Science | The Guardian

In a special episode recorded live at the British Science Festival, Madeleine Finlay and guests explore the question: will AI make a good companion?AI could give us new ways to tackle difficult problems, from young people's mental health issues to isolation in care homes. It also raises challenging questions about the increasing role of tech in our personal lives.To explore these questions, Madeleine is joined by the Guardian's science editor, Ian Sample; Tony Prescott, a professor of computational robotics at Sheffield University; and Dr Mhairi Aitken, an ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and visiting senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London.Could AI help cure downward spiral' of human loneliness? Continue reading...

Geochemist who jointly invented a method of radioactive dating used on rock samples brought back from the moonThe argon-40/argon-39 method of radioactive dating, invented by Grenville Turner and his American colleague Craig Merrihue in the mid-1960s, provided the technique to precisely date the tiny but irreplaceable rock samples brought back by the astronauts of the Apollo moon-landing programme. Turner, who has died aged 87 from a brain tumour, pioneered the method prior to becoming one of the few British scientists to be employed by Nasa as a principal investigator on the Apollo programme.Argon-40/argon-39 dating is similar to an earlier technique called potassium/argon dating. In volcanic rocks and minerals any of the isotope potassium-40 (the parent isotope) that is present decays over time to the isotope argon-40 (the daughter isotope). Measuring the amounts and ratios of each allows geologists to calculate the age of the rock sample. However, the process was somewhat cumbersome. Continue reading...

Ipsos survey asked people in 31 countries what they thought of their health and healthcareMental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed.Experts said the shift in the public's perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women. Continue reading...

Event heard findings of research on advertising for tobacco products and estimates of economic cost of ovarian cancerThe World Cancer Congress 2024, the biannual conference of the Union for International Cancer Control, brought together doctors, scientists and researchers, as well as current or previous cancer patients, to discuss new evidence and strategies on how to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.Held in Geneva, Switzerland, and attended by more than 2,000 participants from about 120 countries, the event featured over 150 sessions. Here are the key takeaways. Continue reading...

As the London Museum announces a mudlarking exhibition, mudlarker Lara Maiklem says combing the foreshore can transport you back in timeEarlier this week, Lara Maiklem climbed down to the foreshore of the River Thames at low tide to spend several hours gently scrabbling at its surface in pursuit of a 20-year obsession.Known on social media as the London Mudlark and the author of three books on larking, Maiklem is at the forefront of a growing number of people spending their spare time combing through the mud of the capital's river searching for historical artefacts. Continue reading...

As state schools are called upon to improve pupils' debating skills, how can students build their confidence?This week Jonathan Noakes, the director of teaching and learning at Eton, said state schools should be doing more to improve their pupils' public speaking skills by setting up debating societies. How can students gain confidence in speaking to an audience if this opportunity isn't available at school? Four state-educated public speakers explain how they found their voice. Continue reading...

Lipid analysis using existing machines could give warning of type 2 diabetes, liver and heart disease, researchers sayScientists say a new blood test that analyses lipids could make it easier to identify children at risk of serious health conditions including type 2 diabetes, liver and heart disease.Researchers at King's College London said the test capitalised on a link between lipids and diseases affecting metabolism in children, and could serve as an early warning system for potentially life-threatening illnesses. Continue reading...

Voluntary regulations for burning wood and coal to heat homes could help tackle impact on air pollutionWhile traffic and industry have been the focus of air pollution controls for the past two decades, the old issue of pollution from home heating has crept up again.Wood- and coal-burning homes in the UK now produce more particle air pollution than the vehicles on our roads. Industry figures show that about 200,000 new stoves were sold in 2022. Continue reading...

Pickiness not down to parenting' and peaks at seven years old, according to studyParents who find themselves exasperated by their child's fussy eating, take heart: the refusal to tuck into a broader range of foods is largely down to genes rather than parenting, according to scientists.Researchers investigated eating habits in toddlers to teenagers and found that on average fussiness over food changed little from 16 months to 13 years old. There was a minor peak in pickiness at seven years, then a slight decline thereafter. Continue reading...

Earth's gravitational pull will cause a trapped asteroid to orbit around planet for about two monthsThis autumn, for a limited time, Earth will be getting a second moon.According to a study published this week, an asteroid roughly the length of a city bus will be captured by Earth's gravitational pull and orbit our planet for about two months, becoming a mini moon". Continue reading...

