But humans would not fare well on planet K2-18b despite wispy clouds and huge red sunA faraway planet in the constellation of Leo has been named the most habitable known world beyond the solar system after astronomers detected water vapour in its atmosphere.It is the first time a planet in its star’s “Goldilocks zone” – where the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist – has been found to bear the life-sustaining substance in the blanket of gases that surround it. Continue reading...

Are these lessons on ‘the stranger problem’ and how to engage with other people anything more than statements of the obvious?Believe it or not, people aren’t totally transparent to one another. Liars can seem honest, spies can seem loyal, nervous people can seem guilty. People’s facial expressions are not a reliable guide to what they are thinking. Or, to put it in Hamlet’s words, one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Makes you think, doesn’t it?If any of this is surprising to you, then you are in exalted company, because it also surprises Malcolm Gladwell, whose job it is to be puzzled by banalities and then replace them, after a great pseudo-intellectual circumambulation, with banalities. Gladwell affects to find it baffling how we can get people we don’t know so wrong. So he calls it “the stranger problem”, and pretends that it explains everything. Continue reading...

Hormone is critical treatment for those experiencing reduced libido in midlife, say expertsThe lack of availability of testosterone for postmenopausal women in the UK is morally wrong, an expert has said.The criticism comes after a taskforce brought together by the International Menopause Society (IMS) found testosterone could help women with hypoactive sexual desire dysfunction (HSDD), asignificantly reduced interest in sex after menopause. Continue reading...

Inspirational quotes of dubious provenance are just one of the ways in which social media sells a warped vision of ‘living fully’You’ve seen them before, because they are all over Instagram: the captions urging you to embrace your expansion, whatever that means, slow down to savor the moment, and hustle like you’re Beyoncé – all at once.“Start visualizing what you want, then say no to anything that isn’t it,” reads one. Another: “Buy the plane ticket, quit the job, plan the trip, wander into the unknown, open your heart, take the leap.” Continue reading...

Scientists find first evidence of an animal using stomach sounds to communicateAngry crabs harbour a secret weapon to deter their enemies and ward off predators when their claws are busy in combat, scientists say.Ghost crabs, named for their sand-pale bodies and nocturnal antics, use teeth in their stomachs to “growl” at aggressors, leaving their claws free for attacking manoeuvres and general waving about. Continue reading...

Scientists in UK identify growing trend that threatens to leave patients untreatableBacteria are increasingly developing ways of resisting antibiotics, threatening a future in which patients could become untreatable, doctors have warned.Over the last decade scientists in the UK studying samples from patients have identified 19 new mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Continue reading...

Vote-weary public decide against planetary poll should ETs contact EarthIn the event that aliens ever contact Earth, the British public is clear on one thing: do not hold a referendum to decide what to do next.The option to hold a planetary vote on how to respond to inquiring extraterrestrials ranked bottom in a poll of 2,000 Britons asked how humanity’s reaction should be determined. Continue reading...

Scientists find 257 prints that were preserved in wind-driven sand 80,000 years agoScientists have found hundreds of perfectly preserved footprints, providing evidence that Neanderthals walked the Normandy coast in France.The prints suggest a group of 10-13 individuals, mostly children and adolescents, were on the shoreline 80,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Scientists think devices could allow people to communicate telepathically or the paralysed to walk in the next decadesSociety must prepare for a technological revolution in which brain implants allow people to communicate by telepathy, download new skills, and brag about their holidays in “neural postcards”, leading scientists say.While such far-fetched applications remain fiction for now, research into brain implants and other neural devices is advancing so fast that the Royal Society has called for a “national investigation” into the technology. Continue reading...

The solution to today’s puzzleEarlier today I set you the following question:Let’s say that 1 in 10,000 people who present themselves at UK passport control have invalid passports, and let’s say that UK passport control is very good at detecting invalid passports. When presented with an invalid passport, an officer will pick this up 99 times out of 100. Travellers found with invalid documents are sent to a holding cell. Let’s also imagine that UK passport control will, out of caution, very occasionally send someone to the holding cell whose passport is perfectly valid. These “false positives” occur just 0.1 per cent of the time. Continue reading...

