Researchers find minuscule difference in the amygdala - a region of the brain linked to threat perceptionWhere does our personal politics come from? Does it trace back to our childhood, the views that surround us, the circumstances we are raised in? Is it all about nurture - or does nature have a say through the subtle levers of DNA? And where, in all of this, is the brain?Scientists have delved seriously into the roots of political belief for the past 50 years, prompted by the rise of sociobiology, the study of the biological basis of behaviour, and enabled by modern tools such as brain scanners and genome sequencers. The field is making headway, but teasing out the biology of behaviour is never straightforward. Continue reading...

Christopher Redman displayed a dedication beyond the call of duty with all his patients on the Silver Star pre-eclampsia ward. He would appear at odd times to check on someone's progress, or their baby's, having biked from his home in Oxford.We knew him from 1986-87, when our son Alex was born six weeks early, and thrived after treatment. Our second son, Chris, born in 1992, 14 weeks early, did not make it to Oxford, despite my pleas to use the air ambulance from Walsall. Christopher kept in touch with Walsall Manor hospital throughout my stay. Continue reading...

Largest brain scan study of its kind reveals differences in adult and youth severe depression, including apparent propensity to rumination among youth

Encountering nostalgia is like autoloading and hitting play on past positive experiences, elevating desire and regulating mood

Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Saul Newman, an interdisciplinary researcher at University College London and the University of Oxford, who has just won an Ig Nobel prize - given to scientific research that first makes people laugh, and then makes them think' - for his work showing that many claims of people living extraordinarily long lives come from places with short lifespans, no birth certificates, and where clerical errors and pension fraud abound. He tells Madeleine what happened when he went looking for the world's centenarians, and how his work has been received by the longevity research communityIg Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses Continue reading...

Global leaders are meeting to address the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance - millions will die unless solutions are found

Enclosure found under late novelist's garden is older than Salisbury monument and wins national recognitionWhen the author Thomas Hardy was writing Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1891, he chose to set the novel's dramatic conclusion at Stonehenge, where Tess sleeps on one of the stones the night before she is arrested for murder.What the author did not know, as he wrote in the study of his home, Max Gate in Dorchester, was that he was sitting right in the heart of a large henge-like enclosure that was even older than the famous monument on Salisbury Plain. Continue reading...

Postpartum haemorrhage and severe pre-eclampsia more likely than in women who conceive naturally or with IVFWomen who act as pregnancy surrogates appear to have a higher risk of health complications than those who carry their own babies, researchers have found.The use of surrogates, or gestational carriers", has boomed in recent years, with figures for England and Wales revealing that the number of parental orders, which transfer legal parentage from the surrogate, rose from 117 in 2011 to 413 in 2020. Continue reading...

Ocean acidification close to critical threshold, say scientists, posing threat to marine ecosystems and global liveabilityIndustrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world's life-support systems.Ocean acidification is approaching a critical threshold", particularly in higher-latitude regions, says the latest report on planetary boundaries. The growing acidification poses an increasing threat to marine ecosystems." Continue reading...

US physicists show how immense pulse of radiation could vaporise the side of asteroid and nudge it off courseScientists, as well as Hollywood movie producers, have long looked to nuclear bombs as a promising form of defence should a massive asteroid appear without warning on a collision course with Earth.Now, researchers at a US government facility have put the idea on a firm footing, showing how such a blast might save the world in the first comprehensive demo of nuclear-assisted planetary defence. Continue reading...

Beyond being in or out of control, there is an alternative - and it's one of the building blocks to living wellMy family was recently taken down by a brutal stomach bug. It took us out one by one, and although nothing could be more predictable in a household with a child who has recently started nursery, the biblical brutality of the symptoms took me by surprise. I think I had better leave it at that.While I have recovered physically, I am still reeling from the psychological vulnerability of feeling so helpless, of having no control over my own body. So I have been thinking about control, how frightening it is to feel out of it, how we kid ourselves that we are in it. People often speak of feeling out of control - of their thoughts, their emotions, their relationships - and it's something that comes up a lot in therapy, whether I am the patient or the therapist. The assumption seems to be that to build a better life, you have to be in control of it; the truth is, this desperation to be in control can destroy our lives and the lives of those we love. Continue reading...

After sun crosses celestial equator, true moment of equal light and darkness approachesWelcome to autumn! The northern hemisphere's autumnal equinox took place on 22 September. This is the day on which the sun crosses the celestial equator, moving from the northern celestial hemisphere to the southern.The celestial equator is the projection of the Earth's equator up into the sky. So, on the equinox, the sun is shining directly above Earth's equator, and this creates nearly equal hours of daylight and darkness across the globe. This is reflected in the name. The word equinox" comes from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night. Continue reading...

