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Method actors were trained to take on role of Romeo or Juliet and then respond to questions“Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts,” Marlon Brando once said. But for scientists, working out what is going on in an actor’s head has always been something of a puzzle.Now, researchers have said thespians show different patterns of brain activity depending on whether they are in character or not. Continue reading...

Tentative link found between genetic variant and faster breakdown of hormoneAn unintended pregnancy while using hormonal contraception may not always be down to the woman’s mistake, according to research that suggests for some genetics could play a role.Millions of women use hormonal contraceptives such as different types of the pill, contraceptive implants or hormone-releasing intrauterine systems (IUS) or vaginal rings. These devices release hormones to prevent the release of an egg, as well as triggering other changes in the body to prevent a pregnancy. Continue reading...

Astrobatrachus kurichiyana lurks in leaf litter and is sole member of an ancient lineageAn orange-bellied frog with a brown back, covered in tiny spots that resemble a starry sky, has been discovered in a mountain range in India, surprising researchers who said its ancestors branched off on the evolutionary tree from other members of the same frog family tens of millions of years ago.The frog, which is about 2cm to 3cm long, has been named Astrobatrachus kurichiyana, although some might prefer its more rock-star sobriquet: “starry dwarf frog.” Continue reading...

Patricia Dowdy deemed not fit to practise over multiple misconduct chargesOne of Stephen Hawking’s former nurses has been struck off after the Nursing and Midwifery Council ruled she “failed to provide the standards of good, professional care that we expect and Professor Hawking deserved”.The NMC said Patricia Dowdy, 61, had faced multiple misconduct charges in relation to the care she was providing to the eminent physicist, including financial misconduct, dishonesty, not providing appropriate care, failing to cooperate with the NMC and not having the correct qualifications. Continue reading...

Decades of studying primates has convinced me that animal politics are not so different from our own – and even in the wild, leadership is about much more than being a bully. By Frans de WaalIn July 2017, when Sean Spicer, then the White House press secretary, was discovered hiding in the bushes to dodge questions from reporters, I knew Washington politics had become truly primatological. A few weeks earlier, James Comey had intentionally worn a blue suit while standing at the back of a room with blue curtains so as to blend in. The FBI director hoped to go unnoticed and avoid a presidential hug. (The tactic failed.)Making creative use of the environment is primate politics at its best, as is the role of body language such as sitting on a throne high above the grovelling masses, descending into their midst with an escalator or raising one’s arm so underlings can kiss your armpit (a pheromonal ritual invented by Saddam Hussein). The link between high evaluations of debate performances and the candidates’ heights is well known – taller candidates have a leg up. This advantage explains why short leaders bring along boxes to stand on during group photos. Continue reading...

Printer ink, paint and arsenic found in some drugs sold to treat life-threatening illnessesDoctors have called for an urgent international effort to combat a “pandemic of bad drugs” that is thought to kill hundreds of thousands of people globally every year.A surge in counterfeit and poor quality medicines means that 250,000 children a year are thought to die after receiving shoddy or outright fake drugs intended to treat malaria and pneumonia alone, the doctors warned. Continue reading...

Experts worry that injecting sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere could put some regions at riskA new study contradicts fears that using solar geoengineering to fight climate change could dangerously alter rainfall and storm patterns in some parts of the world.Related: Geoengineering may be used to combat global warming, experts say Continue reading...

Discovery raises questions about emergency plans in place for severe space weatherTraces of an enormous solar storm that battered the atmosphere and showered Earth in radioactive particles more than 2,500 years ago have been discovered under the Greenland ice sheet.Scientists studying ice nearly half a kilometre beneath the surface found a band of radioactive elements unleashed by a storm that struck the planet in 660BC. Continue reading...

My friend Michael Wilks, who has died of prostate cancer aged 69, was a forensic physician. His professional achievements were underpinned by his courage and honesty in confronting his problems with alcohol and he made an outstanding contribution to changing attitudes towards addiction.Michael was born in Paddington, west London, to Dennis, a GP, and Bridget (nee Chetwynd-Stapylton), a nurse. After attending St John’s school in Leatherhead, Surrey, he graduated in 1972 from St Mary’s hospital medical school in London, where we met in 1967. Afterwards he became a GP and soon became a principal at practices in Kensington and then Richmond upon Thames (1975-92). Continue reading...

