give clinicians a real-time view of how well treatments are working.The 9m partnership between the Francis Crick Institute, five NHS trusts, charities and bioscience companies will spend four years examining the effectiveness of new immunotherapy treatments and exploring new ways to detect cancer. Continue reading...

Mionco screening has potential to be a gamechanger' in five years, says health secretary, Wes StreetingThe government will provide funding for a 120 blood test that has the potential to detect the 12 most common forms of cancer before symptoms develop.The Mionco screening can identify 50 cancers before producing a false positive and is a form of the PCR test used during the Covid pandemic, according to the scientists involved in its development. Continue reading...

Hera to measure Dimorphos space rock that Dart probe deliberately hitFinal preparations are under way to send a European spacecraft to an asteroid to discover what happened when a Nasa probe deliberately slammed into the space rock two years ago.The European Space Agency's Hera mission will survey the impact site and make detailed measurements of the battered rock, Dimorphos, to help researchers hone their strategies for defending Earth should a wayward asteroid ever threaten the planet in the future. Continue reading...

Aurora borealis most likely to be seen in Scotland, Northern Ireland and north of England but may be seen farther southThe northern lights could put on a show across the UK this weekend with recent solar flares creating the potential for a breathtaking" display.Aurora borealis is most likely to be visible in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. However, there is potential for the lights to be seen farther south, as in May this year, due to intense activity on the sun. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Global trial finds treatment with amivantamab and lazertinib halts progression for average of 23.7 monthsDoctors are hailing amazing" trial results that show a new drug combination stopped lung cancer advancing for more than 40% longer than the standard treatment.Lung cancer is the world's leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths every year. Survival rates in those with advanced forms of the disease, where tumours have spread, are particularly poor. Continue reading...

Most childcare advice is simply opinion represented as fact. Research based on data and evidence is the liberation we need

Charity behind Anglo-Saxon reconstruction says it may be forced to look abroad after struggling to source wood in UKThe aim is ambitious: to complete a functioning reconstruction of the extraordinary Sutton Hoo burial ship by 2026 and test it on the river and sea, hopefully providing fresh insight into what life was like in Anglo-Saxon times.But the project, being run by a small charity, is struggling to source the right sort of British oak to finish the build and is calling for donations, worried that if it does not get the wood from the UK, it may have to look overseas. Continue reading...

Researchers say wider use of fluoride toothpaste means practice now has less of a role in reducing tooth decayThe dental health benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water may be smaller now than before fluoride toothpaste was widely available, a review suggests.Researchers from the universities of Manchester, Dundee and Aberdeen assessed evidence from 157 studies comparing communities that had fluoride added to their water supplies with communities that had no additional fluoride in their water. Continue reading...

Scans of underwater crater in West Africa suggest another large asteroid smashed into the planet around the same timeThe massive asteroid that brought about the end of the reign of the dinosaurs when it crashed into Earth 66m years ago was not a one-off, researchers say.Detailed scans of an underwater crater off the coast of Guinea in West Africa suggest that it was created when another large asteroid smashed into the planet around the same time at the end of the Cretaceous period. Continue reading...

Gilead Sciences announces deal to manufacture generic versions of lenacapavir, but critics say it excludes many countries where incidence is highestCheaper versions of the gamechanger" HIV prevention drug lenacapavir are to be made available in 120 low- and middle-income countries, manufacturer Gilead Sciences has announced.However, campaigners said the deal abandons" many countries with a high HIV burden, particularly in Latin America, and urged transparency over exact pricing. Continue reading...

Report shows significantly improved survival rates but a steep increase in diagnoses among women younger than 50A new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) finds that breast cancer deaths have dropped dramatically since 1989, averting more than 517,900 probable deaths.However, the report also reveals younger women are increasingly diagnosed with the disease, a worrying finding that mirrors a rise in colorectal and pancreatic cancers. Continue reading...

Study uncovers vivid and poignant accounts of reefs as high as houses off countries including UK, France and IrelandOnly a handful of natural oyster reefs measuring at most a few square metres cling on precariously along European coasts after being wiped out by overfishing, dredging and pollution.A study led by British scientists has discovered how extensive they once were, with reefs as high as a house covering at least 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) from Norway to the Mediterranean, an area larger than Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, the Guardian's science editor and Science Weekly co-host, to answer the questions we are all asking about Covid this autumn, from what is going on with the new variant XEC to how to get a vaccine and what scientists think the government should be doing differentlyCovid on the rise as experts say England has capitulated' to the virus Continue reading...

