Using a global network of telescopes, scientists have managed to capture an image of a black hole for the first time. Hannah Devlin investigates why it’s more than just a pretty pictureBlack holes have long featured in science fiction movies as dark swirling objects that swallow anything that dares to cross its threshold, so it’s easy to forget that we’ve never actually seen one before. That was until earlier this month when the Event Horizon telescope produced an image of a black hole’s outline surrounded by dust and gas. Hannah Devlin speaks to Dr Matt Middleton from the University of Southampton about decades of research that led to the achievement and to one of the scientists, Dr Ziri Younsi from UCL, who helped create the image, about why it’s more than just a pretty picture. Continue reading...

Data matches predictions that weather will get more extreme as planet warms, scientists sayThe world’s oceans have become more stormy during the past three decades, according to the largest and most detailed study of its kind.The findings add to concerns that as the world gets hotter, extreme events such as storms and floods could become more frequent and more devastating in their impact. Continue reading...

Extinction Rebellion got the ball rolling, but more radical action is now necessary if humanity is to surviveIf only the Daily Express was right. That is not a sentence I ever expected to type. “Extinction Rebellion protests have WORKED as MPs succumb to calls for change”, bellowed the rightwing rag. Alas, the government has not capitulated to demands to declare a climate emergency, let alone to decarbonise the British economy by 2025. But Extinction Rebellion has retaught a lesson every generation must learn: that civil disobedience works. Amid the spluttering of obnoxious news presenters, it has forced the existential threat of climate change on to the airwaves and into newsprint.But as this phase of protest winds down, the demands must radicalise. With capitalism itself rightly being challenged, the focus must shift to the fossil fuel companies and the banks. As long as they remain under private ownership on a global scale, humanity’s future will be threatened. Continue reading...

International trade secretary appeared to suggest scientific consensus could be questionedThe international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has been forced to clarify comments suggesting individuals could question the scientific consensus on climate change.Speaking in the Commons after protesters from Extinction Rebellion held protests across the City of London, Fox suggested even those who did not accept that climate change was man-made should still seek to manage the planet’s resources. Continue reading...

Whether it is a social movement or a secret society, humans love to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Novelist Sarah Henstra looks at what we gain from group identity – and what we loseTwo years ago, I drove eight hours south from Toronto with two friends to participate in the Women’s March on Washington DC. That night we hand-lettered our posters (“This pussy grabs back!”) and stitched up the final seams of our pink knitted hats. In the morning, as we descended an escalator to a subway platform awash in pink, we soon realised the march was way too big – 500,000 people – to take its planned route along the National Mall. It was too big to march at all; instead, for seven hours, we stood packed in, shoulder to shoulder, chanting and cheering and straining to hear the speeches from the stage.In some respects, it was the most exciting day of my life. Borne along by the crowd, I felt incredibly powerful; I felt my voice mattered, that my concerns were recognised and shared and my actions were making a difference in the world. I felt lucky to be part of something so massive and important. I was wholly present in the moment: This is the future and I’m helping to make it happen! Continue reading...

Players automatically perceive their own actions ahead of rivals, research showsWhether it’s rushing to push the buzzer on a quiz show or working out who last touched a basketball before it left the court, players often end up squabbling over moments that turn on milliseconds. But now scientists say there is more to the disputes than sour grapes or angling for an advantage.Researchers have found that when two players press a button simultaneously, they both judge their own action as having taken place about 50 milliseconds before that of their opponent. Continue reading...

Technology could in effect give voice back to people with conditions such as Parkinson’s

Jacob Wainwright’s diary is only handwritten witness account of missionary’s deathThe diary of an African attendant on the Scottish explorer David Livingstone’s final journey into the continent has been published online, containing the only handwritten witness account of the the Victorian missionary’s death in 1873.The manuscript was written by Jacob Wainwright, a member of the Yao ethnic group from east Africa and the only African pallbearer at the explorer’s funeral in Westminster Abbey in 1874. Continue reading...

