Regulator wants stricter rules in place to stop multiple orders linked to same addressPeople with addiction problems are able to order hundreds of powerful opioid painkillers by taking advantage of a lack of proper checks with registered online pharmacies, the Guardian can reveal.A number of online pharmacies that are regulated and operating legally have no alert system in place to identify when someone makes multiple orders to the same address. Continue reading...

Jess Wade’s work to add women in science to Wikipedia demonstrates the importance of Stem role models for young peopleAs Dr Jess Wade, postdoctoral researcher in plastic electronics at Imperial College London, continues her mission of adding women in science to Wikipedia, she highlights a key problem with many “women into science” projects: a lack of evidence that they work. “There’s so much energy, enthusiasm and money going into all these initiatives to get girls into science. Absolutely none of them is evidence-based and none of them works. It’s so unscientific, that’s what really surprises me,” she says.You wouldn’t know it from marketing campaigns such as EDF Energy’s Pretty Curious competition or IBM’s #HackAHairDryer campaign, but there’s a solid body of research from which advocates can draw inspiration. We know that, for example, role models play a crucial part in developing girls’ and women’s interests. Studies by Girlguiding UK have shown that girls value role models and that a lack of role models puts them off careers such as engineering. And a psychologist, Penelope Lockwood, found that women needed female role models to illustrate that success was attainable. Continue reading...

The longest celestial event of its kind this century so far will be visible in most parts of the world on Friday and SaturdayThe longest lunar eclipse of the century (so far) will take place across Friday night and Saturday morning, as the moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth for one hour and 43 minutes. During this time, people around the world will be able to see a “blood moon”, as the Earth’s satellite turns red. Continue reading...

As the world’s first IVF baby turns 40, it’s time to make fertility treatment more widely available in the UK and abroadToday marks the 40th anniversary of the first IVF birth. Louise Brown, born in Oldham General Hospital in 1978, was heralded by the world’s press as a British medical marvel and a beacon of hope for people with fertility problems. Forty years later, IVF has unquestionably transformed the lives of millions of men and women, giving them the children they so deeply desired. But, despite its evident positives, IVF also hides a dirty secret: its benefits remain largely limited to those who can afford them.Related: Seven ways IVF changed the world – from Louise Brown to stem-cell research Continue reading...

What’s behind our tendency to go with the crowd, sensible thinking or emotion? And what are its dangers?No one likes to think of themselves as one of life’s sheep. And yet, Michelle Baddeley suggests, there are many circumstances where following the herd is the smart option, because it saves you the bother of decision-making from scratch. Say you’re after a new fridge freezer. Instead of exhaustively researching the topic, you could just buy the one that everyone in your street has got. Chances are that your neighbours have done all the grunt work of comparing thermostats and drip trays and you can simply benefit from their expertise. The time you save could be more usefully employed in learning Mandarin or cooking delicious midweek dinners.What’s being enacted here, she explains, is the sort of self-interested herding you see in nature. We’re not just talking obvious stuff, such as meerkats taking it in turns to do sentry duty or lionesses approaching their lunch like a well-drilled first XI. Baddeley digs deeper to report on some well-I-never moments in behavioural ecology. Take the quoll, a small Australian marsupial that until recently was under threat from the cane toad. It wasn’t that the toads were aggressive to them, rather they presented the fatal threat of being both toothsome and toxic. Continue reading...

Researchers urge people to use higher-SPF products to compensate for tendency to apply protection too thinlyThe typical way most of us apply sunscreen leaves our skin with less than half the expected protection from damaging ultraviolet rays, say scientists.New research has revealed that when sunscreen is applied in a typical way, it provides only 40% of the protection they might expect based on the sun protection factor (SPF). Most skin cancers are caused by DNA damage from UV radiation in sunlight. Continue reading...

On Friday 27 July the longest lunar eclipse of the century (so far) will take place. Also known as a blood moon, this occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align perfectly, putting the moon in the Earth's shadow. The moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth for one hour and 43 minutes. The red colouring is a result of sunlight refracting through the Earth's atmosphere• Starwatch: red marvel that is a lunar eclipse

Researchers pause to gather information after 11 babies died in similar Dutch trialA Queensland study on reducing foetal distress during childbirth through the use of Viagra has been paused after the death of 11 babies in a clinical trial in the Netherlands using the same drug.Mater Research Institute professor Sailesh Kumar said the study at the Mater Mother’s hospital used a much lower dosage of Sildenafil, which is sold as Viagra and dilates blood vessels in the pelvis, compared to the Dutch study. Continue reading...