The answers to today’s Jedi language puzzleEarlier today I set you the following puzzle about the peculiar grammar of Yoda, Star Wars’ pointy-eared Jedi master.Yoda inverts pairs of phrases before speaking. If Yoda says “Believe you I don’t”, we know what he means is “I don’t believe you.” Continue reading...

A Jedi language puzzleUPDATE: The solutions can be read hereToday the British linguistics community is launching a campaign to make language analysis – the study of patterns in language – part of mainstream school education.To celebrate this campaign, about which more below, here’s a puzzle about Yoda, the cuddly Star Wars Jedi Master. Ready are you? Continue reading...

The result of 11 years of research suggests that human habitation could stretch to 120,000 yearsExtensive archaeological research in southern Victoria has again raised the prospect that people have lived in Australia for 120,000 years – twice as long as the broadly accepted period of human continental habitation.The research, with its contentious potential implications for Indigenous habitation of the continent that came to be Australia, has been presented to the Royal Society of Victoria by a group of academics including Jim Bowler, the eminent 88-year-old geologist who in 1969 and 1974 discovered the bones of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia. Continue reading...

As the moon moves into its second phase, it can help star watchers locate the faint constellation of the crabThis week the moon passes through its first quarter phase, when half of the visible surface is illuminated. It occurs on 14 March and marks the moment when the moon stops being a waxing crescent and becomes a waxing gibbous moon. In another week’s time, it will be full. The chart shows the moon’s position in the southern sky on 17 March at 20:00 GMT. Its visible surface will be 85% illuminated and it will be sitting smack in the middle of the faint constellation Cancer, the crab. This is one of the 12 zodiacal constellations, which were some of the first to be defined thousands of years ago. Ironically the bright moon will make it even more difficult to see the faint stars of Cancer but it will mark the constellation’s location in the sky. Remember it. It is well worth being able to identify Cancer because just to the right of the central stars is a prize for naked eye observers: a faint star cluster called the Beehive, or Praesepe. To look for this star cluster, you must be far from city lights as it will only appear as a faint smudge. Continue reading...

Philip Hammond will use spring statement to support hi-tech industry in Cambridge, Edinburgh and OxfordshirePhilip Hammond will boost public spending on genetic research and laser technology by £200m in this week’s spring statement to support some of Britain’s fastest-growing industries as they prepare for Brexit.The chancellor said the extra spending on projects in Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxfordshire, would ensure the UK was “at the forefront of science and technology innovation” and maintain its reputation as a “pioneering nation as it leaves the EU”. Continue reading...

From wild dogs to horned frogs, all manner of animals are still capable of keeping out of our sight, some for over 100 yearsThis week, scientists in South America spotted a rare frog previously thought to be extinct. The Tropical Herving research group found a colony of horned marsupial frogs in a recent expedition into the Chocó rainforest. The species had last been seen in Ecuador in 2005. The frogs’ natural habitat is in the high canopy of the rainforest, threatened by deforestation. Continue reading...

Top surgeon hails fast procedure that saves a lifetime using eye dropsLasers should become the principal method in the UK for treating patients with the debilitating eye condition glaucoma. That is the stark conclusion of a three-year study published on Sunday.The report, which appears in the Lancet, says the laser technique – known as selective laser trabeculoplasty or SLT – should replace the prescribing of eye drops, the current favoured way to treat glaucoma. The study has revealed that SLT is not only more effective and safer, but should also save the NHS £1.5m a year in tackling the condition. Continue reading...

