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A new edition of After Man by Dougal Dixon, a landmark piece of speculative biology which influenced a generation of palaeontologists, has been releasedIn 1981, a remarkable book was published: After Man: A Zoology of the Future, by Dougal Dixon. As a child of the eighties, growing up in a science fiction bubble where daleks, vogons and the fighting machines of the War of the Worlds were at least as concrete to me as anything happening in the real world, After Man presented a biologically-themed alternative world to lose myself in.

Member of Nasa’s Apollo 12 mission who was the fourth person to walk on the moonThe astronaut Alan Bean, a member of Nasa’s Apollo 12 mission, who has died aged 86, was the fourth person to step on to the surface of the moon, and the only one to go on to depict the view from outer space in paintings. His fellow astronaut John Glenn described Bean’s work as seeing “the same monochromatic world as [we did] ... yet with an artist’s eye he also saw intrinsic beauty”.Apollo 12, commanded by Pete Conrad, was launched in November 1969, only four months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had first stepped on to the moon’s surface from the Apollo 11 lunar module. The Apollo 12 astronauts set up a nuclear generator in the Ocean of Storms to provide a power source; Bean, of Scottish descent on his father’s side, carried a piece of MacBean tartan with him. He gathered many samples of rocks and lunar soil, including a green stone he described as “ginger ale bottle glass” – geologists later identified it as the mineral olivine. Continue reading...

New mothers’ voices are lower and more monotone for about a year after the birthThe voices of new mothers temporarily drop by more than two musical notes after pregnancy, scientists have claimed.Researchers from the University of Sussex found new mothers’ voices become lower and more monotonous after they have had their first baby. Continue reading...

When our heroes – like Richard Feynman – turn out to be less than perfect, it’s an open question as to whether we should write off their work as wellAnother week, another social media tar-and-feathering of a prominent male scientist.A few weeks ago was physicist Richard Feynman, every scientist’s beloved old uncle: he of the charm, the bongo-playing, the practical jokes, the breathtaking clarity of thought. I can still remember him standing up in front of the US Congress on television as an elderly man, razor sharp as he demonstrated, using ice water, what would have happened to the O-rings within the doomed shuttle Columbia when they came into contact with the coldness of outer space. I read most of his books as a child, and still embrace his philosophy about why understanding nature’s beauty enhances, rather than detracts from, its wonder. Continue reading...

30 May 1974: Woman’s Own hopes it will encourage more men to put their worries on paper instead of sustaining a painful and harmful cover-upWoman’s Own has started a problem page for men only. A gimmick? An imaginative new service? Keeping up with the times? Angela Willans (“Mary Grant,” the magazine’s “Can I help you?” lady) is too sincerely concerned about people to go in for gimmicks, and too modest to claim a breakthrough. She says that about 10 per cent of Woman’s Own’s 500 problems a week has always come from men and that the new page has not made any notable difference. But she hopes it will encourage more men to put their worries on paper. And so do I.Related: A brief history of agony aunts Continue reading...

Block of stone violently thrown up by volcanic cloud fell on to victim, Pompeii archaeologists sayOfficials at the Pompeii archaeological site have announced the discovery of the skeleton of a man crushed by an enormous stone while trying to flee the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.Pompeii officials on Tuesday released a photograph showing the skeleton protruding from beneath a large block of stone that may have been a door jamb which had been “violently thrown by the volcanic cloud”. Continue reading...

Trial on people with form of disease that killed Tessa Jowell ‘remarkably promising’A vaccine could add years to the lives of people with the aggressive form of brain cancer that killed the former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, trials suggest.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore opposes timing of exams in a period of major cognitive changeTeenagers are being damaged by the British school system because of early start times and exams at 16 when their brains are going through enormous change, a leading neuroscientist has said.Sarah-Jayne Blakemore said it was only in recent years that the full scale of the changes that take place in the adolescent brain has been discovered. “That work has completely revolutionised what we think about this period of life,” she said. Continue reading...

