Findings shed light on variations in response to treatment between diabetics –and could help identify those at high risk of complicationsDiabetes that begins in adulthood falls into five distinct categories, new research has revealed, with scientists suggesting it is time to ditch the idea that diabetes is largely split into two types.Researchers say all of the newly classified subgroups are genetically distinct and have numerous differences, including the age at which they tend to occur and different levels of risk for complications such as kidney disease.

Pictures taken close to the face distort the proportions of your features, study emphasisesIf a penchant for selfies has left you worried about the size of your nose, you might want to consider a selfie-stick.Researchers say selfie-lovers should be aware that snapping a picture with the camera close to your face distorts the proportions of your features.

Have those psychologists who criticise mobile phone use ever had to IMDb the plot of Tango & Cash to save a friendship?Whether you’re someone who keeps yours on the table during dinners with friends, or one who gets offended at new-message-checking between courses, there’s no denying that mobile phones cause problems. Tools of distraction and distancing that chip away at our attention spans with every vibration and ping, they steadily steal the real connection of person-to-person communication. At least, so say older relatives who comment on your WhatsApp use during family gatherings. And so say the psychologists who worked on the University of British Columbia’s study titled “Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions” academic study.What’s not irritating and won’t let you down? That true friend, the smartphone … that is, until the battery runs out Continue reading...

On Baby Sleep Day, here are some insights that might help get you through the long, broken nightsPairing the words “baby” and “sleep” can evoke strong emotions. Those who have had limited contact with little ones might interpret this word-combination as implying deep and prolonged slumber. For others, this union of words may elicit memories of prolonged periods of chaotic sleep (or what can feel like no sleep at all).

Newly discovered marks push back evidence for tattooing in Africa by a millenniumA wild bull, a Barbary sheep and S-shaped motifs discovered on two mummies in the British Museum have been revealed as the world’s earliest known figural tattoos.Researchers say the discoveries on two naturally mummified bodies that date from between 3351 and 3017BC mean they will have to rewrite the story of tattooing. Continue reading...

Staphylococcus epidermidis may help to protect against skin cancer, and could lead to preventive treatments, scientists revealA type of bacteria commonly found on human skin produces a substance that may help protect against skin cancer, researchers have revealed.The scientists say the surprise discovery regarding a strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis highlights the importance of the community microbes found on and in the body in preventing disease. Continue reading...

My former colleague Howard Rees, who has died aged 89, was the chief veterinary officer who dealt with the problem of salmonella in eggs in the 1980s and introduced the measures that eventually saw off the problem of BSE in cattle. He was widely regarded as the most able veterinary public servant of his generation.On retirement in 1988 he became president of the World Organisation for Animal Health’s animal health code commission in Paris and under his presidency the commission drafted complex and contentious guidelines that dealt with the international trade in livestock in the context of BSE. He held the post for nine years and was awarded the organisation’s gold medal in 1994. Continue reading...

‘Revolutionary’ observations suggest the first stars appeared 180m years after the big bang – and may hold information on dark matterAstronomers have detected a signal from the first stars as they appeared and illuminated the universe, in observations that have been hailed as “revolutionary”.The faint radio signals suggest the universe was lifted out of total darkness 180m years after the big bang in a momentous transition known as the cosmic dawn. Continue reading...

Normally depicted as lunch for other animals, illustrator Franz Anthony brings a diverse range of fossil cephalopods to lifeAlthough the coiled shells of ammonites are a familiar fossil when it comes to reconstructing past environments through art, invertebrates like cephalopods (the group that includes octopuses, nautiluses, “squids” and their relatives, as well as fossil forms ammonites, belemnites and lesser known ancestral groups) normally only feature in the jaws of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Artist Franz Anthony has sought to address this disservice (#justiceforcephalopods) with a series of illustrations focusing on a diverse line up of extinct cephalopods to show these animals off in their own right and not just as background characters – or lunch – in palaeoart.Related: Zombie ammonite discovery is 'snapshot of an unusual moment in deep time' | Elsa Panciroli Continue reading...

Singer and actor tells Variety she made clones of 14-year-old Samantha before it died last yearBarbra Streisand has revealed she successfully made two clones of her pet dog after it died last year.The singer and actor told the Hollywood trade publication Variety that cells were taken from the mouth and stomach of her 14-year-old Coton de Tulear dog, Samantha. Continue reading...

