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...

Scientists say iceman ate ‘horrible-tasting’ high-fat meal of ibex before his murder 5,300 years agoÖtzi the iceman filled his belly with fat before he set out on the ill-fated hunting trip that ended with his bloody death on a glacier in the eastern Alps 5,300 years ago, scientists say.The first in-depth analysis of the hunter’s stomach contents reveal that half of his last meal consisted of animal fat, primarily from a wild goat species known as the Alpine ibex. Continue reading...

I hoped 2003’s record heatwave would make people more aware. Yet they promptly forgot all about itI don’t know anybody who remembers 10 August 2003 and its significance, although the date has never faded from my mind. That was Britain’s hottest ever day, the day the current British air temperature record was set: it leapt from the old record of 37.1C, set on 3 August 1990, to the new figure of 38.5C.Related: This heatwave is just the start. Britain has to adapt to climate change, fast | Simon Lewis Continue reading...

Untouched for millennia, tomb was found during construction work in AlexandriaArchaeologists are preparing to open a large black granite sarcophagus unearthed in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.At almost two metres high and three metres in length, the sarcophagus is the largest of its kind to be discovered intact in the ancient city. It was found alongside a large alabaster head believed to represent the inhabitant of the tomb, which had remained untouched for thousands of years. Continue reading...

Does the sound of your own voice make you want to cover your ears? You are not aloneMost of us have shuddered on hearing the sound of our own voice. In fact, not liking the sound of your own voice is so common that there’s a term for it: voice confrontation.But why is voice confrontation so frequent, while barely a thought is given to the voices of others? Continue reading...

A new study calls for a rebalancing of research and innovation funding to better meet the UK’s economic, social and health needsThe political turmoil over recent days has meant that a speech last week by Sam Gyimah, minister for universities and science, hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Opening the Schrödinger Building in Oxford, Gyimah set out in the most comprehensive terms yet why the government has made the biggest increase in research spending for 40 years, and set a further ambitious target of investing 2.4% of GDP in research and development (R&D) by 2027 (up from roughly 1.7% now).Although the venue inevitably invited a few Schrödinger-related gags about paradoxes in the government’s policies for science and Brexit, it was a meaty speech – the most substantive intervention by Gyimah since he inherited the brief from Jo Johnson at the start of 2018. He stressed the need to “take a long and serious look at the structure of our economy” in pursuit of “new sources of growth, and a vision of how to succeed.” Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire: The house sparrows are busy caring for their young, but can still find time to mate dozens of times a dayLolling in the shade under a hazel bush, I had become the inadvertent eavesdropper on a private conversation. Out of the canopy came a whispered “brrr” whirr of wings and then the soft sounds of sparrow seduction, a love song of tenderness that was scarcely imaginable from a bird known for its strident chirps.Gentle, soothing, piteous peeps drifted down, an intimate dialogue that was both charming and disarming. I caught a glimpse through the sparrows’ bower and saw the female, mouth agape, wings a-flutter. The male rode her for a second or two only. House sparrows may mate up to 40 times a day, but it’s always a quickie. Continue reading...

Discovery of simple stone tools suggests human ancestors were in Asia as early as 2.1m years agoThe remains of crudely fashioned stone tools unearthed in China suggest human ancestors were in Asia 2.1m years ago, more than 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said on Wednesday.

Scientists hope computer programme which requires no human therapist could be used to treat other mental health problems

There is a desperate shortage of skilled clinicians to treat mental health disorders. Our study shows how virtual reality could fill the gap

A new study by Harvard researchers found students without air conditioning showed 13% longer reaction times on testsIf you feel like having to work during a heatwave should be banned, you may have a point. A new study conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health suggests that hot weather can make your thinking 13% slower.The study, published on Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, examined cognitive performance during a 2016 Boston heatwave among students who lived in buildings without air conditioning versus those who had it. Researchers found that students without air conditioning demonstrated about a 13% longer reaction time on cognitive tests compared with students who had AC. Not only were the students who had air conditioning faster in their responses, they were also more accurate. Continue reading...

Most middle aged adults could benefit from a short term treatment to revitalise the immune system and organs that deteriorate with age, say researchersScientists have hailed the success of a clinical trial which found that experimental anti-ageing drugs may protect older people from potentially fatal respiratory infections by rejuvenating their immune systems.In a trial involving people aged 65 and over, those who received a combination therapy of two anti-ageing compounds reported nearly half the number of infections over the following year as a control group who received only placebos. Continue reading...

Graham Kelly on football psychology | A Minor marriage | Morris Minus | Jeremy Hunt | PuffinsAlthough a respected sports scientist accompanied England manager Bobby Robson to Italia 90, the Football Association was not so attuned then to the psychology of winning matches at this level (Get your head in the game, G2, 11 July). When Robson’s successor, Graham Taylor, recruited a sports psychologist, the chairman of the FA international committee (who also chaired a not notably successful club then) repeatedly complained: “How much is this psychiatrist costing us?”

Researchers say it is time to drop the idea that modern humans originated from a single population in a single locationThe origins of our species have long been traced to east Africa, where the world’s oldest undisputed Homo sapiens fossils were discovered. About 300,000 years ago, the story went, a group of primitive humans there underwent a series of genetic and cultural shifts that set them on a unique evolutionary path that resulted in everyone alive today.However, a team of prominent scientists is now calling for a rewriting of this traditional narrative, based on a comprehensive survey of fossil, archaeological and genetic evidence. Instead, the international team argue, the distinctive features that make us human emerged mosaic-like across different populations spanning the entire African continent. Only after tens or hundreds of thousands of years of interbreeding and cultural exchange between these semi-isolated groups, did the fully fledged modern human come into being. Continue reading...

