Even the way a woman’s decline in oestrogen relates to her symptoms is a mystery, scientists sayWhen Elena Sanchez-Heras realised the menopause was upon her, she did what she always does when faced with a biological unknown. “I’m a scientist,” she said. “I’ve been trained when you encounter a problem and want to figure it out, you go and seek out original sources.”Sanchez-Heras, now 56, is a cell biologist at University College London and has access to a vast online library of peer-reviewed scientific literature. But she was surprised by the number of questions that remained unanswered – and by the relative lack of research on a process that directly affects women. Continue reading...

The genetic condition is one of the most common in the UK and may be a leading cause of infertility in men. Why does it so often go untreated?Three years ago, Paul (not his real name), now 31, went to the doctor with stomach pains. His blood test came back with low testosterone levels. “We went to see a urologist and he said bluntly that we wouldn’t have any options to have kids with my sperm – we would have to use a donor or adopt,” he says. “My wife immediately burst into tears.” The couple had been trying for a child since they married in 2015. Paul was also devastated. “It put so much stress on me, because I thought I couldn’t give my wife or my family what they so desperately wanted.”Eventually, Paul was diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome. Affecting about one in 600 men, it is one of the most common genetic conditions in the UK, yet most people have never heard of it – including many who have it. Its symptoms – extra height, persistent tiredness, reduced bodily hair and small testes – can be difficult to identify, meaning it often goes unnoticed by patients and GPs. Untreated, however, it can lead to reduced testosterone and infertility, and even increased prevalence of testicular cancer. Continue reading...

A streetwise puzzleUPDATE: For the solution please click here.Today’s puzzle is a trip.You are in a big city where all the streets go in one of two perpendicular directions. You take your car from its parking place and drive on a tour of the city such that you do not pass through the same intersection twice and return back to where you started. If you made 100 left turns, how many right turns did you make? Continue reading...

It’s a natural part of the female life cycle – so why don’t we talk more about the menopause, its debilitating effects and possible mitigation?The menopause is when a woman’s fertile period comes to a halt. This is generally a gradual process over months or even years, but technically the menopause is defined as when a woman has gone 12 months without a period. In the UK, the average age for this happening is 52 years, but about one in 100 women have a menopause before the age of 40. Continue reading...

Dr Peter Trewby questions the risk-reduction figures of the Iran study and Oliver Lepen says the focus must be on preventing disease, not medicationYour headline (Single polypill reduces risk of heart attacks and strokes, study finds, 23 August) should really have been tempered by quoting the absolute rather than the relative risk-reduction figures.The 34% reduction in major cardiac events you quote is calculated from “on the ground” reduction in events from 8.8% over five years in those not on the polypill to 5.9% in those receiving it – that is a 2.9% chance of benefit over five years to the individual and with no effect on mortality. Continue reading...

Using supercomputers to explain life, the universe and everything takes us into territory previously only laughed atFans of Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy treasure the bit where a group of hyper-dimensional beings demand that a supercomputer tells them the secret to life, the universe and everything. The machine, which has been constructed specifically for this purpose, takes 7.5m years to compute the answer, which famously comes out as 42. The computer helpfully points out that the answer seems meaningless because the beings who instructed it never knew what the question was. And the name of the supercomputer? Why, Deep Thought, of course.Machine-learning may soon enable us to accurately predict how a protein will fold. But it won’t be scientific knowledge Continue reading...

Researchers found athletes regularly drink energy drinks, and use gels, all of which can damage teethBritish Olympic and professional athletes could be damaging their teeth by regular using sports drinks, energy bars and gels, according to a study.Researchers from University College London surveyed 352 female and male athletes across 11 sports, including cycling, swimming, rugby, football, rowing, hockey, sailing and athletics. The study concluded that elite athletes had poor oral health despite efforts to care for their teeth. Continue reading...

