Substance misuse is not a simple problem of brain chemistry. The most powerful influences lie outside our headsI used to think addiction was caused by screwy molecules in the brain, and would be cured by neuroscience. I began learning about how the brain works after I ended up in treatment for drug addiction in the mid-1980s, when hopes for neuroscientific cures were as overblown as the hairstyles.My own journey away from the destructive cycle of addiction has been sourced much more by factors outside my brain Continue reading...

The Quadrantids are unusual in that they originate not from a comet but from an asteroidSee in the new year with the Quadrantids meteor shower. Although the peak of the shower does not arrive until the night of 3-4 January, meteor activity can stretch for a couple of weeks around this point, lasting until 10 January. The peak of the Quadrantids can be spectacular but quick, lasting just a few hours most years. If you catch it though, on average you can expect to see some 100 meteors an hour. The meteors are usually faint however and only really visible from the northern hemisphere, because the radiant is located quite far in the northern sky. The chart shows the view looking north from London at midnight on the night of 3-4 January 2020. Continue reading...

Defeating the climate crisis is just the beginning of the struggle – and tough political choices will have to be made

It’s feasible to flood space with flotillas of small satellites – but do we really want to?Changing economics and advancing miniaturisation now enable flotillas of small satellites to be launched into space – up to a hundred on a single rocket. These microsatellites are already being deployed, by companies such as Planet Lab in California, to survey every point on the Earth every day, with sharp enough images to study building sites, road traffic, land use and so forth.But a bigger leap is now in the offing. Elon Musk’s company SpaceX envisages the “Starlink” project. This entails launching up to 40,000 spacecraft into orbit in order to create a network that will enhance global broadband communication. Other companies, such as Amazon, say they have similar plans. Continue reading...

Searching for the missing pieces in his family brought poet and author Michael Rosen closer to the horror of warEvery time the poet Michael Rosen found out something new about what happened to his Jewish relatives during the Holocaust, he would send a round-robin email to his extended family. “My research brought me face to face with the destiny of Jews in Europe, seen through the prism of my own family.” Suddenly, he could imagine the “very real” journeys his relatives had taken, the places they’d hidden, the fear and hope they’d felt. “Because of the kind of person I am, I wanted to tell that story.”The result is his latest book, The Missing, which will be published next week. A mixture of poetry and prose, it retraces Rosen’s journey as he searches for information about his European relatives who went “missing” before his birth in 1946. Continue reading...

Scientists reach remote Thwaites glacier, vanishing at increasing rate, for missionAn international team of scientists has reached the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica and is preparing to drill through more than half a kilometre of ice into the dark waters beneath.The 600-metre deep borehole will allow researchers to lower down a torpedo-shaped robotic submarine that will explore the underside of the ice shelf to better understand why it is melting so fast. Continue reading...

Ancient building found 100 miles west of Cancùn estimated to be more than 1,000 years oldArchaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the remains of a vast Mayan palace over 1,000 years old in an ancient city about 100 miles west of the tourist hotspot of Cancún.The building in Kulubá is 55 metres long, 15 metres wide and six metres high, and appears to have been made up of six rooms, said Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. Continue reading...

Happy Christmas from the Science Weekly team. There is no new episode this week as we all take a festive break. The team will be back with a new episode on Friday 10 January Continue reading...

Previous problems appear to have been ironed out in craft’s essential landing equipmentGround tests designed to validate the deployment of the parachutes that will be used on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars lander next year have started well at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. ESA’s ExoMars 2020 mission consists of the UK-built Rosalind Franklin rover, which will look for signs of past or present life, and the Russian Kazachok surface platform, which will monitor the local environment at the landing site. Continue reading...

People gathered across parts of Asia and the Middle East to watch a rare annular solar eclipse, also known as a ring of fire. The phenomenon, when the moon covers the centre of the sun, giving the appearance of a shining ring, was first visible above Saudi Arabia, travelling towards southern India, over northern Sri Lanka and ending up above the Pacific OceanRare ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse – in pictures Continue reading...

Over the holiday period the Guardian’s leader column examines the challenges of the future by fathoming out the present. Today we look at the changing shape of car cultureLewis Hamilton’s recent declaration of support for climate action attracted derision as well as plaudits. “I like fuel. Can I say that? I don’t like electric stuff,” was the deliberately provocative response from a fellow Formula One driver, Max Verstappen. But the sport is officially on Mr Hamilton’s side. In November it announced a net-zero carbon target of 2030.In planning to eliminate most of the carbon emissions for which it is responsible, and offset the rest, F1 is part of a growing movement. The most recent round of United Nations climate negotiations may have ended in disappointment. But the past 12 months have undeniably seen a global surge in public awareness and activism on climate issues. Even Jeremy Clarkson, the television presenter and anti-environmental journalist, admitted the danger of global heating in a public statement last month. While filming a journey from Cambodia to Vietnam for his TV show, The Grand Tour, he saw for himself the impact of water shortages on a dried-up riverbed and admitted to being alarmed. Continue reading...

