New research says that adolescence in the developed world now lasts until your mid-20s. Does that make 24-year-olds Harry Kane and Ariana Grande mere kids?Name: 24.Appearance: Fresh-faced, ready for anything. Continue reading...

Here are some things you can do to make climate change even less inconvenient – also fun!

The 25-year deadline spells doom for many ocean species. One supermarket’s pledge to ban plastics puts the target to shameThe prime minister has declared war on plastic, with an announcement that the government hopes to “eliminate all avoidable plastic waste” within 25 years. You could say that this week saw the first troops landing on our plastic-strewn beaches. But, rather than our ministers or MPs, they turned out to be the shelf-stackers and checkout workers of Iceland supermarkets.Those shop workers could well be among the first to handle a new kind of plastics-free packaging that the world so badly needs. While the war may last well beyond next Christmas, Iceland has pledged victory over plastic packaging within five years – 20 years ahead of Theresa May’s deadline. This is, of course, good news, because the government’s war wasn’t looking likely to liberate anything any time soon. Continue reading...

The waxing moon is moving towards the Pleiades and HyadesThe Moon approaches two star clusters on the evening of 26 January. Both clusters are located in Taurus and can be seen with the naked eye. Find the waxing Moon in the south-west, then look to its upper right to see a tight grouping of stars known as the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. These stars all formed together some time within the last 100 million years. To the upper left is a more spread-out V-shaped cluster known as the Hyades. Roughly six times the age of the Pleiades, the Hyades is the closest star cluster to Earth, just 150 light years away. But don’t be fooled by the bright red star, Aldebaran – it is not part of the cluster. It just happens to lie along the same line of sight. The Sun was probably once a member of a star cluster. But at 4.6 billion years in age, its stellar siblings have long since dispersed. Continue reading...

Health warnings as image culture drives usage of performance-enhancing drugs

Life is tragic, says the provocative Jordan Peterson, and we are all capable of turning into monsters. But this hasn’t stopped millions from watching his online lectures. Tim Lott meets him as he publishes 12 Rules for LifeIt is uncomfortable to be told to get in touch with your inner psychopath, that life is a catastrophe and that the aim of living is not to be happy. This is hardly the staple of most self-help books. And yet, superficially at least, a self-help book containing these messages is what the Canadian psychologist Jordan B Peterson has written.His book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos is an ambitious, some would say hubristic, attempt to explain how an individual should live their life, ethically rather than in the service of self. It is informed by the Bible, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung and Dostoevsky – again, uncommon sources for the genre. Continue reading...

A new wave of tech startups is promising women detailed insights into their ability to conceive. But experts are scepticalMy sisters, aged 27 and 30, are seated at their computers poring over the slick websites of companies promising to reveal secrets to them about their fertility. “Get insight into how your fertility is tracking relative to your age,” promises one. “Get the tools you need to have more control over your fertility,” says a second. “Gauge how long you have left to conceive,” says a third. The tests, which look at the levels of one or more female hormones in the blood, style themselves as easy to order and are less than what one would pay in a fertility clinic. “The information seems relatively cheap and readily available, so why not find out?” says my older sister. “I just assumed I wouldn’t have any fertility issues,” says the younger. “I realise after looking at these websites I probably shouldn’t assume this.”These companies are the latest outgrowth of the growing global market in fertility services. Fuelled by women delaying childbirth longer, it includes IVF and egg freezing and is expected to generate $21bn (£15.5bn) in revenue globally by 2020. Female hormone testing was once the domain of fertility clinics attended by women struggling to conceive, but a clutch of US-based startups has recently begun, controversially, offering it directly – but as “wellness monitoring”, rather than to diagnose or treat any medical condition. Young women like my sisters, who aren’t even trying to get pregnant, are firmly in their sights. Continue reading...

The rigid boundaries of youth are giving way, but sooner or later we must all learn to grow upIn medieval times, childhood ended at the age of seven, with the arrival of a supposed understanding of right from wrong. Childhood and adolescence have constantly been refashioned. Last week it received its latest round of remodelling.Scientists have announced that adolescence, previously thought to end at 19, now stretches from 10 to 24, and they recommended that laws should be changed to take this into account (considerably raising the criminal age of responsibility in England and Wales from 10 would be a start, but is probably not on this agenda.) Continue reading...

