Family of weapons expert who killed himself in 2003 asked for his grave to be dug up owing to fears it was being desecratedThe body of Dr David Kelly, the government chemical weapons expert who killed himself in 2003 after being outed as the source of a BBC story, has been exhumed, police have confirmed.The scientist’s family reportedly had his remains cremated after asking for the grave to be dug up because they were upset it was being “desecrated” by conspiracy theorists who believe Kelly was murdered. Continue reading...

The US astronaut spent 11 months aboard the ISS, shaving 13 milliseconds off his Earth age in the process. He talks spacewalking, recovery and the scientific value in sending an identical twin into spaceScott Kelly is a 53-year-old American astronaut and a veteran of four space flights. He retired last year after spending 11 continuous months on the International Space Station. During his time on board the ISS, he orbited the Earth 5,440 times and made three space walks. He was also part of a study with his identical twin and fellow astronaut, Mark Kelly, to examine the genetic effects of spaceflight. As Mark was on Earth and Scott in space, they made for perfect comparative analysis, though it was not the reason Kelly was chosen for the mission. He has just published a memoir, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery.What do you think has been the most important achievement of manned space travel?

Experiencing awe helps us to feel more human, says Caspar Henderson. We would do well to seek it outMy daughter recently had to make a rainstick for school, so she pulled a cardboard tube out of the recycling, found some dried beans to create the sound of rain when it’s shaken, and taped up the ends. The noises from her new creation were underwhelming compared to those from a model you can buy online for a few quid but they were enough to bring to my mind a simple and beautiful poem by Seamus Heaney. “Upend the rain stick,” he writes, “and what happens next/Is a music that you never would have known/To listen for…”Towards the end of his life in 1970, the psychologist Abraham Maslow, best known today for his theory of the hierarchy of needs, considered putting self-transcendence at its top, above self-actualisation. Beyond the “merely healthy” individual, he suggested, were those who became better human beings for others as well as for themselves. And a key factor in this transition, he suggested, was what he called “peak experience”. By this he meant “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality”. Continue reading...

As BBC4 film Speechless marks World Stroke Day, documentary producer Nick Fraser reflects on his own recovery following a brain attack in FebruaryI was just finishing a talk about documentaries I was giving in Soho. I’d been asked a question about why so many films are seriously depressing. I remember that I talked about the great neurosurgeon Henry Marsh and the documentary about him, The English Surgeon. The film followed him to Ukraine as he helped and taught the local surgeons, who often resorted to using rusty domestic power tools to work on their patients’ skulls. I’d talked about him for some time, enthusiastically explaining how awed Henry said he felt every time he opened a patient’s head, and about how beautiful the brain is. I wanted to say more – but suddenly I sat down, and couldn’t say or think anything. Something had happened to me. I had gone into a different world of not making sense.Related: Number of strokes in UK predicted to rise by 44% in next 20 years Continue reading...

Report’s author cautions that findings should not be misinterpreted as proof of causal linkCannabis smokers have about 20% more sex than those who abstain from the drug, an American study has shown.Survey participants were asked how many times they had had heterosexual intercourse in the past four weeks and how frequently they had smoked marijuana over the past 12 months.

First up, this just in: astronomers have detected a mysterious space rock hurtling past the sun, and believe it could be the first object that can be traced back to another solar system. It’s not aliens, but it’s pretty exciting. You know what else is exciting? The release of Stephen Hawking’s 1966 PhD thesis online. People really went wild for it: demand was so huge it crashed Cambridge’s repository website. Oops. No less exciting is a fresh breakthrough in DNA base editing, or “chemical surgery”, which brings hope of potential treatment for huge number of diseases that arise as a result of a single genetic “misspelling”. Finally we have not one but two stories involving both skulls and cute animals (it’s been quite the week). First up is the discovery that the medieval love of squirrel fur may have helped spread leprosy. A human skull found in a Suffolk garden has yields new evidence of link between human and animal leprosy – with red squirrel fur traded with Viking Scandinavia thought to be a factor. But that’s as nothing compared to the strange discovery that shrews shrink their skulls and brains to survive winter – and then regrow them in the spring. Ponder that, if you will. Continue reading...

If its origins are confirmed, the asteroid or comet, named A/2017 U1, will be the first object known to come from elsewhere in the galaxy, say astronomersA mysterious object detected hurtling past our sun could be the first space rock traced back to a different solar system, according to astronomers tracking the body.While other objects have previously been mooted as having interstellar origins, experts say the latest find, an object estimated to be less than 400m in diameter, is the best contender yet.

