This week, we turn away from the crowds of catastrophist headlines and dystopian fiction and discover hope in the world of scienceCan advanced mathematics and physics help us navigate a path through today’s social and political turmoil?Eugenia Cheng’s book The Art of Logic: How to Make Sense in a World That Doesn’t shows how mathematical logic can help us see difficult political questions such as public healthcare, Black Lives Matter and Brexit more clearly – and know when politicians and companies are trying to mislead us.

Doctors call figures for England alarming and urge people to adopt healthier lifestyles

First Man does not show the astronauts planting US flag, sparking anger on the right – but second man’s views are unclearNeil Armstrong’s sons do not think First Man, a Ryan Gosling-starring biopic about their father, is anti-American. Some American conservatives do. Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, may agree with them. Or he may not.

Scientists have the public’s trust, so the swell of fake news shouldn’t put them off communicating, says CEO of Science Media CentreI am sorry to see Jenny Rohn penning her last piece for the Guardian’s science blog network (“I was deluded. You can’t beat fake news with science communication”). I have enjoyed her columns and often shared the links. But I cannot agree with her swan song.Rohn uses her last post to question whether her seven years of blogging has made the slightest difference to public attitudes to science and concludes that it probably hasn’t. Her despair follows a now familiar trope in science: that in our “post-truth” society no one is listening to mild mannered science writers trading in facts and evidence. Instead the masses are in thrall to what Rohn calls the “enemy camp”, the anti-science brigade who lamentably “picked up the pen as well” and use it to peddle dangerous lies. Continue reading...

It’s time to say goodbye to the Political Science blog at the Guardian – but we’re moving to a new homeLast week, the results of a successful trial of a new diet pill – lorcaserin – were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and immediately hailed by some as a “holy grail” in the fight against obesity. The study of 12,000 people in the US who were obese or overweight found that those who were given the pills lost an average of 4kg over 40 months.Was it too good to be true? The conventional coverage of a scientific breakthrough quickly began to be questioned on social media and elsewhere. Who funded the study? Who stood to gain? Given the problematic history of diet pills as a treatment for obesity, would lorcaserin ever be licensed for use in the NHS? Is it worth the £200 per month per patient that it would cost? And were the results so impressive compared to lower-tech public health options, such as slimming clubs, weight management clinics or better food labelling? As with many science stories, complex politics lurk just beneath the shiny veneer. Continue reading...

Join a club, take a detour – and buy a carafe: positive psychologists on how you can take the novelty and openness of your vacation and apply it to your daily routineIt’s over. The air is cooling. School is the opposite of out. You can probably feel the holiday spirit leaving your body. But what if you could capitalise on your holiday momentum and apply some of your novelty-seeking break from routine to, well, your daily routine?Holidays are good for humans. A 40-year study in Finland that tracked the lives of 1,200 businessmen at risk of heart disease found last week that those who took three or fewer weeks’ holiday a year were more than one-third more likely to die young. The good news for those on a budget is that, according to the lead researcher, Timo Strandberg, the benefits were the same “whether you were in a holiday resort or just at home”. Continue reading...

Physicists say a fifth force of nature would ‘completely change the paradigm’Scientists are about to launch an ambitious search for a “dark force” of nature which, if found, would open the door to a realm of the universe that lies hidden from view.The hunt will seek evidence for a new fundamental force that forms a bridge between the ordinary matter of the world around us and the invisible “dark sector” that is said to make up the vast majority of the cosmos. Continue reading...

After a summer in which Mars and Saturn have been at their closest to Earth, they are now receding. Catch them this week lining up with Jupiter just after sunsetThroughout the week, three bright planets will line-up along the horizon just after sunset. The brightest of the planets will be Mars. Fresh from its closest approach to Earth in late July, it remains a stunning jewel: a blazing red beacon in the southern sky. Catch it as soon as you can, as it is now receding from Earth and by the end of the month will be roughly two and a half times dimmer than at the beginning. From Mars, begin turning westwards and you will find Saturn. It will not be as bright as Mars and its colour will be a much paler yellow. This planet too is receding from Earth, having made its closest approach to us in late June. Next, continue turning westward until you see the bright white light of Jupiter, setting to the west. Of all the planets on display, it will be the closest to the horizon. These three planets are all further from the Sun than Earth. They are the furthest objects in our solar system that we can see with the naked eye, and have therefore been known since times of antiquity. Continue reading...

