A revolution is coming in our relationship with ‘lower’ creatures, provoked by a greater knowledge of their cognition. Labour’s new plans for animal welfare are just a startScientific insight is a powerful thing, but will it ever override the human lust for health, prosperity and, saddest of all, convenience? This question entered my head as I read of the Labour party’s newly announced policies for animal welfare “informed and underpinned by the latest evidence on animal sentience”. Such an approach would lead to laudable bans on foie gras imports and nonsensical badger culling. But let’s be careful what we wish for: further down the line, it would also lead to some uncomfortable dilemmas. In fact, how we redraw our relationship with animals promises to be one of the dominant themes of the coming decades.Those alert to animal sentience already find themselves in difficult situations. Richard Dawkins, for example, has declared: “We have no general reason to think that non-human animals feel pain less acutely than we do.” This, Dawkins says, should change our cultural habits. Practices such as branding cattle, castration without anaesthetic and bullfighting, for instance, “should be treated as morally equivalent to doing the same thing to human beings”. Continue reading...

Advance brings us closer to growing transplant organs inside animals or being able to genetically tailor compatible organs, say researchersGrowing human organs inside other animals has taken another step away from science-fiction, with researchers announcing they have grown sheep embryos containing human cells.Scientists say growing human organs inside animals could not only increase supply, but also offer the possibility of genetically tailoring the organs to be compatible with the immune system of the patient receiving them, by using the patient’s own cells in the procedure, removing the possibility of rejection. Continue reading...

Non-invasive imaging reveals landscape painting beneath Pablo Picasso’s The Crouching Beggar but who created it remains a mysteryWrapped in a mustard coloured blanket with a white scarf and her head on one side, Pablo Picasso’s La Misereuse Accroupie (The Crouching Beggar) is a study of forlorn resignation. But researchers say that there is more to desolate character than meets the eye.Beneath the mournful image lies another painting, a landscape, researchers have revealed after using non-invasive imaging techniques to examine the work. Continue reading...

Whether or not the world really is getting worse, the nature of news will make us think that it isEvery day the news is filled with stories about war, terrorism, crime, pollution, inequality, drug abuse and oppression. And it’s not just the headlines we’re talking about; it’s the op-eds and long-form stories as well. Magazine covers warn us of coming anarchies, plagues, epidemics, collapses, and so many “crises” (farm, health, retirement, welfare, energy, deficit) that copywriters have had to escalate to the redundant “serious crisis.”Whether or not the world really is getting worse, the nature of news will interact with the nature of cognition to make us think that it is. Continue reading...

A third of America’s astronauts are women, says Dr Ellen Ochoa, a director at an agency that has come a long way on equalityThere is at least a one in three chance that the first human to set foot on the moon this century will be a woman, Dr Ellen Ochoa, the head of Nasa’s Johnson space center has said.In the early 1960s Nasa sent out rejection letters saying it had no plans to send women into space. Among those who apparently received the brush-off was a teenage Hillary Clinton. But the agency has since changed its tune, and in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. In 2013 Nasa announced that half of its new class of eight astronauts were women – a first for the agency. Continue reading...

Should aliens be discovered, public reaction is likely to be positive, say researchers – despite alarming fictional portrayals of contact“The fear I felt was no rational fear, but a panic terror,” wrote HG Wells, describing his narrator’s response to a Martian invasion in War of the Worlds.But despite such alarming portrayals, researchers say the discovery of alien life is more likely to be welcomed with open arms than panic. Continue reading...

University of Minnesota academics say boys and girls pick up speech cues from adults around them, resulting in differencesThe gender of children can be picked up from their speech from as young as five years old, researchers have revealed.While male and female children have no physiological reason for sounding different before puberty, when changes to the larynx kick in, researchers say boys and girls pick up telltale speech cues from adults around them, resulting in perceptible differences in their speech. Continue reading...

Ian Sample asks: how safe is vaping? Can it help people stop smoking? And should it be available via a doctor’s prescription?Subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIf you’re not a smoker, it may be hard to imagine the appeal of cigarettes. The idea of inhaling thousands of chemicals into your body just doesn’t seem that tempting. It’s hard to wrap your head around the addiction if you haven’t experienced it and even more difficult to appreciate how hard it is to quit. But according to a new report released by Public Health England (PHE) electronic cigarettes are significantly safer than smoking and can offer a potential aid for smoking cessation. But how much do we really know about vaping and its risks? Is there consensus between scientists and the public? And should the NHS be encouraging the use of e-cigarettes to aid quitters? Continue reading...