Angela Saini’s book Superior showed me our misconceptions about race and science arise from a habit of the mindIt has been common for several years now to assert that science shows the concept of race has no biological basis, and that we must see it instead as a social construct. That case was argued, for example, by Kenan Malik in his 2008 book Strange Fruit, and it is presented, too, in Angela Saini’s Superior (which I reviewed for the Guardian in July), a popular choice on many “books of the year” lists.I used to be sceptical about this claim. I have all the liberal lefty’s revulsion at racism, but I couldn’t help thinking: “If we insist that race is not biologically determined, won’t that just confuse people, given that it is so blindingly obvious that characteristic markers of race are inherited?” The usual argument is that genomics has identified no clusters of gene variants specific to conventional racial groupings: there is more genetic variation within such groups than between them. But doesn’t that insist on a definition of race that most people simply won’t recognise? Isn’t it better to say that yes, race has a biological basis – but the relevant bodily features are a trivial part of what makes us us? Continue reading...

Attacks and scepticism are on the rise, even as leaps are made in fields from gene editing and AI to interplanetary explorationThe 2010s were the decade in which we were reminded that science is just a method, like the rhythm method. And just like the rhythm method, it can be more or less rigorously applied, sabotaged, overrated, underrated and ignored. If you don’t treat it with respect, you may not get the optimal result, but that’s not the method’s fault.That may be where the similarities end, because when it’s done well, science is very effective, and this decade furnished its fair share of breakthroughs to make us gasp. Physicists detected phenomena that were predicted decades ago – gravitational waves, the Higgs boson particle – indicating that they have been on broadly the right track in their understanding of how the universe works. Astronomers added awe-inspiring detail. Nasa probes found towering ice mountains on Pluto and organic chemistry – the stuff of life – on Mars and a moon of Saturn. And who could forget the exoplanets – those planets orbiting distant stars? Thousands of them were discovered in just the past 10 years. No wonder science fiction is booming. Continue reading...

Researchers aim to recreate intense emotional experience astronauts reported on seeing Earth from space for the first time

Annular solar eclipse, in which the moon does not completely cover the sun as it transits across the star’s face, was seen from Asia to the Middle East Continue reading...

Firm is recruiting artificial intelligence specialists and developing new genomics labGlaxoSmithKline is ramping up its use of artificial intelligence and recruiting 80 AI specialists by the end of 2020 as it turns to cutting-edge computing to develop medicines of the future.However, the UK’s largest drugmaker by revenue is struggling to hire enough AI researchers and engineers from areas such as Silicon Valley and is looking to former employees in academia, the US Navy and the music industry to fill positions in the new team. They will be spread across London, Heidelberg, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston. Continue reading...

Over the holiday period the Guardian’s leader column examines the challenges of the future by fathoming out the present. Today we look at the struggle for the soul of Christianity“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” These words, written by Saint Paul 2,000 years ago, are central to the Christian faith. They speak of a vocation for the universal and point to an ethic of social justice and solidarity. The Christian tradition’s account of the humble circumstances of the birth of Jesus, represented in the nativity scene, is in the same spirit, identifying Christ with the marginal, the maligned and the poor.It has therefore, for many Christians, been depressing to witness the faith of their churches being used to justify the abandonment of such principles in Europe, Donald Trump’s America and beyond. For liberally minded Christians, 2019 was the latest in a succession of anni horribiles, during which a cultural appropriation of their religion did service for aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia and anti-environmentalism. Continue reading...

A new documentary profiles the Nobel-winning, harmonica-slinging scientist behind one of the biggest modern breakthroughs in cancer treatmentJim Allison doesn’t quite fit the archetype of the studious, buttoned-up scientist: with a full beard and long hair, the most gravelly of Texas drawls and a history of ripping a harmonica on stage with Willie Nelson, Allison seems more like a longstanding Grateful Dead fan than game-changer in the quest to cure cancer.The music-loving, 71-year-old scientist, long a renegade in the field of cancer research, is perhaps an unlikely prism through which to view the world of cutting-edge medicine. But the internationally renowned researcher has fundamentally shifted the trajectory of cancer treatment – an achievement covered in the new documentary Jim Allison: Breakthrough, by film-maker Bill Haney, which traces the arc of Allison’s iconoclastic career from a childhood marred by loss from cancer in rural Texas to a Nobel prize in medicine, along with Tasuku Honjo of Japan in 2018. Continue reading...

