My mother, Constance Blackwell, an intellectual historian who has died aged 83, played a key role in fostering deeper understanding of the development of 16th- and 17th-century science and philosophy in Europe.As the founder, in 1994, of the International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH), she supported several national and international conferences and saw their proceedings through to publication. According to Constance, innovation in early modern central European philosophy arose from multidisciplinary commentaries on Aristotelian works covering physics, metaphysics, logic, rhetoric and ethics. Continue reading...

In a new Netflix documentary, the tales of 13 female pilots who dreamed of becoming astronauts yet were denied the opportunity by Nasa are finally brought to lightWhen Neil Armstrong clambered down on to the surface of the moon, he famously declared that he had taken “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”.Related: Sign up to our Film Today email Continue reading...

In Barcelona, high-tech data platforms generate demand for old-fashioned community development.

For decades, men have had all the glory in space exploration. Imagine how young girls would feel seeing a woman step on to the red planetWhat do the names Kalpana Chawla, Mae Jemison, Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride mean to you? Until fairly recently, the names of these female space pioneers didn’t mean much to me. Despite being obsessed with all things space as a six-year-old girl, who thought a day out at the Jodrell Bank Observatory was as exciting as a trip to Disney World, I was never taught about them. I didn’t know that Dr (!) Tereshkova was the first woman to fly into space, that she was 26 when she went, and that when she took off she said, “Hey, sky! Take off your hat, I’m coming!” Nor did I know that Dr Chawla was the first Indian-born woman to go into space and that after she died in the Columbia disaster they named a hill on Mars after her.A senior Nasa engineer, Allison McIntyre, said this week that the first person on Mars should be a woman. And she’s right, because despite the incredible work of many female scientists and engineers involved in space exploration, there has historically been a “space gap”. Continue reading...

When John Brennan used a 17th-century word to describe the US presidency, Twitter went wild – but what does it mean?Rarely does an ancient Greek portmanteau word spark a Twitterstorm. But that’s what happened when the former director of the CIA John Brennan took to Twitter and accused Donald Trump of running a “kakistocracy”. This tweet sparked a 13,700% increase in people looking up the word using the online version of the Merriam Webster dictionary. These curious souls would have found a terse definition: “Government by the worst people.”Related: 'Slime ball': Trump attacks Comey after new book likens president to mafia boss Continue reading...

Scientists say rock fragments that hit the Earth in 2008 contain evidence of a lost planet that was part of the early solar systemDiamonds found in a meteorite that exploded over the Nubian desert in Sudan a decade ago were formed deep inside a “lost planet” that once circled the sun in the early solar system, scientists say.Microscopic analyses of the meteorite’s tiny diamonds revealed they contain compounds that are produced under intense pressure, suggesting the diamonds formed far beneath the surface of a planet. Continue reading...

My wife has terminal cancer. While there’s a place for broadcasters airing their personal stories, their impact can be devastatingWe live in the age of the confessional. In the not too distant past, private and intimate thoughts remained just that – and if we felt we needed to talk, a frank discussion with friends and loved ones often did the trick. But especially when it comes to cancer, this reticence now seems to be dissipating. Social media has turned the private into public and for many, that’s a very good thing. But for my family – and I suspect for others too – it can be difficult, upsetting and sometimes downright damaging.Related: I have prostate cancer. But I am happy | George Monbiot Continue reading...

Ancient woods are being destroyed for development. A consultation is their only hope

Plastic-eating enzymes | Class in the north | Brown cars | Spring politics | Female newsreaders | Comet ThatcherI hope the artificially created enzymes will begin to help clean up the exponential increase in plastic waste (Researchers make plastic-eating mutant enzyme better, 17 April). Maybe better not to let the cultivated variants out into the wild though – and on no account call them Mutant 59...

As an x-ray crystallographer from the late 1940s onwards, my father, Lawrence Brown, who has died aged 95, was one of a select band of British scientists who helped to determine the atomic and molecular structure of crystals.He put the knowledge he gained to good use in the then growing field of synthetic fibres, particularly with the textile company Courtaulds, where he rose to become head of its acetate and synthetic fibres laboratory. There he oversaw work on the development of several new synthetic fibres, including carbon fibre. Continue reading...

