Racist milkshake drinking duck has come to define a particular thread of the internet’s collective ficklenessFinally, justice for milkshake duck.The racist milkshake drinking duck which has come to define a particular thread of the internet’s collective fickleness was announced as the Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year for 2017 on Monday. Continue reading...

If you both have similar ‘differentiation of self’ scores, your relationship may run more smoothlyDoes absence make the heart grow fonder? Or is it more a case of out of sight, out of mind? Should you and your partner give each other space, or spend every possible moment together? To find out, give the statements below a rating between 1 (not at all true) and 6 (very true), and have your partner do the same. Continue reading...

Fossils found in 113-million-year-old rocks in Victoria lead to discovery of turkey-sized herbivore which lived in rift valleyMore than 10 years after fossils were discovered sticking out of a rock platform in Victoria’s remote south-west, scientists have identified a new dinosaur that once roamed the “lost world” between Australia and Antarctica.Foot and tail fossils found in 113-million-year-old rocks near Cape Otway in 2005 have led to the discovery of a turkey-sized herbivore which lived in the Australian-Antarctic rift valley. Continue reading...

When I had rectal bleeding, I went for a colonoscopy. The doctor prescribed more fiber – but could anxiety be the source of the pain in my backside?The thing about writers – the thing that makes us hated and occasionally liked – is that very often we have our heads up our asses. There are two ways that people in my profession can address this.We could develop a deeper sense of humility, looking beyond ourselves and try to use our voices to amplify the experiences of other people in this cruel, cruel world. Continue reading...

Col McKenzie calls on government to stop funding work of Terry Hughes, saying tourists ‘won’t do long-haul trips when they think the reef is dead’A Queensland tourism representative has called one of the Great Barrier Reef’s leading researchers “a dick”, blaming the professor for a downturn in tourism growth at the state’s greatest natural asset.Col McKenzie, the head of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, a group that represents more than 100 businesses in the Great Barrier Reef, has written to the federal government asking it to stop funding the work of Professor Terry Hughes, claiming his comments were “misleading” and damaging the tourism industry. Continue reading...

Meghan Markle handshake | Apple’s tax payment | No bull | Tabloid Guardian | Philip Hammond | Rude place namesMeghan Markle visits a community radio station and meets staff on a magazine collective, in response to their invitation. She provides both with masses of invaluable publicity and, it appears, generates a great deal of pleasure. But, oh dear me, the magazine’s deputy editor, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, a republican, feels compromised at shaking Meghan’s soon-to-be royal hand (Black women are rooting for Meghan Markle, G2, 11 January). There’s a term for what you feel, Charlie: it’s called having your cake and eating it.

Exclusive: A new study shows that a simple set of CBT exercises can help with symptoms, yet many workplaces have no policies in place to support womenWorkplaces should start catering for the menopause in a comparable way to pregnancy, according to one of Britain’s leading women’s health experts.Myra Hunter, emeritus professor of clinical health psychology at King’s College London said that menopausal symptoms remained a “taboo issue” in many workplaces and, while policies to support pregnant women are now standard, there is still little awareness of the impact that the menopause can have on women who are often at the peak of their career. Continue reading...

Bacteria and parasites often found in raw dog and cat food products can pose health dangers to pets and their owners, researchers warnThe trend for feeding dogs and cats raw meat has been criticised by scientists, who say it often contains bacteria and parasites that could pose dangers to both pets and their owners.A growing trend has seen pet owners plump for products such as meat, bones and organs which can be bought frozen and then thawed before being fed to dogs and cats. Continue reading...

It’s the end of an era. Having written the Guardian’s astronomy column since 1974, Alan Pickup has decided to move on … at a timely moment in the newspaper’s historyAs readers of Starwatch already know, after supplying the monthly star notes to the Guardian for 43 years, Alan Pickup is standing down. We bid him a fond farewell.It all started with a trip to hospital back in 1974. Alan Pickup was visiting the astronomer Norman Matthew, the Guardian’s Night Sky columnist, and found Norman fretting about the column’s rapidly approaching deadline. He volunteered to step in. Continue reading...

As if cancer treatment wasn’t trying enough, a common stress will be unwanted advice. But you can benefit from the wisdom of others

Humanoid robot known as SecondHands to pass spanners and move ladders for technicians at online grocery specialistOcado is to test a humanoid maintenance assistant in its warehouses, in the online grocery specialist’s latest move to reduce reliance on human workers.Artificial Intelligence has various definitions, but in general it means a program that uses data to build a model of some aspect of the world. This model is then used to make informed decisions and predictions about future events. The technology is used widely, to provide speech and face recognition, language translation, and personal recommendations on music, film and shopping sites. In the future, it could deliver driverless cars, smart personal assistants, and intelligent energy grids. AI has the potential to make organisations more effective and efficient, but the technology raises serious issues of ethics, governance, privacy and law. Continue reading...

