National ‘green legacy’ initiative aims to reduce environmental degradationAbout 350m trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister.The planting is part of a national “green legacy” initiative to grow 4bn trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you these four Venn diagram teasers:1) For each of the regions marked A to D below, think of a fraction that could belong in it, or say that it is impossible. (Each circle represents the set of fractions described by its rule.) Continue reading...

Distinguished chemist who helped to pioneer nuclear magnetic resonance – a new method of analysisRex Richards, who has died aged 96, was a scientist driven not only by a personal thirst for discovery but by the satisfaction of creating conditions in which others could flourish.He was practical and inventive, but having helped to pioneer the application of a new method of analysis – nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR – to chemistry, biology and medicine, he devoted most of his energies to engineering the kinds of collaboration that would drive the subject forward. Continue reading...

When one partner in a relationship learns they are autistic, it can explain years of frustration and confusion. And, for many, the knowledge makes their bond stronger than everWhen their children were young, Karen and David took them to a noisy restaurant. Their two-year-old daughter was being loud and excitable, as toddlers tend to be, and David suddenly got up and walked out. There were many incidents like that during their first 12 years of marriage, which would often leave David feeling frustrated, and Karen sad, lonely and confused.Then, when their son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – the term now widely used for all autism diagnoses, including Asperger syndrome – it became clear that David had the condition, too. Eventually, he had a formal diagnosis. Their marriage is much happier. “I am now much better equipped to understand why I may find neurotypical relationships so confusing,” says David, “and it has been the foundation of improving my relationship with Karen.” Continue reading...

His linguistic intolerance suggests a personality that values order and obedience above allJacob Rees-Mogg must be in seventh heaven right now. His obsession with anachronistic rules and rituals finally has a professional justification. Boris Johnson has made him leader of the House of Commons, a British institution more steeped in arcane ritual than almost any other. He even has a bonus title, Lord President of the Council, complete, no doubt, with complicated modes of address. I’m sure he’s checked the entry in Debrett’s and will be correcting anyone who gets it wrong. Continue reading...

Where pictures and puzzles intersectUPDATE: Solutions now up hereJohn Venn – the British logician who around 1880 devised the ‘Venn diagram’ – celebrates his 185th birthday this week. Continue reading...

In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, the company that has since made him the richest man in the world. Julia Carrie Wong charts the company’s success and controversies. Plus: Jim Waterson on why young people aren’t watching the news anymoreAmazon started out as a platform that sold books, but it quickly expanded to become the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace, as well as moving into cloud computing, digital streaming and AI. A third of the world’s cloud computing is controlled by Amazon.This expansion has not been without controversy – from working conditions within the Amazon fulfilment centres to recent protests over its involvement with US authorities’ deportation efforts. Julia Carrie Wong, Guardian US technology reporter, talks to India Rakusen about what drove Bezos to start Amazon, how it has managed to expand into so many other areas, and whether we should be concerned by how powerful it has become. Continue reading...

Now is the best time for those of us in the northern hemisphere to see the great star cloud that is our galaxy of 200 billion starsOne of the greatest sights you can see in the summer night sky from the northern hemisphere are the star clouds of the Milky Way rising up into the sky from the deep south. They reach up between the constellations Sagittarius, the archer, and Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. The Milky Way is our galaxy, home to the sun’s 200 billion stellar siblings, with all of them arranged in a big disc that bulges towards the centre. Continue reading...

From drug trials that only use men to misconceptions about CPR, medicine’s gender inequalities can be matters of life or deathA study last week revealed that women in Australia are less likely than men to receive the recommended medicine for heart failure. In the UK, assumptions that heart failure is a “man’s disease” have also led to unequal care. Over the past 10 years, more than 8,000 British women have died as a result of this gender inequality. Continue reading...