Many people hate the idea of networking, despite appreciating its potential value to their careers. Here’s an expert’s guideDo you want to advance your career or business and make more money? Silly question probably. Widening your network might be the answer. A study led by North Carolina State University’s Jeffrey Pollack found a link between entrepreneurs’ networking activities and how much money they brought in.Many people understand that they should network, but at the same time hate the idea of it. It’s easy to think of networking as a process of having to talk to complete strangers, schmoozing and pretending to be something you’re not. But many individuals go from not feeling like they can manage it to doing it very well indeed.

We can say with certainty that antidepressants are effective drugs. But don’t be disheartened if they’re not for youIn my first year of university, just after I had been prescribed fluoxetine for depression, I had an argument about it with a close friend. He told me that taking antidepressants would make my feelings false, my emotions manufactured. I wouldn’t be able to tell if what I was feeling was real – and that was wrong. At the time I did not know how to articulate that all of our feelings are linked to chemicals: that even eating a chocolate bar can give me a blood-sugar spike and alter my behaviour, that feeling the sunshine on my skin can give me hope and energy. Furthermore, that the contraceptive pills his girlfriends took were liable to make them angry, not to mention less horny. I did not know how to say that the antidepressant I took in order to cope with my life was not that different to the ketamine and cocaine he used to cope with his. In any case, it was a pretentious argument of the kind one has at university, and both of us lacked the scientific knowledge to really underpin our views. It was all posturing.Once I accepted that I needed help and began treatment, I felt calmer within a week Continue reading...

Sahara snow and volcanic colours are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthRare snowfall in north-west Algeria, on the edge of the Sahara desert. Despite the desert at times being one of the hottest places on Earth, the snow was reported to be up to 40cm thick in some places. Although temperatures plummet during the night, snowfall is very unusual in the Sahara because the air is so dry. It is only the third time in nearly 40 years that this part of the desert has seen snow. Continue reading...

Study confirms accuracy of using mouth clicks to identify location of objects, and uncovers insights which could help teach the skillSome people who are blind learn the extraordinary skill of echolocation, using mouth clicks to explore their environment in a way comparable to how bats navigate.Now scientists have uncovered new insights into how this feat is performed, which could help others to learn the skill. Continue reading...

Scientists suggest authoritarian attitudes may be partly rooted in biological urge to avoid catching diseases from unfamiliar peoplePeople who have a greater tendency to turn their nose up at the whiff of urine, sweat and other body odours are more likely to have rightwing authoritarian attitudes, research suggests.The study also found having a greater disgust for body odours was linked, albeit to a small degree, with support for Donald Trump when he was a presidential candidate.

One of the leading theoretical astrophysicists of his generationDonald Lynden-Bell, who has died aged 82, was one of the leading theoretical astrophysicists of his generation. He proposed in 1969 that quasars are powered by supermassive black holes and that most large galaxies, including our own, would host a dead quasar in their nucleus. He was a brilliant dynamicist, inventing the concept of “violent relaxation” in stellar systems, but he was also interested in what could be learned from observational mapping of our galaxy and its surroundings.Quasars, short for quasi-stellar radio sources, had been found during optical follow-up of radio surveys. In 1963 Maarten Schmidt had found that the quasar 3C273 had what was for the time a high red shift, indicating that it had a huge luminosity, and others soon followed. For a while, there was controversy about whether the red shifts were cosmological. Continue reading...

Yotam Ottolenghi | Snow | Mnemonics | Tony Blair | Groundhog DayAnne Summers throws down the olive-oil-mash-in-eight-minutes gauntlet to Yotam Ottolenghi (Letters, 27 February). I had the good fortune to attend an Ottolenghi demonstration in 2010 at Leiths. Most visiting chefs managed four or five, or at most six, quite complex dishes during a three-hour demo: Ottolenghi managed nine – all delicious – without breaking sweat, while simultaneously interviewing 48 diploma students about their hopes and interests. I fear she’d lose the bet.

