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

Prof Stuart Russell wrote the book on artificial intelligence. Literally. But that was back in 1995, when the next few decades of AI were uncertain, and, according to him, distinctly less threatening. Sitting down with Ian Sample, Russell talks about his latest book, Human Compatible, which warns of a dystopian future in which humans are outsmarted by machines. But how did we get here? And what can we do to make sure these machines benefit humankind? Continue reading...

Consumer testing kits fail to pick up majority of DNA mutations, say researchersConsumer genetic tests could be giving false reassurance to those at heightened risk of cancers, according to findings presented at an international conference this week.The study, by clinical genetic testing company Invitae, revealed that tests for breast and bowel cancer risk by direct-to-consumer companies such as 23andMe give negative results to the vast majority of those carrying DNA mutations in the genes under investigation. Continue reading...

Space exploration vehicle designed to be Britain’s first lunar payload to reach lunar surfaceThe UK is preparing to send its first rover to the moon, courtesy of the private company Spacebit.The space exploration vehicle, which resembles a four-legged robot spider, will walk rather than roll across the lunar surface. Continue reading...

My teens were ruined by wearing terrible glasses. And now bad eyesight has crept up on me againMy Mum has got a blurred photograph of me crying. I’m 13 years old and wearing an England tracksuit of the Ron Greenwood at the 1982 World Cup in Spain vintage. I am crying because I have just been told that I am going to have to wear glasses. The photo was taken by my little brother, because he found my distress amusing and wanted to savour it for ever.It had been a long road to this point. A couple of years earlier we had gone to see the World Table Tennis championships at the brand new National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. I was mesmerised by the sight of the young Chinese chaps slugging it out miles away from the table, stringing out incredibly long rallies. But when I looked at the score being flipped over next to the referee, I realised to my horror I couldn’t read it. I squinted until my eyeballs ached. I looked around to see if anyone else was squinting; they weren’t. With surprising resourcefulness I found that if I looked through a little pinhole I made by putting my thumbs and forefingers together, I could read the numbers quite nicely. “What on earth are you doing?” asked Dad. Continue reading...

Film-makers Joe Egender and Leeor Kaufman talk about their revealing four-part series about major advances in genetics“Today, we are learning the language in which God created life,” said then-president Bill Clinton, alongside the British prime minister, Tony Blair, in 2000. In the grainy archival clip, scientists and dignitaries had just mapped out the human genome, dissecting the complex science of biological being to code sequences of A, C, G and T in a style similar to binary computer code. But almost 20 years later, science has surpassed this once-unimaginable feat with the discovery of technology which can alter that genetic code. This zeitgeist-y innovation is the subject of a new Netflix series, Unnatural Selection, from film-makers Joe Egender and Leeor Kaufman, and explores the various forms of genetic engineering, as well as the societal and environmental implications of its research and use.Related: 'A defining story of our time': the film-maker giving a face to family separation Continue reading...

New video footage reveals the world's fastest ants galloping across the scorching sand of the Sahara at speeds approaching one metre per second, which is the equivalent of a house cat tearing about at 120mph.

Silver ants travel 108 times their body length per second and have stride rate 10 times that of Usain BoltThe sand dunes of the northern Sahara are home to the fastest ants in the world, according to researchers who clocked the insects foraging for food in the blistering midday sun.Video footage reveals the ants galloping across the scorching sand at speeds approaching one metre per second, the equivalent of a house cat tearing about at 120mph. Continue reading...

Christina Koch and Jessica Meir to make history after delay over suit sizes available at stationNasa is planning the first ever all-female spacewalk as early as Thursday, the space agency has announced.The walk, or float, will be conducted from the International Space Station by the astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who have been living in space since March and September respectively. The news was communicated by the Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine, via Twitter. Continue reading...

Mathematician Cheryl Praeger takes top gong and is praised for ‘outstanding contribution to mathematics’A record number of women have received prime minister’s science awards, with mathematician Cheryl Praeger taking out the top gong.On Wednesday evening Praeger, whose expertise in group theory and combinatorial mathematics has underpinned advances in algebra research and computer cryptography, was awarded the prime minister’s prize for science. Continue reading...

Monitoring trip returns from ‘stronghold’ for species without finding a single sawfishNumbers of endangered sawfish in one of their most globally important strongholds are dropping, with conservationists calling for rules that will cut the numbers of animals being caught in commercial fishing nets in north Queensland.In September, a two-week private expedition to monitor and tag sawfish in the Norman River, Queensland, returned without finding a single sawfish. Continue reading...