European Medicines Agency ends pharma evaluations work and moves contracts to blocBritain’s leading role in evaluating new medicines for sale to patients across the EU has collapsed with no more work coming from Europe because of Brexit, it has emerged.The decision by the European Medicines Agency to cut Britain out of its contracts seven months ahead of Brexit is a devastating blow to British pharmaceutical companies already reeling from the loss of the EMA’s HQ in London and with it 900 jobs. Continue reading...

Her mother’s wisdom helped Edith Eger create a happy inner life in Auschwitz – but true healing meant going back thereEdith Eger was 16 years old, crammed into a cattle truck, human cargo from Hungary headed for Auschwitz, when her mother gave her the advice that shaped her life. For most of the journey, her mother hadn’t said much, hadn’t cried or complained, but had instead gone inside herself. “That night,” says Eger, “she turned to me and said: ‘Listen. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Just remember, no one can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.”For the next year, Eger’s inner life – cherished memories, favourite recipes, future fantasies – sustained her, even saved her. After liberation, though, it turned against her. Survivor’s guilt, buried memories and constant flashbacks held her hostage. A siren, a shouting man, a piece of barbed wire could hurl her back to 1944. Ultimately, Eger’s mission to understand her mind and utilise its power led her to become an acclaimed psychologist specialising in trauma. Her mother’s words have formed her life’s work. Continue reading...

Defence groups sponsor lessons that promote building and sale of military hardwareArms manufacturers are spending millions of pounds a year promoting their brands in Britain’s schools, the Observer has learned.The companies, which between them have sold tens of billions of pounds of weapons to overseas governments, including those with poor human rights records, sponsor a series of school events at which their brands are prominently on display. In addition, they issue teaching materials for use in classrooms that promote the defence sector, sponsor competitions and award prizes. Continue reading...

In Silicon Valley they say taking tiny amounts of the hallucinogenic drug increases creativity and productivity, but is it all in the mind?• ‘It lifted me out of depression’: is microdosing good for your mind?Silicon Valley geeks say it sharpens their thinking and enhances creativity. Other people say it lifts the fog of depression. A novel experiment launching 3 September 2018 will investigate whether microdosing with LSD really does have benefits – or whether it’s all in the mind.Microdosing using psychedelic drugs – either LSD or magic mushrooms – is said to have become very popular, especially with people working in the Californian digital tech world, some of whom are said to take a tiny amount one or more days a week as part of their routine before heading to work. It’s not for a psychedelic high, though – it’s to make them more focused. Continue reading...

Little research exists on the effects of tiny doses of hallucinogens, but devotees of the practice report remarkable benefits• First ever trials on the effects of microdosing LSD set to beginErica Avey, 27, microdosed on LSD for eight months, using an analogue that was legal in Germany, where she was living. “I started microdosing essentially because I was in a really depressed stage of my life. It was for mental health reasons – mood balancing, mood management. It was hard for me to leave my apartment and do normal things as a human being,” she said.Depression or sadness are very common reasons for starting; Avey was unusual only in that she could be open about it. Her workplace knew and thought it was fine. “As long as I wasn’t out of control or permanently high at work they were quite OK.” Continue reading...

Following Sweden’s hottest summer ever, Greta Thunberg decided to go on school strike at the parliament to get politicians to actWhy bother to learn anything in school if politicians won’t pay attention to the facts?This simple realisation prompted Greta Thunberg, 15, to protest in the most effective way she knew. She is on strike, refusing to go to school until Sweden’s general election on 9 September to draw attention to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a scientific analysis of conditions in which ships make little or no progressMariners encounter all sorts of unusual winds and currents, but polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen was baffled in August 1893 when an invisible force seemed to hold back his ship Fram. Four hours steaming though the “dead water” produced less progress than Nansen would expect from just half an hour’s rowing.“We could hardly get on at all for the dead water,” wrote Nansen. “We made loops in our course… tried all sorts of antics to get clear of it, but to very little purpose.” Continue reading...

Ask instead what you might do todayOne of the smaller aggravations of these politically vertiginous times is a kind of scolding that you tend to see on Twitter, especially from Americans keen to advertise their activist credentials. “If you’ve ever wondered what you’d have done in 1930s Germany, or during the civil rights movement,” they tweet, “congratulations: you’re doing it right now.”My objection isn’t about whether it’s a good analogy. And I’m only slightly annoyed by the fact that their remarks are undermining, since what they’re doing right now, clearly, is sending sanctimonious tweets. As with most lecturing via social media, I assume they do it to make themselves feel better; sending the tweet feels like they’ve done their bit for the day. Continue reading...

