Science | The Guardian

The history of science has often seen women’s work overlooked and their credit stolen

I thought I couldn’t sing. Then I discovered there’s no such thing as ‘tone deaf’ – and that singing is not very different to speakingIt’s lunchtime on a sunny day in early June. I’m standing on London’s Fleet Street outside an imposing door that’s sandwiched between a solicitor’s office and Ye Olde Cock Tavern. I feel nervous and sticky-palmed. A message pings into my phone. It’s from my 17-year-old daughter. It says: “Try not to worry Dad, it’s only an hour and then it’s over forever, and you never need to do it again. Love you!” I swallow hard and ring the bell. There’s no going back. I’m about to have my first ever singing lesson.In the same way that some people are non-drivers or non-swimmers, I am a non-singer. I do not sing. Other than croaking out Happy Birthday or groaning through the occasional hymn, I just don’t sing. Like so many people, early criticism of my quavering vocals cut me to the quick and turned me into a life-long mimer. My lips move, but the volume is set at zero. Two events stand out. In the first I am seven years old. I’m in the gym and one by one we are summoned to walk across the wooden floor to the music teacher, who sits behind a piano. When we get there she plays two notes and asks which is higher. To me they sound the same. I take a random guess… and the whole class collapses into hysterics. I walk back across the floor with my cheeks on fire. In the second event, answering the headmaster’s call that the choir needs more members, I join my friends for an open practice session. It’s all very jolly. Half way through Kumbaya My Lord, a teacher puts his hand in the air and melodramatically cries: “Halt!” Has he been wounded? What’s happened? He swivels round slowly and singles me out: “You! No thank you!” My friends collapse in hysterics once more and my cheeks explode into colour. That’s it, I think, never again. Continue reading...

In 2015, the scientist’s husband was almost killed by an antibiotic-resistant superbug, until she found a cure that is now saving othersInfectious disease epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee’s husband survived a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection thanks to her suggestion of using an unconventional cure popular in the former Soviet Union: fighting the bug with a virus. Now the global health expert at the University of California, San Diego, she has, along with her husband, Tom Patterson, who is also a scientist at the institution, written an account of their nine month ordeal – The Perfect Predator: A Scientists’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug.What was the superbug your husband got, and how did he contract it?

In decades to come we must rethink our agriculture, our love of consumption and our short-termist priorities. It won’t be easyThe case for action to tackle the climate emergency, on a scale far beyond anything that has yet been attempted, is increasingly widely understood. Almost three decades after the first UN climate treaty was agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and despite the commitments thrashed out among nation states at every summit since, global carbon emissions last year rose to a record 37.1bn tonnes.In October, UN scientists warned that within 12 years a target of 1.5C of global heating would be out of reach. Above this level, temperature increases are predicted to cause colossal disruption: 10 million more people displaced as a consequence of higher sea levels; greatly increased risk of fires, drought and extreme weather of all kinds; shrinkage of plant and insect habitats with massive effects on agriculture as well as nature; the extinction of coral. Continue reading...

They were here before us and should live on long afterwards. With 12 years to avert catastrophe, we need to imagine the aeons to come and consider the creatures that outlive usWilbur the tortoise has, in all probability, lived more than a hundred years.“From his size and weight and general health,” says Adam Lee, a reptile keeper at the Melbourne zoo, “we put him at about 110 but there’s no real way of telling with giant tortoises unless you have them from birth or as a hatchling.” Continue reading...

Results of 12-nation survey show that some ‘iconic’ images are better known than othersFrom the spacesuit-clad form of Buzz Aldrin on the moon to the middle-distance gaze of Che Guevara, some photographs really are seared into the public’s mind all over the world, research suggests.While some images have long been hailed as “iconic”, experts say there has been little research to show that certain photographs are widely recognised and what people read into them. An international study by a researcher in the Netherlands set out to examine just that. Continue reading...

