Science | The Guardian

Public investors can now buy shares in Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism ventureVirgin Galactic has become the first publicly traded space tourism company as Sir Richard Branson’s venture prepares to take its first paying customers beyond the confines of the planet.Investors can buy shares under the stock market ticker symbol “SPCE” in the company, which is betting enough wealthy tourists will pay the $250,000 (£195,000) ticket price to make a return on investments in the ambitious business that have run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Continue reading...

Swedish researchers say proceeding with induction trial would have been unethicalSweden has cancelled a major study of women whose pregnancy continued beyond 40 weeks after six babies died.The research was halted a year ago after five stillbirths and one early death in the babies of women allowed to continue their pregnancies into week 43. Continue reading...

Study by thinktank Resolution Foundation warns divergence will have political and economic impactsParts of the UK are ageing twice as fast as other areas of the country, while in some cities the population is getting younger, a divergence that will have a lasting impact on local economies, local government and national politics, according to new research.A study by the Resolution Foundation, an independent thinktank, found that the populations of Maldon in Essex, Copeland in Cumbria and Richmondshire in Yorkshire are ageing twice as fast as the rest of the UK, while Nottingham and Oxford are growing younger. Continue reading...

The moon, just entering its first quarter, comes into conjunction with the bright and steady giant planet near the south-western horizonKeep an eye out this week for a fine conjunction between a thin crescent moon and the giant planet Jupiter. To see the pairing you will need a clear south-western horizon, which may take some effort for city dwellers to find. However, having secured a good vantage point, the sight will be well worth it. The chart shows the view looking in this direction at 18:00 GMT on 31 October. The moon will be a tiny waxing crescent with just 15% of its surface illuminated. Jupiter will be an unmistakably bright and steady white point of light near the horizon. After this encounter, the moon will continue through its orbit, growing into a fatter crescent as sunlight illuminates more of the nearside surface. The moon will move on towards Saturn, which is sitting just above the setting “teapot” of Sagittarius. It will lie to the west of Saturn on 1 November, and to the east of the planet a day later. Continue reading...

First analysis of environmental impact of Munich festival reveals extent of emissionsFor the millions of people who descend on Munich for the annual bash, Oktoberfest is a celebration of beer, bands and bratwurst.But as the dust settles for another year on the world’s largest folk festival, and die Bierleichen (“beer corpses”) return to the land of the living, environmental scientists have released the first analysis of methane emissions from the 16-day party. Continue reading...

Eco groups and global treaty blamed for delay in supply of vitamin-A enriched Golden RiceStifling international regulations have been blamed for delaying the approval of a food that could have helped save millions of lives this century. The claim is made in a new investigation of the controversy surrounding the development of Golden Rice by a team of international scientists.Golden Rice is a form of normal white rice that has been genetically modified to provide vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in the developing world. It was developed two decades ago but is still struggling to gain approval in most nations. Continue reading...

Gestures, facial expressions, posture – they are all crucial to what we’re communicating, though many of us don’t realise itMy interest in human behaviour and psychology started in primary school. In my attempts to socialise with other children, I had a constant, nagging feeling that everybody else had received a manual entitled How to Interact with Others. I was socially awkward, to put it mildly, and this meant I was picked on a lot, which in turn meant I started to ask myself some questions: how did my behaviour differ from others? Why did my antagonists act as they did?And so began my lifelong exploration into why we do the things we do – to others and to ourselves. Psychological theory was interesting, but more urgently I needed practical social-survival skills. So I began to investigate every thinkable area of human behaviour. I took acting lessons. I worked in marketing. I studied philosophy. I looked into how the media shapes us. I developed a deep interest in magic (which is really about controlling the expectations of others). I took an interest in the structure of language. And, naturally, I did a lot of digging into social and cognitive psychology. Continue reading...

Air travel is set to be transformed sooner than you think as firms unveil vertical takeoff electric prototypesWhile conventional airlines struggle for more environmentally friendly alternatives to jet fuel, a host of startups are betting on zero-emission flight using electric power.They will not carry a hundred passengers across the Atlantic – but in the global race to develop an air taxi, two firms - one British and one German - have unveiled significant recent breakthroughs this month. Continue reading...

Scientists at Natural History Museum honour teenager’s ‘outstanding contribution’A tiny species of beetle discovered more than 50 years ago has been named after environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have officially called the insect Nelloptodes gretae to honour the 16-year-old Swedish activist’s “outstanding contribution” in raising global awareness of climate change. Continue reading...