For a long time the world of wellness was obsessed with heat. But now, ​with the rise of​ cold yoga ​and cryochambers​, it’s cool to be ice cold​If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re hot. In which case, as concepts go, this one will be music to your ears. Or rather balm for your sunburn.The heatwave has created a need for cooling off that extends beyond a cold shower – and so the current trend for coldness in the world of wellness, beauty and exercise feels timely given that for years it’s been all about Bikram yoga, hot-cloth cleansing and saunas. But is this penchant for the cold more than a whim? Or is it simply the latest fad to be commodified by the wellness industry? Continue reading...

Metalworker would have plied his trade from small, half-buried circular stone structure, say archaeologistsThe grimy handprint of a sweaty metalworker and the smeared track of his dirty knees have been uncovered by archaeologists more than 1,000 years after the fires went out in his copper workshop on an island in Orkney.It would have been a hot, uncomfortable workspace: a small circular stone structure, half underground, in a substantial Pictish settlement on the island of Rousay. Archaeologists are racing against the tides, which are gradually eroding the surviving structures, to save as much evidence as possible. Continue reading...

Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, calls for more research funding for eye healthRe your article on age-related macular degeneration (G2, 16 July), this week the eye research charity Fight for Sight is launching a campaign to raise awareness of eye health and the desperate need for more research funding. This is an issue close to my heart. Many people of my age are starting to have difficulty with their sight and over 2 million people in the UK are affected by sight loss – a figure set to double by 2050. The answer lies in research. Breakthroughs have already led to pioneering treatments that have transformed people’s lives – for example, cataract surgery which today takes just 20 minutes and benefits hundreds of thousands of people every year. However, eye research remains woefully underfunded – a Fight for Sight review shows that just 1% of public grant funding went to this area last year. While investigations into stem cells and gene therapy offer hope for the future, there is much more work to be done. I hope others will join me this week in supporting Fight for Sight to achieve the next breakthrough, so we can build a future where everyone can see.

Study finds the species generally live under the same roof in harmony – although cats are far more antagonisticThere are times when living under the same roof can test even the most patient among us. When favourite chairs are already taken, and food mysteriously disappears, it is no wonder that tempers start to fray – and that’s just the pets.In a rare study, researchers set out to explore the relationships between cats and dogs that shared the same homes. They found that while cats might rightly feel the more nervous of the species, they appeared to have little trouble in asserting themselves. Continue reading...

Inoculation programme will be expanded to cover 12- and 13-year-old boys in EnglandBoys aged 12 and 13 in England are to be vaccinated against the cancer-causing human papilloma virus (HPV), the government has said.The decision, announced on Tuesday, comes after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended last week that the HPV vaccination, which protects girls against cervical cancer, should be extended to boys. It followed growing calls for the inoculation programme to be expanded. Continue reading...

‘Man in a hole’ story arc – a fall followed by a rise – found to be most commercially successfulA team of UK scientists believe they have found the formula for box office success.

Buprenorphine linked to an increase in side-effects including sedation and confusion, scientists findA painkiller commonly used by people living with dementia could make symptoms worse, according to researchers who found it was linked to an increase in problematic side-effects including sedation and confusion.The painkiller buprenorphine is an opioid that is available in several forms, including as a patch that delivers the drug through the skin. It is thought to result in fewer side-effects than morphine, with the added benefit that it can be given to people who have difficulty swallowing.

Research halted as 10 to 15 other participants wait to see if their children affectedThe death of 11 babies born to women who were given Viagra during a drug trial has led to the termination of the experiment – and an anxious wait for other mothers involved.

Researcher Jess Wade says efforts to attract girls into science are not evidence-based – and are not workingJess Wade is a scientist on a mission. She wants every woman who has achieved something impressive in science to get the prominence and recognition they deserve – starting with a Wikipedia entry.“I’ve done about 270 in the past year,” says Wade, a postdoctoral researcher in the field of plastic electronics at Imperial College London’s Blackett Laboratory. “I had a target for doing one a day, but sometimes I get too excited and do three.” Continue reading...

Archaeobotanist who was a distinguished researcher into ancient food plants and the history of agricultureWell before the beginnings of farming, people had developed an understanding of how to use the plant world that was detailed and sophisticated. That observation is far less surprising now than it was before the life’s work of Gordon Hillman, a distinguished researcher into ancient food plants, who has died aged 74.The early 1970s brought Gordon as a young postgraduate to the Turkish village of Aşvan, to join David French’s team of archaeologists who were charting patterns of village life that were soon to disappear. Not just the local customs and resources, but even the village of Aşvan itself was about to be engulfed by the Keban hydroelectric dam. Gordon brought to that project his novel approach to “archaeobotany”, the science of studying past crops and their management through recovered plant remains. Continue reading...

