Science | The Guardian

This artificial star will be dazzlingly bright - almost rivalling Venus - on 15 JulyThis week we're looking for an artificial star: the International Space Station. From London on 15 July, the ISS will pass overhead and will be dazzlingly bright.The pass begins at 22.39 BST when the space station rises above the western horizon, but it is unlikely to be visible until it climbs higher than 10 in altitude at about 22.41 BST. Three minutes later it will have climbed to its very zenith, passing through the constellation Draco, the dragon. Continue reading...

Hope for new treatments after researchers find spread of disease is aided by shutting down of molecules in key genesScientists have made a crucial DNA discovery that could help cure one of the deadliest cancers.A team of researchers from the UK and US have found that pancreatic cancer is able to shut down molecules in one of the body's most important genes, helping the disease to grow and spread rapidly. Continue reading...

Jenny Knight, an author who was a teen world rowing champion, is rediscovering the benefits of exercise after joining a local netball teamWhen I was 17, my rowing coach announced that taking a day off was unnecessary. That one time of the week that I left school at 4pm and watched Neighbours was now gone. I think that's probably why, when I gave up rowing, I stopped doing any exercise at all. I'd had enough. Exercise for me equated to diehard commitment and someone shouting at me all the time. So I did nothing. Which in retrospect was a bad idea, because there were times in my life - getting RSI when I tried to write a book while holding down a full-time job or having a baby and getting swamped by anxiety - when exercise would have helped enormously.It was when I had come out of the baby years, moved to a new area, but worked from home, that I felt the pull to be part of a team again. But I didn't know how or in what sport - there was no way I was going back to rowing. Continue reading...

A British geneticist scoured the globe for diverse grains in the 1920s. His research could be vital as the climate changesA hundred years ago, the plant scientist Arthur Watkins launched a remarkable project. He began collecting samples of wheat from all over the globe, nagging consuls and business agents across the British empire and beyond to supply him with grain from local markets.His persistence was exceptional and, a century later, it is about to reap dramatic results. A UK-Chinese collaboration has sequenced the DNA of all the 827 kinds of wheat, assembled by Watkins, that have been nurtured at the John Innes Centre near Norwich for most of the past century. Continue reading...

The breakup rehabilitation industry is in high demand but the truth is you can't force someone to love you againI got angry yesterday, which is unlike me, a lady of peace and careful breaths. I felt like that guy who kicked in his telly when the Sex Pistols swore and I may have done similar had this not been a work laptop and had I not been a little bit sleepy after lunch. The thing that got me, the thing that threatened to push me over the edge, was an article about the rise of get your ex back" coaches.This is the breakup rehabilitation industry", where people charge brokenhearted followers, typically clients who have found them on YouTube after Googling how to get my ex back", hundreds of dollars for a single coaching session. In addition to these sessions, for an extra $499 the client can send two further inquiries (at no more than 500 words each), with one coach reporting that business is booming - he's currently making multiple six figures". My schedule is packed back-to-back all week," a man called Benny Lichtenwalner told Slate. Think of the worst breakup you've had. Would you try to solve it for the price of a PlayStation? I think if their ex said, Hey, give me a PlayStation and we'll be back together,' they'd do it. I can sleep at night just fine. Because I love that I'm helping people." Continue reading...

Working from her California bungalow, Margaret Press, 77, leads a pioneering team of volunteers in the field of genetic genealogy. Thus far, they've identified the remains of more than 100 Jane and John DoesFor 37 years, the young woman remained nameless. She was known only as Buckskin girl" for the leather poncho she wore when she was found, strangled, in an Ohio ditch in 1981.That was until almost four decades later, when two women in California took up her case. In 2018, Margaret Press, a retired linguist, author and computer programmer, and Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nuclear physicist and forensic genealogist, ran DNA evidence from the crime scene through an ancestry database, looking for the victim's closest relatives. Continue reading...