Worries over whether women are doing their ‘fair share’ has a clear impact on their health, according to a new analysisGuilt about not doing enough housework may be harming working women’s health, according to new analysis of data from the International Social Survey Programme.

Research shows male mice exposed to a mildly stressful event produced sperm richer in certain types of molecules called microRNAsStressed fathers may end up with changes to their sperm that could affect behaviour in their offspring, research in mice has shown.Previous work by the team found that male mice who were exposed to a mildly stressful event, such as being restrained, produced sperm that was richer in certain types of molecules called microRNAs. Continue reading...

Jaws have dropped as new laser scanning techniques revealed an ancient Mexican city that archaeologists say may have had as many buildings as Manhattan. Groundbreaking lidar scanning is showing the true scale of Angamuco, which was built by the Purépecha from about 900AD. From that sublime news to the utterly ridiculous: experts are having to voice their concern about the rise of DIY faecal transplants. It seems people need to be warned that, although some really promising science suggests links between gut microbes and a host of health problems, jumping ahead of scientists and following a Youtube video to do it at home is a really daft idea. Step away from your laptops, people, or accept the consequences and a Darwin award. Worrying in a different way is the news that compounds called perfluoroalkyl substances – found in non-stick pans, packaging and some carpets – may contribute to obesity. They have already been potentially linked to cancer, high cholesterol and immune problems. This will cheer you up though: ants are officially incredible. Researchers have observed “paramedic ants” treating their injured comrades, cleaning wounds and possibly even administering antibiotics to prevent infection. Make sure you watch the video, it’s pretty cool. And speaking of cool (well, he’s cold), one of our reporters, Matthew Taylor, is currently aboard the Arctic Sunrise on a Greenpeace expedition in the Antarctic– do you have any questions you’d like him to ask the scientists and experts on board? Let us know what they are. Continue reading...

A storm of retractions, corrections, data irregularities and controversy over duplicate publication are destroying the credibility of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab. It’s time for the university to be open about what’s going on

I was told impact metrics could make or break careers. Instead, they broke my faith in scientific researchThe first time I heard about the impact factor I was a few weeks into my PhD. A candidate due to finish in a couple of months warned me emphatically: “It makes or breaks careers.” In my innocence, I didn’t think much about it and returned to concentrating on my research. A decade later, metrics such as these came to dominate my work and ultimately drove me to give up my permanent academic post and move into industry.

Faecal transplants have been used in medical settings to tackle superbugs, but following YouTube videos at home is too risky, say researchersConcerns have been raised about the growing trend for DIY faecal transplants, with experts fearing such attempts could put individuals at an increased risk of HIV and hepatitis as well as conditions ranging from Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis to obesity and sleep disorders.The transfer of faeces from one human to another has gained attention as a growing number of studies have suggested links between microbes in the gut and a host of health problems, from autoimmune diseases to anxiety. Continue reading...

Scientists call for caution in prescribing anticoagulants after some patients with other conditions found to suffer more strokesBlood-thinning drugs may increase rather than cut the risk of stroke in some people over 65 who have an irregular heartbeat and also chronic kidney disease, according to a new study.The researchers are calling on doctors to be more cautious in prescribing the drugs, called anticoagulants, until there has been more research. Continue reading...

Groundbreaking lidar scanning reveals the true scale of Angamuco, built by the Purépecha from about 900ADArchaeology might evoke thoughts of intrepid explorers and painstaking digging, but in fact researchers say it is a high-tech laser mapping technique that is rewriting the textbooks at an unprecedented rate.The approach, known as light detection and ranging scanning (lidar) involves directing a rapid succession of laser pulses at the ground from an aircraft. Continue reading...

The annual Lupercalia festival turned society upside down – and the location of its starting point is still hotly debatedScenes from films like Gladiator and series such as HBO’s Rome might lead you to think that the ancient Romans were liberal in their view of nudity. In fact the opposite was true. It was only during exceptional occasions that Romans were freed from their social norms – and the most spectacular occasion was the annual Lupercalia festival.

Findings suggest increased consumption of ultra-processed foods tied to rise in cancers, but scientists say more research is needed“Ultra-processed” foods, made in factories with ingredients unknown to the domestic kitchen, may be linked to cancer, according to a large and groundbreaking study.Ultra-processed foods include pot noodles, shelf-stable ready meals, cakes and confectionery which contain long lists of additives, preservatives, flavourings and colourings – as well as often high levels of sugar, fat and salt. They now account for half of all the food bought by families eating at home in the UK, as the Guardian recently revealed. Continue reading...