Researchers say adding sweet smells to food could cut sugar intake and help tackle obesity

Nasa probe InSight picks up slight tremor that fits profile of similar episodes on the moonA Nasa probe has detected and measured what scientists believe to be a “marsquake”, marking the first time a likely seismological tremor has been recorded on another planet, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.The breakthrough came five months after robotic probe InSight, the first spacecraft designed specifically to study the deep interior of a distant world, touched down on the surface of Mars to begin a two-year seismological mission. Continue reading...

We will one day look back and be amazed at the reckless way in which people treated information on social mediaWhen you “like” a story online, you’re not just telling your social media followers that you like it, you’re also exposing them to that story. And they, in turn, can expose others, and so on. We are interconnected in ways we can hardly imagine, and our little online actions can have big consequences. That can be a good thing, if the stories we share contain valuable information or ideas. But what if the information is false? Falsehoods are dangerous, and when they spread they can cause real harm. Yet we seem blindly willing to share stories whose truth we are not sure of.Related: Everyone is biased, including you: the play designed by neuroscientists Continue reading...

We have the technology to prevent climate crisis. But now we need to unleash mass resistance too – because collective action does workBecause I am concerned about inequality and about the environment, I am usually classed as a progressive, a liberal. But it seems to me that what I care most about is preserving a world that bears some resemblance to the past: a world with some ice at the top and bottom and the odd coral reef in between; a world where people are connected to the past and future (and to one another) instead of turned into obsolete software.And those seem to me profoundly conservative positions. Meanwhile, oil companies and tech barons strike me as deeply radical, willing to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere, eager to confer immortality. Continue reading...

The second world war ship SS Iron Crown sank after it was torpedoed, killing 38 of its 43 crewAn Australian second world war freighter has been discovered 77 years after it was sunk in a deadly Japanese submarine attack.The SS Iron Crown was carrying a cargo of manganese ore through Bass Strait when torpedoed and sunk within 60 seconds, killing 38 of its 43 crew on 4 June 1942. Continue reading...

Millions of us take SSRIs, and most can give them up without too much trouble. So why do a minority suffer severe side-effects?Antidepressants can save lives. At best, they work. At worst, they are a sticking plaster, hopefully enabling people to hold it all together until they get other help in the form of talking therapies. Either way, they are not supposed to be long-term medication. But whether depression is now better diagnosed or we live in sad times, more and more people are taking the pills and the weeks extend into months and years. In some cases, the users find they can’t stop.“I am currently trying to wean myself off,” one told researchers, “which honestly is the most awful thing I have ever done. I have horrible dizzy spells and nausea whenever I lower my dose.” Continue reading...

Reinventing the tangramThe tangram was the first ever puzzle craze – and it is still going strong.You may have come across it before. You are shown a shape, and you must arrange seven pieces – five triangles, a square and a rhomboid – to make that shape. Continue reading...

Young people like Greta represent hope in the face of political inaction. Extinction Rebellion must succeed for their sakeThis afternoon an international sensation is taking to the stage in central London. She’s young, admired around the world and her name is Greta Thunberg. She’s a 16-year-old climate hero and I couldn’t be more proud to be co-hosting her visit.Greta’s rise to fame has been vertiginous. Last year she skipped school and sat in front of the Swedish parliament in protest against inaction on climate change – and now she is one of the figureheads of a school climate strike movement that has swept the globe, which more than a million young people taking to the streets last month to demand that world leaders step up to this monumental challenge. Continue reading...

In 1664, scientist Robert Hooke drew a flea and created the first great work of British art. Without it, perhaps, there would be no Stubbs, Constable and HirstOn a January day in 1665 the diarist Samuel Pepys found time to flirt with a servant, go to bed mid-morning with his friend Betty Martin (noting ruefully that he spent “2 s. in wine and cake upon her”), have a massive lunch and finally make his way through filthy streets to a bookshop, where he saw the new work Micrographia by the scientist Robert Hooke. When Pepys got the book – “which is so pretty that I presently bespoke it” – home he sat up into the small hours gazing at its pictures.They are still astounding today. A freakishly large ant seems to crawl across a page. A pair of compound eyes glare back at you. Most startling of all, a gigantic flea escapes from the book on to a fold-out sheet. This insect, not much more than a dot to the naked eye, displays formidable armour plating, articulated limbs and a fierce face. It has spiky hairs on its smoothly segmented exoskeleton. Hooks extend from its legs. Its eye is cruel. Fleas have been the unwanted companions of humans for as long as we’ve existed. Yet no one had ever seen one like this. Hooke’s flea is both pioneering science and the first great work of British art. Continue reading...

