Linda Geddes spends a week with a clown, a comic and some toddlers to test the science behind the uplifting power of playIf foreign politics, environmental collapse and the impending takeover of the world by machines are leaving you glum, psychologists have identified a strategy that could help bolster your resilience: lemonading".Rather than wallowing in an acerbic soup of despair, researchers have discovered that people with high levels of playfulness may be better equipped to cope with the dud cards life throws at them. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6V9RN)
Sprinter and surgeon John McFall given medical certification for mission lasting up to six monthsA British Paralympic sprinter and surgeon has become the first person with a physical disability to be cleared to fly to the International Space Station in a landmark for human space exploration.John McFall, 43, is a member of the European Space Agency's astronaut corps and is now waiting to be assigned a mission after a feasibility study concluded there were no technical or medical reasons why he should not fly. Continue reading...
More than 1,700 academics complain about X owner's behaviour, citing his assault on scientific research'Pressure is growing on the Royal Society to expel Elon Musk from its fellowship after more than a thousand scientists signed an open letter expressing dismay at its lack of action on the matter.Musk, who owns the social media platform X, leads the US department of government efficiency" (Doge). He was elected a fellow of the UK's national academy of sciences in 2018 as a result of his work and impact in the space and electric vehicle industries. Continue reading...
Footage taken from the International Space Station shows the eerie green glow blanketing Earth on 4 January. The dazzling colours of the aurora were captured over Canada. Aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is caused by electrically charged particles that are released by the sun Continue reading...
Recruitment drive comes amid increasing focus on an asteroid with a low - but growing - likelihood of hitting earth in seven yearsChina has begun recruiting for a planetary defence force after risk assessments determined that an asteroid could conceivably hit Earth in 2032.Job ads posted online by China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) this week, sought young loyal graduates focused on aerospace engineering, international cooperation and asteroid detection. Continue reading...
Scientists hope that smell could be a non-invasive way to judge how well-preserved a mummy isSpicy, woody and sweet: it sounds like a description of a fancy air freshener. But researchers say the mix of aromas arise from something rather different: mummies.Researchers have used both human noses and scientific instruments to probe how ancient Egyptian mummies smell today, and to what extent the odours reflect the materials used during the mummification process. Continue reading...
Tributes paid to journalist remembered for infectious enthusiasm for science and talent for turning a phraseTim Radford, the Guardian's former science editor and mentor to a generation of writers who followed in his footsteps, has died aged 84.His reporting covered a breadth of topics from genetically modified crops and the environmental impact of greenhouse gases to the arrival of cloned animals and the discovery of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein a century earlier. Continue reading...
Research aimed to improve detection of brain injury from intimate partner violence but critics say its non-fatal strangulation of animals was not justified
Geneticist who discovered hotspots of illnesses in Scottish islands calls for redirection of community benefit fundsA leading geneticist has called for the profits from windfarms to be used for the mass screening of Scottish islanders at risk of rare cancers and blood disorders.Prof Jim Wilson, who leads a Viking DNA project that has discovered hotspots of rare disorders in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles, said that money could prove vital in identifying people who need life-saving treatments. Continue reading...
Suppressants a major' source of toxic pollution that causes heavy-metal levels to spike in the environmentThe US federal government and chemical makers have long concealed the contents of pink wildfire suppressants widely spread by firefighting aircraft to contain blazes, but new test results provide alarming answers - the substances are rife with cadmium, arsenic, chromium and other toxic heavy metals.The suppressants are a major" source of toxic pollution that causes heavy-metal levels to spike in the environment, and the products themselves contain metal levels up to 3,000 times above drinking water limits, the peer-reviewed research found. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay, with Ian Sample, pr on (#6V8F5)
Recently, a group of world-leading scientists called for a halt on research to create mirror life' microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an unprecedented risk' to life on Earth. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about why this work initially seemed exciting for scientists and what the risks of it continuing could be. And Kate Adamala, assistant professor of genetics, cell biology and development at the University of Minnesota, describes what made her change her mind about pursuing her own research on mirror cellsUnprecedented risk' to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on mirror life' microbe researchSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
Judge takes rare step of naming Robert Charles Albon, who subjected mothers to nightmare' of controlling behaviourA sperm donor who subjected a couple to a nightmare" of controlling behaviour over their child has been named by a judge as a warning about the dangers of unregulated sperm donation.Robert Charles Albon claims to have fathered more than 180 children in several countries after advertising his sperm donation services under the name Joe Donor. Continue reading...
