Parts of the replicas rely on ‘respectable guesstimate’ of what the original looked likeExperts working on the Staffordshire hoard have recreated one of its great treasures, a rare gold helmet, revealing for the first time the spectacular impression its original wearer would have made.The hoard, discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Lichfield in 2009, is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found. But while the quality of its workmanship was exceptional, most of its items were deliberately bent or broken into more than 4,000 pieces before being buried in the ground in the seventh century. Continue reading...

Spreading particles in stratosphere to fight climate change may cost $2bn a yearCooling the Earth by injecting sun-blocking particles into the stratosphere could be “remarkably inexpensive”, according to the most detailed engineering analysis to date.The fear of a rogue nation or military force unilaterally taking control of the global climate is unfounded, the researchers added, as the many thousands of high-altitude flights needed to affect global temperatures could not escape detection. Continue reading...

Leavers more likely to doubt immigration figures and think there is a plot to make Muslims the majority in UKSixty per cent of British people believe at least one conspiracy theory about how the country is run or the veracity of information they have been given, a major new study has found, part of a pattern of deep distrust of authority that has become widespread across Europe and the US.In the UK, people who supported Brexit were considerably more likely to give credence to conspiracy theories than those who opposed it, with 71% of leave voters believing at least one theory compared with 49% of remain voters. Continue reading...

The flight represents a breakthrough in 'ionic wind' technology, which uses a powerful electric field to generate charged nitrogen ions, which are then expelled from the back of the aircraft, generating thrust. The plane has a propulsion system that is entirely electrically powered, almost silent, and with a thrust-to-power ratio comparable to that achieved by conventional systems such as jet engines

Famously the home of Nasa’s Mission Control, Houston is struggling how to stay relevant to modern spaceflight. Is a new spaceport the answer?Houston has a long and proud connection with space exploration. It is home to the Johnson Space Center, the Nasa hub best known for hosting Mission Control. But as the US government squeezes Nasa’s budget and cedes much of its work to private industry, high-profile tycoons such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson are generating most of the buzz around the future of American spaceflight. And they are elsewhere.In an attempt to stay relevant, Houston is transforming its 101-year-old Ellington airport into a major spaceport. “It keeps the city at the cutting edge of space and maintains it as Space City USA,” said Mario Diaz, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, which manages Ellington and the city’s two major passenger airports, George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby. Continue reading...

New figures reveal huge rise in children and young people with diabetes linked to obesityNearly 7,000 children and young Britons under 25 have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the chronic condition linked to obesity that can lead to amputations and blindness.Type 2 diabetes used to be virtually unknown in young people. It usually develops over the age of 40 in white Europeans, or after the age of 25 in people who are African-Caribbean, black African, or south Asian. Continue reading...

Two cases, which emerged close to each other, are thought to be first such cases in the worldResearchers say they have found two patients in Hong Kong who contracted a strain of hepatitis carried by rats, in what appears to be the first known human cases in the world.The finding surprised the researchers, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether there were significant implications for human health. Continue reading...

Flight represents breakthrough that could lead eventually to carbon-neutral air travelThe first ever “solid state” plane, with no moving parts in its propulsion system, has successfully flown for a distance of 60 metres, proving that heavier-than-air flight is possible without jets or propellers.The flight represents a breakthrough in “ionic wind” technology, which uses a powerful electric field to generate charged nitrogen ions, which are then expelled from the back of the aircraft, generating thrust. Continue reading...

Two decades ago, the Zarya module lifted off from Kazakhstan, ushering in a new era of high-tech cooperation in space Continue reading...

Diet tested on mice proves more beneficial in some cases than restricting calories

Millions worldwide may be unable to access the drug by 2030, scientists predictAbout 40 million people who will need insulin to manage their type 2 diabetes in 12 years’ time will not get it unless access to the drug is significantly improved, according to new research.Diagnoses of type 2 diabetes are soaring worldwide, linked to the obesity epidemic. Not all of those diagnosed will need insulin, which is essential to keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, including UK prime minister Theresa May. But a study in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal shows that 79 million people with type 2 will need it by 2030 and that half of them will not be able to get it. About 33 million people who need insulin currently do not have access to the drug. Continue reading...