After eight brilliant years, the Guardian’s science blog network comes to a close todayEight years ago, something special happened at the Guardian’s science desk. A group of carefully chosen scientists and science writers were given the keys to the website, and told that they could write about whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. The idea was to expand and enrich the newspaper’s science coverage by getting people with a keen understanding of state-of-the-art research, and a flair for engaging writing, to talk about the things that really made them tick. No editorial control, save for when they wanted advice now and again. An exploratory experiment, if you like, to see what would happen if excellent science blogging was cultivated at an international newspaper.Today, the experiment comes to an end. Nothing lasts forever, especially in these uncertain times we find ourselves in. As the network matured, gained new writers and lost old ones, it gradually became more and more subsumed into the newspaper’s wider website. Science blogging and more traditional science journalism aren’t so different from each other, and the science blog network here often found itself walking a very difficult line. On the one hand, complete editorial freedom meant the ability to write about anything and everything, from the most niche of interests to the most serious cases of scientific malpractice. On the other, to an outside observer there was no difference between a science blogger and a standard journalist – and as a result, by necessity we had to (rightly) adhere to the same journalistic guidelines everyone else does. It was inevitable then that over time, the network would become susceptible to the same forces that drive decisions made more broadly across the newspaper. Continue reading...

The pharmaceutical industry gets a bad press. Some of the criticism is surely deserved, but the widespread notion that academia is morally superior is ridiculous.It was summer. I had just finished my undergraduate degree, and was waiting to take up a doctoral studentship. My Part II research project supervisor had offered me the opportunity to work in her lab for 3 months – she’d get some funding for me – to finish the work I’d started and write the paper. Who in my position would have turned down that opportunity?The work went well, and we got some nice photomicrographs. We wrote the experiment up. I started my doctoral research. Continue reading...

A new EU code makes equitable partnerships in resource-poor settings a condition for fundingThough many consider it to be a thing of the past, unethical and exploitative research persists in the 21st century. It is particularly worrying when this exploitation aligns with the old fault lines of colonialism. Researchers from high-income countries travel to resource-poor settings to undertake research that would not be allowed at home. The European commission calls this type of research “ethics dumping”.Ethics dumping can take many forms. Sometimes it is wilful exploitation: researchers avoid local ethics approval, undertake highly unethical experiments on non-human primates or refuse requests for compensation for harm incurred during a research study. Sometimes it may result from a lack of knowledge, for instance when researchers are unaware that community leaders need to be contacted before undertaking their research. In other cases it is simply unacceptable, insensitive behaviour, such as entering indigenous people’s homes during fieldwork to take pictures of breastfeeding mothers. Continue reading...

Invasive species have been blamed for wiping out native populations. Conservationists face a hard choice: should they kill one species to save another? The answer is often yes. Nicola Davis explores this dilemma and asks whether there’s a more compassionate approachJoin the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.For centuries, humans have introduced new species to new territories. Sometimes this isn’t a problem but, in other instances, the newbies compete with the locals for food, bring disease or eat too many of the natives. This causes an ecological imbalance and it’s an issue conservationists have been trying to fix. Often the solution is to kill the invasive species. Continue reading...

Scientists call for more investment in promoting healthy lifestyle after discovering strong link between diseasesHaving a stroke can double the risk of developing dementia, say scientists, who are calling for more effort to be invested in promoting the healthy lifestyles that reduce the chances of stroke.A team from Exeter University has analysed data on stroke and dementia risk from 48 separate studies involving a total of 3.2 million people around the world. Continue reading...

People aged 65 or older who adhere to diet rich in fish, nuts and fresh vegetables have 25% lower risk of death, study findsIt’s been touted as the recipe for a healthy life, preventing all manner of ills. Now researchers say a Mediterranean diet still offers benefits in older age and could reduce the risk of death.While somewhat nebulous in specific makeup, the diet is typically said to be rich in fish, nuts, fresh vegetables, olive oil and fruit. Continue reading...

Astronauts patch small rip leaking oxygen, seemingly caused by collision with a meteorite fragmentAstronauts on board the International Space Station have managed to repair a tiny tear in the fabric of a Russian capsule that was letting oxygen leak into space.The ship docked at the orbiting lab in June. Scientists believe the small rip in its shell could have been caused by a fragment of a meteorite colliding with the capsule. Continue reading...