When his wife became ill, Barney Norris found that growing his own food helped him through the traumaFor the past year I’ve kept an allotment. Taking it over in a state of disrepair, some years after the death of the previous tenant, I’ve cleared weeds, dug beds, planted apple trees, improvised panels for the greenhouse out of bits of transparent plastic conservatory roof, mowed grass and failed to fix the leak in the potting shed. In between all that, I’ve grown vegetables.I’ve always had an interest in gardening. My mother encouraged me and my brother and sister to keep a flower bed each when we were kids – mine, being in the shade next to where we buried the pets and underneath the tree house, never thrived, while my brother’s was an absolute suntrap and full of delicious-smelling lavender. We all helped with the veg beds in the back garden, watering inadequately and massacring slugs, which I’m not all that proud of, but must confess I enjoyed at the time. Continue reading...

The space archaeologist on her GlobalXplorer project, deterring looters and what ancient Egypt reveals about our futureAmerican space archaeologist Sarah Parcak uses satellites orbiting high above the Earth to find clues about what is concealed beneath our feet. Her work has been the focus of BBC documentaries on Egypt, ancient Rome and the Vikings. In 2016 she won the $1m TED prize to build a website where anyone can help make discoveries using space archaeology. Now the professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has a new book: Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past.What is space archaeology?

Speaking in Melbourne, the journalist who has become synonymous with the conversation on psychedelics explains why it’s complicatedTo some, Michael Pollan is the game changer of the psychedelic conversation; to others, who have concerns, the gatekeeper.The journalist’s sixth book, How to Change Your Mind, topped the New York Times bestseller list and took a broad view of the history, culture and scientific research around psychedelics. Continue reading...

Huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska are producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from spaceThe Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space.The Arctic region has recorded its hottest June ever. Since the start of that month, more than 100 wildfires have burned in the Arctic circle. In Russia, 11 of 49 regions are experiencing wildfires. Continue reading...

Whistleblowers and groups tracking agency decisions say administration is ignoring science and censoring expertiseThe Trump administration is disregarding science and expertise across a wide range of government work, as documented by whistleblowers and groups tracking agency decisions.Trump officials are censoring warnings about the climate crisis, moving critical agencies out of Washington and enacting far-reaching changes in what facts regulators can consider when they choose between industry and the public good. Continue reading...

The Met Office team on a south Atlantic island reveal the extreme lengths they go to in order to forecast the weatherAt 11.15am on a blustery spring morning, Lori Bennett stands on an exposed bluff on the remote south Atlantic island of St Helena, holding a gigantic, wobbling balloon. The wind is roaring, waves are churning up a swell and the sea air is charged with industrial hydrogen pumped from a nearby outhouse and used for blowing up the inflatable.The Met Office station manager, born in Northern Ireland and now living half a world away from his friends and family in Swindon, is a picture of calm in a drab boiler suit, old ski goggles and a flash hood he jokingly calls his “Star Wars outfit”. Moments later, he prepares to let the weather balloon slip from his fingers. Swinging it around, so that it lifts straight up rather than floating across the weather station car park, he is soon watching it jiggle steadily upwards before it disappears into the clouds. Continue reading...

Misconceptions about the technology and lack of consultation with local communities may have boosted conspiracy theoriesWhen Tonia Antoniazzi stood up in the House of Commons to talk about the risks of 5G, she admitted that “initiating a conversation … has had members of my own team and family telling me that it is all made up.” But the Labour MP was undeterred, securing a debate in parliament and the support of a handful of Labour and SNP colleagues to ask about the “unintended consequences” of the latest upgrade to the nation’s mobile phone network.The government’s response – that there was no evidence of any risk, and that it anticipated “no negative effects on public health” – was, Antoniazzi said, “far from reassuring”. Continue reading...

Creator of Gaia theory recalls how it nearly had another name and says the age of AI is nighJames Lovelock has spent a lifetime pondering the forces that shape Earth. It was a pursuit that brought about his most famous creation: a view of the world where life maintains the conditions for life, which he niftily named Gaia theory.The hypothesis, as it was back then, was wholeheartedly embraced by the fledgling green movement of the 1970s. But for Lovelock, who turned 100 on Friday, more pressing threats to the planet come from nature, not humans. In particular, he’s worried about asteroids. Continue reading...

The Science Weekly team are taking a bit of a break so we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite shows from the archive. Including this one from 2017, when Nicola Davis looked at why so many women with autism are misdiagnosed and how this issue resonates with broader ideas of neurodiversity. We also hear from a listener about how this episode affected her life. Continue reading...

