Research involving 62 species found mammals spent relatively less time being active during the day when humans were nearbyHuman disturbance is turning mammals into night owls, with species becoming more nocturnal when people are around, research has revealed.The study, encompassing 62 species from around the globe, found that when humans were nearby, mammals spent relatively less time being active during the day and were more active at night - even among those already classed as nocturnal.

Hopes for injured humans and larger animals as groundbreaking gene therapy helps mend damaged nerves on the spine of rodents by dissolving scar tissue

My colleague John Rowan, who has died aged 93, was known as the father of British humanistic psychology – a field to which he made vital literary and theoretical contributions.Humanistic psychology, which emphasises human existential values and radical therapy approaches, reached Britain from the US during the countercultural years of the 1950s and 60s. John joined the Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP) in 1969 and soon became its chair. Continue reading...

The row over racist remarks made by Einstein says more about the pedestals we put great scientists on than the man himselfWas Albert Einstein racist? In pondering the disobliging remarks he made about Chinese and Japanese people in the private diaries he kept about his travels to east Asia in 1922-3, just published by Princeton University Press, it’s not a particularly helpful question.Related: Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia Continue reading...

It’s time to challenge centuries of bad science, social norms and a lack of women in medicine and researchHysteria was an ancient term used to describe uncontrollable emotions, resulting in the admission of many women to asylums for symptoms such as a “tendency to cause trouble”. The source of the alleged insanity was said to come from the uterus, thus the treatment in some cases was a hysterectomy. While no longer a recognised medical condition, it has a legacy in modern medicine.

Experts have no idea what the landscape, or the Opportunity, will look like after storm raging across a quarter of the planetNasa’s Mars rover Opportunity has been knocked out by a gigantic dust storm that is enveloping the red planet and blotting out the sun.Officials said on Wednesday they were hopeful the rover would survive the storm, which already covers a quarter of Mars and is expected to encircle the planet in another few days. It could be weeks, or even months, until the sky clears enough for sunlight to reach the surface and recharge Opportunity’s batteries through its solar panels. Continue reading...

NHS boss Simon Stevens warns of double epidemic of child mental health and obesitySocial media firms must share the burden with the health service as it battles mental health issues in young people, the head of NHS England has said.Setting out the health service’s key priorities for the future as it marks its 70th year, Simon Stevens, the body’s chief executive, warned of a “double epidemic affecting our children” that also included obesity. Continue reading...

The scientist’s empathy was signally lacking during his travels in Asia, newly published diaries revealAlbert Einstein’s humanitarian reputation almost matches his scientific stature. From the 1930s onwards he vigorously denounced racism, “a disease of white people”, once observing that “being a Jew myself, perhaps I can understand and empathise with how black people feel as victims of discrimination”. So it is especially shocking to learn of racist and misogynist comments that he made while travelling in Asia in the 1920s. In his newly published diaries from the period, he describes the Chinese as “industrious, filthy, obtuse” and “a peculiar herd-like nation”. Though he praises their modesty and gentleness, he also echoes contemporary warnings that they posed a demographic threat: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”How could a figure renowned for his empathy and wisdom have written such passages? The answer “seems very relevant in today’s world, in which the hatred of the Other is so rampant in so many places … It seems even Einstein sometimes had a very hard time recognising himself in the face of the other,” the diaries’ editor notes. Continue reading...

Some terrestrial bacteria can revive after decades in space, so landing a bacteria-laden human on the planet could erase the potential for one of the greatest discoveries in human historyThe discovery of organic material that could be the remains of, or served as food for, ancient life on Mars is extremely exciting, but bitter-sweet (Mars rover finds signs of life … from 3bn years ago, 8 June). Companies such as SpaceX are hell-bent on putting human beings on the planet. But as reported, due to cyclical methane plumes, it is still unclear whether Mars is indeed a dead world today.Related: Nasa Mars rover finds organic matter in ancient lake bed Continue reading...