Left or right? In football, as in life, it’s so easy to jump the wrong way. And the reason is very simpleThe referee blows his whistle, the penalty taker begins to limber up, and fans tense up. The goalkeeper has a high-stakes decision to make. Where will he jump – to his right or left, or will he stay in the middle? No matter how experienced, the keeper is likely to make a common mistake: jumping into action when doing nothing would be a better idea.An analysis of 286 penalty shootouts found most keepers prefer to leap left (49.3%) or right (44.4%) instead of staying put in the centre (6.3%). However, staying in the centre would have been a better idea. The study shows 39.2% of kicks head for the middle, 32.1% go to the left, 28.7% to the right. So why do keepers leap when it would be better to stay put? According to Michael Bar-Eli and his colleagues, the answer is action bias. This is our tendency to take action even when doing nothing is better. Continue reading...

Why I’m calling for watchdog to help rid research of malpractice and fraud

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesExperts say the western ideal of romantic love is constantly disappointing us. Which is a shame because our culture loves romantic love. It’s an idea that pervades pop music, novels, TV and film. Somewhere out there our perfect match is waiting to meet us, so the theory goes. But maybe love isn’t really about The One. Maybe the early films of Richard Curtis don’t have all the answers.So what is love, actually? There are many answers to this question, says the anthropologist Anna Machin, but let’s start with an evolutionary explanation. Basically, love helps a species to cooperate. “We need to cooperate to survive, to subsist, to learn, to reproduce and to raise our children,” she says. “Romantic and parental love is essentially the neurochemical reward for cooperating, which is cognitively quite difficult.” It’s a kind of biological bribery, in other words. Continue reading...

Proposed body would monitor universities to ensure that allegations of malpractice are properly investigatedA national watchdog that has the power to punish British universities for failing to tackle research misconduct is needed to ensure that sloppy practices and outright fraud are caught and dealt with fast, MPs say.The new body would rule on whether universities have properly investigated allegations of malpractice and have the authority to recommend research funds be withdrawn or even reclaimed when it finds that inquiries into alleged wrongdoing have fallen short. Continue reading...

Ancient whale bones have been found on three Roman fish processing sites close to the Strait of GibraltarAncient bones found around the Strait of Gibraltar suggest that the Romans might have had a thriving whaling industry, researchers have claimed.

It’s mid-summer yet the cuckoo’s adieu and spotted redshank’s dark plumage hint at autumnIt may be the hottest, driest, summer since 1976 but on the first day of July I said goodbye to spring and greeted the coming of autumn, within a few short hours.The farewell to spring came in the form of a calling cuckoo at the RSPB’s flagship Ham Wall reserve in Somerset. Continue reading...

Clay slab believed to date from 3rd century AD discovered near ancient city of OlympiaArchaeologists have unearthed an ancient tablet engraved with 13 verses of the Odyssey in the ancient city of Olympia, southern Greece, in what could be the earliest record of the epic poem, the Greek culture ministry said.Related: The Odyssey by Homer – the first step Continue reading...

Replacements installed during £5m restoration of spectacular garden follyThe dragons are back at Kew after more than two centuries, tails curled, wings neatly furled to make them less of a wind catcher, gazing down with glittering eyes on the acres of gardens and thousands of visitors far below.The most spectacular garden folly in England, the great pagoda towers 50 metres over Kew Gardens. It was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1762 after visiting China, where his travels were restricted, but he sketched every traditional building he could see – including pagodas. Continue reading...

A new report takes stock of how metrics are being used and abused in research management across UK universitiesIn his 2003 bestseller Moneyball, the writer Michael Lewis describes how the fortunes of the Oakland Athletics baseball team were transformed by the rigorous use of predictive data and modelling to identify undervalued talent. These approaches soon spread through baseball and into other sports, and are now widely used in the financial sector, recruitment industry and elsewhere, to inform hiring and promotion decisions.A recent study by researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management suggests that universities are ripe for their own Moneyball moment. Its authors argue: “Ironically, one of the places where predictive analytics hasn’t yet made substantial inroads is in the place of its birth: the halls of academia.” By analysing publication, citation and co-authorship metrics at an early stage in a researcher’s career, the MIT team suggests that it is possible to predict future performance with greater reliability than by subjective judgements alone. Continue reading...

England players seem happier and more grounded – and much of the credit goes to psychologist Pippa Grange. What can the team’s approach teach us all about facing fear and failure?This week, the England midfielder Dele Alli was asked if he was nervous about the big tests up ahead: first, of course, the team’s semi-final against Croatia on Wednesday. “Excited, not nervous,” he replied. His apparent happiness and confidence reflected an England team that seems transformed from previous incarnations. Where once it was stuffed with entitled, surly stars, burdened with the weight of history and the pressure of expectations, it now comes across as a hungry, humble team, playing with lightness and joy.“We’ve spoken to the players about writing their own stories,” said the manager, Gareth Southgate, after the team beat Colombia in an unprecedentedly victorious (for England) penalty shootout. “Tonight they showed they don’t have to conform to what’s gone before. They have created their own history … We always have to believe in what is possible in life and not be hindered by history or expectations.” Continue reading...