American and Japanese immunologists win 2018 award for their work on cancer therapy

Two immunologists, American James P Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo, win annual award for work on a new approach to cancer treatment

These days new social norms can be swift and profound. It could be our saving graceAfter smoking and drink-driving, could climate change provide the next big behaviour-change challenge? The latest science tells us that nothing short of rapid, transformative change in our infrastructure and behaviour can prevent the loss of the climate we depend on – yet the message is only now being officially endorsed at the highest scientific level, because the implications are terrifying for today’s political and economic gatekeepers. It means real change, which incumbents always fear.But are we better at society-wide changes in attitude and behaviour than we give ourselves credit for? And do recent cultural shifts relating to everything from diet to plastics, sexism and attitudes to gender and identity suggest that we might be entering a phase in which more rapid behavioural changes are possible? Research in a new report for a soon-to-be launched international alliance of concerned groups suggests so. Continue reading...

The Earth isn’t solid – which makes it hard to predict how the submerging of our coastlines will unfoldBetter scientific understanding of global warming makes the discussion about its geopolitical consequences increasingly urgent. Put simply, there are going to be winners and losers: hotter places and colder places; wetter places and drier places; and, yes, places that disappear under the sea. But the reality is a bit more complicated. In particular, are sea levels going up or down? The answer seems clear when you consider that Antarctica has lost 3 trillion tonnes of ice in the last 25 years.Related: The speed of #MeToo gives me hope – we can still stop climate change | Andrew Simms Continue reading...

Look south-east this week to see the fifth brightest object in our sky twinkling as it rises in the early hoursEarly risers this week will be rewarded with a stunning sight in the south-east. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, will be rising in the hours before dawn. The chart shows the view to the south-east at 04:00BST. Overall, Sirius is the fifth brightest object in the sky. It is outshone only by the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Venus and Jupiter. This week, Sirius should be unmistakable because of its brightness, but if a further signpost is needed, then look for the three stars in Orion’s belt. They sit half way between the red star Betelgeuse and the blue star Rigel, and they point in a straight line diagonally down to Sirius. Another characteristic of Sirius is that it twinkles. This rapid flashing of colour and brightness is caused by the star’s light being refracted in the layers of Earth’s atmosphere. It is most pronounced when Sirius is low and so its light is travelling through more atmosphere to reach our eyes. As it rises higher into the sky, the twinkling diminishes. All stars twinkle, it is just more noticeable with Sirius because it is so bright. Continue reading...

It is the ultimate accolade, but critics claim the award is now out of step with modern collaborative research methodsA small group of scientists will achieve international stardom this week. They will learn they have won Nobel prizes in physiology, chemistry and physics, and their lives will be transformed. Each will win hundreds of thousands of pounds and they will be feted as infallible sages on science – and other topics outside their expertise.But many now question this deification of scientists and believe Nobel prizes are dangerously out of kilter with the processes of modern research. By stressing individual achievements, they say, Nobels encourage competition at the expense of cooperation. They want the system to be changed. Continue reading...

In this fast-moving technological world, lines of poetry can be food for the soul and help people with mental illnessHow can learning poetry by heart help us to be more grounded, happy, calm people? “Let me count the ways,” says Rachel Kelly, who has suffered from anxiety. Whenever she’s feeling wobbly, she finds reciting lines of poetry is grounding, validating and connects her to others who have felt as she is feeling in this moment. And it’s something we can all do: poetry we’ve learned to recite means we have another voice inside us that’s always there, a kind of on-board first responder in times of psychological need.There’s also a certainty and stability about being able to conjure those words: they’re a crutch, we can lean on them, they can even do the thinking for us. Kelly describes how two lines from Invictus by WE Henley can make all the difference to what happens to her next: “I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul.” When all she can hear in her head are negative voices, she can drown them out by repeating, over and over, positive lines from poetry: they’re substitutions, life-giving mantras rather than life-sapping ones. Continue reading...

Wellcome’s director offers a stark warning about the trust’s future in the UKEvery year, about 100 babies in the UK are diagnosed with rare, soft-tissue cancers. Treating young babies with chemotherapy and surgery is difficult and dangerous, but a new way of understanding these tumours using genomics offers hope. Researcher Sam Behjati devotes his work to decoding the DNA of rare childhood cancers. Recently, Behjati and his co-researchers revealed the genetic changes that cause a group of tumours to grow on babies’ kidneys. Now better targeted treatment using existing medicines is a possibility.This week, the NHS becomes the first in the world to offer patients routine access to cutting-edge genomic medicine. This huge advance is in no small part because science in the UK has been at the forefront of the genomic revolution. Continue reading...

