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...

Our ancestors didn’t suffer from hay fever and food allergies were extremely rare even a few decades ago. What is causing the steep rise in their incidence now?To anyone from Generation X or older, it often feels like food allergies are far more common today than in their youth. While they remember them being rare or nonexistent in their school days, their own children will have classmates with allergies or they may have one themselves.According to the Food Standards Agency, estimates suggest that about 5-8% of children and 1-2% of adults are affected by food allergies in the UK. The recent headlines about fatal allergic reactions, such as that of two Pret a Manger customers, heighten the impression that food allergies are more commonplace. Continue reading...

Experts say planet could offer new insights into how solar system formedA British-built spacecraft fitted with Star Trek-style “impulse engines” is on its way to Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.BepiColombo blasted into space from the European space port at Kourou, French Guiana, at about 2.45am UK time on Saturday. It was carried on top of an Ariane 5, the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) most powerful rocket. Continue reading...

The Canadian professor is only the third female recipient of the physics prize in its 118-year history, but she is nonplussed by the focus on her genderWhen you win a Nobel prize, you can expect a fair bit of attention. When you are a woman and you win the prize in physics, as the Canadian professor Donna Strickland did earlier this month, you can expect the level of attention to be overwhelming.The day after the announcement, just about everyone Strickland knew – and several people she did not, including Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada – called or emailed with congratulations. The day after that, her inbox overflowed with thousands more messages. The interview requests were similarly incessant; Strickland expects to be travelling non-stop, talking at schools and scientific organisations about her work, for the next two or three years. For a self-described recluse, the frenzy was all a bit much. “Two or three weeks ago, I was an ordinary human being and now I’m not,” she says with a laugh. Continue reading...

Separating from people seems like a blast of cold air. I suppose I feel the anguish of lossI belong to that category of people who, after a dinner, after a party, are the last to leave. It’s hard to say why – it’s not clear even to me. I know that my hosts are tired and would like to go to sleep. I’m well aware that, even if I left right away, it would still take them an hour or so to straighten things up and get ready for bed. Yet I continue to ask questions and wait for answers – in short, to keep the conversation going. I don’t do it because the evening has been especially pleasant and I want to prolong it. I’m not generally very sociable on occasions like this; I join conversations timidly and am quite sure that, after an hour, anyone can read in my face that I’m tired, falling asleep.I deduce from this that my problem is leave-taking itself. I don’t like to separate from people; even in the most superficial relationships, separating seems like a blast of cold air. I suppose I feel the anguish of loss. But what am I losing? Continue reading...

A lunar meteorite considered one of the most significant ever found has been sold by a Boston auction houseA chunk of the moon that fell to the Earth as a lunar meteorite has been sold at auction for more than $600,000.Boston-based RR Auction announced the $612,500 winning bid for the meteorite, composed of six fragments that fit together like a puzzle, came from a representative working with the Tam Chuc Pagoda complex in Ha Nam Province, Vietnam. Continue reading...

Airedale, West Yorkshire: My six-week-old daughter still can’t see very well, but her sense of smell is fierce, and we can both hear the magpies, which are everywhereShe’s only six weeks old but I’m sure she can smell the smothering perfume of the rosebay willowherb that crowds the lake edge. A new baby’s senses develop lopsidedly, out-of-sync: our daughter’s eyesight is still finding focus – she can’t see the wood pigeons bombing across the pale dishwater sky, framed by the edges of her pram – but her sense of smell is fierce. This unfamiliar air, for her, must be rich in plant odour. The greenery everywhere is dense, weighty and dull-looking: rangy flowers of fodder radish; milk-white gramophone trumpets of bindweed; teasel-heads, deliciously crisp and sharp; young rowans bowed by the weight of their October berry-crops; reed beds top-heavy with feathery flowers. Elders flash their pale underleaves in the stiff breeze.We grownups can’t smell much of anything over the willowherb – but I see a redwing, skipping in flight like a stone spun across pond water, in the middle distance, and a jay bounding up from the side of the path, a little cameo of peach, blue and black against the army green. We and our daughter move through quite different landscapes. Continue reading...

Museum director Alexander Kellner said the fossil was broken and 80% of its pieces had been recoveredOne of the most prized possessions of Brazil’s National Museum has been found amid debris after a huge fire on 2 September sent the building up in flames.Related: Project to salvage images of collection lost in fire as Brazil mourns museum Continue reading...

When I was younger, I was terrified they would make me lose my mind. Now, I embrace them which I think is a sure sign of maturityI have been told, by a sleep professional no less, that I am a “vivid dreamer”. I remember my dreams often, the twilight theatrics of my unconscious seared into memory by their intensity. Sometimes my dreams upset me, rehashing painful memories and serving them up with an extra side of terror. But mostly they’re just a bit odd, and leave me wondering what I’ve witnessed in the still of the night.Perhaps that’s why interpreting dreams is one of my favourite activities. You can tell a lot about a person by how they do it. Do they subscribe to the superstitious (“A message from the other side!”), the psychological (“This speaks to a wider sense of insecurity”) or the physical (“The human body is not designed to eat whole wheels of cheese”)? Sometimes, the reading of the dream can be more telling than the vision itself: such as the time I told Auntie B that I had had a dream about an owl with guillotine talons. “It’s a message. I knew it would come,” she said, straight-faced. “God is telling you to lose some weight.” This was an interpretation that told me nothing about the dream and everything about why I don’t call Auntie B. Continue reading...