Campaigners welcome seismic shift' and urge museum bosses to review links with other fossil fuel sponsorsThe Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor's environmental record, the Observer can reveal.Equinor has sponsored the museum's interactive WonderLab" since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners. Continue reading...

A conference in the UK this week will outline new developments in a project to look for technosignatures' of other advanced speciesIt has produced one of the most consistent sets of negative results in the history of science. For more than 60 years, researchers have tried to find a single convincing piece of evidence to support the idea that we share the universe with other intelligent beings. Despite these decades of effort, they have failed to make contact of anykind.But the hunt for alien civilisations may be entering a new era, researchers believe. Scientists with Breakthrough Listen, the world's largest scientific research programme dedicated to finding alien civilisations, say a host of technological developments are about to transform the search for intelligent life in the cosmos. Continue reading...

His page-turning books about quantum physics and game theory have given the Chilean writer a cult following - and won him famous fans from Stephen Fry to Bjork and Barack ObamaI know you're trying to skirt around it," says Benjamin Labatut when I put to him thathis books concern people of unworldly intelligence working on problems that are maximally deep, but the best way to sum it up is: Why am I interested in mad scientists?'" Fair play. There's no getting away from it: that's exactly what his richly satisfying, deeply researched books are about.Both of Labatut's two books currently available in English - the International Booker-shortlisted WhenWe Cease to Understand the World (2020) and The Maniac, recently published in paperback - pivot around that moment in the early 20th century in which our dreams of a perfect rational understanding of the world were turned on their heads. This was when the deranging discoveries of quantum physics killed off the clockwork universe; and when Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem destroyed for good the positivist project tosupply a stable, logically unimpeachable foundation for therules of mathematics. Continue reading...

Scientists fear adaptations to global heating may leave some species struggling to mate successfullyAn ambush bug with a darker-coloured body is better at snagging a sexual partner than its brighter counterpart when it is chilly. Darker males can warm up more easily in the early mornings, and therefore get busy while everybody else is still warming up.This is one of the many examples of how temperature affects colouring in insects, and in turn can affect their ability to mate, according to a new review article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Continue reading...

Ideas generated by ChatGPT can help writers who lack inherent flair but may mean there are fewer unique ideasOnce upon a time, all stories were written solely by humans. Now, researchers have found AI might help authors tell a tale.A study suggests that ideas generated by the AI system ChatGPT can help boost the creativity of writers who lack inherent flair - albeit at the expense of variety. Continue reading...

Starlink internet satellites were deployed in dangerously low orbit after explosion on Falcon 9 rocket on ThursdayThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into the in-flight failure of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as it was launching a batch of Starlink internet satellites.The second-stage engine failure occurred on Thursday evening during a routine launch of the satellites from Vandenberg space force base in Santa Barbara county, California. Continue reading...

Kate Bingham says ageing population means tackling dementia must be treated as economic imperativeA Covid-style effort is needed to ensure NHS patients are first in line for a new wave of dementia drugs, according to the former head of the UK's vaccine taskforce.Kate Bingham is calling for the immediate recruitment of large numbers of patients to ensure that, as with Covid vaccines, the UK is a leading player in testing and launching drugs. Continue reading...

A celebration of the gifts and talents of autistic people refutes the idea that autism and empathy cannot coexistIn The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks wrote about two autistic men, twins who had an extraordinary relationship with numbers. Sacks recalled that during one of his sessions a matchbox fell from a table, disgorging its contents, and the twins cried out 111", the exact number of matches that lay on the floor. They later explained that they had not counted the matches, but could see" how many there were. The twins live exclusively in a thought-world of numbers," Sacks concluded. They have no interest in the stars shining, orthe hearts of men."Daniel Tammet only mentions Sacks once in his new book, Nine Minds, but the writings of the British neurologist haunt these portraits of autistic people. Like those twins, Tammet is on the autistic spectrum, can perform absurdly complex calculations in his head, and is able to live in a thought-world of numbers", and yet he is also a writer whose qualities contradict the oft-made assumption that autism and empathy cannot coexist within the same mind. Part literary experiment, part work of activism, his book is an extended riposte to the assumptions in Sacks's chapter; he celebrates the gifts and talents of autistic people, while exploring the richness of their desires and dreams. Continue reading...

