Science | The Guardian

Jeanne Calment was 122 when she died. But last year a Russian scientist claimed she was a con artist, sparking an international dispute over the woman who may still hold the secret to eternal lifeIf time makes fools of us all, you couldn’t blame André-François Raffray for taking it more personally than most. In 1965, Raffray, a lawyer in the southern French city of Arles, thought he had hit on the real-estate version of a sure thing. The 47-year-old had signed a contract to buy an apartment from one of his clients “en viager”: a form of property sale by which the buyer makes a monthly payment until the seller’s death, when the property becomes theirs. His client, Jeanne Calment, was 90 and sprightly for her age; she liked to surprise people by leaping from her chair at the hairdresser. But still, it couldn’t be long: Raffray just had to shell out 2,500 francs a month and wait it out.Jeanne said she had met Van Gogh in her teens. He was ugly and dishevelled, she said; they called him ‘the dingo’ Continue reading...

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, including a giant tortoise and a painted stork Continue reading...

Bench in Manchester celebrates BBC DJ’s cancer treatment and is part of Re-Write Cancer campaignIt is an established way to commemorate the dead: dedicating a bench to a loved one’s memory and placing it in one of their favourite locations.But the BBC DJ Mark Radcliffe has been bestowed the honour in life after a bench bearing his name was installed in the grounds of Manchester University, where he studied in the late 1970s. Continue reading...

We are producing and consuming fashion at a rate like never before – and mass shopping sales are simply fanning the flamesThis morning I opened my inbox to find reams of emails – mid-season sale, 50% off, exclusive offer – enticing me to grab the best deal while it lasts. When we’re barraged by messages from the fashion industry to buy more, it’s hard to resist – and I have easily succumbed to these temptations in the past.Related: Millions set for Thanksgiving disruption as storms sweep across US Continue reading...

Dr Amy Dickman is an internationally renowned conservation biologist. She’s dedicated her life to saving big cats in the wild, working in Africa for over 20 years on carnivore ecology and how to resolve human-wildlife conflict. Amy talks to Nicola Davis about her career trying to bring a halt to the decline in big cat populations, including the role that trophy hunting might play Continue reading...

IPPR says UK should shoulder burden due to major historical contribution to rising carbon emissionsThe UK contribution to the UN’s climate fund should balloon to £20bn by 2030 if it plans to pay a “fair share” to helping tackle the global climate crisis, according to new research.A report from the IPPR thinktank says the UK should “shoulder more of the burden” of the global climate crisis because of its major contribution to the world’s rising carbon emissions. Continue reading...

... Europe, China, India and Russia all send payloads into space in a weekIt’s been a busy week for rocket launches. Europe, China, India and Russia have all sent payloads into space in the last seven days.Starting on 23 November, China launched two navigation satellites as part of their growing BeiDou navigation satellite constellation. Continue reading...

New cases of highly infectious disease that should be ‘consigned to the history books’ reported in Nigeria, the DRC, CAR and AngolaNew cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine have been reported in four African countries and more children are now being paralysed by vaccine-derived viruses than those infected by viruses in the wild, according to global health numbers.The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners identified nine new cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Angola last week. Along with seven other African countries with outbreaks, cases have also been reported in Asia. In Afghanistan and Pakistan polio remains endemic, and in Pakistan officials have been accused of covering up vaccine-related cases. Continue reading...

Bristol band team up with academics from Manchester University to share tour data

Homo sapien invasion may not have prompted Neanderthals’ demise 40,000 years ago

Warning of ‘existential threat to civilisation’ as impacts lead to cascade of unstoppable eventsThe world may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points, according to a stark warning from scientists. This risk is “an existential threat to civilisation”, they say, meaning “we are in a state of planetary emergency”.Tipping points are reached when particular impacts of global heating become unstoppable, such as the runaway loss of ice sheets or forests. In the past, extreme heating of 5C was thought necessary to pass tipping points, but the latest evidence suggests this could happen between 1C and 2C. Continue reading...

Dogor was two months old when he died and has been well preserved in the Siberian ice. But is he an early modern wolf – or one of the world’s very oldest domesticated dogs?

