Children becoming physically weaker found team who measured handgrip, arm-hangs and sit-ups in Essex childrenSchoolchildren are becoming physically weaker, according to researchers who have studied how the muscle strength of 10-year-olds has changed over recent years.The team says 10-year-olds have become heavier and taller since 1998, meaning that on average their body mass index (BMI) has remained fairly stable. However their strength and endurance have declined. Continue reading...

The headlines claim treatment will be available within six years. The reality is a lot more complexA new study has inspired headlines claiming a cure for Alzheimer’s disease could be available within six years – but are we genuinely on the verge of an effective treatment?Given the physical, emotional and financial cost that Alzheimer’s and similar dementias inflict – something that’s only going to get worse as the population ages – this would obviously be a massive boon. But as always, the picture is a lot more complex. Continue reading...

Paper bracelet printed with light sensitive ink signals UV exposure to wearer with smiley and frowny face symbolsA simple paper sensor featuring smiley and frowny faces drawn in UV-sensitive ink has been produced by researchers in a bid to keep us safe in the sun.Scientists say the different expressions appear in sequence as UV exposure increases, offering a low-tech way for people to gauge when it is time to cover up. Continue reading...

Office for National Statistics says growth in life expectancy is lowest since records beganGrowth in life expectancy in the UK has come to a halt, and in some areas decreased, figures show.The statistics represent the lowest improvement in life expectancy since records began and puts the UK behind other leading economies. Continue reading...

Researchers say that the intensity of moonlight can contribute to an escalation in criminal activityIt’s a full moon on 25 September.If past months have been anything to go by, this will be accompanied by a round of public chat about how this affects human behaviour – from claims of more hospital admissions and arrests to crazy antics in children. Continue reading...

Researchers have shown that the brain’s ability to store memories improves after a short burst of exerciseJust 10 minutes of light physical activity is enough to boost brain connectivity and help the brain to distinguish between similar memories, a new study suggests.Scientists at the University of California studying brain activity found connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage increased after a brief interval of light exercise – such as 10 minutes of slow walking, yoga or tai chi. Continue reading...

Our species might have diverged 500 million years ago, but octopuses on ecstasy behave just as people do in many waysThe last week has been a notable one for our understanding of animal life, thanks to two very different research papers appearing within a couple of days of each other.One continued a tradition of surprises from the octopus – and generated headlines around the world. Scientists Eric Edsinger and Gül Dölen gave octopuses the “party drug” MDMA, or ecstasy, and found that on the drug they were more inclined to approach other octopuses, and also interacted less cautiously, initiating more body contact. Continue reading...

Researchers implanted electrodes in the lower backs of five patients, all of whom regained some movement

One of the largest creatures ever to stalk the Natural History Museum, Dippy the diplodocus is now drawing crowds around the country. But what if anyone finds out his terrible secret?Name: Dippy the dinosaur.Age: 152m years. Continue reading...

A challenge for cunning linguistsUPDATE: Solution is now posted hereHi guzzlers,Today’s puzzle concerns the South American language Aymara. It’s testing you on the sort of linguistics skills that might help you get you a job at Google, according today’s article in which a Google exec says that an understanding of language is the key to the next giant leap in technology. Continue reading...

Experts want action to tackle ‘huge public health threat’ after new projectionsObesity is on track to overtake smoking as the single biggest cause of preventable cancer in British women within 25 years, according to a Cancer Research UK report.The charity expects that within 17 years around 23,000 cases of cancers in women (9% of the total) could be caused by excess weight and about 25,000 (10%) by smoking. Continue reading...

The bright red star Aldebaran helps locate the grouping within the Taurus constellationOn the night of 29 September running into the morning of the 30th, the moon will cruise through the Hyades star cluster. As night falls on the 29th, neither the moon nor the Hyades will be visible from London. They will rise in the east around 21:30 BST, when the moon will be poised on the very tip of the star cluster. Continue reading...

A new test claims to be most scientific yet – and that out of four types, most of us are Average. The thing is, we don’t really do them to find out the truth

Survey on Ryugu asteroid aims to provide answers about the origins of life and solar systemTwo robots from Japan’s space agency have landed on a moving asteroid and begun a survey as part of a mission aimed at shedding light on the origins of the solar system.The rover mission marks the world’s first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid’s surface, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Continue reading...