Having survived a decade of drink and drugs as a young woman, Professor Judith Grisel focused all her determination on writing a book about addictionWhen Professor Judith Grisel sat down to write her book Never Enough (a guide to the neuroscience of addiction that has been her life’s work), she didn’t expect to share so much of her own story. Nevertheless the resulting chapters are a collision of the personal and professional, detailing the deep links between her work life and the decade of drug and alcohol addiction that almost destroyed her.On paper, Grisel was an unlikely candidate for going off the rails. One of three children, she describes a privileged upbringing in a progressive, suburban area of New Jersey. With an airline pilot father and a mother who was a registered nurse, Grisel remembers growing up in a “perfect-looking family”. Continue reading...

Roslin Institute scientists create a flock to mimic human gene that causes Batten disorderScientists have created a flock of sheep that carry the gene for a lethal inherited brain disorder in humans. The condition, Batten disease, usually starts in childhood and is invariably fatal, often within a few years of diagnosis.The project, which is designed to test treatments for the disease, is based at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute, where cloning techniques were used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996. The scientists acknowledge that the approach could be controversial as it involves creating animals programmed to die, but stress that their aim is to alleviate human suffering. Continue reading...

Volunteers at Strata Florida Abbey in Wales find they enjoy the work and camaraderieScrabbling around on hands and knees in a muddy trench surrounded by the misty mountains of mid Wales may not be everyone’s idea of a fun way to while away the last days of summer.But Julian Pitt, a former Royal Navy sailor still traumatised by his experiences in the Falklands and Gulf wars, was delighted to be sifting soil as part of the Strata Florida abbey archaeology project in the wilds of Ceredigion. Continue reading...

During our summer break, we’re revisiting the archives. Today, Wildlife recordist Chris Watson concludes this three-part journey into the sonic environment of the ocean, celebrating the sounds and songs of marine life and investigating the threat of noise pollutionFirst released: 03/05/2019As wildlife recordist Chris Watson looks for solutions to ocean noise pollution, he hears from Tim Gordon, whose long-awaited trip to the Great Barrier Reef became a devastating experience when he heard the eerie silence of a dying coral reef, caused in part by global warming.

Hate may be less like a cancer and more like bubbles, says Neil Johnson, who applies physics theory to human behaviorLone wolves. Terrorist cells. Bad apples. Viral infections.The language we use to discuss violent extremism is rife with metaphors from the natural world. As we seek to understand why some humans behave so utterly inhumanely, we rely on comparisons to biology, ecology and medicine. Continue reading...

Reviewing more than 20 years of my inner world was often painful but some universal lessons emerged from the pagesRecently I came across a dusty box in the garage that was full of old journals that held all my secrets from 1996.Rereading them was excruciating, painful even, like hearing a recording of your own voice. Do I (did I) really sound like that? I reread the diaries out of sequence (1999 becomes 2012 becomes 2006) to lessen the shock of a past me unfurling and escaping from the pages like a genie. To be back there so vividly felt like a profound jolt – unnatural even. I had to take it slowly, taking in little bits at a time. Often I didn’t recognise myself. Who was this person who did those wonderful things, who took stupid risks, fretted about things that turned out to be unimportant, loved the wrong people, who had all these feelings? Continue reading...

Three-year review says new vaccines for eradicating disease are only 40% effectiveMalaria will not be eradicated in the foreseeable future even though it is achievable and would save millions of lives, according to World Health Organization (WHO) experts following a three-year review.The WHO remains committed to the “disappearance of every single malaria parasite from the face of the planet”, as it has been since the UN organisation was launched in 1948, said Dr Pedro Alonso, the director of its global malaria programme. Continue reading...

Large trial held in Iran of inexpensive medication combining four common drugsA cheap, single pill taken once a day that combines four common drugs is safe and reduces the risk of events such as heart attacks, strokes and sudden death in people over the age of 50, research has found.The study, the first large-scale trial to date, looked at the effectiveness of a so-called polypill – a four-in-one therapy containing drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure that was first proposed more than 15 years ago. The researchers found those taking the polypill had a more than 30% lower risk of serious heart problems than those just offered advice. Continue reading...