Stargazers around the world enjoyed the supermoon - sometimes called the harvest moon in the northern hemisphere - that coincided with a partial lunar eclipse

Ian Sample talks to Dr Laura Pritschet, a postdoctoral fellow of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, about her research using precision scans to capture the profound changes that sweep across the brain during pregnancy. She explains what this new work reveals about how the brain is reorganised in this period, whether it could it help us better understand conditions like pre-eclampsia and postnatal depression, and why women's brains have often been overlooked by neuroscience. And neuroscientist Dr Liz Chrastil whose brain was scanned, explains what the experience was likeScans capture sweeping reorganisation of brain in pregnancy Continue reading...

Scientists found 90% of young coral surveyed remained healthy compared with 25% of older corals, after mass bleaching event in the CaribbeanYoung corals bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted in reefs around the US, Mexico and the Caribbean have surprised scientists, after most survived last year's record marine heatwave, while older corals struggled.A study has found that 90% of the young IVF-created corals surveyed remained healthy and colourful, holding on to the algae that live within them and supply them with nutrition. In contrast, only about a quarter of older non-IVF corals remained healthy. Continue reading...

The board has rejected both of Anne Wojcicki's buyout proposals to save the struggling genetics companySeven of eight members of 23andMe's board have resigned in yet another blow to the struggling genetics company. The CEO is now the only remaining member.The independent directors of the genetic testing firm said in a letter posted Tuesday that they were quitting the company's board after not receiving a satisfactory buyout offer from the CEO, Anne Wojcicki. Continue reading...

Streams are the largest ever seen, measuring 23m light years and with combined power of trillions of sunsAstronomers have spotted two record-breaking plasma jets blasting out of a supermassive black hole and into the void beyond its host galaxy.The enormously powerful plasma streams are the largest ever seen, measuring 23m light years from end to end, a distance that would cross 140 Milky Ways arranged side by side. Continue reading...

Evidence of highly organised urban settlement found during survey work for solar farm near Great StaughtonThe well-preserved remains of a Roman town discovered during survey work for a solar farm in Cambridgeshire have been given heritage protection status as a scheduled monument.The buried archaeological features of the settlement near Great Staughton extend across 31 hectares (77 acres) and include ditches, pits, post holes, and gravel surfaces that represent roads or yard areas. Continue reading...

Women were dismissed, offered ineffective treatments or wrongly diagnosed by healthcare professionals, Senate inquiry told

A supermoon coinciding with a partial lunar eclipse was seen around the world on Tuesday night. Lunar eclipses are caused by the Earth passing between the sun and the moon. This casts the Earth's shadow on to the moon's surface. On Tuesday night, the shadow didn't entirely cover the moon, making it a partial eclipse.

The winners of the Nikon Small World in Motion video competition have been announced, with zoologist Dr Bruno Vellutini's video showing the processes of fly embryogenesis taking first prize. 'Fruit fly embryos are in our homes, developing in our kitchens and our trash bins, are undergoing the same processes as shown in the video,' Vellutini said. 'I believe the video is particularly impactful because it shows us how these fascinating cellular and tissue dynamics are happening every day, all around us, even in the most mundane living beings'Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube

Find a viewing spot that is dark and looks towards the east, which is where the moon will rise. A flat location will give a really cool' perspective, experts say

Researchers say six additional servings of foods such as berries, tea and red wine daily could lower the risk by 28%Consuming more food and drinks rich in flavonoids, such as berries, tea and red wine, could lower the risk of dementia by 28%, a study suggests.The number of people living with the disease globally is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, which presents a rapidly increasing threat to global heath and social care systems. Continue reading...

Water anoles jump into streams when threatened and produce a bubble that helps them stay underwater for up to 20 minutesPencil-long lizards that plunge into streams to evade their predators survive underwater by breathing through a bubble that forms on their nostrils, researchers say.Water anoles live around rocks and plants near streams and waterfalls in Central and South America and are preyed on by birds, snakes and other lizards, making life in the forest an often short affair. Continue reading...

UK nations saw largest falls in diagnosis of lung, breast, colorectal and skin cancers in 2020, figures showThe UK can expect a tsunami of missed cancers", leading experts have said, after an international study found that diagnoses fell sharply during the pandemic.Preliminary figures from the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, presented to delegates at the World Cancer Congress in Geneva, compared data on the instance and stage of cancer diagnosis in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the UK, before and during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Scientists reach conclusion after trial in which pints were scrapped in a dozen pubs, bars and restaurantsFancy a quick two-thirds? It may lack the appeal of the more familiar after work social, but abandoning the British pint for a smaller measure could boost the nation's health, researchers say.Scientists reached the conclusion after a trial in a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants in England during which pints were scrapped and two-thirds of a pint became the largest draught beer available. Continue reading...

