Communication is everything when it comes to the climate change debate – and there isn’t just one way to speak to people’s emotionsThere’s a debate in climate circles about whether you should try to scare the living daylights out of people, or give them hope – think images of starving polar bears on melting ice caps on the one hand, and happy families on their bikes lined with flowers and solar-powered lights on the other.The debate came to something of a head this year, after David Wallace-Wells lit up the internet with his 7,000-word, worst-case scenario published in New York magazine. It went viral almost instantly, and soon was the best-read story in the magazine’s history. A writer in Slate called it “the Silent Spring of our time”. But it also garnered tremendous criticism and from more than the usual denier set. Continue reading...

Higher mortality rate occurs despite patients usually being younger and fitter and is likely due to lack of medical staff, say scientistsPatients undergoing surgery in Africa are more than twice as likely to die following an operation than the global average, despite generally being younger, healthier and the surgery they are undergoing being more minor, research has revealed.The study, which covered 25 countries, revealed that just over 18% of in-patients developed complications following surgery, while 1% of elective in-patients died in hospital within 30 days of their operation – twice the global average.

Genetic analysis of a baby girl who died at the end of the last ice age shows she belonged to a previously unknown ancient group of Native Americans

Link between drinking and cancer clarified by study which indicates alcohol causes cancer by scrambling DNA in cells, eventually leading to mutationsAlcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to the body’s reserve of stem cells, according to a study that helps explain the link between drinking and cancer.The research, using genetically modified mice, provides the most compelling evidence to date that alcohol causes cancer by scrambling the DNA in cells, eventually leading to deadly mutations. Continue reading...

A new genome from a Pleistocene burial in Alaska confirms a longstanding model for the initial peopling of the Americas

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsHow are the estimates of the ages of a) the Earth and b) the universe derived?RJ Jarrett, London SE26 Continue reading...

Stand down space cadets: there is (sadly) no alien megastructure around star KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby’s starAs if a divisive Star Wars film wasn’t bad news enough this Christmas, now an analysis by more than 200 astronomers has been published that shows the mysterious dimming of star KIC 8462852 is not being produced by an alien megastructure.The evidence points most strongly to a giant cloud of dust occasionally obscuring the star. The cloud was most possibly produced by the collision of two comets or the break-up of a single one. Another option is that the star itself is undergoing some sort of internal convulsion that astronomers have never seen before. Continue reading...

From scientists to weapons testers to doctors – bringing to life the formidable female pioneers who helped win the war and the voteOne hundred years ago next month, on 6 February 1918, women working in hospitals, laboratories and universities throughout Britain raised toasts and burst into triumphal song as they celebrated being given the vote.Before the first world war, many of these doctors, scientists and academics had been impassioned suffragists and even militant suffragettes who marched on parliament and smashed windows in support of votes for women. On the outbreak of war they had immediately hung up their banners and laid down their missiles to devote their expertise to fighting the common enemy. The government’s decision to award the vote to women over 30 – the rest would have to wait another 10 years – was widely regarded as a reward for women’s war work. Continue reading...

We asked you to recommend the best ways to limit the amount of sugary snacks your children eat. Here’s what some of you said

Humans may use a host of facial cues – visible just hours after an infection starts – to avoid contracting illnesses from others, study indicatesCoughing, sneezing and clutching the stomach might be obvious signs of sickness, but humans can also spot if someone is healthy simply from a glance at their face, new research suggests.Scientists have found that signs of a person being acutely unwell – such as pale lips, a downward turn of the mouth and droopy eyelids – are visible just hours after an infection begins.