In postwar Warsaw, my grandmother Zosia fixed the teeth of prisoners and spies. In doing so, she came into contact with the hidden history of her times in a way few others couldTeeth are our meeting place with the outside world, the point of attack. Crystalline and mineral in nature, teeth show us at our most mollusc-like. The fact that we can grow them, lose them and grow them again (if only once) seems toally us with reptiles and the largest of the cartilaginous fish. Yet few things mark us more intimately as mammals than our teeth. The development of variable dentition is one of the great trump cards in the arsenal of mammalian evolution. At our very core, we are a tribe of nibblers, biters and grinders. The human dental formula - flat incisors, dainty canines, hard-working molars - is a classic omnivore's compromise: aggression and carnivory in front, industrious vegetarianism in back.Harder than bone - harder than any other part of the body - they are also where we are most vulnerable. Thomas De Quincey wrote that if toothaches could kill they would be considered the most dreadful among human maladies". Apocryphally, he is said to have claimed that fully a quarter of human misery could be chalked up to their cruel torture". I suspect this figure is an exaggeration, but I have had enough cavities, root canals, gum shavings, crown fittings and outright extractions to put the total at a healthy 20%. I have persistent nightmares about my teeth crumbling out of my mouth. For me, the smell of teeth being drilled is the scent of burning flesh. Continue reading...

The moon blotted out most of the sun across the Pacific Ocean, giving just a few specks of land an impressive annular 'ring of fire' eclipse. Only Easter Island and a small area near the southern tip of Chile and Argentina witnessed the annular eclipse, lasting just a few minutes Continue reading...

Experts say sequencing whole genome of newborns will be transformational' in earlier diagnosis and treatmentThe NHS in England is to screen 100,000 newborn babies for more than 200 genetic conditions in a world-first scheme aimed at bolstering early diagnosis and treatment.All new parents are currently offered a blood spot test for their babies, normally when the child is five days old, to check whether they have any of nine rare but serious conditions. The newborn's heel is pricked to collect a few drops of blood on a card that is sent away to be tested. Continue reading...

Risk found to be highest among black and north African people, as experts call for better mental health provisionPeople who migrate in adolescence have an increased risk of psychosis, researchers have found, noting the link is particularly strong among black and north African people.While research has previously suggested migration could play a role in the increased risk of psychosis among people from ethnic minorities, the study suggests age could be an important factor. Continue reading...

Biochemist whose work with magnetic resonance spectroscopy led to the pioneering diagnostic technique of MRIMagnetic resonance imaging, or MRI scanning, is a diagnostic technique that is now familiar to almost anyone who has had a bad back, a damaged knee or a suspected stroke.During the 1970s and 80s the Oxford biochemist Sir George Radda, who has died aged 88, worked with the same underlying physics to generate not an image, but a spectrum that revealed the biochemical state of the muscles and organs. For the first time it was possible to diagnose metabolic diseases without invasive tissue sampling. Continue reading...

Scientists took years to map 50m connections, which may lead to understanding of how wiring gives rise to behaviourResearchers have produced the first wiring diagram for the whole brain of a fruit fly, a feat that promises to revolutionise the field of neuroscience and pave the way for unprecedented insights into how the brain produces behaviour.Rarely in science has so much effort been directed toward so little material, with scientists taking years to map the meanderings of all 139,255 neurons and the 50m connections bundled up inside the fly's poppy seed-sized brain. Continue reading...

I don't have much faith in the future - but a psychology professor says cynicism doesn't hold up to scrutinyI would never describe myself as cynical. Yes, I have little faith in the likelihood of our coming together as a species to solve the climate crisis, make housing affordable or vote for the non-criminal presidential candidate.But that's based on evidence. Who could reflect on current events and feel optimistic about the future? Continue reading...

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-Atlas) was discovered last year and is thought to orbit the sun every 80,000 yearsA comet that has not been seen from Earth since Neanderthals were alive and kicking has reappeared in the sky, with astronomers saying it might be visible to the naked eye.Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-Atlas) was discovered by astronomers early last year, and is thought to orbit the sun about every 80,000 years on a highly elongated path. Continue reading...

A 0.5% decrease in people aged 100 or over is probably related to post-WWI baby boom, ONS saysThe number of people living beyond the age of 100 in England and Wales may have reached a peak, according to government data.Estimates of the Very Old, a population analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 14,850 people aged 100 or over living in England and Wales in 2023. Among these, an estimated 560 people were aged 105 or older. Continue reading...

Existing plant-based cheeses often fail to deliver the textures that dairy lovers prizeStretchy dairy cheese could now be made without any cows, after the development of yeast strains that produce the crucial milk proteins.The key to the development, by Israeli company DairyX, is producing casein proteins that are able to self-assemble into the tiny balls that give regular cheese and yoghurt their stretchiness and creaminess. Existing plant-based cheeses often fail to deliver the textures that dairy lovers prize, and the company believes it is the first to report this breakthrough. Continue reading...

Kew study reveals areas with at least 100,000 undiscovered plant species - most likely to be under threat of extinctionBotanists have identified 33 dark spots" around the world where thousands of plant species are probably waiting to be discovered, according to new research.From a palm tree in Borneo that flowers underground to a Malagasy orchid that spends its life growing on other plants, researchers are still making dozens of new species discoveries every year. Continue reading...

Just before Britain's last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, powered down for the final time, Madeleine Finlay travelled to Nottinghamshire with energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose for a last tour of the site. Britain is the first major economy to move away from coal entirely as it strives to meet the target of net zero by 2030. Jillian and Madeleine speak to employees to find out what working at the plant has meant to them, and how they're feeling as the closing date approachesClips: BBCEnd of an era as Britain's last coal-fired power plant shuts down Continue reading...