Trauma experts are divided over the prospects of the 13 children who escaped alleged parental abuse – but recent survival stories offer some hope

Tests show remains were those of woman and not Bonnie Prince Charlie supporter Simon Fraser

We’re far enough into January for most resolutions to have been tested somewhat. I’m one of the many hoping that doggedly sticking to Dry January will atone for December’s sins, and if that rings a bell with you, then here’s what the experts have to say about the efficacy of temporary abstinence. For those of you freshly committing to pursuits such as yoga, you might be interested in a new vascular study weighing up the claims made for hot yoga. However, all these healthy January ambitions may come to naught if your office, like mine, is heading for Aztec levels of pestilence (oh, all right, it’s not that bad – although it may get worse if people start letting go with their sneezes instead of stifling them after reading this cautionary tale of throat rupture). Still, if you are having to take a few duvet days it will give you more time to read up on the fascinating discovery of complex engineering and metal-work beneath an ancient Greek “pyramid” or maybe to indulge in a little creative thinking. If your nose is all bunged up the idea of smelling again – let alone being able to describe scent – may feel far off, but you might still be intrigued by this study which concludes that how we source our food might affect how we describe scent. And on a serious note, let’s hope this year brings more breakthroughs like this: researchers have made a major advance in developing a blood test that could use DNA and biomarkers to detect and identify cancers, including five types for which there is currently no screening test. That’s what I’m talking about, 2018: more of this, thanks. Continue reading...

Doctor at hospital with UK’s largest sperm bank says discriminatory funding system behind relocationMany would-be parents are moving house in order to access free IVF on the NHS, sometimes saving themselves £10,000, according to the lead fertility doctor at the UK’s largest sperm bank.Dr Raj Mathur, a consultant gynaecologist at Saint Mary’s hospital in Manchester, said he “constantly” saw patients moving house and/or GPs in order to get more free IVF cycles. Continue reading...

Millions pledge to start the new year alcohol-free, but how much difference can a month off booze make to our health or drinking behaviour in the long term?

DNA and biomarkers could be used to detect and identify cancers, including five types for which there is currently no screening testScientists have made a major advance towards developing a blood test for cancer that could identify tumours long before a person becomes aware of symptoms.The new test, which is sensitive to both mutated DNA that floats freely in the blood and cancer-related proteins, gave a positive result approximately 70% of the time across eight of the most common cancers when tested in more than 1,000 patients. Continue reading...

Researchers found rocks in the area 412km west of Cairns were unlike any others in Australia, but similar to those in CanadaGeologists in northern Australia have made a discovery that suggests the area around Georgetown in northern Queensland was once part of North America, more than a billion years ago.Researchers from Curtin University discovered that rocks in the area, 412km west of Cairns, were unlike any other rock deposits in Australia, but similar to those found in Canada. Continue reading...

Researchers believe CancerSEEK will save thousands of lives and hope it will be widely available in a few yearsResearchers have said a groundbreaking new blood test that can detect eight common types of cancer before they spread will save countless lives.They said “liquid biopsy” – developed in the US – would be a game-changer in the fight against cancer, and hoped it could be widely available within a few years. Continue reading...

Yoga could help to improve function of artery linings regardless of room temperature, researchers concludeWhile the popularity of practising yoga in sweltering rooms is booming around the world, researchers say benefits to blood vessels are the same whether the moves are performed in the heat or not.Bikram yoga was founded by controversial instructor Bikram Choudhury and involves 26 poses and two breathing exercises, performed in a room heated to just over 40C (104F). Continue reading...

Regulator says UK forces failing to meet standards, with routine outsourcing of great concernPolice forces are failing to meet the official standards for forensic science, making miscarriages of justice inevitable, the government’s forensic regulator has said.In her annual report, Gillian Tully highlighted her growing concerns about the failure of some forensic firms used by the police to meet basic quality standards. It means innocent people could be wrongly convicted and offenders escaping justice. Continue reading...

Working on UK and US versions of my book made me realise how much living in New York has affected my pronunciationI have lived in the US for 10 years, and although I take the elevator down to the lobby from my apartment, when I go outside I walk on the pavement. My children wear diapers but, by and large, I fill the tank with petrol, not gas, and throw out the rubbish not the trash. I wish I still ate sweets, but I don’t; “sweets” to my ears sound childish and wilfully obscure and, while I may cringe when I say it, there’s no question that if I ask someone to pass me the Skittles, what I’m referring to in that instance is candy.These differences, which have been on my mind as I go through copy edits for the UK and US editions of my book, are something I am probably in control of 70% of the time. It is a peculiarity of being in a foreign country in which the language is ostensibly the same, that it makes one’s pre-immigration self actually seem further away. If I had moved to France, my English would have remained unchanged. As it is, I fear the word “chemist” is lost to me for ever, or at least for the years it would take me to reprogram from “pharmacy”. Continue reading...