A new rule in the US would eliminate food inspectors and lift limits on how quickly pigs can be killed. The impact on workers, animals and consumers would be disastrous

The latest inquiry must discover how thousands of haemophiliacs contracted HIV or hepatitis C from blood products, and why it was covered up for so longIn two weeks’ time Sir Brian Langstaff will take up his post as chair of the public inquiry into contaminated blood and contaminated blood products. Today, World Haemophilia Day, is the perfect occasion to remind Langstaff what the thousands of haemophiliac victims need from this inquiry if they are to get justice.In the 1970s and 1980s more than 4,600 haemophiliacs contracted HIV or hepatitis C after being infected by contaminated blood-clotting products. Much of the blood had been imported on the cheap from US prisons, and taken from high-risk donors (sex workers, drug addicts and alcoholics) who were paid for their blood. As early as 1975, the TV programme World in Action exposed the fact that the NHS was buying this blood and that it had led to a hepatitis epidemic among haemophiliacs. This was before HIV and Aids had been diagnosed. Continue reading...

Review suggests coffee and tea drinkers might have lower risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Drinking coffee and tea every day may actually benefit people with heart troubles.New research has linked caffeine consumption from the two popular drinks to decreased rates of arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms. Continue reading...

Diet and lifestyle during the ‘pre-conception’ period can profoundly affect the child’s development, researchers findCouples who are obese, as well as those who smoke and drink alcohol, could be risking the health of their future children, say experts who are calling for far more awareness of the effects of modern lifestyles on babies in the womb.A series of three scientific papers in a leading medical journal spell out the consequences of poor diet and lifestyles for the next generation. They urge schools, GPs and nurses to talk to young people and those who may be planning a family about how to be fitter and healthier before they embark on pregnancy. Continue reading...

Those in favour of leaving the EU are more categorical and ‘think outside the box’ less than remainers, researchers sayBoris Johnson’s call to “take back control” in the 2016 EU referendum was a rallying cry that cut across political parties and split families, but quite why it had such a wide appeal has had academics puzzled. Now researchers say a fervour for Brexit could at least in part be linked to the way individuals process information.Research has revealed that those in favour of cutting loose from the EU are more categorical and “think outside the box” less than those who favour remain, with a stronger dislike for uncertainty and a greater love of daily routine.

The breakthrough, spurred by the discovery of plastic-eating bugs at a Japanese dump, could help solve the global plastic pollution crisisScientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug. Continue reading...

Forensic scientists a step closer to predicting a suspect’s hair colour from crime scene DNA aloneForensic scientists are a step closer to predicting the colour of a suspect’s hair from their DNA alone after the discovery of more than 100 new genes that influence the shade of a person’s locks.A test based on the new genetic markers was 10-20% more accurate than existing forensic tests and was most reliable for red or black hair, with brown or blond hair proving harder to predict, researchers said.

The idea of a depressed computer may seem absurd – but artificial intelligence and the human brain share a vital featureDepression seems a uniquely human way of suffering, but surprising new ways of thinking about it are coming from the field of artificial intelligence. Worldwide, over 350 million people have depression, and rates are climbing. The success of today’s generation of AI owes much to studies of the brain. Might AI return the favour and shed light on mental illness?The central idea of computational neuroscience is that similar issues face any intelligent agent – human or artificial – and therefore call for similar sorts of solutions. Intelligence of any form is thought to depend on building a model of the world – a map of how things work that allows its owner to make predictions, plan and take actions to achieve its goals. Continue reading...