The M32 galaxy was shredded and consumed by our closest neighbour, Andromeda, scientists sayThe Milky Way once had a massive galactic sibling that was shredded and consumed by our closest neighbour, Andromeda, scientists have discovered.The dramatic sequence of events, dating back 2bn years, was reconstructed through a detailed survey of stars in the faint halo surrounding the Andromeda galaxy. Continue reading...

Moustachioed animals’ relationship with whistling thorn acacia trees resembles that of the Lorax with truffulas, researchers say“I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees,” says the eponymous hairy hero of Dr Seuss’s children’s book after he climbs out of the stump of a truffula tree. An irate orange figure with a bristling moustache, the Lorax is an environmental activist who wastes no time in berating the axe-wielding Once-ler, a shady money-grabbing interloper who lays waste to the environment to produce peculiar knitted outfits called thneeds.Now researchers say the book may have been inspired by the things Seuss saw on a trip to Kenya, and that the bristly character may have been based on the orange moustachioed patas monkeys indigenous to the area. Continue reading...

The Victorian railway icon will go on long-term display in York, reveals culture secretaryStephenson’s Rocket, the world-changing locomotive, which was built in Newcastle but has been in London for more than 150 years, is to go on long-term display in York.The news of its return to the north of England was announced on Monday by the culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, as he attended Theresa May’s cabinet awayday to Gateshead. Continue reading...

Since the big discovery of 2012, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been accumulating data and making steady progress. Two recent results establish the origins of the mass of the two heaviest quarksEvery atom has a nucleus at its centre, and the smallest constituents of that nucleus are quarks. Named by Murray Gell-Mann after James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, nothing is smaller than a quark. In fact as far as we know, quarks are infinitely small.The idea of an infinitely small particle is difficult enough to grasp. It becomes even more so when we take into account that quarks have mass. Some of them have a lot of mass. The top quark (which, admittedly is not found very often inside a nucleus) has nearly as much mass as an atom of tungsten. On the tiny scales of particle physics, a tungsten atom is an enormous, sprawling thing. The bottom quark has a bit more mass than a helium atom, still pretty substantial by these standards. Continue reading...

Most of the world has a chance to see the moon change colour at the end of the weekA total lunar eclipse will be visible over most of Europe, Asia, Australia and South America on 27 July. Only North America misses the show this time.During a total lunar eclipse, the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow. Once totally immersed, it turns to a deep red colour. This glorious sight occurs because of the way sunlight bends (refracts) through the Earth’s atmosphere. Continue reading...

Spectacular blood moon will be visible from Friday night until next morningBritain will witness a spectacular and rare celestial spectacle this week. At dusk on Friday, the full moon will rise and reveal itself coloured a deep red. The nation will then experience a blood moon or, as astronomers term it, a total lunar eclipse.And this week promises to be a special one, for it will be the longest-lasting total lunar eclipse of the 21st century. After it rises in the south-east – at around 8.50pm in London – the moon’s eclipse will continue until early on Saturday. “Weather permitting, it should give Friday evening a special, exciting edge,” said Sheila Kanani of the Royal Astronomical Society. Continue reading...

Nasa’s new probe is designed to enter our star’s corona, investigating solar weather and answering the questions we have yet to askSome time during the early hours of 4 August, the Floridian night will be temporarily banished. One of the most powerful rockets in the world, a Delta IV Heavy, will ignite. Its fiery breath with bathe Cape Canaveral in light and thunder.Riding the rocket will be Parker Solar Probe (PSP), on one of the most audacious space missions that has ever been conceived. PSP will fly closer to the sun than any previous mission. It will dip into the sun’s atmosphere, where it will have to tolerate temperatures of around 1,400C (seven times hotter than a kitchen oven). Continue reading...

It was a dangerous time, but my lesbian parents paved the wayJeers of “Lara the Lezzie” accompanied me as I walked down the hallway. A girl at school had outed my family to the entire class. It wasn’t easy being the daughter of lesbians in the 1980s. Many of my friends’ parents had married right out of high school and started families shortly thereafter. LGBT families were just starting to become visible and my family was one of the first. This was before the first child was conceived through in vitro fertilisation in Manchester in 1978. Back then, children of LGBT parents were mostly the result of heterosexual unions, or occasional liaisons between lesbians and gay men with the intent of procreation.In my case, my father and mother divorced when I was still in nappies, for reasons that had nothing to do with my mother’s sexuality. She went back to college and became active in the feminist movement of the 1970s, and once she found her voice she couldn’t imagine going back to a subservient role with a husband. She calls herself a “political lesbian” because for her, dating women was as much about finding her own feminist strength as it was about anything else. When I was three, my mother fell in love with Pat, a woman who had known she was gay since she was 12, if not earlier. In terms of the “born gay” versus “become gay” argument, I have one parent in each camp. Continue reading...