Humans have long been considered poor at describing smells, but research on hunter-gatherers shows this is not the case for everyoneIf describing a smell leaves you struggling to find the right words, it might be down to how you put food on the table.Researchers studying two communities living in tropical rainforests have found that while a hunter-gatherer group could easily describe different odours, their plant-growing neighbours floundered – suggesting different ways of finding food could be behind humans’ proficiency, or lack of it, when it comes to putting a name to a scent. Continue reading...

Technology can help foster specific positive traits in plants but can also have potentially dangerous ‘off-target’ effects, say criticsGene editing technologies should be largely exempted from EU laws on GM food, although individual states can regulate them if they choose, the European court’s advocate general has said.

Birds show remarkable levels of intelligence, something that may have given them the edge following the K-T extinction eventEven though I am better with dead birds than with living ones, I do enjoy watching them. Their behaviour is fascinating, and as Jennifer Ackerman points out in her book, birds are a lot more intelligent than we often give them credit for. But what do we know about the evolution of bird intelligence? How did the bird brain evolve, and when did it take on its “birdiness”?The fossil record isn’t particularly well-suited for the preservation of soft tissue such as brains – and behaviour doesn’t fossilise at all. However, some inferences regarding behaviour can be made based on anatomy, something the fossil record is rife with. When we look at the anatomical evidence of bird behaviour in the fossil record (Naish, 2014), it becomes clear that certain types of behaviour we see in modern birds – such as colonial nesting, parental care and plumage display – evolved a long time ago, and are likely dinosaurian in origin. Continue reading...

Latest find on Cyclades’ Keros includes evidence of metal-working and suggests the beginnings of an urban centre, say archaeologistsMore than 4,000 years ago builders carved out the entire surface of a naturally pyramid-shaped promontory on the Greek island of Keros. They shaped it into terraces covered with 1,000 tonnes of specially imported gleaming white stone to give it the appearance of a giant stepped pyramid rising from the Aegean: the most imposing manmade structure in all the Cyclades archipelago.But beneath the surface of the terraces lay undiscovered feats of engineering and craftsmanship to rival the structure’s impressive exterior. Archaeologists from three different countries involved in an ongoing excavation have found evidence of a complex of drainage tunnels – constructed 1,000 years before the famous indoor plumbing of the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete – and traces of sophisticated metalworking. Continue reading...

Music can help reduce symptoms but only 5% of care homes are using it effectively, finds reportThe symptoms of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people with dementia could significantly improve by listening to and playing music, according to a report.The study, which compiled existing evidence as well as talking to experts, found music can help people with dementia recall information and reduce symptoms such as anxiety, agitation and aggression. Continue reading...

Findings should not be seen as taking pressure off need to tackle climate change, authors warnEarth’s surface will almost certainly not warm up four or five degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a study which, if correct, voids worst-case UN climate change predictions.

Data collected by Himawari-8 weather satellite paired with supercomputer programmeA project harnessing data from a Japanese satellite could improve weather forecasting and allow officials to issue life-saving warnings before natural disasters, researchers say.

Program used to assess more than a million US defendants may not be accurate enough for potentially life-changing decisions, say expertsThe credibility of a computer program used for bail and sentencing decisions has been called into question after it was found to be no more accurate at predicting the risk of reoffending than people with no criminal justice experience provided with only the defendant’s age, sex and criminal history.The algorithm, called Compas (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), is used throughout the US to weigh up whether defendants awaiting trial or sentencing are at too much risk of reoffending to be released on bail. Continue reading...

American astronaut who led the first US space shuttle mission and was the ninth man to walk on the moonThe astronaut John Young, who has died aged 87, was the ninth man to walk on the moon, as commander of Nasa’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972, and landed the first US space shuttle in 1981. Young epitomised the indomitable spirit of his era; after the space shuttle landing, he said: “We’re really not too far from going to the stars.” He was described by Lee Silver, the California Institute of Technology professor who trained many Apollo astronauts, as the “archetypical extraterrestrial”.Young’s career as an astronaut began in the early 1960s. The first astronauts had been recruited in 1959, with the Mercury Seven, a group that included the first American in space, Alan Shepard, and the first American in orbit, John Glenn. In 1962 came the New Nine, also known as Astronaut Group 2, among them the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, and Young. Continue reading...