Luis Velázquez, Cuba’s most senior scientist, says joint inquiry needed to find truth behind alleged attacks on diplomatsThe most senior scientist in Cuba has called on his opposite numbers in the US and Canada to assess the evidence behind claims that mysterious attacks in Havana left American and Canadian diplomats with inexplicable concussion-like brain injuries.Luis Velázquez, a neurologist who was recently appointed president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, has asked the US and Canadian national science academies for a joint scientific inquiry to examine the evidence behind the alleged attacks.

Academics share machine-learning research freely. Taxpayers should not have to pay twice to read our findingsBudding authors face a minefield when it comes to publishing their work. For a large fee, as much as $3,000, they can make their work available to anyone who wants to read it. Or they can avoid the fee and have readers pay the publisher instead. Often it is libraries that foot this bill through expensive annual subscriptions. This is not the lot of wannabe fiction writers, it’s the business of academic publishing.

Artificial intelligence machine found 95% of melanomas in study compared to 86.6% for dermatologistsA computer was better than human dermatologists at detecting skin cancer in a study that pitted people against machines in the quest for better, faster diagnostics, researchers said on Tuesday.

The light emitted from our LED screens is blamed for everything from bleary eyes to much more serious health issues. So just how worried should we be?Long attached to visions of clear skies and calm seas, the colour blue historically could not be more welcome, refreshing and natural. Yet, because of the proliferation of blue-emitting LEDs in our artificially lit lives, blue light has come to represent bleary eyes, sleeplessness and the poor health associated with disruption of the circadian rhythm.Of the spectrum of lightwaves emitted by the sun that our eyes can detect, it is the shorter “blue” ones that get reflected and bounced around most by the molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. They are the reason the sky is blue. So why is blue light apparently so bad for us? Earlier this month, a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry looked at data from 91,105 middle-aged people and found that those with disrupted sleep patterns were more likely to have depression or bipolar disorder. The worst affected were described by one of the authors of the paper, Professor Daniel Smith at the University of Glasgow, as those with “very poor sleep hygiene – people on their mobile phones at midnight checking Facebook or getting up to make a cup of tea in the middle of the night”. He reiterated the now common advice from sleep experts: switch off electronic devices an hour before bedtime. Continue reading...

My husband Peter Morton-Williams, who has died aged 95, was a former pro-vice chancellor of Ulster University and an eminent anthropologist. He worked for many years in Nigeria and Ghana, where he researched and lectured on west African social anthropology and became a leading authority on the history and culture of the Yoruba people of Nigeria.He also wrote many academic papers and some books about aspects of West African society, including An Outline of the Cosmology and Cult Organization of the Oyo Yoruba (1964). Long into his retirement he was frequently consulted by students, academics and others, including museums and a number of auction houses who sought his advice on west African artefacts. Continue reading...

Scientists say the findings have major implications for predicting our future climateAn invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered.Researchers from Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Exeter universities say the findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, have major implications for predicting our future climate. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsWhy does light travel at the speed it does? Is it related to the age, dimensions or oscillation of the universe? Do we know if this speed has been constant since the big bang?Peter Lowe, Newcastle upon Tyne Continue reading...

We cannot leave the EU and retain all the rights we had as members, as the tussle over this vital satellite system shows

The gibbous waning Moon is bright in the night sky while Venus and Jupiter shine out at eveningFrom midweek onwards, look out for the Moon and Saturn drawing ever closer in the low southern night sky. By the end of the week, they will be separated by 1.6°, or just over three lunar diameters. The Moon will be a few days past full and clearly in its waning gibbous phase. The chart shows the view for 03:00 BST on 1 June. This week is also good for seeing the four brightest objects in the sky. The Sun and Moon are the first two and are unmistakable – but remember never look at the Sun with your naked eyes or through any kind of optical instrument; it is so bright that it can cause permanent blindness. The third and fourth brightest should present little problem either so long as you have a clear horizon. Just after sunset look west to see the brilliant “evening star” of Venus, this is the third brightest object in the sky. Then turn to the south-west to look out for Jupiter, the fourth. Continue reading...