Presenter Chris Packham and palaeontologist Dave Hone explain the challenges involved in recreating Tyrannosaurus rex for a new BBC documentaryTyrannosaurus rex is probably the most famous extinct animal, but thanks to Hollywood and various out-of-date books, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about this incredible dinosaur. There is too much hype and not enough good science surrounding dinosaurs generally – and Tyrannosaurus in particular. A new BBC documentary, The Real T. rex with Chris Packham, has attempted to bring our knowledge of this iconic animal into the 21st century – not an easy task, as presenter Packham and palaeontologist Dave Hone explain ...Chris: I fell for a dinosaur in 1965 ... but it was the wrong dinosaur. It was fat, slow, stupid and wandered around in swamps. It was grey, or green, and by the time I was ten I suspected that the lumbering monster from the movies and TV – and even my treasured books – was just not viable as an animal. And over the following years the science moved on, slowly, but the public image just didn’t evolve. Dinosaurs became hot-blooded ... but still plodded, and even when the last instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise was released ... the characters were still scaly, even when we knew they had feathers. It’s time to put the monster to bed and bring out the real, living breathing animal – that’s what I wanted to do for The Real T. rex. Continue reading...

Researchers are developing a system to enable six harvests a year of staple food crops that can survive climate changeScientists are engaged in a race against time to breed staple crops that can both survive climate change and yield bigger harvests. Their aim is to feed a growing population in a warming world.The method used for centuries of growing one crop a year in variable weather conditions and then selecting the seeds from the best plants is no longer viable in fast-changing climatic conditions. Scientists are concerned that for some years there have been few improvements in yields of grain. Continue reading...

A global temperature rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels could see many regions facing an increased threat of drought and wildfires, study suggestsMore than a quarter of the planet’s surface could become significantly drier if global temperatures rise 2C above pre-industrial levels, scientists predict.The study, which is one of the most detailed assessments to date of future aridity, suggests that many regions could face an increased threat of drought and wildfires. Continue reading...

A zoo has been inundated with messages of support after closing to give a group of greiving macaques time to ‘come to terms with their loss’Name: Macaques.Age: Older than man, and a good deal less irritating. Continue reading...

For months, universities have been on trial in the court of public opinion. David Willetts’s new book shows them how to respond: with passion and sophisticationYesterday there appeared the latest in a long series of articles that, through the medium of superficial analysis, mounts a damaging attack on Britain’s universities. The piece, published by the BBC, rehearses the debates over tuition fees, student satisfaction, sky-high vice-chancellor salaries, and the universities minister’s recent criticism of free speech at our institutions of higher education. To be fair to the BBC’s education correspondent, he doesn’t appear to have an agenda but his diagnoses betrayed the same lack of familiarly of structural and operational realities that have so weakened the criticisms made by Andrew Adonis and Simon Jenkins.We might have hoped for more substantial critique from the minister, but Jo Johnson’s most recent pronouncements, on two-year degrees and on the troublesome debates embroiling students around freedom of speech have been disappointingly thin on evidence and detail. They were so easily debunked that I am beginning to suspect that Johnson is more interested in catching the eye of the right-wing press – and the prime minister – than in constructing useful policy for higher education. The appointment to the board of the Office for Students of Toby Young, a journalist with dubious and poorly supported views on diversity and eugenics, appears to follow a similar pattern. Continue reading...

A growing number of women, often working and unmarried, are ready to pay to postpone motherhood and that’s music to the ears of investors in fertility clinicsAbout two dozen women ate cheese and canapés in a swanky Midtown Manhattan building in early December. It could have been mistaken for a networking event if it weren’t for the women’s singular focus – egg freezing.Related: Hope or hype? The chilling truth about freezing your eggs Continue reading...

Warmer winters mean lethally unpredictable ice, leaving already isolated communities too frightened to venture out for food and fuel. A new ice sensor project could change all thatThe four men were napping in their Bombardier snow vehicle when disaster struck. They had stopped for a break on an overnight cargo run down the west coast of Hudson Bay when the ice beneath them gave way. Normally thick enough to take the load, the sea ice in northern Canada formed late last season. As the vehicle plunged into the freezing water, only one man escaped.The accident in January 2017 was not a freak event. Warmer winters have brought a lethal unpredictability to those who travel on the sea ice, often by snowmobile, to fetch firewood, reach hunting grounds, and buy supplies from nearby towns. After an especially warm winter in 2010, a survey of the population in Nain, on the remote north-eastern coast, found one in 12 had fallen through sea ice. Beyond the immediate danger the incidents posed, the psychological impact was devastating. More than two thirds of the community said they were afraid to go out on the ice. People went without fresh food. They burned wooden pallets and furniture to warm their homes.