Nasa bypasses normal tender process to help meet White House directive of landing humans on moon by 2024

As he celebrates his centennial birthday, the scientist continues to rewrite our futureJames Lovelock, the scientist and writer, is 100 years old on Friday and remains a combination of environmental Cassandra and Old Testament prophet. Unlike them, though, he changes his mind about what the future holds. Foolish consistency, Emerson wrote, is the hobgoblin of little minds, and Dr Lovelock’s mind is not little. More than 10 years before the record high July temperatures, Dr Lovelock flatly told the Guardian that 80% of human life on Earth would perish by 2100 because of the climate emergency. He imagined a dystopian end of humanity where “the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable” by the end of the 21st century.As a scientist (his first letter to Nature was published in 1945, on the subject of writing on petri dishes), Dr Lovelock’s life has been studded with insight. He invented an electron capture detector that could pick up minute traces of pollutants – such as the pesticides that spurred Rachel Carson to write the 1962 book Silent Spring. At home he built instruments that ended up on Mars, helping Nasa to establish that the red planet was lifeless. Continue reading...

Football-sized object landed in paddy in Bihar state after ‘fireball’ came down from skyA suspected meteorite crashed into the middle of a rice field in eastern India, authorities say.The object the size of a football landed with a thud in a paddy field in Madhubani district in Bihar state on Monday, startling farmers and sending up clouds of smoke. Continue reading...

Amid concerns over two-tier health system, new scheme will read volunteers’ DNA for freeGovernment plans to sell DNA sequencing to healthy people on condition that they share their results for medical research have been scrapped amid concerns it would create an inequitable two-tier health system.Matt Hancock, who survived Boris Johnson’s cabinet makeover to keep his job as health secretary, announced the “genomic volunteers” plan in January, which included a paid-for option that would be offered to healthy people in England to boost medical knowledge and uncover new treatments. Continue reading...

I was a climate scientist in a climate-denying administration – and it cost me my jobThe Trump administration’s hostility towards climate science is not new. Interior climate staffer Joel Clement’s reassignment and the blocking of intelligence aide Rod Schoonover’s climate testimony, which forced both federal employees to resign in protest, are just two of the innumerable examples. These attempts to suppress climate science can manifest themselves in many ways. It starts with burying important climate reports and becomes something more insidious like stopping climate scientists from doing their jobs. In February 2019, I lost my job because I was a climate scientist in a climate-denying administration. And yet my story is no longer unique.Related: The world is literally on fire – so why is it business as usual for politicians? | Arwa Mahdawi Continue reading...

Church Preen, Shropshire: The tree in the graveyard has been rejuvenating itself for centuries. But the law needs to do more to protect such living monumentsEvening sunlight reaches through the dark branches of the yew tree, animating sinuous shapes moving through its hulk like conjugal creatures. A bell chimes the quarter hour, but time means nothing here. A sign at the foot of the trunk reads: “This Yew Tree is believed to have been planted [in] approx 457 AD and thought to be the oldest tree in Europe.”The Church Preen yew is one of Shropshire’s most celebrated trees but, although at least 1,500 years old, it is probably not the oldest yew. It stands in the graveyard above a church that was once part of Wenlock’s 12th-century abbey; it has been suggested that the tree was a sacred legacy of local pre-Christian culture Christianised by the siting of a chapel beneath it in Saxon times. Continue reading...

Man whose arm was amputated after accident can hold delicate objects such as grapes and eggsA man who lost his hand 17 years ago has been given the sense of touch through a brain-controlled robotic prosthetic.Keven Walgamott, whose arm was amputated below the elbow after an accident, can now feel 119 different touch sensations through the prosthetic as if it were his own limb. Continue reading...

Extensive historical data shows recent extreme warming is unprecedented in past 2,000 yearsThe scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99%, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts.Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data to show there has never been a period in the last 2,000 years when temperature changes have been as fast and extensive as in recent decades. Continue reading...