In a new book likely to rekindle fierce controversy, psychologist Robert Plomin argues that genes largely shape our personalities and that the latest science is too compelling to ignoreThere are few areas of science more fiercely contested than the issue of what makes us who we are. Are we products of our environments or the embodiment of our genes? Is nature the governing force behind our behaviour or is it nurture? While almost everyone agrees that it’s a mixture of both, there has been no end of disagreement about which is the dominant influence.And it’s a disagreement that has been made yet more fraught by the political concerns that often underlie it. Traditionally, those on the left have tended to see the environment as the critical factor because it ties in with notions of egalitarianism. Thus inequalities, viewed from this perspective, are explained not by inherent differences but by social conditions. Continue reading...

One hundred years ago Holst’s Planets suite was premiered, with the composer drawing on metaphors and myths to animate his planets. Today’s scientific realities are just as rich and powerful, writes the physicist and TV presenter.When The Planets was completed in 1916, little was known about the physical nature of the worlds represented musically by Gustav Holst, and he didn’t care. His focus was on the planets as metaphors for different facets of the psyche; War, Peace, Jollity, Old Age, Messenger, Magician and Mystic. Indeed, Holst wrote parts of the work as stand-alone pieces and co-opted them later.Today we have visited all the planets and our discoveries have replaced their ancient astrological characters. At first sight, this new knowledge might appear to jar with Holst’s work, but this would be a superficial conclusion to draw. The planets have histories far richer than Holst could have imagined and reality delivers more powerful metaphors than myth. Set against what we now know, Holst’s work catalyses new ideas and generates powerful intellectual challenges which enrich and inform important debates in progress today, as art with depth can and perhaps must do. Continue reading...

What can a materials scientist learn from artists? How do you make robotic trousers? And what should we do about plastics? Hannah Devlin sits down with Mark Miodownik to find outAs a teenager, Mark Miodownik was stabbed with a razor blade, which penetrated his leather jacket, his school blazer and shirt before slicing his skin. The silver lining was that this harrowing event sparked a life-long fascination with materials science and engineering. A fascination that now sees him as Professor of Materials and Society, and director of the Institute of Making at University College London.This week, Mark sits down in the studio with Hannah Devlin to walk us through his career, and why he thinks that his field now needs to open its doors to designers, architects and artists. He also shares the inspirations for his new book, Liquid, which takes a broad look at the fluids that permeate every aspect of our lives.

Rovers deployed by the unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft capture a 15-frame clip of the asteroid RyuguTwo Japanese robots have sent back their first video images from the surface of a moving asteroid as part of an unprecedented mission aimed at shedding light on the origins of the solar system.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) released the 15-frame clip along with new photographs days after the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 deployed the rovers on to the asteroid’s surface after a three-and-a-half year journey. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands of deaths a year are not being recognised in international estimates, research suggestsHundreds of thousands of babies who died in the womb could have been missed out of international estimates on stillbirths, research suggests.According to figures for 2015, an estimated 2.6 million babies a year worldwide are stillborn – dying at a point in pregnancy when most babies would survive outside the womb. Continue reading...

Zarah’s donated samples were used by researchers – many others should have the chance to do the sameLast week, sitting at my desk at work, I clicked on a newly arrived PDF with considerably more trepidation than usual. The draft expanded to fill my screen, and I nervously scrolled down past a list of authors’ names into a soup of acronyms and jargon. Is she in there? I wondered, my breath quickening.As part of a global effort to diagnose and treat cancer more effectively, every year researchers analyse millions of patient samples in different ways. Cancer’s inner secrets, and its inherently destructive nature, are being laid out in increasing detail. New avenues open up, new vulnerabilities are exposed. Consequently, step by step, survival stats creep ever upwards. Continue reading...

