The Andromeda Galaxy is the furthest thing you can see with the naked eye. But first you must get far away from any light sourceThis week presents a true challenge for naked-eye sky watchers – but a real feather in the cap of anyone who achieves it. The Andromeda Galaxy is a vast collection of stars. Estimates range from a few hundred thousand stars to a trillion. At 2.5 million light years away, it is the most distant thing you can see with the naked eye but you need a dark site, well away from any street lamps. And you need to wait for your eyes to become fully adjusted to the dark. This usually takes about 30-40 minutes during which you must not look at any light source. The chart shows the position of Andromeda at midnight on 2 November 2018. One of the easiest ways to locate the galaxy is to “star hop”. Find Cassiopeia, this is a W-shaped constellation that appears almost directly overhead at this time of year. Of the two V shapes that make up the constellation, one is deeper than the other. The deep V points at the galaxy. Under excellent sky conditions and with some patience, a hazy spot about the size of the full moon will reveal itself. Continue reading...

Beijing-based Landscape says ‘something abnormal happened’ in the third stage of its ZQ-1 rocketA privately developed Chinese carrier rocket failed to reach orbit after lifting off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on Saturday, in a blow to the country’s nascent attempts by private companies to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX.The three-stage rocket, Zhuque-1, was developed by Beijing-based Landspace. The company said in a microblog post after nominal first and second stages that the spacecraft failed to reach orbit as a result of an issue with the third stage. Continue reading...

The eerily beautiful wreck discovered in the Black Sea takes us right back to Homer’s GreeceIn 399BC, Socrates drank hemlock to fulfil the orders of the Athenian law court, which had sentenced him to death for impiety and corrupting the young.His friends begged him to leave Athens instead, accompanying them into banishment. He refused and died as he had lived for 70 years, arguing the ethical superiority of his own decision. The scene was immortalised by Plato in his dialogue Phaedo and later by artists such as Jacques Louis David, whose painting hangs in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Continue reading...

Rocket scientists tell Nasa a new rover could finally unlock red planet’s secretsAmerican rocket engineers are being urged to push their next Mars mission to the limits of technological performance. Space scientists have told Nasa they want the agency to “dream big” to ensure their new robot rover, scheduled for launch in 2020, visits a maximum number of sites to increase chances of uncovering signs of ancient life on Mars.Rock samples – hopefully bearing fossils – would then be left in caches on the Martian surface, to be collected several years later and returned to Earth in a complex series of robot “sample return” missions costing more than $10bn. Continue reading...

Optimism is more necessary than ever, and understanding how other cultures approach life’s trials and joys may help us achieve contentmentIf you read the paper or look at the news online without becoming depressed about the state of humanity – or make it through your social media feeds before your mood lurches to despair – well done you. You are a beautiful anomaly. For everyone else: huddle in. It’s tough out there and it can be easy to get the idea that the world is getting more miserable by the minute, that we’re all becoming more isolationist and that these are bleak times indeed. Because when things are ticking along nicely, there’s very little to report. Negativity bias means that, as human beings, we experience “bad” events more intensely than we do the “good” – and we also remember them more. So we have to work hard to remain hopeful – or we can’t make things better.Optimism isn’t frivolous: it’s necessary. If we feel hopeless all the time, if we’re always in crisis, the natural response is to give up and stop trying altogether. But we can’t let snark or apathy win. We can be aware of the bad whilst being mindful of how we can make it better. And there are people all around the world finding meaning and happiness every day, both in countries that top the global happiness surveys and in those that don’t. Continue reading...

Those seeking to deceive politicians and the public know distraction works better than outright fraudMost of the recent worries over the spread of propaganda have concentrated on the use of social media: WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all been rightly criticised for their use in spreading misinformation. Less attention, perhaps, has been given to the content of the messages and the strategy behind their use. The template for many modern campaigns of disinformation was invented by the tobacco industry as it fought against the mounting evidence that it was selling a product that killed its users.The “tobacco strategy” as researchers christened it, relied less on outright lies than on confusion and irrelevant truths. For example, the tobacco industry funded first-class research into the harmful effects of asbestos to produce the impression that all kinds of things gave you cancer – so why worry about the ones that give pleasure as well? Continue reading...