Creators hope prototype, modelled on Dune stillsuits', could be used before 2030 in Nasa's Artemis programmeA sci-fi-inspired spacesuit that recycles urine into drinking water could enable astronauts to perform lengthy spacewalks on upcoming lunar expeditions.The prototype, modelled on the stillsuits" in the sci-fi classic Dune, collects urine, purifies it and can return it to the astronaut through a drinking tube within five minutes. Continue reading...

Firm says wires attaching first patient's brain to implant are more or less very stable' after detaching months agoThe Neuralink CEO, Elon Musk, said on Wednesday that the company would soon test its pound-coin-sized implant and brain-computer interface on a second patient. The unnamed patient's surgery is slated for the next week or so", Musk said.Surgery on a different patient intended to be the second participant in Neuralink's human trial had been scheduled for late June but was delayed when they experienced unspecified health issues contraindicating the procedure. Continue reading...

Australian scientists create brick refuges in greenhouses to help green and golden bell frogs survive infectionA sauna" treatment for frogs has been used by researchers in Australia to successfully fight a deadly fungal disease that has devastated amphibians around the world, according to a new study.Scientists created refuges for the animals using painted masonry bricks inside greenhouses that they called frog saunas". They found that endangered Australian green and golden bell frogs were able to clear infections from the deadly Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus, in the warmer conditions of the greenhouses, when they would otherwise have died. Many of the frogs that recovered in the refuges were then resistant to infection. Continue reading...

Snail mail replaced with slug mail as scientists need 1,000 grey field slugs to explore pest-resistant cropsIt may be known as snail mail, but researchers are hoping the public will use the postal service to send them a different kind of mollusc: slugs.A team of scientists and farmers carrying out research into slug-resistant wheat say they need about 1,000 of the creatures to explore how palatable slugs find various crops. Continue reading...

DNA studies suggest disease was central to devastating collapse of northern European population 5,000 years agoA devastating population collapse that decimated stone age farming communities across northern Europe 5,000 years ago may have been driven by an outbreak of the plague, according to research.The cause of the calamity, known as the Neolithic collapse, has long been a matter of debate. Continue reading...

Researchers build genome using 52,000-year-old remains of woolly mammoth named after ex-England footballerResearchers have reconstructed the genetic code of the woolly mammoth in unprecedented detail after discovering fossilised chromosomes in the skin of a 52,000-year-old carcass preserved in the Siberian permafrost.The mammoth's lavish mane led researchers to name it after Chris Waddle, the mulleted former England footballer. It became freeze-dried on death, a process that preserved the 3D structure of the chromosomes in the animal's skin. Continue reading...

Mutation in RNU4-2 gene linked to severe developmental delay, with hundreds of people already diagnosedA genetic disorder that causes severe disabilities in children and adults has been discovered by researchers who believe the newly identified condition could affect hundreds of thousands of people around the world.Scientists have already diagnosed hundreds of people in the UK, Europe and the US after examining their DNA and spotting mutations in the gene linked to the disorder. Far more are expected to be found as further testing takes place. Continue reading...

Rescued chicks favour seafood, suggesting they turn to urban diet as adults from necessity rather than preferenceHerring gulls have wrecked many a seaside picnic, pouncing on unsuspecting people trying to enjoy a Cornish pasty, a sandwich or a bag of chips.But a study from the University of Exeter suggests gull chicks prefer seafood even after being raised on a diet of the sort of scraps found around humans. Continue reading...

Same-sex sexual behaviours have been reported in a wide variety of species, and a new study suggests that, although animal scientists widely observe it, they seldom publish about same-sex sexual behaviour in primates and other mammals. To find out why and to hear about some of the examples of sexual diversity from the animal kingdom, Ian Sample hears from Josh Davis, a science writer at the Natural History Museum in London and author of the book A Little Gay Natural HistoryPenguin noises by permission of freesound.orgRead more on animal homosexual behaviour Continue reading...