Analysis finds toxic air trims lifespans by 1.8 years, making it main threat to human healthAir pollution cuts the average lifespan of people around the globe by almost two years, analysis shows, making it the single greatest threat to human health.The research looked at the particulate pollution produced by the burning of fossil fuels by vehicles and industry. It found that in many parts of the worst-affected nations – India and China – lifespans were being shortened by six years. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you five puzzles from More Geometry Snacks. Here are the questions each followed by two methods of solution. Sometimes the simple action of drawing in a few extra lines reveals the solution clearly.1. A point inside a square is connected to its four vertices. What fraction of the square is shaded? Continue reading...

Genetic selection for intelligence has hit the market – and proper regulation has become more critical than everIn his new book Blueprint, the psychologist Robert Plomin explains that it is now possible from our individual genome data to make a meaningful prediction about our IQ. When I discussed the topic with Plomin last month, we agreed on the need for urgent discussion of the implications, before genetic selection of embryos for intelligence hits the market. We’re too late. A company called Genomic Prediction, based in New Jersey, has announced that it will offer that service. New Scientist reports that it has already begun talks with American IVF clinics to find customers. They won’t be in short supply.Before we start imagining a Gattaca-style future of genetic elites and underclasses, there’s some context needed. The company says it is only offering such testing to spot embryos with an IQ low enough to be classed as a disability, and won’t conduct analyses for high IQ. But the technology the company is using will permit that in principle, and co-founder Stephen Hsu, who has long advocated for the prediction of traits from genes, is quoted as saying: “If we don’t do it, some other company will.” Continue reading...

Shine your inner light bulb on these geometrical gemsUPDATE: Read the solutions hereHi guzzlers.Today’s puzzles are about the shade, by which I mean the shaded areas in the geometrical diagrams below. The images are to be studied and contemplated, until the pleasurable moment of insight arrives… Continue reading...

Billionaire entrepreneurs are trying to create rockets fit for human travel, while government agencies spend billions furthering their explorations. But we are still a long way off from making our way to the red planetSpace flight is now a venerable industry. Humanity’s first space explorer, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, orbited around the globe on 12 April 1961, more than half a century ago, when Britain remained a colonial power and people were still using halfpennies to buy their fish and chips. Continue reading...

Researchers investigate why excrement emerges in awkward-shaped blocksOf all the many mysteries that surround the common wombat, it is hard to find one as baffling as its ability – broadly acknowledged as unique in the natural world – to produce faeces shaped like cubes.Why the pudgy marsupials might benefit from six-faced faeces is generally agreed upon: wombats mark their territorial borders with fragrant piles of poo and the larger the piles the better. With die-shaped dung, wombats boost the odds that their droppings, deposited near burrow entrances, prominent rocks, raised ground and logs, will not roll away. That, at least, is the thinking. Continue reading...

Scientists think treatment in which children take increasing doses of peanut protein will be approved next yearThe first medical treatment for children with peanut allergies is likely to be approved next year but there are concerns about its affordability, even though it consists essentially of peanut flour.A study in the US and at the UK’s Evelina children’s hospital shows that gradually increasing a tiny initial dose of peanut protein over six months enabled two-thirds of children eventually to eat two peanuts without ill effects. The paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, follows a similar, smaller trial in Cambridge, UK, four years ago. Continue reading...