I’m dizzy, angry and desperate – but I’m prepared to put my body on the line to force action to stop billions of deathsI desperately want to eat, but I would rather have a future. It’s day 10 of Extinction Rebellion’s global climate hunger strike and more than 500 people have ended their fasts. I am not ready to end mine. I am willing to starve to death, if that would help initiate real climate action, because I refuse to stand by and allow my nieces and nephews to live through a dark age of starvation, disease, and war. For the past week I’ve felt exhausted, dizzy, angry, and desperate. Now I mostly wake up sad that it has come to this. My parents tearfully urged me to stop, but how can I, when Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) models estimate temperatures that would make the planet unlivable?The Paris agreement pledged to prevent 2C of warming, a rise in temperature that will bring disasters all around the world, including the United States. Such disasters are already killing and displacing people, mostly in poor countries, who did little to create the crisis. Central America is experiencing its sixth straight year of drought. At 3-5C, global civilization would devolve into wars over precious resources. This must be prevented at all costs. Continue reading...

Bottlenose dolphins found to have an even stronger right-side bias than humansDolphins, like humans, have a dominant right-hand side, according to research.About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side – although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex. Continue reading...

Senate inquiry told that misrepresentation and selective use of science is dangerousAustralia’s peak scientific institution has told an inquiry into the reliability of Great Barrier Reef science that it is “greatly concerned” over a trend to cherrypick and misrepresent scientific evidence.In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the Australian Academy of Science’s president, Prof John Shine, wrote that selective use of science and misrepresentations were “dangerous” and would lead to “poor outcomes”. Continue reading...

Scientists narrow down causes of low-frequency rumbles emitted before twisters formMysterious rumbles that herald tornadoes could one day be used to predict when and where they will strike, according to researchers.Storms emit sounds before tornadoes form, but the signals at less than 20Hz are below the limit for human hearing. What causes these rumbles has also been a conundrum. Continue reading...

Silk, bacteria and sugar coating could solve growing global problem of saline soilCoating seeds in silk, bacteria and sugar could help plants to grow in salty soils, researchers have revealed.Saline soil is a growing problem around the world, particularly in regions with poor quality water for irrigation, and is a serious cause for concern as many important food crops do not grow well in such conditions. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago he outraged his fellow Germans with Nazi salutes. Now, at 74, the artist’s epic canvases are exploring a different kind of darknessI arrive at White Cube in south London just as Anselm Kiefer is writing the title of his exhibition on a gallery wall. Perched on a mini-forklift, the 74-year-old German slowly and meticulously inscribes the words “Superstrings, Runes, the Norns, Gordian Knot”. It is a typically dense and allusive title for a show that merges Kiefer’s now familiar preoccupations – ancient myths, astronomy, alchemy, history and arcane systems of knowledge – with a more recent obsession, string theory.“These advanced mathematicians are attempting to find a theory of everything,” he says, when we sit down for a chat in a back room of the gallery, “but each time they open a door, many other doors reveal themselves. It is all abstract mathematics, of course, so nothing is really yet proved. The more I read about it, the more I think they will never find the answer.” He is not good at maths, he tells me, laughing, but nevertheless when a serious mathematician visited his studio recently, he looked at the paintings inspired by string theory and exclaimed: “That’s it!” Continue reading...

Clinical trials often failing to report results for sex and gender, despite the fact many drugs cause adverse effects in women

Look to the south-west in the evening to find the crescent moon as it moves away from bright Venus and Jupiter towards the planet SaturnThe bright planets of Venus and Jupiter remain fairly close in the evening sky this week. They are situated in the constellation of Sagittarius, the archer. In the gathering twilight of the late afternoon of 28 November, they will be joined by a very young, two-day-old moon. All three are very low, close to the south-western horizon, so will need a clear viewing location. Even then, the tiny crescent of the moon will be a challenge to spot. A day later, however, things become noticeably easier. The young crescent moon will have 10% of its surface illuminated and will be higher in the sky. It will still appear as a beautifully thin crescent. The chart shows the view looking south-west at 17:00GMT on 29 November. On this night, the slender moon will be approaching the planet Saturn, which will appear as a yellowish point of light of medium brightness. Both objects will be located towards the rear of Sagittarius, and will set soon after the sun. Continue reading...