If Chandrayaan-2 is successful, it will make India the fourth country to reach the moon’s surfaceIndia’s moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, has arrived in lunar orbit. The spacecraft is engaged in a series of manoeuvres that will place it in its final operating orbit, a circular path looping over the moon’s poles at an altitude of 100km (62 miles).Chandrayaan-2 entered lunar orbit at about 0500 BST on 20 August. Its initial orbit was highly elliptical, swinging from 114km above the moon to 18,072km. A second rocket burn on 21 August changed this to 118km and 4,412km. Continue reading...

Age UK says unintended interactions between different medicines can be dangerousAbout 2 million elderly people in the UK are on at least seven different medications and at risk of potentially life-threatening harm from interactions between the drugs or side-effects from pills that are no longer right for them.Older people are being let down by a healthcare system that is allowing medicines to do more harm than good, according to a report from Age UK. One in five prescriptions for elderly people living at home are inappropriate, it said. Care home residents take an average of at least eight medicines, with a one in 10 risk of a mistake when the drugs are prescribed or given to them. Continue reading...

Report calls for more research and warns against complacency over the issueMicroplastics are increasingly found in drinking water, but there is no evidence so far that this poses a risk to humans, according to a new assessment by the World Health Organization.However, the United Nations body warned against complacency because more research is needed to fully understand how plastic spreads into the environment and works its way through human bodies. Continue reading...

Norwegian review of 36,000 cases links more activity overall, light or intensive, with lower risk of deathEven a small increase in light activity, such as washing dishes, a little gentle gardening, or shuffling around the house, might help stave off an early death among older adults, researchers say.Being sedentary, for instance, by sitting for long periods of time, has been linked to an increased risk of developing many conditions, including heart disease, as well as an early death. Continue reading...

Research of violinists undermines popular idea as average players practise more than best onesWith blatant disregard for the public benefits of motivational idioms, researchers have concluded that practice does not, necessarily, make perfect.A study of violinists found that merely good players practised as much as, if not more than, better players, leaving other factors such as quality of tuition, learning skills and perhaps natural talent to account for the difference. Continue reading...

Scientists believe dinosaur dates back to 168m years ago during the middle Jurassic periodA new species of one of the most recognisable types of dinosaur is also the oldest of its kind ever discovered, British scientists believe.Remains of a stegosaurus, an armoured dinosaur instantly recognisable by the plate-like bones protruding from its spine and spikes on its tails, were studied by a team from the Natural History Museum and belong to a new genus that walked the earth around 168m years ago. Continue reading...

Mission that could shed light on possibility of life on icy rock is expected to lift off in 2025A Nasa mission to explore the most tantalising of Jupiter’s 79 moons has been given the green light to proceed to the final stages of development.Europa – which is slightly smaller than our own moon – has long been considered a possible candidate in the hunt for alien life. Evidence suggests there is an ocean below the moon’s thick, icy crust that might be tens of miles deep. Scientists believe this body of water could contain the right chemical cocktail for life and could even be home to some form of living organisms. Continue reading...

Emma Ginn, the director of Medical Justice, warns that women in immigration detention receive inadequate healthcareYou report how a pregnant rape survivor experiencing a miscarriage and barely able to stand was unlawfully held in immigration detention which amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment (Home Office pays £50,000 to trafficked woman detained during miscarriage, 20 August).This case show precisely why the Home Office must heed our advice and that of the medical profession, and actually ban the detention of pregnant women. Continue reading...

John Green says it’s simplistic to describe as a ‘traitor’ the physicist who supplied information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet UnionGraham Farmelo’s review of a new book by Frank Close about the atom spy Klaus Fuchs (Review, 17 August) fails completely to understand the motivation of Fuchs or comprehend the historical context of his action. He simplistically labels him the “most cunning of traitors”.Fuchs came from a deeply religious family. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor who became a Quaker after the Lutheran church began collaborating with the Hitler regime. His whole family was persecuted by the Nazis. Continue reading...

