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...

Experts find men with more ‘masculine’ faces more likely to seem, and be, unfaithfulPhilandering men have unfaithfulness written all over their faces, according to research that suggests men and women are able to spot cheating chaps just by looking at them.Experts found men with more “masculine” faces were more likely to be thought to be unfaithful, and such men also self-reported more cheating or “poaching” of other men’s partners. Continue reading...

Flush of new beech leaves casts an early green glow across woodland floorsA heavenly green spectacle is spreading northwards across the country as trees open their new leaves. The delicate green of tree leaves in spring is remarkable and perhaps the greatest spectacle is the flush of new beech leaves that are so translucent they cast a green glow across woodland floors.This green colour comes from the chlorophyll pigment in the leaf chloroplasts, the tiny cell bodies that perform photosynthesis. As the young leaves are still developing their chloroplasts, the leaves tend to be a lighter green. The new leaves are also thinner, with fewer waxy or tough layers, making them more translucent. What’s more, the leaves look brighter because they tend to have fewer additional pigments other than chlorophyll, so the green colour can shine through more clearly. But this is only a passing phase before the leaves turn darker green as their chloroplasts mature and the leaves grow thicker and more opaque. Continue reading...

It could be yours for just $2.95m but the sale has drawn criticism from the scientific communityYou wouldn’t normally associate the world of dutiful natural history preservation with sporadic bursts of all-caps letters and exclamation points – or at least not until last month, when the fossil of an infant Tyrannosaurus rex, potentially the only in existence, went on sale on eBay for the “buy it now” price of $2.95m.The listing reads: “Most Likely the Only BABY T-Rex in the World! It has a 15 FOOT long Body and a 21” SKULL with Serrated Teeth! This Rex was very a very dangerous meat eater. It’s a RARE opportunity indeed to ever see a baby REX…” Continue reading...

Handwritten journals from 50s show how plastic problem has grown to global emergencyA trove of data showing when the Atlantic began choking with plastic has been uncovered in the handwritten logbooks of a little-known but doggedly persistent plankton study dating back to the middle of the last century.From fishing twine found in the ocean in the 50s, then a first carrier bag in 1965, it reflects how the marine refuse problem grew from small, largely ignored incidents to become a matter of global concern. Continue reading...

Physics head dismissed after criticising scientific research about climate change impact on the Great Barrier ReefJames Cook University is considering its legal options after the federal circuit court ruled it had unlawfully sacked a professor who had criticised scientific research about the climate change impact on the Great Barrier Reef.Peter Ridd, who was the head of the physics department at the institution from 2009 until 2016, took legal action against his dismissal. Continue reading...

Brontophonic sounds can give lightning a unique hiss, separate from the deep rumble of thunderWhat does lightning sound like? The obvious answer is in the boom of thunder: an explosion of expanding, superheated air. But there are more subtle and less understood noises associated with lightning, known as brontophonic sounds, which are heard far less frequently.Two features make these sounds distinguishable from thunder. One is that in contrast to the deep reverberation of thunder, brontophonic sounds sound like the hissing of a red-hot iron in water or the tearing of fabric. Continue reading...

Scientists study species that releases huge quantities of bodily fluids to plug nest holesWhile humans might change their locks to deal with intruders, a species of aphid opts for a communal sacrifice, releasing huge quantities of a sticky bodily fluid to plug holes in their nests.Researchers who studied the makeup of the fluid found the process for nest repair was similar to what happens when aphids are wounded, involving the release of substances that clot and form a scab. This means similar mechanisms underpin both individual immunity and so-called social immunity – when organisms work together to protect their communities from enemies and disease. Continue reading...

Research raises hope that triggers of individual tumours could be pinpointedFrom smoking to alcohol, air pollution to sunlight, a host of factors in our environment can cause cancer. Now scientists say they might be able to pinpoint the culprits for individual tumours.Experts say they have managed to link particular environmental triggers with specific genetic mutations that give rise to cancer, opening up the possibility that researchers could look for clues in a tumour to deduce what triggered its formation. Continue reading...