Chimpanzees seen clapping, tapping and swaying along to piano rhythms in a music boothAkira stands up and sways about. Pal is big on clapping. Ai is into tapping her foot, while Gon bangs and slaps the walls.Not the latest teen band sensation, but a spectacle far more impressive: the moves of a group of chimpanzees that scientists believe shed light on the prehistoric origins of human dancing. Continue reading...

Ram Dass promoted LSD as path to enlightenment before undergoing spiritual rebirth detailed in the influential book Be Here Now

Fossil found in Canada suggests pair were curled up together in a den when they diedFossil hunters say they have unearthed the earliest evidence yet of four-limbed vertebrates looking after their young, after discovering the entwined remains of two lizard-like creatures preserved in an ancient plant stump.The fossil found in Nova Scotia, Canada, is thought to be the remains of an adult and young of a newly identified species of varanopid. Continue reading...

Poll after poll shows that people now want action. But at the international level progress is being deliberately stymied

The “evening star” blazes near the south-west horizon, joined by a tiny crescent moonVenus continues to shine brightly as the “evening star” this week. It is the third brightest celestial object in the sky, beaten only by the sun and the moon. A good south-western horizon will be needed as the planet is not very high in the sky at the moment, but it is well worth searching for. Seen blazing brilliantly through the sunset sky, Venus is a breathtaking sight. Adding to the beauty, this week the planet is joined by another jewel of the twilight sky: a very thin crescent moon. This will be tricky to spot: the moon will be low in the sky and only 6.3% of its surface will be illuminated from earth. The chart shows the view looking towards the south-west from London on 28 December at 17:00 GMT. A day later, the moon will have moved to the other side of Venus, and so be higher in the sky. By this time, 12% of its surface will be illuminated, and both factors will make it easier to spot. Continue reading...

From the first image of a black hole to a detailed survey of sea ice in the Arctic, scientists pick the breakthrough moments that defined the yearWas 2019 the year people finally started to listen to climate scientists on global heating? The previous year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had laid out the monumental challenge of limiting warming to 1.5C. Global CO2 emissions would need to halve within 12 years, and reach zero around 2050. But emissions are still rising, while UN summits make tiny steps towards agreeing how to reduce them. The “emissions gap” between target and reality grows ever wider – and becomes ever harder to close. Continue reading...

Aborted flight threatens to derail the company’s efforts to launch astronauts on behalf of Nasa next yearBoeing safely landed its crew capsule in the New Mexico desert Sunday after an aborted flight to the international space station that threatened to derail the company’s effort to launch astronauts on behalf of Nasa next year.The Starliner un-manned spacecraft descended into the US army’s White Sands Missile Range in the predawn darkness, ending a two-day demonstration that should have lasted more than a week. Continue reading...

Jeremy Farrar, a world expert on diseases, tells of the fight against the deadly virus that spread fear this decade – and how to prepare for the health battles to comeJeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, has a straightforward view about the way doctors and scientists tackled the current Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “In four or five years, we have taken a disease that was absolutely terrifying and which had an enormously high death rate – more than 80% – and we have turned it, potentially, into something that is preventable and treatable.”The fact this has been done in a nation in the middle of a civil war is “simply miraculous”, added Farrar, a world expert on emerging diseases. “It is a truly phenomenal achievement. If you do not celebrate that, you cannot celebrate anything else.” Continue reading...

Starliner capsule due to land in New Mexico on Sunday after failing in its mission to dock with the international space stationThe Nasa and Boeing team behind the un-crewed Starliner space capsule that failed on Friday in its mission to dock with the international space station has expressed confidence that they can land the faulty spacecraft in the US desert on Sunday.Related: Boeing's 737 Max troubles threaten booming Seattle-area economy Continue reading...

New technology reveals a star-shaped burn mark hidden under peat that gives clues to the meaning of the standing stones on LewisFor thousands of years the Callanish standing stones erected on the remote Hebridean island of Lewis have remained a mystery. Why were they placed there? And for what purpose?Now archaeologists have uncovered dramatic new evidence that suggests our Neolithic ancestors were inspired to construct the megaliths as devotional monuments by the natural phenomenon of lightning strikes. A geophysical survey around one of the stones has astonished archaeologists by revealing a star-shaped pattern formed by one, or possibly multiple, earth-shaking lightning strikes. New technology has exposed a clear pattern covering an area of up to 20 metres in diameter, buried until now beneath peat bogs. Continue reading...