Fear of missing out has a more anxious sibling and could stop you going to social events – or buying your Christmas turkey. Here’s what is behind fear of better optionsRecently, Mike Hall, 48, a management consultant based in Winchester, decided to get ahead with Christmas preparations. “Do I buy the free range bronze turkey for 10-12, or 12-14, even though there are only seven of us for Christmas Day?” he wondered, attempting to tot up all the different variables. “What about leftovers? Should I buy two turkey crowns instead? And which ones?” Such granular decision-making went on and on, until eventually he gave up in exhaustion. He has not yet bought a turkey.Indecision when the decision is simple, or the options all acceptable, is the defining characteristic of “fear of better options” – or Fobo – a social phenomenon coined by Patrick McGinnis, a US venture capitalist and the man known for coining the term Fomo, or fear of missing out. Fobo can occur everywhere from minor decisions – what to watch on TV, what to eat for dinner – to more significant ones such as whether to take a new job. Whatever the case, a Fobo-afflicted person may find themselves overwhelmed by the possibilities of what might be (some call this “analysis paralysis”) even when no outcome is guaranteed, and when some of those options aren’t even on the table. Continue reading...

With people taking more flights than ever and the air industry set to grow, can tech advances really help us achieve net zero?When you think about things that are quintessentially British, you probably would not immediately put “flying” into that category – but you should. We Brits don’t just like flying, we love it.Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shows that more Britons flew abroad last year than any other nationality. Roughly one in every dozen air passengers was British. Britons took to the skies 126.2m times in 2018, beating Americans and Chinese people into second and third place. Needless to say, this comes at an environmental price. Continue reading...

Europe poised to join US in complex plan to find evidence of fossil microbes on red planetEngineers plan to collect rocks on Mars and bring samples to Earth, in one of the most complex robot space projects envisaged. The scheme, being developed by Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa), will involve robot rovers finding rocks that might contain evidence of past life.The samples would be blasted into space, intercepted by an unmanned spacecraft, and dropped by parachute in the Utah desert, with the 500g of Martian soil and rock shared with researchers round the world. Continue reading...

Mike Horn and Borge Ousland are crossing the Arctic on skis but ice drift has set them backIt was supposed to be an epic 1,000-mile journey taking in the stunning snow-covered scenery of the North Pole as two adventurers embarked on a brave bid to cross the frozen Arctic Ocean on skis.But the experienced explorers’ attempt has, quite literally, been left on thin ice as the pair struggle to navigate the harsh terrain in time – leaving them in a “touch and go” position to finish before food runs out in 12 days. Continue reading...

Discoveries near Saqqara necropolis shed light on ancient use of animals in worshipA rare discovery of mummified big cats, cobras and crocodiles has been unveiled by Egyptian authorities.Egyptologists are thrilled at the cache, which includes dozens of mummified cats, 75 wooden and bronze cat statues, mummified birds, and an enormous mummified beetle three to four times the normal size. Continue reading...

Activists call Cambridge Zero initiative a ‘PR stunt to divert attention from links to fossil fuel industry’Student activists at Cambridge have accused the university of attempting to greenwash its relationship with oil and gas firms by stealing their group’s name for a project led by an academic linked to the fossil fuel industry.Cambridge University is to launch its Cambridge Zero initiative at an event in London next week. The project’s website, which is already live, touts it as a “bold response to the world’s greatest challenge”. Continue reading...

Authoritarian populist leaders thrive on the fear of death – as we’ve been able to show in carefully controlled experimentsIn a recent experiment, American participants were asked: “Please describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you” and “Write down as specifically as you can what you think will happen to you physically as you die and once you are dead.” Moments later, those who had been asked to contemplate their mortality reported more negative attitudes towards immigrants, greater opposition to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood, and a greater likelihood of voting for Donald Trump for president.What could possibly explain these findings? Continue reading...

Vostochny cosmodrome at heart of claims of £132m worth of theft and illegal enrichment

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, including foraging sparrows and a swimming beaver

Disruption will hamper efforts to unlock secrets of universe, say scientistsA flagship observatory that will map the heavens in spectacular detail and search the skies for asteroids on a collision course with Earth faces serious disruption from a new wave of satellites bound for space, the Guardian has learned.Astronomers on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a state-of-the-art observatory due to open in Chile next year, have discovered that its views of the night sky will be marred by thousands of highly reflective communications satellites being launched by SpaceX, Amazon and other firms. Continue reading...

Critics suspect hand of Project Blitz in draft passed by Ohio house which they fear could let students’ religious beliefs trump scienceAn Ohio state bill which could allow students’ religious beliefs to trump science-based facts is almost identical to model legislation backed by an evangelical, anti-gay Christian group.Related: Trump suggests he wants to be impeached and says 'I want a trial' – live Continue reading...

