You can outsource pretty much every aspect of irritation in your life. But you can’t outsource lonelinessUber has launched a quiet ride service in the US, which means that passengers can request that a driver refrain from talking to them during their trip. The quiet ride feature is available in Uber’s premium Black service.If you’re reading this thinking, “Great, now rich people have even less reason to talk to people outside their bubble of wealth,” then you’re not alone. Uber passengers will be exposed to even fewer diverse experiences, and will stop hearing stories that reach into their hearts and knock on the door of their empathy. Continue reading...

Conservative donors and fossil fuel companies have the most to lose from large-scale decarbonization – and they know it

Sherrie Silver, who was behind acclaimed video This is America, launches virtual dance ‘petition’ to promote investment in farmingShe made a name for herself as the choreographer behind one of the most controversial yet critically acclaimed music videos of last year.Now Sherrie Silver, the creative force behind the dance moves in Childish Gambino’s This Is America, is using her success to drive a social media campaign promoting investment in young people in rural Africa. Continue reading...

For years, the midlife crisis has been no more than a sitcom joke. But now some experts are insisting that’s because we don’t understand how it has changedI was sitting gingerly on the bonnet of a classic Mercedes when I thought: “Hang on a minute. I know why I have been asked to write about this academic’s argument that we should all stop trivialising the midlife crisis.”But I wouldn’t describe what happened to me as a midlife crisis. It’s true I was square in middle age – 42 – when I fell in love, fair and square, with a man who wasn’t my husband. I had to get divorced, and now I am, however you cut it, on my second marriage. There are as many people who would say to this, “Love is bullshit,” as would say, “The heart wants what it wants,” but if I know anything with certainty, it’s that you should never try to justify yourself to the first lot. Continue reading...

UK study covering 100,000 women finds ‘no overall link’ between cancer and night workNight shift work does not increase the risk of breast cancer, finds a UK study covering analysis of 102,869 women over 10 years.The Breast Cancer Now Generations study is the latest to examine the supposed link presented by experts for decades. Continue reading...

The awesome vastness of time and space is laid out in its full, jawdropping incomprehensibility by Prof Brian Cox, the Attenborough of outer spaceTowards the end of the opening episode of The Planets (BBC Two), the new solar system opus presented by Prof Brian Cox, I found myself questioning whether this was feelgood, or feelbad, television. Cox has already made headlines with his suggestion that the future of humanity may lie in stretching our living quarters from Earth to Mars, which, I suppose, is a feelgood idea, if adventures and Matt Damon are high on your particular list. The wonder of Cox’s arguments, which take in the staggering, incomprehensible vastness of time and space, provides the kind of television that made this particular viewer stop and say “whoa” every few seconds.And there is extreme joy, indeed, to be found in the miraculousness of life existing on Earth at all. When Cox dangles his hand in a rock pool on a volcano in the middle of the ocean, he marvels at all the chance events that took place over billions of years to produce these tiny creatures. Whoa, I thought, being due for another “whoa”. Continue reading...

Scientists say surge of radiation led to lightning causing forest fires, making adaptation vitalIt was the evolutionary leap that defined the species: while other apes ambled around on all fours, the ancestors of humans rose up on two legs and, from that lofty position, went on to conquer the world.The benefits of standing tall in the African savannah are broadly nailed down, but what prompted our distant forebears to walk upright is far from clear. Now, in a radical proposal, US scientists point to a cosmic intervention: protohumans had a helping hand from a flurry of exploding stars, they say. Continue reading...

Overgrown and weathered, many historical monuments are disappearing as public funds for culture fail to match modern Italy’s inheritanceLegend has it that the grotto hidden among the craggy cliffs on San Marco hill in Sutera in the heart of Sicily holds a treasure chest full of gold coins. In order to find it, three men must dream simultaneously about the precise place to dig.Treasure or no treasure, the grotto itself is an archaeological gem, its walls adorned with a multi-coloured Byzantine-esque 16th-century fresco depicting Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saints Paulinus, Luke, Mark and Matthew. Continue reading...

Should Prof Paul Dolan’s pronouncements change the way we think about life? Er …Some of my best friends are in a subgroup: “unmarried and childless women”. Its members, according to a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, are the “happiest subgroup in the population”. Paul Dolan, in a talk at the Hay festival, told the audience that the latest evidence, including longitudinal studies, shows that the markers conventionally used to measure success – marriage and children – do not correlate with happiness. Well, knock me down with a Fetherlight condom. Who knew? Except the many women who actually have quite nice lives?We are told that marriage, usually of the heterosexual, monogamous kind, is the key to intimacy, if not ecstasy, and that it is somehow good for our health. It is good for men because their wives nag them to see the doctor and, possibly, to eat better. For women, this is not necessarily the case. Indeed, as most women have children and work, life can be pretty tough. Continue reading...

