Science | The Guardian

Health service is at tipping point, say experts, and novel solutions' have been wrongly hypedThe NHS must concentrate on the basics of cancer treatment rather than the magic bullets" of novel technologies and artificial intelligence, or risk the health of thousands of patients, experts have warned.In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, nine leading cancer doctors and academics say the NHS is at a tipping point in cancer care with survival rates lagging behind many other developed countries. Continue reading...

Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from ChinaScientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator's population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor. Continue reading...

The answers to today's questionsEarlier today I asked you to Think Twice about the following puzzles. (It's the name of my new book, on puzzles that often catch us out.) Continue reading...

Researchers found differences in the gut microbes of autistic people, raising hopes for faster diagnosis Do gut microbes have a role in autism itself?Scientists have raised hopes for a cheap and simple test for autism after discovering consistent differences between the microbes found in the guts of autistic people and those without the condition.The finding suggests that a routine stool sample test could help doctors identify autism early, meaning people would receive their diagnosis, and hopefully support, much faster than with the lengthy procedure used in clinics today. Continue reading...

Your own thoughts are just part of the picture - relationships are vital to the way you thinkAs a neuropsychologist I feel as if I'm supposed to start this article withan attitude of deep reverence towards the brain. I might highlight itsstaggering number of neuronal connections (comparable in magnitude to the number of stars in the Milky Way), or draw your attention to our ever more sophisticated tools for neuroimaging getting us closer to a complete picture of how the brain works, or simply gesture towards the profound mystery of matter giving rise to experience.But although I do often experience something of that reverence, I think it can be a distraction in our efforts to understand thought. I know from clinical experience that if the brain is damaged, so too is our cognition, often in quite regular and predictable ways.Ifyou suffer damage to your frontal lobe then you will probably become less able to control your behaviour. If you have a stroke in the relevant part of your occipital lobe, your ability to make sense of visual information will be reduced. This brain-cognition link is an increasingly central tenet of our scientific culture but with it comes a sense that we should understand ourselves as analogous to machines. Remove a part of the hardware and the software is damaged. Continue reading...

That probably includes youUPDATE: Read the solutions hereThink Twice is the title of my new book (out on September 5) and it is also my advice for today's puzzles. Continue reading...

Moon will move in front of Spica into early hours of 14 JulyThis week the first quarter moon will make a close pass of Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, the virgin. The chart shows the view looking west/south-west from London at 11pm (BST) on the evening of 13 July.The moon will creep closer to the star as midnight passes and we move into the early hours of 14 July, but the constellation will be setting fast too. The moon will be about 7.5 days old and almost exactly 50% of its visible surface will be illuminated. Continue reading...

Pill known as OXO-001, designed to act directly on womb lining, could improve rate of embryo implantationA trial of a new fertility drug has shown that it could improve the rate of embryo implantation during IVF and lead to a 7% increase in live births.The pill, known as OXO-001, is designed to act directly on the lining of the womb to make it more receptive to the embryo being implanted. The findings raise hope for patients who have experienced repeated implantation failures during successive rounds of IVF. Continue reading...

Research suggests impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of the eggAir pollution exposure can significantly decrease the chance of a live birth after IVF treatment, according to research that deepens concern about the health impacts of toxic air on fertility.Pollutant exposure has previously been linked to increased miscarriage rates and preterm births, and microscopic soot particles have been shown to travel through the bloodstream into the ovaries and the placenta. The latest work suggests that the impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of eggs. Continue reading...

Relationships, especially romantic ones, need to be based on mutual recognition and understanding of emotional experiences

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsMy 13-year-old daughter just came to me and said: I have a much longer tongue than my friends'. Does that mean I have more taste buds?" I don't know who else to ask; can the readers help? David Wynne, West SussexSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

A meteor was seen lighting up the night sky in northern Turkey on Friday night. Footage shared on social media showed dazzled spectators as the meteor streaked across the sky in the city of Safranbolu. Another video showed flashes of light in Kastamonu, about 60 miles east of Safranbolu. The Turkish space agency confirmed the phenomenon was a meteor, in a post on X Continue reading...