The kids have left home, and we’re not really coping, so this seems like the perfect chance to lure them backMy husband and I don’t think we have the condition until, one day last month, hundreds of miles from home, we find ourselves outside our younger son’s university accommodation at 11.30 on a Sunday morning. I am clutching supplies in a little brown paper bag. Our son knows we’re in town, but isn’t expecting this rude awakening. It’s a surprise.“Do you think we should have called first?” I say as we approach the entrance, the inappropriateness of what we’re doing dawning on me only now. Continue reading...

US president approves funding for America’s first new military service in 70 yearsDonald Trump has launched space force, the first new US military service in more than 70 years.In signing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes the force, Trump claimed a victory for one of his top national security priorities two days after being impeached by the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

COP25 should have been about new science and ambitious targets. Instead, nations bickered and dodged responsibilityLast week, a whistle rang out in a buzzing conference fairground on the edge of Madrid. Instantly, a swell of protesters rose up, determined to “bring in the streets and tear down the walls”, enraged that the annual UN climate talks had wound to a grinding deadlock. Two days from a close, the talks had not yet produced a single line of text. Instead, while Sydney burned, Australia used an “accounting loophole” to cover for its poor climate record. Do politicians even live on the same planet?Related: UN climate talks end with limited progress on emissions targets Continue reading...

Race on to find proven ways to help people live longer, healthier livesWho wants to live forever? Until recently, the quest to slow ageing or even reverse it was the stuff of legends – or scams. But, today, an evidence-based race to delay or prevent ageing is energising scientists worldwide.Backed by governments, business, academics and investors in an industry worth $110bn (£82.5bn) – and estimated to be worth $610bn by 2025 – scientists are harnessing the power of genomics and artificial intelligence to extend both life spans and health spans. Continue reading...

Officials say spacecraft is in stable orbit but problem may delay mission to carry Nasa astronautsBoeing’s new Starliner capsule ran into trouble and went off course in orbit minutes after blasting off on Friday on its first test flight, a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts.Initially everything went flawlessly as the Atlas V rocket launched with the Starliner shortly before sunrise. But half an hour into the flight, Boeing reported that the capsule had not got into the position needed to get to the International Space Station. Continue reading...

Research shows underground storage can create new compound of element which could affect groundwaterA new form of uranium has been discovered which is likely to have implications for current nuclear waste disposal plans, say scientists.Many governments are planning to dispose of radioactive waste by burying it deep underground. However, new research has found that in such storage conditions a new chemical form of uranium can temporarily occur, while small amounts of uranium are released into solution. If uranium is in solution, it could make its way into groundwater. Continue reading...

Anchors were excavated from sediment in the Gulf of Mexico near the settlement the conquistador founded upon landingUnderwater archaeologists have found two iron anchors just offshore from the spot Hernán Cortés first set foot in Mexico, raising hopes that the fleet which the conquistador scuttled in 1519 may soon be rediscovered.The anchors were excavated from under a metre of sediment in the Gulf of Mexico near Villa Rica, the settlement Cortes founded upon landing 500 years ago in what is now the Mexican state of Veracruz. Continue reading...

For the final science weekly of 2019 the Guardian’s Science team – Hannah Devlin, Ian Sample and Nicola Davis – talk through their top stories of the year including black holes, rebooted brains and seagulls Continue reading...

Analysis finds there may be no universal concepts for some emotionsThe true meaning of words may be lost in translation, according to research suggesting the way people understand terms such as “anger” or “love” differs between languages.For example, while the concept of “love” is closely linked to “like” and “want” in Indo-European languages, it is strongly linked to “pity” in Austronesian languages – a family that includes Hawaiian and Javanese. Continue reading...

Psychiatrists divided on ‘game-changing’ esketamine due to potential for addictionA radical ketamine-like drug has been licensed for use in the UK for severe depression, a decision that offers hope to the millions of patients for whom conventional treatments have failed.Esketamine, taken as a nasal spray, is one of the first rapid-acting drugs for depression and the first in decades that is thought to work in a fundamentally different way in the brain. However, psychiatrists are divided on the benefits, with some hailing esketamine as a game-changer and others raising fears about the potential for addiction and abuse. Continue reading...

Pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCB) storms are feared due to the violent and unpredictable conditions they create on the groundScientists fear climate change will drive a surge in the number of supersized and dangerous bushfires that become coupled with the atmosphere and create their own violent thunderstorms.Guardian Australia can reveal 2019 is likely to be a “standout year” for the number of bushfires that generate giant thunderstorm clouds known as pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCBs. Continue reading...