A new book about the 1950s Robbers Cave experiment details how subterfuge and manipulation were used to turn ‘upstanding 11-year-olds’ into ‘brutal savages’• The inside story of the Robbers Cave experimentAfter the sun had gone down, the boys raced one another from the swimming hole to their cabins. They were still jubilant from their win, fizzing with excitement, eager to get back and pass around their prize again, the handsome silver knives fanned out on a stiff cardboard stand. Will shouted: “Told y’all!” triumphantly when he reached the cabin first. Panting and laughing, he threw open the cabin door – and stopped dead. Mattresses hung drunkenly from the bunks; pillows and clothes and comic books spilled across the floor. The knives, which they’d put on a makeshift table by the window, were gone. He let his breath out in a rush, then turned and started running, pushing past the group of dismayed boys who had crowded in behind him.Outside, the long twilight was fading. He heard the others calling to him to wait up, but he didn’t stop. He ran along the dusty track, feet pounding, and across the stream, his heart racing so hard he could hear his blood thrumming in his ears. Behind him the others had almost caught him up. The jumble of their voices quietened and the air was full of the sound of panting breaths. No need to stop and think, they just followed their instincts – an animal need to retrieve what was theirs. Will raced past the mess hall, where the sounds of a cowboy tune twanging on the radio and the clatter of dishes reminded him of home, of his parents’ heads bowed as they said grace over supper. But he ran faster, thrusting those images behind him. When he first came here, he tried not to think about what animals were moving through the dark. Now he bared his teeth as he ran. Tonight he wouldn’t be scared if a mountain lion stepped out of the shadows, or a bear climbed down from a tree. Behind him, the other boys rushed. They were a single panting pack, zigzagging in and out of trees, feet flying, crushing pine needles, startling birds. Continue reading...

In the early 1950s, the psychologist Muzafer Sherif brought together a group of boys at a US summer camp – and tried to make them fight each other. Does his work teach us anything about our age of resurgent tribalism?• Read an extract from The Lost BoysJuly 1953: late one evening in the woods outside Middle Grove, New York state, three men are having a furious argument. One of them, drunk, draws back his fist, ready to smash it into his opponent’s face. Seeing what is about to happen, the third grabs a block of wood from a nearby pile. “Dr Sherif! If you do it, I’m gonna hit you,” he shouts.The man with the raised fist isn’t just anybody. He is one of the world’s foremost social psychologists, Muzafer Sherif. The two others are his research assistants. Sherif is angry because the experiment he has spent months preparing for has just fallen apart. Continue reading...

Discovery by a 13-year-old and an amateur archaeologist leads to hoard linked to king who brought Christianity to DenmarkA 13-year-old boy and an amateur archaeologist have unearthed a “significant” trove in Germany which may have belonged to the Danish king Harald Bluetooth who brought Christianity to Denmark.René Schön and his student Luca Malaschnitschenko were looking for treasure using metal detectors in January on northern Rügen island when they chanced upon what they initially thought was a worthless piece of aluminium. Continue reading...

The UK’s research ecosystem is fragmented. We need more collaboration to pool expertise and improve public healthGood public health is central to the success of our cities, nations and regions. It’s an area in which higher education has a key role to play, since working to address local and global health challenges and develop cutting-edge drug therapies is deeply rooted within academic institutions. Yet universities are still an underused resource in tackling local public health problems.The main obstacle is the absence of organisations that connect universities and the NHS. In the UK, there are just six Academic Health Science Centres, which bring together research, education and clinical practice to translate research swiftly into patient care and ensure that patient interactions contribute to the generation of new knowledge. These AHSCs are not spread evenly around the country: three are in London, and one in Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. Continue reading...

For too many years Suzanne Moore has not been able to board a flight without a stiff drink and, preferably, tranquillisers. Could a ‘Fearless Flyer’ course at Stansted help her overcome her terror?

Buruli ulcer cases surging and now at epidemic proportions in parts of Victoria, researchers sayA severe tissue-destroying ulcer once rare in Australia is rapidly spreading and is now at epidemic proportions in regions of Victoria, prompting infectious diseases experts to call for urgent research into how it is contracted and spread.In an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) on Monday, authors led by associate professor Daniel O’Brien from Barwon Health said incidents of Buruli ulcer were on the rise but researchers were baffled as to why Victoria was being particularly affected. There have been no reported cases in New South Wales, South Australia or Tasmania. Continue reading...

Telescope hitching ride on a SpaceX rocket designed to spot alien worldsIf the vagaries of weather and rocket science do not intervene, the most ambitious search for alien worlds around the brightest stars in the sky will begin on Monday with the launch of Nasa’s newest planet-hunting spacecraft.After final preparations at the weekend, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or Tess, is on course for take off as early as 6.32pm local time (11.32pm UK) from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the first opportunity mission controllers have to launch in a window that remains open until June.