William Happer contacted Heartland Institute, one of the most prominent groups to dispute that fossil fuels cause global heatingA member of the Trump administration’s National Security Council has sought help from advisers of a conservative thinktank to challenge the reality of a human-induced climate crisis, a trove of his emails show.William Happer, a physicist appointed by the White House to counter the federal government’s own climate science, reached out to the Heartland Institute, one of the most prominent groups to dispute that burning fossil fuels is causing dangerous global heating, in March. Continue reading...

Earlier this year, the UK government announced it wanted to end new HIV transmissions in England by 2030. Hannah Devlin looks at the history of the epidemic, including its impact on the gay community, recent promising drug trials and whether Britain can meet its target Continue reading...

Heat probe was supposed to dig down five metres but it came to standstill just 30cm below surfaceScientists and engineers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, have a new strategy to get a troubled Mars instrument working again. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package was provided by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) for the InSight Mars lander.The instrument’s heat probe, known as the mole, should dig itself down as far as five metres into the Martian ground but came to a standstill on 28 February, having burrowed just 30cm (12 inches) below the surface. Continue reading...

Fur, teeth and tissue largely intact on remains of animal bigger than a modern wolfThe severed head of a wolf that died about 40,000 years ago has been found in Siberia, and because of the freezing conditions, the remains are so well preserved that the fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue are largely intact.Pavel Yefimov, a local resident, discovered the head last summer on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh river close to the Arctic Circle in the region of Yakutia, according to the Siberian Times. Continue reading...

Analysis of Kepler’s manuscripts finds high levels of metals used in a pseudoscience still practised in the 16th and 17th centuriesThe pioneering astronomer Johannes Kepler may have had his eyes on the heavens, but chemical analysis of his manuscripts suggests he was “willing to get his hands dirty” and may have dabbled in alchemy.A team led by biotechnologist Gleb Zilberstein and chemist Pier Giorgio Righetti has found very significant amounts of metals associated with the practice including gold, silver, mercury and lead on the pages of Kepler’s manuscript about the moon, catalogued as “Hipparchus” after the classical astronomer. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals no plan is in place to tackle increase in levels of agricultural ammonia, a gas contributing to thousands of deaths in UK alone

Research also finds scale of crisis among African women higher than expectedA landmark study has ended 30 years of anxiety that hormonal contraceptive injections may increase women’s chances of infection from HIV.But the study found a dramatically higher rate of HIV infection among women in southern Africa than was expected, which one leading campaigning organisation said signified a public health crisis”. Continue reading...

Academy will be managed by nationalist government in unprecedented moveThe Hungarian government is moving to bring the country’s umbrella scientific research organisation under its control, in what scientists in the country and globally say would be an unprecedented assault on academic freedoms.The far-right, anti-migration government of Viktor Orbán has sought to increase its control over numerous sectors of society since it came into office in 2010, including putting financial pressure on independent media outlets, harassing and taxing NGOs that work on issues such as migration, and moving to centralise historical research. Continue reading...

Headquarters street renamed for pioneering African American mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary JacksonNasa, the US space agency, has renamed the street in front of its headquarters Hidden Figures Way, honouring the black female mathematicians who defied racial segregation to play a crucial part in its most celebrated missions.The designation honours African American mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, featured in the 2016 book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and the subsequent film directed by Theodore Melfi. Continue reading...

Incense burners found at 2,500-year-old cemetery suggest intentional use of the plant to get highScorched wooden incense burners unearthed at an ancient burial ground in the mountains of western China contain the oldest clear evidence of cannabis smoking yet found, archaeologists say.Residues of high potency cannabis found in the burners, and on charred pebbles placed inside them, suggest that funeral rites at the 2,500-year-old Jirzankal cemetery in the Pamir mountains may have been rather hazy affairs. Continue reading...

The government’s pledges on climate change are too little, too late. What really matters is actionTheresa May is doing her best to grab some good headlines in the closing weeks of her premiership. Setting a target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is vital, but her government’s plans are too little too late.Related: Theresa May commits to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050 Continue reading...

