Science | The Guardian

Dr Philip Thomas responds to a letter claiming that cold fusion could be a viable alternative to fossil fuelsI was disappointed to see a letter promoting a pseudo-scientific fringe theory (Cold fusion may be a viable energy alternative to end reliance on fossil fuels, Letters, 28 January). Many scientists have tried and failed to reproduce Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons's initial report of cold fusion. After years of intense scrutiny, the mainstream scientific community overwhelmingly concluded by the early 1990s that cold fusion was not a credible idea supported by experimental evidence - a conclusion that stands after three decades of research.The authors of the letter to the Guardian suggest that cold fusion research is now being suppressed from publication. In reality, credible, rigorous studies continue to be published in reputable journals (such as a 2019 study in Nature), but none of them has successfully observed cold fusion. The letter claims that companies have been able to make these reactions work quite reliably", but do not provide any evidence to support this. Continue reading...

It was important for the daughter to acknowledge her sadness but to disentangle it from concepts of guilt, shame and responsibility

It was supposed to be a quiet and peaceful weekend, but it left one writer lost for wordsAs the taxi approached the remote Lake District house where I'd be spending a week doing a silent Buddhist retreat, a thought struck me with Zen-like clarity.You must be out of your tiny mind. Continue reading...

This month is viewed as galaxy season in the northern hemisphere, so seek out wide open spaces around the country to gaze up into the heavens, undimmed by light pollutionAs we streak through winter, shorter daylight hours offer the best opportunity to view the dark skies before the clocks spring forward in March and the constellations shift again. This month is viewed as galaxy season in the northern hemisphere, offering the chance to see the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbour, just 2.5m light years away, with the naked eye. Continue reading...

Research into dark personality traits' has always focused on men. But some experts believe standard testing misses the ways an antisocial personality manifests itself in womenPicture a psychopath. Who do you see in your mind's eye? Chances are it's a man. And chances are your answer would be similar if you were asked to picture a narcissist. From Charles Manson and Ted Bundy to Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump, most famous people we consider psychopathic or narcissistic are male. That's even the case for fiction - think Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman or Norman Bates.Scientists long assumed that women were simply too wonderful to be significantly psychopathic or narcissistic, and didn't bother to study the possibility much, according to Ava Green from City St George's, University of London. But research over the past few decades is increasingly challenging this stereotype, suggesting women can have a dark streak, too. Much like in autism or ADHD, such traits just express themselves slightly differently in women - making them harder to spot with diagnostic tests that were essentially developed for men. Continue reading...

Phosphate, key to food production, is choking waterways, but a new sponge-like material returns it to the soil for cropsIt is one of the least appreciated substances on the planet and its misuse is now threatening to unleash environmental mayhem. Phosphorus is a key component of fertilisers that have become vital in providing food for the world. But at the same time, the spread of these phosphorus compounds - known as phosphates - into rivers, lakes and streams is spreading algal blooms that are killing fish stocks and marine life on a huge scale.It is a striking mismatch that is now being tackled by a project of remarkable simplicity. The company Rookwood Operations, based in Wells, Somerset, has launched a product that enables phosphates to be extracted from problem areas and then reused on farmland. Continue reading...

The British scientist on the risk of humans contracting bird flu, how people would cope with new lockdowns and being asked to pour the tea because she is a womanWendy Barclay is a leading British virologist and head of the department of infectious disease and the Action Medical Research chair in virology at Imperial College London. An expert on the pathogenesis and transmissibility of influenza viruses, she served on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) during the Covid-19 pandemic, providing advice on the risks posed by the coronavirus and appropriate medical countermeasures.What prompted you to study virology?

In fourth part of the inquiry, questons were asked about vaccine trials, procurement and the UK's preparedness for future pandemicsThe Covid inquiry has spent the past three weeks delving into the UK vaccine rollout and the decision-making around new and existing therapies for infected and vulnerable people. Here we look at the key findings from the module, the fourth of 10, in the inquiry chaired by Lady Hallett. Continue reading...

A demographic change is unfolding, and many of us can expect a long life. It's time to provide the support neededAt the age of 111, a British accountant named John Tinniswood has just been declared the oldest man alive. Asked for the secrets to his remarkable longevity, he mentioned his fondness for a plate of fish and chips every Friday. Mostly, he thought it was down to pure luck".When Tinniswood was born in Liverpool in 1912, the idea of living to 111 would have struck his parents as fanciful, if not absurd. The average life expectancy of a British male then was 52 years.Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School and author of The Longevity Imperative : Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives, Basic Books, 2024. Continue reading...