Study finds pose makes waist-to-hip ratio seem lower on one side and looks more appealingDancers do it, Instagrammers do it, even the Venus de Milo does it. When it comes to striking a pose, it seems the only way is contrapposto. Now research has shed light on why the attitude is so appealing.Experts say the pose, which involves standing with weight predominantly on one foot with a slight twist in the upper body, makes the waist-to-hip ratio appear strikingly low on one side of the body. Continue reading...

‘Total surprise’ discovery overturns conventional understanding of riversIn the turbid, frigid waters roaring from the glaciers of Canada’s high Arctic, researchers have made a surprising discovery: for decades, the northern rivers secretly pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a rate faster than the Amazon rainforest.The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, flip the conventional understanding of rivers, which are largely viewed as sources of carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Climate deniers often accuse scientists of exaggerating the threats associated with the climate crisis, but if anything they’re often too conservative

Researchers say figures are often inflated and rush for antibiotics may fuel resistanceThe public is being misled by scare stories about sepsis, say experts, warning that hype and misunderstandings about the so-called “hidden killer” have generated “an unhealthy climate of fear and retribution” in the UK and the US.The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has contributed to the mythology, they say in a letter to a leading medical journal. In March, Hancock tweeted: “Sepsis kills over 52,000 every year – each death a preventable tragedy.” The figure was an estimate from a charity campaigning for awareness on sepsis. Continue reading...

In 1986, philosopher Harry G Frankfurt wrote: “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.” This was the opening line of his seminal essay (later a book), On Bullshit, in which Frankfurt put forward his theory on the subject. Three decades later, psychologists are finally getting to grips with what might be going on in the minds of those who dabble in the dark arts of BS. Ian Sample asks two such psychologists what we can do to fight back Continue reading...

Exclusive: Andy Pitman says ‘misspoken’ statement has been used by Alan Jones, Chris Kenny and Andrew Bolt to dismiss links between climate change and droughtA leading Australian climate scientist has said his views have been misrepresented by conservative media commentators, who have used a “misspoken” statement to dismiss the links between climate change and drought.Prof Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales, has told Guardian Australia there are clear links between human-caused climate change and drought, but these links are indirect. Continue reading...

Online you can find miracle cures, writes Aliya Hasan, but only existentialism resonatesIt is breast cancer awareness month. As someone with secondary breast cancer I am aware of the disease every day. Since I was diagnosed last August I’ve been in a muddle about how to square it mentally and emotionally. Although my treatment is working, nobody knows how long for.Stage IV, secondary, advanced, metastatic, call it what you want, brings guilt and confusion about how best to be with and leave family and friends. Some may have a solution and put pressure on you to spend time at a clinic in Germany or source cannabis-related drugs or watch videos of people who have survived. I don’t understand how someone can know the cancer has pushed off for good until they die of something else. Continue reading...

Biologist who demonstrated that fish feel pain and caused a revolution in animal welfare researchUntil the early 2000s everyone knew that fish do not feel pain. The biologist Victoria Braithwaite, who has died aged 52 from cancer, showed that everyone who thought that was wrong.Her demonstration that fish do feel pain caused a revolution in animal welfare research, resulted in changes to Home Office regulations and even featured in Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday (2005) as a concern of its central character, Henry Perowne, when shopping for dinner at a fishmonger. More than that, while provoking some members of the angling community and causing scientists and philosophers to argue over what it means to experience pain, her work has begun to change the way that fish are treated in the pet trade, in the laboratory and in aquaculture. Continue reading...

Trained canines help locate burial sites dating back to the iron age in CroatiaThe scent-tracking abilities of trained dogs have helped archaeologists discover iron age tombs in Croatia dating back nearly three thousand years.The dogs sniffed out burial chests containing human bones and artefacts in a hilltop fort in the Velebit mountains along the Adriatic coast. Experts have said that using dogs could be a good way to identify archaeological sites, as it is less destructive than many traditional methods. Continue reading...

Astronaut visits aptly named Star in Pembrokeshire to remind locals to embrace wonders of night skyThe evening was still, peaceful and – thankfully – reasonably clear. As dusk fell in the Welsh hills the people of a tiny Pembrokeshire village called Star turned off their lights to help deepen the darkness and traipsed through the gloaming to a farmer’s field to meet a spaceman and gaze skywards with him.“It’s pretty amazing,” said Catrin Davies, a teacher who had brought a group of children from the local school to stargaze with the British astronaut Maj Tim Peake. Continue reading...

