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Updated 2026-05-07 16:15
The race to create a perfect lie detector, and the dangers of succeeding – podcast
AI and brain-scanning technology could soon make it possible to reliably detect when people are lying. But do we really want to know? By Amit Katwala• Read the text version here Continue reading...
It’s taken years, but at last there’s real hope for meaningful climate action | Caroline Lucas
The young protesters have been inspiring. Politicians have to respond – and our Green New Deal bill will slash carbon emissionsIt’s been more than 10 years in the making, and is the top demand of the youth strikers gathering on Friday for the UK’s largest ever climate protest – which is why Friday is also the first attempt in Britain to put legislation in place to make a Green New Deal a reality for our country. Working with the Labour MP Clive Lewis, I am launching the full version of a Green New Deal bill (formal title, the decarbonisation and economic strategy bill), which sets out a transformative programme driven by the principles of justice and equity. It aims to move our economy away from its harmful dependence on carbon, at the scale and speed demanded by the science, and to build a society that lives within its ecological limits while reversing social and economic inequality.Related: It's time for nations to unite around an International Green New Deal | Yanis Varoufakis and David Adler Continue reading...
Pre-first world war battleship granted special protection
HMS Montagu awarded heritage status after war veterans surveyed wreck siteThe wreck of a battleship that ran aground more than a century ago has been granted special protection after wounded military veterans carried out the first full archaeological survey of the remains.HMS Montagu, a pre-first world war Duncan-class British battleship was wrecked in 1906 on Lundy island, off the Devon coast, while taking part in secret radio communication trials when a navigator miscalculated its position in heavy fog. Continue reading...
Spacewatch: Japan's Hayabusa 2 targets final asteroid landing
Two target markers deployed around Ryugu ahead of lander’s planned descent next monthJapan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has deployed two target markers around asteroid Ryugu. The deployment took place at 5.17pm BST on 17 September from an altitude of 1km. In the minuscule gravity of the asteroid, the unpowered markers are still falling to its surface. They are expected to land sometime over the weekend or early next week at the latest.The 10cm-wide markers are covered in a highly reflective material that makes them easy to observe from the main spacecraft, which has now risen to a height of 20km (12.4 miles). By tracking their descent, planetary scientists can deduce the precise gravitational field that the asteroid generates, which reveals its internal structure. Hayabusa 2 arrived at Ryugu on 27 June 2018. It has already released three small rovers to the surface and performed two touchdowns to collect surface material. Continue reading...
'We declare our support for Extinction Rebellion': an open letter from Australia's academics
Leading academics from around the country say it is their moral duty to rebel to ‘defend life itself’• Hundreds of Australian academics declare support for climate rebellionWe the undersigned represent diverse academic disciplines, and the views expressed here are those of the signatories and not their universities. While our academic perspectives and expertise may differ, we are united on one point: we can no longer tolerate the failure of the Australian government, or any other government, to take robust and urgent action to address the worsening ecological crisis.The science is clear, the facts are incontrovertible. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, with about 200 species becoming extinct each day. This includes many species of insects, some of which are essential to our food systems. Many people around the world have already died or been displaced from the effects of a rapidly warming climate. July 2019 was the Earth’s hottest on record. Arctic peat is burning and ice is melting at rates far beyond even the most radical scientific predictions. The Amazon is burning at an alarming rate. All are creating devastating feedback loops, releasing more CO2 and reducing the Earth’s heat reflecting capacities. Continue reading...
Superbug hotspots emerging in farms across globe – study
Global outbreak of antibiotic-resistant superbugs linked to overconsumption of meatHotspots of antibiotic-resistant superbugs are springing up in farms around the world, the direct result of our overconsumption of meat, with potentially disastrous consequences for human health, a study has found.Areas in north-east India, north-east China and the Red River delta in Vietnam were identified as hotspots in Asia, with areas as widely separated as Mexico and Johannesburg also affected. But the hotspots are expanding quickly. The study found areas where resistance to antibiotics among farm animals was starting to emerge in Kenya, Morocco, Uruguay, southern Brazil, central India and southern China. Continue reading...