Telescope close to restarting operations after being put out of action by gyroscope failureThe Hubble space telescope is close to resuming full operations after Nasa “jiggled it around”.The telescope was sidelined earlier this month after a gyroscope failed, leaving it unable to point in the right direction during observations. Continue reading...

Telescope close to restarting operations after being put out of action by gyroscope failureThe Hubble space telescope is close to resuming full operations after Nasa “jiggled it around”.The telescope was sidelined earlier this month after a gyroscope failed, leaving it unable to point in the right direction during observations. Continue reading...

To be successful, it seems you need to be available for short, fixed-term contracts all over the worldThis summer I started a short-term postdoc after finishing my PhD. I really like my postdoc advisor, who looks out for my mental wellbeing, as well as my new department and the city I’ve moved to. It’s refreshing to be in such a happy environment after experiencing bullying from other students at my previous institution. I’ve been able to design the research plans for the postdoc, and the grant I’m on will support me comfortably for the next 10 months. It sounds like a dream – and it almost is – but the knowledge that all this is for the short term is dampening my enthusiasm.Related: I've just finished my PhD, and now I feel lost without academia | Anonymous academic Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, the average woman in Botswana had seven children. Now she will have fewer than three. Enabling women to control their fertility has had huge ramifications for their health, education and employment – could President Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ threaten this? Nicola Davis travels to Botswana to investigateFifty years ago, the average woman in Botswana had seven children. Now she will have fewer than three. This marks one of the dramatic reductions in fertility in the world and could hold lessons for addressing one of our biggest challenges – how to grapple with soaring world population?The world’s population is on track to hit 8 billion in 2023, and almost 10 billion by 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa is set to grow faster than anywhere: there were 1 billion Africans in 2010, a number projected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050. Continue reading...

Three years of research have produced astonishing results, including the remains of 65 vessels, one thought to be ancient Greek. This should be only the startThe seabed produces archaeological wonders. The Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent in 1545, and the Vasa, which capsized in 1633 in the harbour of Stockholm, are just two of the famous ships that have been lifted from the deep. There is a long history of fishermen finding classical bronzes in the Mediterranean: the great statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) in the Athens Archaeological Museum was chanced upon in 1928 off Cape Artemision. Still entrancing and puzzling researchers and the public is the Antikythera mechanism, a remarkable orrery-cum-computer (somewhat resembling Philip Pullman’s “alethiometer”) discovered in a wreck in 1902, now also in Athens. At the British Museum in 2016, crowds came to marvel at the Sunken Cities exhibition, the fruit of investigations of the submerged ancient towns of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, which once stood at the mouth of the Nile. Damien Hirst exploited the romance of underwater archaeology in his 2017 exhibition in Venice, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, which playfully purported to be the fruit of an actual excavation – according to taste, either a brilliant postmodern conceit or utterly preposterous.Now it is the turn of the Black Sea. The Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP), the largest ever expedition of its type, recently completed three seasons of research off the Bulgarian coast, and has this week been holding a seminar in London on its findings. The team, comprising 70 crew from 15 countries, was led by Professor Jon Adams of Southampton University; each year they were also accompanied by British school pupils, selected as Stem scholars to assist in the work. The primary aim was to try to understand the changes in the level in the Black Sea after the ice age, which have been subject to a wide range of theories (including that the sea experienced a sudden inundation from the Mediterranean that gave rise to the biblical story of the Flood, a theory that the MAP researchers have found no evidence to support). Highly sophisticated surveying techniques were used to map the seabed. And along the way, 65 wrecked ships were discovered, uncannily well-preserved owing to the fact that the deep waters of the Black Sea lack oxygen. Continue reading...

New Caledonian crows have been filmed extracting a piece of food from a puzzle box by piecing together two separate rods. The birds were able to display highly flexible abilities to solve a complex problem without prior training. Until now, the ability to assemble different components had only been seen in great apes and humans Continue reading...

The bio-brick created by students in Cape Town mixes urine with sand and bacteria, which they say is a world firstStudents in South Africa have created the world’s first brick made from human urine.The bio-brick was produced by students from Cape Town, who collected urine from specially designed male urinals at the university’s engineering building and mixed it with sand and bacteria. Continue reading...

Sleeping children three times more likely to wake to voice recording than to loud beeping, research findsIt’s every parent’s worst nightmare: there’s a fire in the house, the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on oblivious. Now scientists say they have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters.Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of their mother’s voice is about three times more likely to wake them than a traditional alarm. What’s more, it does so faster and is linked to a quicker escape. Continue reading...