A meteor swept over parts of the US midwest and Canada on Tuesday, weather and geology agencies said. It then caused a powerful explosion that rattled homes, according to several residents

In this episode of our new mini-series, Ian Sample explores how AI is providing insights into cancer diagnosis, intelligence, and physicsSubscribe and review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn October 2017, researchers at Google DeepMind published a paper on an artificial intelligence (AI) program called AlphaGo Zero. Unlike previous incarnations of AlphaGo, this updated version mastered the game of Go through self-play alone. Talking about the achievement, lead researcher David Silver explained that AlphaGo Zero had invented “its own variants which humans don’t even know about or play at the moment.” And it’s here that a new and exciting use for AI comes to light. Could it be that AI might teach humans about the world around us? And if so, will humans still be needed in science and other intellectual endeavours? Continue reading...

The accidental sale of potentially deadly fugu in Japan has sparked a health scare – and the same poison is now found in European speciesGamagori city in Japan was put on alert this week after toxic fish went on sale in a local supermarket. Pufferfish are considered a delicacy in Japan, often eaten raw as sashimi or cooked in soups. But if the fish are not carefully prepared they can be deadly.The supermarket in Gamagori failed to remove the liver from the fish before putting them on sale, and unfortunately the liver is one of the organs that can harbour the potent neurotoxin tetrodotoxin. In an effort to recall the potentially poisonous fish sold, loudspeakers across the city have been warning citizens of the danger; at the time of writing, three of the five packs of fish sold had been traced. Continue reading...

Some of our favourite wildflowers are threatened by thieves digging up the bulbs, and thieves have made at least one orchid extinct in BritainSnowdrops are appearing, but in recent years they have become so popular it’s led to snowdrop bulbs being stolen from the wild and from gardens to sell on the black market. This is part of a much wider trend. From the theft of snowdrops and bluebells to rare orchids and ferns, stealing plants is a problem that goes largely unreported, but it’s a crime that can have disastrous impacts on plant populations.

Latest study lends support to experts who say more operations should be carried out in UKObese patients undergoing stomach-shrinking surgery have half the risk of death in the years that follow compared with those tackling their weight through diet and behaviour alone, new research suggests.Experts say obesity surgery is cost-effective, leads to substantial weight loss and can help tackle type 2 diabetes. But surgeons say not enough of the stomach-shrinking surgeries are carried out in the UK, with figures currently lagging behind other European countries, including France and Belgium – despite the latter having a smaller population. Continue reading...

No one is really too busy to take a break – so why do a third of Brits fail to take four days’ leave a year?It turns out the good people of British Airways are extremely concerned about the wellbeing of the nation’s employees, and have commissioned a study to raise awareness of the fact that we are working too hard. More specifically, the fact that we aren’t taking enough two-week holidays. Let us all take a moment to appreciate their noble altruism.Their survey of 2,000 people found that one-third of working Brits did not use up their annual leave in 2017, losing an average of four days each, and 69% of Brits did not take a two-week holiday. Continue reading...

Temperate House, the Grade I listed building at Kew Gardens, is due to reopen in May after a five-year restoration project. It is home to some of the rarest and most threatened temperate zone plants from around the world Continue reading...

We are destroying the world’s biodiversity. Yet debate has erupted over just what this means for the planet – and us.

Fossil fungi from over 400m years ago have altered our understanding of early life on land and climate change over deep timeMuch of the weirdness depicted in the TV show Stranger Things is distinctly fungal. The massive organic underground network, the floating spores, and even the rotting pumpkin fields all capture the “otherness” of fungi: neither plants nor animals, often bizarre-looking, and associated with decay. As weird as they may seem to us, fungi are integral to the story of the evolution of our landscapes and climate.

Within five years, 15 million people – 80% of the population – were wiped out in an epidemic named ‘cocoliztli’, meaning pestilenceIn 1545 disaster struck Mexico’s Aztec nation when people started coming down with high fevers, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose. Death generally followed in three or four days.

Following the case of a man who ruptured this throat, medics say holding in a sneeze can cause ear damage or a brain aneurysmIn a season where colds are rife, holding your nose and closing your mouth might seem like a considerate alternative to an explosive “Achoo!”. But doctors have warned of the dangers of such a move after a man was found to have ruptured the back of his throat when attempting to stifle a sneeze.Medics say the incident, which they detail in the journal BMJ Case Reports, came to light when a 34-year old man arrived in A&E with a change to his voice, a swollen neck, pain when swallowing and a popping sensation in his neck after he pinched his nose to contain an expulsion. Continue reading...

Increase screening for women who start their periods at a young age or those reaching menopause early, experts suggestWomen who start their periods at an early age, or experience an early menopause, are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, new research suggests.While researchers say it is not clear whether reproductive factors are driving the increased risks, they say that more frequent screening of women whose reproductive history suggests that they might be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease could help to prevent or delay its onset. Continue reading...