Robin McKie, the Observer’s science and environment editor, discusses an innovative drug that may soon offer ways to fight Huntington’s disease, while Mark Newnham describes being diagnosed with the inherited condition. Plus: Peter Beaumont describes his trip to the Costa Rican cloud forest, at threat from climate changeFor Mark Newnham and thousands of others who have been told they have inherited Huntington’s disease, the future would appear bleak, a prospect of inexorable physical and mental decline. But scientists believe they are closing in on a treatment to control its worst effects.Anushka Asthana talks to Robin McKie, the Observer’s science and environment editor, who tells her about the testing of a new drug, RG6042, that appears to reduce levels of a toxic protein that builds up in brain cells and is believed to trigger the disease. She also talks to Newnham, 32, who has tested positive for the gene. Continue reading...

When my father died I lost the ability to live normallySix months ago, on 9 October 2018, it was a beautiful and unusually warm day in my native city of Paris. There, in the leafy surroundings of a palliative care centre, my father took his last breath.I was there with my husband. Our three year old, playing in the room next door, was blissfully unaware of what was happening. We had been in France for five weeks and had spent a lot of time with my father. I remember thinking “this is hard, but I am strong, I’ve got this”. I helped organise his funeral, stayed with my mum a few weeks after he passed away and then flew home to Sydney. Continue reading...

The Lyrid meteor shower reaches its peak. They are the oldest recorded meteors – first written about in ancient China over 2,500 years agoThe Lyrid meteor shower reaches its peak on the night of 22 April. The chart shows the view looking east at midnight. This is the oldest recorded meteor shower, with records that describe it dating back more than 2,500 years to ancient China. The meteors, also known as shooting stars, will radiate from a point in the constellation of Lyra, the Lyre. To see them, don’t concentrate directly on the radiant, be aware of the sky around it, which is where the bright streaks will appear. Continue reading...

There was no relief from grieving my brother – until I realised an important lessonWhen my older brother Jerry became ill with Aids in the 1980s, he was working as a psychologist in New York and I was living in a small cottage in Berkeley, California, with the man who is now my husband. I would phone Jerry every evening and fly in once a month to help him clean his apartment and stock up on food, as well as to discuss his treatments with his doctors and HIV researchers. On one occasion, while he was recovering from a parasitic infection that had caused lesions in his brain and given him dementia, he took my hand and said to me: “I’d be orphaned if it weren’t for you.”Like hundreds of thousands of other brothers and sisters across the world, I kept telling Jerry: “Just hang on, because one day soon there’s going to be a cure.” Continue reading...

Scientists at Yale may not have found an answer to eternal life but they have advanced the frontiers of neuroscienceA team of neuroscientists at Yale School of Medicine, led by Nenad Sestan, last week reported that they had managed to revive brains from pigs that had been decapitated in an abattoir four hours earlier.Well, “revive” in the sense of getting certain neurons to fire. This was no “brain in a vat” experiment. The brains were neither alive nor possessed consciousness. Continue reading...

Stonemasons, archaeologists and craftspeople standing by to go to Paris to aid restorationFrance will need an army of specialists to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral and the UK is on standby to send over architects and archaeologists, conservators and craftspeople.Stonemasons and carpenters, as well as authorities on stained glass and drying out saturated buildings, are ready to cross the Channel to share their expertise on conservation and salvage. Continue reading...

Trump’s ambitions for US lunar exploration will be a further boost to the billionaires building a new generation of rocketsPresident Donald Trump has struggled with some of his signature policy promises, but now he has set his sights higher: a return to the moon, five decades after humans last set foot there.The White House has spoken of landing the first woman on the moon within five years and Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, has made it clear that the private sector – much of it backed by a handful of billionaires – could play a big part in the plans. Continue reading...