Researchers not sure apparent protective effect extends to progestin only products such as mini pill and implantsWomen who use modern forms of the combined pill are at a lower risk of developing ovarian cancer than women who don’t take hormonal contraception, research suggests.The study backs up previous findings for older forms of the combined pill – an oral contraceptive that contains artificial versions of both oestrogen and progesterone. Modern forms of the pill contain different doses of synthetic oestrogen and different types of progestins, and are sometimes taken continuously. Continue reading...

Are we heading for a sixth mass extinction? This is a journey into the past to evaluate our futureAs science journalist Peter Brannen points out, life is extremely fragile, a “thin glaze of interesting chemistry on an otherwise unremarkable, cooling ball of stone”. So fragile, in fact, that in the planet’s history there have been five mass extinctions, when nearly all life has been wiped out. The question hanging over this book is whether the current most dominant species on the planet is about to cause a sixth mass extinction. Continue reading...

Picnics on Mars, sunsets on Uranus, sculptures on Venus … 100 years after Holst unveiled his epic masterpiece, musicians are reimagining it using the latest scientific discoveriesComposers have long been known to travel far and wide for inspiration. Mendelssohn headed to the remote Scottish isle of Staffa to write his Hebrides overture, while Messiaen found music in the mountains of Utah. Deborah Pritchard decided to take a trip to Mars.“It was majestic, with all these red hills and valleys that are very similar to the ones on Earth,” says the award-winning composer about her voyage. “To be able to see the landscape was extraordinary.” Continue reading...

Virus appeared for first time this month, with trio now being treated in isolation unitsA medical worker has become the third person diagnosed with monkeypox in England, less than a month after the infection first appeared in the country.The person had cared for a patient at Blackpool Victoria hospital who was subsequently diagnosed with monkeypox, according to Public Health England (PHE). It is thought to be the first case of the virus spreading within the UK. Continue reading...

This fiendishly complicated story is made even tougher by its tricksy prose, but it’s not hard to admire its daring

Richard Shepherd’s career saw him work on some of the most high-profile cases of the past 30 years, such as Harold Shipman and Stephen Lawrence. But it came at a terrible personal cost, he saysWhen Richard Shepherd was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2016, the mental health nurse told him he was really worried. “Most people say they’re going to commit suicide,” the nurse said, “but you actually know what to do.”Shepherd’s career as one of the UK’s most distinguished forensic pathologists saw him involved in disasters from the Hungerford shootings to the Bali bombings, and in high-profile cases from Harold Shipman to Stephen Lawrence. His daily life was made up of blood-spattered corpses and formalin-soaked dissections, anguished relatives and scornful barristers. But it wasn’t a particular incident that left him immobilised by dread, struggling with sleep and plagued by panic attacks. Instead, it was the gradual accumulation of stress from 30 years confronting violence and the grave, the steady buildup of emotional damage from putting 23,000 dead bodies under the knife. Continue reading...

There may be more bicycles but there will also be more planes. We’re still in denial about the scale of the threat to the planetWe’re getting there, aren’t we? We’re making the transition towards an all-electric future. We can now leave fossil fuels in the ground and thwart climate breakdown. Or so you might imagine, if you follow the technology news.So how come oil production, for the first time in history, is about to hit 100m barrels a day? How come the oil industry expects demand to climb until the 2030s? How is it that in Germany, whose energy transition (Energiewende) was supposed to be a model for the world, protesters are being beaten up by police as they try to defend the 12,000-year-old Hambacher forest from an opencast mine extracting lignite – the dirtiest form of coal? Why have investments in Canadian tar sands – the dirtiest source of oil – doubled in a year? Continue reading...

Analysis of 41 studies leads to calls for GPs to give dietary advice as part of treatmentEating junk food increases the risk of becoming depressed, a study has found, prompting calls for doctors to routinely give dietary advice to patients as part of their treatment for depression.In contrast, those who follow a traditional Mediterranean diet are much less likely to develop depression because the fish, fruit, nuts and vegetables that diet involves help protect against Britain’s commonest mental health problem, the research suggests. Continue reading...

Coca-Cola cited for funding physical activity research to take focus off sugary drinksCorporate sponsorship of academic studies is diverting researchers away from important public health questions and potentially distorting government policy, a new study has found.The findings, published by University of Sydney researchers in the American Journal of Public Health on Wednesday, highlight the influence of the alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, food, mining and chemical industries on the agenda of academic researchers. Continue reading...

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...