Elon Musk believes we should colonise Mars to ensure the survival of the human race. But is this reasoning compelling enough? Hannah Devlin ponders the case against setting our sites on MarsOn Tuesday, 6 February 2018, SpaceX launched the first ever test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket. On board was a red Tesla car complete with a dummy driver affectionately named Starman. Starman’s original destination was Mars. However, the dummy test pilot overshot its orbit and sped past the red planet, SpaceX founder Elon Musk later confirmed. Starman is now cruising through the asteroid belt.The test flight serves as a reminder that this rocket could be used to take people to Mars – a vision that Musk believes is important to ensure the survival of the human race should a third world war break out. But is this reasoning compelling enough? Should humans go to Mars at all? Continue reading...

BepiColombo will investigate the internal structure, magnetic field and surface composition of the innermost planet to the SunA European-Japanese mission to Mercury is in the final stages of preparation for launch on Saturday 20 October. The mission, known as BepiColombo, will lift-off from the European Space Agency’s space port in Kourou, French Guiana, at 01.45 GMT.Related: The new space race: how billionaires launched the next era of exploration Continue reading...

Danny Sullivan recalls his incarcerated friend, the peace activist Jim Forest, receiving an iconic photo from one of Nasa’s astronautsRe the letter from David Nowell (The most iconic photograph of Earth, 18 October), my friend Jim Forest, still a peace activist, was in prison in 1969 during the first manned flight to the moon as he was one of the Milwaukee 14 who had publicly burned thousands of draft cards calling up young men to fight in Vietnam.Not long after the space flight returned to Earth, Jim received a package from Nasa. At first the prison governor would not let him have it as Nasa was not on Jim’s list of approved correspondents, but Jim succeeded in arguing his right to have it. The package contained a stunning photo of Earth from one of the astronauts (he didn’t name himself), who wrote that he had followed Jim’s trial and was struck by Jim’s statement that we all live at the same address: Earth. Jim received his photo – which he has to this day – about the same time as an identical one was sent to the White House.

Report showing dramatic decline in internet access growth suggests digital revolution will remain a distant dream for billions of people

Unity, Liverpool

Trial resulted in 25% fall in new infections in year after rapid rollout of PrEP medicationHigh-income countries with people at high risk of HIV should replicate a groundbreaking trial in Australia, which has seen new infections fall by 25% in one year following the rapid rollout of free HIV medication, researchers say.When taken daily the pre-exposure prophylaxis drug known as PrEP is almost 100% effective in preventing HIV-negative people from acquiring the virus. In 2016, NSW became the first Australian state to trial PrEP on a large scale. In the course of just one year 9,714 HIV-negative people at high risk of acquiring HIV were enrolled in the trial, and given PrEP for free. The program was funded by the NSW government. Continue reading...

‘Dusk-like glow’ of proposed satellite could light an area with a diameter of 10-80km, People’s Daily reportsIn Chengdu, there is reportedly an ambitious plan afoot for replacing the city’s streetlights: boosting the glow of the real moon with that of a more powerful fake one.The south-western Chinese city plans to launch an illumination satellite in 2020. According to an account in the People’s Daily, the artificial moon is “designed to complement the moon at night”, though it would be eight times as bright. Continue reading...

David Nowell, a fellow of the Geological Society, is captivated by Earthrise over the moon, taken in 1968Rather than being taken from “inner space”, the most iconic photograph of Earth (Martyrdom? I’ve seen that movie, thanks, 13 October) was taken in December 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman, showing Earthrise, as the disc of our planet could be seen rising above the lunar surface. Even though this showed it as a fragile pale blue sphere in the indeterminable void of space, Catherine Shoard is right to say that we have trashed the planet anyway. This is a great pity, as we learned a lot about the primordial Earth from the moon rocks they gathered and the instrumentation Nasa left behind, including mirrors that still allow laser beams to be repeatedly timed on their return to show how the moon is slowly drifting away from Earth by a few centimetres a year.

Treatment for rare genetic disease to receive one of seven $3m Breakthrough awards at glitzy ceremonyNew techniques for peering into the intricate innards of cells and a discovery that has given hope for infants with a deadly genetic condition are among the developments that are being lauded in this year’s “Oscars for science”.The 2019 Breakthrough prize will see seven winning discoveries each celebrated with a $3m award for those behind the research to share, with a further six “New Horizons” prizes of $100,000 also going to young researchers in maths and physics and a $400,000-worth award of educational scholarships to a teen prodigy. Continue reading...