Like the movie’s characters, the audience is experiencing the unprecedented, rapid destruction of earth – but the film doesn’t acknowledge it

In later life, you know what sparks joy: loving new things, discarding old things. It’s finally time to live as you want to live, not as you’re told you shouldIt started with a tweet. I wondered why people like the Edinburgh fringe so much, when it sounds like my idea of hell: loads of “theatre” (with capital-letter ACTING); audience interaction; comedians; circus-type things.Edinburgh itself is gorgeous, so am I just a misery guts? That is a rhetorical question, obviously. The answers came thick and fast. I would love the fringe, apparently, if only I got taken to the right shows. Then I could go to 10 in one day! But I know myself. One artwork a day is quite enough, ta. Continue reading...

The psychological profiling at the heart of Netflix’s acclaimed drama make for great TV but, say experts, it’s better left in the fiction sectionUncork the chianti, serve up the fava beans, have an old friend for dinner: the second season of Mindhunter has returned to Netflix, allowing us to chill with history’s worst serial killers.Plenty of true crime dramas claim that the misdeeds they depict actually happened, just so. But Mindhunter, which stars Jonathan Groff as special agent Holden Ford and Holt McCallany as his partner, Bill Tench, goes further. David Fincher’s series is based on the theories and career of John Douglas, founder of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit and so-called “serial killer whisperer”. Continue reading...

The climate-crisis activist has made it clear herself that she wants the focus to be on the message, not the messengerAs Greta Thunberg sets sail across the Atlantic to the United Nations in New York, the backlash against her has been as vicious as it is has been inevitable. According to the Australian conservative climate-change denier Andrew Bolt, she is “deeply disturbed”, “freakishly influential” and “strange”. In a nasty, brutish and short tweet, the former Ukip funder, Arron Banks, simply said, “Freak yachting accidents do happen in August …” Controversialist columnist Brendan O’Neill wrote that there was “something chilling” about Thunberg, who “increasingly looks and sounds like a cult member”.The attacks on Thunberg look like a kind of displacement activity rooted in fear that what she says might be true Continue reading...

Researchers say drug is safe and appears more effective than conventional treatmentsThe first study looking into the use of MDMA to treat alcohol addiction has shown the treatment is safe and early results show encouraging outcomes from the approach, scientists have said.Doctors in Bristol are testing whether a few doses of the drug, in conjunction with psychotherapy, could help patients overcome alcoholism more effectively than conventional treatments. Those who have completed the study have so far reported almost no relapse and no physical or psychological problems. Continue reading...

People genetically predisposed to sleep problems have greater risk of heart failure and stroke, say researchersPeople who struggle with sleep might be at greater risk of developing cardiovascular problems, research suggests.Scientists have found that people who are genetically predisposed to insomnia have a greater risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary artery disease. Continue reading...

Pioneer UK surgeon Sir Terence English says adapted organs could transform treatmentAdapted pig hearts could be transplanted into patients within three years, according to a report citing the surgeon who pioneered heart transplantation in the UK.On the 40th anniversary of the first successful heart transplant, Sir Terence English told The Sunday Telegraph that his protege from that operation would try to replace a human kidney with a pig’s this year. Continue reading...

This week, our natural satellite cuts a swath through the body of Taurus, the bullThis week, the waning moon cuts a swath through the body of Taurus in the pre-dawn hours.The show begins on 23 August with the moon at last quarter, when the western hemisphere of our natural satellite is illuminated. On this night, the moon will be between the bull’s horns, approaching the head of Taurus. Continue reading...

Phasmids hailing from New Zealand become asexual after arriving in the UKA New Zealand stick insect that migrated to the UK more than seven decades ago has given up having sex and become asexual, prompting biologists to wonder about the use of sex at all – especially in Britain.The Clitarchus hookeri is native to New Zealand but migrated to the UK some time between 1910 and 1935, catching a ride on shiploads of New Zealand plants that were transported to the subtropical Tresco Abbey Garden on the Scilly Isles islands off the coast of Cornwall. Continue reading...

