The prehistoric peoples who built this amazing monument could teach us a lesson about connecting with the universeWhen was the last time you stepped outside and looked up? It’s hard to find the time to do it, and even when we do, high-rise cityscapes, light pollution and – the bane of all astronomy – “cloud” often limit the view of what lies beyond. But perhaps it is something we are fundamentally drawn to do. Throughout time, people across the world have looked up and wondered what was out there. Cultures around the globe have built structures to augment their views of the cosmos, and one of the most important sites for contemplating the heavens is undoubtedly Stonehenge.I recently visited this prehistoric monument and as I stood within the ancient stone circle, I felt, perhaps unsurprisingly, a strong connection to the past. Yet at the same time I felt strongly rooted in the present, and yet again, even under cloudy skies, I had a feeling of being part of the expansive universe that lay beyond. It was easy to imagine that our Neolithic ancestors would have gazed at the same skies. It made me think about our connection with the natural world – or our increasing disconnection from it – and the importance of conservation and protection, not just of this monument and others like it but of the world that has been rapidly changing around it since those enormous stones were raised 4,500 years ago. Continue reading...

Taronga Conservation Society Australia has announced the birth of a Western Lowland gorilla. The female, yet to be named, was born on Thursday 6 June to Frala, an experienced mother, and was sired by Kibali• ‘Gorilla selfie’: DRC park ranger explains photo that went viral Continue reading...

Public more likely to return wallet containing larger sum of money, global study findsHere’s a moral dilemma: if you find a wallet stuffed with bank notes, do you pocket the cash or track down the owner to return it? We can each speak for ourselves, but now a team of economists have put the unsuspecting public to the test in a mass social experiment involving 17,000 “lost” wallets in 40 countries.They found that a majority of people returned the wallets and – contrary to classic economic logic – they were more likely to do so the more money the wallet contained. Continue reading...

Plan to halt academic work at Harwell Institute threatens research including on diabetesBritain’s leading centre for mouse genetics is facing closure in a move that critics say will undermine crucial research on serious diseases and threaten the standing of UK science.The Medical Research Council has told staff at its Harwell Institute in Oxfordshire that an internal strategy board recommended the closure of all academic work at the site, threatening research on diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, child deafness and other conditions. Continue reading...

Geneticist who unlocked the secrets of hereditary cancersIn 1962 a medical intern sat with a man recovering from alcohol poisoning in a veterans’ hospital in the US state of Nebraska. Henry Lynch, who has died aged 91, listened as the young farm worker told him that he liked to drown his sorrows because, as with everyone else in his family, he was pretty much guaranteed to die young of cancer.Lynch, with a background in genetics and psychology, wanted to know more about this family and its high prevalence of cancer. His investigations into this and other such families led to the discovery of hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, which in 1984 was renamed Lynch syndrome. They also resulted in the discovery of breast-ovarian cancer syndrome, which in turn led to the identification of the BRCA genes. Continue reading...

Our report shows that lower vaccination rates are linked to a lack of trust in institutions in general, not just in science

Human activities could be affecting reproduction and even normal social behaviourBirds are even more disrupted by their noisy neighbours than had been thought previously, researchers have found. And human activities could be preventing birds from reproducing and even developing normal social behaviour and keeping the peace.A study by Queen’s University Belfast found that when European robins were subjected to human produced noises their behaviour changed. Background noise appeared to mask the communication of crucial information between birds. Continue reading...

Brain imaging may indicate people at risk of condition, researchers sayChanges in the brain that can be spotted years before physical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease occur might act as an early warning sign for the condition, researchers say.It is thought that about 145,000 people in the UK are living with Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition that can lead to mobility problems, including slowness and tremors, as well as other symptoms such as memory difficulties. There are treatments to help manage symptoms but as yet the disease cannot be slowed or cured. Continue reading...

Indian medics say children falling ill after filling up on fruit and going to bed with no dinner

DNA tests might identify ‘invisible population’ who are not currently seen as in dangerHundreds of thousands more adults in the UK could benefit from taking statins because their genes put them at high risk of heart disease, research suggests.Speaking on Wednesday at the UK Biobank conference in London, Prof Sir Peter Donnelly, the founder of the company Genomics Plc, warned of an “invisible population” who are not identified as at risk by current screening programmes because their blood pressure and cholesterol do not raise red flags. Continue reading...

The Milky Way over a Bavarian mountain, a colourful explosion of the Southern Lights in Tasmania, and the Horsehead and Flame nebulas, all featured in the Royal Observatory’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 shortlist.The competition, now in its 11th year, has broken the record of entries, receiving more than 4,600 photographs from amateurs and professionals. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the National Maritime Museum on 12 September, with an exhibition of the winning and shortlisted images starting on 13 September. Continue reading...

Just half of people in eastern Europe think vaccines are safe, compared with 79% worldwideA global survey of attitudes towards science has revealed the scale of the crisis of confidence in vaccines in Europe, showing that only 59% of people in western Europe and 50% in the east think vaccines are safe, compared with 79% worldwide.Around the globe, 84% of people acknowledge that vaccines are effective and 92% say their child has received a vaccine. But in spite of good healthcare and education systems, in parts of Europe there is low trust in vaccines. France has the highest levels of distrust, at 33%. Continue reading...