When Sonia Vallabh found out she was likely to develop a terminal brain condition, she and her husband, Eric Minikel, changed careers to find a cureIn 2011, 27-year-old Harvard graduate Sonia Vallabh got the worst news possible: she was carrying a genetic mutation that would almost certainly lead to a rare and fatal brain disease called fatal familial insomnia. The same genetic error – a single wrong letter of DNA in her “prion” gene – had caused the death of her mother the year before. But rather than despairing, she and her husband, Eric Minikel, ditched their successful careers in law and engineering and set out on a quest to find a cure. Seven years on, they have developed a treatment that they hope will slow or even prevent the onset of the devastating illness. Continue reading...

The Sanger Centre’s landmark genetic sequencing of 25 species raises hopes not just for the conservation of Britain’s wildlife but for humans tooCarrington’s featherwort is an unusual plant by any standards. Tiny, between 2cm and 5cm in height, it clusters on high ground in north-west Scotland. Crucially, every single plant found in this secluded Caledonian enclave is male. By contrast, the only other substantial colonies known to botanists are located in the Himalayas – and are made up of females.Carrington’s featherwort would now be extinct were it not for the fact that the species can also propagate nonsexually. New plants form out of fragments of existing featherworts, producing colonies of clones. Continue reading...

Nasa plans to put a module in orbit around the moon as a springboard for missions to the red planet – and beyondSpaceflight will mark an important milestone this year – when Nasa celebrates the 50th anniversary of US astronauts reaching the moon. In December 1968 Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders – on Apollo 8 – swept over the lunar surface and captured bright blue images of Earth rising above the grey plains of the moon. It was one of the most dramatic space missions ever flown. Manned landings followed, but after a few years, the US lost interest in lunar space flights.But now Nasa has revealed plans to return to the Moon and has asked European scientists and industry leaders to join the agency in a bold plan aimed at rebooting humanity’s conquest of the solar system - in the form of an international manned station that will orbit the moon within the next decade. Continue reading...

Visa uncertainty and expected loss of EU funding affecting culture industry, leaders say

With culture wars raging, it matters that such an institution would reach out to Britain’s young for help with slang wordsAnyone’s who’s played a heated game of Scrabble will know that the dictionary is much more than a simple resource that records and define common words. It is also a place where history and culture is preserved. When a word enters the dictionary, it is “real”; established, bona fide, and must be accepted. It plays an active role in defining not just words but our world.So I was delighted to find that this week the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) asked the public to help give the dictionary treatment to some common youth slang words. They have asked children and teenagers to send in examples of current slang, and have apparently already been tracking the shifting meaning of words such as “bare” (intensifier, meaning very or a lot). “Peng” (meaning good-looking or of exceptional quality) and “lit” (meaning fun, exciting) can’t be far behind. Continue reading...

Report finds 13.5% of deaths among people in their 20s are linked to alcoholAlcohol is responsible for more than 5% of all deaths worldwide, or around 3 million a year, new figures have revealed.The data, part of a report from the World Health Organization, shows that about 2.3 million of those deaths in 2016 were of men, and that almost 29% of all alcohol-caused deaths were down to injuries – including traffic accidents and suicide. Continue reading...

The challenges I face are immense. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease is like practising dyingIn July 1977, I was working as a research scientist at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Pathology and Anatomy. Looking at specimens embedded in plastic – the most advanced preservation technique then available – I wondered why the plastic was poured around bodies rather than into them.That was when I came up with the idea of vacuum-impregnation, whereby bodily fluids and soluble fat are extracted and replaced with resins, silicon rubbers and epoxies, a process I later named plastination. But it was only after a year of intense research, and hundreds of experiments, that I got some presentable results. By March 1978, I filed the first patent for plastination, a technique now used in 400 medical schools and universities worldwide (although the first whole-body plastinate was still 13 years away). Continue reading...

From masturbating dolphins to chimps using tools, animals often display behaviours that we’d consider human. So what makes us unique?You are an animal, but a very special one. Mostly bald, you’re an ape, descended from apes; your features and actions are carved or winnowed by natural selection. But what a special simian you are. Shakespeare crystallised this thought a good 250 years before Charles Darwin positioned us as a creature at the end of the slightest of twigs on a single, bewildering family tree that encompasses 4bn years, a lot of twists and turns, and 1 billion species.“What a piece of work is a man!” marvels Hamlet. “How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! … In action how like an angel! / In apprehension how like a god! … The paragon of animals!” Hamlet then ponders the paradox at the heart of humankind: what is this quintessence of dust? We are special, but we are also merely matter. We are animals, yet we behave like gods. Darwin riffed on Hamlet in 1871 in his second masterpiece, The Descent of Man, declaring that we have “god-like intellect”, yet we cannot deny that man – and woman – carries the “indelible stamp of his lowly origin”. This is the central question in understanding our place in the scheme of evolution. Continue reading...