Science may be morally neutral but scientists can’t be. They need to take seriously the ethical consequences of their work“‘Once the rockets ​are up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department’​, says Wernher von Braun,” sang the satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer in 1965 about the pioneer rocket scientist who worked first for Hitler making V2 weapons and, after 1945, with equal enthusiasm, for Nasa. Now a rather different mathematician, Hannah Fry, who is to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, has called for a Hippocratic oath for scientists and technologists to help them carry constantly in their minds the ethical consequences of their work. This is a proposal that deserves serious consideration: if it achieves nothing else, it will help to dispel the idea that technologies like software development are in themselves morally neutral, so that ethics, or morality, can be dealt with by someone else. Those who send the rockets up need to think carefully about where they might come down.There are three obvious issues with her plan. The first, to misquote the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, is “Whose ethics? Which rationality?” There is no single, universal code of ethics to which all scientists around the world subscribe and the wars of the 20th century show how quickly many – not just Wernher von Braun – could be recruited to weapons research in the name of defending civilisation. And absolute pacifism has not been a feature of earlier efforts at scientific ethics. The philosopher Karl Popper proposed in 1969 an oath for all students of science; even then, he could, and did, justify some work on nuclear weapons. Continue reading...

Trials of digital alert technology had ‘major impact’ on deadly form of blood poisoningTrials of new digital alert technology to monitor hospital patients with sepsis have saved hundreds of lives, the NHS has said.Plans to roll out the “action and alert” technology across England as part of the NHS Long Term Plan are under way after trials at three hospitals. Continue reading...

The astronomer royal and risk specialist on cyber-attacks, pandemics, Brexit and life on MarsMartin Rees is a cosmologist and astrophysicist who has been the astronomer royal since 1995. He is also a co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge. His most recent book, On the Future: Prospects for Humanity, is published by Princeton.After Boris Johnson’s recent announcement of an increase in the number of special visas for scientists, Sir Andre Geim accused him of taking scientists “for fools”. Did you feel patronised by the announcement?

Embracing the arts as well as sports, they were masters of many different and complex disciplinesLast week, researchers from Washington University announced they had investigated the ear remains of 23 Neanderthals and found that around half had bony growths that suggested aquatic foraging was a prominent part of their lifestyle. These growths, known as external auditory exostoses, or “surfer’s ear”, are found today in surfers and those who spend time in wet and cold conditions. Continue reading...

Giraffes, sharks, glass frogs - and the woolly mammoth - may get boosted protection at summitFrom giraffes to sharks, the world’s endangered species could gain better protection at an international wildlife conference.The triennial summit of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), that began on Saturday, will tackle disputes over the conservation of great beasts such as elephants and rhinos, as well as cracking down on the exploitation of unheralded but vital species such as sea cucumbers, which clean ocean floors. Continue reading...

Effortlessly bridging the gap between the two cultures, the Greek sculptor – who has died aged 93 – played with invisible forces and put the truths of the cosmos on canvasThe Greek sculptor Takis, who has died at 93 during the run of an acclaimed Tate retrospective of his ingenious creations, was half artist and half mad scientist. His works of art look like experiments – because that’s what they are. He tapped into the fundamental forces of magnetism and electricity to make eerily beautiful contraptions that illuminate modern physics.Related: Takis obituary Continue reading...

Exclusive: Hannah Fry says ethical pledge needed in tech fields that will shape future

During our summer break, we’re revisiting the archives. Today, Wildlife recordist Chris Watson presents the second instalment of a three-part journey into the sonic environment of the ocean, celebrating the sounds and songs of marine life and investigating the threat of noise pollutionFirst released: 03/05/2019Contrary to popular belief, and the writings of Jacques Cousteau, life under the ocean surface is not a silent world but a dense and rich sonic environment where sound plays a fundamental role to all known life.The pioneering natural history sound recordist Chris Watson and the sound artist Jana Winderen meet a team from Norway’s Institute of Marine Research and board a research vessel setting sail around the Austevoll islands. Continue reading...