The small constellation, named for Orpheus’s lyre, boasts one of the sky’s brightest starsLyra is a small, rather faint constellation in the northern hemisphere, saved from obscurity by the beautiful star Vega. Shining with a brilliant white light, Vega is the fifth brightest star in the sky and lies just 25 light years away from Earth. It is unmistakable in the northern sky at this time of year. The chart shows its position at midnight tonight. To find Vega, look high in the east, just over halfway between the horizon and the zenith; it will be unmistakable. The constellation itself hangs below the star and should be easy to pick out as it traces the shape of a parallelogram. It represents a lyre, the musical instrument of Orpheus, who played the instrument ceaselessly for comfort following the death of his wife Eurydice. Upon Orpheus’s death, Zeus placed the instrument in the stars, while Orpheus’s bones were buried by the muses. Although the constellation is often seen as a musical instrument, not all cultures imagine this. In Indigenous Australian astronomy, the constellation represents a Malleefowl bird. Continue reading...

Focus on your breathing, stay still – and keep your eyes on the horizonDon’t travel on small planes, which tend to be worse than larger jets. If you are on a boat, keep towards the centre, where there is less movement. In a car, being the driver helps; the worst place to sit is in the back seat, because it is harder to see out the window. Unfortunately, this is where children typically sit – and people are most susceptible to travel sickness from the age of eight to about 12, says John Golding, a professor of applied psychology at the University of Westminster. Adults who suffer migraines are also more susceptible. Continue reading...

The utopian vision of humans colonising the red planet to solve our energy and population crises is a misguided fantasyWho said this? “I’ve been having to say everywhere I go that there is no planet B, there is no escape hatch, there is no second Earth; this is the only planet we have.” If you’re a science fiction fan the answer might surprise you: it was the writer Kim Stanley Robinson, whose Mars trilogy is an ultimately utopian series of tales that describe the terraforming of Mars – planetary engineering to give it an Earth-like environment – over the course of several centuries after the Earth perishes from overpopulation and ecosystem collapse.Robinson’s pessimism about planetary settlement seems out of step with the spirit of the times. Unveiling his Blue Moon project two weeks ago – a robotic lunar lander to deliver the infrastructure for a crewed moon base – Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, portrayed it as the bold first step towards human colonisation of the solar system. Continue reading...

My mother’s sister had a terrifyingly good memory. Who will now recall our childhood sweethearts – or her mother’s lover?The loss of an aunt isn’t one of the big deaths. I told myself that last week. My cousin had emailed with news that her mother, my aunt, had died unexpectedly in the week. She was my mother’s younger sister and lived far away in suburban Johannesburg. I hadn’t spoken to her since November, when I’d called on my birthday. Nothing structural in my life had changed.Related: We need to talk about death: I was not prepared for how lonely grief would be | Vanessa Billy Continue reading...

Geneticist Steve Jones, formerly a sceptic, says case for doing so is overwhelmingOne of Britain’s leading scientists has urged people to take vitamin D supplements, particularly children, who spend an hour less outside than they did 10 years ago.The geneticist Steve Jones told the Hay literary festival in Wales the health case for taking them was now overwhelming. “I never thought I would be a person who would take vitamin supplements, I always thought it was absolute nonsense, it’s homeopathy. I now take vitamin D every day,” he said. Continue reading...

Could Tesla owners one day farm out their cars as self-driving taxis?You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to wonder if Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is off his rocker. I mean to say, how many leaders of US public companies get into trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for falsely claiming that they have secured funding to take their company private at $420 a share – and then get sued and fined $40m? Or can you imagine another CEO who deals with Wall Street analysts by swatting away questions about his company’s capital requirements as if they were flies. “Excuse me. Next. Next,” he replied to one guy who was pressing him on the subject. “Boring, bonehead questions are not cool. Next?”The view from Wall Street is that Musk is too volatile to be in charge of a big and potentially important public company. The charitable view is less judgemental: it is that, while he may have a short fuse, he’s also a gifted, visionary disrupter. But even those who take this tolerant view were taken aback when he declared at a recent public event that he could see “one million robo-taxis on the roads by 2020”. Continue reading...