Women’s photography of greater sea snake, once believed to be an anomaly in the Baie des Citrons, help scientists understand the ecosystemA group of snorkelling grandmothers who swim up to 3km five days a week have uncovered a large population of venomous sea snakes in a bay in Noumea where scientists once believed they were rare.Dr Claire Goiran from the University of New Caledonia and Professor Rick Shine from Australia’s Macquarie University were studying a small harmless species known as the turtle‐headed sea snake located in the Baie des Citrons, but would occasionally encounter the 1.5 metre-long venomous greater sea snake, also known as the olive-headed sea snake. Continue reading...

Former employee Prof Ian Shanks created system used in glucose sensorsA retired Scottish scientist who invented a system widely used in glucose sensors has won £2m in a court case against the industry behemoth Unilever after claiming he never received a penny from his former employer, despite the invention having made millions for the company.Prof Ian Shanks, who has been fighting for compensation for 13 years, has been awarded compensation by the supreme court. Continue reading...

The centuries-long preference for collecting male specimens over female at five institutions worldwide could skew researchThe Natural History Museum in London boasts that it holds “the world’s most important natural history collection”. But, while excited families queue this half-term to explore its exhibits on volcanoes, dinosaurs and creepy-crawlies, one of its scientists has revealed a fatal flaw among the 29m animal specimens it holds for research purposes.A study led by NHM researcher Dr Natalie Cooper has uncovered discrepancies in gender representation, with significantly more male specimens than female. Continue reading...

The largest cause of bacterial bloodstream infections in the UK is not associated with uncooked meat as we thought

My sister-in-law, Vicki Gregory, who has died of cancer aged 51, was an international expert in influenza surveillance and research.As a stalwart of the Worldwide Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London, Vicki was held in high regard by colleagues around the globe. With her wealth of knowledge and experience, notably during bird flu outbreaks, she collaborated with many of the laboratories of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s influenza response system. Continue reading...

Task that would take most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years ‘completed by quantum machine in minutes’For Google, it was a historic announcement: a declaration that it had won the race to achieve “quantum supremacy” – the moment that a sophisticated quantum computer performed a task that stumped even the most powerful standard computer in the world.But for all the fanfare, which saw Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, compare the feat to building the first rocket to reach space, the claim has sparked a bunfight. The tech firm’s rival, IBM, was swift to dismiss the excitement. Google has not, it asserts, achieved the highly prized goal of quantum supremacy. Continue reading...

‘Chronotherapy’ benefits of bedtime doses discovered in huge trialTaking blood pressure medication at bedtime rather than on waking halves the risk of events such as heart attack and stroke, a major study has revealed.Experts say the findings could potentially transform the way such medications are prescribed, but questions remain, not least why taking the medication at night has such a profound effect. Continue reading...

Tests at MIT have shown a boost to the activity of the brain’s immune cellsDoctors in the US have launched a clinical trial to see whether exposure to flickering lights and low frequency sounds can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.A dozen patients enrolled in the trial will have daily one-hour sessions of the radical therapy which researchers hope will induce brain activity that protects against the disorder. Continue reading...

Russian cosmonaut who was the first person to walk in spaceOn 18 March 1965, 90 minutes after their Voskhod-3KD capsule’s launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and at the end of the first of their 17 orbits around the Earth, the Soviet cosmonaut Pavel “Pasha” Belyayev slapped his fellow cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on the back and said: “Go!”Leonov entered the airlock and, after final safety procedures, opened the hatch. In doing so he became the first person in history to walk in space. His walk lasted for 12 minutes and nine seconds and it would be nearly three months before the astronaut Ed White became the first American space walker. Continue reading...

The comedian has written his first play – on whether science can prove that the Almighty exists. But first, there are some hecklers to deal with ...

Websites such as OneSub, Nuzzera and AllSides hope to subvert political polarisation by offering news and views from beyond users’ usual sources. But is it that simple?As strange as it may sound, above a Dorothy House charity shop in the shabbier end of central Bath, a handful of people are quietly trying to push the world – or at least a small part of it – away from the polarisation that currently defines politics, and towards something a bit more open and empathic. To compound the unlikeliness of it all, they are led by a man called Jim Morrison: not the reincarnated singer of the Doors, but the 40-year-old founder of a new online platform called OneSub, whose strapline is “Break the echo chamber”.I have come to OneSub’s HQ as part of a week-long quest to push my reading habits and general soaking-up of information out of my usual left-inclined social media bubble, get some much-needed perspective, and try to use the internet as it was originally intended – not to confirm my prejudices, but to reintroduce me to the confounding, complicated, surprising realities of the world as it actually is. Continue reading...