Vasili Arkhipov, who prevented escalation of the cold war by refusing to launch a nuclear torpedo against US forces, is to be awarded new ‘Future of Life’ prizeA senior officer of a Soviet submarine who averted the outbreak of nuclear conflict during the cold war is to be honoured with a new prize, 55 years to the day after his heroic actions averted global catastrophe.On 27 October 1962, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was on board the Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba when the US forces began dropping non-lethal depth charges. While the action was designed to encourage the Soviet submarines to surface, the crew of B-59 had been incommunicado and so were unaware of the intention. They thought they were witnessing the beginning of a third world war.

Heart attacks and heart failure less common in patients having heart operations in the afternoon as opposed to the morning, say researchersPatients undergoing open heart surgery in the afternoon have a lower risk of potentially fatal complications than those undergoing operations in the morning, new research suggests.The study found that events including heart attacks and heart failure were less common among those who had undergone a valve replacement operation in the afternoon. Continue reading...

Blue Origin test-fires rocket engine that scientists expect to take on extra methane made in space – so solving the dilemma of how to return home from the red planetBlue Origin, the US private space launch company, has successfully test fired the world’s most powerful methane-burning rocket engine. Rockets such as this, fuelled by natural gas, will be essential for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Investment of £760m into Richard Branson’s space companies will enable ‘next generation of human spaceflight’Saudi Arabia will plough around $1bn (£760m) into Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin space companies.

Pontiff becomes second pope to speak to astronauts orbiting the Earth with live streamed video call from the VaticanThe Earth is a fragile thing that could even destroy itself, Pope Francis told astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, saying they had an opportunity to see the planet “from the eyes of God”.The voice of Pope Francis was heard in the heavens when he made a 20-minute video call to six astronauts to talk about life’s biggest questions – including their opinions on love, their sources of joy and how life without gravity changed their view of the world. Continue reading...

Hoard is richest Viking-age collection of precious metal found in UK or Ireland and diverse with objects from across EuropeThe spectacular Galloway Viking Hoard has been acquired by National Museums Scotland after raising almost £2m in just five months.The hoard consists of more than 100 pieces of gold, silver, ingots and jewellery gathered up from across the Viking world and was found more than 1,000 years later by by a metal detectorist in a field in Dumfries and Galloway. Continue reading...

A British supersonic car currently under development has its first public test drive at Cornwall airport in Newquay, south-west England. The Bloodhound reached a speed of around 200mph on the 1.7-mile runway. The team behind the vehicle say it is part fighter jet, part Formula One car and part spaceship. The goal is for it to reach a speed of 1,000mph on a run in South Africa next year Continue reading...

A Tory MP and the Daily Mail have revealed that UK universities are hotbeds of anti-Brexit thinking. A new and improved syllabus will put a stop to all thatUniversities! What are they like? If they’re not taking money from people who don’t even use them like no other public service ever, they’re championing anti-Brexit thinking! Just because they rely on things like knowledge and education and analysis and expertise and study and facts and an awareness of how reality works, they think they can defy the will of some of the people at a particular point in time from over a year ago? Such arrogance! Such elitism! This sabotage has not gone unnoticed, especially by the top lads over at the Daily Mail, with their front-page splash.This cannot be allowed to continue. Everyone knows that Brexit is brilliant and all-powerful, but also simultaneously fragile and weak, so must be protected and shielded from even the slightest scrutiny or pressure. It’s like an unborn golden eagle. Or a palace, made entirely out of dry manure and blind optimism. Continue reading...

The British astronaut answered your questions on whether you can get a cold in space, why you can’t see Brexit from the ISS, the time he saw strange flying objects and why he wants to go to Mars2.49pm BSTThat’s all for today!Thanks for all the brilliant questions, I've really enjoyed answering them and sorry to those of you who didn't get an answer. There are loads more answers in my new book Ask An Astronaut and proceeds go to the Prince's Trust.2.47pm BSTJacandJill asks:What was the hardest part of the selection process for you? From Lucy age 9.The selection process took a year and covered many different areas. Some of these are these that you simply cannot train for such as your medical condition and psychology. However, some areas such as communication skills and teamwork are things that you can practice and get better at throughout your career. I found the hardest part of selection were all the tests we had to do on the very first day. This covered areas such as maths, science, language, concentration, memory, spatial awareness and it was a very stressful day. At the time I had no idea how well I had done, but when I was told I'd passed I knew that for me that was the most difficult hurdle out of the way. Continue reading...