We live in societies that celebrate youth and youth culture, yet are governed by our eldersStates when they are in difficulties or in fear yearn for the rule of the elder men," wrote Plutarch, the first-century Greek historian and philosopher, as he pondered whether an old man should engage in politics". Only the old, he believed, possessed the wisdom granted by age, and the composure that came with experience. The state which always discards the old men," he argued, must necessarily be filled up with young men who are thirsty for reputation and power, but do not possess a statesmanlike mind."What might Plutarch have made of Joe Biden's abject performance in last month's debate with Donald Trump and of his insistence on remaining the Democratic candidate in the presidential election in November? Plutarch recognised that old men could be enfeebled, but the evil caused by their physical weakness", he insisted, is not so great as the advantage they possess in their caution and prudence". Continue reading...

The broader context of what the magazine has become starts with political activist Josh Hammer running its opinion pagesPoor Taylor Swift. The pop star is a billionaire and one of the most successful people on the planet. She has an army of devoted fans who happily bankrupt themselves to follow her on record-breaking tours around the world. A German city just temporarily renamed itself Swiftkirchen in her honour. The Federal Reserve has credited her for boosting the economy. And yet, when it comes to the most important metrics of success, Taylor is a tragic failure: she is an ageing, unmarried wench who hath not brought forth a child into this world. Continue reading...

Japanese biochemist whose work on fungal extracts led to the creation of the first statinThe Japanese biochemist Akira Endo, who has died aged 90, was the creator of the first statin, a drug that lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, through his pioneering work with fungal extracts. Endo believed - and eventually proved - that fungi could yield a substance to block cholesterol production.Known as bad" cholesterol, LDL cholesterol narrows the arteries, raising the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. First licensed in 1987, statins were a game-changer in the treatment of heart disease. Today, approximately 200 million people take them daily and they are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the UK. Continue reading...

Experts are worried that women are not being properly advised about the hormone and that it is too readily obtainable - as I found out for myself

Scientists say changes since 1950 could partly be due to new genres such as stadium rock, disco and hip-hopWon't you play a simple melody," sang Bing Crosby in his rendition of the Irving Berlin classic. Now it seems his wish has come true: research has revealed the tunes of modern chart-toppers are less complex than those of the past.Scientists say the change could - at least in part - be down to the emergence of new genres over the decades, such as stadium rock, disco and hip-hop. Continue reading...

T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze star, was last seen in 1946 and will be visible again some time between now and SeptemberIn what is being called a once-in-a-lifetime event", light from a thermonuclear explosion on a star has been travelling towards Earth for thousands of years and it will be here any day.T Coronae Borealis (also known as T Cor Bor, T CrB, and the Blaze star) will be as bright as the north star (for those in the northern hemisphere). Continue reading...

Warriors from Britain joined far-flung Byzantine military campaigns in sixth century, grave goods suggestSixth-century Anglo-Saxon people may have travelled from Britain to the eastern Mediterranean and northern Syria to fight in wars, researchers have suggested, casting fresh light on their princely burials.St John Simpson, a senior British Museum curator, and Helen Gittos, an Oxford scholar, have concluded that some of the exotic items excavated at Sutton Hoo, Taplow and Prittlewell, among other sites, originated in the eastern Mediterranean and north Syria and cannot have been conventional trade goods, as others have suggested. Continue reading...

I climbed a mountain and took up the French horn. If he can hold on to who he is away from the court, Murray can find joy after tennis

A thought provoking look at social forces, and the ways ordinary people can change the worldAfter the Arab spring uprisings spread to Libya in 2011 and Muammar Gaddafi ordered histroops to fire on protesters, many ordinary Libyans took up arms and joined anti-government militias. I had been living in Libya since 2008 and watched with shock as friends and acquaintances - party animals barely out of their teens, middle-aged accountants - became fighters overnight. The kindly receptionist at work became a powerful military commander. Ever since then I've puzzled over the change in them, and how freedom fighters are created.It turns out that the social anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse and his colleague Brian McQuinn travelled to Libya in 2011 to try to answer these questions. Whitehouse's studies of everything from painful initiation rituals in Papua New Guinea to Catholics and Protestants responding to sectarian abuse in Northern Ireland have illustrated that sharing emotive and difficult experiences can lead to powerful group bonding, creating a sense of fusion", a visceral feeling of oneness with your group. The principle applies to fellow tribesmen, Chelsea fans or new mothers. His interviews with Libyan fighters showed that Gaddafi's violence had helped those on the frontline see themselves as more closely aligned with their brothers-in-arms than with their relatives. Shared hardship can create such a powerful sense of kinship that it harnesses the same deep-seated instinct to sacrifice yourself for your descendants. To understand the logic of hatred and violence, in other words, you also need to understand love. Continue reading...