People who are flexible, original thinkers show signature forms of connectivity in their brains, study showsDonatella Versace finds it in the conflict of ideas, Jack White under pressure of deadlines. For William S Burroughs, an old Dadaist trick helped: cutting pages into pieces and rearranging the words.Every artist has their own way of generating original ideas, but what is happening inside the brain might not be so individual. In new research, scientists report signature patterns of neural activity that mark out those who are most creative. Continue reading...

The solutions (and hints) for today’s puzzles.In my puzzle blog earlier today, I set you four Garam puzzles.You can see (and print out) the puzzles by clicking on this link.

Rare plants among hundreds of specimens being planted in new beds at world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouseThe scrawny trunk and dull leathery spiky leaves of one of the rarest plants in the world will soon be admired in a new light at Kew Gardens, as Encephalartos woodii flourishes again at the north end of the restored Temperate House, the largest Victorian glasshouse in the world.As the £41m restoration of the Grade I-listed building nears completion, the gardeners are dodging the diggers and cranes still trundling through the enormous space, and planting out hundreds of specimens into the new beds. More light than when the house was first built in the 1860s pours in through acres of new glass, and the plants are visibly responding: the bitter orange tree is covered in fruit, and Bauhinia blakeana has thrown out a charming pink flower. Continue reading...

Evidence suggests that older people are more offended by foul language, but perhaps they should embrace it and find something else to complain aboutTaking offence has become hobby number one among the young. According to some, today’s teens and twentysomethings are part of generation snowflake. These fragile souls are supposed to find any intrusion into their carefully curated digital universe a form of “symbolic violence”. To protect themselves, they call for “trigger warnings”, “no-platforming”, and “safe spaces”. Now the older generation have had enough. They want a fair share of opportunities to be easily offended too. But instead of being affronted by extreme racism, misogyny or homophobia, senior snowflakes are upset by the F-bomb.According to a 2010 poll conducted by the Daily Mail, 45% of the over-55s said they were personally offended by an instance of swearing on television in the last year. A 2016 study by Ofcom found that older people had a low tolerance for swearing, and some wanted it banned completely. They are also worried about swearing at work. During a select committee inquiry into discrimination against older workers, a representative from the government arbitration service Acas described how they “had calls where older workers are talking about language used in the workplace and that younger workers are using language now that many of us would not deem appropriate”. The expert went on to explain: “They’re coming out with certain statements or words that many of us in the workplace are quite taken aback with.” Continue reading...

As the flu season begins to ramp up, so too do the annual complaints about the vaccine“The flu jab DOESN’T work, officials admit,” scolded a recent headline from the Daily Mail.Meanwhile, in the comments under that article, and in shadier regions of the internet, conspiracy theorists are having their usual annual field day: the flu vaccine actually makes people sick; the World Health Organisation is in cahoots with Big Pharma; the vaccine is being deliberately sabotaged by its manufacturers to drum up business for more expensive anti-viral therapies. Continue reading...

Savour a new puzzle from across the ChannelBonjour guzzleurs!Today’s puzzle comes from France. It is called Garam, and provides some spice for the brain.... Continue reading...

Want to be less stressed in 2018? The author and broadcaster advises on how to deal with difficult times at workYour strength is not in your resilience, it is in recognising and owning your vulnerability. We need to be ourselves with other people for most of the time, not just the person we feel we ought to be. If you are in a business environment where everyone seems to be wearing a “game-face” and therefore you feel you must wear yours too, you run the risk of feeling unsupported, isolated and disconnected.

We now have a precise way to correct, replace or even delete faulty DNA. Ian Sample explains the science, the risks and what the future may holdSo what is gene editing?

The two planets appear close together this week and are conspicuous in the pre-dawn sky in the constellation LibraA pair of bright planets reward early risers this week. Mars and Jupiter are close together in the constellation Libra. Despite being more than three times closer to Earth, Mars will appear dimmer than Jupiter. This is because Jupiter is 21 times the diameter of Mars, and possesses brightly reflective clouds. Mars’s frozen deserts give the planet a conspicuous red colour to the naked eye, while Jupiter appears bright white. The chart shows the positions for 06:00 GMT on 16 January. To find the planetary pair, look SSE in the pre-dawn sky. The planets were at their closest on 6 January but remain a nice pairing this week. They will continue to be visible through to the end of the month and into early February, although they will be drawing ever further away from one another. Continue reading...