Guardian readers respond to our report on the rise in families desperate for educational support for their childrenAn increasingly effective framework of support for some of the nation’s most vulnerable children and their families, young people with special educational needs and disabilities, that has shown steady progress since the groundbreaking 1978 Warnock report, has been destroyed by the policies of Michael Gove and George Osborne (Crisis looms for special needs education, 23 October).As a former local education authority (LEA) senior adviser and higher education lecturer for special educational needs (SEN), I can’t express how angry I feel over the destruction of these services. It is not “looming”; it is a crisis. Fifteen out of every 100 children have these needs, which include a variety of disabilities from the partially sighted and hearing impaired to children with mild and complex learning difficulties. Educational psychology services, speech therapy, home tuition for sick children, teams of highly qualified specialist support teachers and advisers have been reduced to a rump. Specialist integrated units in mainstream schools are closing. Vandalism is too kind a term. For Nadhim Zahawi to parrot cash spending figures in defence adds insult to injury when the evidence of wrecked services is all around. The worry and stress caused to the families of these deserving children denied their right to life-enhancing education is incalculable.

Research shows that when women get a whiff of their partner, it reduces stress hormonesThe smell – and clothes – of a loved one could have a powerfully calming effect. So claims a study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which tested 96 women, who were asked to randomly smell one of three scents – a male partner’s, a stranger’s or a neutral scent. Those who caught a whiff of their partner tended to experience a reduction in stress hormones, while those forced to sniff a stranger experienced the opposite. The study suggested that sniffing a partner’s used clothing had a calming effect.Does this work for men, too? The psychotherapist and psychologist Peter Klein says not so much: “You often hear of a woman wearing partner’s T-shirt, but you rarely hear of a man wearing his girlfriend’s T-shirt! Research suggests women have a better developed sense of smell and men are more visually stimulated, so men would be more likely to experience stress reduction through seeing their partner’s clothing.” Continue reading...

Largest study of its kind finds incidence of heart attacks is higher on days with air temperatures below freezingCold, cloudy weather could increase your risk of having a heart attack, according to a new study.In the largest study of its kind, scientists examined data from more than 274,000 patients across Sweden who had heart attacks between 1998 and 2013 for which contemporary weather data was available. Continue reading...

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Hour-long procedure that stabilises blood sugar levels of sufferers of type 2 diabetes is still effective one year on, study showsA potential medical breakthrough that could put an end to the daily insulin injections endured by people living with diabetes has been unveiled by Dutch scientists.By destroying the mucous membrane in the small intestine and causing a new one to develop, scientists stabilised the blood sugar levels of people with type 2 diabetes. The results have been described as “spectacular” – albeit unexpected – by the chief researchers involved. Continue reading...

The US photographer Brad Goldpaint has beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the globe to win the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s title of Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018. The exhibition opens at the National Maritime Museum on Wednesday Continue reading...

Researchers say they have developed tiny readers that can detect information in light spiralsA new development in fibre optics could make internet speeds up to 100 times faster – by detecting light that has been twisted into a spiral.The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, can be used to easily upgrade existing networks and significantly boost efficiency, scientists say. Continue reading...

Team at London’s University College hospital performed the surgeries to treat spina bifidaWeeks before they took their first breaths, two babies had their spinal cords delicately repaired by surgeons in the first operations of their kind in the UK.The spina bifida surgeries were successfully performed by a team at University College hospital in London this summer on two babies while they were still in the womb. Continue reading...

An introduction to the brave new world of personal genomics argues that it solves the puzzle of nature v nurture

Nasa tests out the water deluge system for its new Space Launch System (SLS). The Ignition Overpressure Protection and Sound Suppression (IOP/SS) system releases two million litres (450,000 gallons) during take-off to dampen the huge shockwaves and heat of a rocket launch. It has been in place since the Space Shuttle but has been upgraded for the SLS Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The appearance and disappearance of these strange forms gives them an uncanniness that seems to have nothing to do with their ecological functionThe fairy bonnets have popped up from the turf and the world is reflected in a million raindrops. Suspended on spindly stalks, the pale flesh of their pointy heads has an ethereal glow. These Marasmius fungi grow in troops or circles in grassland as rotters of organic litter, feeders of grass and stages for supernatural dances.Unable to manufacture its own food, the fungus is a collective body made of hyphae, the filaments that form the mycelium, an intricate lacework expanding outwards in a slow-motion ripple. This questing, hunting body surrounds and infiltrates the food material. Enzymes are secreted that break down complex molecules into smaller compounds to be absorbed into the hyphae, which grow rapidly as proteins and other materials are synthesised and channelled through its streaming cytoplasm. Without these decomposers, the inorganic nutrients necessary for plant growth would be tied up in organic matter and not returned to the soil. Continue reading...