Researchers simulated how cities, such as Shanghai, as well as warehouses and shopping centres can slow down windCities slow the wind down. Skyscrapers, warehouses, suburbs and shopping centres all create obstacles to airflow and this increase in surface roughness slows the wind down. Across China the rapid growth of cities has resulted in average wind speed decreasing by 11% since the 1980s. But urbanisation also increases surface temperatures within cities, driving more mixing with the air above and potentially increasing wind speed. So which effect is dominant?Researchers from Nanjing University in China have simulated the impact of the buildings in one of China's megacities - Shanghai - to understand what impact the cityscape is having on the wind. The research, which is published in the Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems, shows that Shanghai's built landscape takes a significant amount of energy out of the wind, slowing it down by about 50%. However, during warm periods when the urban heat island effect is particularly strong, the slowing effect of the buildings is outweighed by the energy being added via turbulent mixing with the air above. Under the most extreme circumstances this can result in average urban wind speeds increasing by as much as 30%. Continue reading...

Recent research has suggested a global reproductive crisis could be in the offing, with researchers in Israel saying average sperm counts may have more than halved in the past 40 years. But a study published last month appears to call this narrative into question. Ian Sample is joined by the Guardian's science correspondent Nicola Davis to unpick why these studies have come to different conclusions - and what could be causing the crisis, if declines are as dramatic as they appear Continue reading...

National Trust ground-scanning technology maps new features close to site of Roman city of WroxeterAn archaeological survey of more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in Shropshire has identified a wealth of previously unknown features, including two grand Roman villas and multiple earlier iron age farmsteads.The geophysical survey, the largest ever conducted by the National Trust, used ground-scanning technology to map undetected features close to the site of the Roman city of Wroxeter, just south of modern day Shrewsbury. Continue reading...

Code will remove grey area around stem cell-based technology and ensure responsible research, say scientistsBiological models of human embryos that can develop heartbeats, spinal cords and other distinctive features will be governed by a code of practice in Britain to ensure that researchers work on them responsibly.Made from stem cells, they mimic, to a greater or less extent, the biological processes at work in real embryos. By growing them in the laboratory, scientists hope to learn more about how human embryos develop and respond to their environment, questions that would be impossible to answer with real embryos donated for research. Continue reading...

New dating technique finds painting on island of Sulawesi is 6,000 years older than previous record holderThe world's oldest known picture story is a cave painting almost 6,000 years older than the previous record holder, found about 10km away on the same island in Indonesia, an international team of archaeologists has said.The painting, believed to be at least 51,200 years old, was found at Leang Karampuang cave on the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers from Griffith University, Southern Cross University and the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency wrote in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

He was mentored by Jacques Derrida, amd his memoir about taking hormones broke new ground. Now, Preciado's radical cinematic riff on Virginia Woolf's novel explores a life spent defying the gender binaryIn the opening seconds of Orlando: My Political Biography, a shadowy figure in a quiet city street says: Someone once asked me, Why don't you write your autobiography?' And I replied, Because Virginia Woolf fucking wrote it for me in 1928.'" The scene takes place in the dead of night, with the silence broken only by the swish of a brush as this speaker pastes up a large gold poster. Orlando," it reads, ou es tu?"Moments later, this fly-poster apologises to Woolf for his profanity: I say it with tenderness and admiration, because your writing seems impossible to surpass. But I also say it with rage, because you represented us - trans people - as aristocrats in colonial England who one day wake up in a woman's body." Continue reading...