Human faeces from 900BC Must Farm reveal widespread intestinal worm infectionThe clutch of homes that stood on stilts in the wetland fens of East Anglia were the envy of the local peasantry 3,000 years ago. But amid the remains of the grand wooden huts and the belongings of the well-to-do residents lurked evidence that all was not well at Must Farm, Britain’s premier bronze age settlement.Firm, sausage-shaped lumps found skulking in the mud that swallowed the settlement after a catastrophic fire have been identified as pieces of faeces. Inside these deposits researchers found a grim array of tiny eggs – the calling card for parasitic worm infestations. Continue reading...

Octopus-like Schwann cells that engulf nerves in skin can sense pain, experiments showA new organ involved in the sensation of pain has been discovered by scientists, raising hopes that it could lead to the development of new painkilling drugs.Researchers say they have discovered that the special cells that surround the pain-sensing nerve cells that extend into the outer layer of skin appear to be involved in sensing pain – a discovery that points to a new organ behind the feeling of “ouch!”. Continue reading...

People often complain that English is deteriorating under the influence of new technology, adolescent fads and loose grammar. Why does this nonsensical belief persist? By David ShariatmadariThe 21st century seems to present us with an ever-lengthening list of perils: climate crisis, financial meltdown, cyber-attacks. Should we stock up on canned foods in case the ATMs snap shut? Buy a shedload of bottled water? Hoard prescription medicines? The prospect of everything that makes modern life possible being taken away from us is terrifying. We would be plunged back into the middle ages, but without the skills to cope.Now imagine that something even more fundamental than electricity or money is at risk: a tool we have relied on since the dawn of human history, enabling the very foundations of civilisation to be laid. I’m talking about our ability to communicate – to put our thoughts into words, and to use those words to forge bonds, to deliver vital information, to learn from our mistakes and build on the work done by others. Continue reading...

A common species of urban lichen is being promoted as a natural alternative to Viagra, much to the concern of scientistsBotanists in New Zealand are warning the public not to consume lichen growing on footpaths and shady rocks throughout the country, after misleading stories about its stimulatory properties spread rapidly online.The University of Otago lichenologist Dr Allison Knight dubbed a common species of local lichen “sexy pavement lichen” after discovering it was being promoted as a natural alternative to Viagra in online marketplaces, especially in China. Continue reading...

Researchers have developed and trialled drugs that can cure this deadly disease. The problem now is to deliver themThis week has seen a heartening triumph of medical science: Ebola is now curable, doctors say. The announcement is also a timely one. The outbreak in the war-ravaged territories of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which began over a year ago, has defied the sustained efforts to halt it. Last month, with the death toll above 1,600 people, the World Health Organization declared it an emergency of international concern. The even deadlier West African epidemic of 2014 killed more than 11,000 people before it was extinguished, having prompted fear around the world. The high death rate and agonising nature of the deaths all add to the virus’s terrors.So the news that two really effective treatments have been discovered and tested, and that they are being rolled out, could hardly be more welcome. International institutions and Congolese researchers and medics have performed a remarkable, almost impossible feat in trialling these drugs in epidemic conditions. Continue reading...

Bristol Museum to highlight biodiversity crisis after children demand true stories of exhibitsOne of Britain’s largest natural history collections is to shroud its exhibits of extinct and endangered species in black mourning veils to highlight the global biodiversity crisis.Related: Trump officials weaken protections for animals near extinction Continue reading...

New species said to have been four times heavier than emperor penguinA giant penguin that stood as tall as a person has been identified from fossil leg bones discovered by an amateur palaeontologist on New Zealand’s South Island.At 1.6 metres and 80kg (12st), the new species, Crossvallia waiparensis, was four times as heavy and 40cm taller than the emperor penguin, the largest living penguin. Continue reading...