Science | The Guardian

But truancy and illness-related absences can be reversed with good sleeping habits and strong family ties, study suggestsYoung people who spend too much time online are more likely to miss school through illness or truancy, a study has suggested.Teenage girls appear to be more likely than teenage boys to score highly on excessive internet use, the findings indicate. But a good amount of sleep and exercise and a trusting relationship with their parents appear to go some way to reducing the effects of extreme web use on classroom absences. Continue reading...

Our ozone is pennies thick - and soon we'll put at least an Eiffel Tower's worth of metallic ash into the ionosphere every yearA dead spacecraft the size of a truck ignites with plasma and pulverizes into dust and litter as it rips through the ionosphere and atmosphere. This is what happens to internet service satellites during re-entry. When the full mega-constellation of satellites is deployed in the 2030s, companies will do this every hour because satellite internet requires thousands of satellites to constantly be replaced. And it could compromise our atmosphere or even our magnetosphere.Space entrepreneurs are betting on disposable satellites as key to a new means of wealth. There are currently nearly 10,000 active satellites and companies are working as fast as possible to get tens of thousands more into orbit - for a projected 1m in the next three to four decades.Sierra Solter is a plasma physicist, engineer, and inventor who studies the intersection of heliophysics and aerospace Continue reading...

BH3 spotted when scientists chanced upon star in Aquila constellation wobbling' under its gravitational forceAstronomers have discovered an enormous black hole which formed in the aftermath of an exploding star a mere 2,000 light years from Earth.BH3 is the most massive stellar black hole yet found in the Milky Way and revealed itself to researchers through the powerful tug it exerts on a companion star that orbits the object in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle. Continue reading...

What can sound tell us about nature loss? Guardian biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston tells Madeleine Finlay about her visit to Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire, where ecologist Richard Broughton has witnessed the decline of the marsh tit population over 22 years, and has heard the impact on the wood's soundscape. As species lose their habitats across the world, pioneering soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause has argued that if we listen closely, nature can tell us everything we need to know about our impact on the planetFind more reporting from the Soundscapes project hereBernie Krause audio by Bernie Krause, courtesy of Wild Sanctuary. (C) 2024 Wild Sanctuary. All rights reserved Continue reading...

One former nurse describes the poor pay and working conditions she experienced at a vet practiceDebates surrounding the veterinary industry rage on while vet support staff and nurses, forever caught in the crossfire of abuse and accusations of heartlessness or money-grubbing, go unrecognised yet again (The vet presented it as: if you care, you pay': who really profits from poorly pets?, 6 April).I believed I'd found my calling when I qualified as a registered veterinary nurse (RVN), but the job's stresses and thanklessness eventually overwhelmed me and I quit before the resultant depression, anxiety and accompanying eating disorder finished me off. My hourly pay was significantly less as an experienced RVN than I earned as a refuse collector just months later, and most vet support staff receive only minimum wage. Continue reading...

The answers to today's problemsEarlier today I set you these puzzles, set by the author of Much Ado About Numbers, a new book about mathematics in Shakespeare's day. Continue reading...

The wealth of emerging evidence suggest that physics may be on the brink of something bigModern physics deals with some truly mind-boggling extremes of scale. Cosmology reveals the Earth as a tiny dot amid an observable universe that is a staggering 93bn light years across. Meanwhile, today's particle colliders are exploring a microcosmic world billions of times smaller than the smallest atom.These two extremes, the biggest and smallest distances probed by science, are separated by 47 orders of magnitude. That's one with 47 zeros after it, a number so ludicrously huge that it isn't worth trying to get your head around. And yet, despite exploring such radically different distances and phenomena, cosmology and particle physics are deeply connected. Observing the motions of stars and galaxies can reveal the influence of as-yet-undiscovered particles, while studying fundamental particles in the lab can tell us about the birth and evolution of the cosmos. Continue reading...

New research reveals that listing your grievances on a piece of paper, then throwing them away may make you less angry. So I gave it a try ...A lifetime enveloped in a benign, insulating cloud of oestrogen left me ill-prepared to be this nakedly, shockingly angry as it ebbs away in perimenopause. It is occasionally exhilarating, but mainly awful, being furious about so many things: the government, contradictory dental advice, inaction on climate breakdown, whatever cat keeps defecating at my back door. I exist at an exhausting, irrational rolling simmer that periodically comes to a head with me inappropriately venting, realising I'm being unreasonable, shamefacedly having a word with myself, then getting cross again.Help may be at hand, however, according to research from Japan, which suggests that writing your grievances on paper then throwing it away may make you less angry. Study participants were deliberately angered by researchers criticising their work and adding gratuitous insulting comments. Participants then wrote down how they felt and either threw the paper away, shredded it or kept it. The ones who disposed of the paper completely eliminated their anger". Continue reading...