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesThe very fact that you’re asking this question suggests it’s more than likely you’re not. Not in the truly scientific sense of the word anyway. This is because one of the traits that tends to characterise those who exhibit excessive narcissism is an inability to engage in self-reflection. Such individuals typically have grandiose ideas about themselves and rarely consider that there might actually be something “wrong” with them, so I doubt you’d be asking this question at all if you were. Then again, another typical trait of narcissism is preoccupation with yourself. So if you find yourself asking questions like this often, and being unusually preoccupied with yourself in general, you could well have some narcissistic traits. When it comes to assessing whether you’re too narcissistic, it’s all a question of degree. You have to consider the situation you’re in and what personality characteristics may be best suited to it.In today’s society, those considered to be too narcissistic typically exhibit higher levels of arrogance than average, excessive grandiosity, a sense of invincibility, and a sense of entitlement or a belief that special treatment is deserved. People who are high in narcissism also typically display a lack of empathy for others and have a tendency to engage in superficial or exploitative relationships. Continue reading...

Study also suggests they can spot similarities between patterns of scent and those made with colourPollinators don’t just wing it when it comes to finding a sweet treat: the shape, colour, perfume and even electrical charge of flowers are all known to offer clues.But now researchers say bumblebees also use another floral feature to guide them: how the concentration of a scent varies across the flower’s surface. Continue reading...

Possible reason for link could be damage from silent or mini-strokes, researchers sayFifty-year-olds with slightly raised blood pressure are at an increased risk of getting dementia in later life, a new study has suggested.

Google’s ethical principles for the use of artificial intelligence are little more than a smokescreen, but they show that many engineers are rightly worried by the possible uses of the technology they’re developingFrankenstein’s monster haunts discussions of the ethics of artificial intelligence: the fear is that scientists will create something that has purposes and even desires of its own and which will carry them out at the expense of human beings. This is a misleading picture because it suggests that there will be a moment at which the monster comes alive: the switch is thrown, the program run, and after that its human creators can do nothing more. They are left with guilt, perhaps, but no direct responsibility for what it goes on to do. In real life there will be no such singularity. Construction of AI and its deployment will be continuous processes, with humans involved and to some extent responsible at every step.This is what makes Google’s declarations of ethical principles for its use of AI so significant, because it seems to be the result of a revolt among the company’s programmers. The senior management at Google saw the supply of AI to the Pentagon as a goldmine, if only it could be kept from public knowledge. “Avoid at ALL COSTS any mention or implication of AI,” wrote Google Cloud’s chief scientist for AI in a memo. “I don’t know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the Defense industry.” Continue reading...

Private journals kept by the scientist and humanitarian icon show prejudiced attitudes towards the people he met while travelling in AsiaThe publication of Albert Einstein’s private diaries detailing his tour of Asia in the 1920s reveals the theoretical physicist and humanitarian icon’s racist attitudes to the people he met on his travels, particularly the Chinese.Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who famously once described racism as “a disease of white people” describes the “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” he observes. He notes how the “Chinese don’t sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods. All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse.” After earlier writing of the “abundance of offspring” and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he goes on to say: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.” Continue reading...

Autistic performers share their own stories in an outdoor production which turns Naoki Higashida’s remarkable book into a journey through a labyrinthThe theatre can be a difficult place for people with autism. I remember taking my son when he was younger. I could feel him squirming, trapped in the seat next to me, confused by the strange convention where people seem to be talking to you but you are not allowed to talk back. The darkened auditorium filled with surprises and the lack of control over the experience made for a situation that could have been designed to make a young autistic person anxious – second, perhaps, only to mainstream education, as we were soon to discover.So when faced with staging Naoki Higashida’s extraordinary book The Reason I Jump, about his experiences as an autistic teenager, we wanted to make something that didn’t behave like a conventional theatre show. How could we give the audience – autistic or otherwise – more control of the experience and a say in how the story unfolds? Continue reading...