The grains of dust that originated in Comet Thatcher will be making their annual visit at the weekendThe Lyrid meteor shower will reach its peak in the pre-dawn sky on 22 April. This is the oldest known meteor shower, with records stretching back more than 2,500 years. The meteors appear to originate from a point in the constellation Lyra, hence the shower’s name. On Saturday night/Sunday morning this “radiant” will be in the eastern sky. So, wrap up warm, look east and be patient. Estimates suggest that between 15 and 20 meteors an hour will be visible. Some may be bright enough to cause brief shadows. Occasionally, outbursts of 100 meteors an hour have been recorded for the Lyrids. The last reported outburst came from the US in 1982. Before then, Japan reported one in 1945, and Greece in 1922. The Lyrids are tiny dust grains that once formed the tail of Comet Thatcher. This icy visitor from the outer solar system orbits the Sun every 415 years. It is next due to pass by in 2276. Continue reading...

The next theatre of conflict is likely to be in Earth’s orbit – and may have dire consequences for us allWhen you hear the phrase “space war”, it is easy to conjure images that could have come from a Star Wars movie: dogfights in space, motherships blasting into warp speed, planet-killing lasers and astronauts with ray guns. And just as easy to then dismiss the whole thing as nonsense. It’s why last month’s call by President Trump for an American “space force”, which he helpfully explained was similar to the air force but for err… space, was met with a tired eye-roll from most. But there is truth behind his words. While the Star Wars-esque scenario for what a space war would look like is indeed far-fetched, there is one thing all the experts agree on.​“It is absolutely inevitable that we will see conflict move into space,” says Michael Schmitt, professor of public international law and a space war expert at University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Continue reading...

The film director’s masterpiece, which has influenced scientists and artists alike, is 50 years old this monthAstronomers last week announced official names for the principal mountains and valleys of one of the solar system’s remotest objects, the tiny world of Charon. More than 3.6bn miles distant from the Sun, the moon – which orbits the dwarf planet, Pluto – was first observed closely in 2015 when the US probe New Horizons swept over its freezing, airless surface.Now the features revealed by the robot craft have been given titles by the International Astronomical Union. And key among the explorers and scientists honoured are the film director Stanley Kubrick and the writer Arthur C Clarke. Continue reading...

Jessica Huie turned her life around brilliantly. Now she’s helping other people – including her friend Meghan MarkleJessica Huie didn’t have the most promising start. She was expelled from school at 15 and pregnant two years later. Her father, a cab driver who had worked round the clock to give her opportunities, was devastated, as was her mum, a former model. But somehow she turned her life around to become a PR to A-listers – including an actor with whom she turned out to have a lot in common, Meghan Markle.And now, aged 37, Huie has written a book that overturns the PR notion that it’s what we project on the outside that matters. Instead, she argues, what we need to concentrate on is the interior search for fulfilment – finding our true purpose. Continue reading...

Blame the rain, the government or just geology, but extreme weather events are on the rise in ItalySo far this year, Rome has suffered an astonishing 44 sinkholes. Every two or three days, a new crater appears in the Italian capital’s asphalt. They’re normally the size of a small room, a few metres wide and a few metres deep. In February, though, six cars were sucked down into the bowels of the earth when 50 metres of via Livio Andronico fell away, causing entire buildings to be evacuated.It’s not a new phenomenon: there have been an average of 90 sinkholes a year in Rome since 2010. In 2013, there were 104 and 2018 will surely surpass even that record. The problem is clearly getting worse: the streets are beginning to look like black emmenthal and everyone in Italy is wondering why the earth seems, in the words of the Jewish prophet Isaiah, “to stagger like a drunken man”. Continue reading...

The clinical psychologist’s new book studies the negative effects and benefits of social anxiety in the age of social mediaEllen Hendriksen is a clinical psychologist, regular contributor to Scientific American and host of the award-winning podcast The Savvy Psychologist. Her new book about social anxiety, How to Be Yourself, has been described by Susan Cain (bestselling author of Quiet) as “groundbreaking”.What is your definition of social anxiety?

What does it really mean to say that time ‘passes’? Why does time pass faster in the mountains than it does at sea level? The physicist explains in this extract from his latest book• Interview with Carlo RovelliI stop and do nothing. Nothing happens. I am thinking about nothing. I listen to the passing of time. This is time, familiar and intimate. We are taken by it. The rush of seconds, hours, years that hurls us towards life then drags us towards nothingness ... We inhabit time as fish live in water. Our being is being in time. Its solemn music nurtures us, opens the world to us, troubles us, frightens and lulls us. The universe unfolds into the future, dragged by time, and exists according to the order of time. What could be more universal and obvious than this flowing? Continue reading...