The new schools champion has done a Tim Farron – only this time the issue that makes a powerful man’s position untenable is not gay sexAre you free to think whatever you like? Of course you are. There are no thought police, though the paranoid right likes to imagine “politically correct” commissars are out to martyr them. But expressing outlandish or dangerous views while holding a public position may create a conflict, forcing you to choose.Look at the very different cases of Tim Farron MP, the former Liberal Democrat leader and Toby Young, still hanging on to a powerful position as head of the New Schools Network (NSN). Continue reading...

The financial and social costs of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s are devastating. It’s essential that big pharma be part of the effort to end themIf you were to go out on the street today and run a straw poll on big pharma, I doubt that it would come back very positive. More often than not, these companies are seen by the public as corporate behemoths committed only to the bottom line, and not particularly patient-focused. This week’s news that Pfizer is pulling out of neuroscience research will likely bolster that impression. It’s a tragedy for the millions suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and the many more who are at risk of developing one of these devastating diseases.But it doesn’t have to be this way. Pharmaceutical companies are absolutely crucial in our war against Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and their input, financial muscle and insight hold the key to better treatments and prevention. Dementia, a general term that describes forgetfulness and a decreasing ability to think about and manage everyday mental functions, is one of the toughest medical and economic challenges facing not just the UK but the global population. Continue reading...

Remains of notorious pirate’s ship in North Carolina yield evidence that it was carrying a copy of Edward Cooke’s Voyage to the South SeaThe notorious 18th-century pirate Blackbeard may have whiled away the hours between raids by curling up with a good book, according to a new discovery.Archaeological conservators in North Carolina working on the wreckage of Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, found 16 tiny fragments of paper “in a mess of wet sludge” that had been in the chamber of a cannon. They worked for months to conserve the fragments, the largest of which was the size of a US quarter, discovering as they worked that a few words were still visible on some of the fragments. Continue reading...

The countdown has begun to send humans to Mars. But what will it take, what have we already planned for – and is it really possible that we’ll be ready?If you ever wanted to visit Mars, 2018 would be a really great time to go.In July this year, the Earth and Mars will come closer than at any other point in the last 15 years. They will be in perihelic opposition, meaning Mars will reach the nearest point in its elliptical orbit while the Earth simultaneously passes directly between Mars and the sun. Continue reading...

David Attenborough’s landmark series inspires programmes exploring the impact of plastics and textiles on environmentThe BBC is to show two major documentaries about challenges facing the environment, and a landmark series in which animals are followed for more than two years, as it looks to build on the extraordinary success of Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II.Drowning in Plastic will air on BBC1 and explore the damage that plastic is doing to the environment – an issue raised by Blue Planet II – while The Truth About What You Wear will investigate the impact of the clothing industry on the environment and wildlife. Continue reading...

Earliest fossil evidence shows the winged insects were alive 200m years ago alongside the early dinosaursThe earliest known fossil evidence of butterflies and moths has been found in Germany, showing they lived at least 50m years earlier than previously believed and challenging one of the most popular beliefs about their evolution.Scales from the wings of at least seven species were found in a sample of just 10g of sediment – the weight of a UK pound coin – and researchers believe there are “many, many more” to be identified. Continue reading...

In the second episode of this mini-series, Ian Sample asks if human-level intelligence is what we should be aiming for. And can we replicate something we can’t even define?Subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud and Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterWhen it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), people often obsess about creating “human-level” AI. Some think it will take decades, some centuries – and others say it may never happen at all. But is this the best marker to aim for? Or should we broaden these horizons to include the full expanse of intelligence? And ultimately: what kind of intelligence will AI researchers create? Continue reading...

Pulses may be from a neutron star cocooned by a strong magnetic field – though experts are not ruling out more unorthodox explanations such as alien shipsAstronomers appear to be closing in on the source of enigmatic radio pulses emanating from space that have become the subject of intense scientific speculation.Previous candidates for the origin of the fleeting blasts of radiation – known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs – have included exploding stars, the reverberations of weird objects called cosmic strings or even distant beacons from interstellar alien spaceships. Continue reading...