Public Health England urging parents to take tougher line on sweets, cakes and fizzy drinks between meals to stem obesity crisis• Former advertising executive reveals Big Food’s junk food-pushing tacticsChildren’s snacking habits are setting them up for obesity and poor health, Public Health England has warned, calling on parents to take a tougher line on sweets and cakes and fizzy drinks between meals.Children in England are eating on average at least three unhealthy high-calorie sugary snacks and drinks every day, says PHE, and about a third of children eat four or more. It is urging parents to draw the line at two and make sure they are not more than 100 calories each. Continue reading...

Ian Chubb was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer and his prognosis was grim. But now, as far as his oncologist can tell, he is cancer-free

The solution to today’s rodent riddler, and the 2018 challengeIn my puzzle blog earlier today, I set a logic puzzle about squirrels and an arithemetic puzzle about today’s date:1. The Squirrel King has buried the Golden Acorn beneath one of the squares in this 6x6 grid. Three squirrels - Black, Grey and Red - are each standing on a square in the grid, as illustrated. Continue reading...

Bury yourselves in this rodent riddle, plus a prize challengeUPDATE: Click here to go to the solutions.Happy New Year guzzlers!Today’s first problem concerns squirrels. Have a nibble - it’s not too hard a nut to crack. Continue reading...

Researchers pass milestone on developmental path from stem cells to immature sperm, and hint lab-made sperm and eggs may one day be possibleScientists have come a step closer to mimicking the natural process by which the body creates sperm from stem cells in work that could ultimately provide new treatments for infertility.Speaking at the Progress Educational Trust annual conference in London this month, Azim Surani, director of germline and epigenetics research at the University of Cambridge’s Gurdon Institute, said he and colleagues had passed a significant milestone on the path to producing sperm in the laboratory. The team is thought to be the first to have reached the halfway point on the developmental path from human stem cells to immature sperm. Continue reading...

Highlights of a month that includes a ‘supermoon’, a lunar eclipse (though we can’t see it in Britain) and the Quadrantids meteor showerOrion, which rises in the E at nightfall and passes due S two hours after our map times, rules a star-spangled evening sky that more than compensates for the fact that our only bright planets are visible before dawn. Continue reading...

Planetary scientists studying images of Venus noticed remarkable similarities between lava plains on Venus and areas on Earth where tectonic plates interactFor those who don’t like New Year, be grateful that you live on Earth and not Venus. Although the days are long on Venus (equivalent to 116.75 Earth days), the years are short, and come around every 1.92 Venus days. With a surface that seized up hundreds of millions of years ago, temperatures of more than 460C, and clouds of sulphuric acid, this isn’t a friendly planet. Continue reading...

From girls with attitude on screen to new grime debuts, from Steve McQueen’s return to Tacita Dean’s London takeover, Observer writers on what to look forward to in the coming yearSomething special is happening in UK publishing. After the success of The Good Immigrant (edited by Nikesh Shukla) and titles like Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, there has been a renewed push to rectify the problems of an industry that has too long ignored narratives outside the white experience. Out of the thousands of titles published in 2016, a Bookseller study found that fewer than 100 books were published by non-white Brits. Continue reading...

The climate scientist on leaving the US to work in France – with funding from President Macron – and why she believes Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement will backfire on himCamille Parmesan, a biologist at the universities of Texas and Plymouth, is one of the world’s most influential climate change scientists, having shown how butterflies and other species are affected by it across all continents. She is one of 18 US scientists moving to France to take up President Macron’s invitation of refuge after Donald Trump’s decision to cut science funding and withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris agreement.What has made you leave the US?