Tracking all the relevant publications on climate change has become impossible. Climate science and policy need a new approach for an age of big literatureWhen the lines between scientific facts, legitimate disagreements and uncertainties about climate change are being deliberately blurred – not least by world leaders like Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has never been more important. It is the IPCC’s task to make sense of the landscape of scientific findings, where they agree, and why they may differ. The authors of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report – hundreds of scientists across many disciplines – have a massive task on their hands, ahead of its publication in 2021.When the volume of scientific information continues to grow exponentially, so does the difficulty of maintaining a clear overview. Tracking and reading all of the relevant publications on climate change has become impossible, as more emerge in a single year than was previously the case over an entire, or multiple, assessment periods. Even if there was no further growth over the next three years, the relevant literature to be reviewed for the IPCC’s sixth assessment will be somewhere between 270,000 and 330,000 publications. This is larger than the entire climate change literature before 2014. So conducting a scientific assessment is increasingly a “big literature” challenge. Continue reading...

Instant travel seems further away than when Captain Kirk first reanimated, but scientists are fighting to make it happenStar Trek has a lot to answer for. Not content to tease us with unreasonable expectations of phasers and warp drive, it also thrust into the popular imagination the idea of teleportation, in which we step into a giant scanner of some sort and instantaneously find ourselves somewhere else, mind, body and soul intact (and hopefully, unlike Jeff Goldblum, untainted).Theoretically, there are really only two ways this can(’t) be done – physical deconstruction at x and reconstitution at y, or the translation of one’s person into data to be transmitted, then reconverted into matter, like some organic fax machine. Continue reading...

Governments should work with private space companies to make lunar colonies a reality in our lifetime

12 June is the day to express thanks to climate scientists #hoorayforclimatescientists

Demise of nine out of 13 of the ancient landmarks linked to climate change by researchersSome of Africa’s oldest and biggest baobab trees have abruptly died, wholly or in part, in the past decade, according to researchers.The trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years and in some cases as wide as a bus is long, may have fallen victim to climate change, the team speculated. Continue reading...

Carp that soak up the sun are fitter, and bold fish benefit more by sunbathing for longerOne magic late afternoon in summer, sitting on the bank of a clear, still lake in Hertfordshire, it was possible to see lines of motionless carp on the surface that appeared to be sunbathing. The idea that fish, like snakes and other ectotherms (“cold-blooded” creatures), might enjoy or benefit from sunbathing was dismissed as a childish fancy at the time, but many decades later has been vindicated.A scientific paper shows that carp not only sunbathe, but also gain body heat, grow faster and are fitter as a result. These fish were warmer than their surroundings despite the fact that scientists thought this was impossible because the fish were immersed in cold water. Another key finding is that not all fish gained equally. The darker fish absorbed more warmth than their paler companions and grew faster. Continue reading...

For 20 years scientists have wondered what creates the curious streams of radiation in the Milky WayMysterious streams of microwaves that come from far across the galaxy have been traced to immense clouds of spinning diamonds that swirl around newly-born stars.Astronomers have been stumped by the strange waves since they were first spotted more than 20 years ago, but now appear to have solved the puzzle after training US and Australian telescopes on rings of dust that circle stars about 500 light years from Earth. Continue reading...

Simple DNA test might help to identify those men at greatest risk of developing the disease

Patrick Aryee’s gets up close and personal with some of the world’s biggest creatures in his new three-part series. Episode one airs on Sky1, Wednesday 13 June, 9pm Continue reading...

Scientists develop a method of turning white fat to brown fat, which burns calories fasterScientists have developed a radical approach to treating obesity in which “bad” white fat is converted into “good” brown fat tissue that burns calories far more rapidly.So far the technology, which involves converting fat cells in a bioreactor, has only been tested in human cells and in mice, but if the technique is shown to work in human trials it could prove to be an effective treatment for diabetes and obesity. Continue reading...

