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

Genome editing for human embryos is an unnecessary threat to society. Why has the Nuffield Council of Bioethics endorsed it?The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has taken what it clearly regards as a brave new step: it has openly endorsed the use of genome editing to engineer the traits of future children and generations. The council’s report, Genome editing and human reproduction: social and ethical issues, asserts that such a move could be “morally permissible” under certain circumstances. In effect, it argues that the creation of genetically modified human beings should proceed after a few bioethics-lite boxes are checked off.Related: Genetically modified babies given go ahead by UK ethics body Continue reading...

A head-on collision between two Jovian moons would create a crash so large it would be visible from earthOne of a dozen new moons discovered around Jupiter is circling the planet on a suicide orbit that will inevitably lead to its violent destruction, astronomers say.Valetudo (one of Jupiter's moons) is driving down the highway on the wrong side of the road. Continue reading...

This episode of our regular podcast focuses on the impact of the modern news cycle on our health and wellbeing, and whether a greater focus on positive, hopeful, solution-based stories could help to mitigate thisWhat are the effects of negative news on our mental health and sense of empowerment? How does it effect our trust in the media? Why historically has negative news become so prevalent at the expense of positive, solutions-focused, constructive news and could a more balanced picture of the world lead to greater empowerment and individual actions to make things better?Joining the Guardian’s Executive editor for membership, Lee Glendinning, to discuss this and more is Dr Denise Baden, an Associate Professor within the University of Southampton Business School, whose research has looked into how people are affected by positive and negative news stories, Seán Dagan Wood, the editor-in-chief of Positive News – a current affairs magazine, publishing independent journalism about progress and possibility – and Sean is the co-founder of the Constructive Journalism Project, Giselle Green, Editor of Constructive Voices, an National Council for Voluntary Organisations project aimed at ensuring the positive impact of charities and social enterprises is heard and encouraging a more constructive, solutions-based approach to news coverage in general and finally, Mark Rice-Oxley, the Guardian’s head of special projects and series’ editor of The Upside – bringing together journalism that uncovers real solutions: people, movements and innovations offering answers to our most pressing problems. Continue reading...

Launched in 1932 the school has spent almost a century uncovering Iraq’s ancient treasures, including the spectacular Assyrian capital at NimrudOn a dark November day in 1929, the nascent British School of Archaeology in Iraq launched its appeal for funds. Central Hall in Westminster was packed to overflowing and the audience was treated to a lantern slide show of recent discoveries in Iraq, followed by a long list of speakers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lady Astor, Britain’s first female MP. Presiding as chairman was Major-General Sir Percy Cox. After the first world war, Cox had served as the first High Commissioner of Iraq at the beginning of British Mandate rule, and it was in this role that he had come to be friends with Gertrude Bell.The British School of Archaeology in Iraq (BSAI) was Gertrude Bell’s idea and she was the reason for this gathering of the great and good. Famous as a traveller and writer, and deeply tangled in the politics of mandated Iraq and the wider Middle East, Bell’s primary passion throughout her life was archaeology. When she died in 1926 she left £6,000 with the trustees of the British Museum to be used to found the BSAI. Continue reading...

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics says changing the DNA of a human embryo could be ‘morally permissable’ if it is in the child’s best interestsThe creation of babies whose DNA has been altered to give them what parents perceive to be the best chances in life has received a cautious green light in a landmark report from a leading UK ethics body.The Nuffield Council on Bioethics said that changing the DNA of a human embryo could be “morally permissible” if it was in the future child’s interests and did not add to the kinds of inequalities that already divide society.

The pursuit of perfection, taken to extremes, can lead to OCD and depression – and the number of students reporting the problem has jumped by 33% since 1989

Exclusive: Nazneen Rahman will leave the ICR in October after harassment claimsA leading light in the world of cancer genetics, who was honoured at the outstanding Asian women of achievement awards and given a CBE, has quit her job at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) after facing multiple allegations of bullying dating back 12 years.