Researchers use experimental gene-editing procedure to correct dystrophin gene mutations in dogsDoctors in the US have raised hopes of a treatment for muscular dystrophy, the most common fatal genetic condition in children, after mending mutations that cause the disease in dogs.The landmark study is the first to claim success at treating the muscle wasting disorder in large mammals, though scientists on the team caution that more work lies ahead to ensure the procedure is safe and effective for use in people. Continue reading...

Paul Rankin, my dad, who has died aged 72, was a research physicist and an adventurer. He worked for the electronics company Philips for 36 years, and filed more than 40 patents in that time. He was an innovator, with projects in the favelas in Brazil, the wastes of Mali, the temples of Thailand and the peaks of Peru.He visited more than 70 countries in his lifetime. After retirement he became involved in research into pangolins in Namibia, helping to track and understand these creatures, sometimes known as scaly anteaters. Continue reading...

A study of #hot tags on Instagram says it’s about women maximising their lot, but nudity is about control by men“A woman must continually watch herself,” is a John Berger quote you might remember if you studied art at school, or if you like watching bad 70s fashion in action on YouTube. The theory (from his 1972 documentary series, Ways of Seeing) goes, “from earliest childhood [each woman] has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually … how she appears to men is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life … This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.”It’s a useful quote to pull out if you’re writing an essay about the ubiquity of naked female paintings throughout history. It also works well as an answer to the question asked by a new academic study this week, “Why are there so many sexy selfies of women everywhere these days?” Continue reading...

If universities are to combat racial inequality in Britain, they should be talking more to the people at the sharp endI was well into my thirties before I realised that The Sneetches, Dr Seuss’s fantastical story of bird-like creatures whose star-bellied variants looked down on the plain-bellied sort, was about racism. I’d known the book all my life – my mother read it to me when I was little. But it was only when started reading The Sneetches to my own children that the penny finally dropped.When it did, I couldn’t figure out why I’d been so dim. After all I’d grown up amid the tense sectarianism of Northern Ireland; and I’d seen plenty of the world, encountering different cultures, histories and ethnicities while working in Europe, America and Asia to forge a career in science. By the time I settled in multicultural London with my young family, I thought I had a good working knowledge of our diverse, fractured societies.

Award-winning geographer Dr James Cheshire and designer Oliver Uberti take us to the forefront of the animal tracking revolution, mapping the movements of animals on land, sky and sea – from Peru’s elusive jaguars to ant activity in a colonyThe elephants who crossed the railroad Continue reading...

A new paper suggests that ‘sexy selfies’ can help women out-compete one another. But is this about gendered oppression – or academics selecting eye-catching areas of research?Name: Social climbing selfies.Appearance: Grumpy face, short skirt, maximum cleavage. Continue reading...

A teen, priest and ad consultant are asked not to lie for a week, but the psychological complexity of something so fundamental to humans cannot be revealed by putting sensors on peopleHow often do you lie? Go on, tell the truth. Only to be kind to others? Lying by omission doesn’t count? Your carefully curated Instagram feed isn’t a form of deception – it’s just that applying the Clarendon filter to photos of you holding a smoothie makes you feel good.It is estimated that we lie up to nine times a day, which makes me wonder what on earth the rate must be for world leaders. Apparently, we start lying at the age of one, when we learn to cry for attention, although my 12-month-old does this and I call it communicating her needs (and adorable, naturally). The question is whether we could or, indeed, would want to stop doing something as integral to human nature as laughing, feeling disappointed or watching silly BBC documentaries posing as serious telly. Continue reading...

Scientists allege Wellcome Sanger Institute management pressured workers to quitIn the science lab, some bullies can thrive unchecked for decadesThe leaders of one of the country’s most prestigious scientific institutes are under investigation following claims of bullying, mistreatment of staff and gender discrimination.Complaints by 10 former and current staff members at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge focus on some of the centre’s most senior management, including the director, Sir Michael Stratton. Continue reading...

Bullying claims suggest a scientist’s life is at odds with the profession’s noble ideals

A newly developed pain relief compound appears to be more powerful than morphine, without the addictive highScientists have made a major step towards developing a non-addictive alternative to prescription painkillers.The newly developed compound, called AT121, appears to deliver more powerful pain relief than morphine, but without being accompanied by the feelings of euphoria that drive addiction. So far, the drug has been tested successfully in rats and monkeys, and the team are carrying out final safety tests before human trials can begin. Continue reading...