Study finds large variation in shape of birth canals around world – with implications for description of birth used in standard textbooksA focus on western women has skewed our understanding of evolution and twisted ideas of what birth should look like, scientists say.Researchers have found a large variation in the shape of the birth canal between women from different parts of the world – a finding they say has implications both for our understanding of how the pelvis has evolved and our ideas about how babies should move as they leave the womb. Continue reading...

Report suggests link between height and cancer risk could simply be because there are more cells for something to go wrong inTaller people have a greater risk of cancer because they are bigger and so have more cells in their bodies in which dangerous mutations can occur, new research has suggested.A number of studies have previously found a link between a lofty stature and a greater risk of developing some form of cancer, with research suggesting that for every 10cm of height within the typical range for humans, the risk increases by about 10%. A similar link has also been found in dogs, with bigger breeds having a greater risk of such diseases. Continue reading...

Woodlice are crustaceans, relatives of the shrimp, that have adapted to life on land – but they still prefer damp conditionsThe common rough woodlouse Porcellio scaber is one of the five most numerous of 35 species of woodlice that are native to Britain, although there are others that arrived with imported plants and live mostly in greenhouses. Woodlice are remarkable in that they are not insects but crustaceans with 14 legs and an outer shell – their closest relatives being shrimps and lobsters. While they have adapted to life on land, they still need damp conditions to thrive and, like their aquatic cousins, use gills to breathe. If they appear in houses and survive it means there is a damp problem.Related: Country diary: wiggling wonder of the common woodlouse Continue reading...

Quarter of students surveyed at Arizona State University showed stress levels comparable to those of a mass shooting witnessThe 2016 presidential election was so stressful for some college students that a quarter of those surveyed showed symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study.Researchers said that after the election that elevated Donald Trump to the presidency, they heard anecdotal reports that the contest was a source of stress for students but wanted to determine how often stress became so intense it got in the way of peoples’ lives, interfering with things like work and school. Continue reading...

Banning straws and cotton buds isn’t going to cut it. It won’t be easy, but our over-reliance on the stuff must endWe are what we eat, and what we eat reveals something about what we are in return. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that humans are now apparently eating plastic, given what we mostly are is thoughtless enough to have littered the planet with the stuff.A small trial at the Medical University of Vienna found tiny shreds of it in the digestive systems of people from eight different countries including the UK. And while that’s only a very tentative opening to the conversation – the study involved just eight people and doesn’t tell us what if any effect eating plastic was having on their bodies, which means an awful lot more research is needed before we know what any of this really means – it’s a conversation that feels overdue. We already knew fish were ingesting plastic. Did we really think it wouldn’t reach back up to the top of the food chain, that the consequences of our own actions couldn’t return to haunt us? Continue reading...

Dozens of scientists write letter to May and Juncker setting out their concernsA coalition of Nobel laureates has said a hard Brexit could cripple UK science, in a letter to Theresa May and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.The letter, signed by 29 Nobel prizewinners and six Fields medallists, says the UK “must now strive to ensure that as little harm as possible is done to research”. Continue reading...

Study suggests biopesticides should be trialled to control the march of armyworm that’s destroying crops across the continentExperts have identified safer, effective pesticides they believe can control a plague of caterpillars that is devastating crops across Africa.Many farmers are attempting to control armyworm – a pest that feasts on maize, rice and sugarcane – through the use of highly hazardous pesticides. But researchers warn such chemicals risk severe harm to health and to the environment, and that farmers should be offered sustainable alternatives. Continue reading...

Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the world’s oldest intact shipwreck at the bottom of the Black Sea, where it appears to have lain undisturbed for more than 2,400 years. A documentary team have made a two-hour film about the discovery that is due to be shown at the British Museum on Tuesday

Warning comes as report shows 3 million common surgical procedures could be hazardous if infections become resistant to antibioticsWe face a return to the dark ages of life-threatening surgery unless we can preserve the infection-killing powers of antibiotics, according to England’s chief medical officer.Dame Sally Davies made her remarks as Public Health England (PHE) published a report showing that 3 million common surgical procedures, including caesarean sections and hip replacements, could be hazardous in a future where hospital-acquired infections have become resistant to the antibiotics we have to treat them. Continue reading...

It has become a hugely popular concept in positive psychology and self-help, but is feeling grateful really a panacea? One writer sets aside her scepticism and opens up her gratitude journalA memory came to mind recently of opening presents after my seventh or eighth birthday party – the thrill of the smooth, sharp-edged wrapping paper as I ripped it open, the breathless discovery of the gift concealed within. I also remember the many dull hours in the days that followed, writing thank-you letter after thank-you letter to grandparents, aunties, neighbours and friends, my mother sitting beside me, addressing the envelopes.This could be why the notion of formalised, prescribed and premeditated gratitude, which in the past decade has become the darling of positive psychology and the self-help movement, tends to stick in my craw. So, too, the piles of gratitude journals displayed in gift shops among other tat, bespattered with cheesy quotations at jaunty angles: overcompensatingly “inspirational” gifts for uninspired givers on a deadline. Even hearing the word “gratitude” makes my shoulders tense and my eyes narrow. I am too cynical to get on board this particular Oprah bandwagon – too British, too atheist, too sensitive to schmaltz. Continue reading...

Dewayne Johnson originally won $289m after finding Roundup weedkiller caused illness, but judge reduces financial awardA California judge has rejected Monsanto’s appeal to overturn a landmark jury verdict which found that its popular herbicide causes cancer.The judge’s ruling on Monday largely sided with Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a father of three and former school groundskeeper, who won a $289m award over the summer after alleging that his exposure to Roundup weedkiller gave him cancer. During the trial, the first of its kind, the 46-year-old also alleged that Monsanto had failed to warn him of the risks of using its product. Continue reading...

Rate among people aged 20-39 rose 7.4% a year between 2008 and 2016, researchers sayBowel cancer is on the increase among young people in Europe, researchers have discovered, with expanding waistlines thought to play a role in the rise.The condition is most common in the elderly, but some research suggests it is more aggressive in young people. According to recent figures, it is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with about 16,000 deaths a year. More than half of bowel cancer cases are thought to be preventable. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesIn my puzzle column earlier today I set you the following puzzles:1. Can you cut the shape below into two identical parts using one single line? The line does not have to be straight. Continue reading...

Much like making craft beer, some companies are now using yeast enzymes to synthetically create THC and CBDUnlike other modern high growth industries, the pot business doesn’t require a doctorate in science, or even a college degree. Much of the economic hype which surrounds the industry depends on it remaining an agricultural product. But it might not always be that way.In September, the Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks, which calls itself “the organism company”, landed a deal worth approximately $100m with Cronos Group, one of Canada’s most prominent cannabis companies. Ginkgo promises to produce the active ingredients in marijuana from genetically modified microorganisms, such as yeast. The company says its process, which draws on the field of synthetic biology, will produce a far greater array of valuable compounds at greater purity and for less money than marijuana plants can. Continue reading...

Puzzles that will have you in piecesUPDATE: To read the solutions click hereHello guzzlers,Scalpels at the ready! Today, three dissection puzzles. Continue reading...

Wellcome Trust says ‘creaking’ immigration system augurs badly for post-Brexit researchThe visa problems facing foreign academics trying to attend international conferences in the UK reveal how science could be undermined after Brexit, one of the world’s largest research funds has said.The Wellcome Trust, which grants more than £1bn for research each year, said the immigration system was “not up to scratch” after another scientific summit in the UK was marred by the visa barriers delegates and speakers faced. Continue reading...