Documentary reveals the cost to Nepalese villagers of harvesting a supposed aphrodisiac that sells for more than gold in ChinaEvery year, thousands of Nepalese villagers make their way to the Himalayan foothills in search of a fungus called yarsagumba. Known for its aphrodisiac properties, the elusive substance sells in China for a price higher than gold. Following Lalita, a young mother among the countless trekkers, this intimate documentary from Maude Plante-Husaruk and Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis paints a stirring portrait of a community exploited by modern commerce.Living in the largely agrarian village of Maikot, a wistful Lalita thinks back on her adolescent dreams of going to university, but an early marriage and now motherhood put a stop to her education. Through observational camerawork, the film subtly highlights the gender gap in this part of Nepal, as the bulk of farming and domestic work is undertaken by women. In braving the tough journey towards the Himalayas, Lalita is also walking towards a brighter future for her young daughter. Continue reading...

Archaeologists and astronomers to study Wiltshire site's lesser understood connection to the moonThe rising and setting of the sun at Stonehenge, especially during the summer and winter solstices, continues to evoke joy, fascination and religious devotion.Now a project has been launched to delve into the lesser understood links that may exist between the monument and the moon during a rare lunar event. Continue reading...

Don't make this a comedy of errorsUPDATE: Read the answers hereToday's puzzles come from the quill of Rob Eastaway, the bard of brainteasers, whose latest book Much Ado About Numbers is a journey into Shakespeare's mathematical life and times. Continue reading...

Annual event promises between five and 20 meteors an hour with a few rare cases becoming much brighter fireballs'The Lyrids are a meteor shower that derive from the tail of the comet Thatcher.Discovered by AE Thatcher in 1861, the comet is on a 422-year orbit of the sun and will not be returning to the inner solar system until 2283. Every year between 15 and 29 April, the Earth encounters the dust particles that it has left behind, with the peak of activity usually occurring on the night of 22 April, leading into the 23rd. The chart shows the view looking north-east from London at 22.00 BST on 22 April. The meteors radiate from the area labelled Lyrids and can shoot in any direction away from this point. Continue reading...

NHS waiting list | Spineless politicians | Anger managementAt first I was pleasantly surprised when asked, in my NHS app, whether I still wanted to remain ona waiting list for a minor operation (Almost 10 million people in England could be on NHS waiting list, 3 April). I now wonder whether this was more about thegovernment's method of reducing waiting lists rather thanmy medical need.

It's the internal voice whose strict, unbending standards can make us miserable. But tuning in to it can change everything

Meeting at London's Royal Society will scrutinise basic model first formulated in 1922 that universe is a vast, even expanse with no notable featuresIf you zoomed out on the universe, well beyond the level of planets, stars or galaxies, you would eventually see a vast, evenly speckled expanse with no notable features. At least, that has been the conventional view.The principle that everything looks the same everywhere is a fundamental pillar of the standard model of cosmology, which aims to explain the big bang and how the universe has evolved in the 13.7bn years since. Continue reading...

The tree all but vanished in the 1970s. Now, thanks to two amateur nature lovers, it may soon grace our landscapes againConstable painted them. Shakespeare wrote of them. And Francis Drake sailed the world in a ship made from them. English elms were a mainstay of England's landscape and culture - until they all but disappeared to Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.Since that devastation, when 25m elms were felled, enthusiasts and academics have searched for varieties resistant to the fungus spread by Scolytus beetles that kills the trees. Continue reading...

Manage your mum's care from a distance. Don't get sucked into her orbitThe question My father was violent and my mother emotionally fragile. I took on a parental role from the age of around 11, trying to manage my dad's moods, keep my mum's spirits up and take care of my younger brother. Mum often leaned on me and I felt responsible for her stability. We were often punished in cruel ways. I was also abused sexually by a family friend". When we finally escaped our father, Mum moved this friend into our first safe" home as her partner, where he continued to abuse me. As adults, my brother and I maintain strict boundaries and there is judgment from the wider family for this.With a lot of therapy I have managed to forge a life for myself, which can still feel as though it shouldn't belong to me, with a loving partner and warm friends. I have worked in a professional role for 15 years. Yet I struggle to feel confident and competent. I often fear losing the life I've built. I maintain contact with Mum, because I don't want to hurt her and I know she doesn't recognise how things were, but I don't feel the normal" feelings people feel towards their parents. Continue reading...