Didn’t you report 2002 that two tiny pieces of engraved ochre found in Blombos Cave in South Africa were the oldest works of art ever discovered, writes John PictonGiven all the recent publicity about the attribution of European cave paintings to Neanderthal artists at an earlier date than expected for Homo sapiens (Neanderthals were artists 65,000 years ago, 23 February), it is a pity the Guardian does not recall its own previous headlines. In an article 16 years ago (World’s first artwork found in Africa, 11 January 2002) you said: “Two tiny pieces of engraved ochre are the oldest works of art ever discovered, scientists say, showing the artist in mankind was awakened, in Africa at least 77,000 years ago. Found in Blombos Cave in South Africa, the pieces are carved with a pattern of crossed lines, showing that humans had a capacity for abstract thought, and use of symbols, tens of thousands of years before they spread from Africa to Europe.” Homo sapiens was always ahead of the game!

Interest in Enceladus as a potential host for alien life likely to intensify as tests show Earth bacteria thrive in similar conditionsDeep-sea bacteria thrive in conditions designed to closely match those on Saturn’s tiny moon, Enceladus, according to scientists investigating the potential for alien life forms to survive there.The findings are likely to intensify interest in Enceladus, which has risen to the top of the list of potential locations in our solar system that might have the right conditions to support extraterrestrial life. Last year Nasa announced that a flyby of Enceladus by the Cassini spacecraft had identified water, ice and most of the chemical ingredients necessary for habitability. Continue reading...

Record warmth in the Arctic this month could yet prove to be a freak occurrence, but experts warn the warming event is unprecedentedAn alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change.Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north. Continue reading...

Dr Daniel Glaser and Producer Max are back for a second season of A Neuroscientist Explains – and this time they’re going it alone!Subscribe and review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterA Neuroscientist Explains returns for a second season! Each week Dr Daniel Glaser and Producer Max will revisit a column from Dan’s hugely successful weekly column in the Observer Magazine. One subject, one interview and many, many interesting questions. Continue reading...

Pollution of coastal waters by sources including sewage and farm run-off may be the cause, experts suggestPeople who swim in the sea are at significantly higher risk of stomach bugs, ear problems and other illnesses than those who stick to the sand, research suggests.

Humans make huge use of marine vertebrates, but manta rays may pass the self-awareness test and other fish potentially could too. Ethically, where does that leave us?As a shark biologist, I enjoy nothing more than going scuba diving with sharks in the wild. However, I realise it’s an immense privilege to do this as part of my work – and that for the vast majority of people experiencing the underwater world in such a way is simply not possible.

Pills may help adults, but most depression has its roots in our early years, and helping children who are struggling could stop it before it beginsSian was just 14, brought by her misery to the edge of self-harm, when I met her in a cafe at the top end of one of the old mining valleys. Neutral ground. She told me about her rugby-playing older brother and her bright little sister who had lots of pets and wanted to be a vet. She felt that her parents doted on them and that there could be no room in anyone’s heart for her. She told me about her only friend, who had been killed in a road accident just as they went up to big school. About the recent death of her grandmother, who had been the only person she could confide in. And about the GP who had said she was depressed and given her a course of pills.I thought about Sian again this week. The newspaper headlines across the world were welcoming a major study that confirmed the value of antidepressant medication in the treatment of depression in adults. And so did I. Depression was validated at long last as an illness every bit as serious as physical conditions, that could cause untold human suffering and economic devastation, but could be helped with a course of antidepressant pills. Continue reading...

One of Britain’s greatest strengths is set to diminish as China asserts itself on the world stageIn China last month, Theresa May attended the launch of the British Council’s English is Great campaign, intended to boost interest and fluency in our national language. This might sound like Donald Trump’s notorious “Make America great again”, but comes in fact from a stronger position. Beyond doubt, the use of English is greater than ever, and far more widespread than any other language in the world. All non-English-speaking powers of our globalised world recognise it as the first foreign language to learn; it is also, uniquely, in practical use worldwide. The British Council reckons that English is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people, a quarter of the world’s population. It is taught from primary level up in all China’s schools; it is the working language of the whole European Union.Related: Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet? Continue reading...