Mongolia’s cold, dry climate can result in incredible archaeological finds, but a harsh economic downturn means looting has risen to disastrous levelsIt’s a sunny, late summer day in northern Mongolia’s Darkhad Basin – a large glacial lake basin nestled against the country’s Russian border. To the south stretch the grasslands of the Eastern Eurasian Steppe; to the north, the Siberian boreal forest. We stand – almost precisely – at the place they meet, at the forest’s edge overlooking a large, grassy valley the administrative district of Ulaan Uul. We’ve come to this site, known locally as Khorigiin Am, in response to reports from local herders of bones and artifacts lying on the ground surface. What we find is shocking –scraps of silk, hastily scattered pieces of wooden artifacts – and bone, human bone, everywhere.My companion, Dr J Bayarsaikhan, finishes a tally of the looted burial craters that dot the hillside. “More than forty,” he tells me, surveying the scene in front of us with dismay. We work through the evening to salvage what we can from the dozens of looted burial mounds, which from the fragmented artifacts we find, appear to date to the time of the Great Mongol Empire – around 800 years ago. Continue reading...

A new government campaign suggesting that growing antimicrobial resistance is the fault of patients is lazy and dishonestSinging and dancing pills are the latest weapon to be pulled out of the NHS’s public health armoury, in a last-ditch battle to beat antibiotic resistance. The animated capsules are featured in Public Health England’s Keep Antibiotics Working campaign, which was unveiled earlier this week, and aims to encourage patients to use fewer antibiotics. Yet like all other attempts to curb the impending antibiotic Armageddon, it will fail. Why? Because it is based on the lazy assumption that patients are to blame.We should be in a strong position to curb the threat of antimicrobial resistance in the UK, as our comparatively non-interventionist approach to illness (necessitated by having one of the lowest spends per capita on healthcare in the western world) has meant we have a much stronger grip on prescribing than many other places. This is admirable and should be celebrated more than it is, yet this is exactly why a campaign encouraging people to use fewer antibiotics is destined to fail. Patients aren’t the decision-makers here. Continue reading...

Some people exude self-assurance, while others dread putting themselves forward. But is lack of confidence societal or genetic, and what tricks can we use to overcome it?Above the entrance to Manchester Grammar School lies a coat of arms and a Latin inscription: “Sapere Aude”. Ian Thorpe, then the school’s development officer, translated it for me – “Dare to Be Wise” – as we stood in the front quad on a warm day last July. First used by the Roman poet Horace in his book of Epistles, the phrase was later employed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Dare to know! ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding’ is … the motto of the enlightenment,” he wrote. And it makes a fine motto, too, for a school that counts among its alumni the writer Thomas de Quincy and the director Nicholas Hytner.Manchester Grammar is the largest all-boys day school in the country, and when I visited they were in the throes of summer sports’ day: a loudspeaker reeled race results out across the grass, a large marquee stood by the track. There was, I felt, a sense of gentle splendour – there in the trees that line its long driveway, mature and broad-branched, and in the quad designed in the style of an Oxbridge college. Certainly, the school wants for little: it stands on a 28-acre site, has a history dating back to the early 16th century, and commands fees a little shy of £12,000 a year. Continue reading...

Skull yields new evidence of link between human and animal leprosy – with red squirrel fur traded with Viking Scandinavia thought to be a factorScientists have found evidence that the medieval taste for the beautiful fine fur of red squirrels, traded with Viking Scandinavia, may have been a factor in the spread of leprosy.The link between human and animal leprosy had already been suggested when the disease was found in modern squirrels in the UK, but the new evidence is from analysis of the skull of a woman who died more than 1,000 years ago in Suffolk, before the Norman invasion. Continue reading...

Fresh DNA base editing breakthrough brings hope of potential treatment for huge number of diseases that arise as a result of a single genetic ‘misspelling’A breakthrough in “chemical surgery” that can correct a type of genetic mutation behind a host of diseases has been unveiled by researchers.Scientists are hopeful that the approach could offer new ways to understand – and even one day tackle – certain human genetic diseases by correcting mutations in a patient’s body. Continue reading...