This is a public health crisis. We doctors want to see diesel cars phased out, investment in clean air zones, and moreA study published this week shows that air pollution has an alarming effect on our cognitive abilities. Shocking as this conclusion is in itself, the report joins a long list of research linking toxic air to serious health problems, and demonstrates the devastating consequences air pollution has on people living in towns and cities across the UK.As a doctor working in A&E, I was shocked by the number of children I treated this summer whose health was harmed by air pollution. I saw children choking with asthma and struggling to breathe. Continue reading...

National Trust trial of 13th century method used until 1940s transforms stretch of Gower peninsula coastA pioneering farming project using field management techniques dating back to the 13th century has transformed a stretch of coast into a haven for endangered animals, birds, insects and wildflowers.The experimental return to “strip-field farming” close to the spectacular Rhossili Bay on the Gower peninsula in south Wales is being credited with a threefold increase in the number of species of wildflowers and the appearance of rare birds such as the hen harrier and grasshopper warbler. Continue reading...

Cannabidiol reduces the brain activity linked to hallucinations, delusions and other forms of psychosis, research has foundBrain scans have revealed for the first time how a substance found in cannabis plants may help people with psychotic disorders by dampening down abnormal brain activity that arises in the patients.A single dose of cannabidiol, an non-intoxicating extract of the plant, reduced unusual patterns of neural behaviour linked to hallucinations, delusions, and other symptoms of psychosis, researchers found. Continue reading...

The battle for evidence-based reason may have to move elsewhereI’m going to begin this piece by suggesting that it’s a waste of your time to read it.Sort of. Continue reading...

Dozens of phone calls have been made to the Perth Observatory after people reported 'a giant fireball' above south-west Australia. The fireball is believed to have been a meteor that entered the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 20km per second, according to the observatory. Scientists from Curtin University are investigating whether the meteor completely burned up in the atmosphere or hit the ground near York, a town about 100km east of Perth Continue reading...

So long, and thanks for all the hitsSince 2012 I have been writing for the Guardian on these pages and the forerunner of LWR, the Lost Worlds blog. It’s (generally) been a pleasure and privilege to help cover new and exciting discoveries like giant sauropods and fighting thick-headed dinosaurs, and especially new taxa including Regaliceratops and Nyasasaurus. In addition, it has given me a platform to talk about important issues in science communication and education (like my T. rex documentary and creationists being, shock, wrong) and other aspects of palaeontology and the biological sciences including the predictive power of evolution and why I think zoos are good. All that and why the Game of Thrones dragons wouldn’t be able to fly - what more could you ask for?It has led to much discussion among scientists, generated huge numbers of comments and ideas and, I hope, generally given people access to ideas and details not normally coming through from more traditional journalistic reports on extinct species and the work of palaeontologists. Sadly, though, the Guardian is closing down the science blogs section of their site and so both Lost Worlds and Lost Worlds Revisited will be no more. It is not the end of my contributions though. Continue reading...

As the science blog network closes, Suzi Gage reflects on her time writing for the GuardianOn February 14, 2013 I published my first post as a Guardian science network blogger. And now, over 5 years and 112 posts later, this is my last blog here as the Guardian is closing the blog network at the end of August. I’m very excited to be continuing blogging for the newly formed Cosmic Shambles network from early September, but I want to use this post to look back on my time as a Guardian science blogger, and pick out some of my favourite posts.A lot has changed for me during this time – when I posted that first blog back in 2013 I was a PhD student at the University of Bristol. I’m now a lecturer up at the University of Liverpool, I’ve successfully obtained grants to carry out research, and I’m about to start supervising a PhD student of my own. So grown up. I even have a cat now! Continue reading...

Teenagers who smoke or consume alcohol have much stiffer arteries than those who don’t, putting them on the path to heart disease and strokeThe arteries of teenagers who binge drink or smoke are already stiffer by the age of 17 than in those who abstain, new research has revealed.Arterial stiffness indicates damage to the blood vessels. Research in older adults has previously shown that the stiffening of arteries is linked to heart and circulatory disease and an increased risk of events such as heart attack or stroke. While our arteries stiffen as we age, it is known that a host of behaviours are linked to the effect, including cigarette smoking and excessive drinking. Continue reading...