Requiring minimal amounts of sleep is sometimes seen as a badge of honour. But for many of us, being able to actually function is a different matter altogether. So why is it that some people seem to need more or less sleep? And what are some of the ramifications if we don’t get enough? Hannah Devlin speaks to two experts whose work is bringing new understanding to our sleeping behaviours Continue reading...

Can art advance science? Researchers on the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence are using videos, music and more to go beyond the final frontierSince 1984, the scientific research institute SETI has worked with some of the brightest minds on our planet: astronomers, solar system dynamics experts, exoplanet detection specialists, astrochemists. All of them are on a mission to decode the universe’s mysteries – but has one area of expertise been overlooked?Jill Tarter thinks so. She’s the chair emeritus of SETI – whose name stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence” – and the inspiration for Jodie Foster’s character in the movie Contact. Tarter believes scientists should look to the art world to help solve some of their biggest problems. “Art gives people an opportunity to think about bigger-picture ideas or think about them in a new way,” she says. “It can make people think differently about who they are, where they are, or questions such as: where do we come from? Where are we going? Is there anybody else out there?” Continue reading...

Optimists have fewer strokes, sleep better and live longer than pessimists. But how do you change your outlook? By embracing your Best Possible Self, keeping a gratitude journal – and changing your narrativeI’ve been called many things in my life, but never an optimist. That was fine by me. I believed pessimists lived in a constant state of pleasant surprise: if you always expected the worst, things generally turned out better than you imagined. The only real problem with pessimism, I figured, was that too much of it could accidentally turn you into an optimist.But accidental optimism is not one of the known dangers of pessimism, a list that does include career impairment, poor health and early death. Optimism, by contrast, is associated with better sleep and lower levels of cardiovascular disease. One study this year claimed that people who describe themselves as optimists had 35% fewer strokes than those who didn’t. Another, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science last summer, found that compared with pessimists, the most optimistic subjects lived 11-15% longer lives on average. Continue reading...

PM suggests Australia could increase emissions without worsening current fire season, and says government finalising plans to crack down on environmental protestsScott Morrison has argued there is no direct link between Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and the severity of fires ravaging the continent, even suggesting Australia could increase its emissions without making the current fire season worse.Under pressure due to a record season of early bushfires and the accusation by a coalition of former fire chiefs that the government has avoided the issue of climate change, Morrison said on Thursday there was no “credible scientific evidence” that cutting Australia’s emissions could reduce the severity of bushfires. Continue reading...

Military alliance ‘will not put weapons in orbit but has to protect interests of west’

Astronomers note record-breaking observation of highest energy ever measured from gamma ray burstsWhen gigantic stars run out of fuel they collapse under their own gravity and, in a last hurrah, send out a blast of light and matter in the most violent known explosions in the universe.Now astronomers have discovered that these cataclysmic events, known as gamma ray bursts, release roughly twice as much energy as previously thought. Continue reading...

Groundbreaking trial in US rapidly cools trauma victims with catastrophic injury to buy more time for surgeryDoctors have put humans into a state of suspended animation for the first time in a groundbreaking trial that aims to buy more time for surgeons to save seriously injured patients.The process involves rapidly cooling the brain to less than 10C by replacing the patient’s blood with ice-cold saline solution. Typically the solution is pumped directly into the aorta, the main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of the body. Continue reading...

Cameras mounted on a satellite allow users to take ‘selfies from space’ – on a beach, at a festival or sports event and eventually from anywhere you fancy – if the skies are clearA growing number of authorities around the world may be banning selfies – most recently the Japanese city of Kyoto put the kibosh on the taking of photos in its geisha neighbourhood – but one company is hoping to cash in on people’s desire to capture memorable moments, by introducing “the world’s longest selfie stick”, in the form of an app that takes photos from space.Spelfie.com allows users to take a selfie at the exact time that a satellite camera captures their location from space. Users of the app click on the event they are attending, then, once they are at the venue, the app provides coordinates so the user knows precisely where to position themselves and at what time. They then take a photo of themselves at the moment the satellite is taking its photo and later the same day the app sends back the satellite image juxtaposed with the selfie to be viewed in its gallery. Spelfie spokesman Anthony Burr said that in future the images will be available within a matter of minutes rather than hours. Continue reading...