Questioning the hidden power of elites – whether big pharma or secret societies – is really quite saneIf the Illuminati is real, it’s got to be the least secret secret society in the universe. It’s so bad at keeping itself hidden that its existence is proclaimed all over the internet by people whose investigative toolkit consists entirely of Google and a lively imagination.The most recent would-be whistleblower, however, is far from your usual ex-sports commentator. Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian minister of defence, has blamed the Illuminati for suppressing technology brought to Earth by aliens that could end our reliance on fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Doctors hail breakthrough and say case shows ‘modest but functional lactation can be induced in transgender women’A 30-year-old transgender woman has been able to breastfeed her child, the first ever case of induced lactation in a transgender woman to be documented in academic literature.Doctors said the case shows “modest but functional lactation can be induced in transgender women”. The account was published in Transgender Health. Continue reading...

Shellfish reefs, formed by oysters or mussels in or near estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisationMarine scientists are lobbying the federal government to ensure protection for Australia’s most endangered – but least known – ocean ecosystem.Shellfish reefs, formed by millions of oysters or mussels clustering together in or near the mouths of estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisation. Continue reading...

Recent fossils in amber tell us how spiders evolved into their modern groups, but the fossil record for arachnids goes much deeperThe discovery of a 100m-year-old spider ancestor with a whip-like tail, bearing a more than slight resemblance to everyone’s favourite parasitoid alien – the facehugger – gained a lot of media interest last week. Some arachnologists were upset by both the language of fear in the coverage (“creepy” and “horrifying” were popular descriptions) and by some folks expressing a desire to nuke it from orbit. It seems that despite (or perhaps because) of the intense responses that spiders evoke in people, there is always an interest in where and how they evolved.The newly described species, Chimerarachne yingi, was based on two specimens found in amber of about 100 My old from Myanmar. Unusually, the new find was revealed in two simultaneously-published papers in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. The rules for the naming of species mean that only one of the papers, by Bo Wang and colleagues, gets to be the formal description and naming of the species (and new genus, the next level up in classifying organisms). Both Wang’s paper and that of Diying Huang and colleagues, aimed to place the new find in terms of the spider family tree. The new species has features of modern spiders, known as the Araneae: a male pedipalp (sensory appendage) modified for sperm transfer, and well-defined spinnerets for silk spinning. But, it also has its distinctive tail, a feature not found in modern spiders, but associated with an ancient grouping of “almost-spiders” known as the Uraraneida. Continue reading...

Concerns over the addictive properties of video games are reasonable but there is a lack of rigorous research behind the WHO’s expected classificationVideo games played on smartphones, tablets, computers and consoles have been a popular form of leisure for some time now. In Europe, recent figures indicate that games are played by more than two thirds of children and adolescents, and a substantial number of adults now play games – 38% in the UK, 64% in France, 56% in Germany and 44% in Spain.

With its new Reply system the firm is taking the art of conversion one step forwards – or should that be backwards?Are you tired of the constant need to tap on a glass keyboard just to keep up with your friends? Do you wish a robot could free you of your constant communication obligations via WhatsApp, Facebook or text messages? Google is working on an AI-based auto-reply system to do just that.

How do our bodies regulate themselves – and is it even true that we have a single body temperature? New technology will tell usI’m one of those people who always feels cold. Maybe it’s my upbringing in the chilly north, or maybe it’s down the quirks of my own physiology, but I’m reliably found next to the fire, hiding from draughts that no-one else had noticed, or buried inside enough jumpers to stock a small shop. At the other end of the scale, when everyone else is sweating buckets, I’m basking smugly because I’m finally at a comfortable temperature.Like most of us, my attitude towards my body temperature is similar to Goldilocks’ attitude to porridge – it’s either too cold, too hot, or 37C, which is just right. But I’ve rarely considered the fascinating details of exactly how our bodies regulate their temperature, and whether it’s even true that we have a single body temperature anyway. Continue reading...