Clinical trials find one-time gene therapy exa-cel offers functional cure' in 96.6% of patientsA groundbreaking" 1.65m treatment offering a potential cure for people in England living with sickle cell disease has been approved for use on the NHS, the medicines watchdog has announced.Campaigners welcomed news of the approval of the one-time gene therapy, known as exagamglogene autotemcel, or exa-cel, which edits the faulty gene in a patient's own stem cells. Continue reading...

Researchers found that muscles move to orient ears toward sound source in vestigial reactionWiggling your ears might be more of a pub party piece than a survival skill, but humans still try to prick up their ears when listening hard, researchers have found.Ear movement is crucial in many animals, not least in helping them focus their attention on particular noises and work out which direction they are coming from. Continue reading...

Oral drug from Vertex, branded as Journavx, represents alternative to addictive opioids that have fueled US crisisThe US Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug to treat acute pain, the health regulator said on Thursday, offering a first-of-its-kind alternative to addictive opioid painkillers that have fueled a national crisis.The Vertex Pharmaceuticals oral drug, branded Journavx, works by blocking pain signals at their source, unlike opioids, which trigger the brain's reward centers as they travel through the blood and then attach to neural receptors, leading to addiction and abuse. Continue reading...

Readers reflect on Aida Edemariam's piece about what can be a fine line between physical symptoms and conditions dismissed as being all in your head'While enjoying Aida Edemariam's review of current neuro-psychological research (The mind/body revolution: how the division between mental' and physical' illness fails us all, 26 January), I disagree with her assertion that A conceptual division between mind and body has underpinned western culture, and medicine for centuries. Illnesses are physical', or they are mental'."Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the term psychosomatic" in the late 18th century to describe bodymind conditions, while the term placebo" was first used in the same period, referencing a link between imagination and physical symptom. A few years later, in 1800, the physician John Haygarth published the widely read pamphlet Of the Imagination As a Cause and a Cure of Disorders of the Body. Continue reading...

Hundred-metre wide asteroid rises to top of impact risk lists after being spotted in December by automated telescopeA 100 metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time after telescope observations revealed it has a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032.Asteroid 2024 YR4 was spotted by an automated telescope in Chile on 27 December last year but has since risen to the top of impact risk lists maintained by the US and European space agencies. Continue reading...

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore expected to stay at space station a week but have been there almost eight monthsNasa's two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together on Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the station's exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents. Continue reading...

In the second episode of our listener questions special, Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay what he has uncovered about who the exercise guidelines were created for and whether they apply to all of us, which exercises are best for keeping us strong, whether we should be eating particular foods when we exercise, and how much protein we need to consume if we're packing in the hours at the gym. With contributions from Jason Gill, professor of cardiometabolic health at the University of Glasgow; Benjamin Wall, professor of nutritional physiology at the University of Exeter; Clyde Williams, emeritus professor of sports science at Loughborough University; Victoria Taylor, head of clinical support at the British Heart Foundation and I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical SchoolSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepodListen to episode one of our listener questions special all about sugar, seed oils and avoiding sickness Continue reading...

The concept, made popular by self-help guru Mel Robbins, is a reminder that we can't control others' actionsIs there anything more frustrating than other people?Despite our best efforts to persuade them to do, say and be what we want, they persist in upending our plans by making their own decisions, being their own people and thinking their own thoughts. Continue reading...

Cells taken from blood and reprogrammed' into heart muscle cells may help patients with heart failureDamaged hearts can literally be patched up to help them work, say researchers, in what has been hailed as a groundbreaking development for people with advanced heart failure.According to a recent study, heart failure affects more than 64 million people worldwide, with causes including heart attacks, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. Continue reading...

Analysis by dozens of scientists internationally notes urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse losses

Nasa says Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are not stranded and will return to Earth by end of MarchDonald Trump has asked Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring back two astronauts stranded" in space, despite the fact that there is already an agreed plan for SpaceX to bring them back in March and Nasa saying they are not stranded anyway.Trump said that he had asked Musk and SpaceX to get the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration". The US president added on Truth Social: Good luck Elon!!!" Continue reading...

University of Sussex scientist calls promotion of preventative practice when pets are flea free profiteering'Vets need to stop profiteering" by giving dogs and cats preventive flea treatments that are wiping out insects and songbirds, according to a well-known scientist.The standard practice in the UK at present is to advise that customers take a preventative approach, treating their pets every couple of months even if they don't have fleas. Continue reading...