In a rare piece of good press for the persistently antisocial, researchers have found that there are some tasks that are particularly suited for themMost will agree that psychopaths are a bad thing for society. They’re into genocide, violence, reckless banking, sadistic political policies and sending deranged tweets late at night.However, a new study suggests psychopaths could act as a force for “greater good”. The research, by the University of Plymouth, found that when you need to carry out a bit of utilitarianism – sacrificing one person to save many others, for example – you might be wise to rely on someone with psychopathic traits to get the job done. Continue reading...

In this week’s Science Weekly podcast, Nicola Davis asks two of popular science’s best known stars a host of pressing questions. What role should scientists play in society? What might the future hold for humanity? And will we ever build Northampton on Mars?Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterLast week, Science Weekly went out live on Facebook. Joined in the studio by Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince – co-hosts of The Infinite Monkey Cage, and co-authors of How to Build a Universe – Nicola Davis asked: how important is communicating science to the masses? What role can comedy play? And, when thinking about a potentially infinite universe, is there any meaning to anything at all? Continue reading...

Newly-discovered Junornis huoi was the oldest bird capable of bounding flight – and represents an exciting update to what we know about complex flightA 126-million-year-old fossil has demonstrated that birds were capable of a special form of flight much earlier than previously thought. The newly named Junornis huoi (which means “beautiful wing”) is known from a single incredibly preserved specimen with a superb skeleton and extensive preservation of feathers, including the wings and two long tail feathers which were likely used for display.The fossil comes from the famous “Jehol” beds of China, which have produced numerous birds, dinosaurs, and other animals including predatory mammals and tadpoles of salamanders. The exceptional preservation of soft tissues such as feathers, claws, muscles and even gills has added considerably to our understanding of the evolution of various groups. The beds extend across northern China and even into North Korea, but Junornis is from the far western extent of these, coming from Inner Mongolia. Continue reading...

Crops that feed 200 million people at risk from destructive march of fall armyworm, as agriculture experts call for urgent action

Handwritten advice to Japanese courier in lieu of a tip exceeds pre-auction estimate by more than 31,000%A note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo briefly describing his theory on happy living has sold at auction in Jerusalem for $1.56m (€1.33m ), according to auctioneers.The winning bid for the note far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $5,000 and $8,000, according to Winner’s auctions. Continue reading...

First runs in a new location are memorable, even magical – an introduction to a new city, for example – and science has set out to explain the phenomenonYou remember your first time, right? Everyone does. That grand départ into the unknown, the bewildering, clean-sheeted novelty of it all. That initial feeling of hesitation. The lingering trepidation. Then, bang, that’s all behind you. You’re away. You’ve found your feet, you’ve hit your stride. Pulse quickening, limbs loosening, excitement mounting. But your senses are where the real action is taking place. They’re off the charts, flying high. Everything is pinging and buzzing, brimming and popping. You’re alert, you’re alive, you’re there, in the zone, on the mark, nearing your peak. Yes, everyone remembers their first time.

Enthusiasm for Richard Thaler’s work on behavioural economics means economists have more influence than ever. But their failures contributed to the financial crisis – and we’re being distracted, say Tiago Mata and Jack WrightThe praise is still pouring in for Richard Thaler, winner of the 2017 Sveriges Riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. The news was described as “wonderful”, “well-deserved … and clarifying,” and BBC Radio 4’s More or Less explained that Thaler is an “amazing economist”. All this praise is due because Thaler has shown better than anyone that behavioural economics can be an engine of policy innovation. Thaler has turned failure into success, helping economists thrive during a financial crisis that they had failed to avert.Thaler is a best-selling author and an entertaining speaker who is never short of an anecdote to explain himself. It has been easy to describe the “endowment effect” – how we overvalue our possessions – or the “problem of self-control” in cartoons or on the radio. But Thaler’s insights, named in the award, are not why he is important. His true value lies in the fact that behavioural economics has refashioned economists as designers and evaluators of legislative and regulatory policy. Continue reading...

Analysis of US fracking sites suggests pollutants including airborne particulates and heavy metals could affect neurodevelopment of babies and childrenPollutants released during fracking processes could pose a health risk to infants and children, according to researchers studying chemicals involved in shale gas operations.The extraction of shale gas using pressurised fluid – a process known as fracking – has been used commercially since the 1950s and in recent years has fuelled an energy boom in the US. Many countries around the world are looking to follow suit – including Australia and the UK, where the first drilling in six years is expected to begin this week in the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Misperton, despite staunch opposition from protesters.