From Douglas Adams to Oliver Sacks, the standup comedian reveals some of the writers that have helped him try to work out what makes us tickMost of my standup shows, whether about the behaviour of the bonobo ape or my addiction to celebrity narrowboat TV shows, are really me trying to work out what it is to be human and trying to see how wrong I am getting it.In middle age, I’ve been trying to evaluate the knowledge accumulated from shouting at strangers for money over the last three decades. Where does anxiety come from? What is the key to creativity? How can we deal with grief? How do we overcome impostor syndrome? I’ve interviewed other comedians and artists, such as Lenny Henry, Alan Moore, Jo Brand, Tim Minchin and Ricky Gervais. I’ve been through an MRI scanner to see what my brain does when I’m being funny. And I’ve spoken with psychiatrists, psychologists and neuroscientists to find out what they believe makes us tick. Continue reading...

The idea that smiling changes the way we perceive things seemed like another casualty of social psychology’s replication crisis – but something more interesting was going onIn 1988, Fritz Strack and colleagues published one of the most wonderful studies in psychology. They asked volunteers how funny they thought some cartoons were. While looking at the cartoons, some of the participants held a pen between their teeth without it touching their lips, while some others held a pen in their lips without allowing it to touch their teeth. (The participants believed they were testing out methods disabled people could use to write.)If you try this in front of a mirror, you’ll see that when you hold a pen in your lips you look vaguely as though you’re frowning; when you hold it with your teeth you’re grinning. Continue reading...

Nasa’s greatest feats were a triumph for mankind. History will be less kind to today’s space pioneersThe promised journey is from Earth to the edge of space, rather than London Euston to Crewe, but the story of Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic still has echoes of a bad passenger experience on his trains. For the best part of a decade, his potential customers have been waiting for an experience that was meant to arrive in 2011, with only one certainty to hang on to: the tickets are eye-wateringly expensive. The price for Virgin rocket travel now apparently hovers at around £250,000, and reports suggest that among those patiently waiting to climb aboard are Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.Related: Virgin Galactic space shot is go 'within weeks, not months' Continue reading...

Slippery-when-wet concept may raise comfort and outlast couples’ stamina, say scientistsCondoms could be set for a makeover that might not only boost couples’ sex lives but encourage safe sex, according to researchers.Experts say a big-turn off for condom use is a lack of lubrication: current latex condoms are relatively rough, which can lead to breakage and discomfort, while commercial lubricants, including those applied by manufacturers to condoms, wear off during sex and may not be something couples want to apply. Continue reading...

Mediterranean lifestyle takes effect in Spain but US continues to drop down tablePeople in Spain are predicted to have the longest life expectancy in the world by 2040 – beating Japan into second place – and much of the reason is to do with the way they eat, according to the authors of the most comprehensive study of the global burden of disease.In the years to come, the biggest threats to our health and longevity will be obesity, high blood pressure and blood sugar, tobacco use and drinking alcohol, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, US, which has produced the forecasts. Continue reading...

Inscription suggests Mount Vesuvius erupted weeks later than previously thoughtA newly-discovered inscription at Pompeii proves the city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius after 17 October AD79 and not on 24 August as previously thought.Archeologists recently discovered that a worker had inscribed the date of “the 16th day before the calends of November”, meaning 17 October, on a house at Pompeii, the head of archeology at the site, Massimo Osanna, told Italian media. Continue reading...

Trump’s assertions are at odds with scientific consensus that humans are causing higher temperatures that pose immediate and growing threatsAsked about climate change on CBS’s 60 Minutes and by reporters in Georgia on Monday, Donald Trump suggested that climate change will “change back again”,” that it might not be manmade, and that hurricanes aren’t getting worse. The Guardian compared the US president’s comments with the science. Continue reading...

Research reveals that fighting between youths – particularly females – is less common where corporal punishment has been outlawedCountries that ban the smacking of children appear to be safer for young people to grow up in, according to research revealing that fighting between youths – particularly females – is less common where corporal punishment has been outlawed.Experts say the study adds to a growing body of evidence that punishing children by smacking, slapping or spanking them can lead to later harm. The research has led to renewed calls for policymakers to ban such practices in both schools and the home. Continue reading...

Archaeologists detect 20-metre ship using motorised high-resolution ground-penetrating radarArchaeologists have discovered a Viking ship burial in Norway using ground-penetrating radar that suggests the 20-metre keel and many of its timbers remain well preserved just half a metre below the topsoil.The ship lies in farmland in Østfold county in south-east Norway. Just three other intact ship burials have been recorded in the country; the survival of this one is remarkable because the imposing burial mound that once covered it has long since been ploughed out. Another mound, Jelle mound, still rises high in the field, and the research has also traced the outlines of at least eight other previously unknown burial mounds that once surrounded it, and five nearby longhouses. Continue reading...

Dr JK Anand, Chris Page and Pam Lunn reflect on the UK government’s decisionOf course the planned fortification of flour with folic acid will help – where the cause of spina bifida is nutritional deficiency of folic acid (All UK flour to be given folic acid additive, 15 October). However, it can not conceivably prevent the defect where it is due to genetic factors – two defective genes from two parents coming together.In some parts of the world consanguineous marriages are commoner than in others. An academic paper in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (Vol 32, No 2, June 2014) by Nazish Jabeen and Sajid Malik from a university in Pakistan is useful reading. The practice has nothing to do with religion. It is purely “custom and practice”. Continue reading...