Is screen use really sapping our ability to focus and lowering our IQs? The scientists who have actually analysed the data give their verdictAndrew Przybylski, a professor of human behaviour and technology at Oxford University, is a busy man. It's only midday and already he has attended meetings on Skype, Teams, in person and now FaceTime audio". He appears to be switching seamlessly between these platforms, showing no signs of mental impairment. The erosion of my brain is a function of time and small children," he says. I do not believe there's a force in technology that is more deleterious than the beauty of life."Przybylski should know: he studies technology's effects on cognition and wellbeing. And yet a steady stream of books, podcasts, articles and studies would have you think that digital life is lobotomising us all to the extent that, in December, Oxford University Press announced that its word of the year was brain rot" (technically two words, but we won't quibble) - a metaphor for trivial or unchallenging online material and the effect of scrolling through it. All this has sown widespread fears that the online world that we - and our children - have little choice but to inhabit is altering the structures of our brains, sapping our ability to focus or remember things, and lowering our IQs. Which is a disaster because another thing that can significantly impair cognitive function is worry. Continue reading...

A number of companies have been able to make these low-energy nuclear reactions work reliably, write Brian Josephson, David J Nagel, Alan Smith, Dr Jean-Paul Biberian and Yasuhiro IwamuraLuca Garzotti observes (Letters, 22 January) that serious challenges face the production of energy from processes based on thermonuclear fusion, but failed to mention a crucially important alternative, low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), commonly known as cold fusion.Readers of the Guardian's 2012 obituary of Martin Fleischmann will know that the situation regarding cold fusion is more complicated than that commonly assumed: that the claims of Fleischmann and Stanley Pons for the process were discredited. The reality is that subsequent research showed that it was the critics who were wrong, something not widely known because editors of the main journals, under the impression that the claims were false, blocked the publication of papers suggesting otherwise. Continue reading...

Baby shark Yoko hatched in early January, flummoxing staff and experts at a US aquariumBirds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it, according to Cole Porter's classic song on the universal nature of sex.But a baby swell shark born in a Louisiana aquarium that houses only females has flummoxed marine experts and raised the possibility that the species may not require such earthly pleasures to produce offspring. Continue reading...

Vertebra spotted by fossil hunters on online marketplace is part of first stegosaur ever described by scientistsThe spectacular remains of the first stegosaur to be described by scientists - discovered in a clay pit in Swindon in 1874 - are on display in the grand surroundings of the Natural History Museum in London.But 150 years on, a little piece of the Swindon Stegosaur has been returned to the Wiltshire town, after two fossil hunters spotted one of its vertebrae for sale on an online marketplace site. Continue reading...

We asked for your questions on getting healthy in 2025 and you delivered. In the first episode of our listener questions special, Madeleine Finlay tells Ian Sample what she has uncovered about the scientifically proven ways to cut down on sugar, the truth behind the panic over seed oils, and why it is that some of us seem to have bullet proof immune systems, while others succumb to every bug they encounter. With contributions from Wendy Wood, provost professor emerita of psychology and business at USC Dornsife, John Trowsdale, emeritus professor of immunology at the University of Cambridge and Katherine Appleton, professor of psychology at Bournemouth University Continue reading...

Experts say vomit, probably from a fish, is made up of sea lilies and is an important contribution to reconstructing past ecosystemsA piece of fossilised vomit, dating back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, has been discovered in Denmark, the Museum of East Zealand has said.The find was made by a local amateur fossil hunter on the Cliffs of Stevns, a Unesco-listed site south of Copenhagen. Continue reading...

Even though women tend to say they prefer older men they scored younger men as more desirable, research showsResearchers have challenged the idea that women prefer men who are older than them after finding precisely the opposite in thousands of women who went on blind dates.Quizzed after their brief encounters, both men and women tended to rate younger dates as more desirable future partners, suggesting men do not have a monopoly on putting a premium on youth. Continue reading...

Second human case of H5N1 bird flu caught on farm in West Midlands but risk to public remains very low, says UKHSAA human case of highly pathogenic bird flu has been detected in England, authorities have said, as bird flu cases escalate across the country.It is only the second symptomatic human case of H5N1 bird flu recorded in the UK, after the first was detected in 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. Continue reading...

Archaeologists hail discovery of very rare hoard featuring 44 gold coins bearing name of Celtic king CunobelinusA hoard of British coins bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin and found in a Dutch field have been identified as very likely to be the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain.The 44 gold coins, known as staters, were discovered alongside 360 Roman coins, by two amateur archaeologists with metal detectors in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht. The coins are believed to have been given as military pay. Continue reading...

