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Pictures of human-like hunters and fleeing mammals dated to nearly 44,000 years oldCave art depicting human-animal hybrid figures hunting warty pigs and dwarf buffaloes has been dated to nearly 44,000 years old, making it the earliest known cave art by our species.The artwork in Indonesia is nearly twice as old as any previous hunting scene and provides unprecedented insights into the earliest storytelling and the emergence of modern human cognition. Continue reading...

Everything from travel to air quality has been looked at in order to create ‘a growth that gives back’Nearly every major aspect of the European economy is to be re-evaluated in light of the imperatives of the climate and ecological emergency, according to sweeping new plans set out by the European commission on Wednesday.The comprehensive nature of the European Green Deal – which encompasses the air we breathe to how food is grown, from how we travel to the buildings we inhabit – was set out in a flurry of documents as Ursula von der Leyen, the new commission president, made her appeal to member states and parliamentarians in Brussels to back the proposals, which would represent the biggest overhaul of policy since the foundation of the modern EU. Continue reading...

Bloc considers itself international leader on environment, but progress has been stunted

Saying how far consumers need to walk to burn off the calories could change eating habitsLabelling food and drinks with how much walking or running is needed to burn them off could help tackle the obesity crisis, researchers say.While all packaged food must display certain nutritional information, such as calorie content, there is limited evidence that the approach changes what people buy or eat. Meanwhile, waistlines continue to expand. Continue reading...

Public Health England has said that the risk to public health is very lowCases of bird flu have been confirmed at a chicken farm in Suffolk, the government has said.All 27,000 birds at the commercial farm will be culled after a number were found to have the H5 type of avian flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Ancient pieces of amber found to contain dinosaur feathers riddled with louse-like insectsDinosaurs may have been fearsome and intimidating creatures that dominated the prehistoric earth – but it did not stop them having their feathers ruffled by parasites, researchers have found.Scientists have discovered ancient pieces of amber, dating from about 99m years ago, that contain dinosaur feathers riddled with louse-like insects. One of the feathers even shows signs of having been nibbled. Continue reading...

In our new era of ‘romantic realism’, more and more couples are seeking out counselling before they get married, rather than waiting for impossible problems to ariseWhen Thomas and Jenny approached a couples therapist before their wedding, they weren’t expecting it to become a long-term commitment. “Initially we decided to see a counsellor due to some trust issues in our relationship,” he says. “We found premarital therapy incredibly helpful, because it gave us a safe space to communicate with each other without fear of repercussion. It became an important part of the relationship – even when things were going well.”After their wedding this summer, the couple continued to attend sessions while they settled into marriage. By discussing potential problems with an unbiased third party, Thomas says they both felt confident to be more open with each other. Continue reading...

Research on 378 killer whales finds those with grandmothers live longer and the older females help them when food is scarceDoting killer whale grandmothers help their grand calves survive, particularly in times of food scarcity, scientists reported in a paper that sheds new light on the evolutionary role of menopause.Orca females stop reproducing in their thirties or forties but can continue to live for decades more, a phenomenon known only to exist in humans and four other mammal species, all of which are whales. Continue reading...

Robotic junk collector will be first mission to remove item of debris from orbitA four-armed robotic junk collector will be launched into space by the European Space Agency in what it says will be the first mission to remove an item of debris from orbit.The ClearSpace-1 mission, scheduled for launch in 2025, will cost €120m and will grab a single piece of junk. But the agency hopes the mission will pave the way for a wide-reaching clear-up operation, with Esa’s director general calling for new rules that would compel those who launch satellites to take responsibility for removing them from orbit once they are retired from use. Continue reading...

The two very different planets meet this week near the south-west horizon, before Saturn disappears behind the sunTwo very different planets meet in the evening near the south-western horizon this week. Venus is the nearest planet to the earth. It is almost identical to our planet in terms of size, yet its closer proximity to the sun has rendered it a hellish world, with surface temperatures greater than a kitchen oven. It is surrounded by highly reflective clouds, making it very bright indeed. Continue reading...

New research suggests anthropomorphising your emotions can help you control them. But how do you actually go about it?In the Pixar film Inside Out, the emotions of an 11-year-old girl are personified as perky Joy, petulant Disgust and hulking Anger. Sadness – voiced by The American Office’s Phyllis Smith – is, predictably, a downer with a deep side-parting and a chunky knit. Amy Poehler’s Joy can hardly stand to be around her, like a colleague you would time your trips to the tea point to avoid.But the takeaway of the 2015 film – said by Variety to “for ever change the way people think about the way people think” – was that both emotions were necessary, and Sadness was as valid a part of life as Joy. Now there is a case for not only accepting Sadness, as in Inside Out – but embodying her, too. Researchers from Hong Kong and Texas recently found that individuals asked to think of their sadness as a person reported feeling less sad afterwards, a result they attributed to the increased distance perceived between the self and the emotion. Continue reading...