Global climate strike: how you can get involved
Millions will take to the streets in global climate crisis protests from 20 to 27 September
Scientists use fossilised finger bone DNA to rebuild ancient human
Unprecedented feat reveals little-known Denisovans resembled Neanderthals but had ‘super-wide’ skullsOne of the most mysterious relatives in the human family has stepped out of the shadows after scientists used ancient DNA from a fossilised finger to reconstruct their appearance.The unprecedented feat, described as “exciting” and “extraordinary” by one leading researcher who was not involved in the work, shows that the Denisovans looked similar to the Neanderthals, but had wider heads and more protruding jaws. Continue reading...
Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot make short film on climate crisis – video
Environmental activists Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot have helped produce a short film highlighting the need to protect, restore and use nature to tackle the climate crisis.Living ecosystems like forests, mangroves, swamps and seabeds can pull enormous quantities of carbon from the air and store them safely, but natural climate solutions currently receive only 2% of the funding spent on cutting emissions.The film’s director, Tom Mustill of Gripping Films, said: 'We tried to make the film have the tiniest environmental impact possible. We took trains to Sweden to interview Greta, charged our hybrid car at George’s house, used green energy to power the edit and recycled archive footage rather than shooting new.'
Eric Abetz compares The Conversation to Nazis over stance on climate change denial
Tasmanian senator says Hitler would be ‘so proud’ after academic website announces it will not tolerate climate change denialThe Liberal senator Eric Abetz has compared the Conversation website to Hitler, Stalin and Mao, after it announced a zero-tolerance approach to climate change deniers.The academic news and analysis website has said it will remove comments and lock accounts that put forward those views, outraging the Tasmanian senator. Continue reading...
Scientists set out how to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
Strong civil society movements are needed to ramp up pace of change, says studyGreenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change.Solar and wind power, now cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions, must be scaled up rapidly to replace coal-fired generation, and this alone could halve emissions from electricity generation by 2030, according to the Exponential Roadmap report from an international group of experts. Continue reading...
Climate crisis seen as 'most important issue' by public, poll shows
Eight-country poll shows people view climate crisis as priority over migration and terrorismA majority of the public recognise the climate crisis as an “emergency” and say politicians are failing to tackle the problem, backing the interests of big oil over the wellbeing of ordinary people, according to an eight-country poll.The survey, which comes before what is expected to be the world’s biggest climate demonstrations on Friday, found that climate breakdown is viewed as the most important issue facing the world, ahead of migration, terrorism and the global economy, in seven out of the eight countries surveyed. In the US it comes third behind terrorism and affordable healthcare. Continue reading...
Dust cloud sparked explosion in primitive life on Earth, say scientists
Smashing of monster asteroid half a billion years ago thought to have caused mini ice ageAn enormous dust cloud that swept through the ancient solar system sent Earth into a mini ice age that sparked an explosion in primitive life on the planet, scientists say.The space dust was created when a monster asteroid was smashed to pieces in a violent collision somewhere between Mars and Jupiter nearly half a billion years ago. Continue reading...
Caesarean babies have different gut bacteria, microbiome study finds
C-section babies pick up more hospital bacteria than those born vaginally, research showsBabies born by caesarean section have different gut bacteria to those delivered vaginally, the most comprehensive study to date on the baby microbiome has found.The study showed that babies born vaginally pick up most of their initial dose of bacteria from their mother, while C-section babies have more bugs linked to hospital environments, including strains that demonstrate antimicrobial resistance. The findings could explain the higher prevalence of asthma, allergies and other immune conditions in babies born by caesarean. Continue reading...
Experts warn world ‘grossly unprepared’ for future pandemics
Dire risk is compounded by climate crisis, urbanisation and lack of sanitation, says global monitoring boardIt sounds like an improbable fiction: a virulent flu pandemic, source unknown, spreads across the world in 36 hours, killing up to 80 million people, sparking panic, destabilising national security and slicing chunks off the world’s economy.But a group of prominent international experts has issued a stark warning: such a scenario is entirely plausible and efforts by governments to prepare for it are “grossly insufficient”. Continue reading...