Marina Hyde with her take on Dwayne The Rock' Johnson's surreal US presidential bid (1m23s); Emine Saner meets the sociopath who learned to behave - and found happiness (8m05s); why Gen Z has fallen in love with Sex and the City (24m45s); and do our political opponents really hate us? (29m54s). Continue reading...

Male-on-male aggression more frequent among bonobos than chimps, but aggression between males and females less commonBonobos are not quite the peace-loving primates they have long been considered, researchers say, after finding that males show more aggression towards each other than chimpanzees.Bonobos and chimpanzees are humans' closing living relatives. While chimpanzees are known to show aggression against each other - sometimes to the point of death - bonobos have long been thought to live more harmoniously, with no known killings. The difference has led to the theory that natural selection works against aggression in male bonobos. Continue reading...

Cass review found professionals in the field are scared to discuss views amid risk of reputational damage and online abuseCritical thinking and open debate are pillars of scientific and medical research. Yet experienced professionals are increasingly scared to openly discuss their views on the treatment of children questioning their gender identity.This was the conclusion drawn by Hilary Cass in her review of gender identity services for children this week, which warned that a toxic debate had resulted in a culture of fear. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Readers respond to Japanese research on anger management techniquesYour article (Write down your thoughts and shred them to relieve anger, researchers say, 9 April) reminded me that, in the 1960s, after visiting a preschool group in a monitoring capacity, I felt aggrieved by the way I'd been received. On returning home, I wrote a letter to the person involved, but then calmed down sufficiently to decide not to send it. I screwed up the paper and threw it on to the open fire. I did feel better after that.Fast forward to the early 2000s, while working with a bereavement organisation, my client expressed negative thoughts about a close relative who was reacting in a different way to their loss. I suggested he write down his angry thoughts and then destroy what he wrote in whatever way he wanted. Continue reading...

Black room' with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern ItalyA banquet room replete with well preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war has been unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most striking discoveries ever made at the southern Italy archaeological site.The 15-metre-long, six-metre-wide room was found in a former private residence in Via di Nola, which was ancient Pompeii's longest road, during excavations in the Regio IX area of the site. Continue reading...

This absorbing exploration of nostalgia raises questions about its slippery nature, and shows how it has been chillingly deployed in politics, from the cold war to TrumpismIn the 1970s there were American pressreports of an Iowa man who wastormented by his yearning forthe16-year stretch of time that ranfrom 1752 to 1768. His misery was theresult of not being able to find anyone who shared this deep nostalgia for aperiod when electricity was still arumour and America was proud to think of itself as British.But does this really count as nostalgia? Is it not, actually, a bid for attention, a way for the man from Iowa to signal that, while his body might betethered to the cornfields, his mind isfree to roam in exquisite pastures where gentlemen routinely wear wigs and night-time travel is best reserved for a full moon? Agnes Arnold-Forster doesn't say, but deploying the anecdote allows her to draw attention to the slipperiness of the very concept ofnostalgia. Is it a legitimate and trans-historical emotion, like sadness or rage? Or could it be rather a cultural confection, a passing fancy expressive of a particular time and place (in thecase of the man from Iowa, this wouldbe Gerald Ford's post-Vietnam America)? Most fundamentally of all,can you feel nostalgic for a time oraplace that you never actually experienced yourself? Continue reading...

This week, in a landmark case, the European court of human rights ruled that Switzerland's weak climate policy had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life. Ian Sample talks to Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan about why the women brought the case and what the ruling could mean for future climate policy.Read Ajit Niranjan's article about the court case Continue reading...

The Nobel prize-winning British physicist Peter Higgs has died aged 94. The confirmation in 2012 of the existence of the Higgs boson particle, five decades after Higgs had first theorised its existence, paved the way for his 2013 Nobel win. Nicknamed the god particle', the Higgs boson was part of an attempt to explain why the building blocks of the universe have mass. Ian Sample and Madeleine Finlay look back on the life and legacy of a giant of scienceRead an obituary of Peter Higgs Continue reading...

Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years agoThe remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700-900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with. Continue reading...

Theoretical physicist whose name was attached to the Higgs boson, a sign of the mechanism underlying the structure of atomsIn 1964 the theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, who has died aged 94, suggested that the universe contains an all-pervading essence that can be manifested in the form of particles. This idea inspired governments to spend billions to find what became known as Higgs bosons.The so-called Higgs mechanism" controls the rate of thermonuclear fusion that powers the sun, but for which this engine of the solar system would have expired long before evolution had time to work its miracles on earth. The structure of atoms and matter and, arguably, existence itself are all suspected to arise as a result of the mechanism, whose veracity was proved with the experimental discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Alex Blasdel's long read on the studies of brain activity immediately after deathAlex Blasdel's long read contains some fascinating facts and speculations (The new science of death: There's something happening in the brain that makes no sense, 2 April). However, it is odd to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences - physicalist, parapsychological and spiritualist.While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of kooks and grifters", many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are neither parapsychologists nor spiritualists, are now openly debating alternatives to physicalism. There are other, arguably better, metaphysical lenses through which to interpret the evidence, such as panpsychism and idealism (most notably, in my view, the rigorously rationalist analytic idealism" put forward by the philosopher and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup).

Nobel-prize winning physicist who showed how particle helped bind universe together died at home in EdinburghPeter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed a new particle known as the Higgs boson, has died.Higgs, 94, who was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964 showing how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass, died at home in Edinburgh on Monday. Continue reading...

Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it or scrunching and throwing in the bin eliminates angry feelings, study findsSince time immemorial humans have tried to devise anger management techniques.In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong" and offered avoidance tips in his AD45 work De Ira (On Anger). Continue reading...

I'd love to feel the beautiful mysteries of the universe. But I have other interestsThe total solar eclipse, visible in parts of Mexico, the US and Canada yesterday, was experienced in the UK only as a small grazing" (that's what the astronomers call it), and then only in the north and west of the country. Happily, I went to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for the eclipse of 2015, where coverage was 98% and people (not just me) had travelled for it from all over the country.It was news to me that people even existed who were that into eclipses. In further news: it doesn't even have to get that dark to fill eclipse-heads" with wonder, and it duly didn't - it just looked like a sad, wintry day. People talk of eclipse winds, whipping up at no notice and going in weird directions; it was quite windy, but that turned out to be normal for March. I'd heard tell that animals take on an expression of intense concentration - some call it wonder - and this I couldn't verify, as there were only dogs there and not enough of them (two). But fair play, there are never enough dogs for me anywhere. Continue reading...

Huge gravity of these dense stars, which have burned all their own fuel, rips apart smaller planetary bodiesIt's the end of the world, not quite as we know it.Scientists from the University of Warwick and other universities have studied the impact white dwarfs - end-of-state stars that have burned all their fuel - have on planetary systems such as our own solar system. Continue reading...

How can you change your life for the better today? Learn not just to appreciate happiness - but to anticipate itBe honest: there are times when you have felt schadenfreude, or delight in another's misfortunes". But what about vorfreude? I recently came across this lovely word, which my German-speaking friend translated as the anticipation of joy". It struck me as such a hopeful concept - surely we could all do with less schadenfreude and more vorfreude. So what exactly is anticipatory joy, how do we cultivate it and will it make us happier?The idea is to find joy in the lead-up to an event," says Sophie Mort, a clinical psychologist and mental health expert at the meditation and mindfulness app Headspace. For example, we often feel joy and excitement when planning a trip, thinking about going on a date or anticipating a special meal." It's easy to look forward to holidays and special occasions, but a joy-filled life is also about everyday occurrences. Rory Platt, a writer at the personal development company The School of Life, says: The trick lies in filling our calendar with lots of little moments to look forward to - like tiny baubles that, when seen from adistance, combine to make a moreglittering future." Continue reading...

For most people seeing a total solar eclipse is a once in a lifetime experience. But for scientists it can be a fleeting chance to understand something deeper about their field of research. Madeleine Finlay meets solar scientist prof Huw Morgan, of Aberystwyth University, and Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at NC State University, to find out what they hoped to learn from 8 April's four minutes of darkness.Find out more about how animals behave during a solar eclipse Continue reading...