Forget trying to saw Debbie McGee in half – some conjurers are using their skills to help surgeons, refugee children and even imagine a better futureWhat image does the word “magic” conjure up? Paul Daniels sawing Debbie McGee in half, or Harry Potter chanting “Expecto patronum”? Or perhaps just a sweaty little man (they are almost always men) trying gamely to placate a party of sugar-high six-year-olds with balloons while their parents slip out the back?With its razzmatazz, secrecy and ritualised trickery, being a magician is not a calling most associate with a social conscience. But there is an intellectual dimension to magic that was already old the first time someone thought of putting an egg into a bag and then making it disappear (believed to be in the 16th century). Good magicians have always understood and exploited the psychological blind spots of their audience. In 1876, a magician known as Professor Hoffmann collected a series of articles he had written for a popular boys’ magazine into a book, Modern Magic, which explained how classic tricks were performed. “He believed young people should learn to perform magic because it would be useful in their professional lives and in the furtherance of the British empire,” one present-day acolyte, Will Houstoun, tells me. “Magic teaches you to stand in front of a room and talk, problem-solve, deceive and spot deception.” Continue reading...

Infected pigs found in two towns near capital Manila, as country becomes latest to be hit by diseaseThe Philippines has reported its first cases of African swine fever, becoming the latest country hit by the disease that has killed pigs from Slovakia to China, pushing up pork prices worldwide.The virus is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in pigs that almost always ends in death. There is no antidote or vaccine and the only known method to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of affected livestock. Continue reading...

Show me your documents pleaseUPDATE: The solution is now up hereToday’s puzzle concerns passport control, the delegation of uniformed and often surly officers at ports and airports whose job it is to check your travel document is valid.Let’s say that 1 in 10,000 people who present themselves at UK passport control have invalid passports, and let’s say that UK passport control is pretty good at detecting invalid passports. When presented with an invalid passport, an officer will pick this up 99 times out of 100. Travellers found with invalid documents are sent to a holding cell. Let’s also imagine that UK passport control will, out of caution, very occasionally send someone to the holding cell whose passport is perfectly valid. These “false positives” occur just 0.1 per cent of the time. Continue reading...

I vowed to never tell anyone about my condition but I felt like a fraud. Then I realised that my story can help othersI can distinctly recall the overwhelming sense of shame that I felt, as I stared back at my 15-year-old self’s imperfect reflection in the dance school mirror. All I wanted was to be a musical theatre star. There I was, diligently standing in first position ready to jump, turn and kick my way into a career on the stage. Dance shoes, tights, maroon-coloured leotard and hair slickly tied back. However, all I could see in that mirror was my one breast. Just one. The right one. The left? Nothing. A hollow cave.Related: We’re deluged with images of ‘beauty’. No wonder so many of us feel so bad | Dawn Foster Continue reading...

Efforts are underway to establish contact, days after communications were lost during failed landingThe lander module from India’s moon mission has been located on the lunar surface, the day after it lost contact with the space station, and efforts are underway to try to establish contact with it, the head of the nation’s space agency said.The cameras from the moon mission’s orbiter had located the lander, said K. Sivan, the chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) according to the Press Trust of India news agency. He added: “It must have been a hard landing.” Continue reading...

Chris Kraft obituary | Bristol view | Codeword puzzle | Agincourt | StarbucksIn your obituary of Chris Kraft, former director of Nasa’s flight operations and the Johnson Space Center (Journal, 3 September 2019), you state he oversaw the missions to the first space station, Skylab. The title of “first space station” properly goes to Salyut 1, launched by the Soviet Union in 1971. Skylab was the first space station to be launched and operated by the US. Of course, none of this detracts from Kraft’s other great achievements.

‘Secret sustainability’ is on the rise, with companies loath to talk about their ecological credentials. Why?There’s a factory in Asia that uses only a single litre of water to make a pair of jeans. That’s 346 litres less than Levi-Strauss estimated it took to make a pair of its jeans in 2015. Wouldn’t you love to buy your jeans from this amazingly innovative factory? Me too, but I don’t even know what it’s called.The manufacturer in question does not want to tell anyone about its groundbreaking water-conserving techniques – not even the companies it supplies. It is one of many practising “secret sustainability”, whereby innovations are silently enacted and kept from the rest of the industry. Continue reading...

I discovered deeds of great bravery – as well as things to be ashamed of. But learning about my ancestors’ remarkable achievements has given my own life more meaningWhen I started researching my mother’s family, I had no idea what I would find, or how the process would affect me. Would I meet interesting relatives? Would I discover unpleasant secrets? Above all, would answering the question “Who do you think you are?” be a positive experience? Growing up, I was told a lot about my father’s side, the Alexanders, who in the 1930s escaped Nazi Germany and came to England. Their stories have always stayed with me and inspired me to write two books: Hanns and Rudolf about my uncle Hanns who tracked down and captured the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and The House by the Lake about my great-grandfather’s weekend house outside Berlin, which bore witness to the 20th century.History, and my personal connection to it, has always been important to me. I am strangely motivated to explore what happened before my time. When I hold artefacts from the past – whether it’s a crinkled birth certificate, a chipped but much-used cup or some well-thumbed love letter – I’m deeply moved. And so I return to my family’s stories, time and again. Continue reading...