Semaglutide, active ingredient of Wegovy and Ozempic, found to reduce cravings and cut drinking by 40%Weight-loss drugs could be used to help people reduce their intake of alcohol, researchers have said, after a study found they can cut cravings and curb heavy drinking.The medicines, originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes, have revolutionised the treatment of obesity, and evidence suggests they could have benefits in other areas of health, such as reducing risk of heart attacks and strokes. Continue reading...
Researchers found that most birds-of-paradise are biofluorescent - meaning they absorb light through their bodiesBirds-of-paradise are known for their bright and colourful plumage, but it turns out they are even more dazzling than previously thought.Researchers have found 37 of the 45 species show biofluorescence - in other words, patches of their plumage or other body parts absorb UV or blue light, and emit light at lower frequencies. Continue reading...
Major universities and 22 states sued over administration's proposal to slash National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantsA federal judge in Massachusetts blocked Donald Trump's administration from cutting scientific research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after 22 mostly Democratic-leaning states sued.The Trump administration sought to impose a 15% cap on indirect costs" for grants - money that goes toward overhead, such as keeping the lights on in labs or maintaining advanced equipment. On Tuesday, major universities filed a second lawsuit, calling the administration's actions flagrantly unlawful" in a complaint. Continue reading...
Ben Lamm of de-extinction' specialist Colossal Biosciences not only has plans to bring back prehistoric creatures, but also preserve those on the verge of vanishingColossal Biosciences founder Ben Lamm is working to revive the woolly mammoth and the dodo - but he wants to make clear the ending will be different to that of Steven Spielberg's gory dinosaur epic Jurassic Park.People have to remember that that was a movie, right?" the serial entrepreneur sighs, sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos - a little outpost of America in the swank Swiss resort. Continue reading...
Scientists observe decreased motor function in rodents exposed to microplasticsMicroplastics can move through mice brains and block blood vessels, essentially mimicking blood clots that could potentially be fatal or otherwise disrupt brain function.The findings are detailed in a peer-reviewed paper for which researchers for the first time used real-time imaging to track bits of plastic as they moved through and accumulated in brain blood vessels. When one piece of plastic got stuck, others accumulated behind it, like a car crash", the authors reported. Continue reading...
Social media storm of misinformation about Bovaer has drawn in Reform UK, the dairy industry and even Bill GatesScientists say a recent methane-related conspiracy theory was a wake-up call" for the industry, reminding them they need to communicate better and more directly with the public.Over the last few months, Bovaer, a cattle feed additive that is proven to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas, has been at the centre of a swirl of misinformation, drawing in Reform UK, the dairy industry and even the billionaire Bill Gates. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, produced by Madeleine Fin on (#6V6V0)
In a case of life imitating art, a 100-metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time, after telescope observations revealed it had a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. To find out what happens now and how worried we should be, Ian Sample hears from Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary sciences at MIT and inventor of the Torino scale, which is used to categorise the threat posed by objects such as asteroids and cometsClips: BBC News, NBC NewsAsteroid's chances of hitting Earth in 2032 just got higher - but don't panic Continue reading...
In August 1990, two hikers sent photos of a strange diamond-shaped aircraft to the press - but the story never appeared. Was it a prank, a hoax, an optical illusion or something else entirely?On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kinross, claimed to have seen a giant diamond-shaped aircraft flying above them. It apparently had no clear means of propulsion and left no smoke plume; it was silent and static, as if frozen in time. Terrified, they hit the ground and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Then a Harrier fighter jet roared into view, circling the diamond as if sizing it up for a scuffle. One of the men snapped a series of photographs just before the bizarre craft shot away vertically and disappeared.Craig Lindsay was a press officer at the RAF base in Pitreavie Castle in Dunfermline, 50 miles away, when the Daily Record got in touch a few days later. The hikers, who worked as chefs at Fisher's Hotel in Pitlochry, had sent six photos of the diamond to the newspaper and told their story. The Record's picture editor, Andy Allen, sent Lindsay thebest of the bunch. Continue reading...