Tiny specks of bread found in fireplaces used by hunter-gatherers 14,000 years ago, predating agriculture by thousands of yearsCharred crumbs found in a pair of ancient fireplaces have been identified as the earliest examples of bread, suggesting it was being prepared long before the dawn of agriculture.The remains – tiny lumps a few millimetres in size – were discovered by archaeologists at a site in the Black Desert in north-east Jordan. Continue reading...

Remote Scottish peninsula chosen for satellite launchpad with promise of jobsA remote area of land on the northern coast of Scotland is on track to become the UK’s first rocket spaceport after it was selected as the best place in the country from which to blast satellites into orbit.The isolated county of Sutherland is one of the few spots in Britain where golden eagles and sea eagles still take to the skies, but from the early 2020s the birds may be sharing airspace with rockets bearing small satellites for communications and Earth observation. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesIn my puzzle blog earlier today I set you the following three challenges:1) The King of the Mountains went up the col at 15 km an hour and down it at 45 km an hour. It took him two hours in total. Assuming that the distance he travelled up and down are the same, how far is it from the bottom to the top of the col?

Psychologists monitored 373 couples over 16 years and found that couples who disagree often have poorer health – especially for menA bad marriage with frequent conflicts could have a serious detrimental impact on your health, according to psychologists.

Scotland’s north coast has been chosen as the site of Britain's first spaceport. Vertical rocket and satellite launches are planned from the A’Mhoine peninsula, in Sutherland, which the UK Space Agency says will pave the way for human spaceflights

A solar phenomenon found above mysterious pillars, or saywas, was likely designed to broadcast the ‘sacred power’ of the Inca

Run your brain through the gearsUPDATE: Click here for the solutions.Bonjour guzzleurs,As we are almost midway through the Tour de France, I thought it would be a good moment for some bicycle puzzles. Continue reading...

Site between Tongue and Durness could be up and running by early 2020sA peninsula on Scotland’s north coast has been chosen for the site of the UK’s first spaceport.

The government has listed the vessel as the only wreck of its kind in south-east EnglandA Tudor shipwreck, discovered by members of a local history group surveying Tankerton beach, near Whitstable, in Kent for second world war pillboxes, has been given official protection by the government as the only wreck of its kind in south-east England.Another ship believed to date from the 19th century, gradually being exposed at low tides at Camber Sands near Rye harbour in East Sussex, is also being listed.

Over the next two weeks Mars will make its closest approach to Earth since 2003Late birds with a good south-eastern horizon will probably have already noticed Mars in the dead of night. In the early hours of the morning, it is a radiant beacon, shining low in the constellation of Capricornus. During the next fortnight, the planet is going to brighten steadily as it heads for its closest approach to Earth since 2003. Mars makes a close approach every two years. It happens when our planet “laps” Mars, passing between it and the sun. The moment is known as opposition because Mars is in the opposite hemisphere of the sky to the sun. Mars’s opposition this year takes place on 27 July. The chart shows the view for midnight tonight when Saturn is clearly visible as well. Saturn appears in the neighbouring constellation of Sagittarius and the two planets will be the bright objects in that part of the sky. They will form a nice contrast: the subtle yellow of Saturn and the vibrant red of Mars. Continue reading...

Our galactic neighbour is closer and brighter than it has been for 15 years – and its appearance will coincide with a total lunar eclipse. It has never been a better time to take up stargazingIf you look at the sky tonight and spot a very bright star, it may well be a planet. Mars is the closest it has been to Earth for 15 years – and therefore the brightest. “Mars shines through reflected light,” says Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society. “That means that when it’s closer to the Earth it appears brighter, because its apparent size is bigger.” It won’t be this visible again until 2035.So, how best to see it? First, make sure tall trees or buildings are not obscuring the view. Ideally, you want a clear horizon. Then, look south. “It will be obvious, because it’s bright, it doesn’t twinkle and it has a distinct reddish tinge,” says Massey, who suggests Somerset, Devon and Dorset as good locations for spotting it. The best Mars-gazing time is 1am, but it rises earlier in the evening. Continue reading...