Does Zolgensma, a revolutionary one-off treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, really need to cost so much?How much is a life worth? $2.15m? That’s the staggering price of a drug produced by the pharmaceutical giant Novartis that has just come on the market. Zolgensma is a one-off gene therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare degenerative disorder. Infants with the most severe form usually die within two years. For parents of babies born with SMA, any price is worth paying to save the child’s life. Novartis argues that spread across a lifetime, $2.15m is “cost-effective”.It points out, too, the expense of developing such innovative drugs. In this case, though, Novartis did not develop Zolgensma but bought up, for £8.7bn, AveXis Inc, the company that did. The Wall Street Journal described the acquisition as a “bet”. The price of Zolgensma is the return necessary for that gamble to be successful. Continue reading...

The decision to let Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon was controversial – especially with his colleague Buzz AldrinIt was 1969. The last year for President Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on the moon and return him safely “before this decade is out”. Nasa was not sure it could be done in time. There were, perhaps, going to be only three opportunities before the deadline expired.On 6 January the head of the astronaut office at Nasa, Deke Slayton, called the crew of Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins – into his office in Houston, Texas, and told them that their mission, set for July, might involve a lunar landing. A few weeks earlier, Apollo 8 had taken the first crewed voyage around the moon, and the tasks of the forthcoming Apollos 9 and 10 were set. Apollo 9 was to test the lunar landing spacecraft in Earth orbit and Apollo 10 was a full rehearsal at the moon – everything except the landing itself. Continue reading...

She has 17m followers, a figure set to double this year. So how has Susan Miller made the ancient pseudo-science of fortune-telling a world-wide phenomenon?If you’re not one of the 17 million readers of astrologyzone.com or one of the users of the app of the same name, you may not have heard of Susan Miller – yet. But for any astrology-obsessed millennial, she is the queen of fortune telling, single-handedly responsible for fuelling their obsession with all things celestial. Somehow she has managed to turn the mystical, ancient pseudo-science of astrology into a world-wide phenomenon – her website enjoyed more than 310m page views in 2018 and this year traffic looks set to double.Miller’s readers come from every country in the world, she’s written 11 bestselling books, and currently writes for magazines in eight countries. She also has a monthly TV show and regularly gives personal readings. She has a devoted celebrity following, including Cameron Diaz, who allegedly consulted her for advice before buying a house, Justin Theroux, Pharrell Williams and Alexa Chung. Continue reading...

Behavioural scientist Paul Dolan says traditional markers of success no longer applyWe may have suspected it already, but now the science backs it up: unmarried and childless women are the happiest subgroup in the population. And they are more likely to live longer than their married and child-rearing peers, according to a leading expert in happiness.Speaking at the Hay festival on Saturday, Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, said the latest evidence showed that the traditional markers used to measure success did not correlate with happiness – particularly marriage and raising children. Continue reading...

US approves the one-time treatment for deadly spinal muscular atrophy in infantsSwiss drugmaker Novartis has received US approval for its spinal muscular atrophy gene therapy Zolgensma – pricing the one-time treatment at a record $2.125m.The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Zolgensma for children under the age of two with SMA, including those not yet showing symptoms. The approval covers babies with the deadliest form of the inherited disease as well as those with types where debilitating symptoms may set in later. Continue reading...

Got a question for the Swedish 16-year-old who started a youth climate revolution? Here’s your chance to ask her...On 20 August 2018, Greta Thunberg, then aged 15, did not attend her first day back at school after the summer holidays. Instead, she made a sign that read “School strike for climate change” and stood in front of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm, demanding the government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris climate agreement.Her protest sparked the international movement Fridays for Future, in which schoolchildren around the world skip class to insist their governments take urgent action to halt the ongoing climate crisis. Since then, Thunberg has given a TED talk on the subject, been named one of the world’s most influential teens by Time magazine, and been nominated for the Nobel peace prize. After she addressed the Houses of Parliament in April, MPs endorsed Jeremy Corbyn’s call to declare a climate emergency, aiming to “set off a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the globe”. Continue reading...

We’re calling for a global strike on 20 September. Disrupting our normal lives is the only way to secure our futureOn 20 September, at the request of the young people who have been staging school strikes around the world, we’re walking out of our workplaces and homes to spend the day demanding action on the climate crisis, the greatest existential threat that all of us face. It’s a one-day climate strike, if you will – and it will not be the last. This is going to be the beginning of a week of action all over the world. And we hope to make it a turning point in history.Related: A manifesto for tackling the climate change crisis | UK Student Climate Network Continue reading...