Believe it or not, some people still think the world is flat, and that we are all victims of a giant conspiracy. Alex Moshakis heads to Birmingham to meet Britain’s Flat EarthersTo the casual observer, there is nothing remarkable about the crowd gathered in a convention room at a central Birmingham hotel. Middle managers on a staff team-building exercise, perhaps. But their conversations give them away. The clique in the corner discussing the moon landings. The man at the bar chastising an acquaintance for holding on to the science he was taught at school. The woman who asks another, “If they’ve lied about this, what else are they lying about?” The various conversations peter out as the open-mic session gets under way. A 40-something woman approaches the stage. “My name’s Sarah,” she says. “And I’m a Flat Earther.” Other audience members offer similar anecdotes: epiphanies, followed by a complete rebuttal of their previous beliefs. Few are able to explain why a conspiracy might exist, why scientists might go to such great lengths to create false evidence.I’m in central Birmingham, at the UK’s first Flat Earth convention, a weekend of lectures and workshops designed to provide believers with opportunities to engage with others who subscribe to the same hypothesis: that the Earth is not a globe, as most of us think, but some kind of plane, with edges. Around 200 people have paid to attend. Continue reading...

As well as being amazing marvels of nature, the gelatinous sea creatures are harbingers of the most serious issues that face us and this should be a call to armsLooking back, I see that jellyfish came to me when the haze of sleepless nights brought on by kids’ cries and the frenzy of cramming a working day into the scant hours of pre-school began to lift. And, even though I still looked good on Facebook, when I slowed down long enough to think, I felt lost and unfulfilled. That something inside had been waiting for the opportunity to climb out and look for more than flapjacks and yogurt wasn’t so surprising. That it was jellyfish certainly was.As an ocean scientist-turned-science writer, I was working on a piece for National Geographic about ocean acidification, sometimes called global warming’s evil twin. This happens when carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels mixes with water, making it more acidic, and harder to build shells in. And lots of marine creatures build shells. This story included a quintessential National Geographic graphic called “Winners and Losers”. On the losers’ side were shelled animals: coral, crabs, starfish. That made sense. On the winners’ side were shell-less things: algae, sponges and jellyfish. Jellyfish? What was their protection against acidic surroundings? Continue reading...

In refusing to reimburse Britain for its investment in the satellite system, the EU is being absurdly punitiveThe row between the UK and the EU over the €10bn Galileo satellite navigation project is turning nasty. For once, this unnecessary spat is not Britain’s fault. It is, of course, true that the argument over who can access this spanking new system, who builds it and who pays for it would not be happening if the UK intended to remain a member of the EU. But it is equally true that senior commission officials in Brussels, including the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, continue to exhibit difficulty in accepting post-referendum political realities. That’s a polite way of saying the EU needs to get over itself.The Observer is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791. It is published by Guardian News & Media and is editorially independent.

Extraterrestrials will discover a species that loves to argue and sees beauty in flowers that roar like chainsawsIt was launched to the stars as a portrait of humanity: an alien’s guide to life on Earth and the wonderful, rich culture of its dominant species.But the Golden Record, blasted into space by Nasa in 1977, may deliver an entirely different message to any extraterrestrials who happen to encounter the cosmic missive, researchers point out.

Invitation glitch could date back further than previously thought, says cancer specialistMany more women could have missed out on breast cancer screening invitations dating back further than previously thought, according to a cancer expert.

Four drinks a day over eight weeks can help those at risk of heart disease, says studyObesity can be successfully tackled, at least in the short term, by giving up real food for formula meals for eight weeks, which removes temptation and any need to make difficult decisions about what to eat, a new study has found.The research, by the former government obesity advisor Professor Susan Jebb of Oxford University and colleagues, was designed to see whether a crash diet of just 810 calories a day – provided by four formula drinks – would help people whose obesity is putting them at high risk of health problems such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Obesity experts consider lawsuits over marketing they say could be harmful to childrenLeading obesity experts are considering litigation against the food industry in the light of emerging research suggesting that junk food marketing could hijack a child’s brain.Neuromarketing is of growing interest to food companies. Fast food, soft drinks and snack companies increasingly interact with children through social media and online games. Some are beginning to probe further, gathering information through brain scans about how unconscious decisions are made to eat one snack rather than another and targeting people’s susceptibilities. A report on food neuromarketing to children by the Center for Digital Democracy in 2011 predicted “an explosive rise in new tactics targeted especially at young people”. Continue reading...