Deaths have more than doubled as specialists warn of increasing danger for city-dwellers

The Nobel prize-winning biologist and president of the Royal Society on how Brexit might affect the sciencesBrexit hasn’t happened yet but how is the process affecting science?

Certain species of bird have surprised researchers recently with their ability to fashion tools and solve complex problemsA discovery by Dr Sarah Jelbert of Jesus College, Cambridge, has led to the refinement of our understanding of crow intelligence. On the south-west Pacific island of New Caledonia, a crow called Emma has stunned researchers by operating a vending machine they constructed for it, remembering the size of a token needed to release a treat. The ongoing investigation into the intelligence of the species follows the discovery that it works material into fishing hook-style tools to extract larvae from holes in dead wood. Continue reading...

Archaeologists find mummification workshop in the Saqqara necropolisDeep below the sands of the Saqqara necropolis, archaeologists have uncovered a unique discovery they say reveals the secrets of the ancient Egyptian mummies.A mummification workshop and adjoining burial shaft as well as five mummies, their bejewelled sarcophagi, figurines, and a gilded silver and onyx mummy mask were all unearthed at the site, which archeologists say provides a wealth of new knowledge about the mummification process.

The universe is so big and full of stars that it seems obvious some must have evolved intelligent life. But it turns out we know so little we can’t know what’s obvious. Quite likely we are aloneAre we alone in the universe? Of all the billions of stars out there, is there none around which intelligent life has arisen, no other conscious beings who have looked at their sky and asked themselves whether there was anyone else out here? All we can know is that we don’t know of any others. But that has not stopped more or less well-informed speculation. The universe is so unthinkably enormous and old that it seems almost impossible that only one of the quintillion or so stars in the universe has actually developed intelligent life.So where are they? So asked the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950. If other intelligent species are out there, why haven’t we seen them yet? The mismatch between what we’d expect from the numbers, which is a universe full of spacefaring civilisations, and what we observe – nothing – is known as the Fermi paradox. Few of the explanations proposed for it are cheering. Perhaps all civilisations advanced enough to develop space travel are also technologically capable of annihilating themselves as well, and perhaps they all do. Perhaps the first culture to develop interstellar travel has already snuffed out all its rival species as they emerge, and is at this moment watching our first tentative explorations of the solar system as a cat might watch a fledgling on the ground. Or perhaps we have simply got the numbers wrong. Continue reading...

People left tired, irritable and less productive at work after nights of poor shuteyeBritain’s longest heatwave since 1976 has led to a upsurge in sleeping problems, with people left tired, irritable and less productive at work after sweaty nights of poor-quality shuteye.Record temperatures of up to 32.4C (90.3F) have been stopping many people getting a proper rest as they struggle to get to sleep in rooms that are uncomfortably warm, experts say. Continue reading...

The 2014 Ebola outbreak killed over 10,000 people before it was eventually brought under control. As new infectious diseases appear around the world, what can we learn from past outbreaks to better prepare ourselves?

Airbus lands £3.9m contract from space agency to design spacecraft to bring back samples from Mars in the 2020sThe European Space Agency has awarded a £3.9m contract to Airbus, in Britain, to design a new rover, in a project with Nasa, that will visit Mars to retrieve samples for bringing back to Earth for the first time. Continue reading...

Discovery may solve 100-year-old puzzle of high-energy cosmic rays that occasionally hit EarthA mysterious, ghostly particle that slammed into Earth and lit up sensors buried deep beneath the south pole has been traced back to a distant galaxy that harbours an enormous spinning black hole.Astronomers detected the high-energy neutrino, a kind of subatomic particle, when it tore into the southern Indian Ocean near the coast of Antarctica and carried on until it struck an atomic nucleus in the Antarctic ice, sending more particles flying. Continue reading...