High temperatures and high moisture levels make for atmospheric instabilityOver the last few days, we have seen the arrival of hot and humid weather, with some thunderstorms. Various media outlets have associated these conditions with the arrival of what is termed a Spanish plume, which often leads to scorching temperatures and the risk of severe thunderstorms. This week we have had both in many parts of the country.But what exactly is a Spanish plume and how does it affect our weather? The “plume” can build up when we have slack areas of low pressure to the west and high pressure to the east, drawing up a gentle southerly flow. This often originates from the elevated Spanish plateau, hence the name. Continue reading...

Humans should not be allowed to turn the moon and planets into a junkyard, writes Phil Murray, while Ian McNicholas says space exploration is vital for the survival of our speciesYour recent series of articles commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing have been both informative and stimulating. Your sidebar story (Lunar litter: Junk humans left behind, 20 July) does, however, sound a siren warning as to the likely impact of human activity, if and when astronauts resume exploration of the moon and beyond. If 12 astronauts, and their associated support systems, making fleeting visits to the moon 50 years ago, results in nearly 200 tonnes of junk left on the lunar surface, what is the prospect for the environmental stability of other “target destination planets” in our solar system, once national space agencies and commercial exploration companies activate their current development programmes?We have already made a dire mess of our planet, even though regular human space travel/exploration on a significant scale may yet be decades away, it is not too early for international commitment to binding regulations, perhaps promoted under the auspices of the UN, based on the well-established principles of the polluter pays, and when visiting unexplored territory, take only photographs, leave only footprints. Continue reading...

Device tested in humans for first time, raising prospect of ‘fit and forget’ treatment

Diplomats had reported falling ill after what was thought to be ‘acoustic attack’Brain scans of US embassy staff who became ill in mysterious circumstances while serving in Cuba have found potential abnormalities that may be related to their symptoms.The scans taken from 40 US government workers who suffered strange concussion-like symptoms during their deployment to Havana revealed that particular brain features looked different to those in healthy volunteers. Continue reading...

Our extreme weather is making me nostalgic for the damp conditions of my English childhood. But despite the climate emergency, capitalism continues regardlessDo you remember when the weather was a reliable source of innocuous small talk? “Hot today, isn’t it?” you would observe to a colleague as you stood awkwardly in the lift together. They would reply with something about the garden needing rain, then you would go back to ignoring each other. Talking about the weather was uncontroversial. It was safe. It was oddly soothing.Sadly, there is nothing soothing about the weather any more; every day seems to bring new record-breaking temperatures or extreme conditions. June was the hottest month recorded on Earth; July is on course to break that record. The Arctic is having a sweltering summer that has sparked unprecedented wildfires. According to the World Meteorological Organization, these fires emitted as much carbon dioxide in one month as the whole of Sweden does in a year. Continue reading...

Gene that helped prevent clogged arteries was lost 2 to 3 million years agoThe loss of a single gene 2 to 3 million years ago in our ancestry may help explain why humans are the only animals in which heart attacks are common.Atherosclerosis – the clogging of arteries with fatty deposits – can lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events like heart attacks and strokes, which cause about a third of all deaths worldwide. Continue reading...

Study could eventually lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative conditionScientists have found tantalising clues that the devastating condition motor neurone disease may be linked to changes in microbes that live in the gut.Studies in mice revealed that animals bred to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of the disease that affected the cosmologist Stephen Hawking, improved and lived longer when they were given an organism called Akkermansia muciniphila. Continue reading...

Study finds developing chicks communicate with siblings when they hearalarm callsBaby seabirds that have not yet hatched communicate with their siblings in neighbouring eggs by vibrating their shells, scientists have discovered.A study of yellow-legged gulls revealed one of the most sophisticated known examples of embryonic communication. When exposed to the alarm calls of an adult bird responding to a predator, developing chicks apparently were able to convey the presence of danger to their nestmates by wriggling inside their eggs. Continue reading...

Research finds recording of spontaneous laughter is more effective than controlled oneIn research that will ensure the sitcoms of the future are as painful as those broadcast today, scientists have found that canned laughter makes bad jokes seem funnier.The impact of overlaid laughter emerged from a study with autistic and “neurotypical” people, all of whom agreed to endure 40 jokes that were read aloud with recorded laughter following the punchline. Continue reading...