With increasing evidence of its impact on mental health, scientists are pushing forward with breakthroughs on baldingHas there ever been more pressure to have a full and luscious head of hair? Whether it’s dating app snaps, Instagram selfies, or even that corporate headshot on LinkedIn, maintaining a youthful appearance has become a critical feature of modern life.Writing in his autobiography, the tennis player Andre Agassi described his hair loss as a young man as like losing “little pieces of my identity”. With such anxieties magnified by the digital world, it’s little wonder that the impact of male and female pattern baldness has been increasingly linked to various mental health conditions. Continue reading...

UK researchers fear being blocked from EU-wide testing of treatments for diseases including rare childhood cancersLeading medical researchers have warned that their efforts to find new cancer treatments are likely to suffer major setbacks if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.In particular they fear that researchers based in the UK would face legal restrictions on working with other EU member states on clinical trials carried out across several countries. Continue reading...

Prime minister Narendra Modi consoles scientists distraught as complex mission goes awryIndia’s attempt to land an unmanned craft on the moon’s uncharted south polar region appears to have gone awry, when communication with the landing vehicle was lost moments before touchdown.“Communications from lander to ground station was lost,” said Kailasavadivoo Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation early on Saturday. Data was still being analysed, he told a room full of distraught scientists at the agency’s tracking centre in Bengaluru. Continue reading...

Salts used on Temple scroll are not common to Dead Sea region, researchers findThe Dead Sea scrolls have given up fresh secrets, with researchers saying they have identified a previously unknown technique used to prepare one of the most remarkable scrolls of the collection.Scientists say the study poses a puzzle, as the salts used on the writing layer of the Temple scroll are not common to the Dead Sea region. Continue reading...

Glacier at Kebnekaise’s summit has shrunk amid soaring Arctic temperatures, say scientistsRelated: Climate emergency to blame for heather crisis – National TrustThe mountain peak known to Swedes as their country’s highest can no longer lay claim to the title due to global heating, scientists have confirmed, as the glacier at its summit shrinks amid soaring Arctic temperatures. Continue reading...

EU-backed research projects were slashed after the country voted to curb immigration in 2014. The UK should take noteSwitzerland has been touted as a model for the UK, post-Brexit. It is an independent state that determines its own laws, controls its own borders, and through its status as an associated country has access to many key elements of EU membership – including the institution’s leading science and research programmes.Related: Brexit 'may bar UK scientists from €100bn EU research fund' Continue reading...

As Chinese spending on pets increases by up to 27% year on year, a Beijing firm has created its first cloned kitten Continue reading...

Our profession has been great at raising awareness. But this alone won’t succeed against the might of the oil and gas lobbyistsAs scientists, we tend to operate under an unspoken assumption – that our job is to provide the world with factual information, and if we do so our leaders will use it to make wise decisions. But what if that assumption is wrong? For decades, conservation scientists like us have been telling the world that species and ecosystems are disappearing, and that their loss will have devastating impacts on humanity. Meanwhile, climate scientists have been warning that the continued burning of fossil fuels and destruction of natural carbon sinks, such as forests and peatlands, will lead to catastrophic planetary heating.We have collectively written tens of thousands of peer-reviewed papers, and shared our findings with policymakers and the public. And, on the face of it, we seem to have done a pretty good job: after all, we all know about the environmental and climate crises, don’t we? Continue reading...

Ian Sample visits Professor Richard Reynolds at the MS Society tissue bank to hear how research on brains of patients who died with multiple sclerosis is leading to novel insights and new treatments Continue reading...

Langstone Mill, Hampshire: Instead of moving on in the spring, some of these striking birds stayed on to breedIn February 2017, I expressed my hope that the cattle egrets overwintering around Warblington would be tempted to stay on and breed. For the past couple of years the small winter flock has dispersed in spring, the birds presumably migrating south to breeding colonies in continental Europe, but this year they lingered on well past their usual late-February departure date.At the beginning of June five birds appeared at the Langstone Mill Pond heronry, sporting peach-coloured nuptial plumes on their backs, breasts and crowns, and two-toned bills, coral-red at the base and egg-yolk-orange at the tip. After a few days it was clear that they had begun to prospect disused little egret nests, and soon up to 10 adults had been seen in the area. Continue reading...