Scientists have discovered fossilised dandruff on the skin of a feathered microraptorThe oldest known case of dandruff has been identified in a small feathered dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 125m years ago.Paleontologists found tiny flakes of fossilised skin on a crow-sized microraptor, a meat-eating dinosaur that had wings on all four of its limbs. Continue reading...

Tesco is to stop using date stamps on own-brand produce. Which fruit and veg improves with age and which loses most nutrients?Best-before dates have expired, at least for fruit and vegetables. This week Tesco revealed it is to stop using the date stamps on almost 70 of its own-brand products in an attempt to tackle food waste. But is older produce as good for you as fresher stuff?Many nutrients, including certain vitamins in fresh produce, are unstable and levels drop after items are harvested. “Micronutrients start to reduce from the moment [produce] is cut, which is why frozen peas are actually better than canned or fresh, as they are frozen soon after picking,” said Adam Hardgrave, a food safety expert from the Food Standards Agency’s foodborne disease control team. Continue reading...

Psychotherapist Frank Tallis on one of his most extreme cases: Megan, a married woman with an undying passion for her dentistMegan was a conservatively dressed barrister’s clerk in her mid-40s. Her hair was dark brown and styled in a neat bob. An uncharitable person might have described her as dowdy. Her GP’s referral letter summarised the key facts of her case, which contained the essential elements of a tragic love story: emotional extremity, reckless abandon, passion and desire.After a few introductory remarks about my role as a psychotherapist, I explained that I wanted to hear her version of events. Continue reading...

Europe has started to exclude British firms from elements of the satellite programmeGalileo is an £8bn satellite navigation system intended to rival the US-controlled Global Positioning System. Once fully operational in 2020 it will provide accurate position, navigation and timing information to be used by governments, citizens and industry. It will be used by everything from smartphones to security-critical military applications in target acquisition and tracking. The UK is developing receivers for military platforms that will incorporate Galileo’s encrypted Public Regulated Service (PRS). Continue reading...

Fossils from 432m years ago push back the origin of the alternating life cycle still seen in ferns todayOur world today is dominated by the flowering plants, or angiosperms, which appeared approximately 130m years ago and rapidly diversified to become the top dogs in most ecosystems. But there are plenty of other plants from more ancient lineages still around, doing deeply weird things in their life cycles, and doing them for much longer than we have realised.

The no side were outnumbered by the established political class and the media together pushing the same illiberal viewTaoiseach Leo Varadkar – the Irish prime minister – has declared that he won’t be encouraging celebrations if, as seems inevitable, the yes side wins in the abortion referendum. We won’t, then, be treated to the same wild exuberance that met the gay marriage referendum vote, at least not officially. But he can be forgiven for a modestly self-congratulatory tone to his address to the Irish parliament on Wednesday, its last sitting before the referendum, in which he was joined by the leader of the opposition, Micheál Martin. They – the party leaders and ministers – have won it, along with the broadcasters who followed them faithfully through the campaign.It appears that at least a third of the electorate will oppose repealing the eighth amendment to the constitution, but those voters are not represented by the big political hitters – the sole party against repeal is tiny Renua, which has precisely no seats in parliament. Neither do they have any heavyweights in the broadcast or print media to express their views; I can think of two regular columnists for the main papers who are against repealing the abortion ban in the constitution – that’s it. Continue reading...

Philip Hammond says UK to ‘go it alone’ after Brexit if Brussels carries out access threatThe chancellor, Philip Hammond, has warned that the UK will build its own satellite navigation system to rival the European Union’s €10bn (£9bn) Galileo project if Brussels carries out its threat to block access.The European commission has cited legal issues about sharing sensitive information with a non-member state to justify its decision to shut British firms out of the project. The EU has also said it will restrict access to encrypted signals from Galileo. Continue reading...