Norishige Kanai retracts claim as a mistake and says he had in fact grown 2cm since arriving at the International Space StationJapanese astronaut Norishige Kanai, on a mission to the International Space Station, has apologised for saying he had grown 9cm while in space and expressing concern about whether he would be safe on his return to Earth.Most astronauts “grow” during protracted space missions because their spines extend in the absence of gravity, but the gains are usually limited to a couple of centimetres and disappear once they are back on the ground. Continue reading...

Left-hand bias for human mothers is well-known, but new research shows it is more widespread among mammals than thought, suggesting an ancient originThere is more to cradling an infant than meets the eye, according to new research revealing that, like humans, other mammal mothers and babies prefer to keep each other on the left when face-to-face.A new study shows the phenomenon is also seen in Pacific walruses and Indian flying foxes, suggesting it is more widespread than previously thought. Continue reading...

Almost 69% of those who tried smoking went on to smoke daily, analysis of global survey data indicates, highlighting importance of prevention measuresMore than two-thirds of people who try just one cigarette may go on to become regular smokers, new research suggests.Researchers found that just over 60% of adults said they had tried a cigarette at some point in their lives, with almost 69% of those noting that they had, at least for a period, gone on to smoke cigarettes daily. Continue reading...

Disappointment as idalopirdine fails at trial to improve cognition and limit decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s diseaseThe quest to develop drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease has experienced a new setback, with a promising medication failing to show benefits in the latest series of clinical trials.Earlier trials had suggested that the drug idalopirdine, from the Danish international pharmaceutical company Lundbeck, might improve cognition in those with Alzheimer’s disease when taken alongside existing drugs – known as cholinesterase inhibitors – acting to improve symptoms rather than stopping the disease from developing. But the latest trials have dashed such hopes. Continue reading...

The colonic irrigation and coffee enemas promoted on Paltrow’s website Goop are not merely unnecessary, they are potentially dangerousIt seems January is Gwyneth Paltrow’s go-to month for promoting potentially dangerous things that should not go in or near an orifice. January 2015 brought us vagina steaming, January 2017 was jade eggs, and here we are in the early days of January 2018 and Goop.com is hawking coffee enemas and promoting colonic irrigation.I suspect that GP and her pals at Goop.com believe people are especially vulnerable to buying quasi-medical items in the New Year as they have just released their latest detox and wellness guide complete with a multitude of products to help get you nowhere. Continue reading...

Tameside hospital has stopped selling sugary snacks and fizzy drinks in its restaurant, has removed added sugar from meals and provides low-carb optionsA hospital in Manchester has become the first in Britain to ban sugar from its restaurant in an attempt to tackle growing concerns about obesity among NHS staff.Tameside hospital has removed all added sugar from the meals it prepares for visitors and health service workers, and taken sugary snacks and fizzy drinks off its menu. The only drinks visitors can buy are tea, coffee, milk and water. Continue reading...

Scientists from Australia’s RMIT University reveal promising results from human trials of swallowable capsule that transmits data to a mobile phoneAn electronic gas-detecting pill could help in diagnosing gastrointestinal ailments, including irritable bowel syndrome.

High doses of the common painkiller over a long period of time may put men at greater risk of fertility problems and other health issues, research indicatesMen who take high doses of ibuprofen for months at a time may be at greater risk of fertility issues and also other health problems, such as muscle wastage, erectile dysfunction and fatigue, scientists have found.Research on healthy young men who took the common painkiller for up to six weeks showed that the drug disrupted the production of male sex hormones and led to a condition normally seen in older men and smokers.

Researchers to test fast-working spray containing naloxone, a treatment usually given to opiate addicts that blocks production of dopamineCould gambling addiction be treated with a nasal spray? A group of Finnish researchers are launching a study to find out.The fast-working spray contains naloxone, which is commonly used as an emergency treatment for overdoses of opiates such as heroin, opium and morphine. It blocks the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure with a central role in addictions. Continue reading...

Statistical study shows how powerful RhODIS database is in linking forensic evidence to particular animals, say researchersA large database of rhinoceros DNA is successfully being used to prosecute poachers and those trading rhino horns, new research has revealed.

‘Complete feminisation’ of northern population is possible in near future, researchers findRising temperatures are turning almost all green sea turtles in a Great Barrier Reef population female, new research has found.The scientific paper warned the skewed ratio could threaten the population’s future. Continue reading...