Isolation in Greenland helped stop constant worrying about my daughter’s safetyIn recent years I’ve often felt on top of the world, but I also know what it’s like to teeter on the edge of the precipice, unsure whether I could save myself. Six years ago, I was an author with two conspiracy thrillers under my belt; both were bestsellers in Denmark and my path as a writer seemed set. But a few short moments, out walking with my 11-year-old daughter on an ordinary summer’s day, changed everything.We would often take a stroll past an abandoned sawmill near our house – something we’d been doing all my daughter’s life. Our house was built more than a century ago by the owner of the sawmill, and even though it didn’t come with the house when we bought it, we would laugh about it being ours. Continue reading...

I try to avoid writing about Brexit. But one question has become too pressing to ignoreLike everyone else at this point, I have many questions about Brexit, starting with “why” and going from there. For example: are concerns about how Britain is going to cope merely “project fear”, as some Brexity folk still have it? Is it going to be like the blitz, as other Brexity people have promised enthusiastically? Such people include someone called Ant Middleton from Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, who said last year in a tweet (since deleted): “A ‘no deal’ for our country would actually be a blessing in disguise. It would force us into hardship and suffering which would unite & bring us together, bringing back British values of loyalty and a sense of community!” Truly, there are few things as touching as a grown man playing soldiers by waxing nostalgic for a time he didn’t live through. And by “touching” I mean “nauseating”.I try to avoid writing about Brexit for the same reason I avoid eating my hair: you just end up choking on the pointlessness of it all. But one question has become too pressing to ignore: just how self-centred do you have to be to think the risk of making it harder for people to get necessary medications is an irrelevant niggle while you achieve your masturbatory fantasy of “sovereignty”? Sure, talk of insulin supplies, say, is a bummer when you are entertaining dreams of sailing victoriously back from Brussels beneath a St George’s flag, like George Washington crossing the Delaware in Emanuel Leutze’s painting, only less American (although, given that our supermarkets may soon be stuffed with chlorinated chicken from the US, maybe not). But for those who have long been dependent on certain drugs, these niggly questions make a no-deal Brexit less of a blessing in disguise. Continue reading...

In 1979, a cult book by Douglas Hofstadter explored consciousness via a mathematical idea found in art and music. Now, in the AI revolution, that concept could solve a vital questionThis year is the 40th anniversary of the publication of one of the cult books of my generation: Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. This Pulitzer prize-winning tome was essential reading in the 1980s for emerging geeks like me. But, despite its name, it is not a book about the composer Bach, the artist Escher or even the mathematician Kurt Gödel. It is about consciousness and Hofstadter’s belief that this elusive concept is related to the idea of what he calls “a strange loop”.To celebrate the anniversary, I am staging a triptych of events at the Barbican in London called Strange Loops, looking at the impact of technology on what it means to be human. I believe that the ideas in the book are now more relevant than at any point over the past four decades. The strange-loop concept may be the key to understanding when and whether the fast-evolving AIs we are creating might become conscious. Continue reading...

In centres like Griffith and Wagga Wagga, locals fear there may be something in the water

Increasing activity in 40s and 50s lowers risk of early death just like staying fit from teensGetting active in midlife could be as good for you as starting young when it comes to reducing the risk of an early death, researchers have suggested.But experts say the study, which looked at people’s patterns of exercise as they aged and their subsequent death records, also shows it does not do to rest on your laurels: the benefits fade once exercise declines. Continue reading...

Nasa’s quest to resume manned space flight from the US moves a step closerThe SpaceX commercial astronaut capsule has splashed down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean, marking a significant step in Nasa’s quest to resume manned space flight from the US.The Crew Dragon capsule, whose lone occupant was a test dummy named Ripley, spent a week docked at the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to Earth on Friday morning. Continue reading...

SpaceX's new crew capsule returned to Earth on Friday, ending its first test flight by splashing down successfully in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dragon undocked from the International Space Station six hours before the capsule carrying a test dummy glided down into the Atlantic off the Florida coast Continue reading...

Scientists say procedure showed improvements but larger clinical experiment needed to confirm benefitsPatients with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder have shown remarkable improvements after undergoing an experimental procedure in which electrodes are placed inside the brain.The first UK trial of deep brain stimulation for OCD involved six people who were extremely severely affected by the condition. The patients each had four electrodes surgically inserted through the skull into the brain. These are used to electrically stimulate brain circuits with the aim of bringing the illness under control. Continue reading...