From gigantic rippling mounds of grass inspired by space to thrilling modern henge-scapes, we celebrate the visions of the great landscape artist

Nasa engineers Kristine Davis and Dustin Gohmert demonstrate new spacesuits designed to fit a more diverse crew, after plans for the first all-female spacewalk had to be scrapped this year because there were not enough medium-size spacesuits. The next-generation suits – the xEMU and the Orion crew survival system – were made for the Artemis programme, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024

The Nasa spacesuit engineers Kristine Davis and Dustin Gohmert demonstrate new spacesuits designed to fit a more diverse crew, after plans for the first all-female spacewalk had to be scrapped this year because there were not enough medium-size spacesuits.The next-generation suits, the xEMU and the Orion crew survival system, were made for the Artemis programme, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024

Next-generation garments for Artemis programme will be used during 2024 lunar missionNasa has unveiled two spacesuits designed to be worn by the first woman to walk on the moon.The next-generation suits were made for the Artemis programme, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024. Continue reading...

Hunger and the climate crisis are inextricably linked - the challenge is how to solve one while not exacerbating the otherHunger is the most awful and profound expression of poverty. It exists in every country. It is something that most people can identify with on some perhaps primordial level. The fear of hunger is etched into our DNA, passed down the generations from hungry, scared ancestors. It is in our bones. It is in my Irish bones.First, the good news. For several decades global hunger has been decreasing. This is mostly thanks to the sweat and ingenuity of the 500 million smallholders who produce 80% of the food consumed in the developing world. It is also thanks to the work of exceptional NGOs, to economic growth and to the innovation of businesses all along the supply chain. It’s thanks, too, to the support of governments and international organisations. And to increased political stability in some places. Continue reading...

Dirk Obbink allegedly sold artefacts to US chain Hobby Lobby without permissionAn Oxford University professor has been accused of selling ancient Bible fragments to a controversial US company that has been involved in several high-profile scandals related to its aggressive purchases of biblical artefacts.Dirk Obbink, one of the world’s most celebrated classics professors, has been named after an investigation by staff associated with Oxford’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri project. Continue reading...

By putting our bodies on the line and risking our liberty, we make this great neglected issue impossible to ignore

Researchers notice whales’ unusual feeding behaviour in south-east AlaskaHumpback whales have been captured on film herding shoals of fish into their cavernous mouths with their oversized pectoral fins.Marine biologists recorded the extraordinary feeding behaviour for the first time off the coast of Alaska, where the whales lurk around salmon hatcheries that release juvenile fish into the sea. Continue reading...

New footage shows humpback whales herding shoals of fish into their mouths using their pectoral fins.

Research confirms increase in endurance as IAAF imposes upper limit on trans female athletesBoosting testosterone levels significantly improves female athletic performance, according to one of the first randomised controlled trials.The findings come as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced on Monday it would impose an upper limit for testosterone levels on trans female athletes competing in middle-distance events. Continue reading...

Satellite launch site would be next to blanket bog that plays vital role in climate fight by storing carbonA new rocket launch site has been proposed in the far north of Scotland to send small satellites into space. The plan is for a £17.3m spaceport on the A’Mhòine peninsula in Sutherland, a site chosen because it is so remote and surrounded by water and open countryside in case a rocket launch goes wrong.But the proposed site is next to protected peatland, part of the Flow Country of northern Scotland, the largest blanket bog in Europe, estimated to store 400 million tonnes of carbon, which is vital in the fight against climate breakdown. A report this year by a team of researchers was critical of the development, saying: “The damage caused by the construction and operation of the spaceport will lead to the further destruction of this Highland ‘wild land’.” Continue reading...

Shocking footage shows conditions ‘clearly breach’ EU standards on animal welfare, say campaignersAn animal testing laboratory in Germany that subjected monkeys to “barbaric” treatment and kept unwell dogs in squalid conditions is under investigation amid calls for its closure.Undercover footage at the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT) near Hamburg published by Cruelty Free International and Soko Tierschutz shows technicians with metal prongs grabbing macaque monkeys by the neck. The monkeys are restrained by braces during testing. The footage also shows primates being handled “violently” by technicians: in one incident a monkey has its head smacked against a door frame. Continue reading...

By analysing books and newspapers going back to 1825, researchers have concluded that we were happier back thenName: The Good Old Days.Age: Old. But good. Continue reading...

Clinical scientist and academic who pioneered groundbreaking cooling techniques for use in organ transplantationIn the early days of organ transplantation one of the thorniest problems facing medical science was how to keep an organ functional in the period between harvesting it from a donor and inserting it into a grateful recipient. David Pegg, who has died aged 86, did much towards solving that conundrum, and so enabled us to take for granted our capacity to stop the clock of life by freezing or cooling an organ before restarting its normal function.One of the pioneers in the field of low temperature biology – building on the work of Audrey Smith, Christopher Polge and Peter Mazur – David made perhaps his greatest contribution through research into the preservation of human kidneys, which he began in 1965. Continue reading...