Research on 26,000 people found those who stay up late scored better on intelligence, reasoning and memory testsThe idea that night owls who don't go to bed until the early hours struggle to get anything done during the day may have to be revised.It turns out that staying up late could be good for our brain power as research suggests that people who identify as night owls could be sharper than those who go to bed early. Continue reading...

Engineers working on problems preventing return of Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are on the ISSTwo Nasa astronauts from Boeing's troubled Starliner capsule may have to remain in space until the middle of August as engineers continue to work through technical problems that prevented their return in June.Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been onboard the International Space Station (ISS) since 6 June after the first crewed docking of the next-generation spacecraft. The test mission was scheduled to last about a week, but Starliner's undocking was delayed several times as faulty thrusters and then a series of small helium leaks raised safety concerns. Continue reading...

Comptonatus chasei roamed island 125m years ago and is most complete dinosaur fossil found in UK in a centuryA new species of large plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Isle of Wight about 125m years ago has been identified.

This misjudged and unfunny romcom about how the US government planned to fake the moon landing in case the real one tanked undermines the Apollo 11 achievementWould you like to watch a goofy romcom about Bill Gates conspiring to implant 5G in millions of Americans' bodies using the Covid vaccine - but hilariously finding at the last minute he doesn't need to because they were all getting 5G anyway on their phones? Well, in the absence of all that, how about this relentlessly mediocre and misjudged romcom about how the US government planned to fake the moon landing in case the real one tanked?Scarlett Johansson plays slinky ad exec Kelly Jones who in the late 60s is sent to put some PR rocket fuel into Nasa's flagging publicity campaign, using her Madison Avenue tricks to convince wavering public and politicians that showering tax-dollars on the Apollo moon mission is still a good idea. At the same time she falls for the straight-arrow launch director Cole Davis, played by Channing Tatum with a weird proto-combover hairstyle and heavy pancake makeup. But Kelly is bullied by CIA man Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) into faking an alternative landing in a makeshift studio (kept secret from Davis) to be used if the real one doesn't work out - or even if it does work out, because they need the right kind of dramatic pictures. Continue reading...

The debate about the degree to which forests and fungi communicate raises the painful question of confirmation bias

You might have noticed that everyone has recently become a bit obsessed with blood sugar, or glucose. Wellness firms such as ZOE here in the UK - as well as Nutrisense, Levels and Signos - claim to offer insights into how our bodies process food based on monitoring our blood glucose, among other things. But many researchers have begun to question the science behind this. To find out what we know about blood glucose levels and our health, and whether the science is nailed down on personalised nutrition, Ian Sample hears from philosopher Julian Baggini, academic dietician Dr Nicola Guess of Oxford University and ZOE's chief scientist, and associate professor at Kings College London, Dr Sarah BerryRead Julian Baggini's article about the ZOE programme Continue reading...

Health service is at tipping point, say experts, and novel solutions' have been wrongly hypedThe NHS must concentrate on the basics of cancer treatment rather than the magic bullets" of novel technologies and artificial intelligence, or risk the health of thousands of patients, experts have warned.In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, nine leading cancer doctors and academics say the NHS is at a tipping point in cancer care with survival rates lagging behind many other developed countries. Continue reading...

Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from ChinaScientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator's population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor. Continue reading...

The answers to today's questionsEarlier today I asked you to Think Twice about the following puzzles. (It's the name of my new book, on puzzles that often catch us out.) Continue reading...

Researchers found differences in the gut microbes of autistic people, raising hopes for faster diagnosis Do gut microbes have a role in autism itself?Scientists have raised hopes for a cheap and simple test for autism after discovering consistent differences between the microbes found in the guts of autistic people and those without the condition.The finding suggests that a routine stool sample test could help doctors identify autism early, meaning people would receive their diagnosis, and hopefully support, much faster than with the lengthy procedure used in clinics today. Continue reading...