The world’s first genetically edited twins are a year old. We should all have a say in how this life-changing tech is usedTwo little girls called Lulu and Nana celebrate their first birthday this month. The Chinese twins are the first humans to have every cell in their body genetically modified using Crispr-Cas9, a revolutionary gene-editing process that allows the DNA in embryos to be edited to carry certain characteristics that can be passed down to their children and grandchildren.When the twins’ birth was announced to the world by the US-trained biochemist He Jiankui, he described how he and his Chinese and American colleagues had used Crispr to introduce genetic mutations into otherwise healthy embryos in an attempt to minimise the girls’ susceptibility to HIV infection. Such an intervention was both unnecessary and possibly ineffective, and in direct defiance of scientific consensus and established ethical norms. As a molecular biologist who has spent over a decade in laboratories, I was horrified by the experiment. Continue reading...

Carbon emissions make sea more acidic, which wiped out 75% of marine species 66m years agoOcean acidification can cause the mass extinction of marine life, fossil evidence from 66m years ago has revealed.A key impact of today’s climate crisis is that seas are again getting more acidic, as they absorb carbon emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists said the latest research is a warning that humanity is risking potential “ecological collapse” in the oceans, which produce half the oxygen we breathe. Continue reading...

People being in the streets isn’t effective without a strategy, and XR needs a clearer one for what could be years of non-violent struggleThe speed and size of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests over the past year add weight to the idea that people in this decade were in revolt before they had any clear idea what form a revolution might take. Politically it has long looked like a whole generation was up for grabs. In the beginning of the decade this anger veered leftwards with movements like Occupy, but at the end it has moved greenwards, under XR. The question is how much of the country will go with it.Extinction Rebellion succeeded in putting the climate crisis on the political agenda. This is a welcome pivot to an existential issue for a society that has become gummed up by enervating fights over Brexit. There is an urgent need to decouple economic activity from carbon emissions and ecological destruction. For all the fine words global emissions of carbon dioxide are higher than they have ever been, almost three decades after the first global conference aimed at reducing them. The situation is becoming dangerous for human life. The latest figures show there is little more than a decade to save ourselves and the other creatures with whom we share the planet. Continue reading...

The solution to today’s dot-to-dot puzzleEarlier today I set you the following puzzle:Find all the ways to arrange four points so that only two distances occur between any two points. Continue reading...

‘Prime editing’ more precise than Crispr-Cas9, but still needs time before use on humansScientists have raised fresh hopes for treating people with genetic disorders by inventing a powerful new molecular tool that, in principle, can correct the vast majority of mutations that cause human genetic diseases.The procedure, named “prime editing”, can mend about 89% of the 75,000 or so harmful mutations known to mangle the human genome and lead to conditions such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia, and a nerve-destroying illness called Tay-Sachs disease. Continue reading...

Veganism and trees could help stop agriculture contributing to global heating, study saysIf one in five people in richer countries went near-vegan, and threw away a third less food than they currently do, while poor countries were assisted to preserve their forests and restore degraded land, the world’s agricultural systems could be absorbing carbon dioxide by 2050 instead of adding massively to global heating as they do at present.Tree-planting and improving the fertility of soil through better farming practices would also be needed, according to a study of global forests, farming and food systems published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Continue reading...

Gravitricity develops winch and hoist system to store energy at half the cost of lithium-ion batteriesBritain’s cheapest “virtual battery” could be created by hoisting and dropping 12,000-tonne weights – half the weight of the Statue of Liberty – down disused mine shafts, according to Imperial College London.The surprising new source of “gravity energy” is being developed by Gravitricity, an Edinburgh-based startup, which hopes to use Britain’s old mines to make better use of clean electricity at half the cost of lithium-ion batteries. Continue reading...

Debate needed over research with ‘potential for something to suffer’, neuroscientists sayNeuroscientists may have crossed an “ethical rubicon” by growing lumps of human brain in the lab, and in some cases transplanting the tissue into animals, researchers warn.The creation of mini-brains or brain “organoids” has become one of the hottest fields in modern neuroscience. The blobs of tissue are made from stem cells and, while they are only the size of a pea, some have developed spontaneous brain waves, similar to those seen in premature babies. Continue reading...