Natalie Portman shines but Noah Hawley’s fact-based drama lacks the right stuffNatalie Portman stars in a drama that is loosely based on the case of Lisa Nowak, the Nasa astronaut who was disgraced after attacking the girlfriend of her ex-lover. The feature debut from Noah Hawley pushes the idea that, once someone has ventured into space, readjusting to life back on Earth can be a struggle. This theme – of an all-consuming job that bends everything else out of shape – has been explored more successfully before, by Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and by Portman herself in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, among others.Here, however, there are tonal issues. Neither as coolly observational as The Hurt Locker nor as stridently bonkers as Black Swan, Lucy in the Sky is low on real insight and feels like a psychology column in a supermarket tabloid. Portman gives her all, but she out-classes this rather pedestrian telling of a story of stratospheric levels of obsession and ambition. Continue reading...

Dozens of species are now at risk but a conference this week will showcase new technology that could help stop the illegal tradeThe two young women who arrived at Heathrow in February 2014 en route to Düsseldorf were carrying nondescript luggage. Customs officers were suspicious nevertheless and looked inside – to find 13 iguanas stuffed into socks inside the cases. Astonishingly, 12 of the highly endangered San Salvador rock iguanas had survived their transatlantic journey.“There only about 600 of these animals left in the wild, in the Bahamas, and these animals were being taken to a private collector somewhere in Germany. Incredibly, we were able to return 12 of them, alive, to their homeland – on San Salvador island,” said Grant Miller, who was then working for the Border Force’s endangered species team. Continue reading...

I’ve covered some of the biggest stories of our age, but this is the biggest and could change what it means to be humanWe live in a time when science and technology are having an impact on our society in more and more ways. And the decisions that shape how these new fields of knowledge develop ultimately affect all of us.Related: Human Nature review – quiet revolution that began in a yoghurt pot Continue reading...

The cultural anthropologist on why our view of testosterone as the male sex hormone skews both science and societyKatrina Karkazis, a senior research fellow at Yale University, is a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of science, technology, gender studies and bioethics. With Rebecca Jordan-Young, a sociomedical scientist, she has written Testosterone: An Unauthorised Biography. It is a critique of both popular and scientific understandings of the hormone, and how they have been used to explain, or even defend, inequalities of power.You suggest that testosterone is understood as an exclusively male hormone, even though it’s also found in women. But surely no scientist believes this.

Being busy all the time is part of the way we live. But, whether gardening, reading or spacing out on the sofa, taking time to rest is just as importantI’m not very good at resting. When I told friends that after writing books covering emotions, time perception and the psychology of money I had started writing one on rest, their first reaction was usually, “But you’re always working. You never rest!”More generally, if someone asks me how things are going, my stock answer is, “Fine, busy, too busy really.” But while this claim feels true of my life, how much is it also a claim to status? If you say you are busy, then it implies you’re important, you’re in demand. As the time-use researcher Jonathan Gershuny puts it, busyness has become “a badge of honour”. Continue reading...

Mode of delivery unrelated to whether a baby is overweight as a young adult, study suggestsDelivery by caesarean section does not increase the chance of a baby ending up overweight or obese as a young adult, researchers have found, contrary to previous research.The authors of the study say their work drew on a huge number of people and more fully takes into account a wide range of possible factors that could explain why babies born by caesarean tend to end up heavier. Continue reading...

Creative subjects are on the decline in schools and universities, yet they are vitally important to societyBlue Planet, Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg are all household names bringing information about serious environmental issues to the masses. They’ve helped green issues shoot up the agenda for this year’s general election, with a poll last month revealing that more than half of voters said that the climate emergency would influence how they cast their vote.If it wasn’t for the media these scientific messages wouldn’t be heard or understood by millions of people. And Greta Thunberg’s extraordinary global impact demonstrates her mastery of skills that have little to do with what we usually think of as science. Continue reading...

Ketamine might sound like an unlikely candidate for treating addiction and depression. But a growing number of scientists believe the drug could help. Over the next two episodes of Science Weekly, Hannah Devlin speaks to two experts who are using ketamine in their work in very different ways. In this episode, we’re focusing on alcohol dependency and the findings that a single dose of Ketamine could positively impact on heavy drinkers Continue reading...