British specialist among those aiming to develop ‘next generation’ treatment that could help millions of victims each yearScientists in five countries, including the UK, hope to find a universal cure for snakebite using the same technology that discovered HIV antibodies.A new consortium of venom specialists in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Britain and the US will locate and develop antibodies to treat critical illness from snakebites, which harm nearly 3 million people worldwide each year. Continue reading...

Authority finds science show breached impartiality standards in its portrayal of the beef industry as harmful to the environmentThe media watchdog has found the ABC science program Catalyst breached editorial standards for impartiality in its presentation of the beef industry as harmful to the environment.Meat & Livestock Australia complained to the ABC last year that the program was unfair to the beef industry and insects were promoted as an alternative source to cattle. But an internal investigation found the program met editorial standards. Continue reading...

A recent study that tested both men and dogs added to concerns that chemicals in the environment are damaging the quality and quantity of sperm• Help us reach our $150,000 goal to fund this series. Make a contributionSurprising new research into dog sperm has reproductive biologists concerned about the fate of their own species. In a March study, scientists at Nottingham University found that two chemicals common in home environments damage the quality of sperm in both men and dogs.The culprits implicated are diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), used to make new plastics more pliable, and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153), found in older plastics and electrical equipment. Companies stopped producing PCBs in the late 1970s due to their health risks – including a possible increased risk of cancer, hormone disruption, liver damage and behavioral or cognitive deficits in children exposed to the chemical in utero – but the chemical persists in the environment. Continue reading...

Interaction that could signal new gold deposits ‘had to be seen to be believed’, CSIRO researcher saysFungi that draws gold from its surroundings has been discovered in Western Australia, stunning scientists who say it could signal new deposits.Found near Boddington, south of Perth, the strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus attaches gold to its strands by dissolving and precipitating particles from the environment. Continue reading...

What happened before the Big Bang? This is one of the hardest questions scientists are trying to answer, but Prof Hiranya Peiris is not daunted by the challenge. Hannah Devlin invited Peiris on the podcast to discuss the origins of our universe Continue reading...

Mature crickets better at luring females – but struggle to live up to expectationThe sweet singing charms of an old male appear to be irresistible to a younger female – if you are a field cricket in a Spanish meadow.Researchers studying wild crickets have found older males are better than younger, more immature rivals at attracting females back to their burrows with their song. Continue reading...

Archaeologists hail iron age object a ‘marvellous, internationally important find’An “astonishing and unparalleled” 2,300-year-old shield made of tree bark has been discovered in Leicestershire, the only example of its kind ever found in Europe.Archaeologists say the discovery of the shield, made between 395 and 250BC, has completely overturned assumptions about the weapons used in the iron age, sparking breathless reactions among experts of the period. Continue reading...

Average size of wild animals predicted to fall by a quarter in 100 years through extinctionsHumanity’s ongoing destruction of wildlife will lead to a shrinking of nature, with the average body size of animals falling by a quarter, a study predicts.The researchers estimate that more than 1,000 larger species of mammals and birds will go extinct in the next century, from rhinos to eagles. They say this could lead to the collapse of ecosystems that humans rely on for food and clean water. Continue reading...

It’s good for our mental and physical health, lowering blood pressure and boosting the immune systemSex is the most talked-about, joked about, thought-about issue in our culture. Every grown adult is expected to know how to do it, but beyond the basic mechanics we’re not taught about it and fiction is coy. We are not short of information on sexual practices – thank you, Fifty Shades of Grey – but there is a general absence of accurate detail of what happens to our bodies during, and as a result of, the act.Yet sex is good for our mental and physical health. It lowers the heart rate and blood pressure. It may boost the immune system to protect us against infections and it certainly lowers stress. The NHS even recommends it, in a section tucked away on its website, where few are likely to find it, that advises: “Weekly sex might help fend off illness.” Continue reading...

Fungus is half a billion years older than previous record holder found in WisconsinTiny fossils found in mudrock in the barren wilderness of the Canadian Arctic are the remains of the oldest known fungus on Earth, scientists say.The minuscule organisms were discovered in shallow water shale, a kind of fine-grained sedimentary rock, in a region south of Victoria island on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. Continue reading...