The northern pitcher plants, also known as turtle socks, devour juvenile spotted salamandersBiologists have discovered evidence that carnivorous plants in Canada feast on young salamanders, in what is believed to be the first instance of vertebrate consumption by plants in North America.In study published in the journal Ecology, a pair of biologists in the province of Ontario found that northern pitcher plants – also known as turtle socks – devour juvenile spotted salamanders. Continue reading...

They are passionate about their community, know what the issues are – and are sick to death of party politics. Meet the independent groups from Devon to London who are seizing controlA quiet revolution has begun in the Devon town of Buckfastleigh. Its compact high street, functional-looking industrial estate and population of 3,300 suggest a place modestly getting on with business. But, while it may go unnoticed by those whooshing past on the A38, or tourists at nearby Buckfast Abbey, there is something happening in Buckfastleigh.That something is a radical reinvention of the way that power works at a local level, based on a kind of politics that has nothing to do with the traditional party system. And it is authored not in a Whitehall ministry, but in towns, villages and neighbourhoods – where it is having a real impact on some of the services people most care about. Continue reading...

If you think you’re miserable - imagine being one of those long suffering mass extinction Cassandras!

Analysis finds changes such as removal of blanket ban on hormone-disrupting chemicalsThe UK has been accused of “silently eroding” key environmental and human health protections in the Brexit-inspired rush to convert thousands of pages of European Union pesticide policy into British law.Despite government claims the process would be little more than a technical exercise, analysis by the University of Sussex’s UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) has uncovered significant departures from EU regulations, including the removal of a blanket ban on hormone-disrupting chemicals, which are known to cause adverse health effects such as cancer, birth defects and immune disorders. Continue reading...

Uber is trialling a feature that allows customers to stop their drivers from talking. But there’s growing evidence that cutting ourselves off like this isn’t healthyThe mute button was invented in 1956 by Robert Adler, an Austrian-born engineer working for the Zenith Radio Corporation in Chicago. It was one of the four buttons on his Space Command 400, the first commercially viable TV remote control. The other three buttons – on/off, channel up and channel down – might have seemed more vital, but Adler’s boss, Eugene F McDonald, a former naval intelligence officer who was nicknamed “The Commander”, had insisted on mute.“He hated commercials,” Adler recalled in 1987. McDonald feared these constant intrusions would kill the new medium of TV. So Zenith boasted that the mute button would allow viewers to “shut off the sound of long, annoying commercials”. Continue reading...

Female cichlids who lose their mates are measurably more pessimistic, researchers sayInferring the mood of a fish has never been a precise science, but researchers claim at least one species responds the way humans do when separated from their other half. They say central American convict cichlids become glum when they split up.Scientists at the University of Burgundy in Dijon believe they are the first to reveal the emotional attachments that fish form with their partners. Using a cognitive test, they found that female cichlids who lost their mates took a gloomier view of the world and were measurably more pessimistic. Continue reading...

Concern over mating as malformed beaks and nostrils lead to ‘subpar songs’ - studyTree finches made famous by Charles Darwin’s visit to the Galápagos islands in the 19th century have gone out of tune because of parasitic infections that damage the birds’ beaks and nostrils.Researchers found that male finches that picked up the fly parasite had malformed beaks and enlarged nostrils that led to “subpar songs”, making it harder for the birds to find mates and reproduce. Continue reading...

Study finds calcium deposits are triggered by molecule produced by damaged cellsThe mysterious mechanism behind the hardening of arteries may have been solved, researchers have revealed, in a study that also suggests the first potential preventive drug for the condition linked to heart attack, dementia and stroke.Arteries harden as calcium becomes deposited in the elastic walls of the vessels, a process that happens as we age and is exacerbated for patients with diabetes or kidney disease. Stiffening can also occur as calcium becomes deposited in fatty plaques in the arteries – a condition called atherosclerosis. Continue reading...