People with diabetes on semaglutide, found in Wegovy and Ozempic, four times more likely to be diagnosed with disease of optic nervePeople who have been prescribed a weight-loss injection could be at a higher risk of developing an eye condition which can lead to blindness, a study has found.The study found that people with diabetes who were prescribed semaglutide, most commonly known under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with an eye condition known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (naion). Continue reading...

About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientistsA giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past. Continue reading...

Higher inoculation rates could make it less likely viruses will spread, thereby reducing risk to asthmatic childrenHigher Covid vaccination rates could help protect children against asthma attacks, according to research.While previous studies show that vaccination helps prevent Covid 19 illness, the authors believe this is the first study to assess whether Covid inoculation is associated with reductions in children's asthma symptoms, by preventing viral illness in children with asthma. Continue reading...

Analysis shows hippos get all four feet off the ground at once up to 15% of the time when at full peltIt takes a scientific mind to see the grunting hulk of a hippopotamus and wonder whether, given sufficient motivation, such an improbable beast might ever become airborne.And so to researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, whose painstaking examination of footage of the creatures revealed that when the hefty herbivores reach top speed they do indeed take off. Continue reading...

Experts say the DEA's rescheduling of cannabis as a medication will be a little bit incoherent'The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposed rules earlier this year that would officially give cannabis status as a medication rather than an illegal narcotic - that's exciting news for researchers, but will rescheduling mean that cannabis could soon move from the dispensary to the drug store?Experts say it's not that simple. Continue reading...

By 2021, women around the world were 6% angrier than men, a gap that widened during the pandemic. Dr Jennifer Cox says it is time to let it all outOh my God, I love a scream," says Dr Jennifer Cox, her face lighting up. Screaming underwater, I recommend. It's amazing. It's so liberating and no one can hear."The same is true for standing on a motorway bridge and venting your pent-up rage and frustration into the roar of the traffic underneath. Or, at a pinch, for yelling under the noise of the shower, she says. Women are like: Oh, I can't be seen to do this stuff.' OK, don't be seen. But let it out." Continue reading...

Eli Lilly says Kisunla demonstrated meaningful results' for people showing early symptoms of the diseaseFederal health authorities on Tuesday gave approval to an experimental new drug that has shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease in trials.Donanemab, manufactured by Eli Lilly, is the second medication that has won the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat patients showing early symptoms of the disease, most prominently cognitive impairment. Continue reading...

Research on carpenter ants provides first example of a non-human animal severing limbs to curb infectionsIt sounds like a scene from a Spielberg film: an injured worker undergoes an emergency amputation, performed by one of her colleagues, allowing her to live another day. But this is not a human story - it is behaviour seen in ants.While it is not the first time wound care has been seen in ants, scientists say their discovery is the first example of a non-human animal carrying out life-saving amputations, with the operation performed to treat leg wounds and prevent the onset or spread of infection. Continue reading...

Richard Forrest has spent half a century combing beaches for ammonites and other fossils. Along the Dorset coast, the constant shift of earth, rocks and sand continually reveals fresh evidence of life millions of years ago

A moth garden at Hampton Court Palace shows off plants that can be grown to help the insects, which are threatened by habitat lossEveryone loves bees and butterflies, but now moths are coming into the spotlight (as long as they don't fly around it).The moth expert Charles Waters has seen a surprisingly rapid increase in interest in moths from the younger generation as, he believes, people become more aware of their beauty and diversity, as well as their importance as pollinators. Continue reading...

As she steps down as the Green party's first, and so far only, MP, Caroline Lucas tells Madeleine Finlay what it's been like as the sole Green voice in parliament for the past 14 years, her hopes for her party in Thursday's UK general election, and what she plans to do in her life beyond politicsCaroline Lucas: Labour must pursue social justice while tackling climate crisis Continue reading...

Study is first to track people at different time points in life and finds close link between nutrition and cognitive abilityA healthy diet earlier in life could help keep you mentally sharp into your 70s, and even ward off dementia, according to research that followed thousands of Britons for seven decades.While most studies on diet and cognitive ability have focused on people already in or reaching old age, the new review was the first to track people throughout their life - from the age of four to 70 - and suggests the links may start much earlier than previously recognised. Continue reading...

