Children with over-controlling parents aged two struggled to manage their emotions later in life, study findsChildren whose parents are over-controlling “helicopter parents” when they are toddlers, are less able to control their emotions and impulses as they get older apparently leading to more problems with school, new research suggests.The study looked at to what degree mothers of toddlers dominated playtime and showed their child what to do, and then studied how their children behaved over the following eight years, revealing that controlling parenting is linked to a number of problems as a child grows up. Continue reading...

Ari Aster’s horror triumph feeds off suppressed fear that we cannot escape our biological fate – leaving audiences unnerved

How can Sajid Javid deny long-term access to the cannabis oil that would control this boy’s epilepsy? This cruelty must endWhat kind of country gets a politician rather than a doctor to prescribe medicine for a sick child? When the home secretary, Sajid Javid, decided at the weekend to allow 12-year-old Billy Caldwell “one bottle” of cannabis oil, his spokeswoman said it was an exceptional case to meet “a short-term emergency”. The only emergency was to the home secretary’s reputation. Britain is like a banana republic, in which politicians, not judges, decide who goes to jail.Related: Legalising cannabis ‘could earn Treasury £3.5bn’ Continue reading...

A puzzle to reflect onUPDATE: The solution to the puzzle can be read hereHi guzzlersHere’s a puzzle about something we do every day: gaze at ourselves in the mirror. Who says maths is not relevant to the real world? In fact, You may have often pondered this question without realising it when trying on clothes. Continue reading...

Forensic science regulator launches investigation into a number of expert witnessesThe “smoke and mirror” tactics of defence lawyers in drink-driving cases have been criticised by the government’s forensic science regulator, who has launched an investigation into the work of a number of expert witnesses.The review was triggered by a recent high court judgment that raised concerns about defence teams requesting the disclosure of vast amounts of “irrelevant” technical information in order to challenge the reliability of breathalyser and blood alcohol test results. Continue reading...

The highest known clouds in Earth’s atmosphere can be seen soon after sunset in late spring and early summerThe late spring/early summer is a good time to look for noctilucent clouds. These are the highest known clouds that form in Earth’s atmosphere. They exist at a height of about 80km; to all intents and purposes this is the edge of space. The clouds glow as white or pale blue tendrils across a dark sky. This allows you to distinguish them from cirrus clouds, which are visible only in daytime because they do not glow.Related: Weatherwatch: beyond the ordinary – noctilucent or 'night' clouds Continue reading...

Head of Syngenta, world’s biggest pesticide maker, says rejecting farming tech could have serious consequences within 20 yearsThe world is likely to face food shortages within 20 years if pesticides and genetically modified crops are shunned, according to the head of the world’s biggest pesticide manufacturer.

Scientists still believe it possible that extraterrestrial life could flourish in our own neighbourhoodThis week, Nasa’s veteran Curiosity rover discovered complex organic matter that had been buried and preserved for more than 3bn years in sediments forming a lake bed. This means that if microbial life did land on Mars, it would be nourished. Continue reading...

A ‘dream team’ of international scientists scaled Mozambique’s Mount Lico and found a wealth of new species.Allianceearth.org Continue reading...

Scores are falling across the world, provoking headlines of ‘dumbing down’. But what does it measure anyway?IQ tests have a troubled history. Although their inventor, the intellectually cautious Frenchman Alfred Binet, understood and acknowledged their limitations, many of those who went on to deploy and develop his ideas did not. Within years of their emergence, IQ tests were being used by US eugenicists to weed out the “feebleminded”, and by politicians keen to cloak their calls for greater racial segregation and changes to American immigration laws with a degree of scientific legitimacy.From the start, Binet’s tests were also drawn into the debate over whether human intelligence is predominantly hereditary or better understood as a reflection of environmental factors such as education – one part of the sprawling nature v nurture debate. Continue reading...

Team of researchers changes microbes in koalas’ guts in order to improve type of food they consumeScientists believe they have found a new weapon in the battle to save endangered species: faecal transplants. They say that by transferring faeces from the gut of one animal to another they could boost the health and viability of endangered creatures. In particular, they believe the prospects of saving the koala could be boosted this way.The idea of using faecal transplants as conservation weapons was highlighted this month at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Atlanta, where scientists outlined experiments in which they used the technique to change microbes in the guts of koalas. Continue reading...

Our era of relentless social media and soundbites has caused us to lose sight of the past, and futureIt is hard to imagine a time more completely presentist than our own, more tethered to the immediate; and is hard to imagine a person more exemplary of our presentism than the current president of the United States.Donald Trump is a creature of the instant, responsive only and wholly to immediate stimulus – which is why Twitter is his exclusive medium of written communication, and why when he speaks he cannot stick to a script. In this respect he differs little from anyone who spends a lot of time on social media; the social media ecosystem is designed to generate constant, instantaneous responses to the provocations of Now.

Prescriptions consideration comes after Billy Caldwell, 12, has ‘life-threatening’ seizuresThe Home Office has said it will “carefully consider” allowing a 12-year-old boy to be prescribed cannabis oil after he was admitted to hospital with “life-threatening” seizures following the confiscation of his supply.Billy Caldwell had his anti-epileptic medicine confiscated at Heathrow airport on Monday. If the decision is made to permit him to have the treatment, it would be the first time that cannabis oil containing THC was legally prescribed in the UK since it was made illegal in 1971. Continue reading...

