Extensive historical data shows recent extreme warming is unprecedented in past 2,000 yearsThe scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99%, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts.Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data to show there has never been a period in the last 2,000 years when temperature changes have been as fast and extensive as in recent decades. Continue reading...

High temperatures and high moisture levels make for atmospheric instabilityOver the last few days, we have seen the arrival of hot and humid weather, with some thunderstorms. Various media outlets have associated these conditions with the arrival of what is termed a Spanish plume, which often leads to scorching temperatures and the risk of severe thunderstorms. This week we have had both in many parts of the country.But what exactly is a Spanish plume and how does it affect our weather? The “plume” can build up when we have slack areas of low pressure to the west and high pressure to the east, drawing up a gentle southerly flow. This often originates from the elevated Spanish plateau, hence the name. Continue reading...

Humans should not be allowed to turn the moon and planets into a junkyard, writes Phil Murray, while Ian McNicholas says space exploration is vital for the survival of our speciesYour recent series of articles commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing have been both informative and stimulating. Your sidebar story (Lunar litter: Junk humans left behind, 20 July) does, however, sound a siren warning as to the likely impact of human activity, if and when astronauts resume exploration of the moon and beyond. If 12 astronauts, and their associated support systems, making fleeting visits to the moon 50 years ago, results in nearly 200 tonnes of junk left on the lunar surface, what is the prospect for the environmental stability of other “target destination planets” in our solar system, once national space agencies and commercial exploration companies activate their current development programmes?We have already made a dire mess of our planet, even though regular human space travel/exploration on a significant scale may yet be decades away, it is not too early for international commitment to binding regulations, perhaps promoted under the auspices of the UN, based on the well-established principles of the polluter pays, and when visiting unexplored territory, take only photographs, leave only footprints. Continue reading...

Device tested in humans for first time, raising prospect of ‘fit and forget’ treatment

Diplomats had reported falling ill after what was thought to be ‘acoustic attack’Brain scans of US embassy staff who became ill in mysterious circumstances while serving in Cuba have found potential abnormalities that may be related to their symptoms.The scans taken from 40 US government workers who suffered strange concussion-like symptoms during their deployment to Havana revealed that particular brain features looked different to those in healthy volunteers. Continue reading...

Our extreme weather is making me nostalgic for the damp conditions of my English childhood. But despite the climate emergency, capitalism continues regardlessDo you remember when the weather was a reliable source of innocuous small talk? “Hot today, isn’t it?” you would observe to a colleague as you stood awkwardly in the lift together. They would reply with something about the garden needing rain, then you would go back to ignoring each other. Talking about the weather was uncontroversial. It was safe. It was oddly soothing.Sadly, there is nothing soothing about the weather any more; every day seems to bring new record-breaking temperatures or extreme conditions. June was the hottest month recorded on Earth; July is on course to break that record. The Arctic is having a sweltering summer that has sparked unprecedented wildfires. According to the World Meteorological Organization, these fires emitted as much carbon dioxide in one month as the whole of Sweden does in a year. Continue reading...

Gene that helped prevent clogged arteries was lost 2 to 3 million years agoThe loss of a single gene 2 to 3 million years ago in our ancestry may help explain why humans are the only animals in which heart attacks are common.Atherosclerosis – the clogging of arteries with fatty deposits – can lead to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events like heart attacks and strokes, which cause about a third of all deaths worldwide. Continue reading...

Study could eventually lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative conditionScientists have found tantalising clues that the devastating condition motor neurone disease may be linked to changes in microbes that live in the gut.Studies in mice revealed that animals bred to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of the disease that affected the cosmologist Stephen Hawking, improved and lived longer when they were given an organism called Akkermansia muciniphila. Continue reading...

Study finds developing chicks communicate with siblings when they hearalarm callsBaby seabirds that have not yet hatched communicate with their siblings in neighbouring eggs by vibrating their shells, scientists have discovered.A study of yellow-legged gulls revealed one of the most sophisticated known examples of embryonic communication. When exposed to the alarm calls of an adult bird responding to a predator, developing chicks apparently were able to convey the presence of danger to their nestmates by wriggling inside their eggs. Continue reading...

Research finds recording of spontaneous laughter is more effective than controlled oneIn research that will ensure the sitcoms of the future are as painful as those broadcast today, scientists have found that canned laughter makes bad jokes seem funnier.The impact of overlaid laughter emerged from a study with autistic and “neurotypical” people, all of whom agreed to endure 40 jokes that were read aloud with recorded laughter following the punchline. Continue reading...