Hampstead theatre, London

They were developed as diabetes drugs, then their potential for promoting significant weight loss became apparent. And now study after study seems to suggest that drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy could have all sorts of health benefits, leading some scientists to hail them a breakthrough that could transform many chronic diseases of ageing. But what's the mechanism for these effects and is it caused by more than weight loss? The Guardian's science correspondent Nicola Davis tells Madeleine Finlay what is known so farClips: ABC News, Vox, BBC Continue reading...

Child deaths from infections see remarkable' decline but AMR fatalities of over-70s likely to rise by 146%, study findsAnalysis: Drug-resistant infections are on the rise - so why aren't we getting any new antibiotics?Superbugs will kill more than 39 million people before 2050 with older people particularly at risk, according to a new global analysis.While deaths linked to drug resistance are declining among very young children, driven by improvements in vaccination and hygiene, the study found the opposite trend for their grandparents. Continue reading...

World leaders will meet in New York this month to discuss growing antimicrobial resistance as researchers warn the development of replacement drugs is stallingSuperbugs could kill 39m people by 2050' amid rising drug resistanceAlmost a century on from the groundbreaking discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, his scientific successors are racing to save modern medicine.Infections that were once easy to cure with antibiotics are becoming untreatable, and a novel treatment for bacterial infection is the holy grail for teams of researchers around the world. Continue reading...

The answers to today's counter-intuitive conundrumsEarlier today I set you these two puzzles, which are extracts from my new book Think Twice: Solve the Simple Puzzles (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong. Here they are again with solutions.1) Pint-sized problem Continue reading...

Health officials say jabs needed to bolster UK's resilience after WHO declares clade Ib outbreak a global emergencyThe UK has ordered more than 150,000 doses of vaccine against mpox to bolster its preparedness after the World Health Organization declared a surge in cases in Africa to be a global emergency.No cases of clade Ib mpox, the new strain that has spread rapidly in Africa after an initial outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have yet been detected in the UK. Continue reading...

MRIs taken from before conception until two years after birth show some short-lived changes and some lasting yearsProfound changes that sweep across the human brain during pregnancy have been captured for the first time, after researchers performed precision scans on a woman carrying her child.MRI scans taken every few weeks from before conception until two years after childbirth revealed widespread reorganisation in the mother's brain, with some changes short-lived and others lasting years. Continue reading...

Comes with a free pintUPDATE: Solutions up hereToday's two puzzles are from my new book Think Twice: Solve the Simple Puzzles That (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong.As readers of this column will know, I love a counter-intuitive puzzle, i.e. when the obvious answer is not the correct one. Continue reading...

An especially modest eclipse, covering just 3.5% of the moon's surface, is still a wonderful sight to beholdOn 18 September, a partial lunar eclipse will occur. Nowhere near as dramatic as a total eclipse of the sun, it can still be a fascinating sight.Lunar eclipses are caused by the Earth passing between the sun and the moon. This casts the Earth's shadow on to the moon's surface. This week, the shadow does not entirely cover the moon, hence it is called a partial eclipse not a total one. Continue reading...

Rewiring your sexual patterns can help you surf the urge' and reconnect with your partner

The billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted the team higher than anyone has travelled since Nasa's moonwalkers. The crew, whose SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740km) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble space telescope

Jared Isaacman and crew splash down in SpaceX capsule in the Gulf of Mexico after first ever private spacewalkThe civilian crew on SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission returned to Earth on Sunday after a historic five days in orbit that took them higher than anyone since Nasa's moon trips more than half a century ago.The Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas shortly after 3.37am local time (8.37am BST), carrying onboard the billionaire tech entrepreneur and mission funder Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former air force Thunderbird pilot. Continue reading...

Experts hail remarkable' trial results for treatment of a form of skin cancer that once had grim prognosisMore than half of people diagnosed with advanced melanoma now survive for at least 10 years when they receive a double hit of immunotherapy drugs, a trial has found.The combined treatment has transformed survival rates for a form of skin cancer that once had a grim prognosis, with some patients now living long enough that they die from other causes. Continue reading...

As I have learnt to shape the timber, I've shaped my ideas, my characterAlone with my thoughts at the workbench, with the sanding machine's insistently buzzing bass note singing up through my palm, I find myself trying to figure out just how long I have actually spent sanding pieces of wood. Softening their edges, making their surfaces gleam like polished marble. Carefully climbing through the grades - from the brutally coarse low-grit" stuff to such improbably fine high-grit" paper that the business side feels smoother than the backing. Or just how long I have spent working with wood all told, come to that.Professionally, I've been at it in some form or another for more than two decades now; and, before that, from almost the moment I was old enough to sweep up the shavings, I've been helping my father. The man who taught me the trick of folding and sticking the sandpaper together the better to grip it; of dampening the timber to bring up those last few stubbornly crushed fibres like blades of grass after rain. Sums on this scale are rather too grand for my sawdust-and-whisky-addled brain to compute, though, so, pulling off my ear defenders, I ferret out a calculator - and rather wish I hadn't. Continue reading...