This week’s full moon is the hunter’s moon, giving light autumn evenings to hunters keen to stock up the larder for winterThis month’s full moon occurs on 24 October. It is the second full moon since the autumnal equinox, and is known as the hunter’s moon. It follows late September’s full moon, called the harvest moon. It is said that the light from the harvest and hunter’s moons is used to gather in the crops and then hunt wildlife in preparation for winter. In North America, the hunter’s moon appellation is credited to the Native American people. In England, it is credited to country folk, and was first documented in the early 18th century. These two moons are particularly noticeable because they rise earlier than average night after night. Throughout the year, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. However, in the northern hemisphere in the autumn, the Moon rises just 30 minutes later on successive evenings, so the moonlight makes these autumn evenings lighter than normal. Allowing farmers and hunters to go about their jobs more easily. In the southern hemisphere, the Moon appears to rise later than average at this time of year. The situation is then reversed six months later. Continue reading...

The anti-trans lobby is using bad science to attack vulnerable young peopleIf you were to understand two facts about transgender people, I’d want it to be these: 1) that we have always existed, and 2) that we have always been under attack for existing.Despite our many footholds throughout history, especially outside of the western colonial gaze, the narrative that we are a new phenomenon has been widely peddled as a tool to discredit and disqualify us from public life and push us out of view. Continue reading...

Richard Branson is just aiming to emulate what Nasa managed nearly 60 years ago, writes Michael Carley. Bryn Hughes says slave labour played a key role in Nazi Germany’s work on space flight

Use alongside traditional treatment in advanced cases ‘could benefit 3,000 men in UK’Radiotherapy could increase the chances of survival for thousands of men with prostate cancer that has already spread by the time they are diagnosed, new research suggests.Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men in the UK. About 47,000 are diagnosed every year and around 11,500 die. Significant numbers of men are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread, which reduces their chances of survival. Continue reading...

UK charity cracks down on harassment after recent high-profile accusationsBritain’s largest cancer charity has announced new rules to crack down on bullying and harassment.Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said scientists who bullied or harassed colleagues would face sanctions that could include being prevented from supervising PhD students, losing funding from the charity or being barred from applying for future grants. Continue reading...

The joint winner of this year’s Nobel prize in chemistry talks about her pioneering work on enzymes and the realities of sexism in the sciencesThis month, Frances Arnold, professor of chemical engineering at Caltech in California, was awarded the 2018 Nobel prize in chemistry, shared with two others. She’s the fifth female chemistry laureate since the prizes first began in 1901, and the only ever American woman to win in the subject.Where were you when you got the news you had won the Nobel prize?

From catastrophic climate change to alien invasion, the theoretical physicist’s thoughts about what might lie ahead were often far from optimisticIn his recently published posthumous collection of articles and essays, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking forecast that genetic editing techniques will give rise to a breed of “superhumans” – “a race of self-designing beings who are improving at an ever-increasing rate”. Continue reading...

This Halloween, scientists across the globe will celebrate the mysterious material they believe holds the universe togetherLovers of the dark and the unseen will soon have a new cause to celebrate. They will be able to honour, on Halloween, the hunt for dark matter, the mysterious, invisible material that is thought to permeate space and hold galaxies together.Across Britain, the US and Europe, talks, demonstrations and parties highlighting this great astronomical search will be held on 31 October – which has been designated Dark Matter Day by scientists who are seeking to discover the make-up of this elusive material. Continue reading...

It travels 60,000 miles around our body providing energy and healing powers – so why is blood such a taboo?I go running around a lake and brambles scratch me. The wounds should heal quickly on my legs, but they don’t, because I scratch the scratches, and I scratch and scratch. I have always been this brutal with healing injuries, but usually my skin healed them fine. Now that I am menopausal, and my collagen is affected by my fluctuating hormones, the injuries stay as scars and reminders. I can plot every fell run, every fall, from the white lines. I know this, yet still I scratch. And I ask myself, why do I like to see the blood?A man I talk to at a party begins to look green after he asks what I’m working on. I don’t like to see blood on screen, but I don’t understand haemophobes and fainters. I love my blood. How could I not? This is what it does for me: it carries oxygen to my organs and tissues; it gives me the strength to run up hills and carry shopping; it removes carbon dioxide and waste products so I won’t die; it carries the white blood cells that rush to repel invaders and infection, and usually defeats them; it travels around my body along a circulation of veins, arteries and capillaries that, stretched out, would measure 60,000 miles, twice round the earth and more. All those scars and scratches: each time, my blood rushes to the injury, performs what is called, beautifully, a clotting cascade, yet doesn’t clot anywhere else. Continue reading...