Disastrous global heating will soon become irrevocable – but despite politicians’ inaction millions are taking to the streets to fight the planet’s fever

Hollingside wood, Durham City: Earthstar toadstools puff out spores as cyclamen create floral fireworks

Researchers examined more than 100 studies on the impact of human-produced noiseNoise produced by human activities should be better regulated to protect wildlife, say the authors of a study exposing how sound pollution affects myriad creatures from fish to birds.Related: Seals are deafened in noisy shipping lanes, say scientists Continue reading...

It’s the latest trend in the world’s tech capital. But is it really possible to cut yourself off from everything in life that excites you – and can it be any good for you?They have done biohacking, clean sleeping and the keto diet, but now Silicon Valley types have coined a new health trend – dopamine fasting. It is thought that depriving yourself of the neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger that motivates us to do things, can help to reboot or rebalance the brain. Fasting might entail abstinence from technology, artificial light, food, drink, conversation, eye contact – essentially anything that an individual finds stimulating. But is there any sense to the fad?“Retreating from life probably makes life more interesting when you come back to it,” says David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London. “Monks have been doing it for thousands of years. Whether that has anything to do with dopamine is unclear.” Continue reading...

Indian Ocean dipole events, linked to bushfires and floods, are becoming stronger and more frequent, scientists sayGlobal heating is “supercharging” an increasingly dangerous climate mechanism in the Indian Ocean that has played a role in disasters this year including bushfires in Australia and floods in Africa.Scientists and humanitarian officials say this year’s record Indian Ocean dipole, as the phenomenon is known, threatens to reappear more regularly and in a more extreme form as sea surface temperatures rise. Continue reading...

Fear of clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may be evolutionary in origin. But as details are shared, it is becoming a social contagion. By Chrissie GilesJulia was around 11 years old the first time it happened. She let herself into her dad’s apartment in Malmö, Sweden, dropped her schoolbag and flopped on to the sofa. She switched on the TV and turned to her favourite channel in time for the cartoons. The screen filled up with a cartoon man with a huge head. On his chin, in place of skin or a beard were huge cracks. Suddenly, she felt like she was going to throw up in disgust. She screwed up her eyes and fumbled for the button to turn off the TV.Every few months or so after this, she would see something that she just could not bear. Something that made her feel utterly disgusted and terrified. Sometimes it was cracks, but other times it was patterns of holes or dots, or scenes from nature programmes showing things such as groups of barnacles. She would shake, pour with sweat and end up lying on the floor in tears. One time, she was chatting on the phone when she saw something so awful she threw her mobile across the room. No one else she knew seemed to have this strange reaction. What was going on? Continue reading...

Medical team say people’s unexplained breathlessness could be down to bedding dustAs winter approaches it might be tempting to curl up under a thick feather duvet, but experts have warned it might lead to more than just warm toes.Doctors have reported a case of “feather duvet lung” – a lung inflammation caused by breathing in dust from the feathers in bedding – and have called for medical professionals to be on the alert if patients turn up with unexplained breathlessness. Continue reading...

Windfarms could be able to generate more energy due to phenomenon, says reportThe global climate crisis could lead to more renewable electricity being generated by spurring faster wind speeds for the world’s growing number of windfarms, according to research.Scientists have discovered that the world’s shifting ocean circulation patterns may have triggered a rapid increase in wind speeds over the last 10 years. Continue reading...

Psychopharmacologist who started a clinic for people addicted to tranquillisers and wrote a manual on how to quit them safelyOne day in the early 1980s a distressed patient went to see the doctor Heather Ashton at her pharmacology clinic in the Royal Victoria hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne.The patient had been given the tranquilliser Ativan (lorazepam) to relax her muscles before an operation and now feared she was addicted to the drug. Ashton listened to her patient and many others like her, studied their problems scientifically, and concluded that addiction to benzodiazepine tranquillisers was a serious problem, associated with severe withdrawal symptoms. The manual she went on to write on how to quit benzodiazepines safely now provides the basis for practice all over the world. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following four questions:1. Mrs Smith has two children. The eldest one is a boy. What’s the chance that both are boys. Continue reading...

Spray-on surface could prevent bacteria building up and reduce household water useThe toilet brush need never leave its holder again. Scientists have created a super-slippery coating that helps usher excrement on its way without leaving traces behind.The spray-on coating, which is slipperier than Teflon, reduces adhesion of even tenacious faeces by up to 90%, tests suggest, so far less water is needed to flush them away and leave the toilet clean. Continue reading...