With first mission to land on lunar south pole, India aims to join club comprising Russia, US and ChinaIndia’s mission to the moon has blasted into space one week after a technical glitch forced scientists to abruptly halt its scheduled launch.Thousands gathered to watch Chandrayaan-2 take off at 2.43pm local time (0913 GMT) on Monday from Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai. Continue reading...

Volcanologists say excavations by archaeologists are destroying useful clues about lava flowIt is one of the most ambitious archaeological missions ever undertaken. The Great Pompeii Project promises remarkable discoveries about life in the Roman empire, including the genetic profiles of the town’s inhabitants, their dining preferences, occupations and health.But as layers of volcanic rock are chipped away to uncover the secrets that lie below, not everyone is celebrating. Volcanologists say the excavation risks destroying clues about the AD79 eruption that could be crucial for protecting the 600,000 people who live in the shadow of Vesuvius today. Continue reading...

Find sheds fresh light on wealth and influence of ex-inhabitants of National Trust property

It’s not the most spectacular of meteor showers but the delta Aquariids last for over a week, giving plenty of opportunities for meteor spottingThe summer season of meteor showers begins this week. First up are the delta Aquariids. As the name suggests the meteors radiate from a point in the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer. This is an admittedly modest shower with just 15 to 20 meteors expected an hour at the peak but it is also a forgiving one. Instead of a sharp peak in number, the shower is spread out over a week or more. So taking a look any time between now and the end of the month presents a good chance of seeing something. The chart shows the position of the delta Aquariids’ radiant at 03:00 BST on 26 July 2019. Between the early hours and dawn is usually the best time to see meteors. Look at the sky around the radiant, rather than straight at it. Continue reading...

False results have told women they have mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancerSenior doctors have called for a crackdown on consumer genetic tests, following an influx of patients who have been wrongly told they are carrying dangerous mutations linked to cancer or other devastating conditions.Women have been incorrectly informed by companies that they have faulty BRCA genes, which convey a high risk of breast and ovarian cancers. One patient was scheduled for preventive breast-removal surgery after a consumer genetic test suggested she had a BRCA mutation. The surgery was called off at the last moment when an NHS laboratory revealed the result to be a false positive. Continue reading...

Within a few years, a manned space station will orbit the moon and later a colony could be built on its surfaceWhen Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first careful steps on the moon’s surface 50 years ago this weekend, they transformed humanity’s place in the cosmos. We stopped being distant bystanders who were contemplating the glories of the universe from afar and became participants in its exploitation. The fact that this goal was achieved using equipment that now looks breathtakingly primitive merely makes America’s lunar landings look all the more impressive. Apollo 11’s guidance computer had considerably less power than a smartphone has today, while the Eagle lunar module’s ascent engine, which would blast the astronauts back off the surface at 17.54 GMT on 21 July, 1969, remained a worry because it had never been tested on the moon. Armstrong rated the chances that he and Aldrin would make a successful landing at no more than 50-50. Their triumph was certainly not preordained.The decision, made in the early 1970s, to end the programme that took Armstrong, Aldrin and 10 other US astronauts to the lunar surface disappointed many at the time. However, the Apollo flights were motivated, not by a spirit of scientific inquiry but by the United States’ desire to beat the Russians and win “the Space Race”. Once America had demonstrated its technological superiority, the Apollo programme – which at one time consumed 4% of the US federal budget – had little purpose. Continue reading...

A Sydney team has developed a box jellyfish antidote so simple it can go on as a spray. But it’s only the first stepThe idea came to Dr Greg Neely after the fruit flies. In May, the Sydney-based scientist and his team of 22 announced they had potentially cured the sting of the box jellyfish, the most venomous creature in the world, whose toxins cause excruciating pain as a best-case scenario, and cardiac arrest as the worst.It was a simple but groundbreaking technique, using the latest in genetics technology – Crispr, the gene-editing tool that allows scientists to make precise changes to DNA. Continue reading...

In 2006 the writer Clare Mackintosh gave birth to twin boys 12 weeks prematurely. At first everything went well, but then one twin picked up a dangerous infection, and mother and father were faced with a terrible decisionAuthors are told to write what they know, but my own story was, for many years, too hard to even contemplate. I was too scared to explore the emotions I kept locked away. I wrote other books instead – became known for twisty thrillers – then last year I sat at my desk with new resolve. It was time.In November 2006 I delivered twin boys 12 weeks prematurely. Josh and Alex were baby birds, with screwed-shut eyes and translucent skin. They drank my milk through a narrow tube, breathed via a mask over their tiny faces, and day by day grew stronger. Continue reading...