Elites who divorce climate policy from social justice are almost as out of touch as those who deny climate science altogetherIf you set aside Republicans’ obsession with cow farts, perhaps the most prevalent criticism of the Green New Deal is its emphasis on social justice. Critics contend that the far-reaching climate agenda is far too concerned with extraneous issues such as jobs, infrastructure, housing, healthcare and civil and indigenous rights. Stick to greenhouse gases, they say; reforming the energy system is utopian enough.This criticism crosses the aisle among elites. In February, the New York Times editorial board wondered whether addressing the climate crisis was “merely a cover for a wish-list of progressive policies and a not-so-subtle effort to move the Democratic Party to the left?” A day later, the Washington Post editorial board opined that serious policymakers should not “muddle” decarbonization with social programs that “divert money and attention from the primary mission”. And in a widely circulated 11,000-word Open Letter to Green New Dealers, Jerry Taylor, the president of the Niskanen Center, a pro-market environmental group, was incredulous. “The Green New Deal resolution quite literally gives a nod to every single last policy demand forwarded by the Democratic Socialists of America,” he wrote. “The climate is too important to be held hostage to political commitments.” The general gist of all this: take your social justice agenda elsewhere, activists. It has no place in serious climate policy. Continue reading...

Cutting fees for arts and humanities degrees would damage Stem subjects tooAfter days of intensive discussion, the strengths and weaknesses of the Augar report on post-18 education policy and funding are apparent. It is a solid review, refreshingly non-ideological in tone, but undermined by a flawed vision and wishful thinking.Some of its proposals – and its less attractive one-liners about low-value courses and too many graduates – are likely to seep into policy. But it lacks the momentum of a great reform. It gives but it takes away, handicapped by having to be fiscally neutral. Continue reading...

Study suggests people’s current and former partners tend to be similar in characterWhen a friend or relative introduces their new partner, it can seem like a case of deja vu. Now research has backed up what many have long suspected: people really do have a type when it comes to coupling up.Psychologists say they have found that people tend to go for partners with personalities similar to their own, and that even when this is taken into account, people’s former and new partners tend to be alike in character. In other words, it might not be a complete surprise that your friend’s new boy- or girlfriend seems just as obnoxious as the last. Continue reading...

Study shows 571 species wiped out, and scientists say figure is likely to be big underestimateHuman destruction of the living world is causing a “frightening” number of plant extinctions, according to scientists who have completed the first global analysis of the issue.They found 571 species had definitely been wiped out since 1750 but with knowledge of many plant species still very limited the true number is likely to be much higher. The researchers said the plant extinction rate was 500 times greater now than before the industrial revolution, and this was also likely to be an underestimate. Continue reading...

DNA testing shows 900-year-old savagnin blanc vines identical to modern plants

Gynaecologist and IVF pioneer whose methods often proved controversialThe early days of assisted reproduction were fraught with controversy, as media commentators and religious figures denigrated its practitioners for playing God or interfering with nature.Louise Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), arrived in 1978. By 2018, eight million babies worldwide had been born using IVF or related techniques. The rapid acceptance of the concept was largely due to the pioneering work of gynaecologists such as Ian Craft, who, along with Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe (who treated Brown’s mother), gave infertile couples hope that they need not accept their childless state. Continue reading...

New trials have shown the drug psilocybin to be highly effective in treating depression, with Oakland the latest US city to in effect decriminalise it last week. Some researchers say it could become ‘indefensible’ to ignore the evidence – but how would it work as a reliable treatment?

The uncertainty of climate change is an argument for – not against – decarbonizing the economy as quickly as possibleFor 23 years, I worked at a libertarian thinktank, arguing against climate action. But my views have changed. I now embrace decarbonization. Why? For one thing, I’ve come to better understand risk management.The raucous political debate with denialists aside, the real debate in climate science is about how much warming we’ll have to face, how abrupt it might be, how quickly we can adjust, how much severe weather we’ll experience, and how likely it is that various low-probability, high-impact climate events will come to pass. Continue reading...