The Observer has published an excerpt from Johann Hari’s new book challenging what we know about depression. But do his own claims and arguments stack up?I do not know Johann Hari. We’ve never crossed paths, he’s done me no wrong that I’m aware of, I have no axe to grind with him or his work. And, in fairness, writing about mental health and how it’s treated or perceived is always a risk. It’s a major and often-debilitating issue facing a huge swathe of the population, and with many unpleasant and unhelpful stigmas attached. In recent years there have been signs that the tide is perhaps turning the right way, but a lot of work remains to be done. However, if you’re going to allow an extract from your book to be published as a standalone article for mainstream media with a title as provocative as “Is everything you know about depression wrong?”, you’d best make sure you have impeccable credentials and standards to back it up.Let’s address the elephant in the room: Johann Hari does not have a flawless reputation. He has been absent from the spotlight for many years following a plagiarism scandal, compounded by less-than-dignified behaviour towards his critics. Admittedly, he has since shown remorse and contrition over the whole affair, but even a cursory glance online reveals he’s a long way from universal forgiveness. Logically, someone with a reputation for making false claims should be the last person making high-profile, controversial, sweeping statements about something as sensitive as mental health. And yet, here we are. It’s 2018 after all. Continue reading...

Daniel H Pink’s engaging book reveals the best times of day to make optimum decisionsIn 2011, two Cornell researchers, Michael Macy and Scott Golder, began an unusual project. They gathered approximately 500m tweets that had been posted by more than 2 million users in 84 countries over the previous two years. Then they subjected these tweets to careful analysis.The sociologists’ aim was straightforward. The pair wanted to measure how people’s feelings varied from morning until night and, by using an analysis program called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), they attempted to measure the emotional states revealed by individuals in the electronic texts they sent. The patterns that were uncovered were striking. Continue reading...

Archaeologists find hundreds of hand-axes used by early humans over half a million years ago at Jaljulia, north-east of Tel AvivIsraeli archaeologists have uncovered next to one of the country’s busiest roads the site of an extraordinarily well preserved prehistoric “paradise” used by stone age hunter-gatherers over half a million years ago, who left behind evidence of hundreds of knapped flint hand-axes.The discovery at about a five-metre depth at Jaljulia, near the town of Kfar Saba, suggests that an extinct species of early human - homo erectus – may have returned to the site repeatedly, perhaps attracted by a water source and abundant game, leaving behind evidence of their primitive stone tools. Continue reading...

If you have trouble sleeping, don’t think you’re a special caseWe spend a third of our lives either asleep or trying to sleep; for most of us, that’s more time than we spend on any other activity, including going to work. Yet we hardly ever talk about – or even think about – our sleep. Unless, that is, it becomes a problem. So, what does your sleep say about you? To find out, score the following statements where 1 = not at all; 2 = once a week; 3 = twice a week; 4 = three or more times a week.In the last month have you had sleep trouble because of…

Nurturing relationships and building resilience are two of many ways we can beat stress at work, says Ellie CannonWe all have a moan about going to work. It’s expected: work takes up the majority of our waking day and it very much defines us. We often use our jobs as an introduction and a window into our lives when we meet someone – a job reflects our status and self-worth. It influences the clothes we wear, the holidays we take, where we live and how we feel about ourselves.Of course it is a significant aspect of any adult’s life, taking up sizeable chunks of time, focus and energy. So a gripe here and there is understandable and predictable; we groan about getting on that rush-hour train or the way the boss speaks; we laugh about the pain of Monday mornings and the thrill of annual leave. Continue reading...

What remains of us when we no longer think or feel anything? Are we then – nothing?I was green around the gills. Only minutes earlier, I had been chattering away happily with a more-or-less healthy hue to my complexion as I boarded the plane – with a plan to demonstrate how our wireless technology for measuring heart and sweat-gland activity works under unusual conditions.But now, here I was, just about to jump out of the plane, with only a parachute to save me, and I had taken on the colour of a vampire who’s been snacking on the wrong blood group. Later, this will even be recognisable on photos of the event. Continue reading...

Yale psychiatric professor who briefed members of Congress last month tells the Guardian ‘the danger has become imminent’

As an adaptation of HG Wells’s The Crystal Egg prepares to open in London, its creators explain how they turned a short story from 1897 into a play for our alien-obsessed timesHG Wells hold a special place in the hearts of many sci-fi enthusiasts and scientists alike. Best known for his novels The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The Invisible Man, Wells’s work is renowned for its prescience and has been revisited and adapted many times, so modern do some of his fears and preoccupations seem.