The tick-borne illness, which is on the rise, can have chronic side-effects. So why hasn’t more effort been put into a cure?As a former martial arts world champion, who trained daily and enjoyed camping and hiking at weekends, Stephen Bullough had always prided himself on leading a healthy life.Like most people, he thought very little when he was bitten by a tick on a camping holiday close to home in Wigan in 2014, never suspecting that this tiny bite would unleash an infection in his body that would one day leave him permanently incapacitated. Continue reading...

The president couldn’t resist remarking it was the anniversary of planting an American flag on the moon – but it was a human achievementBuzz Aldrin has described the “magnificent desolation” of the moon. On Friday he got more desolation, but it wasn’t so magnificent.Aged 89, the second man on the moon hovered awkwardly at one end of the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. Michael Collins, 88, Apollo 11 command module pilot, stood at the other with his fingers pressed on the desktop. Between them sat Donald Trump, holding court not about the greatest scientific achievement in human history but trying to defend his racist attacks on a black Muslim US congresswoman. Continue reading...

Fifty years since Apollo 11 landed, the novelist shares her favourite books and poems about Earth’s mysterious satelliteThere she is, 239,000 miles from Earth. A lover’s moon, a poet’s moon, a painted moon, made of green cheese, home to the Man in the Moon, visible above the lights of Moscow and Manhattan, Tokyo and London. Hanging as the silent guardian of rivers and woods. Symbol of the mystery of the universe.None of this has changed since Apollo 11 landed on that broken silent surface 50 years ago. The moon is just as familiar and just as remote. The mythical and magical moon, the lunatic moon that drives men mad, Earth’s moon, lifting tides and raising sap. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, Nasa’s moon landing enthralled my generation. But the cosmos holds other secrets that space exploration could unlockMy favourite childhood reading in the 1950s included the Eagle comic, especially the adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future – where the brilliant artwork depicted orbiting cities, jet packs and alien invaders. When spaceflight became real, the suits worn by the Soviet cosmonauts (and their US astronaut counterparts) were already familiar, as were the routines of launching and docking. My generation avidly followed the succession of heroic pioneering exploits such as Yuri Gagarin’s first orbital flight and Alexei Leonov’s first spacewalk.Related: The Apollo 11 moon landing was a distraction from America's problems Continue reading...

What Australia’s fledgling space agency lacks in size it hopes to make up for with a smart operating strategy and a bold visionOn 20 July 1969, when Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the surface of the moon, the footage was relayed to 600 million viewers – about one-fifth of humanity in 1969 – from Nasa’s Honeysuckle Creek tracking station on the outskirts of Canberra.It was a big achievement for a small country with no space program of its own. Now, 50 years on, Australia has a fledgling space agency – a minnow compared with the US’s Nasa, Europe’s ESA and Japan’s JAXA – but what it lacks in size it is hoping to make up for with a smart operating strategy and a bold vision of what it might be able to achieve. Continue reading...

The Apollo 11 mission inspired the world. What has happened in the ensuing half-century?When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon 50 years ago, it was down to a giant leap of political and scientific imagination. His footprints on the powdery lunar surface changed the way we saw ourselves, confirming that humanity could escape its earthly coils. The mission unleashed a dream of what we as a species might do. Yet only a dozen people have walked on the moon, all between the summer of 1969 and the end of 1972.Did we lose our primordial urge to explore? Almost certainly not – though Buzz Aldrin this week decried “50 years of non-progress”, probes have travelled to Pluto and beyond. But times have changed. The cold war rivalry that catalysed the space race vanished. The Soviet Union was first with a satellite, dog and astronaut in space. Today Washington and Moscow play the great game in the Middle East, not the heavens, although both are now contemplating a return to the moon: Donald Trump wants to make America great again by putting astronauts there by 2024, though some think China may get there first; Russia talks of landing cosmonauts by 2030. Continue reading...

Neil Armstrong | KLM | Boris Johnson | Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump | Phoebe Waller-Bridge | Ed SheeranPerhaps some of the poignancy identified in Suzanne Moore’s piece (G2, 16 July) can be attributed to the fact that those of us who added Neil Armstrong to our book of explorers as children didn’t expect him to be on the last page, but the first page of a new and much bigger book.

After 50 years of exploration, the lunar junkyard holds nearly 200 tonnes of objectsMore than half a century of lunar exploration has left its mark on the moon. What Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin described as the “magnificent desolation” of the relentlessly grey surface is littered with clapped-out robots, spacecraft parts, moon buggies (including one with a bible on the dashboard) and technical equipment.Scattered around the Apollo landing sites are other items that were never meant to come home: a falcon’s feather, a javelin, bags of human waste, a family photo and an aluminium figure, the Fallen Astronaut, which lies on its side near a plaque bearing the names of 14 men who died in the pursuit of space exploration. Continue reading...