Your own thoughts are just part of the picture - relationships are vital to the way you thinkAs a neuropsychologist I feel as if I'm supposed to start this article withan attitude of deep reverence towards the brain. I might highlight itsstaggering number of neuronal connections (comparable in magnitude to the number of stars in the Milky Way), or draw your attention to our ever more sophisticated tools for neuroimaging getting us closer to a complete picture of how the brain works, or simply gesture towards the profound mystery of matter giving rise to experience.But although I do often experience something of that reverence, I think it can be a distraction in our efforts to understand thought. I know from clinical experience that if the brain is damaged, so too is our cognition, often in quite regular and predictable ways.Ifyou suffer damage to your frontal lobe then you will probably become less able to control your behaviour. If you have a stroke in the relevant part of your occipital lobe, your ability to make sense of visual information will be reduced. This brain-cognition link is an increasingly central tenet of our scientific culture but with it comes a sense that we should understand ourselves as analogous to machines. Remove a part of the hardware and the software is damaged. Continue reading...

That probably includes youUPDATE: Read the solutions hereThink Twice is the title of my new book (out on September 5) and it is also my advice for today's puzzles. Continue reading...

Moon will move in front of Spica into early hours of 14 JulyThis week the first quarter moon will make a close pass of Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, the virgin. The chart shows the view looking west/south-west from London at 11pm (BST) on the evening of 13 July.The moon will creep closer to the star as midnight passes and we move into the early hours of 14 July, but the constellation will be setting fast too. The moon will be about 7.5 days old and almost exactly 50% of its visible surface will be illuminated. Continue reading...

Pill known as OXO-001, designed to act directly on womb lining, could improve rate of embryo implantationA trial of a new fertility drug has shown that it could improve the rate of embryo implantation during IVF and lead to a 7% increase in live births.The pill, known as OXO-001, is designed to act directly on the lining of the womb to make it more receptive to the embryo being implanted. The findings raise hope for patients who have experienced repeated implantation failures during successive rounds of IVF. Continue reading...

Research suggests impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of the eggAir pollution exposure can significantly decrease the chance of a live birth after IVF treatment, according to research that deepens concern about the health impacts of toxic air on fertility.Pollutant exposure has previously been linked to increased miscarriage rates and preterm births, and microscopic soot particles have been shown to travel through the bloodstream into the ovaries and the placenta. The latest work suggests that the impact of pollution begins before conception by disrupting the development of eggs. Continue reading...

Relationships, especially romantic ones, need to be based on mutual recognition and understanding of emotional experiences

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsMy 13-year-old daughter just came to me and said: I have a much longer tongue than my friends'. Does that mean I have more taste buds?" I don't know who else to ask; can the readers help? David Wynne, West SussexSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

A meteor was seen lighting up the night sky in northern Turkey on Friday night. Footage shared on social media showed dazzled spectators as the meteor streaked across the sky in the city of Safranbolu. Another video showed flashes of light in Kastamonu, about 60 miles east of Safranbolu. The Turkish space agency confirmed the phenomenon was a meteor, in a post on X Continue reading...

We live in societies that celebrate youth and youth culture, yet are governed by our eldersStates when they are in difficulties or in fear yearn for the rule of the elder men," wrote Plutarch, the first-century Greek historian and philosopher, as he pondered whether an old man should engage in politics". Only the old, he believed, possessed the wisdom granted by age, and the composure that came with experience. The state which always discards the old men," he argued, must necessarily be filled up with young men who are thirsty for reputation and power, but do not possess a statesmanlike mind."What might Plutarch have made of Joe Biden's abject performance in last month's debate with Donald Trump and of his insistence on remaining the Democratic candidate in the presidential election in November? Plutarch recognised that old men could be enfeebled, but the evil caused by their physical weakness", he insisted, is not so great as the advantage they possess in their caution and prudence". Continue reading...