Research found some patients had lower E coli levels after being given cocktail of ‘phages’Viruses that invade bacteria but leave human cells alone could help scientists find ways around the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, researchers have said.A study has showed that a cocktail of bacteriophages, or “phages”, resulted in no side effects when given to individuals with gastrointestinal problems and did not appear to greatly disrupt the diversity of microbes in the gut – the so-called gut microbiota. But they did reduce levels of one marker of inflammation and certain problematic species of bacteria. Continue reading...

Venus and the waxing crescent Moon are visible in the constellation Cancer this week, pointing towards the brightest star in GeminiFor the whole of this week, Venus continues to be the most noticeable object in the western evening sky, despite its low altitude. On the evening of 16 June, it is joined by a thin crescent moon. Only 13.1% of the moon’s surface will be illuminated by the sun. The chart shows the positions at 22.00 BST on 16 June. The moon and Venus sit within the confines of Cancer, the Crab, but form an almost horizontal line with Pollux, the brightest star in the constellation Gemini, the twins. Despite it still being a thin crescent, the moon is already three days into the current lunar month with new moon having taken place on 13 June. Earth’s natural satellite will now brighten rapidly until, in four days time, it will be at first quarter (half moon). A week later, on 27 June, it will be full. The two weeks after that will see the moon progress through its waning phase, reaching its last quarter on 5 July. Continue reading...

In equal societies, citizens trust each other and contribute to their community. This goes into reverse in countries like oursThe gap between image and reality yawns ever wider. Our rich society is full of people presenting happy smiling faces both in person and online, but when the Mental Health Foundation commissioned a large survey last year, it found that 74% of adults were so stressed they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. Almost a third had had suicidal thoughts and 16% had self-harmed at some time in their lives. The figures were higher for women than men, and substantially higher for young adults than for older age groups. And rather than getting better, the long-term trends in anxiety and mental illness are upwards.For a society that believes happiness is a product of high incomes and consumption, these figures are baffling. However, studies of people who are most into our consumerist culture have found that they are the least happy, the most insecure and often suffer poor mental health. Continue reading...

Researchers suggest effects of the colonial era can be detected in rocks or even airIt brought riches to Britain and many other European nations; played a major role in enslaving more than 10 million Africans; and created the first global markets in cotton, tobacco and sugar. But now colonialism has been accused of having an even greater influence. It is claimed that it changed the Earth’s very makeup.This is the view of two UK scientists who believe the impact of colonialism was so profound it can be detected in Earth’s air and rocks, an idea revealed in The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene, by Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin, published last week. Continue reading...

What exactly is a smile for, how do we do it and if we lose it, can we get it back?It’s one of the most fundamental things that humans do. Smile. Newborns can manage it spontaneously, as a reflex, and this is sometimes misinterpreted by new parents as a reaction to their presence, although it’s not until six to eight weeks of age that babies smile in a social way. That new parents optimistically interpret the first reflex smiles reflects the complexity of smiling: there is the physical act and then the interpretation society gives to it – the smile and what the smile means.On a physical level, a smile is clear enough. There are 17 pairs of muscles controlling expression in the human face, plus the orbicularis oris, a ring that goes around the mouth. When the brain decides to smile, a message is sent out over the sixth and seventh cranial nerves. These branch across each side of the face from the eyebrows to the chin, connecting to a combination of muscles controlling the lips, nose, eyes and forehead. Continue reading...

Exquisite Old Testament-era head of a king found in Israel but subject’s identity a mysteryAn enigmatic sculpture of a king’s head dating back nearly 3,000 years has left researchers guessing at whose face it depicts.The 5cm (two-inch) sculpture is an exceedingly rare example of figurative art from the region during the ninth century BC – a period associated with biblical kings. It is exquisitely preserved but for a bit of missing beard, and nothing quite like it has been found before. Continue reading...