Research ‘strongly suggests’ that patients taking anticoagulants for irregular heartbeat could be protected against dementia and strokeBlood-thinning drugs could protect against dementia and stroke in people with an irregular heartbeat, research suggests.

Exclusive: Lawson’s claim that global temperatures are not rising went unchallenged, breaching guidelines on accuracy and impartialityThe BBC has apologised for an interview with the climate change denier Lord Lawson after admitting it had breached its own editorial guidelines for allowing him to claim that global temperatures have not risen in the past decade.BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today ran the item in August in which Lawson, interviewed by presenter Justin Webb, made the claim. The last three years have in fact seen successive global heat records broken. Continue reading...

Analysis by German professor claims project for UK to leave the EU is a trickier task than Nasa’s 1969 moonshotBritain extricating itself from the European Union will be “incomparably more complex” than the first moon landing, an academic study has found.Roland Alter, a professor at Heilbronn University in Germany who specialises in risk assessment, said he had been inspired to carry out his analysis after comments by the Brexit secretary, David Davis, that he was “running a set of projects that make the Nasa moonshot look quite simple”. Continue reading...

Farmers must be incentivised to tackle decline in biodiversity, says environment secretary at launch of parliamentary soil bodyThe UK is 30 to 40 years away from “the fundamental eradication of soil fertility” in parts of the country, the environment secretary Michael Gove has warned.“We have encouraged a type of farming which has damaged the earth,” Gove told the parliamentary launch of the Sustainable Soils Alliance (SSA). “Countries can withstand coups d’état, wars and conflict, even leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil and fertility. Continue reading...

The most persistent fear for healthcare in 2100 was about the exploitation of genetic data. But health data could be a huge force for good. We need an open debate nowThe NHS lurches its way through funding crises and organisational dilemmas. It faces the challenge of antibiotic resistance and it must ponder the deeply conflicted question of the uses and abuses of new technology. Its short-term horizon is so thronged with urgent problems that it would be a surprise if anyone had the spare capacity to consider how things could look by the end of the century.A new social enterprise, Kaleidoscope Health & Care, however, decided it would be useful to try to raise the collective medical gaze into the very long term. Last year it organised a science fiction short story competition and invited writers to consider healthcare in 2100. The winners are announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Cholesterol-lowering drugs are also being overprescribed to people at low risk of having a heart attack or stroke, researchers findStatins are being overprescribed to low-risk groups and underprescribed to high-risk groups, research by the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) has shown.The report found potential “undertreatment” among people who have at least a 20% chance of cardiovascular disease (CVD) within a decade, who are considered high-risk patients.

Jodrell Bank is famous for the monumental Lovell telescope – but alongside all the serious science there are plenty of fun activities and hands-on experiments to inspire kidsThe Lovell telescope, centrepiece of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, which has dominated the Cheshire countryside since it was constructed in 1957, was listed as a UK candidate for Unesco world heritage site status this month. As well as the world’s first fully steerable radio telescope, Jodrell Bank is home to a science discovery centre and for the past two summers has hosted the Bluedot festival of electronic music. Continue reading...

Demand for 1966 PhD work, made freely available for the first time, crashes Cambridge’s repository website

A rare and fatal disease will be now treated on the NHS. But the real problems come from common and unglamorous complaintsThe NHS is to fund a very expensive treatment for a very rare but terrible childhood disorder that leaves babies condemned to life in a sterile bubble. This is a triumph for medical science but it should also provoke some deep and careful thought. The treatment in question, strimvelis, qualifies as the second most expensive drug ever put on the market (the only one more expensive was withdrawn due to lack of demand). A single dose costs nearly £500,000 plus VAT, and can only be administered in Milan, where the preparation is made. On the other hand, that one dose is literally life-saving, and as far as we now know, is the only treatment the disorder will ever need. At the rate that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), is prepared to pay for treatments of rare diseases – £100,000 a year of good life – this represents good value. The calculation may seem heartless, but it is unavoidable. Money spent on one patient is unavailable for all others. Someone, somehow, must decide who benefits.Looked at purely as a medical advance, this is great. The babies born with this syndrome have two defective copies of a gene essential to the functioning of white blood cells. They are therefore unable to defend themselves against infection and unless kept in wholly sterile surroundings will die of a variety of horrible diseases and developmental disorders before they reach school age. Until now the only treatment was with a stem cell transplant, which was only effective in about three quarters of the cases, and relied on finding matched donors, who are rare. The new treatment removes defective stem cells and replaces their genes with properly functioning versions before returning these to the patients. Once these are incorporated into the bone marrow, they produce healthy white blood cells and the immune system functions as it should. This is how genetic medicine is supposed to work, but has not done reliably until now. Continue reading...