My wife, Val Richards, who has died aged 84, was a scholar, teacher and analytical psychotherapist.Val was born in Whetstone, north London, to Charles Feldman, an accountant, and his wife, Ivy (nee Blaker), a teacher, and attended Woodhouse school in North Finchley. Her youth, which she spent in London, was marred by the second world war; from her early years Val was a campaigner for peace, and she later became a prominent member of CND. Continue reading...

Trees would have been home to primitive insects about 150m years before dinosaurs evolvedThe world’s oldest known fossil forest has been discovered in a sandstone quarry in New York state, offering new insights into how trees transformed the planet.The forest, found in the town of Cairo, would have spanned from New York to Pennsylvania and beyond, and has been dated to about 386m years old. It is one of only three known fossil forests dating to this period and about 2-3m years older than the previously oldest known fossil forest at Gilboa, also in New York state. Continue reading...

Researchers show disturbance to lawns increases likelihood of pest and weed invasionRewilding gardens may be growing in popularity but even a modest reduction in lawn mowing can boost wildlife, increase pollinators and save money, according to a study.Researchers from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières found that reducing the intensity of trimming lawns in urban areas can also reduce pests and weeds that cause allergies. Continue reading...

Dating of bones from Indonesia confirm Homo erectus roamed planet for 1.8m yearsThe last known resting place of Homo erectus, one of the most successful human ancestors and the first to walk fully upright, has been traced to a floodplain near the longest river on the Indonesian island of Java.A dozen partial skulls and two shinbones, discovered in a bonebed near the Solo river in the 1930s, but never reliably dated, have now been placed at between 108,000 and 117,000 years old after a comprehensive survey of the site. Continue reading...

Vaping nicotine is still more popular but vaping marijuana grew more quickly, according to surveyAbout one out of five high school students in the US say they vaped marijuana in the past year, and its popularity has been booming faster than nicotine vaping, according to a report released Wednesday.Related: Pelosi says Democrats have 'no choice' but to impeach Trump as formal debate begins – live Continue reading...

Successful launch from French Guiana of European project comes day late after glitchEurope’s Cheops planet-hunting satellite has left Earth a day after its lift-off was delayed by a technical rocket glitch during the final countdown.A 30cm telescope aboard has been designed to measure the density, composition and size of numerous exoplanets, which orbit stars beyond our solar system. Continue reading...

Women’s symptoms are ignored and their health problems are under-researched. What’s going wrong?When Lynn Enright had a hysteroscopy to examine the inside of the womb, her searing pain was dismissed by medical professionals. She only understood why when she started working on her book on female anatomy, Vagina: A Re-education. She was looking for research on pain and women’s health, only to be shocked by how little data she found.It wasn’t just the topic of pain that was poorly researched. The lack of evidence was a problem she encountered time and time again, which is no surprise when you look at the research gap: less than 2.5% of publicly funded research is dedicated solely to reproductive health, despite the fact that one in three women in the UK will suffer from a reproductive or gynaecological health problem. There is five times more research into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women. Continue reading...

James Lovelock, who turned 100 this year, discusses his life’s work, including his latest theory that AI might be the key to saving the planet. And: former US ambassador Samantha Power on finding ways to make a difference in the face of daunting challengesThis year James Lovelock turned 100. He discusses his extraordinary career with Anushka Asthana, including the invention of a device that detected CFCs, which helped spot the growing hole in the ozone layer, and the Gaia hypothesis, a revolutionary theory that the Earth is a self-regulating super-organism. Initially ridiculed by many scientists as new age nonsense, today that theory forms the basis of almost all climate science.And: the former US ambassador Samantha Power on finding ways to make a difference in the face of daunting challenges. Continue reading...

Climate groups say 10-year ICS plan not urgent enough to cut carbon from ‘dirty’ sectorShipping companies would have to pay a small levy on every tonne of fuel they use under proposals aimed at developing zero-carbon vessels within 10 years, transforming the high-carbon global shipping business.Ships running on hydrogen or ammonia as fuel are thought to be technically possible, but more research and development is needed to bring forward the development of prototypes. Continue reading...

Few can identify our common plants amid a lack of education and more focus on animals and birds on natural history shows

Analysis of birch tar describes a female hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eyesAt the dawn of the Neolithic era, a young woman discarded a lump of ancient chewing gum made from birch tar into a shallow, brackish lagoon that drew fishers to the coast of southern Denmark.Nearly 6,000 years later, researchers excavating the site spotted the gum amid pieces of wood and wild animal bone and from it have reassembled her complete DNA and so painted the broadest strokes of her portrait. Continue reading...