After my tick bite I realised that the climate crisis was a more likely culprit than any conspiracy theory about weaponisationThe first indication I’d picked up a tick-borne disease three years ago was the excruciating arthritic pain in my feet as I hobbled to a dinner party at a neighbour’s house in Jerusalem.Later that night I experienced flu-like symptoms, including a raging fever that, even with antibiotics, would last for more than a week. Continue reading...

Prof Jan Wörner says coming flurry of activity may make lunar protection more urgentTranquility base, the spot where humans first set foot on the moon, should be granted special heritage status and protected against damage from future visitors and missions, according to the head of the European Space Agency.The site where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down 50 years ago on Saturday warrants protection as it marks the historic moment when humans reached beyond Earth to another celestial body, said Prof Jan Wörner, the director general of ESA. Continue reading...

As the space race heated up in the 1960s, 13 aviators passed the same tests as Nasa’s first astronauts, later going on to be called the Mercury 13. But because they were women, Nasa wouldn’t even consider them. One of those women was Wally Funk, who joins Nicola Davis and author Sue Nelson this week as they discuss what could and should have been

Images from the 50th-anniversary edition of Norman Mailer’s account of the Nasa mission published by Taschen Continue reading...

Readers share their memories of a life changing shared experience, including relics and photographs from 1969

Numerous unsung women, from computer engineers and mathematicians to secretaries and seamstresses, helped put a man on the moon. Here are the stories of some of those womenAll 12 people who walked on the moon were men. But among the 400,000 people who made it possible, there were numerous unsung women, from computer engineers and mathematicians to secretaries and seamstresses. Today, as America contemplates a return to the moon, there is resolve to ensure women aren’t in the background, but are instead the astronauts leading the way. Fifty years after Apollo, David Smith tells the stories of some of the women who helped put a man on the moon. Continue reading...

Scientists call for reform, sugar regulation and transparency around dental researchScientists are calling for radical reform of dental care, tighter regulation of the sugar industry and greater transparency around conflict of interests in dental research to tackle the high and rising toll of oral disease such as mouth cancers.In a challenge to the global health community, a series in the Lancet medical journal argues that 3.5 billion people suffering from oral disease have been let down. Continue reading...

When Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon in 1969, more than 600 million people around the world tuned in to watch it live. Australia played a key role in getting those images from the moon to Earth. Glen Nagle, from the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, explains how tracking stations at Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes brought the first pictures to the world

When Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon in 1969, more than 600 million people around the world tuned in to watch it live. Australia played a key role in getting those images from the moon to Earth. Glen Nagle, from the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, explains how tracking stations at Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes brought the first pictures to the world Continue reading...

Live TV images of Neil Armstrong’s first step came via Honeysuckle Creek, near Canberra, originally meant only as a backupAround the world more than 600 million people were glued to TV screens. Coordinated by Tom Reid, tracking stations at Australia’s Honeysuckle Creek, Tidbinbilla and Parkes, and their combined staff of almost 200, would be responsible for maintaining all communications with Apollo 11 during the crucial moon walk phase. These communications included the televising of Neil Armstrong’s first step and the monitoring of his heartbeat and respiration rate as he did so, while at the same time enabling him to give Mission Control a second-by-second description of his progress.How was Tom Reid’s team, with not an American accent to be heard, outperforming Nasa’s prime station in California? Continue reading...

Marking the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step’ and published to coincide with Royal Museums Greenwich’s exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, a new book, The Moon: a Celebration of Our Celestial Neighbour explores people’s fascination with Earth’s only natural satellite Continue reading...

Astronaut’s newly released video interview describes final moments before ‘the Eagle’ landed on the moonTime was running out. The Apollo 11 lunar module was on its historic descent to the moon’s crater-pocked surface on 20 July 1969 when a fuel light blinked on. Still 100ft (30 metres) above the ground, it was not what the astronauts needed. The Eagle’s tank was nearly dry.In a new video interview about the momentous first landing on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, the mission’s lunar module pilot, describes how he held his tongue when the warning light appeared and Charlie Duke, Nasa’s capsule communicator, came on the line from Houston to inform Aldrin and Neil Armstrong they had only 60 seconds left to make it down. Continue reading...