Oil firms are said to have known for decades of the link between burning fossil fuels and climate breakdown. Author Bill McKibben describes how industry lobbying created a 30-year barrier to tackling the crisis. Plus: John Stewart on his campaign to stop the third runway at HeathrowBefore 1988, climate change was a subject confined to the realm of academic journals. That all changed when the scientist James Hansen told Congress that global heating was caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels.That moment caught the imagination of the journalist Bill McKibben, who has written and campaigned on climate breakdown ever since. And it has been reported that fossil fuel companies, such as ExxonMobil, were making links between the burning of oil and rising sea levels as early as the 1970s. But instead of making their findings public, the industry colluded to cast doubt over the science. Continue reading...

US billionaire Stephen Schwarzman is donating £150m to fund humanities researchThe University of Oxford has said it is to receive its biggest single direct donation “since the Renaissance”, after it unveiled a £150m gift from the US billionaire Stephen Schwarzman to fund humanities research and tackle looming social issues linked to artificial intelligence.The money will be used to create the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, bringing together disciplines including English, philosophy, music and history in a single hub with performing spaces and a library, alongside a new Institute for Ethics in AI to collaborate. Continue reading...

Breakthrough Listen project found no evidence of alien civilisations on 1,327 starsThe close encounter will have to wait. Astronomers have come up empty-handed after scanning the heavens for signs of intelligent life in the most extensive search ever performed.Researchers used ground-based telescopes to eavesdrop on 1,327 stars within 160 light years of Earth. During three years of observations they found no evidence of signals that could plausibly come from an alien civilisation. Continue reading...

Prof David King says would-be PM oversaw ‘devastating’ cuts in efforts to tackle crisisProf David King, the former chief scientist, has expressed alarm at the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming prime minister because the Tory MP oversaw “devastating” cuts in efforts to tackle the climate crisis when he was foreign secretary and then wanted to hush them up.Related: UK climate plan unclear, says European commission Continue reading...

Research teams traversing partially melted fjord to retrieve weather equipment release startling picture

Study finds animals developed a facial muscle to wield emotional power over humansIn a project that has all the makings of a Roald Dahl classic, scientists have hit on an answer to the mystery of how man’s best friend got its puppy dog eyes.The sad, imploring expression held such power over humans during 33,000 years of canine domestication that the preference for dogs that could pull off the look steered the evolution of their facial muscles, researchers have said. Continue reading...

Snail slime-like substance appears to solve problem of weak and reversible or strong and irreversible adhesiveA reversible superglue that mimics the under-appreciated properties of dried snail mucus has proved strong enough to bear the weight of an average man.Scientists who tested the slime-inspired product found that two sticky squares the size of postage stamps were sufficient to hold an 87kg (192lb) weight in the form of a volunteer engineering student. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s problemsEarlier today I set you the following puzzles:1. In this word-sum, each letter stands for one of the digits 0–9, and stands for the same digit each time it appears. Different letters stand for different digits. No number starts with 0. Continue reading...

The activist on her manifesto to empower older people, how to challenge age prejudice – and why she dyes her hair grey

The test given to the UK’s maths prodigiesUPDATE: The solutions are now up here.Today you are pitting yourselves against the best 13-year-old mathematicians in the UK.The questions below are taken from last week’s Junior Mathematical Olympiad, a competition aimed at children up to Year 8 (in England) who score in roughly the top half per cent of mathematical ability. Continue reading...

Mercury will be as far to the east of the sun as it ever gets, and can be found low in the western sky just after sunsetThe summer solstice for northern observers occurs on 21 June at 16:54 BST. This is the moment at which the sun will be at its highest position in the sky, giving the longest period of daylight. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite will be true. The sun will reach its lowest altitude and give the shortest period of daylight. Also this week, keep an eye open for inner-planet Mercury. The latter half of June offers a good chance of seeing this tricky-to-spot planet because it is as far to the east of the sun as it can get. It is visible for about 90 minutes following sunset. The chart shows the situation looking west at 22:00 BST on 23 June. You will need a very good horizon. A pair of binoculars might also help locate the planet, and may show you faint Mars too, but remember never use binoculars if the sun is still visible above the horizon. Permanent eye damage can occur. Continue reading...

Readers debate Robin Purser’s dismissal of ‘a tool of self-discipline, disguised as self-help’Ronald Purser’s article on mindfulness (Tune out, 14 June) weaves a sensational point by alleging that this ancient practice is impotent beyond an individual’s relaxation because there is no call to higher ethics. While he acknowledges one half of the Buddha’s teaching of meditation – to alleviate suffering – he overlooks the second half, meditation as a path to enlightenment. That comes naturally with a dedicated practice, and that’s where ethics come in. If the author’s point is about why meditation is not marketed as being about ethics and making this world a finer place, the chances are that would be rejected by the mainstream. People must find their own ways to the truth and make their own choices.The website of the New Kadampa Tradition–International Kadampa Buddhist Union, kadampa.org, puts it eloquently: “If we integrate Buddha’s teachings into our daily life we will be able to solve all our inner problems and attain a truly peaceful mind. Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. If we first establish peace within our minds by training in spiritual paths, outer peace will come naturally; but if we do not, world peace will never be achieved, no matter how many people campaign for it.”

New UK research predicts extremes of weather will hit food productionGlobal heating could bring many more bouts of severe drought as well as increased flooding to Africa than previously forecast, scientists have warned.New research says the continent will experience many extreme outbreaks of intense rainfall over the next 80 years. These could trigger devastating floods, storms and disruption of farming. In addition, these events are likely to be interspersed with more crippling droughts during the growing season and these could also damage crop and food production. Continue reading...

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...