The writer Malcolm Gladwell examines our interactions with strangers and what can happen when they go wrong, and Daniel Boffey on the view from Brussels of a chaotic week in British politicsMalcolm Gladwell, the author of five bestselling books, is known for weaving news events, anecdotes and scientific studies together to understand why we behave in the way we do. In his most recent work, he looks at what happens when interactions with strangers go wrong.Rachel Humphreys talks to Gladwell about why human beings are so bad at reading one another and examines some high-profile cases of interactions between strangers that had catastrophic consequences. Continue reading...

European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover arrives in France for final tests before next year’s missionThe European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover has arrived in France for final tests before being prepared for its mission next year.Named Rosalind Franklin after the English chemist, the rover is designed to determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. It will also better understand the history of water on the red planet. Continue reading...

Otago University researchers confirm the loch contains no monster – or dinosaur – DNA

A new study has found that lefties’ brains could be associated with better verbal skills, among other talents. I always knew I was special

Hundreds of researchers share Breakthrough prize in fundamental physicsAn international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole, a cosmic plughole from which nothing that enters can ever escape, has won the most lucrative prize in physics.Hundreds of researchers on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team will share the $3m Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics for their image of the monster black hole at the heart of Messier 87, a galaxy 55m light years from Earth. Continue reading...

Research shows eavesdropping more widespread and broader than originally thoughtSquirrels eavesdrop on the chatter of songbirds to work out whether the appearance of a predator is cause for alarm, researchers have found.Animals including squirrels have previously been found to tune in to cries of alarm from other creatures, while some take note of “all-clear” signals from another species with which they co-exist to assess danger. Continue reading...

Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows

Users of Zao can now add themselves into the scenes of their favourite movies. But is our desire to insert ourselves into everything putting our privacy at risk?‘You oughta be in pictures,” goes the 1934 Rudy Vallée song. And, as of last week, pretty much anyone can be. The entry requirements for being a star fell dramatically thanks to the launch, in China, of a face-swapping app that can decant users into film and TV clips.Zao, which has quickly become China’s most downloaded free app, fuses the face in the original clip with your features. All that is required is a single selfie and the man or woman in the street is transformed into a star of the mobile screen, if not quite the silver one. In other words, anyone who yearns to be part of Titanic or Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory or the latest J-Pop sensation can now bypass the audition and go straight to the limelight without all that pesky hard work, talent and dedication. A whole new generation of synthetic movie idols could be unleashed upon the world: a Humphrey Bogus, a Phony Curtis, a Fake Dunaway. Continue reading...

London gallery intended as celebration of what it means to be human in 21st century

Factory farming sucks up money and pollutes rural communities in swing states like Iowa

Value of European agriculture could fall 16% in 30 years due to drought and higher rainfallAny advantages to European agriculture from a warming world will be outweighed by the losses from extreme events and environmental stress, leading to a probable large economic loss for farming in the next 30 years, research on the impacts of the climate crisis has found.While some have pointed to longer growing seasons and a wider range of crops becoming viable in northern Europe as benefits from temperature rises, the effects on rainfall and extreme conditions mean farming is already suffering. Continue reading...

Why didn’t a traffic-light scheme stop the recent fracking-induced tremors near Blackpool?In theory, the chances of your house being shaken by a fracking-related earthquake are incredibly slim. In the UK, a traffic-light system is designed to minimise the risk of larger quakes occurring, with fracking halted if a tremor of magnitude 0.5ML (local magnitude) or above is recorded. So last week’s 2.1- and 2.9-magnitude fracking-related tremors near Blackpool came as a surprise, given a “red-light” 1.55-magnitude quake had occurred the previous Wednesday, and fracking at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site had been suspended.“It suggests that the traffic-light scheme, even with what seemed like a conservative limit of [magnitude] 0.5, might not be appropriate,” says Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at Imperial College London. Trials in Finland have shown traffic-light schemes can help prevent quakes, so why didn’t it work on this occasion? Continue reading...