Shock tactics: can electric dog collars ever be ethical?
Last year, the government announced plans to ban remote-control collars – but even a dog-owning minister is using one. So what is the truth about these training aids?Is it cruel to give your pet electric shocks? Just little ones? The work and pensions secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has come under fire for using one on her beagle-pug cross, Lola, which reportedly kept trying to attack other dogs. She spoke to Steve Andrews, a Suffolk dog trainer, who recommended an electric collar to help control Lola’s behaviour. This seemed to work, and Andrews has since asked Coffey to help to overturn the government’s plans for a ban on remote-control collars. Awkwardly, the plans were announced by Michael Gove last year, when Coffey was a minister in his department.“Thérèse’s dog responds on setting 11 [out of 100],” Andrews told the Eastern Daily Press. “She felt what that was like and could feel nothing … This is not cruel. Thérèse and her family are dog lovers doing the best for their pet.” Continue reading...
Plantwatch: England's carnivorous sundew makes a comeback
Sticky-tentacled species returns to boglands but introducing meat-eating varieties is not without riskThe great sundew (Drosera anglica) is a carnivorous plant with leaves covered in red tentacles that ooze sticky slime to kill and digest insects, giving the plant extra nutrition in the boglands where it grows.It was once common in England but was almost wiped out as wetlands and peat bogs were drained or dug up, but a project is reintroducing the plant in restored bogland in north-west England, using cuttings from native plants. Continue reading...
Perhaps we need to explain climate change to politicians as we would to very small children | Emma White
Here, let me try. The sun is very, very hotWhen I was an undergrad learning geology, the maxim that was thumped into me wasn’t how to build a mine or drill for oil and gas, it was simply: “The present is the key to the past.” The thing that took a while to accept was that the past was really, really, long.It’s hard to comprehend the scale of geologic time: the timespan for continents to crash together and rip apart, for tiny sea creatures to live, die and condense into kilometres of limestone, or streams to carve epic canyons carrying mountains to the sea. We use comparisons our minds can grasp, such as if all cosmological time was the length of string or compressed into a single year (humans beings appear in the final six hours). Continue reading...
Air pollution particles found on foetal side of placentas – study
Research finds black carbon breathed by mothers can cross into unborn childrenAir pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It found thousands of the tiny particles per cubic millimetre of tissue in every placenta analysed. Continue reading...
Why you should avoid making decisions when you’re hungry
A new study suggests that people seek instant gratification when they have an empty stomach – which means they are more likely to settle for lessName: Empty stomach stupidity syndrome.Age: As old as the first missed breakfast. Continue reading...
UN hosts drive to suck back carbon and reverse climate change
New York forum aims to ‘restore’ the climate by reducing atmospheric levels of carbon to those of a century agoA new effort to rally governments and corporations behind technologies that suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to help stave off disastrous global heating will be launched at the United Nations on Tuesday.The first annual Global Climate Restoration Forum, held in New York, aims to spur international support for emerging and sometimes controversial methods to claw back planet-warming gases after they have been emitted from power plants, cars, trucks and aircraft. Continue reading...
Blast sparks fire at Russian laboratory housing smallpox virus
Facility know as Vector is one of only two sites holding virus, and also houses Ebola samplesA gas explosion has sparked a fire at a Russian laboratory complex stockpiling viruses ranging from smallpox to Ebola, authorities have said.The State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology denied that the fire had exposed the public to the pathogens stored inside, some of the deadliest on Earth. Continue reading...
Economists calculate monetary value of 'thoughts and prayers'
US study finds Christians are willing to pay for prayers – but atheists will pay to avoid themAll things have a price – and if not, economists will find one. Researchers have calculated the going rate for thoughts and prayers offered in hard times.Rather than settling on one price for all, the study found the value of a compassionate gesture depended overwhelmingly on a person’s beliefs. While Christian participants were willing to part with money to receive thoughts and prayers from others, the idea made nonbelievers baulk. Instead of shelling out to receive the gestures, on average they were willing to pay to avoid them. Continue reading...