With its Frankenstein fauna and cosmopolitan chickens, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen’s eco-park puts the perverse into biodiversityA huge steel cage pokes up through the trees on the edge of Genk in eastern Belgium. It emerges from a long, dark brick building that has the fortified look of a high-security laboratory. Through narrow windows, you can make out the inanimate bodies of pigs, chickens and strange winged creatures, lit by eerie neon lights, while a symphony of exotic squawks emanates from an aviary beyond. Hidden out here on the edge of a forest, it looks like some secret facility for developing future species.The reality is not far off. This is Labiomista, the otherworldly vision of artist Koen Vanmechelen, who has spent the last two decades conducting experiments with animals – from breeding the most “cosmopolitan” kind of chicken to exploring the immunological potential of camels. In a joint venture with the city, he has now built a €22m ecological park and studio complex, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, as a wild playground for his curious creations. Continue reading...

Space object about a mile wide believed to have crashed into Earth around 1.2bn years ago

Despite a senior colleague’s protests, Jean Purdy’s name was not included on memorialThe name of a female nurse and embryologist who played a crucial role in developing the world’s first test-tube baby was excluded from a plaque honouring the pioneers of IVF despite objections from her colleagues, newly released letters reveal.Jean Purdy was one of three scientists whose groundbreaking work led to the birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978. Yet her central role was largely forgotten in the rush to praise her colleagues, Prof Sir Robert Edwards and the surgeon Patrick Steptoe. Continue reading...

Simple scans ‘could revolutionise the way that we diagnose disease’, says professorHundreds of men will be given MRI scans in a groundbreaking clinical trial that scientists say could transform screening for prostate cancer.The £5m trial, which begins in August, is pioneering a simple, 10-minute scan that scientists hope could provide the first reliable method for identifying dangerous tumours in the general population. Continue reading...

After reaching its closest approach to Earth tonight, Jupiter comes into conjunction with the full moon next SundayToday Jupiter reaches its closest approach to Earth for the year. The configuration is known as opposition, as the sun is directly opposite the planet in the sky. This means the planet reaches its highest altitude (culminates) at or around midnight. However, for this particular opposition, that altitude is not large for many northern observers. From London, Jupiter will culminate at just 15 degrees in altitude so you will need a clear southern horizon to spot the brightly shining planet. Continue reading...

Work to stop slabs crashing into burial spaces beneath has uncovered a wealth of surprisesA painstaking operation to stop the floor of one of the UK’s great churches caving into the burial spaces beneath the great stone slabs has reached an important stage.The east wing of Bath Abbey, which has been hidden behind hoardings for more than a year, was reopened for members of the congregation on Sunday and from Monday visitors will be able to tread the much more stable floor. Continue reading...

Mice, rats and zebrafish will no longer be bred for medical research at one of the world’s leading genetics institutesA row has broken out among scientists over the decision by one of the world’s leading genetics laboratories – the Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire – to close its animal breeding facility.The Wellcome Trust, which runs the institute, has decided that the £30m animal laboratory, where mice, rats and zebrafish are bred for medical experiments, should be shut within the next three years. It was set up 12 years ago and employs 70 staff. The institute – which played a leading role in the first sequencing of the human genome – says its scientists are now using fewer and fewer animals in their research. Continue reading...

As the last patents on the erectile dysfunction drug run out, interest in finding new treatments has been renewedAre we witnessing the end of an era for Viagra and Pfizer? Since the famous “little blue pill” exploded on to the market in 1998, becoming the fastest selling drug in history, the American pharmaceutical giant has made vast sums marketing it to erectile dysfunction sufferers all over the world. Within three months of its launch, Viagra had already earned Pfizer $400m, and over the past two decades, it has consistently generated annual sales to the tune of $1.8bn.However, this will soon come to an end, as in 2020, Pfizer’s remaining patents on Viagra expire for good. A whole host of generic versions have emerged in the past six years, often in quirky forms such as mint strips or breath sprays, as Pfizer’s grip on the rights to the drug has slowly loosened. Soon, these are expected to flood the market, as manufacturers jostle for a slice of the pie. Continue reading...