When details about a scientific study in the 1960s became public, there was shock, outrage and anxiety. But exactly what happened?In 2019, Shahnaz Akhter, a postdoctoral researcher at Warwick University, was chatting to her sister, who mentioned a documentary that had aired on Channel 4 in the mid-1990s. It was about human radiation experiments, including one that had taken place in 1969 in Coventry. As part of an experiment on iron absorption, 21 Indian women had been fed chapatis baked with radioactive isotopes, apparently without their consent.Having grown up in Coventry's tight-knit South Asian community, Akhter was shocked that she had never heard of the experiment. When she looked into it, she found an inquiry by the Coventry Health Authority in 1995 conducted soon after the documentary aired. The inquiry examined whether the experiment put the subjects' health at risk and whether informed consent was obtained. But the only mention of the women's perspectives was a single sentence: At the public meeting, it was stated that two of the participants who had come forward had no recollection of giving informed consent." Continue reading...
Birds observed going to lengths to flavour food, with particular penchant for blueberry-flavoured soy yoghurt dipWhether you savour Ottolenghi's recipes or prefer a feast from Nigella's cookery books, humans enjoy mixing flavours and textures when preparing food. Now research suggests some cockatoos do too.Researchers have previously discovered that some of the birds dunk dry rusks in water before eating them, just as some people enjoy dunking a biscuit in tea, apparently reflecting a penchant for a soggy texture. Continue reading...
As certain terms are scrubbed from US health agency websites decades of vital data is vanishing, advocates warnAfter Donald Trump signed executive orders ordering for mentions of race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and other terms to be scrubbed from US health agency websites, experts say the implications for health and scientific research are vast.All pages at US health agencies were told to take down these mentions after Trump signed certain executive orders on his first day in office. Continue reading...
by Carey Gillam, Margot Gibbs and Elena DeBre on (#6V69A)
v-Fluence halts operations after widespread backlash over private portal profiling environmental health advocatesA US company that was secretly profiling hundreds of food and environmental health advocates in a private web portal has said it has halted the operations in the face of widespread backlash, after its actions were revealed by the Guardian and other reporting partners.The St Louis, Missouri-based company, v-Fluence, said it is shuttering the service, which it called a stakeholder wiki", that featured personal details about more than 500 environmental advocates, scientists, politicians and others seen as opponents of pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops. Continue reading...
From seeing things to hearing voices, there's a finer line between hallucination and reality than you might supposeWhen did you last hallucinate? The visionary tendency is much more common among sane people than is generally suspected," wrote the 19th-century psychologist Sir Francis Galton. Setting aside the vivid, often emotive, cinema of our dreams, we are all more vulnerable to seeing things" than we might at first suppose.Around four fifths of people who have recently been bereaved report an encounter with their loved one: most commonly a lively sense of their presence, but some hear, see or speak with them. Up to 60% of people who lose sight in later life see things that aren't there, sometimes extravagant images such as the two young men ... wearing magnificent cloaks ... their hats ... trimmed with silver" who appeared in the first reported case of Charles Bonnet syndrome, as this phenomenon is known, before dissolving" away. A 20-year-old woman blindfolded for 12 hours saw cities, skies, kaleidoscopes, lions and sunsets so bright she could barely look at them'". After losing a limb, most people carry a constant or inconstant phantom of the missing member", as Weir Mitchell, the American neurologist who coined the term phantom limb after studying 90 cases from the American civil war, put it. Pilots on long flights, travellers through snowstorms and deserts, prisoners and hostages held in darkness; their restless brains are all prone to see the things of which they're being deprived. Continue reading...
Dazzling image shows galaxy more than 4bn light years away, whose starlight has been bent due to gravityThe Euclid space telescope has captured a rare phenomenon called an Einstein ring that reveals the extreme warping of space by a galaxy's gravity.The dazzling image shows a nearby galaxy, NGC 6505, surrounded by a perfect circle of light. The ring gives a glimpse of a more distant galaxy, sitting directly behind NGC 6505, whose starlight has been bent around the foreground galaxy. Continue reading...
The evening star will serve as a handy signpost for identifying the often unnoticed constellationHaving reached its highest point in the evening sky last week Venus is beginning to move back towards the sun. But before it disappears from view in March, it will continue to put on a dazzling show.It will blaze brightly on 16 February at a magnitude of -4.2, the brightest of this apparition. It will also still be high enough in the sky to be well visible several hours after the sun has set, when the sky is fully dark. Continue reading...