Chemical analysis reveals origin of coinage that stimulated trade and helped fuel development of new towns from seventh centurySeveral decades after the Sutton Hoo burial, starting in about AD660, there was a sudden rise in the number of silver coins in circulation in England, for reasons that have long puzzled archaeologists and historians.The new rush of silver coinage stimulated trade and helped fuel the development of the new towns springing up at the time - but where did it come from? Were the Anglo-Saxon kings recycling old Roman scrap metal? Or had they found lucrative sources from mines in Europe? Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest stories on the total eclipse below:

Almost 32 million people in the path of totality as moon's shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border and then traversed 15 states

People in 15 US states, Mexico and Canada witnessed the awe-inspiring spectacle of a a total solar eclipse on Monday. Cities were plunged into sudden darkness and their inhabitants experienced a sharp drop in temperatures. The first such eclipse to cross the US in seven years swept ashore at the Mexican beach resort Mazatlan before crossing the Texas border at Eagle Pass and heading north-east towards Canada

The moon blocks the sun along a path that cuts across several countries

The weather largely cooperated as eclipse watchers were awarded with a heavenly event as clouds parted and sun and moon mergedIgnas Barauskas almost missed it.He bought plane tickets from his home in Lithuania to the United States about a month ago. After a series of flight delays, he landed in Dallas around midnight, ready for a once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse of the sun. Continue reading...

Each pregnancy is linked with an additional two to three months of biological ageing, researchers sayPregnancy may speed up biological ageing in women, a study has found.Scientists at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York looked at the reproductive histories and DNA samples from 1,735 people in a long-term, continuing health survey in the Philippines to investigate the influence pregnancy has on the ageing process. Continue reading...

Observers in Mazatlan were the first to witness a rare solar eclipse as the moon obscured the sun over Mexico. People in the US and Canada were also able to enjoy the spectacle. The most recent total solar eclipse in the USwas in 2017, but an interval of only seven years is unusual. The previous one before that took place in 1979, and the next one visible in the US will not be until August 2044

You might have to travel a bit - and wait a few years - but there will be another eclipse as long as the sun, moon and Earth are in orbit

More consensual touch helps ease or buffer against mental and physical complaints, meta-analysis showsWhether it is a hug from a friend or the caress of a weighted blanket, the sensation of touch appears to bring benefits for the body and mind, researchers say.The sense of touch is the first to develop in babies and is crucial in allowing us to experience the environment around us as well as communicate. Indeed, the loss of touch from others during the Covid pandemic hit many hard. Continue reading...

TikTokers and brands are getting in on the rare phenomenon, as astrological warnings and conspiracy theories abound

Frantic giraffes, barking gibbons, randy tortoises ... previous solar eclipses have revealed varied responses to sudden onset of darkness

Not half as much as we think, according to the evidence - and there are ways to break the cycle of mutual mistrustPolitics is a firestorm, sometimes literally. In 2023 in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts, someone threw petrol on a pro-Trump sign nailed to a tree and set light to it. Three years earlier in the same area, a 49-year-old Trump supporter started a huge blaze after igniting some hay bales that were emblazoned with a pro-Biden sign. This bucolic area of Massachusetts is not known for arsonists, but both here and everywhere else in the world, it's as though people are consumed by hate.And it's not just America where liberals and conservatives seem to detest each other. A UK survey in 2017 found that both Conservative and Labour supporters viewed the other side as much less intelligent, open-minded and honest than their own. Only 24% and 19%, respectively, would be happy with their child marrying someone from the other side of the ideological divide. Continue reading...

Patric Gagne has spent most of her life fighting terrible urges. She is also a loving sister, daughter, mother and wife. She talks about her remarkable journeyThere is a slight flash in her eyes as Patric Gagne describes what she calls the tug" - the moment she imagines something she really shouldn't do and thinks: Wouldn't that be fun?"She laughs. What would once have been a compulsion can now be overpowered by logic and consequences. You want to take that car for a joyride? Yes, but if I did that, I'm probably going to have to answer for it. And do I want to? Not really." This isn't to say that Gagne wouldn't jump at an opportunity, if she could argue she wasn't at fault. It happened recently, she says. Waiting for her car, parked by a valet, she was given the keys to someone else's and drove off in it. They handed me the keys! And then I was like" - she puts on a mock-surprised voice - Oh, this is not my car.'" Her husband, when he heard, didn't love it", she says. She smiles as if to say: but what did he expect? Continue reading...