Women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in universities – this has to change“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.” Those were the words uttered by pioneering British scientist Rosalind Franklin, who firmly believed that the pursuit of science should be accessible to all.As a woman working in the first half of the 20th century, Franklin’s contributions to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time – including the structure of DNA – were sadly overlooked in her lifetime. One of my proudest moments in my role as universities and science minister was being able to go some way to redress this injustice last month, by unveiling the new Mars rover named after this brilliant British scientist. Continue reading...

We are having fewer children and living longer than ever before – we need to talk about the fertility crisisIt’s a long road from playing with baby dolls as a small child, fighting with your twin sister over the name of your future first born, to being sedated and wheeled into an operating theatre for your eggs to be retrieved and frozen. That’s where I found myself a few years ago. A woman in her mid-30s, highly educated with a successful and rewarding media career, injecting herself daily with a bespoke cocktail of hormones, and parting with thousands of pounds in a heart-wrenching bid to preserve her chances of motherhood.Nothing quite prepares you for the emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatment. There’s the grief for the children you might never have; the raking over every personal relationship and career progression, the “what ifs” pounding you like hailstones in a freak storm. Continue reading...

Today is International Women’s Day, and so Science Weekly teams up with the Guardian’s tech podcast, Chips with Everything. Nicola Davis and Jordan Erica Webber look at the repercussions of a male-orientated world – from drugs that don’t work for women to VR headsets that give them motion sicknessToday is International Women’s Day, so Science Weekly is teaming up with the Guardian’s tech podcast, Chips with Everything. Together, they examine the gender data gap and the dangerous repercussions of a world built for men.Jordan Erica Webber speaks to Caroline Criado-Perez, the author of Invisible Women, about how women are underrepresented in the tech industry and what the consequences are for consumers, from VR headsets that make women experience motion sickness to health apps that do not have period trackers. Continue reading...

‘Rapid acting’ esketamine was approved by the FDA to treat people who don’t respond to traditional psychiatric drugsExperts are cautiously optimistic a drug related to ketamine, recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, could be a “watershed” moment in the treatment of depression, and one of the first drugs to be a “rapid-acting” medicine to treat the chronic disease.The drug, called esketamine, will be sold under the brand name Spravato, and was approved to treat people with depression who don’t respond to traditional psychiatric drugs. Continue reading...

Smile mission could help reduce ‘space weather’ disruption to satellite servicesThe European Space Agency has given the go-ahead to plans for a spacecraft to study the magnetic interaction between the sun and the Earth.The mission, known as Smile (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer), will be conducted in collaboration with China. It will be a follow-on to their previous joint mission, known as Double Star/Tan Ce, which flew between 2003 and 2008 and also studied the sun-Earth connection. Continue reading...

Most accurate measurement yet includes stars, dust, gas, planets and black holeAstronomers have hauled the Milky Way on to a cosmic scale of sorts, and found that our galaxy has as much mass as 1.5tn suns, give or take a few.The measurement, the most accurate yet, covers all the stars and planets, dust and gas, and the supermassive black hole that sits at the centre. It alone comes in at 4m times more massive than the sun. Continue reading...

Monarch posted image of 1843 Charles Babbage letter to Prince Albert during Science Museum visit on ThursdayThe Queen has proved she is in touch with the touch screen by sharing her first Instagram post in the latest personal technological milestone of her lengthy reign.The 92-year-old monarch shared an archive image to the 4.6 million followers of @theRoyalFamily’s Instagram account during a visit to the Science Museum to formally open the new Smith Centre and summer exhibition, Top Secret. Continue reading...