We’re going to start big: with over 23m digits. That’s right, not even a week into 2018 and records have already tumbled at the discovery of the largest prime number ever to be found - less than a year after its predecessor. It’s exciting, it a math-sy sort of way, but for my money the most intriguing story this week was the genetic analysis of an ice age baby girl which has revealed a new group of Native Americans: the ancient Beringians. One of our experts also unpacked what the ancient DNA discovery tells us about Native American ancestry, and it’s a fascinating read. A less pleasing genetic revelation (well, for those of us who enjoyed a sherry or two this Christmas) is the suggestion that alcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to stem cells. Scientists made the discovery while trying to understand the link between drinking and cancer. On the plus side, there has been a big breakthrough in the quest to find an effective, non-addictive alternative to opioid painkillers – some much-needed good news as the global opioid addiction crisis worsens. Finally, it’s bad news, but so damn interesting: an analysis of ‘Tabby’s star’ (also known as KIC 8462852) has shown that there’s no alien megastructure around it. Still, it’s early days yet: let’s see where the hunt for alien life goes in 2018. Continue reading...

With space missions in 2018 set to boldly go further than ever before, here is a look back at some of biggest breakthroughs and most breathtaking views offered by 2017 Continue reading...

From quantum computers that’ll make conventional machines redundant to a map of the brain, these are some of the key issues for science in the coming yearThis will be the year when we see a quantum computer solve a computational problem that conventional computers can’t, using the rules of quantum mechanics to manipulate data, potentially making them much more powerful than classical devices. Many researchers think that the prototype devices built during the past year will soon be able to achieve “quantum supremacy” – the solution of a task that would take a classical computer an impractical length of time. This doesn’t mean that quantum computers are yet ready to take over the computer industry, but this will be the year that they start to become a genuine commercial proposition. Continue reading...

British Veterinary Association launches #breedtobreathe campaign to highlight serious health issues breeds such as pugs and French bulldogs are prone toVets have urged dog-lovers to think twice about buying squashed-faced dogs such as pugs and French bulldogs, after many would-be owners were found to be unaware of the health problems such breeds often experience.According to data from the Kennel Club, registrations of squashed-faced, or brachycephalic, breeds have shot up in recent years: while just 692 French bulldogs were registered in 2007, registrations reached 21,470 in 2016.

Academics strongly criticise World Health Organisation for leaving older people and dementia off its proposed list of funding prioritiesThe World Health Organisation (WHO) is being accused of institutional ageism by academics, who say older people and dementia have been left out of its work programme for the next five years.In a letter published in the Lancet medical journal, the academics say WHO is “washing its hands” of older people. “This is entirely unacceptable. If the proposed programme is approved, it will considerably diminish WHO’s global authority and will brand it as a champion of age discrimination,” says the letter from experts on ageing from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Continue reading...

Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanityOcean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas. Continue reading...

With nearly one million more digits than the previous record holder, the new largest prime number is the 50th rare Mersenne prime ever to be discoveredAt more than 23m digits long, the number is something of a beast. But for mathematicians, the latest discovery from a global gang of enthusiasts is a thing of beauty: the largest prime number ever found.

Key discovery around brain’s receptor proteins could help develop painkiller substitutes, raising hopes of an eventual end to global opioid addiction crisisThe prospect of a non-addictive alternatives to morphine and other opioids has moved a step closer as scientists say they have cracked a key challenge in developing safe and effective substitute painkillers.Overuse of highly addictive opioids has led to a health crisis across the world, especially in the US where more than 60,000 people died after overdoses in 2016 alone; president Donald Trump has declared the epidemic a public health emergency. Continue reading...

In the first episode of our Questioning Artificial Intelligence mini-series, Ian Sample explores some of the key hurdles for machine learning, including reasoning and social intelligenceSubscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterThe media is full of stories of the hopes and fears over rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) technology. But it’s not just pundits debating the pros and cons of what AI might one day achieve: among AI researchers themselves there is plenty of disagreement over what the future holds. Instead of trying to predict what will happen in decades to come, this mini-series will look at the here and now, and pose four questions to experts about AI in 2018. First up: what are the key challenges AI researchers are wrestling with today? Continue reading...

Scientific misconduct is more than just an academic problem – it has repercussions for real peopleAbout 10 years ago, in my lab rat days, I moved to a large structural biology lab. As a cell biologist I had a different skillset to my new colleagues, and my new boss asked to me tackle a problem that had been eluding the rest of the lab. This was to replicate the result of an experiment performed by our cell-biological collaborators across the road.I approached the challenge with the enthusiasm of a new starter. I was soon able to show results proving I had the system up and running, with positive and negative controls all doing the right thing. Continue reading...

The UK government has ambitious plans to boost research and development. Most funding will come from business – but universities must be at the heart of the strategy