Fears raised about miscarriages of justice and unsolved crimesA crisis in forensic science has brought some of the country’s largest private laboratories to the brink of collapse, risking miscarriages of justice, an inquiry has warned.The House of Lords science and technology committee has called for urgent reforms to forensic science provision, warning that declining standards could lead to crimes going unsolved and an erosion of public trust in the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Jellyfish’s sting carries enough venom to kill more than 60 peopleAn antidote has been discovered for the world’s most venomous creature, the Australian box jellyfish.Researchers at the University of Sydney have found an antidote for the sting of the jellyfish – which carries enough venom to kill more than 60 people. Continue reading...

SpaceX delivery delayed after old power-switching unit malfunctionsThe International Space Station has been hit by a major power shortage that has forced a delivery from SpaceX to be delayed.SpaceX was supposed to launch a shipment on Wednesday. But an old power-switching unit malfunctioned at the space station on Monday and knocked two power channels offline. The six remaining power channels still worked normally, according to Nasa. Continue reading...

Rock deposits show there have been many times when the planet has been covered in iceOnce upon a time, about 650m years ago, our planet was covered in ice. Glaciers stretched as far as the tropics, and equatorial regions were as cold as modern day Antarctica.Life clung on, huddling around geothermal springs and in pockets of liquid water under the ice caps. Ancient rock deposits suggest our planet entered this snowball state multiple times. Continue reading...

Heatwave of 2018 will become the capital’s new normal, claims Green party in reportHundreds of schools, hospitals and tube stations in London are at risk of flooding or overheating as the climate crisis accelerates and global temperatures continue to rise, according to a study.The report, commissioned by the Green party on the London Assembly, paints a bleak picture of life in the capital as global temperatures increase by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – a conservative estimate based on current projections. Continue reading...

Impaired smell in later life can be an early warning of neurodegenerative and heart diseases, research suggestsOlfactory tests could help doctors spot older adults who are at greater risk of developing dementia, researchers say.The sense of smell is known to deteriorate with age. However, researchers have previously found it might also hint at health problems: older adults who struggle to identify odours have a greater chance of dying in the near future regardless of how old they are. Continue reading...

Hair tagged as polymath’s in US collection to be tested against remains in French graveTwo Italian experts are set to perform a DNA test on a lock of hair that they say might have belonged to Leonardo da Vinci.The hair strand was found in a private collection in the US and will go on display for the first time at the Ideale Leonardo da Vinci museum in Vinci (the Tuscan town where the artist was born), from 2 May, the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. Continue reading...

An Oxford lecturer claims that a secret breeding programme to create alien-human hybrids will save humanity from environmental disasterName: Alien abductions.Appearance: Vague. Continue reading...

Dame Sally Davies calls for Extinction Rebellion-style campaign to raise awarenessProtests against climate change should be extended to the other greatest threat facing humanity, according to England’s chief medical officer, who says an Extinction Rebellion-style campaign is needed to save people from antibiotics becoming ineffective in the face of overuse and a lack of regulation.The threat of antibiotic resistance is as great as that from climate change, said Dame Sally Davies, and should be given as much attention from politicians and the public. Continue reading...

Study found bags were still able to carry shopping despite environmental claimsPlastic bags that claim to be biodegradable were still intact and able to carry shopping three years after being exposed to the natural environment, a study has found.The research for the first time tested compostable bags, two forms of biodegradable bag and conventional carrier bags after long-term exposure to the sea, air and earth. None of the bags decomposed fully in all environments. Continue reading...