David JK Evans says recent scientific discoveries should prompt people to focus their creative genius and protect our planet, not destroy itI applaud your editorial celebrating the importance in our human history of the discovery of Powehi and the evidence it demonstrates of our species’ creative genius (The first picture of a black hole is inspiring. So are the scientists who took it, 13 April). It is perfectly possible, if not highly likely, that we are the only entity between Earth and the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, now known as Powehi, 55m light years away, to have the consciousness to know it for what it is. We are as good as alone with this discovery.This thought is breathtaking. The achievement is both inspiring and lonely. Can’t we focus our creative genius on arranging things here on our planet to ensure that we have a future of being able to appreciate our species’ greatest achievements in science, technology and the arts, and so to continue our creative intellectual journey, without destroying our only home?

Parrots do it, rats do it, and we do it partly for social reasons. But to learn more, I need the help of comedy fansThe American writer EB White famously said, “Analysing humour is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” But is the same true of analysing laughter?I am a brain scientist who studies laughter, and I find it quite interesting, not least because scientific analyses tell us that pretty much everything we humans think we know about laughter is wrong. We think laughter is primarily something we do when we find something funny, but in fact most laughter is produced for social reasons – we are 30 times more likely to laugh if there is someone else with us than when we are on our own. We all laugh much more often than we think we do – studies find an average of seven laughs per 10 minutes of conversation between strangers, and an average 10% of all of a conversation between friends. We think we are the only animals that laugh, but laughter has been described in other apes, parrots and even rats. Continue reading...

No one is coming to save us. Mass civil disobedience is essential to force a political responseHad we put as much effort into preventing environmental catastrophe as we’ve spent on making excuses for inaction, we would have solved it by now. Everywhere I look, I see people engaged in furious attempts to fend off the moral challenge it presents.The commonest current excuse is this: “I bet those protesters have phones/go on holiday/wear leather shoes.” In other words, we won’t listen to anyone who is not living naked in a barrel, subsisting only on murky water. Of course, if you are living naked in a barrel we will dismiss you too, because you’re a hippie weirdo. Every messenger, and every message they bear, is disqualified on the grounds of either impurity or purity. Continue reading...

The full moon is a starting point to locate two of the brightest stars in the sky – Arcturus in Boötes and Spica in VirgoThe moon becomes full this week and on 18 April it sits squarely in the constellation Virgo, the Virgin. The chart shows its location at 2200BST that night. With the moon as a guide, two of the brightest stars can be located and compared. Higher in the sky to the east is Arcturus in the constellation Boötes, the herdsman. Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the sky. It shines with an orange light and is roughly 37 light years from Earth. It contains about the same mass as the sun but has expanded to about 25 times the Sun’s diameter. This is the behaviour of a star nearing the end of its life. In the expansion, the surface temperature has dropped to roughly 4,000C (about 2,000 degrees lower than the sun’s surface temperature). Lower in the sky, slightly to the west is Spica, the brightest star in Virgo and the seventeenth brightest star in the sky. It is 250 light years from Earth, and actually comprises two stars in orbit around each other. Both blaze with a brilliant white light because they have surface temperatures around 25,000C and 20,000C. They contain seven and eleven times more mass than the Sun, and are seven and four times larger than our star. Continue reading...

A manned giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan – surpassing Howard Hughes’s infamous Spruce Goose – took off from California on its first flight on Saturday. The twin-fuselage Stratolaunch jet lifted off from Mojave air and space port and climbed into the desert sky 70 miles north of Los Angeles. It successfully landed two hours later. The aircraft is designed to carry as many as three satellite-laden rockets under the centre of its enormous wing, which stretches 385ft, or 117 metresAirplane with world's longest wingspan takes flight, beating Spruce Goose record Continue reading...

US journalist Alice Robb, author of a new book about the science and life-changing potential of dreams, talks about her researchAlice Robb is an American science journalist who has written for the Washington Post and the New Republic. Her new book, Why We Dream, encourages us to rethink the importance of dreams and to become dream interpreters ourselves.Writing a book about dreams turned you into a “magnet for confessions”. Why are people compelled to talk about dreams?