The psychotherapist and fiction writer on the importance of sci-fi and Freud, and the connection between love and madnessFrank Tallis is a novelist, nonfiction writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry and neuroscience at King’s College London. He has written horror fiction, a series of detective novels featuring the fictional detective Max Liebermann and four books about psychology, including Changing Minds, a history of psychotherapy. The Incurable Romantic, an account – told through case histories of his patients – of a life spent investigating obsessive love, is published on 7 June (Little Brown).This is the second book you have written about the nature of love. What draws you to the subject?

A race is on to mine billions of dollars in resources from the solar system’s asteroids, fuelling our future among the starsIn an industrial park in San Jose, California, Grant Bonin is holding what looks like the end of a metal water bottle. It is the casing, he jokes, of his company’s “flying steam kettle”: a propulsion system for small spacecraft that uses super-hot water vapour, heated to 1,000C (1,832F), to produce thrust. The company has sold about 40 to date. “It comes right out of the hole,” explains Bonin, who is the chief technology officer of Deep Space Industries (DSI).It is literally rocket science, but the ultimate aim of Bonin’s startup is even more audacious: mining asteroids. No private company has even got close to one. One of the main reasons asteroids will be mined in the future, so the thinking goes, is for the water locked in their clay deposits – and one of the chief uses of that water is likely to be as propellant for spacecraft. Probes and other spacecraft will be able to refuel in space either directly with water, or the hydrogen and oxygen that can be created from it, enabling them to zip around merrily anywhere they want with no end to their useful life. But before the idea of a solar system dotted with gas stations is realised, what is needed are more spacecraft that can actually run on water, which is where selling flying steam kettles comes in. Continue reading...

UNSW professor Martin Green, who revolutionised photovoltaics, says sun’s power is ‘the best option out there’The “father of PV” – University of New South Wales professor Martin Green – has become the first Australian to win the global energy prize from a shortlist that included Tesla’s Elon Musk.UNSW said Green had been selected from 44 contenders from 14 countries by a committee of leading scientists to share the $820,000 prize with Russian scientist Sergey Alekseenko, an expert in thermal power engineering. Continue reading...

Satellite company sees its price rise 13% and says US firm ‘significantly undervalues’ itInmarsat, Britain’s leading satellite company, has rejected a bid approach from a US rival, in what could signal the start of a fresh foreign takeover saga.Responding to a 13.5% rise in its share price on Friday, Inmarsat admitted it had received an offer from Colorado-based EchoStar that it said “very significantly undervalued” the company and its prospects. Continue reading...

Millennials hold most negative attitudes, with 40% believing dementia is inevitable

If ‘just this once’ happens every month, there’s a name for it: a monthly expenseOne of the more infuriating challenges of personal money management goes as follows. Suppose your dishwasher breaks down. It makes sense to replace it with a good one, instead of something cheap that will need replacing again next year, so you buy a high‑end model, congratulating yourself on your wisdom. The following month, it’s your 10th wedding anniversary. You’re not the type to splurge on champagne-fuelled city breaks, but this is different, a once-in-a-lifetime event, so marking it properly seems right.The month after that, you buy a pricey new work outfit, as an investment in yourself. The problem with all these “exceptions” isn’t that they’re unjustifiable – it’s that, if they crop up all the time, they aren’t really exceptions. Which is one reason it’s so hard to stick to a budget: there’s often a solid case for spending beyond your means just this once. But if “just this once” happens every month, there’s a name for that: it’s a monthly expense. Continue reading...

The government has a minister to fight this modern-day epidemic, but still decimates services for those at riskAre we living through an epidemic of loneliness? Well, it depends who you ask. One Red Cross study found that more than 9 million people in the UK – almost a fifth of the adult population – are often or always lonely, and in January Tracey Crouch was appointed the so-called “minister for loneliness” to tackle the problem.But the experts can’t decide if things are actually getting worse. At Cheltenham science festival last week Aparna Shankar, from St George’s, University of London, described levels of loneliness in the UK as having been “fairly consistent” since the 1940s. Continue reading...