The broader context of what the magazine has become starts with political activist Josh Hammer running its opinion pagesPoor Taylor Swift. The pop star is a billionaire and one of the most successful people on the planet. She has an army of devoted fans who happily bankrupt themselves to follow her on record-breaking tours around the world. A German city just temporarily renamed itself Swiftkirchen in her honour. The Federal Reserve has credited her for boosting the economy. And yet, when it comes to the most important metrics of success, Taylor is a tragic failure: she is an ageing, unmarried wench who hath not brought forth a child into this world. Continue reading...

Japanese biochemist whose work on fungal extracts led to the creation of the first statinThe Japanese biochemist Akira Endo, who has died aged 90, was the creator of the first statin, a drug that lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, through his pioneering work with fungal extracts. Endo believed - and eventually proved - that fungi could yield a substance to block cholesterol production.Known as bad" cholesterol, LDL cholesterol narrows the arteries, raising the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. First licensed in 1987, statins were a game-changer in the treatment of heart disease. Today, approximately 200 million people take them daily and they are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the UK. Continue reading...

Experts are worried that women are not being properly advised about the hormone and that it is too readily obtainable - as I found out for myself

Scientists say changes since 1950 could partly be due to new genres such as stadium rock, disco and hip-hopWon't you play a simple melody," sang Bing Crosby in his rendition of the Irving Berlin classic. Now it seems his wish has come true: research has revealed the tunes of modern chart-toppers are less complex than those of the past.Scientists say the change could - at least in part - be down to the emergence of new genres over the decades, such as stadium rock, disco and hip-hop. Continue reading...

T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze star, was last seen in 1946 and will be visible again some time between now and SeptemberIn what is being called a once-in-a-lifetime event", light from a thermonuclear explosion on a star has been travelling towards Earth for thousands of years and it will be here any day.T Coronae Borealis (also known as T Cor Bor, T CrB, and the Blaze star) will be as bright as the north star (for those in the northern hemisphere). Continue reading...

Warriors from Britain joined far-flung Byzantine military campaigns in sixth century, grave goods suggestSixth-century Anglo-Saxon people may have travelled from Britain to the eastern Mediterranean and northern Syria to fight in wars, researchers have suggested, casting fresh light on their princely burials.St John Simpson, a senior British Museum curator, and Helen Gittos, an Oxford scholar, have concluded that some of the exotic items excavated at Sutton Hoo, Taplow and Prittlewell, among other sites, originated in the eastern Mediterranean and north Syria and cannot have been conventional trade goods, as others have suggested. Continue reading...

I climbed a mountain and took up the French horn. If he can hold on to who he is away from the court, Murray can find joy after tennis

A thought provoking look at social forces, and the ways ordinary people can change the worldAfter the Arab spring uprisings spread to Libya in 2011 and Muammar Gaddafi ordered histroops to fire on protesters, many ordinary Libyans took up arms and joined anti-government militias. I had been living in Libya since 2008 and watched with shock as friends and acquaintances - party animals barely out of their teens, middle-aged accountants - became fighters overnight. The kindly receptionist at work became a powerful military commander. Ever since then I've puzzled over the change in them, and how freedom fighters are created.It turns out that the social anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse and his colleague Brian McQuinn travelled to Libya in 2011 to try to answer these questions. Whitehouse's studies of everything from painful initiation rituals in Papua New Guinea to Catholics and Protestants responding to sectarian abuse in Northern Ireland have illustrated that sharing emotive and difficult experiences can lead to powerful group bonding, creating a sense of fusion", a visceral feeling of oneness with your group. The principle applies to fellow tribesmen, Chelsea fans or new mothers. His interviews with Libyan fighters showed that Gaddafi's violence had helped those on the frontline see themselves as more closely aligned with their brothers-in-arms than with their relatives. Shared hardship can create such a powerful sense of kinship that it harnesses the same deep-seated instinct to sacrifice yourself for your descendants. To understand the logic of hatred and violence, in other words, you also need to understand love. Continue reading...