You will not be able to see it, no star marks its position. But exercise your intellectual curiosity this week by locating one of the points on the celestial sphere farthest from the galactic planeFinding the south galactic pole (SGP) is not spectacular but it is an intellectually satisfying piece of celestial geography. Many of us are familiar with the Milky Way, that misty band of starlight that girdles the sky. It represents the plane of our galaxy, which comprises a giant whorl of billions of stars that includes the sun. The SGP is straight “down” from that plane, looking out of the galaxy. Given clear skies and an unencumbered southern horizon, you can locate it this week. The chart shows the view at 21:00GMT on 19 November. First find the moon, which is 86% illuminated, heading towards full on Friday, and about 40° in altitude. Then look straight down, and stop three quarters of the way to the horizon. The SGP will be at its maximum altitude of around 10°. No star marks the position. It sits in the faint southern constellation of Sculptor, the sculptor’s studio, hence its identification is intellectual rather than sensorial, but there are other things to see. Mars will be shining red over in the south-west, and half way between the moon and SGP, lie the stars of Cetus, the whale. Continue reading...

Forget the neutral ‘glamping’ and ‘vape’ – Oxford Dictionaries’ new words of the year are products of our heightened politicsIn the space of a single week I have, without overly noticing at the time, accused someone of “gaslighting” me for being excessively cheerful on the phone when I thought sobriety was required; described to someone else an intention to do a “hard reset on my boundaries” after I was kept waiting and didn’t adequately protest; complained about the “toxic” atmosphere introduced after an argument; and outlined what I considered to be the problematic “centring”, within a conversation, of certain issues at the expense of other, more important issues.The takeaway from this, apart from the fact that I am a very fun person to be around, is that none of these descriptors are words I would have used even five years ago – a fact born out by the Oxford Dictionaries’ announcement this week of their most popular words of the year. “Toxic” came out top for the sheer breadth of its usage – starting, as noted in the New York Times, with the widespread uptake of “toxic masculinity” in the wake of #MeToo, and from there spreading outwards to encompass every shade of dysfunctional relationship. Continue reading...

Sisters Hilde and Ylva Østby, a neuropsychologist and a novelist, have written a book exploring the true nature of memory. What can their findings tell us?Of all the mysteries of the mind, perhaps none is greater than memory. Why do we remember some things and forget others? What is memory’s relationship to consciousness and our identities? Where and how is memory stored? How reliable are our memories? And why did our memory evolve to be so rich and detailed?In a sense there are two ways of looking at memory: the literary and the scientific. There is the Proustian model in which memory is about meaning, an exploration of the self, a subjective journey into the past. And then there is the analytical model, where memory is subjected to neurological study, psychological experiments and magnetic resonance imaging. Continue reading...

Life expectancy is rising but Britons are being encouraged to retire early. That’s both ridiculous and costly, says an expertSarah Harper has a personal take on early retirement. “My father stopped work at 54,” says Professor Harper, founder of the Institute for Population Ageing at Oxford University. “His employers, IBM, offered him early retirement. He was really excited at the prospect.”But the voluntary work and further education that Robert Harper had lined up for his later years dwindled and eventually disappeared and he was forced to become increasingly self-reliant in trying to find ways to pass the time. Continue reading...

There’s no genetic reason women should be disadvantaged in the workplace – unless someone is looking for itIn a week of dismaying news, there was a ray of sunshine: a scientific breakthrough with the potential to change lives. Men and women’s brains have finally been proved, by actual scientists, in a massive study, to be completely different! This, you gathered, was the substance of a prominently reported new study that made the front page of the Times: “Men and women really do think differently, say scientists.”In another paper, the headline specified how: “The sex divide: female empathy vs male logic”. Dr Varun Warrier, of the research team, was widely quoted, saying: “These sex differences in the typical population are very clear.” Continue reading...

A new book gathers words that face extinction. Surely they’re worth savingNews stories about language and the way we use it are rarely edifying, and usually intensely vexatious: the custodians of grammar merrily set about their showing off; the more liberal-minded do their best to convince us that the likes of “cakeism” and “gammon” – two of the words of 2018, according to the Oxford Dictionaries – are signs of vibrancy and growth.The fogeyish wistfulness and the determined digging-in involved in these spats are by now so reliably tedious, there’d be more pleasure and interest in listening to John Humphrys interview himself. Continue reading...