Amphibians are under attack from multiple pathogens, say expertsFrogs, salamanders, and toads across the world are now under attack from a widening range of interacting pathogens that threaten to devastate global amphibian populations.That is the stark warning of leading zoological experts who will gather this week in London in a bid to establish an emergency plan to save these endangered creatures. “The world’s amphibians are facing a new crisis, one that is caused by attacks by multiple pathogens,” said Professor Trent Garner of the Zoological Society of London, which is hosting the conference. “We desperately need to devise strategies that can protect them.” Continue reading...

Nobel prize-winning physicist who challenged accepted thinking in key areasDavid Thouless, who has died aged 84, won half of the 2016 Nobel prize in physics, the other half being shared by Duncan Haldane and me. David and I solved an interesting theoretical problem by introducing some new ideas with important implications, and so unknowingly created a new field in the discipline.Our main innovation came from topology: the mathematical study of the properties preserved when objects are twisted, stretched or crumpled, properties that change only step by step. From 1972 to 1974 we sought a theoretical explanation of a phase transition, a change of state such as water turning into steam and back to water again. The one we examined was from a high-temperature disordered phase, a gas, to a low-temperature partially ordered one, a liquid, in an arrangement operating in two dimensions – a thin film or layer of something not supported by anything else. Previously it had been thought for very good reasons that such a phase transition could not happen in two dimensions, but only in three or more. Continue reading...

Even light exertions can slow down ageing of the brain, activity-tracker data indicatesEven light activity such as household chores might help to keep the brain young, researchers say, adding to a growing body of evidence that, when it comes to exercise, every little helps.The findings mirror upcoming guidance from the UK chief medical officers, and existing US guidelines, which say light activity or very short bouts of exercise are beneficial to health – even if it is just a minute or two at a time – countering the previous view that there was a threshold that must be reached before there were significant benefits. Continue reading...

Coffee is a drink adored the world over. But have you ever wondered why a fresh brew smells better than it tastes? Prof Barry Smith has spent his career pondering how the senses work together to produce flavour perception and so Graihagh Jackson invited him into the studio to talk tasteCoffee is a drink adored the world over. But have you ever wondered why a fresh brew smells better than it tastes?This is one of the many questions Prof Barry Smith from the University of London has been trying to answer by studying the senses. It turns out there are a lot to choose from; we could have anywhere between 22 and 33 different senses. With a strong interest in wine, though, Smith has focused on how touch, taste and smell all work in tandem to produce flavour perception. Continue reading...

Hearts and minds will not be won with protest puppetry, guerrilla gardening and talk of ‘climate justice’Over the past few days, I have watched members of the Extinction Rebellion movement block bridges, disrupt public transport and lock themselves to lorries. I have been moved by their bravery and inspired by their message, but puzzled by their strategy. On the face of it, the rebels have been effective. They have disrupted major cities, gained publicity and built bonds of solidarity. But are they achieving their aim of building a more sustainable world?According to Stanford University’s Doug McAdam, the climate change movement has historically been a failure when compared with other movements. Climate activists have struggled to engage politicians, been unable to build influential organisations, and failed to connect with the wider public. The Extinction Rebellion may mark a turning point. The rebels have injected a sense of urgency and emotion back into the issue of climate change, but creating meaningful and long-lasting change requires more. A movement must reach out beyond true believers and connect with a wider base of potential supporters – wherever they might be found on the political spectrum. Continue reading...

Beresheet spacecraft hit moon’s surface at 500km per hour and would have been destroyed on impactIsrael’s Beresheet lander has failed in its attempt to become the first privately funded mission to land on the moon. The 150kg spacecraft began its descent on 11 April but ran into difficulties about 14km above the lunar surface, when the main engine shut down unexpectedly. The spacecraft was still six minutes before the scheduled landing time. Telemetry signals received from the lander made it clear that although the engine restarted, the spacecraft hit the moon’s surface at a speed of 500km per hour. At this speed, the spacecraft would have been destroyed on impact.Related: ‘We have not managed to land successfully’: Israel's moonshot fails Continue reading...