In the second episode of Five Minute Masterminds, the author and broadcaster Timandra Harkness introduces big data, explaining how big it actually is, its impact on recent political elections and how it can change your life

Based on a nerve cell, the architect’s posthumous addition to London’s Blizard laboratory complex is so lovable, you almost want to give it a cuddleThrusting its bristly bottom out into the road, a curious spiny creature has landed in the backstreets of Whitechapel, London. Standing like an intergalactic porcupine, covered with long glowing quills that sway gently in the breeze, it is a startling thing to encounter in this unremarkable corner of hospital buildings and curry houses.This is the £2m Neuron Pod, one of the last posthumous works of architect Will Alsop, who proves that he is still eminently capable of making mischief from beyond the grave. The project marks the latest addition to Queen Mary University of London’s campus, an informal science learning space for the armies of schoolchildren who benefit from the teaching hospital’s lively education programme. It is a classroom, but not as we know it. Continue reading...

Christina Koch and Anne McClain to make history at International Space Station on 29 MarchThe first all-female spacewalk is to take place later this month, 35 years after a woman first took part in one.The US space agency Nasa said astronauts Christina Koch and Anne McClain will walk outside the International Space Station on 29 March on a mission to replace batteries installed last summer. Continue reading...

Study that analysed data from UK found men were more likely to develop heart conditionsMen might be at greater risk of developing heart failure, heart attacks or blood clots than women at least in part because they have higher levels of testosterone, scientists say.The team said the finding could help in the development of new treatments for heart disease. Continue reading...

‘Light pollution is making it increasingly hard to find a really dark night sky that lets you see the stars. It’s a shame for humanity’

A third of people put on low-calorie diet in trial stayed in remission after two yearsA third of people who went on a low-calorie diet to lose substantial amounts of weight reversed their type 2 diabetes and were still in remission two years later, a study on the long-term implications has found.The number of people with type 2 diabetes has been soaring on the back of the obesity epidemic sweeping the world. Two-thirds of adults in the UK are now overweight or obese. Continue reading...

Sports bodies want a biological criterion to indicate an athlete’s sex. But it’s mind-bogglingly more complicated than thatDebates are raging again over who should be allowed to compete in women’s sport. Take two recent examples that inflamed the internet. First the Sunday Times reported that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) intended to classify women with higher natural testosterone as “biological males”– just as 800m runner Caster Semenya was headed to court to challenge IAAF regulations that would exclude her and others from competing owing to higher than typical testosterone levels. Then tennis great Martina Navratilova asserted that trans women “biologically, are still men”, and shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s events.Related: Proposed testosterone limit ’flawed’ and ‘hurtful’, say Caster Semenya’s lawyers Continue reading...

Rainfall affects our mood, our propensity to commit crime and how hungry we feel – but why?It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring. He bumped his head when he went to bed, and he couldn’t get up in the morning. This was possibly because in the absence of sunlight his body was still producing the hormone melatonin, which makes you sleepy. There are many ways that rainfall affects human behaviour. Why do crime levels drop when the heavens open? How much does rain really affect people’s moods and behaviour?In 2008 university researchers published a paper proposing that weak summer monsoons were influential in the downfall of three dynasties in ancient China. By analysing stalagmites from a cave, they were able to match periods of significantly decreased rainfall with periods of social upheaval and the demise of the Tang, Yuan and Ming dynasties. This is thought to be related to reduced rice cultivation.

Geologist Marcia Bjornerud encourages us to look at evolution through deep timeHow far ahead do your thoughts tend to stray? Tomorrow, next week, summer holidays? Perhaps some fleeting thoughts about the years ahead? But what if we stared deeper into the future? Reframing our thinking in this way would go a long way to saving the world, according to the geologist Marcia Bjornerud. In her mind-expanding book Timefulness she introduces us to “thinking like a rock” and seeing how our planet has evolved through deep time.Realising that dinosaurs dominated the planet for 180m years, while humans have been around for a mere 4m, suddenly puts a new spin on our “success”. Meanwhile, observing some of the major swings in Earth’s past climate, and the impact that these had on life, is both reassuring (the Earth looked after itself just fine and life evolved and came out the other side) and concerning (many species became extinct during these big changes). Continue reading...

Image shows part of Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in backgroundAn Israeli spacecraft on its maiden mission to the moon has sent its first selfie back to Earth, mission chiefs said on Tuesday.The image showing part of the Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in the background was beamed to mission control in Yehud, Israel – 23,360 miles (37,600km) away, the project’s lead partners said. Continue reading...