Which? investigation finds standard ranges using cashew nuts instead of pine nuts, and parmesan substituteAn investigation into supermarket own-brand pesto has found that bamboo fibres, potato flakes and nut flour are being used as cheaper alternatives to traditional ingredients.Pesto, which is traditionally made from basil, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil – and sometimes lemon juice and garlic – has become a staple food in the UK. Continue reading...

Following another fatal Tesla crash, accident investigators have announced that they have stopped working with the company. Self-driving cars urgently need ‘ethical black boxes’ so that we can all learn from their mistakes.

This week, Hannah Devlin asks: what are sceptics of alternative medicine saying about its rise? And what can their thoughts tell us about how the scientific sceptic movement is approaching the conversation?Subscribe and review on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom and Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterPeople seek out healers in the face of illness. In the 17th century, physicians to Charles II tried to treat his seizures through bloodletting. And once upon a time, mercury was used as an elixir for life. Modern medicine eventually swept out many of the most dangerous and eccentric practices that were not firmly grounded in evidence. Continue reading...

Study of PM2.5 levels in Utah suggests increase in diagnoses of viral infections such as bronchitis follows even brief upticks in pollutionEven short-term increases in air pollution are linked to a higher risk of developing viral chest infections that turn into conditions such as bronchiolitis, new research suggests.The study, carried out by scientists in the US, looked at levels of tiny particles in the air known as PM2.5s across eight locations along the Wasatch Front in Utah, including Salt Lake City. This area features a string of towns and is home the majority of the state’s population and, due to various factors, experiences large variations in air pollution. Continue reading...

My dedication to watching woeful late-night TV is apparently a health hazard. Should society do more to cater to night owls?In my (admittedly self-regarding) opinion, I do my very best living between the hours of 11pm and, say, 3am. That’s when my children have been confined to their beds and I have the relative freedom that allows me to consume television until my eyes start to sting. Essentially, I’m talking about repeated episodes of Bullseye (the original Jim Bowen incarnation, not the abhorrent Dave Spikey reboot), maybe some BBC4 music documentaries that I’ve already seen seven or eight times, or one of the 45 episodes of A Place in the Sun that are clogging up my Sky box.Essentially nothing that represents challenging viewing, because I’m too done in to think properly by then – anything on Netflix feels like a chore, plus there’s the added time needed to scroll through endless menus, deciding on what to watch. Continue reading...

Drinking is as harmful as smoking, and more than five drinks a week lowers life expectancy, say researchersDrinking will shorten your life, according to a study that suggests every glass of wine or pint of beer over the daily recommended limit will cut half an hour from the expected lifespan of a 40-year-old.Those who think a glass of red wine every evening will help keep the heart healthy will be dismayed. The paper, published in the Lancet medical journal, says five standard 175ml glasses of wine or five pints a week is the upper safe limit – about 100g of alcohol, or 12.5 units in total. More than that raises the risk of stroke, fatal aneurysm (a ruptured artery in the chest), heart failure and death. Continue reading...

Researchers claim to have settled question of whether there was contact between islanders and Americas with construction of tuber’s ‘family tree’The sweet potato is ubiquitous enough to seem almost mundane – but its origins have long been shrouded in mystery. Now scientists say they have solved the puzzle, in the process scotching the idea that people in the Americas were in touch with Polynesians before the Europeans turned up in the New World in the 15th century.The research reveals that the sweet potato evolved just once, probably in central or northern South America, and originated from a single ancestor. What’s more, an analysis of part of a 250-year-old sweet potato plant collected during Captain Cook’s voyage to the South Pacific on HMS Endeavour suggests the spuds arrived in Polynesia by means of ocean currents.

Multimillion dollar project will scan and make public methane leaks from oil and gas plants that are a major contributor to global warming

Volcanologists use samples from Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland to recreate famous hexagonal columns in laboratoryAccording to legend, the Giant’s Causeway was built by the Irish giant, Finn MacCool, as a crossing to confront his Scottish rival. Scientists have an alternative explanation, and for the first time they have reproduced in the laboratory the process through which the causeway’s 40,000 near-perfect hexagonal columns were formed.Geometric columns are seen in a variety of volcanic rocks across the Earth and are known to form as the rock cools and contracts, resulting in a regular array of polygonal prisms or columns. But until now, geologists had been unsure of the threshold at which cooling magma suddenly fractures into a geometric pavement. Continue reading...