Starwatch: equinox marks the changing of the seasons
Night and day will be of equal length at the end of this week as the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to southThe September equinox takes place this week. Occurring on 23 September, it marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn for the northern hemisphere and is called the autumnal equinox at northern latitudes. In the southern hemisphere, the situation is reversed and the moment marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The equinox is defined as the place in the sky where the sun’s path, called the ecliptic, crosses the celestial equator, which is the projection of Earth’s equator up into the sky. This crossing occurs in Virgo and the sun will cross this point at 0850 BST on 23 September, as shown in the chart. At this moment, the sun will be moving from the northern sky into the southern sky. On this day around the world, everywhere will experience an almost even split of 12 hours day and 12 hours night. After this, the days shorten at northern latitudes and lengthen in the southern hemisphere. The next equinox will take place at 0350 GMT on 20 March 2020. Continue reading...
Fragrance sensitivity: why perfumed products can cause profound health problems
An intolerance to manufactured scents can lead to migraines, respiratory issues and long-term sick leave. So should they be banned in public spaces?If you flew abroad this summer, you probably passed through an airport’s duty-free perfume section. Perhaps you paused to spritz yourself with an expensive scent you had no intention of buying, before making the obligatory trip to WH Smith for overpriced crisps and bottles of water.For most people, the wafting odours of perfume counters are not a problem. But, for some, the trip through duty free is a choking, cloying experience. Continue reading...
Dishing out more drugs won’t stop the pain. Doctors need new tools | Ann Robinson
As a GP, I know opioids have their place. But we shouldn’t be complacent about a US-style crisis happening in BritainGrowing concern about the prescription of drugs that cause dependence has been backed up by a recent report from Public Health England (PHE). The agency discovered that in 2017-18, 13% of adults in England received at least one prescription for opioids such as morphine or oxycodone (although this represented a slight downturn in prescribing after a long upward trend). Other drug classes were implicated too, with 25% of adults prescribed one or more of the following drugs: benzodiazepines (such as Valium), z-drugs (sleeping pills such as Zopiclone), gabapentinoids (gabapentin or pregabalin, prescribed for neuropathic pain) or antidepressants.The fear is that the UK is following in the footsteps of the US, where overprescribing is said to have led to a full-blown “opioid crisis”. But where does this leave those who live with severe or chronic pain and are dependent on opioids to function day-to-day? GPs, like me, and pain specialists need lots of time and a toolbox of interventions to properly treat those who suffer. But in the current cash- and time-poor environment, is it any wonder that they dole out prescriptions instead? Continue reading...
'Americans are waking up': two thirds say climate crisis must be addressed
Major CBS News poll released as part of Covering Climate Now, a collaboration of more than 250 news outlets around the world to strengthen coverage of the climate story
Facing life with dementia and discovering a positive path
I thought dementia was all about losing myself, but I have found sides to me I never knew I hadIt was at work where I noticed my first symptoms. I was a non-clinical team leader training matrons and sisters in the art of electronic rostering. My girls called me a workaholic. My brilliant memory, the thing I relied on most, started letting me down badly. Simple words failed me in meetings, the names of colleagues I’d worked with for years were suddenly a mystery. I used to take long runs by the river to unwind, but my brain stopped communicating with my legs and I started having falls. I knew somehow that things were not right, but when I finally went to the doctors it took a long time to get the diagnosis. Initially my symptoms were dismissed as age or stress related (I was 58), but I was persistent and knew how the system worked. When I finally received the diagnosis, in 2014, it was devastating but it was also, bizarrely, a relief. It finally put an end to all the uncertainties which meant I could now start planning my life with this new, unexpected label attached.I was determined to choose a positive path. The very nature of my diagnosis signalled the loss of the old me – my memories, my tastes, my abilities, my plans I took for granted – but, more importantly, it signalled the birth of the new me, a new chance. Many find it hard to believe, but I feel I’ve gained more than I’ve lost. Continue reading...