The US watchdog that is supposed to protect patients is in thrall to an industry profiting from addictionYears into America’s opioid epidemic, as the death toll climbed into the hundreds of thousands, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a hearing to consider a drug company application to approve a new high-strength painkiller.The FDA assembles advisory committees of doctors and scientists to weigh the arguments for and against new drugs. In 2012, an opioid 10 times more powerful than regular painkillers, Zohydro ER, was on the agenda. By then, no one was in any doubt about the ravages of the worst drug epidemic in US history. So far, it has claimed at least 350,000 lives. Around 150 people a day are dying in a crisis with roots in the push for the mass prescribing of opioid painkillers that took off two decades ago. Continue reading...

Thousands of protesters occupied bridges across the Thames over extinction crisis in huge act of peaceful civil disobedience

At 24, he wanted to kill himself. Now a novelist, he teaches the readers of his books – and his children – how to get through when the future looks bleakOn a September day in Ibiza, the air scented with sea and pine, Matt Haig – then 24 – walked to a cliff edge planning to kill himself. He stopped one step away.Reasons to Stay Alive, his account of this unravelling, the strange hell of depression and anxiety and his journey back from the edge, would become a bestseller 16 years later. Already a novelist by the time he wrote it, Haig saw the book as a “side project”, though it was anything but. Within weeks, he was getting 1,000 emails a day from grateful readers. Strangers stopped him on the street to thank him. Celebrity admirers included Steven Fry, Jo Brand and Ruby Wax – and Haig was catapulted into the role of mental health campaigner. Continue reading...

The conversation analyst on how to calm someone threatening suicide, how comedy works and Donald Trump’s take on realityElizabeth Stokoe is a professor of social interaction at Loughborough University. She studies conversation, often working with organisations such as the police or the NHS to improve interaction with users.What does a conversation analyst do?

Historic vote means unit of measurement will no longer be defined by a piece of metal first conceived in 1889The weight is finally over. Nearly 130 years after the kilogram was first defined by a lump of metal in a vault in Paris, scientists have voted for change and a new system that redefines the global measure of mass in terms of a fundamental constant of nature.Following a historic vote on Friday at the General Conference on Weights and Measures, in Versailles, the kilogram will no longer be defined by the international prototype kilogram (IPK), a platinum alloy cylinder fashioned in 1889, but by Planck’s constant, a number that is deeply rooted in the quantum world. Continue reading...

We shouldn’t worry when a word falls into obscurity. There’s usually a good reason, and a new one will always fill its placeConservationists are all around us, forever appearing on our televisions with their pleas for this noble, endangered mountain lion or that cute, imperilled subspecies of vole. But 70-year-old Edward Allhusen is one of a slightly different stripe. Instead of trying to prevent creepy-crawlies going extinct, he is trying to save the lives of words. In a new book, Betrumped: The Surprising History of 3,000 Long-Lost, Exotic and Endangered Words, he has included a sort of highly endangered list of 600 vocabulary items, culled according to no more systematic criterion than personal preference, from Johnson’s Dictionary of 1755.Related: It’s bare sick that the OED cares how young people speak | Coco Khan Continue reading...

Huge expansion of agri-food industry is harming environment, say investigatorsGreen energy subsidies are fuelling the rise of poultry mega-farms across Northern Ireland, with owners accused of contaminating sensitive habitats with emissions from chicken faeces.An alliance of agri-food companies enlisted the support of Northern Ireland politicians to unlock an estimated £800m in subsidies for contractors. This has paved the way for industry expansion at the expense of the environment, according to an investigation by the not-for-profit journalism group SourceMaterial. Continue reading...

Ranking of countries’ goals shows even EU on course for more than double safe level of warmingChina, Russia and Canada’s current climate policies would drive the world above a catastrophic 5C of warming by the end of the century, according to a study that ranks the climate goals of different countries.The US and Australia are only slightly behind with both pushing the global temperature rise dangerously over 4C above pre-industrial levels says the paper, while even the EU, which is usually seen as a climate leader, is on course to more than double the 1.5C that scientists say is a moderately safe level of heating. Continue reading...