With first mission to land on lunar south pole, India aims to join club comprising Russia, US and ChinaIndia’s mission to the moon has blasted into space one week after a technical glitch forced scientists to abruptly halt its scheduled launch.Thousands gathered to watch Chandrayaan-2 take off at 2.43pm local time (0913 GMT) on Monday from Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai. Continue reading...

Volcanologists say excavations by archaeologists are destroying useful clues about lava flowIt is one of the most ambitious archaeological missions ever undertaken. The Great Pompeii Project promises remarkable discoveries about life in the Roman empire, including the genetic profiles of the town’s inhabitants, their dining preferences, occupations and health.But as layers of volcanic rock are chipped away to uncover the secrets that lie below, not everyone is celebrating. Volcanologists say the excavation risks destroying clues about the AD79 eruption that could be crucial for protecting the 600,000 people who live in the shadow of Vesuvius today. Continue reading...

Find sheds fresh light on wealth and influence of ex-inhabitants of National Trust property

It’s not the most spectacular of meteor showers but the delta Aquariids last for over a week, giving plenty of opportunities for meteor spottingThe summer season of meteor showers begins this week. First up are the delta Aquariids. As the name suggests the meteors radiate from a point in the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer. This is an admittedly modest shower with just 15 to 20 meteors expected an hour at the peak but it is also a forgiving one. Instead of a sharp peak in number, the shower is spread out over a week or more. So taking a look any time between now and the end of the month presents a good chance of seeing something. The chart shows the position of the delta Aquariids’ radiant at 03:00 BST on 26 July 2019. Between the early hours and dawn is usually the best time to see meteors. Look at the sky around the radiant, rather than straight at it. Continue reading...

False results have told women they have mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancerSenior doctors have called for a crackdown on consumer genetic tests, following an influx of patients who have been wrongly told they are carrying dangerous mutations linked to cancer or other devastating conditions.Women have been incorrectly informed by companies that they have faulty BRCA genes, which convey a high risk of breast and ovarian cancers. One patient was scheduled for preventive breast-removal surgery after a consumer genetic test suggested she had a BRCA mutation. The surgery was called off at the last moment when an NHS laboratory revealed the result to be a false positive. Continue reading...

Within a few years, a manned space station will orbit the moon and later a colony could be built on its surfaceWhen Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first careful steps on the moon’s surface 50 years ago this weekend, they transformed humanity’s place in the cosmos. We stopped being distant bystanders who were contemplating the glories of the universe from afar and became participants in its exploitation. The fact that this goal was achieved using equipment that now looks breathtakingly primitive merely makes America’s lunar landings look all the more impressive. Apollo 11’s guidance computer had considerably less power than a smartphone has today, while the Eagle lunar module’s ascent engine, which would blast the astronauts back off the surface at 17.54 GMT on 21 July, 1969, remained a worry because it had never been tested on the moon. Armstrong rated the chances that he and Aldrin would make a successful landing at no more than 50-50. Their triumph was certainly not preordained.The decision, made in the early 1970s, to end the programme that took Armstrong, Aldrin and 10 other US astronauts to the lunar surface disappointed many at the time. However, the Apollo flights were motivated, not by a spirit of scientific inquiry but by the United States’ desire to beat the Russians and win “the Space Race”. Once America had demonstrated its technological superiority, the Apollo programme – which at one time consumed 4% of the US federal budget – had little purpose. Continue reading...

A Sydney team has developed a box jellyfish antidote so simple it can go on as a spray. But it’s only the first stepThe idea came to Dr Greg Neely after the fruit flies. In May, the Sydney-based scientist and his team of 22 announced they had potentially cured the sting of the box jellyfish, the most venomous creature in the world, whose toxins cause excruciating pain as a best-case scenario, and cardiac arrest as the worst.It was a simple but groundbreaking technique, using the latest in genetics technology – Crispr, the gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA. Continue reading...

In 2006 the writer Clare Mackintosh gave birth to twin boys 12 weeks prematurely. At first everything went well, but then one twin picked up a dangerous infection, and mother and father were faced with a terrible decisionAuthors are told to write what they know, but my own story was, for many years, too hard to even contemplate. I was too scared to explore the emotions I kept locked away. I wrote other books instead – became known for twisty thrillers – then last year I sat at my desk with new resolve. It was time.In November 2006 I delivered twin boys 12 weeks prematurely. Josh and Alex were baby birds, with screwed-shut eyes and translucent skin. They drank my milk through a narrow tube, breathed via a mask over their tiny faces, and day by day grew stronger. Continue reading...