Researchers find two sites with fossils including saber-toothed salmon and megalodon, the huge prehistoric sharkMarine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried. Continue reading...

The 42m Transform project aims to find the best way to catch the disease in men in its early stagesA 42m screening trial aimed at revolutionising the treatment of prostate cancer has been launched in the UK.Thousands of men will be involved in its initial phase, which will begin in a few months. Several hundred thousand volunteers could be recruited as the programme progresses in coming years, say the trial's organisers. Continue reading...

Scientists say an epilepsy drug could reduce sleep apnoea symptoms, but how else can snoring be tackled?It has blighted many a relationship, but at least one group of snorers has been offered fresh hope this week as researchers announced that taking an epilepsy medication was associated with a marked reduction in sleep apnoea symptoms. What causes snoring? And how can it be tackled? Continue reading...

The factoid about biodiversity and Indigenous peoples spread around the world, but scientists say bad data can undermine the very causes it claims to supportThe statistic seemed to crop up everywhere. Versions were cited at UN negotiations, on protest banners, in 186 peer-reviewed scientific papers - even by the film-maker James Cameron, while promoting his Avatar films. Exact wording varied, but the claim was this: that 80% of the world's remaining biodiversity is protected by Indigenous peoples.When scientists investigated its origins, however, they found nothing. In September, the scientific journal Nature reported that the much-cited claim was a baseless statistic", not supported by any real data, and could jeopardise the very Indigenous-led conservation efforts it was cited in support of. Indigenous communities play essential roles" in conserving biodiversity, the comment says, but the 80% claim is simply wrong" and risks undermining their credibility. Continue reading...

Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England had best views, with sightings as far south as KentSkies across the UK have been lit up again by the northern lights, with the possibility of another view on Friday night.Also known as aurora borealis, the phenomenon could be seen most clearly in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England on Thursday night. Fainter sightings were recorded as far south as Kent. Continue reading...

The winners of Royal Observatory Greenwich's annual competition have been announced. The images will be on display in the accompanying exhibition, opening at the National Maritime Museum in London on Friday Continue reading...

Six out of 10 aged care residents in Australia are prescribed the drugs, despite weak evidence and side-effects such as dizziness and falls

Scientific research on pigeon missiles and dead trout also win at awards for amusing studies with serious implicationsIn a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses.After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. Continue reading...

Landslide in Greenland caused unprecedented seismic event that shows impact of global heating, say scientistsA landslide and mega-tsunami in Greenland in September 2023, triggered by the climate crisis, caused the entire Earth to vibrate for nine days, a scientific investigation has found.The seismic event was detected by earthquake sensors around the world but was so completely unprecedented that the researchers initially had no idea what had caused it. Having now solved the mystery, the scientists said it showed how global heating was already having planetary-scale impacts and that major landslides were possible in places previously believed to be stable as temperatures rapidly rose. Continue reading...

Research challenges conventional wisdom that evidence and arguments rarely help to change believers' mindsWhether it is the mistaken idea that the moon landings never happened or the false claim that Covid jabs contain microchips, conspiracy theories abound, sometimes with dangerous consequences.Now researchers have found that such beliefs can be altered by a chat with artificial intelligence (AI). Continue reading...

Four galleries to be overhauled and two more spaces to reopen, including Fixing Our Broken Planet exhibitionThe Natural History Museum in London has announced a major programme of transformation it says will mark a step-change from being a catalogue of natural history to a catalyst for change" in response to the climate emergency.The scheme to renovate the museum's celebrated Victorian building and develop a new research and storage facility will build on its aim to turn visitors into advocates for the planet", it said on Thursday. Continue reading...

Study suggests hydrogel microparticles increase survival by 30% in bumblebees exposed to lethal doses of neonicotinoidsScientists have developed a vaccine" for bees against pesticides - and it appears to work, according to an initial study.According to the findings, published in Nature Sustainability, hydrogel microparticles fed to bumblebees in sugar water caused a 30% higher survival rate in individuals exposed to lethal doses of neonicotinoids, and significantly milder symptoms in those exposed to lower doses that would not usually be lethal but can cause harm. Continue reading...