Celebrating the discovery of your unborn baby’s sex has been coopted by people with repressive, polarised ideas, says the woman who began the trendIn 2008, Jenna Myers Karvunidis was pregnant and itching to throw a party. “Life is hard, but I like to have fun,” she explains. “I think it’s important to mark moments of joy.” Karvunidis (who loves celebrating so much that she baked a cake for her goldfish’s birthday) was determined to get her family “jazzed up” about her first baby. After the recent, much-anticipated birth of her nephew, her husband’s family were less excited about this next grandchild and, with her own family emotionally and physically distant, Karvunidis came up with the then-novel idea of a theatrical reveal of her baby’s sex.During their 20-week ultrasound scan she asked her midwife to keep quiet about whether the baby was a boy or girl and, instead of telling the expectant couple in person, the bemused professional sealed a note containing the secret in an envelope. Karvunidis then baked two cakes in the shape of ducklings, filling one with pink icing and the other with blue – a discrete toothpick for differentiation. Continue reading...

Design Museum, London

New restrictions needed for leading cause of deaths of men under 50New restrictions are needed on Britain’s drinking culture, which is behind a huge rise in deaths of men and women under 50, according to the government’s former chief drug adviser, sacked a decade ago for claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.Ahead of a speech to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies on 30 October, 10 years after the then home secretary Alan Johnson fired him, Prof David Nutt said the net contribution of successive governments to drugs policy had been to make things worse. Continue reading...

Parents of Abbie Mifsud created the charity that has funded vital research on brain stem tumoursResearchers say they are close to testing a drug that could tackle a previously untreatable childhood brain cancer. The condition is known as DIPG – diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma – and every year it affects between 30 to 40 boys and girls, aged between five and 10. All develop tumours caused by the condition and die, often within months of their diagnoses.But now scientists believe they may soon be able to tackle the condition – and one of the key organisations involved is a remarkable charity set up by Amanda and Ray Mifsud, whose daughter Abbie died of DIPG in 2011. Their charity, Abbie’s Army, has raised money that has provided vital backing for research by Professor Chris Jones, of the Institute of Cancer Research, London. Continue reading...

The social psychologist’s new book tackles the tricky subject of how oral contraceptives may affect women’s mindsAt a time when women’s reproductive freedoms are under attack, any suggestion that the birth control pill could be problematic feels explosive. But Sarah E Hill, a professor of social psychology at the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas argues we need to talk about how oral contraceptives are affecting women’s thinking, emotions and behaviour. How the Pill Changes Everything: Your Brain on Birth Control is her new book about the science behind a delicate subject.Some US states have recently made it harder to get an abortion and the Trump administration is doing its best to chisel away at access to birth control. Is your book trying to dissuade women from using the pill?

Brain seems to categorise death as something that only befalls other peopleWarning: this story is about death. You might want to click away now.That’s because, researchers say, our brains do their best to keep us from dwelling on our inevitable demise. A study found that the brain shields us from existential fear by categorising death as an unfortunate event that only befalls other people. Continue reading...

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, tasked with replacing faulty device at International Space Station, embarked on ‘historic’ effortTwo Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first.Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit. Continue reading...

After almost 24 years in the welfare sector, I believe the group we hate more than any other is the poorIn August, Tanya Gersh, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, was awarded $14m in a lawsuit against Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, for encouraging “an online anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation campaign” against Gersh and her family.Anglin has been here before; there are two other judgments against him for hate speech. In one case, the presiding judge ruled that Anglin “acted with actual malice when they published false statements, with knowledge of the falsity of those statements or with reckless disregard for the truth”. Continue reading...

Imagination should infuse teaching of science as well as the arts. Children are not pitchers to be filled with factsYou can’t see it, smell it, hear it. People disagree on how, precisely, to define it, or where, exactly, it comes from. It isn’t a school subject or an academic discipline, but it can be learned. It is a quality that is required by artists. But it is also present in the lives of scientists and entrepreneurs. All of us benefit from it: we thrive mentally and spiritually when we are able to harness it. It is a delicate thing, easily stamped out; in fact, it flourishes most fully when people are playful and childlike. At the same time, it works best in tandem with deep knowledge and expertise.This mysterious – but teachable – quality is creativity, the subject of a report published this week by Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, a body chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England, with input from figures including film director Beeban Kidron, architect Sir David Adjaye and choreographer Akram Khan. The report, put together in collaboration with academics from Durham University, concludes that creativity is not something that should inhabit the school curriculum only as it relates to drama, music, art and other obviously creative subjects, but that creative thinking ought to run through all of school life, infusing the way human and natural sciences are learned. Continue reading...

A project using rTMS, a form of brain stimulation therapy, has shown encouraging early results