The tick-borne illness, which is on the rise, can have chronic side-effects. So why hasn’t more effort been put into a cure?As a former martial arts world champion, who trained daily and enjoyed camping and hiking at weekends, Stephen Bullough had always prided himself on leading a healthy life.Like most people, he thought very little when he was bitten by a tick on a camping holiday close to home in Wigan in 2014, never suspecting that this tiny bite would unleash an infection in his body that would one day leave him permanently incapacitated. Continue reading...

The president couldn’t resist remarking it was the anniversary of planting an American flag on the moon – but it was a human achievementBuzz Aldrin has described the “magnificent desolation” of the moon. On Friday he got more desolation, but it wasn’t so magnificent.Aged 89, the second man on the moon hovered awkwardly at one end of the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. Michael Collins, 88, Apollo 11 command module pilot, stood at the other with his fingers pressed on the desktop. Between them sat Donald Trump, holding court not about the greatest scientific achievement in human history but trying to defend his racist attacks on a black Muslim US congresswoman. Continue reading...

Fifty years since Apollo 11 landed, the novelist shares her favourite books and poems about Earth’s mysterious satelliteThere she is, 239,000 miles from Earth. A lover’s moon, a poet’s moon, a painted moon, made of green cheese, home to the Man in the Moon, visible above the lights of Moscow and Manhattan, Tokyo and London. Hanging as the silent guardian of rivers and woods. Symbol of the mystery of the universe.None of this has changed since Apollo 11 landed on that broken silent surface 50 years ago. The moon is just as familiar and just as remote. The mythical and magical moon, the lunatic moon that drives men mad, Earth’s moon, lifting tides and raising sap. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, Nasa’s moon landing enthralled my generation. But the cosmos holds other secrets that space exploration could unlockMy favourite childhood reading in the 1950s included the Eagle comic, especially the adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future – where the brilliant artwork depicted orbiting cities, jet packs and alien invaders. When spaceflight became real, the suits worn by the Soviet cosmonauts (and their US astronaut counterparts) were already familiar, as were the routines of launching and docking. My generation avidly followed the succession of heroic pioneering exploits such as Yuri Gagarin’s first orbital flight and Alexei Leonov’s first spacewalk.Related: The Apollo 11 moon landing was a distraction from America's problems Continue reading...

What Australia’s fledgling space agency lacks in size it hopes to make up for with a smart operating strategy and a bold visionOn 20 July 1969, when Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the surface of the moon, the footage was relayed to 600 million viewers – about one-fifth of humanity in 1969 – from Nasa’s Honeysuckle Creek tracking station on the outskirts of Canberra.It was a big achievement for a small country with no space program of its own. Now, 50 years on, Australia has a fledgling space agency – a minnow compared with the US’s Nasa, Europe’s ESA and Japan’s JAXA – but what it lacks in size it is hoping to make up for with a smart operating strategy and a bold vision of what it might be able to achieve. Continue reading...

The Apollo 11 mission inspired the world. What has happened in the ensuing half-century?When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon 50 years ago, it was down to a giant leap of political and scientific imagination. His footprints on the powdery lunar surface changed the way we saw ourselves, confirming that humanity could escape its earthly coils. The mission unleashed a dream of what we as a species might do. Yet only a dozen people have walked on the moon, all between the summer of 1969 and the end of 1972.Did we lose our primordial urge to explore? Almost certainly not – though Buzz Aldrin this week decried “50 years of non-progress”, probes have travelled to Pluto and beyond. But times have changed. The cold war rivalry that catalysed the space race vanished. The Soviet Union was first with a satellite, dog and astronaut in space. Today Washington and Moscow play the great game in the Middle East, not the heavens, although both are now contemplating a return to the moon: Donald Trump wants to make America great again by putting astronauts there by 2024, though some think China may get there first; Russia talks of landing cosmonauts by 2030. Continue reading...