DNA research adds to evidence soldiers heading east struck up relationships with localsCrusader armies were made up of people from remarkably genetically diverse backgrounds, hailing not just from western Europe but also much further east, according to a new study that gives unprecedented insight into the fighters’ lives.The Crusades to the Holy Land were spread over two centuries, with many Europeans heading east to fight, and others turning up to trade. Continue reading...

The US and Soviet Union both believed people could develop superpowers. And, reveals The Men on Magic Carpets, their psychic experiments played out in the sporting arenaCandlestick Park, San Francisco, 1964. The wind is whipping off the Bay on a typically cold night at the ballpark. Mike Murphy takes his seat in Section 17. A jazz band pipes up and the vendors shout their wares: Hamm’s or Falstaff beers, Oscar Mayer hot dogs with Gulden’s mustard. Murphy is close enough to talk to the San Francisco Giants players – but he’s not interested in hero worship. He wants to put a voodoo curse on the opposition, the LA Dodgers.He tells two friends it’s called a “whammy” or “occult backlash”. He’s been practising for years, perfecting the very particular cries and exact hand gestures to transmit negative energy to players. He reckons he’s a baseball witch doctor, sending psychic waves to scramble minds and zap energy from muscles. Continue reading...

There has been much spluttering about the prince’s use of ‘Americanisms’ in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, but the truth is more complicatedBad news for a certain kind of pedantic patriot (look away now, Jacob Rees-Mogg). Prince Charles has debased the English language – and in a letter to a foreign potentate, no less.Our future king has essentially committed treason by using a ghastly “American” spelling in a letter expressing sympathy and support for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, after the fire at Notre Dame this week. He wrote: “I realize only too well what a truly special significance the Cathedral holds at the heart of your nation.” Continue reading...

Sex counsellors have a unique insight into our shared concerns and insecurities. Where once they focused on physical issues, now they are tackling psychological onesDenise Knowles, a sex and relationship therapist with the charity Relate, says patients often say to her: “There are so many options, I don’t know where to start.” Thirty years ago, Knowles was mostly approached with physical problems: erectile dysfunction, painful intercourse, issues with ejaculation. Now she describes the scope of her work as “bio-psycho-social”. That is to say, everything has got a lot more complicated.“I think it has gone from being very much: ‘This is the problem; this is how we resolve it,’ to: ‘How do we approach sex? What does it mean to you? How does it fit into the relationship, and how have you got to this place?’” She laughs. “Then we can start to deal with it.” Continue reading...

Digital 3D models made for archaeologists and conservationists of at-risk heritage sites are now online so anyone can walk through themAfter a major earthquake rocked Mexico City in 2017, the authorities wanted to assess the damage it had caused to the city’s cathedral, the largest and arguably most spectacular building of its kind in Latin America.Rather than have to rely on ladders and winches like its 16th-century builders, they could call on technology for answers. US-based digital scanning experts were invited to survey and digitally record parts of the cathedral, including the retablo dos reyes, the spectacular gilded screen that stands behind the high altar, allowing the cathedral’s restoration team to inspect it for cracks or other damage. Continue reading...

In my career, I have investigated many of the UK’s worst disasters. Few cases were as harrowing as the sinking of the Marchioness in 1989, which left scores dead and almost impossible to identify. By Richard Shepherd

Only 2% of people in a Campaign to Protect Rural England census had access to a truly dark sky. But there are still ways to see the stars

Bone found in Roman palace belongs to rabbit that could have been kept as an exotic petWho brought the first rabbit to Britain? Not, it would seem, the Normans, who were previously thought to have introduced the animal to England in the 11th century.Instead, re-examination of a bone found at a Roman palace more than half a century ago has shown that it belonged to a rabbit that may have been kept as a pet by the villa’s owners – making it Britain’s first bunny. Continue reading...

This stunning satellite nature show, hosted by a purring Chiwetel Ejiofor, may make you paranoid about being surveilled – but what a visual delight

Helium hydride is thought to have played starring role in early universeThe most ancient type of molecule in our universe has been detected in space, scientists have revealed, backing up theories of how the early chemistry of the universe developed after the big bang.The positively charged molecule known as helium hydride is believed to have played a starring role in the early universe, forming when a helium atom shared its electrons with a hydrogen nucleus, or proton. Not only is it thought to be the first molecular bond, and first chemical compound, to have appeared as the universe cooled after the big bang, but it also opened up the path to the formation of molecules of hydrogen. Continue reading...