Funds intended for specific project will instead be spread across Science Museum’s workThe Science Museum has been accused of trying to “quietly hide away dirty money” after it agreed to a request by the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation to repurpose a £2m donation earmarked for a prominent new gallery.The donation, which was meant to fund the Medicine: the Wellcome Galleries collection – dedicated to thousands of medical artefacts, including the world’s first MRI scanner– was removed from the project earlier this year as the Sacklers’ philanthropic donations came under increased scrutiny. Continue reading...

Defunct satellite capture options include net, harpoon or embrace with mechanical armsThe European Space Agency is working to tackle the issue of space debris with the technological version of a big hug.It hopes to be able to use tentacle-like mechanical arms to embrace a dead satellite and remove it from orbit. Continue reading...

The Christmas tree at the Tennessee aquarium is being powered by an unusual renewable energy source – an electric eel. Miguel Wattson is the resident eel and through a special system that connects his tank to a nearby tree, the natural shocks he produces when he is looking for food or when he is excited, is being channelled to power fairy lights

Voters have woken up to the climate emergency. Equally urgent is the threat to nature and wildlife – and the issues are linkedIt has been heartening to see how the climate emergency has finally risen up the political agenda in recent months. What has had much less attention, but is equally urgent, is the catastrophic decline in our nature and wildlife. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and the situation is getting worse. A 2019 report into the state of British nature paints a bleak picture: nearly half the species assessed showed strong or moderate decline over the last decade; 15% of the UK’s wildlife species are threatened with extinction. Birds and animals that were familiar to our parents and grandparents, such as the curlew, water vole, adder or common toad, are now rare sights.We have hundreds of wonderful conservation organisations in this country such as the RSPB, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Plantlife, the Marine Conservation Society and more. They do important work, aided by people’s generosity and committed volunteers. But they have not been able to halt the precipitous decline in our wildlife. The Green party has always had the most ambitious policies on nature of any political party, with more than 70 such proposals in our current manifesto, from reducing pesticide use to repurposing our economy. But it is not enough to have strong policies: we need to be constantly challenged to go further. That is why, earlier this year, I commissioned a report from five of the leading conservationists and nature writers in Britain to produce a blueprint for how we ensure nature’s survival. It is called A New Deal for Nature. Continue reading...

Experts fear species decline after huge number of deaths on Henderson and CocosMore than half a million hermit crabs have been killed after becoming trapped in plastic debris on two remote island groups, prompting concern that the deaths could be part of a global species decline.The pioneering study found that 508,000 crabs died on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean, along with 61,000 on Henderson Island in the South Pacific. Previous studies have found high levels of plastic pollution at both sites. Continue reading...

Gelatine capsule could prevent unplanned pregnancies caused by errors in daily pill useA contraceptive pill that needs to be taken only once a month has been developed by scientists.The gelatine capsule, which has so far only been tested on pigs, dissolves in the stomach to a release a six-armed star-shaped polylmer structure that sits in the stomach for at least three weeks and releases synthetic hormones to prevent pregnancy. Continue reading...

Flying closer than any other mission, spacecraft set to unravel the sun’s mysteriesNasa’s Parker Solar Probe, which has flown closer to the sun than any spacecraft, has beamed back its first observations from the edge of the sun’s scorching atmosphere.The first tranche of data offers clues to long-standing mysteries, including why the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, as well as the precise origins of the solar wind. Continue reading...

An engrossing documentary about Crispr, a breakthrough in molecular biology with enormous implications for treating genetic diseasesThis documentary from writer-director Adam Bolt and co-writer Regina Sobel is about a revolution that has been quietly taking place in molecular biology and medicine: a revolution compared here to the invention of the internet but gaining a fraction of the attention. (The more pertinent comparison may be with nuclear energy.) It is the innovation of gene editing and Crispr (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), a crucial pattern of DNA sequences in micro-organisms that allows them to resist viral infection by replicating a section of the virus’s DNA and using it as a kind of “wanted” poster to fight off the invader.This mechanism can be used to cut, copy and replace pieces of DNA – to “edit” it, like changing a piece of written text – and the technology has enormous implications for treating genetic diseases. Incredibly, it appears to have been developed first not by academic researchers or biotech geniuses, but a yoghurt and cheese manufacturer. Philippe Horvath and Rodolphe Barrangou of the food firm Danisco developed Crispr while figuring out how to make their product less susceptible to bacteria. Continue reading...

This dystopian bill would punish abortion with prison, and even death – and it’s where the United States is heading

Fans of wildlife photographs can pick their favourite for the Lumix-sponsored award from 25 images pre-selected by the Natural History Museum in London. The institution whittled down its shortlist from more than 48,000 submissions from 100 countries. Voting ends on 4 February Continue reading...