All psychiatric conditions are caused by an interaction between a person’s mind and body, writes Peter White. Anorexia is a quite recent phenomenon, writes Declan FlynnWhile it’s welcome news that researchers have found that certain metabolic genes are linked to anorexia nervosa (Anorexia ‘not solely a psychiatric problem’, 16 July), I suggest that Gerome Breen and colleagues have made a conceptual error in suggesting that this means the condition is not psychiatric. Psychiatric conditions are illnesses primarily concerning mental processes and symptoms, but this definition does not imply a psychological cause, and physical symptoms are common in mental illnesses – just think of the palpitations and over-breathing of a panic attack.All psychiatric conditions are caused by an interaction between a person’s mind and body; specifically their biology (particularly their DNA), psychological makeup and social context. And gene activity itself can be determined by our environment through epigenetics. Biological processes are increasingly apparent in all mental illnesses through technical advances such as functional brain scans and genomic studies. Advances in prevention and treatment will come through greater understanding of how both mind and body interact to cause a mental illness, not by redefining such illnesses as solely physical.

Archaeological discovery could have come from possible shipwreck near RamsgateObjects from a possible Roman shipwreck have been found off the coast of Kent in one of the most unusual archaeological finds in living memory.The chance discoveries were made by a kayaker in the sea off Ramsgate. The tide was low enough and the water clear enough for him to reach down and pull out beautiful cobalt blue glassware and high-status Roman pottery, called Samian ware. Continue reading...

New research shows chimpanzees bond quicker after watching films together. Time for Hollywood moguls to fetch the popcorn and head for the zoo – for everyone’s sakeFour years ago, while excavating the rainforest floor of Ivory Coast, archaeologists from Leipzig’s Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology made a startling discovery. From a metre deep in the earth, the archaeologists began to uncover a series crude tools that chimpanzees had passed down from generation to generation in order to enhance their food-gathering abilities. In short, they discovered that we are living through the chimpanzee stone age.Related: Chimps more sociable after watching movies together – study Continue reading...

More than a million people have actually RSVP’d – and the military have issued a serious response.

Waterloo Uncovered’s project shines fresh light on battle that led to Napoleon’s defeatThe first ever excavation of the main allied field hospital at the Battle of Waterloo has uncovered sawn-off limbs and musket balls fired during a previously unrecorded fight on the steps of the farm where the Duke of Wellington’s medics worked.The surprise find by British and Dutch archeologists, digging alongside 25 military veterans, opens up a new understanding of how the Mont-St-Jean field hospital was engulfed by war on 18 June 1815. Continue reading...

The birds, whose population plummeted last century, have two new chicks: Nos 1,000 and 1,001Nestled among the red-rock cliffs of Zion national park and the Grand Canyon, California condor chicks No 1,000 and 1,001 blinked into this world. Their birth signalled success for a decades-long program to bring North America’s largest bird back from the brink of extinction.As a result of hunting, diminishing food and dwindling territory, the number of birds in the wild numbered just 22 in the early 1980s. Lead poisoning was also a major killer, caused by inadvertently ingesting bullets that hunters left inside dead animals that the enormous birds, which have a wingspan of 9.5ft and weigh up to 25lb, scavenged for food. Continue reading...

Stargazers have been treated to a cosmic spectacle as a partial lunar eclipse was visible across parts of the UK. The event on Tuesday evening coincided with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 launching its moon mission.Clear skies across much of the country gave people a stunning view of the phenomenon, including in London, Yorkshire and at Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire. The partial eclipse was also visible in Australia, Africa and much of Asia

Quitters 50% more likely to succeed if offered a financial incentive, researchers find

A Montana rancher found two skeletons in combat – the Dueling Dinosaurs. But who do they belong to, and will the public ever see them?The early June morning in Montana was already very hot and dry by 7.30, when Clayton Phipps and his friend, Mark Eatman, set out to search for fossils. Phipps, a rancher who calls himself the Dino Cowboy, was wearing his trademark black felt Stetson cattleman hat.The two had gone bone collecting before, but they were joined on this day for the first time by Phipps’s cousin, Chad O’Connor. The trio fanned out to hike through the badlands of what they thought was the Judith River Formation; later, they would learn they had actually been in an area called Hell Creek, a division of gray and ochre sandstone, shale and clay deposited about 66m years ago during the Late Cretaceous, when the area was a swampy floodplain. Continue reading...

Radical one-stop shop aims to provide care and support to traumatised childrenTucked behind a busy north London road, the UK’s first “safe space” for child sexual abuse victims is an oasis of calm. Set over two floors, the building is airy and light.The toxic legacy of child abuse gets minimal attention, yet the problem amounts to a public health challenge, say experts. Although we don’t know exactly how many children in the UK experience sexual abuse as it’s hidden from view, research suggests one in 20 children have been sexually abused, yet many more incidents go undetected, unreported and untreated. Continue reading...