China may achieve a feat never attempted by the US or USSR – landing on the far side of the moonThis time next year, there may be a new world leader in lunar exploration. If all goes according to plan, China will have done something no other space-faring superpower has been able to do: land on the far side of the moon. China is rocketing ahead with its plans for lunar exploration. In 2018, they will launch a pair of missions known collectively as Chang’e 4. It is the fourth mission in a series named after the Chinese moon goddess.The first component of Chang’e 4 is scheduled to lift off in June. It will be a relay satellite stationed some 60,000km behind the moon and will provide a communications link between Earth and the lunar far side. Once this link is established, it will allow China to send the second part of the mission: a lander to the far side’s surface. Continue reading...

Our tendancy to volunteer, give to charity and vote comes from our parents, says Ben Ambridge. But there’s a surprising twistAre you an active participant in community life or more a ‘charity begins at home’ type? And where did those attitudes come from? To find out, give each of the following statements a score between 1 (not at all true) and 4 (very true).(a) I volunteer my time for community activities

An estimated two million people abused opiates during the war, after using drugs disseminated by healthcare providers, doctors and nurses to stem painFor many Americans, it was the prescription of a well-meaning physician that sent them down the dark road.Related: White House says true cost of opioid drug epidemic in 2015 was $504bn Continue reading...

Byron Katie was deeply depressed when a radical change left her joyful. She now uses her secret to help others – whether brutalised by war or merely stressedFor a long time, Byron Katie’s children thought she was having them on. Her character seemed to change overnight, and they didn’t trust her one bit.For 10 years – until that day – she had spiralled into rage, paranoia and despair, becoming so depressed she seldom left her house. She’d stayed in bed for weeks at a time, and her children learned to tiptoe past her door to avoid her furious outbursts. Continue reading...

Ringo Starr given knighthood while others from the arts, business, sport and the community are also recognised Continue reading...

In 1973 Heinz Wolff was the specialist judge for my school’s team in the first heat of the BBC Young Scientists of the Year competition. Two years previously a consultant at Guy’s hospital in London had asked our school if we could assist children with cerebral palsy; they wore out their shoes very quickly due to the manner in which they walked. We researched materials and eventually produced an automated machine that manufactured hard-wearing polypropylene toecaps to fit over their shoes.The project fitted with Heinz’s enthusiasms, and he took considerable interest in us and in our hopes and aspirations for the future. Despite his considerable intellect, he was very down to earth and approachable; in fact, off-screen he was exactly the same as on it. Continue reading...

Astronaut who became the first person to walk in space untetheredIn 1984 the astronaut Bruce McCandless, who has died aged 80, took the world’s breath away by becoming the first person to make an untethered spacewalk. Using a backpack equipped with nitrogen thrusters to move himself around, McCandless floated free in the void from the space shuttle Challenger for around four hours before returning to his colleagues inside. The main aim of the nine-day mission had been to release two communications satellites, and the spacewalk, while scientifically relevant, was really just icing on the cake. Nevertheless it was a vision of the ultimate, triumphant existentialist.McCandless found the untethered exercise highly exhilarating. “It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride,” he said. “It had taken many years to get to that point. Several people were sceptical it would work, and with 300 hours of flying practice, I was over-trained. My wife was at Mission Control and there was quite a bit of apprehension. I wanted to say something similar to Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon, so I said, ‘It might have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.’ That loosened the tension a bit.” Continue reading...

Although not harmless, the evidence is unequivocal that vaping is much safer than smoking. But misinformation and scaremongering could still be putting people off switchingSearch for the term ‘vaping’ online and you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is an activity fraught with risks. The top stories relate to health problems, explosions and that vaping leads to smoking in teenagers. For the average smoker seeking information on vaping, a quick internet search offers little reassurance. Might as well continue smoking, the headlines imply, if these products are so dangerous.But the reality is that they are not. In the past year, more than any other, the evidence that using an e-cigarette is far safer than smoking has continued to accumulate. 2017 saw the publication of the first longer term study of vaping, comparing toxicant exposure between people who’d stopped smoking and used the products for an average of 16 months, compared with those who continued to smoke. Funded by Cancer Research UK, the study found large reductions in carcinogens and other toxic compounds in vapers compared with smokers, but only if the user had stopped smoking completely. A further recent study compared toxicants in vapour and smoke that can cause cancer, and estimated excess cancer risk over a lifetime from smoking cigarettes or vaping. Most of the available data on e-cigarettes in this study suggested a cancer risk from vaping around 1% of that from smoking. Continue reading...