NHS staff, patients and visitors shun nutritious snacks in favour of crisps, sweets and cakesResearchers have called for radical restrictions on junk food in UK hospitals after an audit of NHS health centres found that people overwhelmingly bought unhealthy snacks and drinks on the premises.Three-quarters of the best-selling snacks in hospital cafes and canteens were rated as unhealthy, along with half of the most popular cold drinks, according to a report by the audit’s authors. Continue reading...

His ego knew no bounds … but nor did his operas that feature camels, helicopters and giant pencil sharpeners. As his epic Donnerstag aus Licht comes to the UK for the first time in 34 years, we separate the cult from the culture of Karlheinz StockhausenMatched in musical-myth-mania perhaps only by Richard Wagner, Karlheinz Stockhausen is the ultimate conundrum for those of us who believe keenly in shifting classical music culture away from its alpha-male genius complex – but are still enthralled by the music. Do we get to have it both ways?The German-born composer was the self-mythologiser extraordinaire who had entrancing charisma, bullish intelligence, no shortage of game-changing opinions, nor shortage of confidence with which to assert them. A guru with disciples and rivals, he fostered a personality cult that went way beyond his music to encompass fashion, spirituality, even a galactic origin story. Isn’t this precisely the artist-as-hero narrative we need to dismantle? Continue reading...

Jordan Adlard Rogers inherits 1,536-acre Cornwall estate after proving owner was his fatherA former care worker has inherited a £50m country estate after a DNA test proved he was the son of its deceased owner.Jordan Adlard Rogers, 31, found out his father was the aristocrat Charles Rogers after his death in 2018 and has now moved into the 1,536-acre Penrose estate in Cornwall, which his family has lived in for generations. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsDuring our visits to Mars, what, if anything, are we doing to prevent our bacteria, viruses and other earthly life escaping from our vehicles and contaminating the pristine environment of the red planet?Ejay Continue reading...

The solution to today’s teaserIn my puzzle column earlier today I set you these problems about slicing through a square grid:1) What is the least number of straight lines you need to draw across a 3x3 square grid so that every cell in the grid has at least one of the lines passing through it. Continue reading...

High-ranking mothers lead sons to groups of females and keep guard while they mateTheir mothers are so keen for them to father children that they usher them in front of promising partners, shield them from violent competitors and dash the chances of other males by charging them while they are at it.For a bonobo mother, it is all part of the parenting day, and analysis finds the hard work pays off. Males of the species that live with their mothers are three times more likely to father offspring than those whose mothers are absent. Continue reading...

Swordplay with lines and squaresUPDATE: To read the solution click hereToday you’re going to get the chance to prove a theorem no one has ever proved before. Continue reading...

There will be two celestial encounters to savour this weekWhereas our first lunar conjunction of the month (with Mars two weeks ago) took place when the moon was very young, this pairing with Jupiter takes place when the moon is just past full. Our natural satellite has begun this month’s waning phase but will still be 94.5% illuminated on Monday night, when the conjunction takes place. The chart shows the night sky on 21 May 2019 at 03.00 BST, looking due south. To see the pairing, observers will need a clear southern horizon as it takes place at low altitude. The moon and Jupiter will be nestled between the southern zodiacal constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, and they will be bookended by two other celestial objects of note. To the west of Jupiter, slightly lower, is the red star of Antares in Scorpius. To the east of the moon, on the other side of Sagittarius, is Saturn. On the evening of 23 May, the moon will pass close to Saturn, giving skywatchers another celestial meeting to enjoy. Continue reading...

The star of ER and The Good Wife is back – as a doctor fighting to save humanity. She gives her bodyguard the slip to talk about our imperilled planet – and her love of Sussex A-roadsBefore I meet Julianna Margulies, I spend three days staring at her bodyguard. He’s impossible to miss: one of those men whose every attempt to blend in flounders. Margulies and I are in Lille, judges at the Series Mania television festival, although our experiences differ a little. My cloak of anonymity allows me to roam the city unpestered. Margulies, however, has been a TV mainstay for 25 years, with roles in two juggernaut shows, ER and The Good Wife. Everybody knows who she is, hence Muscles.He’s even there at the start of our interview, looming in the doorway of our room at the Chamber of Commerce. As I ease past and close the door, I ask if it isn’t a pain being constantly tailed. She smiles and says: “Three years ago, I was the guest of honour when they held this festival in Paris. When I get there, they say, ‘We have detail for you.’ I say, ‘Guys, I don’t need a bodyguard.’ But they won’t budge. We get to the hotel and I say to my bodyguard, ‘My husband and I are going out to lunch. You go home, please.’ So we left the hotel and I’ve never seen anything like it. People were everywhere. We backed into the hotel and my husband called the bodyguard and said, ‘We made a mistake!’ He said, ‘I know – I’m just around the corner.’” Continue reading...