Associate Professor Jochen Brocks from the Australian National University shares a discovery which found a fossilised lifeform that existed 558m years ago. The Dickinsonia fossil has been identified as the oldest known animal, according to Brock's new research Continue reading...

With advances in gene technology helping to diagnose very rare diseases, has the new era of personalised medicine finally arrived?Evie Walker sits on her mother’s lap, playing a game she never grows tired of: turning her mother’s hand over and over, stroking and examining it. When she takes a break and looks around, it is with the open-mouthed look of curiosity and awe that you see in many infants. Evie’s vocabulary currently consists of a repertoire of squawks and “mmm” sounds. In the past few months, she has begun to stand unaided for short periods – even taking a few steps in her walking frame – progress that fills her parents with immeasurable pride, not to mention hope for the future.Despite her baby-like demeanour, Evie is eight years old. She has Pura syndrome, a vanishingly rare developmental disorder that didn’t officially exist until four years ago. Developmental disorders affect children’s normal mental or physical development. Before she was diagnosed, all Evie’s parents knew was that she suffered from “global developmental delay”: a vague umbrella term for a set of symptoms with myriad potential causes – some, but not all of them, associated with a heartbreakingly poor prognosis. Continue reading...

Surrey Space Centre scheme for removing orbiting debris successfully nets test junkA satellite launched from the International Space Station has caught a piece of simulated space junk by ensnaring it in a net. Co-funded by the European commission, the 100kg RemoveDebris satellite was launched to the station in April as cargo on a supply mission. It was deployed from the station in June, and on 16 September began its experimental phase. It launched a small object to act as a dead satellite and a few seconds later fired a net at it.The net unfurled as it caught up and then wrapped itself about the object. The extra mass that the net provides will help drag the object down into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up. Continue reading...

Oval-shaped Dickinsonia lifeform existed at least 20m years before the ‘Cambrian explosion’ of animal lifeA fossilised lifeform that existed 558m years ago has been identified as the oldest known animal, according to new research.The findings confirm that animals existed at least 20m years before the so-called Cambrian explosion of animal life, which took place about 540m years ago and saw the emergence of modern-looking animals such as snails, bivalves and arthropods. Continue reading...

Readers join the dots between various recent reports on the effects of air pollution on human health and the part played by cars in turning the atmosphere toxicYour report (School run is the ‘biggest polluter’ of air children breathe, 18 September) highlights the continuing failure of government to recognise the dangers of air pollution, specifically from diesel engines, and to take necessary action to limit the number of premature deaths. But the school run is only part of the problem facing infants, children and the wider population.Many schools are on what are now extremely busy roads; only a minority have had an air pollution survey; and because of austerity measures they seldom have the resources to take remedial action by acquiring air purifiers. School buses keep their diesel engines ticking over for half an hour or longer and legal restrictions are simply ignored by bus companies and the police. Ice-cream vans in public parks and holiday resorts are diesel-powered, but they keep their engines running all day, even when located near children’s playgrounds. Continue reading...

Normally antisocial sea creature becomes friendly and tactile after being given the drug, scientists sayWhat happens when you give an octopus MDMA? It sounds like a question that might flit through the meandering mind of someone who had been dabbling in psychedelics. But now the matter has become the focus of an unlikely-sounding scientific experiment to uncover the ancient origins of social behaviour.By showing that the normally antisocial sea creature became friendly and tactile after being given MDMA, also known as ecstasy, scientists believe they have made a link between the social behaviours of humans and a species from which we are separated by more than 500m years of evolution. Continue reading...

Barriers could halt slide of undersea glaciers and hold back sea level rises predicted to result from global warmingBuilding walls on the seafloor may become the next frontier of climate science, as engineers seek novel ways to hold back the sea level rises predicted to result from global warming.By erecting barriers of rock and sand, researchers believe they could halt the slide of undersea glaciers as they disintegrate into the deep. It would be a drastic endeavour but could buy some time if climate change takes hold, according to a new paper published on Thursday in the Cryosphere journal, from the European Geosciences Union. Continue reading...

New exhibition at Royal College of Physicians highlights 500 years of women’s struggle to get their foot in the door of the medical professionMedicine is not a welcoming world for women, even in 2018. Women hold a tiny proportion of Britain’s professorial medical posts, while the NHS has a 23% gender pay gap. Just last month Tokyo Medical University admitted it had tampered with female students’ exam scores to stop them getting in, fearing they would put their careers on hold to get married and have children.This pernicious culture of sexism and scaremongering is nothing new. It has been deployed for centuries to bar women from the profession and to trivialise their contributions as doctors. Continue reading...