Technology behind thermal imaging is advancing, enabling cameras to produce a detailed heat map of the human body. In this sequence the blood vessels of a badminton player can been seen expanding, becoming brighter and lighter as the body becomes hotter with movement

Every day millions of people ask Google life’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries‘A woman’s tongue wags like a lamb’s tail”, so an old English saying goes, and if you deign to type “why do women …” into Google’s search bar, the search engine will finish your sentence accordingly with “talk so much”. We’ve been brought up to believe that women are the talkative ones, the ones whose words, both soothing and scolding, are the social glue of small communities and families alike. We assume women talk more than men. But there’s also the more sinister notion that women must be silenced for risk of what they might say about men, a belief Mary Beard traces back to the classical world in her recent tract Women and Power – and something we’ve seen in full contemporary flourish with the eruption of #MeToo.Because of the prohibition on women’s speech, which continued right through the middle ages and up through the mass growth in western female literacy, it took until the 20th century for a more positive, parallel notion to take hold: that women might be biologically better with words. Today scientific study has even found the odd bit of evidence that girls may indeed find it easier to acquire language than boys. But does the idea of women’s super- (and superfluous) loquacity actually hold up to scientific scrutiny? Continue reading...

Researchers have observed African Matabele ants treating their wounded comrades. The ants, frequently injured by termites, appear to apply an antibiotic saliva to the wounds of their injured.

Alternative material could replace current controversial implants, which have prompted many complaints of pain and discomfort

The social insects have been seen cleaning wounds and possibly administering antibiotics to prevent infectionWhen the battle is done the victors head home, their march broken only to gather the wounded, who are hauled back to base for life-saving treatment.Not a heroic scene from the second world war, but the daily grind for African Matabele ants, which leave their nests in the hundreds to launch raids on feeding termites – and risk life and limb in the process. Continue reading...

Studies have also linked compounds called perfluoroalkyl substances to cancer, high cholesterol and immune problemsChemicals used to make non-stick pots and pans, stain-resistant carpets, and food packaging may contribute to high levels of obesity by disrupting the body’s ability to burn calories, scientists say.Researchers at Harvard University examined the effects of compounds called perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which have already raised concerns among some health experts after animal experiments and other studies linked them to cancer, high cholesterol and immune problems.

Readers air their views on news of bullying in a Somerset care home and the treatment of autistic children in FranceWe were shocked, as the family of a 26-year-old autistic son who has been in four residences since leaving school, to read of the abuse in a National Autistic Society care home (Somerset care home staff bullied autistic residents, review finds, 9 February). To think that this could occur within an NAS home is almost unimaginable. There are two clear problems in homes looking after adults with autism in England.First, there is no system of compulsory registration of individual support workers/carers as exists in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This enables a public record to be kept of all support worker qualifications, as well as any concerns around their conduct or standard of work. Removal from the register means carers cannot be employed in that role. The English government currently refuses to introduce such a register. Continue reading...

Votes for women | Obtaining the pill | Henry Moore sculpture | Asma Jahangir | Ballet reviews | EvolutionIn 2013 Pitcairn islanders celebrated 175 years of women’s right to vote (Letters, 10 February). Pitcairn may be small and remote but the islanders are justifiably proud of this contribution to world history.

A Twitter argument about how many hours academics should work prompted Lucy Foulkes to seek out advice for early career researchersLast week a tweet about academics’ working hours went viral:I tell my graduate students and post-docs that if they’re working 60 hours per week, they’re working less than the full professors, and less than their peers. https://t.co/mapWtvmBWp Continue reading...

Claims that cheese, sex and Facebook affect your brain in the same way as drugs fundamentally misunderstand how it all worksThe internet is a weird place. Part of this is due to how things linger rather than disappear, as they tended to do with more “traditional” media. Nowadays, people’s jobs can (rightly or wrongly) be endangered for tweets they wrote years ago. The adage about “today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip papers” seems no longer to apply.This is particularly true when a headline or story from years ago can be found by a group or community on a social network that missed it previously, so they share it widely and it ends up in your feeds long after it’s been “forgotten”. It can be a bit confusing for those of us who grew up solely with televised news. It’s like watching the weekend football roundup when it’s suddenly interrupted by a report that the Berlin Wall has come down. Continue reading...

Study suggests link between eating slowly and lower waist circumference and BMI, though some experts are scepticalWhile you might be tempted to wolf down a sandwich or gobble up your dinner, researchers say there may be advantages to taking your time over a meal.

Scientists track global statistics and conclude past events are not reliable predictors for future riskFor the inhabitants of the Cumbrian village of Glenridding, the winter of 2015/16 was a miserable one. Storm Desmond brought the first deluge in December, turning the river into a raging torrent, sweeping through many properties, and cutting the village off from the outside world for a full two days. Storm Eva barrelled in a few weeks later, and Glenridding ended up awash three times in the space of four weeks.So what is going on? Are extreme climate events becoming more frequent, or were the residents of Glenridding suffering a series of unlucky rolls of the dice? Continue reading...