A film festival at a Melbourne planetarium will immerse viewers with a giant curved screen above them - showing dinosaurs, floating heads, and the entire cosmos

For centuries, we've pursued happiness and meaning. But what does that leave out?What if I told you that we could all be rich? Not in dollars or pounds, yen or rupees, but a completely different type of currency. A currency measured in experiences, adventures, lessons learned and stories told. As a social psychologist, I have dedicated my research career to a simple, but universal question: what makes for a good life, and how can we achieve it? For much of human history, we have been presented with two possibilities: pursuing a life of happiness, or a life of meaning. Each of these paths has its benefits and proponents, but decades of psychological research have also revealed their limits.The current cultural conception of happiness, for example, can work against us finding fulfilment. Historically, happiness tended to be defined as the result of good luck" and fortune". Today many expect it to come from individual effort and success. But this, in turn, makes unhappiness and negative emotions such as sadness or anger seem like personal failures. Continue reading...

People try many things to fill the void, but respite is short-lived. Learning to tolerate and understand these emotions will give you a more solid sense of yourselfI just read an extraordinary article by Anna Parker for this website, and it set my mind on fire. Parker interviewed Yannick and Ben Jakober, whose daughter died at 19. In their grief, they began building a unique, 165-strong portrait collection of children from the 16th to 19th centuries, many of whom did not survive to adulthood. The paintings are devastating, captivating, at times disturbing; I was moved and unsettled by this unusual monument to parental grief.There was one particular line in the piece that floored me. Exploring the drive to continue adding painting after painting to the gallery they had built, Ben spoke of kenophobia, the fear of empty rooms or voids: When there was aspace there, we had to fill it.'" Continue reading...

Collaboration over at least three years aims to help understand how pre-cancerous cells develop

Current rules leave door open for medicines to be supplied without appropriate patient consultation, association saysPharmacies are demanding tougher regulation of the online sale of weight-loss jabs amid a predicted new year's boom in demand.The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), who represent independent community pharmacies, urged the regulator to require greater consultation with patients before dispensing weight-loss jabs and other high-risk medication online. Continue reading...

Four naked-eye planets will appear in line, showing solar system's planeThis week we can observe four of the five naked-eye planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but not Mercury) with the added bonus of a young moon, too. In doing so, we will be able to discern the ecliptic: the plane of the solar system, which defines the path in the sky that the sun, moon and planets all follow.The chart shows a wide swathe of the sky, stretching from the south-east to south-west, as it will appear above London on 31 January at 6.45pm GMT. Starting at the western end of the panorama, a beautifully slender waxing crescent moon will be visible. Just 2.4 days old, only 6.2% of its visible surface will be illuminated. Continue reading...

Jenny Kleeman reports on a new therapy where patients who suffer from psychosis create a digital avatar of the voices they hearClaire was 10 years old when she started hearing voices. They would torment her, call her names and tell her to self-harm.She tells Helen Pidd about her experience of psychosis, where reality is disturbed by hallucinations and delusions. For decades, she struggled to get effective treatment until she joined a digital avatar therapy trial. Continue reading...

Analysis released by new director, John Ratcliffe, suggests the agency believes totality of evidence makes a lab originThe CIA now believes the virus responsible for the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released on Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has low confidence" in its own conclusion.The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA director William Burns. It was declassified and released on Saturday on the orders of president Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in as director on Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: In-vitro gametes are viewed as the holy grail of fertility researchMass-producing eggs and sperm in a laboratory in order to have a baby with yourself or three other people in a multiplex" parenting arrangement might sound like the plot of a dystopian novel.But these startling scenarios are under consideration by the UK's fertility watchdog, which has concluded that the technology could be on the brink of viability. Continue reading...

New research shows western medicine's traditional split between brain and body is, in fact, far from clear cut - and could provide a breakthrough for many complex conditions

Organic chemist who shared the 2016 Nobel prize in chemistry for his contribution to the development of molecular machinesIn 1991 the organic chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart, who has died aged 82, synthesised artificial molecular machines for the first time. They mimic the way that some biological materials are able to move in a quasi-mechanical, interlocking way.Stoddart had previously noted that natural occurring organic molecules such as the protein myosin, which drives the contraction of muscles, or motor enzymes that help maintain DNA, acted like tiny machines. He realised that the molecular components of these machines could, like the cogs, pistons and switches of macroscale machines, move relative to each other and, more importantly, can bond together mechanically and become entangled. By building their synthetic equivalents, powered by electrical energy, chemical reactions or light, he created an entirely new field in organic chemistry. Continue reading...