The moon and Venus are in conjunction this week, but in June Venus, the morning star, will disappear, and return as evening star in OctoberThe month ends as it began with a conjunction between the moon and Venus at dawn. The chart shows the view looking east at 0515 BST on 1 May, when the moon and Venus will both rise shortly before the sun. The moon will be a slim crescent, with just 14% of its surface illuminated. To make the most of this opportunity, start looking the morning before, when the moon will be a little further from Venus, and its crescent will be a little fatter. Make sure you have an excellent eastern horizon as the pair will not rise very high before the sun appears and washes them away. Although the moon will be gone by 2 May, Venus will remain visible in the morning sky until the middle of June. Its orbit will then carry it behind the sun, rendering it invisible throughout the summer. The planet will return to visibility in October but will appear in the evening sky, and remain there until the end of the year. The ancient Greeks named Venus differently depending on whether they saw it in the morning or evening sky. It was known as Phosphoros, the morning star, or Hesperos for evening star. Remember, never look directly at the sun, it is so bright that it can cause permanent eye damage. Continue reading...

Girls with autism are often misdiagnosed, but a new graphic novel aims to put them in the pictureAt secondary school, they become the “leftover girls”, drifting, alienated and often miserably lonely because the other teenage girls won’t accept them. It’s not that autistic girls don’t want friends – they are as desperate for friends as any teenager – but in a world which denies, rejects and ignores them, they are simply not wired to understand the only social role available to them: that of a neurotypical girl living an ordinary life.Dr Sarah Bargiela wants to reach these girls. With illustrator Sophie Standing, she has written Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women, a graphic novel that transforms the growing mass of dry, scholarly research on autism and women into intriguing science facts and moving personal accounts. Continue reading...

An investigation into the sports-related brain disease CTE and a history of climate change denial were essential listeningThe Beautiful Brain | Audible

Why using a white spoon can be preferable to a black one when eating yoghurt and other quirks of human perceptionResearchers in Philadelphia revealed last week that tastebuds also bear odour-detecting proteins, calling into question the idea that smell and taste come together in the brain to produce flavour. According to Dr Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, his findings open up the possibility of using smells to trick us into healthier eating, for example by adding a low-concentration odour to food to make it taste sweeter and thereby reduce sugar intake. Continue reading...

Psychologist Peter Fonagy tells of his own struggles in early life as the Anna Freud charity that he heads opens a major new centre for traumatised childrenIn 1967, a young Hungarian refugee sent to live in Britain planned on ending his life. “At 16 I was a very depressed adolescent, I had suicidal ideation, I had suicidal plans,” Peter Fonagy recalls. “If I was assessing myself now I would be very worried about me, because I knew exactly how I was going to do it. The reason is not that subtle or surprising: I was a Hungarian boy, who had landed in England and was not able to speak English.”Lodging with a family in Kew Gardens, west London, the young Fonagy did not want to eat, or leave his room. He hated talking to people and was struggling academically. “I was massively inhibited. I was at a secondary modern school with kids who failed the 11-plus whose main interest was football.” Continue reading...

It turns out that numbers don’t necessarily tell the whole story

Activists are changing the discourse on climate change. Politicians must respond with policies that meet the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5CClimate change is becoming hard to ignore. Extreme weather has grown more frequent. Scientists are loudly and urgently sounding the alarm – and people have noticed. The 10-day Extinction Rebellion protests were the biggest act of mass civil disobedience in the UK for generations. The protests, by people drawn from all sections of society, are sure to have a lasting impact. This month has seen the most mentions of climate change in the British media since the landmark Paris agreement in 2015. The country’s political class has been at pains to show it has been moved by the unprecedented outpouring of political feeling. But politicians need to overhaul policy in a far more substantial way than is currently envisaged to stop net emissions of greenhouse gases. The question is not whether this country should achieve a net zero target, but when. Presently the UK is committed in law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. This is not ambitious enough.Last year’s UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report suggested that to limit the warming effect to 1.5C, global CO emissions must reach net zero by around 2050. Next week the UK’s Committee on Climate Change is expected to formally recommend the government goes further. Extinction Rebellion (XR) would like the UK to reach zero by 2025. Underlying this ambition is a commendable sentiment but the target is impractical. Britain, as the first country to industrialise and therefore responsible for a large historical stock of carbon dioxide emissions, ought to aspire to reach the UN’s 2050 goal faster, but not as fast as XR demands. Continue reading...