Luminaries from academia and science pay tribute to the late physicist’s incredible legacy“We remember Isaac Newton for answers,” said Prof Kip Thorne. “We remember Hawking for questions.”For 40 years, physicists have pondered the questions raised by Prof Stephen Hawking’s work, and perhaps his greatest legacy is not his remarkable discoveries, but the impact of his work on future theories of physics. Thorne, a Nobel prize-winning physicist, paid tribute to his friend Hawking by saying that future scientists would not stand on the shoulders of giants, as Newton had it, but “on the shoulders of Hawking”.

Palaeontologists studying the evolution of dinosaurs’ skin and feathers think they didAs a regular reader of this blog, you are well aware that dinosaurs had feathers (unless you are a certain film franchise). Dinosaurs were covered in patches of fuzz, proto-floof, shook their tail feathers, and in some cases displayed full-fledged plumage. Over the last decade, exceptionally preserved fossils and intense genetic study have taught us a lot about feather evolution. But what do we know about the evolution of the skin of dinosaurs and early birds?Vertebrate skin consists of several layers of cells making up the epidermis (the outer skin), the dermis (containing connective tissues, hair follicles and sweat glands) and the hypodermis (consisting of fat and connective tissues). As we grow, our skin continually renews itself. The inner layers generate new cells, which then slowly migrate to the outer layers to replace those tired, worn-out outer skin cells. This is called desquamation. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber looks at what is currently happening in the world of space technology, including the burgeoning issue of space pollutionSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon, but, of course, this was not the first time we had sent something to space. In fact, we’ve been sending stuff up there since 1957, when the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik. And those 60 years have left their mark. Continue reading...

Collider will be far more sensitive to anomalies that could lead to entirely new theories of the universeA massive project to supercharge the world’s largest particle collider launched on Friday in the hope that the beefed-up machine will reveal fresh insights into the nature of the universe.The 950m Swiss franc (£720m) mission will see heavy equipment, new buildings, access shafts and service tunnels installed, constructed and excavated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, the particle physics laboratory on the edge of Geneva. Continue reading...

Message of peace will be broadcast into nearest black hole as physicist is laid to restThe voice of Stephen Hawking will be beamed into space in a message of peace and hope, his daughter said, as the British physicist is laid to rest on Friday during a service at Westminster Abbey.The scientist died in March, aged 76, after a lifetime spent investigating the origins of the universe, the mysteries of black holes and the nature of time itself. Continue reading...

When a colleague with shaky data raced a competitor to be first to publish, I saw how the perverse incentives in research workThere’s an oft-repeated phrase in the scientific world that “competition drives innovation”. This can definitely sometimes be true, but in my experience the reality most of the time is that competition can be hugely wasteful and damaging to research.Take our lab, where we work in several high-profile areas. We’re aware that we have several major competitors around the world. We want to be first, we need to be first and we must keep it secret. Doing this can make or break a career, or decide a grant application outcome. It can even shape the future direction of the field. Continue reading...

Do you know what noise a hungry sea anemone makes? Soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause does. Armed with over 5,000 hours of recordings, he takes Ian Sample on a journey through the natural world and demonstrates why sound is such a powerful tool for conservationSubscribe and review on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom and Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterDo you know what noise a hungry sea anemone makes? This is one of the 15,000 species that soundscape ecologist Dr Bernie Krause has recorded. For half a century, Bernie has travelled the world, recording the noise of nature. His collection is now one of the oldest we have and as a result, it is a hugely valuable tool in documenting how we’ve changed our planet. For example, when Bernie returned to some sites, the environment has changed so dramatically, it is now silent. Continue reading...

Find adds to view that Cornish site was home to thriving trade port in early middle agesA seventh-century slate window ledge inscribed with an intriguing mix of Latin, Greek and Celtic words, names and symbols has been unearthed at Tintagel Castle in north Cornwall.The discovery adds weight to the view that the rugged coastal site, which is most often associated with the legend of King Arthur, was home in the early middle ages to a sophisticated and multicultural port community. Continue reading...

Tanegashima space centre sends into orbit all-weather IGS radar satellite in 16th mission to keep eye on the neighboursThis month Japan launched the 16th mission in its spy satellites programme, using the IGS Radar 6 spacecraft, part of the information gathering satellite scheme run by the country’s intelligence agency.This programme consists of optical and radar spacecraft, and supports civilian disaster management services as well as supplying information to the Japanese military. The radar aspect allows surveillance images to be taken through clouds. Continue reading...

Removal of enhancer 13 DNA strands caused males to grow ovaries and female genitalia, helping research on human sexual development disordersScientists have turned male mice into females by snipping out strands of their DNA in work that could shed light on sexual development disorders which arise in humans.The male mice grew ovaries and female genitalia instead of the more conventional male anatomy after researchers removed small chunks of DNA from the animals’ genetic code. Continue reading...

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...