Brain-controlled device results in more natural gait and improves stability on stairs and uneven terrainA brain-controlled bionic leg has allowed people with amputations to walk more quickly and navigate stairs and obstacles more easily in a groundbreaking trial.The device allows the wearer to flex, point and rotate the foot of the prosthetic using their thoughts alone. This led to a more natural gait, improved stability on stairs and uneven terrain and a 41% increase in speed compared with a traditional prosthetic. The bionic leg works by reading activity in the patient's residual leg muscles and uses these signals to control an electrically powered ankle. Continue reading...

Our selective engagement with nature stops humans from seeing animals clearly - and that's not good for them or for usOne of my most annoying traits, I have been told, is my tendency to puncture others' casual enjoyment of nature with brutal and unsolicited pieces of trivia. Chalk it up to the influence of my hobbyist herpetologist father, who instilled in me not only a passion for less cuddly animals but also a rigorous attention to the facts.If your favourite animals are sea otters, which mate for life and hold hands so they don't drift apart? I will inform you that they also sometimes rape baby seals to death. Oh, you prefer chimps? Have you seen that David Attenborough footage of a group of them hunting a monkey that was apparently too disturbing to broadcast with close-up detail?Elle Hunt is a freelance journalistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

A space rocket operated by a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday. It soared straight up into the air before losing power and falling back to earth, hitting nearby forested hills.The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launchpad due to a structural failure, said the company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account

Life on this planet is becoming er ... awkward anyway

Light from the detonation, which will make the star visible without an aid, has been travelling through space all this timeWe are still waiting for the star T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) to do its thing. First mentioned in April, the star experiences a thermonuclear detonation on its surface roughly every 80 years. This explosion will make the star visible without an aid for the first time since the 1940s.The chart shows the view looking south-south-west from London at about 2300 BST. It marks the location to keep an eye on. When it erupts, T CrB is expected to reach the same brightness as Alphecca, the brightest star in the constellation of Corona Borealis, the northern crown. Continue reading...

Bilbies have the biggest genome of any marsupial, which could be down to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell

Company Space Pioneer says first stage of its Tianlong-3 launched during test after structural failure' and crashed in hills near city of GongyiThe space rocket of a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday, after it accidentally launched during a test.The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, said company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account. The rocket landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China, it said. Continue reading...

Moss that grows in Mojave desert and Antarctica may help establish life on the red planet, researchers sayWhile Matt Damon relied on potatoes cultivated in crew biowaste to survive in the hit film The Martian, researchers say it is a humble desert moss that might prove pivotal to establishing life on Mars.Scientists in China say they have found Syntrichia caninervis - a moss found in regions including Antarctica and the Mojave desert - is able to withstand Mars-like conditions, including drought, high levels of radiation and extreme cold. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsMy 13-year-old daughter just came to me and said: I have a much longer tongue than my friends. Does that mean I have more taste buds?" I don't know who else to ask; can the readers help? David Wynne, West SussexPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

It felt selfish, but at home I couldn't finish a thought without being interrupted by my kids - so I packed my bags and headed to the coastAs the windscreen wipers cut back and forth, and my house disappeared in the rear-view mirror, I wondered if I was going to cry. I tried reminding myself that I was on my way to do something lovely: I'd booked a three-night stay at a hotel in Devon to work on my novel: my first ever solo writing retreat.I was driving away from a world of chaos, leaving my seven-year-old weeping at the front door, my nine-year-old worrying about a science project, my mother-in-law unexpectedly in hospital, and my husband juggling it all. Continue reading...

In 1974, the fossilised bones of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old hominin, were discovered in Ethiopia. How has this remarkable skeleton disproved Darwinian theory - and what links her to the Beatles?On 24 November 1974, the US anthropologist Donald Johanson was scrabbling through a ravine at Hadar in the Afar region of Ethiopia with his research student, Tom Gray. The pair were looking for fossilised animal bones in the surrounding silt and ash when Johanson spotted a tiny fragment of arm bone - and realised it belonged to a human-like creature.We looked up the slope," Johanson later recalled. There, incredibly, lay a multitude of bone fragments - a nearly complete lower jaw, a thighbone, ribs, vertebrae, and more! Tom and I yelled, hugged each other, and danced, mad as any Englishman in the midday sun!" Continue reading...