Exclusive: 71 million people stand to benefit from reduced price treatment for virus which can lead to liver cirrhosis, cancer and death

With its punky green mohican the striking Mary river turtle joins a new ZSL list of the world’s most vulnerable reptilesIt sports a green mohican, fleshy finger-like growths under its chin and can breathe through its genitals.The Mary river turtle is one of the most striking creatures on the planet, and it is also one of the most endangered. Continue reading...

Warm current that has historically caused dramatic changes in climate is experiencing an unprecedented slowdown and may be less stable than thought - with potentially severe consequencesThe warm Atlantic current linked to severe and abrupt changes in the climate in the past is now at its weakest in at least 1,600 years, new research shows. The findings, based on multiple lines of scientific evidence, throw into question previous predictions that a catastrophic collapse of the Gulf Stream would take centuries to occur.Such a collapse would see western Europe suffer far more extreme winters, sea levels rise fast on the eastern seaboard of the US and would disrupt vital tropical rains. The new research shows the current is now 15% weaker than around 400AD, an exceptionally large deviation, and that human-caused global warming is responsible for at least a significant part of the weakening. Continue reading...

The emergence of new strains of bacteria which can resist antibiotics or digest processed foodstuffs in our guts shows the law of unintended consequences operates everywhereThe first case anywhere in the world of a strain of gonorrhea resistant to all known antibiotics was reported late last month. The diagnosis was made in England, but it appears that the infection came from an encounter in south-east Asia. Antibiotic resistance is a global problem, and can’t be confined to any one part of the world for long. Last autumn a woman died in the US of an infection apparently picked up in an Indian hospital which was impervious to all 14 antibiotics in her hospital; later tests showed it was also resistant to the other 12 drugs available to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The dangers of antibiotic resistance are by now well understood, even if action to diminish them is slow and uncoordinated. The growth of superbugs is not just caused by overprescription in developed countries and completely uncontrolled usage in developing countries, where they are rationed only by price. It is also a product of the widespread use of antibiotics in factory farming, where they are used to keep animal populations at a density which would be impossible in nature. In all these cases, we have set up evolutionary pressures which favour the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, and evolution has responded in its usual creative way. Around half of the detected cases of infection with the campylobacter bacterium in chickens in British shops involve antibiotic-resistant strains. Campylobacter is unpleasant, but seldom deadly, and can in any case be killed by thorough cooking. Continue reading...

The fully autonomous AI weapons now being developed could disastrously transform warfare. The UN must act fastIt’s five years this month since the launch of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of non-governmental groups calling for a ban on fully autonomous weapons. This month also marks the fifth time that countries have convened at the United Nations in Geneva to address the problems these weapons would pose if they were developed and put into use.The countries meeting in Geneva this week are party to a major disarmament treaty called the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. While some diplomatic progress has been made under that treaty’s auspices since 2013, the pace needs to pick up dramatically. Countries that recognise the dangers of fully autonomous weapons cannot wait another five years if they are to prevent the weapons from becoming a reality. Continue reading...

Recent research on solenodon molecules reminds us the study of fossils is far from extinctWe can now extract DNA from pretty much anything. If US crime series are anything to go by (they are not), sequencing it only takes an afternoon at a desktop computer, and an expression of determination. DNA can not only help identify murderers, but tell us how animal groups are related to one another. In the last 50 years it has transformed scientific understanding of family trees and the evolution of life on earth.With such technology at our fingertips, you may be left wondering: when it comes to understanding evolution, do we still need palaeontology? If I want to know if a hedgehog is more closely related to a shrew or a mole, I can just DNA test them, can’t I? Continue reading...

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesA few months ago, my family and I went to a nearby cat rescue shelter to get a kitten. There were five in the available litter to choose from, but as we were watching them play, one of the two tabbies boldly decided to scale a nearby sack of bedding, then promptly fell in head-first and couldn’t get out. Obviously, we had to have that idiot. And that’s how we ended up with Pickle. Continue reading...