Research into the disease has never been more far-reaching, but there is little consensus as to what is causing the rocketing rates of diagnosis in young adultsIn 2022, around 16% of the 20 million people with cancer worldwide were under 50. Cancer has always been markedly more of an older person's disease, says Lynn Turner, director of research at Worldwide Cancer Research. But between 1990 and 2019, the incidence of the disease in under-50s rose by 79%, according to research published in the British Medical Journal in 2023. That short timeframe means the rise cannot be explained by genetic factors, according to Tracey Woodruff, director of the University of California, San Francisco's programme on reproductive health and the environment.Many of these early-onset" cases are happening in wealthier countries, says Kathryn Bradbury, senior research fellow at the University of Auckland's school of population health. The rates are striking because younger populations are mainly non-smokers, says Mary Beth Terry, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. About two-thirds of cancers in under-50s occur in women, she adds. Continue reading...

After Donald Trump's reckless bonfire of safeguards, our best plan is to become tech champions ourselvesIt was only 11 years ago that Prof Stephen Hawking declared that explosive and untrammelled growth in artificial intelligence could menace the future of humanity.Two years ago, more than a thousand leaders in artificial intelligence, fearing loss of control" given its exponential growth to outcomes unknown, called for an immediate six-month pause in AI research pending the creation of common safety standards. In a fortnight, France and India will co-host an international summit in Paris searching for accords better to ensure the safety of AI, following the 2023 British-hosted summit in Bletchley Park. Continue reading...

Danish drug giant found to have failed to accurately report spending even after admitting to errorsThe pharmaceutical watchdog has reprimanded Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk for failing to correctly disclose dozens of payments to the UK health sector as it sought to boost sales of its slimming drugs.The Danish drug giant - Europe's most valuable listed company - systematically misreported, under-reported or did not disclose funding given over seven years to pharmacy firms, obesity charities, training providers, professional bodies and patient groups. Continue reading...

The Oxford English Dictionary announced its word of the year at the end of 2024: brain rot'. The term relates to the supposedly negative effects of consuming social media content, but it struck a chord more widely with many of us who feel we just don't have the mental capacity we once did. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, has been studying our waning attention spans for 20 years. She tells Madeleine Finlay why she believes our powers of concentration are not beyond rescue, and reveals her top tips for finding focus

Describing issues of autonomy, femgore, worth and hunger all had ain impact on what I wrote and how I felt about myself, says Lucy RoseMy conflict with food began before I was born. According to family lore, I couldn't be sated, even in utero. I consumed everything, apparently putting my twin at such risk that we were delivered prematurely. There are even stories of me climbing into my twin's crib late at night and stealing their milk bottle, swapping it out with my empty one. I've always felt hunger, but I soon learned to associate want" with shame.In 2020, I started working on a novel about mother and daughter cannibals, who lure lost souls to their rural forest homestead and bake them into pies and stews. It wasn't a conscious choice to write about women with a carnal desire to feast, but slowly, deep into drafting - which is a very physical act for me because I write by longhand - I realised that my relationship with food and consumption was changing. Exposure to these women, who binged without guilt or inhibition, forced me to confront my fraught relationship with food, and in turn, eventually, heal it. Continue reading...

Greater mouse-eared bat was declared extinct in the UK but ecologists now believe population recovery is possibleFor 21 long winters, Britain's loneliest bat hibernated alone in a disused railway tunnel in Sussex.The male greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) was the only known individual of his kind in the country after he was discovered in 2002 - a decade after the rare species was officially declared extinct. Continue reading...

Researchers say study may help global efforts in controlling disease that still destroys crops todayIt was a disaster that killed about 1 million people, devastating 19th century Ireland, but while the potato disease linked to the Irish famine is well known, a battle has raged over where it originated.Scientists have long been divided over whether the fungus-like pathogen Phtytophthora infestans cropped up in the Andes or originated in Mexico. Continue reading...

As The Traitors final airs, Prof Richard Wiseman - a psychologist and magician - says telling a good lie is very difficult'As The Traitors final airs on BBC One, a show in which the faithfuls battle to expose the traitors to win a cash prize, we spoke to an expert in the psychology of deception on how to lie.Richard Wiseman, a professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, has an interest in deception both academically and professionally - he doubles up as a professional magician. Continue reading...