From sexual politics to actual politics, language is changing fast and dividing us not only by generation but also by education. It’s easy to trip up, even if you mean wellIt had to happen, I suppose, in this era of self-identification. Lately, I have come to identify as the Duke of Edinburgh, a man famous for barging around the world insulting the locals. I also say the wrong things, although I try to avoid out-and-out racism. To a visually impaired woman with a guide dog, the Duke once said: “Do you know they’re now producing eating dogs for the anorexics?” He is lauded as the don of the Clarkson-Littlejohn truthtelling variety rather than a rude git. Can I say “git”? I love the word git.As I live with a social justice warrior (a teenager) I feel increasingly Dukey. I am in constant trouble for the things I say. When referring to somone as gay the other day, she yelled that I was “biphobic”. It all ended badly, with me informing her that the difference between a straight man and a gay man was half a lager. I shouldn’t have said that. I should have said craft beer. We made up with a takeway. She ordered a potato curry with her masala dosa. When I said: “That’s a lot of potatoes,” she called me racist, because she is half Irish. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesIn my puzzle blog earlier today I set you four examples of the Turkish puzzle Tapa.If you want to see the questions click here. Continue reading...

The Zoological Information Management System takes the guesswork out of animal attraction and helps promote genetic variety

This Turkish puzzle is a delight.

Cancer Research UK says people born between early 80s and mid-90s set to overtake baby boomersMillennials are set to be the fattest generation of Britons, with 70% dangerously overweight before they hit middle age, research shows.People born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s are set to overtake baby boomers as the age group with the highest proportion of overweight or obese people, according to Cancer Research UK. Continue reading...

The moon is almost full this week as its path on the ecliptic plane takes it close by Regulus in the constellation of LeoThis week’s “must see” is another for early risers. On 1 March the almost full Moon will pass very close to Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo (see chart). Regulus is the closest bright star to the ecliptic plane. This is the path that the planets, the Sun and the Moon all follow in the sky. The ecliptic passes through a number of constellations. Most of these are known as the zodiacal constellations and, like Leo, their names are familiar because of their long association with astrological myth. At 06:00 GMT on 1 March, the Moon will be less than a degree to the north of Regulus. The Moon itself measures half a degree across when full, meaning that it draws to within two-diameters-distance of the star. Although Regulus looks like a single object to the naked eye it is instead composed of at least four stars in orbit around each other. Continue reading...

The first human contact with another intelligent species is a staple of science fiction, but we now know it happened 40,000 years agoThe three human subspecies known to have hybridised to produce the present human population of the planet, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens and Denisovans, last had a common ancestor more than half a million years ago. Until now it has been assumed that the only branch of her descendants to think symbolically was us, Homo sapiens. In fact, until the development of sequencing techniques sensitive enough to work on ancient DNA, it was thought that the other two species had died out entirely, rather than leaving portions of their genome in European and Melanesian populations respectively. But the discovery, reported last week, of palaeolithic art at four sites in Spain that dates from the time when the peninsula was occupied only by Neanderthals, shows that they worked with symbols of stone and paint.We have no idea what these markings mean. That is in the nature of symbolism, and indeed of language: the meaning of a sound, or a marking on the wall, is given by the community that uses it; it can’t be read by outsiders. We already know that Neanderthals were anatomically equipped for speech; their use of painted symbols suggests that they could make audible symbols and not just visible ones. Continue reading...

Leading astrophysicist Mark McCaughrean, based in the Netherlands, says many may have to forgo British citizenshipOne of the most senior British scientists in Europe has made an impassioned plea to the government to reconsider its implacable opposition to freedom of movement, saying it is a direct attack on around 1 million British nationals living on the continent.Britons living in Europe will be left with fewer rights if free movement disappears, while European passport holders living in the UK will continue to have rights as EU citizens post-Brexit. Continue reading...

A study proving the effectiveness of medication was no surprise. But the news that talking therapies can be as effective as drugs was a striking detailThe results of a comprehensive, six-year study confirmed last week what I’ve known a long time: antidepressants work. I know this because half the people I know are on them – and that’s only the half I know about. Antidepressants saved my life, they tell me, and I believe them. I don’t say: “The only thing you’ve swallowed is propaganda, mate, straight from Big Pharma’s chalky teat.” I would have to be a maniac to do that. And I’m not a maniac. At least, not in that way.I’ve been on antidepressants at various points in my life. And I’ve always been one of the 80% who come off them within a month, looking for another way. I quickly tire of the tweaking of drugs and dosages required to find the appropriate prescription. I freak out at the initial side-effects – the flaccidness in my brain, the lack of ideas in my underpants. More than that, I’ve always had been uncomfortable accepting there is something medically wrong with me. Continue reading...