Why art and science suffer in silos
A major new Radio 4 series breaks down the barriers between art and science, while a revival of Joe Egg is a timely epitaph for Peter NicholsArts people, and I very much include myself, get bewildered by science. I try to listen to Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, but am often lost, while even Melvyn Bragg not long ago admitted to me that he at times struggles with science topics on his stellar In Our Time.To help remedy this, on 23 September Radio 4 kicks off a 20-part series, The Art of Innovation, exploring and, it’s hoped, breaking down barriers between the arts and science, with an accompanying exhibition at London’s Science Museum and a book. Continue reading...
Ancient Australia was home to 'strange' marsupial giants, scientists find
Researchers are building a picture of palorchestids, which had tapir-like skulls and large scimitar-like clawsThe “strange” anatomy of a family of giant marsupials that roamed eastern Australia and Tasmania for much of the past 25m years has been revealed in a new study.Scientists had already figured out that palorchestids had tapir-like skulls and large “scimitar-like claws”, but little was known about the limbs of one of the “strangest marsupial lineages to have existed”, according to the paper published by a group of Australian researchers. Continue reading...
Weatherwatch: the Prussian polymath who founded modern meteorology
Alexander von Humboldt “was one of the last people to hold essentially all scientific knowledge in one head”Happy Birthday, Alexander von Humboldt. Tomorrow marks 250 years since the birth of the Prussian polymath, whose travels and observations laid the foundation for modern meteorological measuring.Related: Alexander von Humboldt on the loss of his meteorological instruments Continue reading...
Toni Slabas obituary
My friend Toni Slabas, who has died aged 70, was an internationally renowned plant biochemist. He came from humble beginnings and quietly made a positive impact on the lives of many others.At Durham University, where he was professor of plant sciences from 1990 to 2013, Toni established a world-leading group in plant biochemistry with a particular interest in seed oil production and cell wall biochemistry. He set up a spin-out company, Creative Gene Technology, developing new technologies to improve crop yields, and sat on various UK government advisory committees, as well as acting as scientific adviser to plant biotechnology companies globally. He was also a committed teacher of undergraduate and postgraduate students, many now eminent scientists in their own right. Continue reading...
Diet of worms has to be right for compost success | Letters
Readers respond to Adrian Chiles’s report of his struggle to create compost from his organic waste using a wormeryAlong with, no doubt, many other vermophiles, I’d like to reassure Adrian Chiles that wormeries do work and that his worms will handsomely reward his efforts if he persists (The worm has turned – but where’s my compost?, G2, 12 September). Having decided that a wormery would be a good way of recycling vegetable matter in my small back yard, I too had a catastrophic false start, involving some drowned worms and the wrong sort of smelly decomposition, but with the help of a new batch of worms, I discovered the importance of incorporating dry material into the worms’ diet.Torn-up egg boxes are particularly good, and I don’t need a shredder to dispose of details from bank statements when my worms are hungry. For years now, my wriggly little friends have been providing me with small amounts of compost and, more usefully, enough of a miraculously effective liquid plant feed to provide a copious supply to me and all my gardening friends. What’s more, whatever I feed to my worms isn’t going to landfill. Hang in there, Adrian. Be good to your worms, and they’ll be good to you.