Partnerings and outcries stalk the land. Be afraid, be very afraid…I’m not sure quite who to blame, but I suspect the culprit is some overpaid, underpowered “high-flyer” in marketing land, but someone must be responsible for the recent outbreak of monstrous couplings afflicting the media.Take the following: “BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls-Royce are partnering with the Ministry of Defence to create ‘Team Tempest’ to deliver the project.” Fear not, it gets worse: “STT data centres partnering with SGIX to partner connectivity”; “Netflix partnering with SiriusXM”; “Tampa police partnering with Ring to fight crime”. What on earth is wrong with “working with”? As for partnering connectivity, does this mean talking to one another? An old-fashioned concept, I realise, in this online age, but it always used to work. Give it a try, it’s an exciting, old-fashioned idea. Continue reading...

Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing spidersIt is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was. Continue reading...

Exclusive: families of thousands of babies born with neurodevelopmental disorders may get help for first timeBrazil’s “invisible children”, the thousands of babies born with neurodevelopmental disorders, have been brought out of the shadows by the Zika virus epidemic and their families may get help for the first time.Almost 4,000 babies were born in Brazil with microcephaly as a result of Zika virus infection – a brain malformation that left them with small and misshapen heads and poor developmental prospects. Continue reading...

Tool launched in response to dive-bombing birds documents 2,500 attacks since 2016It was a crow fiercely protecting its nest – and repeated complaints of it dive-bombing and swooping – that prompted the idea.“Just about every day someone would come in and say: ‘I got smacked in the back of the head,’ or ‘Mary got smacked in the back of the head,’” said Jim O’Leary, a teacher at Langara College in Vancouver, Canada. Continue reading...

Happiness means something different to all of us, be it contentment, pleasure or joy. But could pursuing it leave us sad instead? Nicola Davis explores the science and psychology of happinessSubscribe and review on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom and Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterHappiness means something different to all of us. It could be the contentment of sitting by the fire with a loved one, euphoria after a great night out with your mates, or laughing hysterically at your friends’ daft jokes. Continue reading...

Science can’t exist without telling a story. The question is not whether we should use it, but how we should use it bestScientists often struggle to communicate the findings of research. Our subject matter can be technical and not easily digested by a general audience. And our discoveries – from a new type of tessellating pentagon to the presence of gravitational waves in space – have no meaning until that meaning can be defined and agreed upon. To address this, we are often advised to use the tools of narrative.Related: Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin the evolutionary 'fairytale' of coral Continue reading...

Analysis suggests eating of meat will climb steeply and play significant role in increasing carbon emissions and reducing biodiversityRising global meat consumption is likely to have a devastating environmental impact, scientists have warned.A new major analysis suggests meat consumption is set to climb steeply as the world population increases along with average individual income, and could play a significant role in increasing carbon emissions and reducing biodiversity. Continue reading...

Supermarkets stocked with peach-flavoured strawberries and seedless tomatoes on horizon, scientists saySmooth or hairy, pungent or tasteless, deep-hued or bright: new versions of old fruits could be hitting the produce aisles as plant experts embrace cutting-edge technology, scientists say.While researchers have previously produced plants with specific traits through traditional breeding techniques, experts say new technologies such as the gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9 could be used to bring about changes far more rapidly and efficiently. Continue reading...

Archaeologists open granite tomb but are dismayed at state of decay after ‘sewage leak’Egyptian archeologists have opened a 30-tonne black granite sarcophagus to find three decomposed mummies after sewage water apparently leaked inside.“The sarcophagus has been opened, but we have not been hit by a curse,” said Mostafa Waziry, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, in response to news reports warning of maledictions hidden inside the tomb in the port city of Alexandria. Continue reading...

Analysis finds Democrats used adultery website Ashley Madison substantially less than other US votersDemocrats are less inclined than Republicans to cheat on their spouses, according to researchers who matched voter records to accounts hacked from a US website that specialises in extramarital affairs.The study of 80,000 voters in five US states found that Democrats used the Ashley Madison adultery website substantially less than Republicans, Libertarians, Greens and unaffiliated voters. Libertarians consistently ranked as the site’s most frequent clients. Continue reading...