The most intriguing abandoned settlements, from ancient ruins to modern ghost townsLast week laser scanning revealed the true scale of the ancient city of Angamuco in western Mexico. The city, built around AD900, is thought to have had 100,000 residents and included pyramids, road systems, vegetable gardens and ball courts. It was a major centre for the Purépecha people, rivals to the Aztecs. Both cultures collapsed in the 16th century when Europeans introduced typhoid-like diseases to which they had no immunity. Continue reading...

The journalist and author Henry Nicholls has been struggling with several sleep disorders for decades, but for many it’s just a jokeFor a serious examination of the devastating and incurable disability that is narcolepsy, Henry Nicholls’s book, Sleepy Head, is a surprisingly funny account.There is the obvious, if somewhat cruel, humour to be found in stories of people falling asleep in surprising places: in a small boat sailing around the Farne Islands, with the freezing North Sea cascading over the gunwale; while scuba diving; on a rollercoaster; at the dentist’s; on the back of a horse; on a surfboard. But there are other extremely funny insights that Nicholls gives into the crepuscular world that narcoleptics inhabit: his laconic fretting over the etiquette of attending a CBT group for insomniacs, which he discovers he also suffers from while researching the book. “A narcoleptic attending an insomnia clinic could be seen as the height of insensitivity,” he deadpans. Then there’s the attempt to solve sleep apnoea by learning the didgeridoo. (Didgetherapy, since you ask. It involves acrylic didgeridoos and is, apparently, quite effective.) Continue reading...

It’s never been easy for people to change their mind. But in a world of social media and polarised opinion, the stakes are now even higher. Time for a listening revolutionIn the past week, the spectacle of the American gun lobby facing down the bereaved families of Parkland, Florida, has been difficult to watch. So close to the latest tragedy, the insistence on the sanctity of the right to bear arms has looked not only wrong-headed but wildly perverse. The weight of evidence, which grows shooting by shooting, goes a long way to proving that the second amendment has the diametrically opposite effect from that – keeping families safe – in which its proponents place their faith. The disconnect invites a question that seems increasingly insistent in our lives: on big issues, why is it so very hard for people to change their minds?In the case of gun control, it is tempting to believe this is primarily a political question or even a financial one. In Wednesday’s emotive town hall debate in Miami, one young survivor of the shooting put that case directly to the Republican Florida senator Marco Rubio: the National Rifle Association had supported Rubio’s career to the tune of $3.3m; would he now refuse to take any more? For Donald Trump, intent on arming teachers, the monetary incentive looked even more telling: his campaign had benefited from a reported $21m of NRA funding. Continue reading...

Study into ‘health attacks’ on embassy staff sparks controversy, with some experts claiming situation is being spun for political gainWhen a mystery illness rippled through the US embassy in Cuba in late 2016, the diplomatic fallout was rapid.The US slashed the number of people at its Havana mission and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats after at least 24 American staff and family reported a mix of headaches, dizziness, eyesight, hearing, sleep and concentration problems. Continue reading...

At first blinking was hard. But I worked at it, fighting my brain. Every task is an effort, but I’m committed to getting betterHalf a day. That’s all it took. Half a day turned my world upside down. My life as a mother, with dreams of building a successful law practice and growing another hobby business. And throughout, aspirations to write.All gone. Flipped in half a day. Continue reading...

Pioneer of ‘green chemistry’ through his groundbreaking research into ionic liquidsKenneth Seddon, who has died aged 67 after suffering from cancer, was a pioneering chemist and acknowledged leader of “green chemistry”. He led the growth of research into a relatively new area of study, ionic liquids.Ken did not discover these substances, but in the 1980s he was the first to see that they were an unexplored form of matter with huge potential. Unlike everyday molecular solvents, such as water, acetone (nail varnish remover) or petrol, which are uncharged, these liquid salts consist of disparately shaped positive and negative ions. This gives the liquids high electric fields, and therefore high solubilities. It also means they mostly do not release fumes, evaporate or boil. Ken realised that changing the ion combinations of the material meant trillions of compositions were possible: you could potentially make a liquid to meet any need – viscous or runny, hydrophobic or hydrophilic – that was also environmentally benign, as the material itself could be designed to minimise toxicity or biodegradability issues. Continue reading...