Psychologists offer their best tips for staying on track in 2018, from taking on your challenge in the morning to cutting yourself some slack• Don’t think of it as a New Year resolution, says Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit – think of it as a new year plan. “Much more important than setting a far off goal, like running a marathon, is to set an immediate plan that you can start right away.” Start with baby steps – running half a mile every Monday morning, for example – and you can work upwards. Continue reading...

Graphic advertisement from Public Health England shows toxic chemicals spreading through the bodySmokers are being urged to quit in the new year by a government advertising campaign highlighting how toxic chemicals from cigarettes spread rapidly through the body.The 20 second advert features a lone man lighting up outside a building, with the blood vessels in his arms, face and hands quickly turning black as chemicals from the cigarette tar enter his body. Continue reading...

A clinical psychologist suggests a three-pronged plan for tackling anxiety and approaching each day logically and positivelyLet us start by considering why some people catastrophise – that is, on hearing uncertain news, they imagine the worst possible outcome. After all, it is not uncommon and those who catastrophise seem to do it a lot. Catastrophisers tend to be fairly anxious people. Whether this characteristic is principally genetic or more the result of learning is unknown. High levels of anxiety are extremely unpleasant, so we look for ways to discharge those unpleasant feelings as quickly as possible. If a catastrophiser is told something inconclusive – for example, if they go to a GP and are asked to have tests – they look for a way to feel in control again immediately. They learn to choose the worst possible outcome because it allows for the greatest sense of relief when they are reassured.Considering all possibilities is not a bad strategy if you examine them logically. However, unable to bear their distress, catastrophisers rush to external sources to calm themselves down: checking whether anyone else has “come through” the same problem; matching symptoms online to obtain a diagnosis and treatment options; asking a professional to tell them that they will survive. Once they are reassured, they feel better – in psychological jargon, they have “rewarded” this seeking behaviour. The next time they feel uncertain or threatened, they will ratchet up their anxiety with a catastrophic thought, then look outwards for reassurance even faster than before. In this way, catastrophising soon becomes a well-entrenched habit. The greatest problem with seeking others to alleviate anxiety is that it offers only temporary relief. There is always another source to check or another opinion to be had; as a result, catastrophisers feel anxious again increasingly quickly. The only way to break this cycle is to tame anxiety. After this, you can still seek advice. So, if you are a catastrophiser and you would rather not be, how do you go about making changes? Continue reading...

Officials declare state of emergency after 86cm of snow falls in north-eastern US, as typhoons hit nations closer to equatorThe magic of a picture-perfect white Christmas is something many long for year after year. Erie, Pennsylvania was the place to be this year, where a whopping 86cm (34in) of snow fell on Christmas Day.This 24-hour snowfall shattered the previous Christmas record (20cm) and even broke the all-time snowiest day in the city’s history (51cm) on 22 November 1956. Continue reading...

This was the year that analysis of data finally backed up a prediction, made in the mid 1970s, of a surprising emergent behaviour in the strong nuclear forceIn the mid 1970s, four Soviet physicists, Batlisky, Fadin, Kuraev and Lipatov, made some predictions involving the strong nuclear force which would lead to their initials entering the lore. “BFKL” became a shorthand for a difficult-to-understand but important physical effect which could have big implications for high energy physics.The strongest of the known fundamental forces of nature is something of an enigma. It holds together the nucleus of every atom – easily overcoming the electromagnetic repulsion between the positively-charged protons in there. The simplest atomic nucleus, that of hydrogen, is a single proton, but even that is held in one piece by the strong force, so tightly that it never falls apart – or at least, it lives billions of times longer than the current age of the observable universe. Truly, strong and stable. Continue reading...