Professor Ton van Raan told use of phrase for ignored work is culturally insensitiveA leading American academic journal has refused to publish an article by a respected professor on the grounds that his use of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty as a metaphor for ignored scientific work is culturally insensitive and in danger of being “sexualised”.Ton van Raan, a professor emeritus of quantitative science studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, first likened the belated discovery of an academic work to the story of the Brothers Grimm fairytale some 15 years ago. Continue reading...

The ‘smoker’s disease’ is affecting more and more people who have never lit up in their lives – and it is a particular problem among women. What do experts think is going on?‘Don’t go home. Order a taxi, go to A&E and have a chest x-ray. I don’t think this is asthma-related. Something’s not right here.” Her GP’s words struck fear into Jenny Abbott.It hadn’t started out that way. A few weeks earlier, before Christmas 2017, she got a bad cold and a cough. An out-of-hours GP thought her longstanding viral-induced asthma was playing up and prescribed her steroids. A week later, her own family doctor took the same view. It was a reassuringly familiar diagnosis. But it was wrong. Abbott was surprised when her usual run round the park near her north London home left her breathless. “I just thought I was tired. But the next day I noticed that I was becoming breathless going up the stairs. And the day after that, I had to read something out at work, and even doing that made me breathless,” she recalls. Those symptoms triggered her GP’s plea to go to A&E. Continue reading...

It’s been several years since recreational cannabis was made legal in some US states. What effect has it had on road safety?People who are stoned often think they’re being funnier than they actually are, now we know they overestimate their driving ability too.Almost half of cannabis users believe it’s safe to drive when you’re high, according to a new study by PSB Research and Buzzfeed News. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those who abstain from weed, take a different view – only 14% believe someone who’s stoned can drive safely. Continue reading...

As a doctor, I realize the forces that cause climate change are the same forces that poisoned the lungs of babies in DetroitI used to be a reluctant environmentalist. Of course, as a scientist, I’ve always believed in the science of climate change – even a casual examination of the evidence shows that humans burning fossil fuels into the Earth’s atmosphere is causing it. But my reluctance wasn’t about science, it’s just that the images of melting glaciers and dying polar bears – while compelling for many people – just didn’t move me. I’m not an outdoorsman. Besides, polar bears, however cute and cuddly they may seem, eat their own young.As a doctor, I care about people. And the consequences of climate change felt so remote from the daily struggle. Babies are dying, so why should I be worried about faraway glaciers and cannibalistic bears? But after being appointed health director of the City of Detroit, I realized that the forces that cause climate change are the same forces that poisoned the lungs of babies in my city. Today, I’m standing up for the Green New Deal because it’s also a Public Health New Deal. Continue reading...

As an archaeologist, I’ve seen Yemen’s rich heritage. But for too many world leaders, only arms sales really matterLike everyone else the world over, I watched in horror last week as Notre Dame burned and its spire fell. I saw the stunned reactions of onlookers on the news, on social media and in front of television sets and phone screens on the streets of Nice, where I live. A part of France’s national identity and an international symbol of Paris was collapsing before our eyes.This accidental burning of one of the most important French cultural and religious monuments struck a painful chord in just about everyone I know: I was getting messages of grief from friends in Sudan, Yemen, the US and South America. The unthinkable sight of Notre Dame burning evoked photographs of burning buildings during wartime, and nostalgia for all the valuable historical objects within them that had been turned to ash. One could not look at this sight without feeling grief. Continue reading...

The cuts expected to be announced by the government to tuition fees next month will take a vital subsidy for scienceEverywhere you go, your life is improved by breakthroughs developed in the labs and classrooms of UK universities. Treatments for diabetes and Parkinson’s, methods used by the police to cut violent crime, the sugar tax – even digital theology that can tackle online trolling. All of these are the work of UK academics, because the UK is a research powerhouse.Related: Are PhDs just cheap labour for universities? Continue reading...

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...