Foraging wood ducks, an adder taking a dip and a fearless baby rabbit are among this week’s pick on images from the natural world Continue reading...

Wealth inequality has skyrocketed in the UK, as has anxiety, stress and mental illness. Could the two be linked? Richard Lea investigatesSubscribe and review on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom and Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterWe’re all familiar with the phrase money can’t buy happiness. For many years, researchers have pondered why that is. If you can afford more holidays, a nice house and a car, why wouldn’t that make you happier?

Findings offer hope of accurate predictions on age of foetus and early birth through test that picks up free-floating RNA in the mother’s blood

English Heritage concedes proposal for 13th-century mound in York was ‘too much’Plans to build a visitor centre sited in the mound of York’s 13th-century Clifford’s Tower have been abandoned after huge opposition.

Ruined medieval church believed to be a royal burial place has been made safe for visitors againReading has got its abbey back, almost 10 years after the gates to the ruined medieval church were locked when large stones began to fall from the walls with ominously increasing frequency.However, the remains of Henry I, who founded the abbey in 1121 and is believed to be buried there, have yet again escaped discovery. Continue reading...

Researchers find the daily migrations of brine shrimp is strong enough to mix ocean waters

Researchers are genetically engineering plants to produce the sex pheromones of insects, which then frustrate the pests’ attempts to mate“Sexy plants” are on the way to replacing many harmful pesticides, scientists say, by producing the sex pheromones of insects which then frustrate pests’ attempts to mate.Scientists have already genetically engineered a plant to produce the sex pheromones of moths and are now optimising that, as well as working on new pheromones such as those of the mealybugs that plague citrus growers. Continue reading...

PrEP availability may play a part in men’s complacency about the chances of becoming infected, study suggestsA rapid rise in the takeup of pills to prevent HIV infection in some parts of Australia has been accompanied by a steep drop in the numbers of men using condoms during sex with other men whether or not they are on the protective drugs, a major study has shown.Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has been hailed as a game-changer in the Aids epidemic, but the Australian experience suggests the availability of once-a-day pills that reliably prevent transmission of the virus may play a part in complacency about the chances of becoming infected. Continue reading...

Ancient prints bring scientists closer to understanding what were the first creatures to evolve pairs of legsThe oldest known footprints on Earth, left by an ancient creepy-crawly more than 500 million years ago, have been discovered in China.The tracks were left by a primitive ancestor of modern-day insects or worms, according to scientists. Precisely what the creature looked like is a mystery, though: nothing this old with legs has been discovered to date. Continue reading...

ESA director general argues for more collaboration as EU ramps up investment in own space agencyThe EU has clashed with the head of the independent European Space Agency (ESA) over the bloc’s plans to take greater control over the continent’s space programmes, in a move that could cut the UK out of key decisions.EU officials have rubbished as “unfounded” claims made by Jan Wörner, the ESA’s director general, that a restructuring of arrangements would “take decades and cost billions”. Continue reading...

‘It’s the most colour-blind place on Earth. It took me four flights to get there. I wanted to celebrate the islanders’ unique way of seeing the world’I shot this image of Deke, one of the smaller islands of the Pingelap atoll, in 2015. I had travelled to the atoll, in the Federated States of Micronesia, to research achromatopsia, a rare genetic condition that causes colour blindness and hypersensitivity to light. Worldwide, only one in every 30,000 people have achromatopsia. But on Pingelap, one in 10 do. It’s the most colour-blind place on Earth.The prevalence of achromatopsia on the island can be traced back to the 18th century when it was engulfed by a typhoon, leaving around 20 survivors. The ruler carried the recessive gene that causes the condition. After a few generations, more or less everyone on the island was related to him. Continue reading...