We’re highlighting interesting conversations on the site – including another year without a pay rise, and space exploration

Our team of experts round up a few of the best fossil discoveries of 2017

The value of calm reasoning – the cornerstone of democracy – is acknowledged rarely today. Even when we think we’re being rational, we don’t know what that isIt’s been coming on for a while, so I can’t claim any eureka moment. But something did crystallise this year. What I changed my mind about was people. More specifically, I realised that people cannot be relied upon to make rational choices. We would have fixed global warming by now if we were rational. Instead, there’s a stubborn refusal to let go of the idea that environmental degradation is a “debate” in which there are “two sides”.Debating is a great way of exploring an issue when there is real room for doubt and nuance. But when a conclusion can be reached simply by assembling a mountain of known facts, debating is just a means of pitting the rational against the irrational. Continue reading...

Deputy prime minister admits programmers gave the $45m device coordinates for Baikonur rather than Vostochny cosmodromeRussian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday the loss of a 2.6bn-rouble ($45m) satellite launched last month was due to an embarrassing programming error.Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month it had lost contact with the newly launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the country’s far east. Continue reading...

As a child I felt constantly at risk, scared to walk the neighbourhood. Who knew if a free-ranging dog might emerge from a driveway and rip my head off?Fears are not rational. But growing up, in my mind, it made perfect sense that a dog could bite me, and moreover, most likely would if given the chance.My fear was born of repeated backyard encounters with a mauling, snarling dog. We shared the yard with tenants who lived in the other part of our grandfather’s house. This meant our sandpit was contested territory, my dolls were easy targets, and my young mind was easily imprinted with the image of slavering jaws crushing heads. Dolls’ heads, true, but that had implications. Continue reading...

Offering e-STI kits alongside existing sexual health services could improve testing rates, research indicatesOffering young people testing kits for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) over the internet almost doubles testing uptake compared with inviting them to a clinic, research suggests.In 2016 alone there were more than 417,000 diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections in England, including gonorrhoea and chlamydia, with rates of STI diagnoses generally higher among young people. While the use of condoms can help to prevent the spread of STIs, a recent survey found that nearly half of under-25s questioned did not use one when having sex with a new partner.

Archaeologists clearing attics to create new museum space find 30,000 stained glass shards, some dating back to 13th centuryWhen the archaeologist Warwick Rodwell scooped up a handful of dust from the attics of Westminster Abbey and saw dozens of tiny fragments of glass glittering in the grime, he realised they were dealing with excavation, not house clearance.The salvaged glass – some dating back to the 13th century, including stars, flowers and sun rays, fierce little mythical animals and beautiful medieval faces – is being recycled into dazzling new windows being made for the abbey at the stained glass studio at Canterbury Cathedral, where some of the original medieval glass artists may have worked. Continue reading...

“Technocognition” proposes that we use technology and psychology to break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like climate change

Two hundred years after the publication of Frankenstein, how relevant are the themes and concerns of Shelley’s gothic tale to today’s readers?Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterOn 1 January 1818, a small publishing house in London produced 500 copies of a novel that would go on to define a genre and resonate for centuries to come: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Its reputation is now cemented as a classic gothic tale, but underneath the horror lie complex themes and explorations of ownership, what constitutes the essence of life and, of course, concerns around the progress of science. But how was it that Shelley came to write this masterpiece? Are we any closer to identifying the “spark” of life? And from a scientific point of view, what can this 200-year-old story tell us about our attitudes toward the “natural” and “unnatural” worlds? Continue reading...

Harvard Business School finds that people are four times more likely to quit a line if there is no-one else waiting behind themNo-one relishes the moment. You are stuck at the back of a queue and as those in other lines sail past and get served, the time to decide arrives. Do you hold your nerve and stay put, switch to another line in the hope it moves faster, or give up altogether?The pressing question has now been tackled by research at Harvard Business School. It found that when a person finds themselves at the end of a queue, they can make decisions that swiftly backfire. And it is all down to our aversion to being last.

President’s ambitious proposals leave many questions unanswered, and experts’ cautious optimism is tempered by reservations about the detailsThe world is not enough for Donald Trump: he has declared space “the next great American frontier” and mused to Congress that “American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream”.Earlier this month, the president ordered the agency to head back to the moon. “This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday to many other worlds beyond,” he said, before signing the new policy for Nasa. Continue reading...