In 1954 the American psychologist Muzafer Sherif set out to prove that hate was learned with the help of two groups of warring 11-year-oldsAt the beginning of the 1950s, while William Golding was a teacher at a boys’ school in Salisbury, he took a group of pupils to the nearby iron age hill fort of Figsbury Ring. The novelist told some of the boys to attack the fort while others defended its grassy ramparts. Golding was shocked at how quickly the schoolboys morphed into ferocious warring tribes: “My eyes came out like organ stops as I watched what was happening.”Golding’s research into “the nature of small boys” was for his novel, Lord of the Flies. It confirmed his pessimistic view that society’s problems could be traced back “to the defects in human nature”. At the same time in the US, social psychologist Muzafer Sherif was conducting very similar experiments involving groups of warring boys. Unlike the novelist, though, the scientist was an idealist. Rather than blaming human nature, he believed that environments created the conditions in which conflict and violence flourished. In short, he believed hate was learned. Continue reading...

Documentary photographer Olivia Harris, supported by the International Women’s Media Fund, examines the contentious issue of abortion in IrelandOn Friday Ireland will vote in a referendum that could in effect end the ban on abortion. Voters will be asked if they want to repeal the eighth amendment of the constitution, which recognises the equal right to life of mother and unborn child.Every year, 3,000 Irish women travel overseas, usually to the UK, to end pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest. Expectant mothers diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities – meaning the baby may die before full term or is not expected to live for long – must also travel to the UK for terminations. Continue reading...

Nuclear energy is back on the UK government’s agenda. However, concerns about safety have plagued this technology for decades. Given it kills less people than wind, coal or gas, why are we so radiophobic? Ian Sample investigates.

Study reveals obesity paradox where normal weight patients are less likely to recover from pneumoniaObesity can shorten lives, but obese people who are hospitalised for infectious diseases, pneumonia and sepsis have a better chance of surviving than those who are of normal weight, according to new research.The so-called “obesity paradox” was illustrated by three separate presentations at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna. A study of more than 18,000 people admitted to hospital with an infectious disease in Denmark found those who were overweight were 40% less likely to die, and those who were obese 50% less likely to die, than those of normal weight. Continue reading...

Researchers find inclination to buy sugary drinks reduces with graphic tooth decay warningGraphic health warnings like those on cigarette packets, showing rows of rotten teeth on cans of cola and other sugary drinks, could deter some young adults from buying them, a study has shown.Sugary drinks are blamed for fuelling the obesity epidemic, but in spite of the large quantities of sugar they contain – nine teaspoons in a can of Coca Cola – they do not carry a red traffic-light warning, which is voluntary in the UK. Sugar taxes, like that recently introduced in the UK, may reduce sales, but obesity experts believe more action is needed. Continue reading...

Museum to show rare artefacts alongside ethnically diverse human remainsArchaeologists at the Museum of London have found a scrap of treasure missed by tomb raiders who broke into a Roman sarcophagus 300 years ago. Continue reading...

Group of MPs to campaign on issue following recent case of six-year-old Alfie DingleyDoctors in the House of Commons are to lead a campaign to change the law banning the medicinal use of cannabis, as a new all-party parliamentary group (APPG) forms to campaign for the issue.Dan Poulter, a former health minister who still works part-time as a GP, said he had already signed up fellow Conservative Andrew Murrison, Labour’s Paul Williams, and Philippa Whitford of the Scottish National party – four of the Commons’ nine medical doctors. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Increases in depression and suicide appeared among teens in 2012 – the same time smartphone ownership became the normAround 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens.In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of US teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33% in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23%. Even more troubling, the number of 13 to 18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31%. Continue reading...