My friend and colleague Peter Honey, who has died aged 87, was a behavioural psychologist and independent consultant working with business managers and their staff.He designed workshops and courses emphasising behaviour that could be reviewed and dealt with directly. He would share the results of behavioural analysis (who asks questions? Who helps others? Who clarifies problems?) with those with whom he was working. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Health experts and cancer charities say findings should serve as wake-up call to ministersMore than 1,100 people a year in the UK are developing the most prevalent form of lung cancer as a result of air pollution, the Guardian can reveal.Exposure to toxic air was attributed to 515 men and 590 women in the UK in 2022 getting adenocarcinoma - now the most dominant of the four main subtypes of lung cancer - an analysis by the World Health Organization's cancer agency found. Continue reading...
Joanna Moorhead recalls her daughter's difficult birth as she watches her go through the same thing 32 years laterIt was a routine antenatal appointment with many weeks still to go until the birth. Things aren't quite as we'd hope," said the midwife, a worried look on her face. You need to go straight to hospital."The date was 8 April 1992. But also, it was 1 August 2024. The bump in 1992 was mine; the baby, who would be born the following day, at 29 weeks' gestation (term" is 40 weeks) was my daughter Rosie. The bump in 2024 was hers: 32 years on, history was repeating itself. Continue reading...
How long does it take to change a habit? It varies, but one paper suggests it takes an average of 66 days. We ask writers to change one thing in their lives within that timeframe ... and tell us if it works
Senescent cells power the body's ageing process, and scientists are developing treatments to annihilate themAt St Jude children's research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, an unusual clinical trial is under way that, if successful, could have wider ramifications for the vast field of age-related chronic diseases. At first glance, childhood cancer survivors may seem like an unusual population in which to study ageing, but as Greg Armstrong, principal investigator of St Jude's Childhood Cancer Survivorship Study, explains, we now know they represent a group of individuals who are ageing unusually quickly.For while modern chemotherapies and radiotherapies have become increasingly efficient at curing childhood cancers, this comes at a great cost, owing to the corrosive impact of such treatment on these children's bodies, something that becomes more apparent when they reach middle age. Continue reading...
An accident left Noland Arbaugh paralysed, but Musk's Neuralink brain implant allows him to control computers with his thoughts. Is it a life-changing innovation that could help millions - or the start of a dystopia where a billionaire can access our thoughts?Noland Arbaugh's life changed in a fraction of a second in June 2016. He was a 22-year-old student, working at a kids' summer camp in upstate New York, when he went swimming in a lake. He can't tell me exactly what happened, but thinks one of his friends must have accidentally struck him very hard in the side of his head as they ran into the water and plunged beneath the surface.When he woke up face down in the water, unable to move or breathe, Noland immediately knew he was paralysed. But he didn't panic. He felt no fear at all, he says. You never know what you're going to do in those high-stress situations. I found out that day that it's hard to shake me. I am very, very calm under pressure." Continue reading...
Science committee chair calls for monitored species to include groups such as moths, lice and hymenopteraThe UK's targets to stop the destruction of the natural world are so inadequate that they could be met even if all the country's bees, wasps, ants and moths were to go extinct, the government has been warned.Natural England's red list and the government's biodiversity indicators are used to measure changes in species abundance and as the baseline measures for targets to halt species extinction. Continue reading...
Scientists around the world are leading research into cold fusion as an alternative to fossil fuels so it should not be dismissed as pseudo-scientific, say MIT-based researchers. Plus a letter from Huw PriceRecently, the letters pages of the Guardian have featured conflicting accounts of cold fusion, otherwise known as low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR). On the one hand, the Nobel laureate Prof Brian Josephson and his co-authors argue (27 January) that cold fusion's time has come: companies can make these reactions work quite reliably", with the promise of ending reliance on fossil fuels". In response, Dr Philip Thomas, a researcher at the University of Exeter, proclaims (2 February) that cold fusion is a pseudo-scientific fringe theory" in violation of the laws of nature". Which laws, in particular, Dr Thomas does not say.There is, however, a constructive middle ground between Josephson's fervour and Thomas's denigration. LENR advocates often fail to appreciate the evidentiary standard required to demonstrate novel nuclear effects. Overzealous critics are generally not well read on the LENR literature and lack perspective on the emergence of new fields from anomalous effects in science. As a result, they contribute to the palpable stigma that the Cambridge emeritus professor Huw Price calls the reputation trap". Regardless, there is compelling experimental data and strong theoretical motivations to study cold fusion. Continue reading...