Scientists say ability to revive some brain functions will not change definition of deathThe brains of decapitated pigs can be partially revived several hours after the animal has died, researchers have revealed, with some of the functions of cells booted back up when an oxygen-rich fluid is circulated through the organ.The scientists stress that the brains do not show any signs of consciousness – for example, there was no sign that different parts of the brain were sending signals to each other – and that it does not change the definition of death. Continue reading...

With rare fossils being sold on eBay, and Hollywood stars bidding for skulls, there’s a case for curbing what is becoming a collectors’ market for the mega-richThe news that an ultra-rare fossil of an infant Tyrannosaurus rex has been placed on eBay for $2.95m (£2.26m) has caused an uproar among palaeontologists, who have protested that such things “belong in a museum”. Where is Indiana Jones when you need him?The skeleton, estimated to be 68m years old, was found in 2013 on private land in Montana and became the property of Alan Detrich, the professional fossil hunter who found it. Before Detrich decided to cash in on the discovery, he had lent it to the Kansas University Natural History Museum, but withdrew it before scientists could study it. Continue reading...

Research combed from everything from movie tickets to social media finds more to focus on but less time to do so

Trolls latched on to Bouman’s achievement of the first black hole image with a vitriol that, in a saner world, would be shocking – but is par for the course for women

Rockets, a huge planetarium, bags of interactive fun – and a moon landing anniversary to celebrate – make for a stellar day outAn interactive museum of super-size space experiences: from a giant planet Earth you can touch to the UK’s biggest domed planetarium and a 42-metre rocket tower. You can’t miss the latter as you drive into Leicester – the structure looks like it’s wrapped in giant inflatable pillows. Inside, it houses Blue Streak and Thor Able rockets. Take in the full scale of them by riding a glass-sided lift up to the viewing platform. Elsewhere, there are six galleries with plenty of buttons to press, screens to touch and switches to flick. It’s all under cover so, hours later, you’ll exit squinting into the daylight – it’s a good one to tire them out on a rainy day! Continue reading...

Over half of people in England struggle to see more than 10 stars in Orion, study showsLight pollution is hindering a starry view of the night sky for more than half of people across England, a census has found.Fifty-seven per cent of stargazers struggled to see more than 10 stars, while just 2% of participants said they experienced “truly dark skies” enabling them to count more than 30, according to the research by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Continue reading...

People more or less keeping to NHS guidelines at higher risk than those who eat littleEating even the moderate amounts of red and processed meat sanctioned by government guidelines increases the likelihood of developing bowel cancer, according to the largest UK study of the risks ever conducted.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) suggests anyone who eats more than 90g of red or processed meat per day should try to cut down to 70g or less, because of the known link with bowel cancer. The NHS describes 90g of red meat as “equivalent to around three thinly cut slices of beef, lamb or pork, where each slice is about the size of half a piece of sliced bread”. Continue reading...

Crook, Co Durham: This ancient wingless insect still resembles its 400m-year-old fossil ancestorsI almost swilled a living fossil down the plughole when I showered this morning. Overnight, the tiny silverfish, Lepisma saccharina, had tumbled into the bath, a pitfall trap whose vertical sides were too smooth for it to escape.It’s a while since I’ve encountered one of these ancient wingless insects, a survivor from the Devonian period that now lives among humans in the Anthropocene and still resembles its 400m-year-old fossil ancestors. Continue reading...

Dr Joanne Chory hopes that genetic modifications to enhance plants’ natural carbon-fixing traits could play a key role – but knows that time is short, for her and the planetIf this were a film about humanity’s last hope before climate change wiped us out, Hollywood would be accused of flagrant typecasting. That’s because Dr Joanne Chory is too perfect for the role to be believable.The esteemed scientist – who has long banged the climate drum and now leads a project that could lower the Earth’s temperature – is perhaps the world’s leading botanist and is on the cusp of something so big that it could truly change our planet. Continue reading...