Against compulsory MMR vaccination and for looking after new mothers | Letters
Prof Arne Akbar, president of the British Society for Immunology, says compulsory vaccination is a blunt tool which could increase health inequities and alienate parents. Plus Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard and others call for a funded postnatal medical appointment at six to eight weeks specifically to assess new mothers’ physical and mental healthThe recent drop in childhood vaccination uptake is a cause of concern for all of us, as your article rightly points out (No MMR should mean no school place, say GPs, 9 September), with only 87.2% of children in England receiving two doses of the MMR vaccine by age five. However, the factors that have led to this are complex and multifactorial. In such a situation, which has the potential to significantly affect our nation’s health, our policy decisions must be guided by evidence.Compulsory vaccination is a blunt tool and there is no current evidence that it would increase the UK’s immunisation rate, but rather concerns that it could increase current health inequities and alienate parents with questions on vaccination. However, there are lots of other actions that the government can take to positively influence vaccine uptake, many of which were outlined in the No 10’s recent announcement, such as strengthening the role of local immunisation coordinators, promoting catch-up vaccinations and improving information provision on vaccination. Continue reading...
Black hole at centre of galaxy is getting hungrier, say scientists
Scientists say Milky Way’s Sagittarius A* has been more active in recent monthsUnseeable and inescapable, black holes already rank among the more sinister phenomena out in the cosmos. So it may come as disconcerting news that the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way appears to be growing hungrier.Astronomers monitoring the colossal object, called Sagittarius A*, found that in the past year it appears to have consumed nearby matter at an unprecedented rate. Continue reading...
How to find life beyond Earth - Science Weekly podcast
As scientists at University College London announce the discovery of water in the atmosphere of a potentially habitable ‘super Earth’, Ian Sample explores our prospects for finding life beyond our own planet Continue reading...
Women 'better than men at disguising autism symptoms'
GPs would miss fewer diagnoses if ‘camouflaging’ was better understood, say researchersWomen may not be diagnosed with autism as frequently as men because they are better at hiding the common signs of the condition, according to new research.Some autistic people use strategies to hide traits associated with the condition during social interactions, a phenomenon called social camouflaging. Scientists involved in the study say raising awareness of camouflaging among doctors could help reduce the number of missed autism diagnoses. Continue reading...
Professor Brian Cox review –science and hair combine in arena spectacular
First Direct Arena, Leeds
UK cancer survival rates are too low – our priorities are all wrong | Mark Dayan
Short-termism has hampered investment in equipment and staffing that could help the NHS keep people alive
Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 – winning images
László Francsics has been named the overall winner in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 competition, for his composition showing the 35 phases of January’s total lunar eclipse. Other winners include a panorama of the aurora borealis over the Lofoten Islands in Norway by Nicolai Brügger, an atmospheric image of the photographer Ben Bush with his dog Floyd surrounded by the galactic core of the Milky Way, and a sequence of images of Mars that follows the progress of the great global dust storm by Andy Casely
Science on safety of chlorinated chicken 'misunderstood'
Government’s assurances that there are no health problems are misleading, say food policy expertsThe government has misunderstood the science on the safety of chlorinated chicken, a group of senior food policy experts has said.It has also failed to give watertight commitments that it would not be sold here after a no-deal Brexit, they warn. Continue reading...
Giggles and 'joy jumps': rats love games of hide and squeak, scientists find
Rodents enjoyed being found by humans and would hide again to keep the game goingThe next time you see a rat darting for cover, consider this: it might just want to have a playful game of hide-and-seek.A group of neuroscientists in Germany spent several weeks hanging out with rodents in a small room filled with boxes, and found the animals were surprisingly adept at the childhood game – even without being given food as a reward. Continue reading...
Study of French postmen's testicles is an Ig Nobel winner
Nappy-changing machine and saliva calculation also triumph in annual science prizeThere comes a time in a scientist’s life when the surest route to global fame involves a bevy of naked French postmen with thermometers taped to their testicles.At least that is the case for Roger Mieusset, a fertility specialist at the University of Toulouse, whose unlikely studies have earned him one of the most coveted awards in academia: an Ig Nobel prize. Continue reading...