Maintaining a close relationship with the remaining EU countries is crucial to the continued success of UK universitiesBrexit negotiations may be in turmoil, but UK universities need the government to encourage even stronger links with the remaining 27 member states in the European Union, no matter how we finally decide to leave. We must ensure the UK remains a beacon of scientific excellence, driving improvements in productivity, job creation and growth.Related: It's a harmful myth that UK science can't translate ideas into practice | David Gann and Nick Jennings Continue reading...

Food is an essential part of everyone’s life but how does what we eat affect our health? Could we eat to treat our illnesses? Top oncologists from around the world are beginning to study the role of diet in cancer treatment and early results look promising. Hannah Devlin investigates.Food is an essential part of everyone’s life but how does what we eat affect our health? For a long time, we’ve known about the link between diet and illnesses like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. But now, scientists are wondering could we eat to treat cancer? Top oncologists from around the world are beginning to understand the role of diet in medicine and early results look promising. Could this approach work beyond cancer?Hannah Devlin discusses with Siddhartha Mukherjee, associate professor at Colombia University, and Prof Karen Vousden from the Francis Crick Institute and Cancer Research UK. Continue reading...

European-Russian mission’s rover will land on Mars in 2021 at Oxia Planum, north of equatorA preferred landing site for the European-Russian 2020 ExoMars mission has been chosen. Known as Oxia Planum, the landing site is just north of Mars’ equator.The 2020 ExoMars rover is being built in the UK by Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency. It will launch on a Russian rocket in 2020 and land on Mars the following year using a Russian-built platform. Continue reading...

Review seeks to find common ground, arguing that what matters for most people is qualityA group of scientists is trying to end the “diet wars” raging over how much fat and carbohydrate we should eat, arguing that what matters for most people is quality.A review by US researchers with diverse perspectives on the fraught fat v carbs question attempts to find the common ground. Above all, they say, we should be ditching saturated for unsaturated fat and refined grains for wholegrains and non-starchy vegetables. And they list the unknowns, which need more research. Continue reading...

Choice of drink linked to how we perceive bitterness of substances, researchers sayDo you prefer coffee or tea? The answer to that question might in part be down to your genes, research suggests.Scientists say a genetic predisposition to perceiving the bitterness of particular substances appears to nudge us towards one beverage or the other. Continue reading...

The Empire of the Eagle: An Illustrated Natural History, by Mike Unwin and David Tipling, is published by Yale University Press and celebrates the world’s 68 eagle species in all their magnificence and beguiling diversity Continue reading...

Daily Overview is a website and Instagram feed using high-resolution aerial photography from satellites and planes to mirror the phenomenon from which the project derives its name – the overview effect: the sensation experienced by astronauts when viewing Earth from space

Government innovation policy is based on the idea that the UK is poor at commercialising research. But it should reflect realityBritain’s innovators are unfairly tarnished by a tired fable: that the nation’s inventiveness is matched by an unworldly lack of commercial savvy. Anecdotes abound of the proverbial inventor tinkering in his garden shed, or the academic unable to see the economic potential of her discoveries. Britons discover, the rest of the world cashes in. But these are self-flagellating myths that should be consigned to the history books.In fact, if we adjust for the size of our economies, the UK now exceeds the United States in numbers of spinouts formed, disclosures of discoveries, patents and licences. In emerging fields such as low-carbon, the UK is forming twice as many spinouts per trillion dollars of GDP as the US. Employment growth by digital technology companies in the UK is five times faster than for the rest of the economy. Continue reading...

After a successful operation, Bhutanese conjoined twins Nima and Dawa are now getting used to independent life although they prefer to remain side-by-side. Dr Joe Crameri from Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital said the 15-month-girls are 'doing very well' and 'we feel quietly confident we will have a good result'. Dr Crameri adds there was a sense of relief 'once we realised that we had the ability to divide the liver without compromising the girls and ultimately we didn’t have to anything fancy to the bowel'. The 15-month-old girls were successfully separated after a six-hour procedure by a team which involved up to 25 surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists. Continue reading...