It was devastating at the time, but I met amazing people who helped me pursue a career in medical scienceI was 14 years old when I was told I had cancer. It was just before Christmas in 2009 and I’d had terrible pain in my side for several weeks. After being seen at four different hospitals, I ended up at Birmingham children’s hospital. It was there that I was told I had alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, words that meant absolutely nothing to me at first. I soon realised they meant cancer.Before my diagnosis, I was far more concerned with schoolwork and my friends – normal things 14-year-olds have to deal with. But my world had suddenly been turned upside down. I now had to deal with countless hospital tests and appointments, doctor visits and treatments. I lost all my hair – I even lost my eyebrows and eyelashes, which was especially hard to come to terms with. Continue reading...

Experts warn against switching to a gluten-free diet because that may reduce intake of fibre, iron and B-vitamins

Researchers say that when they swept away the senescent brain cells in mice, the outwards symptoms of their dementia vanished

CBD oil is being treated as the option of last resort. This is simply no good to my four-year-old and many othersBefore I took the decision to try treating my daughter Indie with medicinal cannabis she was on a trial of a “traditional” pharmaceutical drug. My four-year-old has Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. It was the eighth different drug that we had tried, none of which had reduced her seizures. We refer to the trial as Indie’s “zombie phase”. For those five harrowing months, Indie spent every waking moment laid on the floor, distressed and “body-rocking”. She would have periods of insomnia lasting up to 40 hours. The stress and worry were indescribable. Our doctors insisted it was the condition causing these symptoms, not the medication. But as a family we had reached our limit. I’d been researching medicinal cannabis over a three-year period, so earlier this year we uprooted our family to Holland.Indie was treated with a particular type of cannabis oil (CBD oil) that did not contain the psychoactive component THC. The results were striking. Her seizures reduced significantly. We had every intention of staying abroad and extending the medicinal cannabis trial to encompass cannabis oil containing small amounts of THC. Results from other families suggested that the addition of this THC offered the promise of even more dramatic reductions in seizures. But with funds running low, we were forced to return to the UK. Continue reading...

European Space Agency’s seven-year, €1bn mission will investigate the effects of the sun on satellite technologyA new space mission will carry telescopes closer to the sun than ever before, capturing detailed images of its surface landscapes and taking measurements of its atmosphere.Once it reaches its destination – the sun’s orbit – the spacecraft will be able to investigate the origins of the solar wind – the stream of ionised gas emanating from the sun – and of fierce explosions on its surface called solar flares, as well as taking pictures of the polar regions of the sun for the first time. Continue reading...

While they are still a healthier choice than a chocolate bar or a biscuit, flavoured yoghurts are packed with sugarChildren’s yoghurts are packed with sugar, experts have found, warning that manufacturers and retailers need to do more to tackle the problem.Although yoghurt has long been considered a healthy food, experts warn that many of the products sold in supermarkets could contribute to child obesity, tooth decay and other health problems due to their high sugar content. Continue reading...

Risk in over-50s increases by 40% where highest nitrogen oxide levels exist, study showsAir pollution may increase the chance of developing dementia, a study has suggested, in fresh evidence that the health of people of all ages is at risk from breathing dirty air.People over 50 in areas with the highest levels of nitrogen oxide in the air showed a 40% greater risk of developing dementia than those with the least NOx pollution, according to the research, based on data from London. Continue reading...

Proportion of children being immunised down to 91.2% as experts warn of measles riskThe proportion of children in England getting immunised for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) has fallen for the fourth year in a row, as uptake for a further nine out of the 12 routine vaccinations has dropped, figures show.Related: Resurgence of deadly measles blamed on low MMR vaccination rates Continue reading...

Fashion entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa could be the first private passenger to make lunar tripElon Musk plans to launch the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on a rocket around the moon, the embattled SpaceX CEO has announced.Maezawa, a 42-year-old art collector and entrepreneur who founded Zozo, Japan’s largest online fashion retailer, could be the first private passenger to make the trip around the moon. The Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) has not yet been built. Continue reading...

Researchers are asking people who have suffered from depression and anxiety to provide DNA samples so they can look for common genesGenetic links to anxiety and depression are to be explored in the largest ever study into the issue, experts have announced.Researchers are calling on people in England to sign up to the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (Glad) study. It is hoped that 40,000 volunteers aged 16 and over will agree to be part of a database which will be used in future research studies to better understand the genetic aspects of mental health conditions. Continue reading...

Sites should do more to inform users about potentially unwelcome results, says HfeaThe fertility regulator has called for DNA testing websites to warn customers about the risks of uncovering traumatic family secrets and underlying health traits.Sites such as Ancestry.com, 23andMe and DNA.com offer customers the chance to discover long-lost relatives by having their DNA analysed, typically after providing a saliva sample. The services usually cost less that £100. Continue reading...