A runic inscription on one of the Galloway hoard's elaborately decorated arm rings has been decipheredWhen the Galloway hoard was discovered in a ploughed field in western Scotland in 2014, it proved to be the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland. Now the long-standing mystery of who might have owned it when it was buried more than 1,000 years ago may have been solved.The spectacular silver and gold treasure had in fact belonged to everybody - the community" - just as it does today, having been acquired in 2017 by National Museums Scotland (NMS). Continue reading...
Space rock now has 2.3% risk of collision - up from 1.3% in December - but danger is likely to fall with more dataIt might not be the world-ending apocalypse foretold in the Netflix drama Don't Look Up, but astronomers have significantly upped the odds of a direct hit from a giant asteroid currently hurtling towards Earth.According to Nasa's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (Cneos), the odds of a strike in 2032 by the space rock that goes by the somewhat unassuming name 2024 YR are calculated to be 2.3% - a one-in-43 chance. Continue reading...
Linda Geddes tests new approach developed in Italian lab that involves alternating egg between different temperaturesDelia Smith demands one minute of simmering plus six of standing with the pan lid on. Heston Blumenthal brings his to the boil from cold. Now scientists have weighed in on the perfect way to boil an egg, and the results are egg-stremely tasty.From a materials perspective, cooking an egg within its shell is more complicated than it might at first seem. Chefs are challenged by the fact that an egg's components: yolk and white, are made of different proteins that denature and thicken at different temperatures: 85C (185F) for the white and 65C (149F) for the yolk. Continue reading...
Even brief exposure to particulate matter found to impede selective attention and emotional recognitionA person's ability to focus on everyday tasks is affected by short-term exposure to air pollution, a study has found.Researchers analysed data from cognitive tests completed by 26 participants before and after they were exposed either to high levels of particulate matter (PM) using smoke from a candle, or clean air for an hour. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay, with Dan Milmo, pro on (#6V381)
From the shockwaves caused by DeepSeek's launch, to fears of a new AI arms race, and the continued questions over the technology's energy use, AI continues to throw up new challenges. As world leaders gather for the Paris AI summit, the Guardian's global technology editor, Dan Milmo, joins Madeleine Finlay to discuss what will be top of the agenda. And young people attending the Alan Turing Institute's Children's AI summit explain what their hopes and fears for the technology areSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
My friend Molly Bodinetz, who has died aged 46, was an inspiring clinical psychologist committed to working with young people at risk of going into care and custody, and their families.Time in the national and specialist adoption and fostering team at the Maudsley hospital in London in the 2000s led to Molly playing a key role in the success of early trials of a family-based intervention, Multisystemic Therapy (MST), in Hackney, London, starting in 2008. The subsequent implementation of MST across the UK resulted in increased school attendance and a reduction in offending rates. Continue reading...
Work and payments at universities, businesses and non-profits disrupted nationwide after executive ordersScientists around the US have described experiencing distress, disruption to their work and interruption of payments in the chaos following Donald Trump's executive orders affecting federal grant money.Among the funds caught in limbo in recent days were millions of dollars of congressionally appropriated research awards and grants across the vast networks of publicly funded scientific departments at universities, businesses and non-profits across the country. Continue reading...
Writing on PHerc. 172 papyrus, found at Roman mansion in Herculaneum, revealed after 3D X-rays and software competitionResearchers have peered inside an ancient scroll that was burned to a crisp in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago.The scroll is one of hundreds found in the library of a Roman mansion in Herculaneum, a town on the west coast of Italy that was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. Continue reading...
UCL study into mental health and wellbeing finds that people generally feel worse at night and on SundaysNightmare day at work? Date stand you up? Don't worry, things really will seem better in the morning.In the most comprehensive study of its kind, scientists have found that generally, the world feels brighter when you wake up. Continue reading...
Scientists taking samples from city's river did not expect to find presence of under-threat molluscsTraces of rare mussels sensitive to pollution and thought to be on the point of extinction in France have been discovered in the Seine in Paris, raising hopes that efforts to clean up the river that bisects the French capital might be succeeding.The findings were made after Olympic swimming events were held in the Seine last year - the first time swimming in the river has been deemed safe in a century. Continue reading...