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...

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...