Lancaster students win £30,000 prize for O-Wind turbine after scooping UK equivalentA spinning turbine that can capture wind travelling in any direction and could transform how consumers generate electricity in cities has won its inventors a prestigious international award and £30,000 prize.Nicolas Orellana, 36, and Yaseen Noorani, 24, MSc students at Lancaster University, scooped the James Dyson award for their O-Wind Turbine, which – in a technological first – takes advantage of both horizontal and vertical winds without requiring steering. Continue reading...

Coral reef scientist jointly awarded John Maddox prize weeks after his research centre lost government funding

Humans will soon subcontract their ethical dilemmas to machines. We must be prepared to make some tough choicesLoved by some philosophers, loathed by others, the so-called trolley problem is the quintessential moral puzzle. A runaway train is heading towards five people tied to a track. You can change a signal, diverting the train down a spur, so saving five lives. Unfortunately, one person is on the spur, and would die. What should you do? Most people – young and old, rich and poor – believe you should divert the train.But what if a runaway train is heading towards five people, again tied to the track, and you are standing on a footbridge overlooking it, next to an overweight man? Once again you can save five lives, but only by toppling the heavy-set man over the bridge: he will die, but he is large enough to slow the train to a stop. What should you do? This time, almost everyone agrees that you should not kill one person to save the five lives. Continue reading...

Crater appears to be result of mile-wide iron meteorite just 12,000 years agoA huge impact crater has been discovered under a half-mile-thick Greenland ice sheet.The enormous bowl-shaped dent appears to be the result of a mile-wide iron meteorite slamming into the island at a speed of 12 miles per second as recently as 12,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Scientist documenting coral reef decline and whistleblower on alternative therapy industry share award

Anthony Clarkson, interim director of NHS organ donation and transplantation, Sue Cartlidge and Ron Brewer respond to a previous letter from Jeanne Felmingham querying whether it’s worth having a donor card at the age of 83Re Jeanne Felmingham’s letter (14 November), too many people mistakenly assume their age means they are too old to consider organ donation. However, people in their 50s, 60, 70s and even 80s can all save lives. Nearly 1,000 people aged over 50 donate every year.Patients who die in circumstances where they may be able to donate their organs, irrespective of age, are considered individually. Clinical teams assess whether or not someone’s organs can be safely used to help others, reviewing information from the person’s medical and life history and talking to the next of kin. Continue reading...

Researchers find improvement in symptoms among men given hormoneTreatment with testosterone could help tackle depression in men, according to a review of studies which found supplements of the hormone appear to improve mood.About 100 million men around the world are thought to have depressive disorders, and almost 17% of men in the UK are thought to have symptoms of depression or anxiety. Continue reading...

Work on engineered gene used to modify DNA of mosquitoes ‘could be stifled’ by perceived risk to environmentResearch on a radical new way to combat malaria and other devastating diseases could be knocked off track if a UN biodiversity conference imposes a moratorium on the work, a group of scientists have said.Some scientists believe the different approach has the potential to transform the battle against malaria. It involves engineered gene drives which are used to modify the DNA of wild organisms on a mass scale. In the case of mosquitoes the method would have the potential to wipe out populations of certain species which carry the malaria parasite, say the scientists. Continue reading...

Ian Robinson on the two versions of the Kibble balance he built with Dr Bryan Kibble, and David Thorpe on the key role played by Professor Ian MillsThe Kibble balance at the heart of the redefinition of the kilogram (Report, 10 November) was invented in 1975, at the NPL in the UK, by the late Dr Bryan Kibble. Bryan and I built two versions of the apparatus. The Mk I played a key part in setting the conventional values of the electrical units in 1990. We then built the Mk II balance, which operated in a vacuum, and was aimed at the 1 part in 100,000,000 uncertainty that we felt was required for the redefinition of the kilogram. It is pleasing to know that the Mk II balance, operating in Canada, has achieved this target and has made a major contribution to the redefinition described in your article.