Chromosomes’ movement when the brain is resting allows cells to mend DNAErnest Hemingway prized sleep for good reason. Not one to dwell on rest and recuperation, the novelist saw snoozing as a form of damage limitation. “I love sleep,” he once said. “My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake.”The author’s observation may be truer than he imagined. Scientists have discovered that broken DNA builds up in brain cells in the daytime and repair work reverses the damage only during sleep. Continue reading...

The Observer New Review offers you the chance to quiz the superstar physicist on time, space or anything in betweenCarlo Rovelli’s first popular science book, Seven Brief Lessons in Physics, has sold over a million copies since it was published in 2014. It has established him, alongside the likes of Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman, as one of the great popularisers of theoretical physics.Related: 'There is no such thing as past or future': physicist Carlo Rovelli on changing how we think about time Continue reading...

The first known case of a functional cure for HIV happened 12 years ago, after US resident Timothy Brown received stem cell donations in Berlin. More recently, a patient in London received a bone marrow transplant from a virus-resistant donor and has been shown to be cleared of the virus Continue reading...

Extreme weather blamed for plunge in country’s olive harvest – the worst in 25 years – that could leave the country dependent on imports by AprilExtreme weather events have been the “main driver” of an olive harvest collapse that could leave Italy dependent on imports from April, a leading climate scientist has warned.A 57% plunge in the country’s olive harvest – the worst in 25 years – sparked protests by thousands of Italian farmers wearing gilet arancioni – orange vests – in Rome earlier this month. Continue reading...

I found something I never knew I wanted: fascinating mathematical concepts explained in a way that’s entertainingYouTube has long had a reputation as a hive of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience. All these accusations are, more or less, true — if you’re vulnerable to the wooing of Flat Earthers, anti-vaxxers, 9/11 truthers, the alt-right, and every other sort of lunatic fringe flourishing in 2018, they’re all there, waiting for you on YouTube.But as with all the other “platforms” that dominate the internet — Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc — YouTube is more than a morass of anti-scientific nutters. The site is also home to much of the web’s best and most compelling popular science content. Continue reading...

Man becomes second person in world to be cleared of virus after stem cell donationA London patient with HIV has become the second person ever to be free of the virus after a bone marrow transplant, raising hopes of a cure for Aids.More than a decade ago, Timothy Brown, the so-called Berlin patient who later went public, made history as the first person to be “cured” of HIV. Like the London patient, he had a bone marrow stem cell transplant to treat cancer. Continue reading...

The giants of the scientific publishing industry have made huge profits for decades. Now they are under threatScientific publishing has long been a licence to print money. Scientists need journals in which to publish their research, so they will supply the articles without monetary reward. Other scientists perform the skilled and specialised work of peer review also for free, because it is a central element in the acquisition of status and the production of scientific knowledge.With the content of papers secured for free, the publisher needs only find a market for its journal. Until this century, university libraries were not very price sensitive. Since academic careers depend on publication, the demand for scientific publications is unbounded except by the price that scholarly libraries can be forced to pay. Scientific publishers routinely report profit margins approaching 40% on their operations, at a time when the rest of the publishing industry is in an existential crisis. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsMy hair and nails grow about a quarter as fast as my wife’s, so I wonder: is this because I have a slow metabolic rate? And if I have, is it a good or a bad thing?Peter Hanson, Exeter Continue reading...

A computer-generated artwork is going to auction at Sotheby’s – but will AI art have staying power?Mario Klingemann, a German artist who uses AI in his work, has radical views on creativity. “Humans are not original,” he says. “We only reinvent, make connections between things we have seen.” While humans can only build on what we have learned and what others have done before us, “machines can create from scratch”.It’s an interesting perspective. Setting aside whether or not human creativity is limited and indeed what precisely creativity is, it’s certainly true that artificial neural networks being developed today work out the rules as they go along, rather than being taught. AlphaGo, the AI that defeated the Korean go grandmaster Lee Sedol, was fed thousands of games, but no rules. It worked out how to play go entirely by itself. Continue reading...