We marvelled at the first image of an event horizon 55m light years away, but struggled to grasp its majesty and dimensionsA few years ago, during a period of insomnia, I briefly got into the habit of contributing to the online project Galaxy Zoo. I would log on to a website that presented, one after another, singular images of tens of thousands of galaxies observed by the Hubble telescope, each billions of light years away. There were so many of these images that cosmologists had opened them up to thousands of amateur volunteers to help narrow down the field of those galaxies that warranted closer study.Peering at my dimmed computer screen in the early hours, at catherine wheels of stars that perhaps no human eye had ever seen, I ticked the relevant boxes that would assist in classifying them – “elliptical or spiral?”; “smooth or fuzzy?” – and then paused for a while over the open-ended final question: “Is there anything odd in this image?” (An inquiry that always seemed to beg the reply: “You mean, beyond the fact that it is a rotating mass of incalculable solar systems that likely expired untold millions of years ago?”) Continue reading...

Last week scientists produced the first image of a black hole, shining a light on one of the universe’s great mysteriesThis week, scientists produced the first real image of a black hole, in a galaxy called Messier 87. The image is not a photograph but an image created by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. Using a network of eight ground-based telescopes across the world, the EHT collected data to produce the image. The black hole itself is unseeable, as it’s impossible for light to escape from it; what we can see is its event horizon. The EHT was also observing a black hole located at the centre of the Milky Way, but was unable to produce an image. While Messier 87 is further away, it was easier to observe, due to its larger size. Continue reading...

Whether it’s to the North Pole or across LA, walking is the fastest way to make more time for lifeAs a child growing up in 1970s Norway, with parents who didn’t own a car and loved to hike, Erling Kagge believes one of his first full sentences was: “How much further is it?”By his late teens, though, he’d begun to embrace his parents’ ethos. “By then, for me, walking wasn’t just getting from A to B,” he says. “It had a value in itself.” So much so that at 27, he walked to the North Pole and, less than three years later, became the first person to walk to the South Pole alone – a 50-day trek with no radio. A year later he climber Everest. Now 25 years on, a father of three and the head of one of Norway’s biggest publishing houses, most of Kagge’s walking is closer to home. He walks two miles to his Oslo office each morning, hikes in the woods at weekends and has spent many evenings exploring every neighbourhood of his city on foot. Continue reading...

Scientists warn of danger from dengue fever in hotter, wetter climate in northern latitudesInsect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, leishmaniasis and encephalitis are on the rise and are now threatening to spread into many areas of Europe, scientists have warned.Outbreaks of these illnesses are increasing because of climate change and the expansion of international travel and trade, the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases was told in Amsterdam on Saturday. Continue reading...

As Australia’s first trial for psychedelic therapy for terminally ill patients gets under way, a growing movement says it could also help other conditionsIn August 2016 I went to New York for the first time. On the second evening, as the sun slipped behind the building across the street, I was sitting on a long couch on the top floor of an old church. All around me instruments were scattered on the floor – singing bowls, tuning forks, rainsticks, Tibetan bells. At the foot of a wall carpeted completely in moss, dripping like the jungle in the baking heat, was a large bronze gong.On the table in front of me two small ceramic bowls contained a capsule of 125mg of pure MDMA and a chilli guacamole with three grams of powdered magic mushrooms stirred through it. I eyed them nervously. I was terrified that I was going to lose my mind but I was more scared that nothing would happen at all, that I was too broken for even this radical treatment. Continue reading...

Stratolaunch jet, brainchild of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, may be used to launch small satellites into spaceA giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan – surpassing Howard Hughes’ infamous Spruce Goose – took off from California on its first flight on Saturday.The behemoth, twin-fuselage Stratolaunch jet lifted off from Mojave Air and Space Port and climbed into the desert sky 70 miles north of Los Angeles. It landed two hours later. Continue reading...

Lisel Heise runs for local grassroots group after realising her age ‘gives me the chance to say something’For most people, reaching 100 would be reason enough to put one’s feet up and take things easy, but Lisel Heise has other ideas.The German centenarian, a former sports teacher, has started a new chapter in her life by standing for election to the council in her home town of Kirchheimbolanden. Continue reading...