Lucy in the Sky review – Natalie Portman orbits a nervous breakdown
Noah Hawley’s intriguing film, based on a true story, is about the effects on those who go to space of coming back to Earth’s quotidian realityAstronaut movies about the “classic” era, such as Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 or Damien Chazelle’s First Man, have men in buzzcuts doing the heroism up above while the womenfolk are relegated to gathering anxiously around TV sets back on Earth. More contemporary stories, such as Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, give women a more active role – and in its ironic and offbeat way, this new movie is another such. It comes from Noah Hawley, the much-admired showrunner of the TV shows Fargo and Legion, now making his feature directing debut. He has worked with screenwriters Brian C Brown and Elliott Di Giuseppi on this fictional version of one of the strangest tales in Nasa history: a tale of sexual tension in space, and what happens when spacemen and spacewomen have to come to terms with the existential boringness of life back on Earth.It is a witty, intriguing film in many ways, seductively shot by British cinematographer Polly Morgan. I suspect Hawley has taken some inspiration from Sam Mendes’s American Beauty, with its eerie suburban moodscape. But I also feel the film is unsure of how much to disturb its audience, unsure whether to pursue the chaos and embarrassment of a bungled, noir-ish crime and an unsightly psychological disorder, or to contrive something more emollient: to finesse some sympathy and even heroism for the story’s troubled female lead. Continue reading...
K2-18b: every habitable planet surely has life | Letter
As a new world with life-sustaining qualities is discovered, Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe discusses the likelihood that life has taken rootYour report that water vapour, perhaps even rain, has been detected in a planet in the so-called Goldilocks zone of a distant star is of no surprise because water is a common stable molecule that is found throughout the universe (Discovery of water raises hopes of life on faraway super-Earth, 12 September).Whether this planet harbours life or not depends on how hugely improbable the startup of life really is, not just on Earth but anywhere in the cosmos. Continue reading...
'Lovers of Modena' skeletons holding hands were both men
Researchers believe pair might have been siblings, cousins or soldiers who died togetherThe “Lovers of Modena”, a pair of skeletons so called because they were buried hand-in-hand, were both men, researchers have found.The bones, from between the 4th and 6th century AD, were found in a cemetery in 2009 near Modena in northern Italy. Continue reading...
Antibiotic use before cancer treatment cuts survival time – study
Patients live longer if they do not take antibiotics in month before immunotherapyTaking antibiotics in the month before starting immunotherapy dramatically reduces a cancer patient’s chances of survival, according to a small but groundbreaking study.Scientists at Imperial College London believe antibiotics strip out helpful bacteria from the gut, which weakens the immune system. This appears to make it less likely that immunotherapy drugs will boost the body’s cancer-fighting capability. Continue reading...
Conrad Gorinsky obituary
Ethnobiologist who became an authority on the medical use of tropical plants but was accused of trying to exploit Amazon tribesAs a long-standing supporter of the rights of indigenous peoples, Conrad Gorinsky, who has died aged 83, was the inspiration behind the creation of the campaigning human rights organisation Survival International and, unwittingly, one of the catalysts for the introduction of the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity, which attempted to protect the interests of those with traditional knowledge of the properties of plants.Born of part-Amerindian ancestry, on the northern edge of the Amazonian rainforest in Guyana, South America, Gorinsky used the medical training he received in Britain to isolate the active constituent both of the nut of the greenheart tree, which he called rupununine, and of the barbasco bush, which he christened cuaniol. Hoping that both chemicals would be of use in developing new medicines, he filed for patents and began to make contact with drug companies. Continue reading...
Babies who use eye contact more likely to build up vocabulary
Researchers looked at 12-month-olds’ vocalisations, gestures and gazes, and at how caregivers respondedBabies who frequently communicate with their caregivers using eye contact and vocalisations at the age of one are more likely to develop greater language skills by the time they reach two, according to new research.Scientists say the findings should encourage parents to pay close attention to babies’ attempts to communicate before they can use words, and to respond to them. In the study, researchers looked at 11- and 12-month-old babies’ vocalisations, gestures and gaze behaviours, and at how their caregivers responded to them. “These have never been looked at together in the same analysis before,” said Dr Ed Donnellan, from the University of Sheffield, the lead author on the study. Continue reading...
UK still behind in cancer survival despite recent surge
Big improvement in past two decades fails to close gap with likes of Australia and Canada
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