Non-smokers found to have 1% chance of treatment leading to disease compared with between 2% and 6% for smokersBreast cancer patients who continue to smoke after having radiotherapy are at much higher risk of their treatment causing them lung cancer in the future, research has found.Two in three of those diagnosed with early breast cancer in the UK are given radiotherapy. It is a long-established and highly effective treatment but does also have potential side-effects. Continue reading...

The psychology term is now a political expression as Americans across party lines report feeling powerlessBiden Is Trying to Jolt Us Out of Learned Helplessness About Trump," read the headline of a New York Times op-ed in January, which argued that [Donald] Trump's exhausting provocations" were wearing out voters who saw opposing the former president's re-election as a doomed project".Six months later, the mood was slightly more optimistic. Joe Biden had dropped out of the presidential race and Kamala Harris had taken his spot as the Democratic nominee. National Democrats seem to have shaken off their perennial sense of learned helplessness," read a July op-ed from the Charlotte Observer. Continue reading...

What we wear tells the world who we are, but open any wardrobe and the clothes reveal deep memories of our true selvesOn my first birthday I was given a charm bracelet and over the years various friends and relations gave me little charms to put on it: a tiny tennis racket, a dog that looked a bit (but not very) like ours, a key for my 21st birthday. Once I earned my own money, I occasionally bought a charm and added it to the bracelet - and it slowly grew into a miniature record of my life. When it was stolen in a burglary, I felt I'd lost not just the physical object but my life story.Clothes narrate our lives in a similar way, though unfortunately you can't fit them into a tiny box. They are an autobiography in fabric, gathering emotions and memories like a non-rolling stone. When it comes to Proustian triggers, clothes can give the madeleine a run for its money: a rifle through the wardrobe can whisk you back down the corridors of time. It's little wonder that throwing out a beloved dress can feel like burning a diary. It's like giving away part of yourself. Continue reading...

Millions have always known it and now scientists agree that for health and pleasure, less is moreWhat a great feeling it is when a study by actual scientists comes along and validates something that you've been saying for years. Researchers from the behaviour and health research unit at the University of Cambridge (heard of it?!) have recommended that the traditional British pint be abandoned in favour of the two-thirds measure.After a trial in a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants in England, the study leader, Prof Theresa Marteau, concluded that the change - which led to nearly 10% less beer being sold and consumed - could reduce the impact of alcohol-related harm.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist Continue reading...

First case of person to contract H5N1 after no known animal contact highlights federal-state agency relationshipsThe first case of a person to contract bird flu after no known contact with animals is raising questions about the possibility of human-to-human transmission and highlighting the complicated relationship between states and federal agencies in outbreak response.An extensive investigation into the case of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized on 22 August has revealed no links to animals, officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters on Thursday. Continue reading...

Tesla and others are trying to infuse robots with artificial intelligence, yet their development is dogged by technical and safety challenges. But the dream of a multipurpose domestic droid lives onIn 2013, US robotics company Boston Dynamics revealed its new robot, Atlas. Unveiled at the Darpa Robotics Challenge, the 6ft 2in humanoid could walk on uneven ground, jump off boxes, and even climb stairs. It was like a vision frequently depicted in fiction: a robot designed to operate like us, able to take on all manner of everyday tasks. It seemed like the dawn of something. Robots were going to do all of our boring and arduous chores, and step up as elderly care workers to boot.Since then, we've seen leaps forward in artificial intelligence (AI), from computer vision to machine learning. The recent wave of large language models and generative AI systems opens up new opportunities for human-computer interaction. But outside of research labs, physical robots remain largely restricted to factories and warehouses, performing very specific tasks, often behind a safety cage. Home robots are limited to vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers - not exactly Rosie the Robot. Continue reading...

Hampstead theatre; Bush theatre, London

The ex-president may not be able to explain how in vitro fertilization works, but he's had a lot to say about it latelyDonald Trump, I strongly suspect, would not be able to explain how in vitro fertilization (IVF) works if his life depended on it. Yet in recent months - and in what seems to be a disingenuous and desperate attempt to woo female voters - he has had a lot to say on the subject. Continue reading...

Illness could be treated as a physical, rather than mood, disorder, according to scientists in EdinburghIain Campbell, a researcher based at Edinburgh University, has a special perspective on bipolar depression. He lives with the condition and has lost family members who have taken their own lives because of their depression. It remains an intractable, devastating health problem, he says.More than a million people in the UK have bipolar depression, of whom a third are likely to attempt suicide. Yet the condition's roots remain unknown - despite significant efforts to understand them. Continue reading...

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...