PM seeks to raise pressure on EU with pledge of £92m for ‘sovereign’ navigation systemBritain cannot afford to be excluded from core development of the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system and will have to develop its own expensive “sovereign system” if the 27-country bloc does not change its mind, according to Theresa May.The prime minister sought to up the ante by pledging to spend £92m on the initial scoping work for an alternative, unless Brussels allows the UK to be involved in security discussions and contract negotiations during the system’s creation. Continue reading...

Phrases like ‘sorry for the double email’ or ‘please advise’ only serve to enrage – why use them?Remember the last time you were scrolling through an email and saw phrases like “Reattached for your convenience”, “sorry for the double email” or “please advise”? You’re not alone if you felt enraged by reading them. According to a recent survey by the software company Adobe, 25% of us loathe the phrase “not sure if you saw my last email”. The No 2 most hated phrase was “as per my email”. In fact, the nine most loathed phrases in emails all had one thing in common: passive aggression.Passive aggressive behaviour is a frequent complaint in the workplace. It was coined by William Menninger, a colonel in the US army in 1945. Writing in a technical bulletin, he described soldiers as passive aggressive when they would wilfully shirk duties by not carrying them out competently. They expressed their hatred of assigned tasks by “passive measures such as pouting, stubbornness, procrastination, inefficiency and passive obstructionism”. Menninger thought such behaviour was a sign of immaturity and a reaction to “routine military stress”. Continue reading...

With more than £500m a year at stake, the scale of losses to UK research from a no-deal Brexit are becoming clearOn 14 June 2016, just over a week before the EU referendum, Vote Leave were keen to calm the fears of British scientists, farmers and others who relied on European funds. The thirteen Vote Leave ministers signed a pledge, still standing on Vote Leave’s website, that “If the public votes to leave on 23 June, we will continue to fund EU programmes in the UK until 2020.” One of those thirteen signatories was Dominic Raab.How ironic then, that one of the first things Dominic Raab did as the newly-appointed Brexit Secretary was to suggest, on 21 July 2018, that the UK might not honour the hard-wrangled withdrawal agreement that guarantees continued funding of EU programmes until 2020. Continue reading...

Plans are being made to colonise Mars. Zahaan Bharmal unpicks the arguments against the ideaEarlier this month, a group of 60 prominent scientists and engineers met behind closed doors at the University of Boulder Colorado. Their agenda: Mars colonisation.Organised by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and attended by members of Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, the goal of this inaugural “Mars workshop” was to begin formulating concrete plans for landing, building and sustaining a human colony on Mars within the next 40 to 100 years. Continue reading...

Abandoned as a child, Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja survived alone in the wild for 15 years. But living with people proved to be even more difficult.By Matthew BremnerThe first time Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja ever heard voices on the radio, he panicked. “Fuck,” he remembers thinking, “those people have been inside there a long time!” It was 1966, and Rodríguez woke from a nap to the sound of voices. There was nobody else in the room, but the sounds of a conversation were coming from a small wooden box. Rodríguez got out of bed and crept towards the device. When he got closer, he couldn’t see a door, a hatch, or even a small crack in the box’s surface. Nothing. The people were trapped.Rodríguez had a plan. “Don’t worry, if you all move to one side, I’ll get you out of there,” he yelled at the radio. He ran towards the wall at the other end of the room, the device in his hand. There, breathless and red in the face, he held it high above his head and brought it down hard against the brick wall, in one violent swing. The wood splintered, the speaker popped out of its casing, and the voices fell silent. Rodríguez dropped the radio on to the floor. Continue reading...

Findings suggest trial drugs may reduce chance of heart failure for diabetic patientsHopes have been raised that drugs being trialled to treat anaemia could also be used to aid recovery after a heart attack and help decrease the chance of future heart failure.Initial results suggest the drugs could be given to people with Type 2 diabetes immediately after a heart attack, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Diabetes UK. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set the following puzzles from Swedish magician Fredrik Cattani. Here they are with their solutions.Money, Money, Money Continue reading...

Scientists and the design of experiments under scrutiny after a major project fails to reproduce results of high profile studiesSome of the most high profile findings in social sciences of the past decade do not stand up to replication, a major investigation has found.The project, which aimed to repeat 21 experiments that had been published in Science or Nature – science’s two preeminent journals – found that only 13 of the original findings could be reproduced. Continue reading...