Advisory council’s recommendation may pave way for loosening of lawsDoctors in the UK should be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medicine, the government’s chief drug advisers have recommended, paving the way for a loosening of the laws governing access to the substance.The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has recommended after a review that cannabis-derived medicinal products should be placed in schedule 2 of the misuse of drugs regulations 2001, allowing them to be prescribed by clinicians.

But animal rights groups say more should be done to reduce those bred with genetic alterationsScientific procedures involving animals are at their lowest level since 2010, but animal rights groups say the government is not doing enough to reduce the number of animals bred with genetic alterations.New statistics released by the Home Office show there were almost 3.8m scientific procedures involving animals in 2017, a 4% drop on the previous year. These included 1.89m experiments on live animals – with reasons ranging from legally required drug testing to surgical training. Continue reading...

Damien Chazelle’s film about Neil Armstong will premiere in Italy, with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma chosen for New York film festival galaFirst Man, a biopic of the pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Damien Chazelle, has been confirmed as the opening film of the 2018 Venice film festival.The slot is a highly prized, high-profile one, especially in Hollywood after a string of recent Venice openers – including La La Land, Birdman and Gravity – have gone on to Oscar glory. First Man stars Gosling as Armstrong, a former navy pilot who became the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 space mission. It will be Gosling’s second film in quick succession with Chazelle after La La Land; Gosling has a habit of repeat collaborations, having worked with Nicolas Winding Refn on Drive and Only God Forgives, and Derek Cianfrance on Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines. Continue reading...

To fight a rising tide of depression and suicide, psychiatrists need to do more than just fill patients up with pills

The Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy and the Running Man nebula feature in the shortlist for the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 23 October, and an exhibition of the winning images from the past 10 years of the contest will be on show at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from 24 October Continue reading...

Our earliest memory can shape our lives, but new research suggests that many are false. Here, writers and readers reflect on their earliest recollections

Landmark trial likely to change the way cardiac arrest has been treated in the UK for more than half a century

A new study suggests that many first memories are actually fictional and based on photographs and family stories. We would like to hear about what you believe is your earliest recollectionIt is a much pondered and discussed subject: your earliest childhood memory. For some, it is their first bee sting or a formative interaction with a parent as a toddler. Others claim to be able to recall lying in a pram. But how sure are you that you have actually remembered this experience, rather than it being informed by photographs and family anecdotes?Related: Head space: why our adolescent memories are so clear | Daniel Glaser Continue reading...

How anthropologists are helping tell real stories of migrants trying to cross US bordersI am an anthropologist because I care about people. I am an archaeologist because I know our past is relevant to our present and future. Our borderlands are areas of enduring relevance to both fields of study.Related: Life and death on the border: effects of century-old murders still felt in Texas Continue reading...

Experiments on modern plants show that the nutrients which dinosaurs could get from plants varied with carbon dioxide levelsOur fascination with giant sauropod dinosaurs such as Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Brontosaurus stems from their colossal size. How could something 30 metres long, weighing 50 tonnes, function as a land animal? And how could something that big gain enough nutrition from plants?We have little evidence for the diet of everyone’s favourite giant herbivores. Reports of fossilised stomach and gut contents have been contested, and coprolites (fossilised dung) are difficult to assign to their producer with any certainty. Indirect evidence from comparative morphology with giraffes and elephants, the largest modern analogues, suggests that sauropods would browse from the tree canopy, although researchers disagree about whether all sauropods held their heads high. Some have even suggested niche partitioning between the different sauropod groups, with the tallest brachiosaurs feeding from the top of the canopy, camerasaurs in the mid-canopy, feeding on seed-ferns and cycads, and diplodocids grazing on ferns and horsetails at ground level. Continue reading...

Co-founder of Google DeepMind and CEO of SpaceX among the 2,400 signatories of pledge to block lethal autonomous weaponsThousands of scientists who specialise in artificial intelligence (AI) have declared that they will not participate in the development or manufacture of robots that can identify and attack people without human oversight.Demis Hassabis at Google DeepMind and Elon Musk at the US rocket company SpaceX are among more than 2,400 signatories to the pledge which intends to deter military firms and nations from building lethal autonomous weapon systems, also known as Laws. Continue reading...

Supplements do not offer cardiovascular benefits, researchers conclude from trials involving 112,000 peopleThe widespread belief that taking omega-3 capsules will help protect you from a heart attack, stroke or early death is wrong, according to a large and comprehensive review of the evidence.Thousands of people take omega-3 supplements regularly and for years. The belief that it protects the heart has spread – and is promoted in the marketing of the supplements – because the results from early trials suggested the capsules had cardiovascular benefits. Continue reading...

Democratic lawmakers and scientists denounced proposal to allow administrators to reject study results if research isn’t public