Nobody argues that science is perfect, but it has been an essential part of making us what we areThere will always be people who call for additional review or scrutiny of science when the results of a rigorous process don’t yield the outcomes they want. Effectively they want incontrovertible evidence, and anything less is unacceptable to them. Incontrovertible evidence is rare in science, so it is easy to pick some cherry and use it to seed controversy and delay action.History shows how effective the strategy has been. It also shows why the notion of the precautionary principle is so important. The principle requires that precautionary measures should be taken if the risk or threats of harm to (say) the environment are significant. It can mean taking action in the face of uncertainty. But when the available evidence is developed through a rigorous scientific process (and especially when it draws on multiple lines of evidence), suitable precautionary actions can be introduced with confidence. Continue reading...

ESA say its Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired thrusters to avoid crashThe European Space Agency has said it altered the trajectory of one of its observation satellites to avoid a collision with a craft operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.“@ESA’s Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their Starlink constellation,” the agency’s Twitter account said. Continue reading...

Drink more water, say experts as they argue study proves need for curbs on consumption

US woman Eunice Foote only now receiving credit for first identifying greenhouse effectThis year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Eunice Foote, a pioneer in climate research of whom few people have heard. She showed that water vapour and carbon dioxide helped to heat Earth’s atmosphere, and realised that when the atmosphere had higher levels of carbon dioxide it made the climate much warmer.

As a breast cancer survivor, I understand the grip of fear. But the best thing is to talk to a doctor then make your own choicesIt was hard to avoid the story, late last week: “Breast cancer risk from using HRT is twice what was thought,” it warned. I read it, because as someone who’s experienced breast cancer I’m always interested in the latest news about it.The new research doesn’t apply to me: I wasn’t taking HRT when I was diagnosed aged 51, and like most breast cancer survivors, HRT isn’t an option for me now. The latest news is about the risks being higher than previously believed, but researchers have long known there’s a link. In fact it would be remarkable if that wasn’t the case, since for so many women, me included, breast cancer is connected to hormones, which HRT is all about. Continue reading...

Volunteers in Salvador’s favelas are collecting data on deadly infections and inequality to help campaign for better sanitationWearing crisp, white T-shirts and carrying tablets, the students fan out through Marechal Rondon – a bustling favela spread over hillsides and a valley in Brazil’s north-eastern city of Salvador. As they walk, they map blocked drains and piles of rubbish on their tablets. These are the “infection points” that attract the rats and mosquitoes which, in turn, spread diseases like leptospirosis and the Zika virus, both prevalent here.Student Alexandre Santos, 20, stops before a weigh-high tangle of wild plants overlooking a housing block. “We look at sewers, rubble, garbage. Now there is high vegetation,” Santos says, tapping in the data. “It goes straight into the data bank.” Continue reading...

A simple treatment to stave off the health problems of old age could be available in five to 12 years. Here’s how it would work

Purveyors of disinformation can be caught out by the particular words they use, according to new researchThe internet represents the biggest explosion of data in human history. There’s more out there, and more access to it than ever before. The information ecosystem is a bit like a tropical rainforest: luxuriant, dense and fiercely competitive. As such, it contains its fair share of predators and poisonous plants.Deliberately misleading articles, websites and social media posts can come about for lots of different reasons: they might be trying to influence elections or policies; they might represent a form of cyberwarfare between states; they might be aimed at raising someone’s profile and influence, or discrediting their opponents. Or they might simply be about making money, relying on the attention-grabbing nature of outrageous lies to generate ad revenue, as in the case of the “digital gold rush” that saw a small Macedonian town register more than 150 pro-Trump websites during the 2016 presidential race. Continue reading...

Research led by Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, will help crops resist global heatingThe discovery of a gene in barley responsible for drought resistance will help future-proof crops against some of the effects of climate change, scientists believe.Researchers spent nearly five years isolating the specific gene – HvMYB1 – from more than 39,000 genes in barley. Tests proved that plants in which the gene is more prominently expressed are better able to survive drought. Continue reading...

As the moon passes its first quarter phase this week, it will share the sky with the two largest planets in the Solar SystemAt the beginning of this week, keep a watch out for a young moon. The lunar month began on 30 August, and from tonight it should be relatively easy to see a thin crescent moon. It will appear low in the west shortly after sunset. Find an unobstructed western horizon, preferably on a hill, or the top of a building, and start looking as soon as the sun disappears below the horizon. As the week progresses, the moon becomes easier to spot as the crescent grows in size and it appears higher in the sky at dusk. On 5 September, the moon will pass close to the bright planet of Jupiter in the south-west. As the weekend begins, the moon will continue to grow, passing its “half moon” first quarter phase on 6 September. It then heads for a close encounter with Saturn on 6 and 7 September. The chart shows the positions of Jupiter, Saturn and the moon on 6 September, when the moon is partway between the two planets. Continue reading...