Ian Sample delves into a preliminary study of US embassy staff said to have been targeted by an energy source in Cuba. With no unifying explanation, what do scientists think happened?Subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterBetween 2016 and 2017, a number of US diplomats in Cuba reported distressing symptoms including headaches, dizziness, eyesight, hearing, concentration and balance problems. Many claimed to have heard curious sounds either at home or in hotel rooms in Havana. Were the diplomats attacked with a mysterious new weapon? Was it espionage gone wrong? Or is there another explanation? Last week, a preliminary medical study of the diplomats was released, prompting further debate. Continue reading...

Academics dispute the claims made for these drugs in a recent study, while one long-term user recounts how they have worked for her and other readers point to the usefulness of meditation and community in fending off depressionIt was disappointing to read such an uncritical description of the latest analysis of antidepressant trials that does not address doubts about the widespread use of these drugs (The drugs do work, says study of antidepressants, 22 February).The analysis consists of comparing “response” rates between people on antidepressants and those on placebo. But “response” is an artificial category that has been arbitrarily constructed out of the data actually collected, which consists of scores on depression rating scales. Analysing categories inflates differences. When scores are compared, differences are trivial, and unlikely to be clinically relevant. Continue reading...

This weeks headlines have been full of our ancestors, most prominently the discovery that Neanderthals painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago – tens of thousands of years before the arrival of modern humans. Some say this made them the first artists on Earth, but Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones has some interesting points to make about that claim. Neanderthals aside, an intriguing theory that Homo erectus may have been a sailor and able to speak has been put forward. Researchers also say that ancient DNA reveals that the arrival of the Beaker folk changed Britain forever. Genetic analysis has shown that at least 90% of the ancestry of Britons was replaced by a wave of migrants, who arrived about 4,500 years ago. Also unpicking the past were some Australian scientists, who say that if you want to know about T rex’s locomotion then watching how an ibis moves might just be the key. Another team of antipodean researchers are using 3D scans to try to unlock the evolutionary history of the Tasmanian tiger. Shedding light in a totally different way were scientists who have used synthetic bioluminescent molecules to make brain cells glow so brightly they can be seen outside the body. Used only in animals so far, the luminescence allows researchers to track individual cells in animals with unprecedented accuracy. The future’s bright, it seems ... Continue reading...

Scientists say cave paintings in Spain, thought to have been by our ancestors, were actually by Neanderthals. So did they teach us everything we know?

At the beginning, we hunted frantically for any medical breakthrough that might hint at a cure. Then hope gave way to the unbearable truth

Health secretary says mistakes in dispensing medicines cause ‘totally avoidable harm and death’

Using the TESS satellite, now at the Kennedy Space Centre, the agency is to study 200,000 stars in a quest for habitable planetsNasa’s next planet hunting mission has arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre, in Florida, for final checks ahead of its April launch. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will spend at least two years studying more than 200,000 nearby stars and looking for planets. The mission is expected to discover thousands of previously unknown worlds by detecting the small drops in light which occur when each planet passes across the face of its parent star.This approach, known as the transit method, was employed to great effect by Kepler, a Nasa mission which has detected, so far, more than 2,500 confirmed planets around other stars. Continue reading...

Synthetic bioluminescent molecules allows researchers to track individual cells in animals with unprecedented accuracyScientists have stolen a trick from fireflies and jellyfish to make animals with cells that glow so brightly they can be seen from outside the body.The Japanese team created mice and marmosets whose brains contain nerve cells that produce light which can be picked up by a camera to study the tissues inside the living animals. Continue reading...

Neanderthals painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago – tens of thousands of years before modern humans arrived, say researchersMore than 65,000 years ago, a Neanderthal reached out and made strokes in red ochre on the wall of a cave, and in doing so, became the first known artist on Earth, scientists claim.The discovery overturns the widely-held belief that modern humans are the only species to have expressed themselves through works of art. Continue reading...

A look at the problems Victor Frankenstein would have faced, from preservation of tissue to developing new surgical techniquesThe bicentenary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus has meant a lot of people are re-examining this brilliant work of science fiction. My particular interest is the science fact behind the science fiction. How much real science influenced Mary Shelley? Could a real-life Victor Frankenstein have constructed a creature?In terms of the technical aspects of building a creature from scraps, many people focus on the collecting of the raw materials and reanimation stages. It’s understandable as there are many great stories about grave-robbers and dissection rooms as well as electrical experiments that were performed on recently executed murderers. But there quite a few stages between digging up dead bodies and reanimating a creature. Continue reading...