Lying has never come easy to me. But to think how simple it would have been if I had just called in sickI recently made the catastrophic mistake of being honest. Last year, I made the equally poor life decision to enhance my career by enrolling in a diploma for my field work. A requirement for the course was to attend eight study days each semester, broken up into two four-day slots totalling 16 on-campus days for the year. Are you following? If not, never mind, read on and I’ll get funny shortly.As a registered nurse (RN), I work on a rotating roster of days and nights, weekdays and weekend, Christmas and New Year and so on. We’re lucky enough to have a system to take days off for important events such as beers with the boys and when Mum comes to visit. Continue reading...

He Jiankui’s original research, published for the first time, could have failed, scientists sayThe gene editing performed on Chinese twins to immunise them against HIV may have failed and created unintended mutations, scientists have said after the original research was made public for the first time.Excerpts from the manuscript were released by the MIT Technology Review to show how Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the twins Lula and Nana, whose birth in late 2018 sent shockwaves through the scientific world. Continue reading...

Slowdown this year in rising greenhouse gases does not negate long-term trend, finds carbon budget analysisCarbon dioxide emissions rose weakly this year as the use of coal declined but natural gas took up the slack, a comprehensive study of the global “carbon budget” has found.The rise in emissions was much smaller than in the last two years, but the continued increase means the world is still far from being on track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement on climate change, which would require emissions to peak then fall rapidly to reach net-zero by mid-century. Continue reading...

Greenpeace says efforts to restore seas’ ecosystems would boost their capacity to absorb heat and store carbonHalting overfishing and the plastic pollution of the oceans could help tackle the climate emergency by improving the degraded state of the world’s biggest carbon sink, a report has found.The oceans absorb both the excess heat generated by our greenhouse gas emissions, and absorb carbon dioxide itself, helping to reduce the impacts of climate chaos. But we are rapidly reaching the limits of the oceans’ absorptive capacity as our pillage of marine life is disrupting vital ecosystems and the natural carbon cycle. Continue reading...

Understanding risks early on could help protect from disease later in life and ‘offer chance to take statins or adjust diet’All adults as young as 25, as well as older people, need to know of their “bad cholesterol” levels so they can change their lifestyle or take drugs to protect themselves against heart attacks or strokes in later life, say scientists.A landmark study involving data from nearly 400,000 people in 19 countries has established for the first time that levels of non-HDL, or “bad cholesterol”, in the blood are closely linked to the risk of heart disease across the entire life course. Continue reading...

Scientists say creation could be used to circumvent nerve damage and help paralysed people regain movementScientists have created artificial neurons that could potentially be implanted into patients to overcome paralysis, restore failing brain circuits, and even connect their minds to machines.The bionic neurons can receive electrical signals from healthy nerve cells, and process them in a natural way, before sending fresh signals on to other neurons, or to muscles and organs elsewhere in the body. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsHow is it possible that the Voyager space probes, travelling at 15.4km a second or even faster, manage not to crash into anything on their journeys? Presumably even hitting the slightest space debris at that speed would obliterate them.Jon Lloyd, London SE23 Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Rising temperatures linked to outbreaks of dengue fever high in the Kathmandu Valley, experts say

Nasa satellite sends back images showing wreckage of Chandrayaan-2 mission, with debris found scattered nearly a kilometre awayA Nasa satellite orbiting the moon has found India’s Vikram lander, which crashed on the lunar surface in September, the US space agency said on Monday.Nasa released an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that showed the site of the spacecraft’s impact and associated debris field, with parts scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometres. Continue reading...

Experts say TBI could be consequence or cause of homelessnessHalf of all homeless people may have suffered a traumatic brain injury at some point in their life, according to new research – which experts say could be either a consequence or even the cause of their homelessness.Traumatic brain injury is sudden damage caused by a blow or jolt to the head, which can be caused by a motor accident, a fall or an assault. Sometimes it can cause long-term damage to the brain, leading to neurological and psychiatric disorders. Continue reading...

Nancy Pelosi tells UN conference in Madrid that commitment is ‘iron-clad’The US will take action on greenhouse gases and engage with other countries on the climate emergency despite Donald Trump’s rejection of international cooperation, a delegation from the US Congress has told the UN climate conference in Madrid.Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, struck a defiant stance on Monday, declaring: “Congress’s commitment to action on the climate crisis is iron-clad. This is a matter of public health, of clean air, of clean water, of our children, of the survival of our economies, of the prosperity of the world, of national security, justice and equality. We now must deliver deeper cuts in emissions.” Continue reading...