3D printed soil, urban farming and artificial intelligence will all make an appearance at this year’s eventWeed is not a word often associated with the immaculate gardens of the Chelsea flower show. But with hydroponics and urban farming making grand appearances at this year’s event, it will be on a lot of visitors’ lips.“With the right lights you can grow whatever you like, even if you’re inside a dark, north-facing flat in London or Birmingham,” said Jody Lidgard, one of Chelsea’s most decorated designers. “It’s almost like marijuana,” he chuckled. “It’s funny, but it’s true. They’ve been leading the way.” Continue reading...

They say cleaning is detoxing – it’s not, but it was part of my recovery from addictionIf you’ve ever done a real detox off drugs and alcohol to get clean, the whole notion of cleaning your flat as a way to some sort of psychological Nirvana seems suspect. Yet this is exactly what the new cleaning gurus, like Marie Kondo, Mrs Hinch (2.4m Instagram fans and counting) and Lynsey “Queen of Clean” Crombie, would have us believe.They say that chucking everything out and sterilising what is left is a way to put order back into our messy lives. An abundance of videos featuring confessional cleaning tutorials show bright-eyed and often beautiful young women extolling the virtues of cleaning in the reverent terms usually reserved for religious conversions, spiritual awakenings or the moment you receive your yoga name in India. Eat, Pray, Clean. They have seen the light – and it smells like Ecover. Continue reading...

Fifty years after the first moon landings, a new generation of space travellers, from Xi Jinping’s taikonauts to Jeff Bezos, are racing to colonise our nearest neighbour. Is reality catching up with sci-fi?The moon is rising again above the horizon of the imagination, waxing into worldly relevance. Fifty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped on to what Aldrin called the “magnificent desolation” of the Sea of Tranquility, the possibility of a human return to their dusty stamping ground is greater than it has been at any time since the Apollo programme reached its end just three years later.The robot vanguard has already set forth. Later this year India will attempt to become the fourth nation to land a probe on the moon; an Israeli attempt to get there failed in April, but its backers plan to try again. China has landed two robot rovers on the moon’s surface in the past five years. One visited the near side, the familiar pockmarked face seen from Earth; the other went to the overflown-but-never-before-visited far side. The Chinese space agency has talked of sending humans in their wake, perhaps in the early 2030s. Continue reading...

Bristol distances itself from academic who claims to have solved century-old mysteryA university that breathlessly declared one of its academics had cracked the code of the celebrated Voynich manuscript has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown after medieval experts poured scorn on his theory.Bristol University said this week Dr Gerard Cheshire had “succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed” by identifying the language and purpose of the mysterious and apparently coded 15th-century text. Continue reading...

How do protein substitutes compare with the real deal? Graihagh Jackson investigates by speaking to dietician Priya Tew, the Guardian’s Fiona Harvey and author Isabella Tree.

From now, house style guide recommends terms such as ‘climate crisis’ and ‘global heating’The Guardian has updated its style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world.Instead of “climate change” the preferred terms are “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” and “global heating” is favoured over “global warming”, although the original terms are not banned. Continue reading...

Soil Association calls for pupils in England to get ‘healthier and more climate-friendly’ mealsAll state schools in England should offer pupils a compulsory plant-based menu one day a week, under new recommendations to the government that aim to make school meals more environmentally friendly and reflect changing dietary advice.Given wide acceptance that diets need to change to address the climate crisis – including by eating less meat and more beans and pulses – the Soil Association is urging the Department for Education to replace a non-mandatory recommendation for a weekly meat-free day with a statutory menu once a week offering only plant-based proteins and foods. Continue reading...

The space agency says it intends to send both a woman and a man on Artemis programme’s first missionNasa needs an additional $1.6bn next year if they are to stand any chance of getting humans to the moon again by 2024, as the US president, Donald Trump, has requested.The money would be on top of the $21.5bn already agreed by the agency. Most of the additional funding is needed to begin developing the lunar landing systems that will ferry astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Work on the lander was not expected to begin for another three years. Continue reading...