Her time in space gives her a singular perspective on the travails besetting the planetIn the manner of a droid desperately seeking a docking station, I am constantly searching for a leader who can offer me some direction and energy in the battle for the biosphere. Until now, there’s been something of a leadership void. Anyone who so much as uttered the words “climate change” might find me looking up at them, awaiting instruction.Now I feel like I can pick and choose. Perhaps it’s because people are competing with Greta Thunberg, the teenage agitator behind the climate strikes, but good adults are stepping into the limelight. Continue reading...

World’s first canine forensic reconstruction sheds light on lives of ancient communitiesThe head of a dog that lived on Orkney 4,500 years ago has been recreated in what experts believe is the world’s first canine forensic reconstruction.The dog had been domesticated in the Neolithic era on the Scottish island archipelago, but still carried wolf-like characteristics, standing about the size of a large collie, according to Historic Environment Scotland (HES) which jointly commissioned the reconstruction with the National Museum of Scotland. Continue reading...

Research suggests surgical delivery may make babies more prone to respiratory infectionsBabies delivered by caesarean section are slower to acquire certain types of “good bacteria” in their gut and have higher levels of potentially problematic bacteria than those born vaginally, researchers say.A study of more than 100 babies showed that those born vaginally had a very different make-up of their gut microbiome (clusters of gut microbes), potentially making caesarean babies more prone to respiratory infections. The differences were found to reduce as the babies grew older. Continue reading...

Scientists have shown us one of the mysteries of the universe, and the extraordinary power of human cooperation“If you work on something like theoretical physics, you feel like you’re trapped inside a room, and outside people don’t know,” the physicist Carlo Rovelli said recently. While the stereotype of a space scientist is of a loner out of step with the humdrum of everyday life, Mr Rovelli is not alone in believing that his life’s work is not just to find things out, but to communicate.This week’s first pictures of a black hole were a special moment for all those who believe that scientists’ role is not only to expand the sum of human knowledge, but to share it. Seeing is not always believing. But the fact that millions of us have seen the picture of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, 55m light years away, is an undoubted step forward for humankind. Created using data gathered from eight telescopes in four continents, the fiery doughnut of red and gold with blackness at its centre has now been given a Hawaiian name: Powehi. Continue reading...

Bots are becoming an inevitable part of newsgathering. Two women are determined to prevent them becoming an inevitable part of warfare*although it’s a bit stilted in places

Following the true story of scientist Henry Bates in the 1840s, this satisfying film uses Imax tech to provide astonishing wildlife detailIn places, this satisfying Imax edutainment brings forth happy memories of James Gray’s excellent The Lost City of Z. It’s a tribute to another overshadowed historical figure, that of Henry Walter Bates, the Leicester-born amateur scientist – and Alfred Wallace associate – who struck out for the Amazon in 1848, charged with collecting insects at threepence per bug, and in so doing indirectly gathered the evolutionary proofs that backed up Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. What Bates (embodied here by an engaging Calum Finlay) observed in these parts – when he wasn’t bleary-eyed from malaria – were “leaves that could fly, bird droppings that could walk”: ie those craftier critters whose predator-bamboozling camouflage was so well-developed they hadn’t previously been spotted. This is what scientists call “Batesian mimicry”.Director Mike Slee (who enjoyed a big Imax hit with the Judi Dench-narrated Bugs! in 2003) and screenwriters Carl Knutson and Wendy MacKeigan recognise that Bates’s fieldwork might itself pass usefully for Saturday morning matinee fare. Verdant Brazilian location work plunges us from the opening moments into a fully immersive jungle environment, complete with such adventure-movie staples as shipwrecks, hungry leopards and mischievous monkeys. Yet the team also find smart and invariably visual means of illustrating their human subject’s breakthroughs. When a chain of stereoscopic butterflies flutters across our field of vision, each insect bearing similar yet subtly distinct markings, it’s the 3D equivalent of a lightbulb moment: you feel you could literally grasp Bates’s working method. Continue reading...