A mid-life career leap into the prison service opened this GP’s eyes and heartFor Dr Amanda Brown, a village GP in Buckinghamshire, the idea of working in a prison was so off the radar that when the offer came, her first reaction was surprise that such jobs existed. “It had never occurred to me that doctors even worked in prisons,” she says. “How stupid was I? But I thought it sounded fun. Interesting. Different.” The offer arrived at one of the lowest points in her life: she was crying in her consulting room when she took the call that would turn out to be the solution, or in her words, “a blessing”.It was March 2004, Brown was 49 and had angrily and impulsively resigned over government plans for new GP contracts, which would reward surgeries for meeting certain targets, such as checking cholesterol or completing mental health questionnaires during consultations. Although Brown had started the practice from scratch 20 years previously – and her husband, a property developer, had actually built the surgery – her partners had informed her they would “resent” her if their income fell because she refused to tick boxes and meet targets. Continue reading...

Children with food allergies are found to have higher levels of substance in processed foodsA ballooning diet of junk food might be one of the factors fuelling a rise in food allergies, researchers have suggested.Experts say they have seen a rise in food allergies in western countries, including the UK. While true prevalence can be tricky to determine, data published by NHS Digital shows episodes of anaphylactic shock in England due to adverse food reactions rose steadily from 1,362 in 2011-12 to 1,922 in 2016-17. Continue reading...

President tweeted Nasa should focus on ‘Mars (of which the Moon is a part)’ over going to the moon, a reversal of previous remarksFollowers of astronomy were in for a surprise on Friday, when Donald Trump announced that the moon is part of Mars.In a tweet, apparently commenting on his own administration’s space policy, the president said: “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago.” Continue reading...

Move will allow private astronauts to spend up to 30 days in low-Earth orbit and businesses to shoot film and adverts in spaceNasa will allow unprecedented commercial access to the International Space Station (ISS) for marketing, business and space tourism, the agency announced on Friday.The change paves the way for the wealthy to rocket from Earth and spend time aboard the astronaut home and laboratory in space, through trips planned by private enterprise, and for businesses to develop products or shoot film – including adverts – in space. Continue reading...

Neurologist says ‘metricising our lives’ is counterproductive when it comes to sleepSmartphone sleep-tracking apps are making people so anxious and obsessed about their sleep that they are developing insomnia, a leading neurologist has said.Speaking at the Cheltenham science festival, Dr Guy Leschziner, a sleep disorder specialist and consultant at Guy’s hospital in London, said a growing preoccupation with getting enough sleep was backfiring. Continue reading...

What can we learn from chimps when it comes to politics and power? Ian Sample meets the leading primatologist Prof Frans de Waal of Emory University to discuss good leadership and what we can learn from our closest living relatives. Continue reading...

The current outbreak, linked to smallholders, is likely to affect prices around the world. But supersized animal farms are not the answerIn the coming weeks, bacon sandwich eaters in Newcastle and dairy farmers in California may find their pockets hit by developments thousands of miles away. The culprit is an outbreak of African swine fever which is sweeping through Asia, leading to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam, in what one expert calls the world’s biggest animal disease outbreak to date. The US and the UK are watching keenly. Denmark has built a 43-mile border fence to keep out wild boar. The devastating impact in Asia and the consequences already being felt further afield shed light on the globalisation of modern food production.The highly infectious disease is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs; there is, as yet, no vaccine. It was first detected outside Africa in 1957, in Portugal. It re-emerged in Europe more recently. But never before has it spread so rapidly and damagingly. In China, which until this outbreak reared around half the world’s pigs, every province has been affected. The disease has already shown up in Mongolia, Cambodia and North Korea. The UN Food And Agriculture Organization says it believes the cases reported by governments are underestimates. Many farmers may quietly sell infected meat rather than relying on promises of compensation and enmeshing themselves in disease-control obligations. Officials may also be reluctant to own up to problems. Continue reading...

The chancellor says we can’t afford to save ourselves. Let’s leave such absurd thinking behind – and invest in green policies