Eating for two is a myth, say researchers, with weight gain linked to insulin resistance

Gene therapists have developed a stem cell implant that could help overcome addiction and prevent overdosesA radical gene therapy for drug addiction has been shown to dampen down cravings for cocaine and protect against overdoses of the substance that would normally be lethal.The therapy uses implants of stem cells which have been genetically engineered to release a powerful enzyme that removes the class A drug from the bloodstream. Continue reading...

As we delegate technology more responsibility to diagnose illness or identify suspects, we must regulate itRobert Jones was driving home through the pretty town of Todmorden, in West Yorkshire, when he noticed the fuel light flashing on the dashboard of his car. He had just a few miles to find a petrol station, which was cutting things rather fine, but thankfully his GPS seemed to have found a short cut – sending him on a narrow winding path up the side of the valley.Robert followed the machine’s instructions, but as he drove, the road got steeper and narrower. After a couple of miles, it turned into a dirt track, but Robert wasn’t fazed. After all, he thought, he had “no reason not to trust the satnav”. Continue reading...

New Zealand has ruled the practice illegal after mounting public pressure – but it can be a valuable and effective conservation toolEarlier this month the New Zealand court of appeal ruled that shark cage diving is illegal, and as a result cage diving tourism will soon cease in the country.But is a ban an appropriate course of action when shark population numbers are declining globally? Continue reading...

The moon rises early this week, with Mars, still bright and conspicuously red, sharing the evening sky by mid-weekThe moon passes close to Saturn on Monday night. Look for it low in the south just after sunset. The chart shows the view at 20:00 BST. As the week progresses, the moon moves eastwards, heading past Mars on Wednesday and Thursday. This will be easy to spot as Mars is the brightest object to the moon on those nights, and the planet will be conspicuously red in colour. Also, during the week, notice how the moon changes phase. It is currently just passing its waxing first quarter phase (colloquially called a half moon). In the next seven days or so, it will rise later and later in the evening until by full moon, on 25 September, it will rise as the sun sets. The waxing half moon is termed first quarter because it occurs when the moon has completed one quarter of its orbit around Earth. After a full moon, the illumination decreases, known as waning. It will pass through another half moon phase, known as last quarter, on 2 October. A week later it will become a new moon and the cycle will begin again. Continue reading...

Researchers say drug has little benefit when taken by healthy people aged over 70Millions of healthy people who take aspirin to ward off illness in old age are unlikely to benefit from the drug, a trial has found.While a daily dose of the blood-thinning medicine can protect older people who have previously experienced heart attacks, strokes and angina, researchers found the drug did not extend the lifespan of healthy people over the age of 70. Continue reading...

A dig in the castle’s grounds has uncovered the walls of a ‘showy’ late medieval houseArchaeologists believe they have identified the exact site of Henry VII’s birth in 1457 after excavations in the grounds of Pembroke Castle in Wales uncovered the remains of a massive medieval mansion worthy of one of the most famous kings of England.Just days into an initial dig, archaeologists have uncovered up to half a metre of the building’s walls – and they are yet to reach the main floor levels. One wall is a metre thick. Continue reading...

New research shows direct evidence that toxic air – already strongly linked to harm in unborn babies – travels through mothers’ bodiesScientists have found the first evidence that particles of air pollution travel through pregnant women’s lungs and lodge in their placentas.Toxic air is already strongly linked to harm in foetuses but how the damage is done is unknown. The new study, involving mothers living in London, UK, revealed sooty particles in the placentas of each of their babies and researchers say it is quite possible the particles entered the foetuses too. Continue reading...

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is used by firms worldwide to test their employees. In her new book, Merve Emre looks at the system’s curious originsMerve Emre was 22 when she found out she was an ENTJ, though she was yet to understand what an impact it would have on her life.Emre had recently graduated from Harvard University and was working as an associate consultant at Bain & Company, one of the “big three” management consultants. Two weeks in, she and the rest of her intake went to a luxurious offsite facility. Here a career counsellor told them to work through an “instrument” – decidedly not a “test” – called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The MBTI is the world’s dominant personality questionnaire: more than 50 million people around the globe are estimated to have taken it. It has been administered since the 1940s (though its origins date to 1917) and now consists of 93 questions to which you answer A or B. At the end, you are assigned one of 16 different types. Many consider this “score” to be meaningless, no more scientifically valid than your star sign. But others – including companies such as Bain, the BBC and many universities – clearly do not. Continue reading...