Most of those goals, if realized, would come after the end of the Trump administration, which has allocated little of its budget for NasaThe Trump administration unveiled its 2019 budget for Nasa on Monday, promising an outpost on the moon, “Jetson cars” and new attempts to cut funding for the international space station, earth science and astrophysics.Robert Lightfoot, Nasa’s acting administrator, said on Monday that Nasa will move forward with plans to create a new space station around the moon, a base long called the Deep Space Gateway, but renamed the Lunar Orbit Platform-Gateway. Continue reading...

Anaesthetists respond to a recent Guardian articleAccidental awareness (when a patient becomes conscious during a general anaesthetic) is an incredibly important issue to both patients and anaesthetists (The long read, 9 February). Patients undergoing surgery can be assured that it is highly uncommon to wake up during a general anaesthetic.The largest ever research study (NAP5) performed on this topic was carried out in 2014 by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. It showed that approximately one person in 20,000 reported awareness, and it most commonly occurred before surgery started or after it finished. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesOn my puzzle blog earlier today I set you the following three problems about this grid: Continue reading...

The winning entries from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) photo competition 2018, which allows researchers and doctoral students to share another side of their work Continue reading...

I grew up being told that a prerequisite for our national identity was white skin – that prejudice has been proved falseThe results of 10,000-year old Cheddar Man’s DNA analysis have hit the headlines in the past few days, accompanied by a striking portrait that needed no words. Here was this bona fide European – indeed, an ancestral Brit – and the man was black. Genetic analysis suggests he had blue eyes, and that his skin was probably darker, even, than the portrait shows. Three hundred generations later, allowing for a little variation between individuals, about 10% of the genome of many white British people alive today comes from this man’s dark-skinned population.Contrary to some comments made on the story, Cheddar Man was no anomaly – no lost, tanned tourist to the British Isles. Rather, he was of a group known as the western hunter-gatherers, who migrated into Europe at the end of the last ice age, like other ancestral Europeans found in Spain, Hungary and Luxembourg. As with our British ancestor from Cheddar, their DNA has also been analysed, and the results show that these Europeans, too, had the same dark skin. Continue reading...

Dot-to-dot puzzles that hit the spotUPDATE: For the solutions click hereHi guzzlers,Today, three challenges using this grid of 16 dots: Continue reading...

The path from ape to modern human is not a linear one. Hannah Devlin looks at what we know – and what might be next for our speciesLet’s go back to the beginning. When did we and our ape cousins part ways?

The hunter stands bolt upright in the evening sky, with the nebula visible below the beltThis week is a good one for finding the constellation of Orion: it stands bolt upright in the evening sky. The chart shows the view looking due south at 20:00 GMT on 12 February. The most noticeable thing to look for is Orion’s belt comprising three stars: Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Look upwards from the belt and you find the red giant star Betelgeuse (famously pronounced beetle-juice). It marks one of Orion’s shoulders and is conspicuously red in colour. About as far below the belt is the bright blue-white star Rigel. The real prize, however, hangs just below the belt. Three fainter stars make up Orion’s sword. The lower one, Hatysa, is the brightest but look closely at the middle “star” and you will see it is not a star at all but a hazy pink blob. It is the star-forming region known as the Orion nebula, which houses thousands of nascent stars. Continue reading...

Documents show a plan to cease funding for the orbiting lab by 2024 and pitches running ISS ‘as part of a future commercial platform’The Trump administration is considering turning the International Space Station over to private enterprise, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, and ceasing to fund the orbiting lab by 2024.While the plan doesn’t not recommend “deorbiting” the 1990s-vintage space station, which is currently contracted to Boeing and costs Nasa more than $3bn a year, the Nasa documents say “it is possible that industry could continue to operate certain elements or capabilities of the ISS as part of a future commercial platform”. Continue reading...

British DNA | The contraceptive pill | Deinocrates | G2 staples | London fatbergThe most interesting line in your article on Cheddar Man (7 February) is that only 10% of the white British population can trace their ancestry back to this ancient migrant group, who could well be termed indigenous. Finally, proof that almost everyone on these islands is an immigrant and that it’s time to stop all this isolationist nonsense: the ability to take in newcomers and absorb them is what had (note the past tense) made this country great.

It would be unthinkable to buy a chicken or lamb to kill at home – but you can have living crustaceans delivered to your door via Amazon. Has society gone to pot over shellfish?

The feather-ruffling Harvard psychologist’s new book, a defence of Enlightenment values, may be his most controversial yet

In an extract from his new book Enlightenment Now, the Harvard psychologist extols the relevance of 18th-century thinking