Peter Lock, a former probation officer, and psychotherapist Tricia Scott on jail conditions that can do more harm than good to prisonersAs a retired probation officer who was involved in the delivery of training programmes for the Criminal Justice Act 2003, I would suggest that the inadequacy of sentencing in Usman Khan’s case was rooted in the manner in which imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences were used following their introduction in 2005. They were intended for cases where the circumstances of an offence fell short of the threshold for a life term, but there was evidence of an ongoing serious risk to the public.Unfortunately, IPPs were passed in numerous cases where they were inappropriate and were likely to do more harm than good. In particular, they were handed out to damaged young men who were not only in need of therapy and rehabilitation, but were ill-equipped to deal with the open-ended nature of the sentence. This was compounded by the fact that the prison system was unable to offer the structured path available to lifers so those on IPPs were often stuck in busy jails or bounced around the system due to their problematic behaviour. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzles and the results of the Xmas univocalic challengeEarlier today I set you a Christmas challenge (about which more below) and these three puzzles from the Mathigon advent calendar: Continue reading...

Polycystic ovary syndrome is believed to affect about one in five women of reproductive ageDaughters of women with polycystic ovary syndrome, a common disorder that can cause excessive body hair, acne and fertility problems, are five times more likely than the average woman to develop the condition, a major study has found.Researchers in Sweden examined the medical histories of nearly 30,000 women and their mothers. The records from national registries showed that 3.4% of women born to mothers with PCOS were later diagnosed themselves, compared with only 0.6% of women whose mothers did not have the condition. Continue reading...

Ahead of Madrid climate change conference António Guterres says political will missingAntónio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, contrasted the “leadership” and “mobilisation” shown by the world’s youth on the climate emergency with the lack of action by governments, which were failing to keep up with the urgency of the problem despite increasing signs that the climate was reaching breakdown.Before the start of a critical conference on the climate crisis on Monday, he said the world had the technical and economic means to halt climate chaos, but what was missing was political will. Continue reading...

Slippery brainteasers and a Christmas challengeUPDATE: solutions and challenge winner can be read here.Today’s puzzles are taken from Mathigon, a wonderful interactive mathematical encyclopaedia. Every year, the site publishes a puzzle a day from Dec 1 to 24. Here are three of my favourites from this year. Jump to it! Continue reading...

350 experts call on PM to address president’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible’ claims

One of the oldest recognised constellations with red giant star Aldebaran forming the bull’s red eyeTaurus is one of the oldest recognised constellations. Around 1000BC, the Babylonians included it in their star charts and called it GU.AN.NA, the Bull of Heaven. However, its association with a bull is possibly much older. Its pattern of stars has been recognised in the 17,000-year-old cave art of bulls found at Lascaux in France. The brightest star in Taurus is Aldebaran, a red giant star about 44 times the sun’s diameter and 65 light years away. It gives out 400 times the luminosity of the sun and can be seen as distinctly orange to the naked eye. Aldebaran marks the eye of the bull while the rest of the head is delineated by a V-shaped collection of stars that is a cluster called the Hyades. All of these stars formed in the same birth cloud. Taurus is one of the zodiacal constellations, which means that it is on the path that the sun, moon, and planets take as they journey through the night sky. Continue reading...

Over three years the exercise regime took Rachel Cooke from terrible back pain to new levels of fitness. But it was a lot harder than she expectedOne morning almost five years ago, I awoke from uneasy dreams and, like Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s story, The Metamorphosis, found myself to be… well, not precisely an insect, but the effect was similar. Trying to get out of bed, I realised I could barely move. So excruciating was the pain in my back, my only option seemed to be to roll myself – thunk! – on to the floor.Lying there on my stomach for a few moments, I took in the view (beneath the bed were old shoes and dust balls the size of planets) and then, screwing up my courage, I crawled on to the landing – which is where I stayed for the rest of the day, sobbing quietly and wondering how I would get to the loo; when, exactly, the NHS emergency doctor would arrive. Continue reading...

Science and art meet on a mind-blowing visit to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, while the fairytale streets of the Swiss capital are a wonder, tooThere is something retro and subterranean about the maze of narrow corridors ahead of us. Exposed steel pipes run along the ceilings, the floors are shiny linoleum and the doors are moulded wood. It looks as if it has barely changed since it was built back in the 1950s.Welcome to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as Cern, home to the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Beyond the design, what is more retro, liable to make you misty-eyed for a bygone era, is how it all came into being. Continue reading...