The diet Greece, Spain and Italy are famous for - rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil – is supposedly the healthiest in the world, but obesity is rocketingFor kids in Greece, Spain and Italy, the Mediterranean diet is dead, according to the World Health Organisation, which says that children in Sweden are more likely to eat fish, olive oil and tomatoes than those in southern Europe.In Cyprus, a phenomenal 43% of boys and girls aged nine are either overweight or obese. Greece, Spain and Italy also have rates of over 40%. The Mediterranean countries which gave their name to the famous diet that is supposed to be the healthiest in the world have children with Europe’s biggest weight problem. Continue reading...

France, Spain, Sweden and Netherlands among countries wishing to retain close ties on GPS system

Individuals with severe eczema face a higher risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks, heart failure and strokes

Earlier studies found links between excess body mass and seven different cancers, but new evidence has found five moreObesity is linked to as many as 12 different forms of cancer, according to a major new report which advises giving up bacon and swapping sugary drinks for water as part of a 10-point plan for avoiding the disease.Up to 40% of cancers are preventable, says the World Cancer Research Fund, launching its updated report on the reasons for the global spread. While smoking is still the biggest cause of cancer, WCRF says obesity will overtake it within a couple of decades in countries like the UK. The fund advises that our unhealthy modern lifestyle – and the promotion of junk food – has to end if people are to avoid the disease. Continue reading...

Samples of the Scottish loch will be tested to reveal truth behind centuries-old legendAn examination of Loch Ness using DNA sampling techniques will try to establish exactly what lives in the UK’s largest freshwater body – it may also discover whether there is any scientific basis to the monster legend.The mission will involve genetic code being extracted from the loch over a two-week period to determine the types of creatures that live there.

The academic believes violent men can be cured by the love of a good woman through enforced monogamy. And he can’t understand why people are laughing at him?I read an interview recently in which a gentleman by the name of Jordan Peterson claimed that chaos is represented by ‘the feminine’ and order is masculine. What?Tamsin, by email Continue reading...

It affects Swedish trains and US business. Now the poor British health system is catching another dose of reform maniaDuring the past few decades, people working in the NHS have noticed the rise of a puzzling yet dangerous new syndrome. It cannot be found in any medical textbook, but the symptoms are more obvious each year. They include delusional behaviour, stress, memory loss, anxiety. Unlike most syndromes in the NHS, this doesn’t infect individual patients. It contaminates entire organisations. The experts call it: repetitive change syndrome.It was first noticed by two professors working on different sides of the Atlantic. In Sweden, Nils Brunsson, of Uppsala University, had spent decades trying to understand how public sector organisations worked. He and his team spent years following the fate of reform programmes in city councils and railways and standard-setting bodies. They noticed a puzzling pattern: the media would point out some serious failings in a government service; politicians would cry out that something must be done; civil servants and consultants would come up with a plan, announced with great fanfare; the plan would be passed on to managers; and the politicians and consultants would make hay. Continue reading...

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesFirst of all, consult someone who’s messed it up horribly at least a couple of times. They will offer some mature and very wise counsel, not at all tinged with bitterness and regret. They won’t simply spout generic “good advice” about kindness, understanding and listening; they’ve lived. They will know that, in certain instances, it’s better just to get out and not think about the other person’s feelings; it’s thinking about their damn, stupid feelings the whole time that’s landed you in this decade-long misery-fest. If this is your case, just pack your stuff and do your thinking later. In the end you will both be glad. (See? Very sophisticated.)Not only are you choosing to throw yourself into the void, but you are also chucking someone else in involuntarily Continue reading...

A newly discovered asteroid’s unusual orbit supports the idea that a massive planet lurks in the far reaches of the solar systemAn enormous planet containing 10 times the mass of the Earth could explain the unusual orbit of a newly discovered asteroid. If found, the giant world would represent the first discovery of a planet in our solar system since Pluto in 1930, and before that Neptune in 1846. (Pluto was subsequently downgraded from planet to “dwarf planet” in 2006.)The asteroid in question is called 2015 BP519. It was discovered three years ago at fifty-five times the Earth’s distance to the sun. Since that time, a group of astronomers led by Juliette Becker of the University of Michigan have been tracking it. Continue reading...