The animals reduce the size of their brains and skulls as winter approaches and regrow them in the spring, say researchersThey use echolocation to explore their habitat and produce an unpleasant scent to avoid being eaten by cats. But the common shrew has another survival trick: as winter approaches, its skull shrinks and then regrows in the spring.Dubbed “Dehnel’s phenomenon” after the scientist who first spotted the effect, the shrinkage has previously been studied by looking at the skulls of shrews that died at different times of year.

The answers to today’s puzzlesOn my puzzle blog earlier today I set this question from Brazil’s State School Mathematics OlympiadHomero is clutching three identical pieces of string in his fist, as illustrated below left. He asks Sofia to tie two ends of the string, chosen at random, at either side of his fist, as illustrated below centre, so that there is one free end at either side. Continue reading...

Researchers hope new discoveries will help explain why some women are predisposed to breast cancer, as well as why certain forms are harder to treatCommon inherited genetic variants that together increase the risk of breast cancer by about a fifth have been identified by scientists.A huge team of researchers working together around the world uncovered 65 new variants. On their own, they contribute around 4% of the two-fold heightened risk of women with a strong family history of breast cancer developing the disease. Continue reading...

GlaxoSmithKline’s Strimvelis is the first such treatment to be funded in the UKThe NHS will fund gene therapy for the first time after the UK’s healthcare cost watchdog approved treatment for the so-called “bubble baby” syndrome, despite a price tag of more than £500,000.The treatment is used against adenosine deaminase deficiency, or ADA-SCID, which disables the immune system and means that children with the illness have to be kept in isolation to avoid infection – hence the “bubble baby” name. Continue reading...

Agricultural consultant who developed a system for rapidly assessing the quality of crops that could be used to warn experts of impending food crisesIan Robinson, who has died aged 72, helped to improve the lives of millions of people across the world with his work on monitoring crops and livestock in developing countries and conflict zones. In particular he developed a scoring system for rapidly assessing the quality and quantity of crops and farm animals, which could then be used to alert UN experts and aid organisations to impending food crises.Apart from the creation of such pioneering systems, Ian’s life as an agricultural consultant included work on finding tactical solutions to food security in the wartorn Horn of Africa, helping with the development of agricultural colleges and training centres in the Philippines and Syria, and improving food production in post-conflict territories such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Rwanda and Somaliland. Continue reading...

The benefits of the project go far beyond genetic testing, it could enable new medical discoveries and diagnosesAs chief executive of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), talking publicly about cardiovascular research and its life-saving effects is something I’m used to. But I never expected to find myself sitting on the other side of the bench, participating in a life-changing study.

Our pets have specific expressions they reserve for humans, it’s been revealed. But as a dog owner, I have to say that news comes as no surprise to meSitting at my desk, I stealthily peel open a packet of biscuits, hardly daring to breathe as I carefully reach inside. Even as my fingers close triumphantly around the coveted malted milk, the clip-clip of claws in the hall announces my failure. A small furry beast trots into my line of vision and arranges itself patiently by my feet. When eventually, biscuit disposed of, I dare to turn my head to meet its burning eyes, the dog cocks his head winsomely to one side, and, on cue, my heart melts. Once again, he’s played me like a fiddle, and without even opening his mouth.Dealing with such blatant emotional manipulation on a daily basis, I was unsurprised by the news that dogs use their facial expressions to interact with the human world. A study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports found that dogs move their faces far more when humans are looking at them than otherwise, suggesting that those expressions are attempts to communicate with us – though the scientists involved were keen to emphasise that they don’t know exactly what the dogs are trying to say. Continue reading...

A question from the tropics about stringUPDATE: To read the answers click hereGuzzlers, tudo bem?Here’s a question from Brazil’s State School Maths Olympiad, one of the largest and most remarkable maths competitions in the world. Continue reading...

With the rise of bugs that are resistant to virtually everything medical science can throw at them, scientists are now hoping to re-engineer existing antibiotics to make them thousands of times more powerfulWarnings about an impending post-antibiotic apocalypse have, over the last five years, grown increasingly stark, with estimates placing the annual number of mortalities from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections at 700,000 worldwide, a number that could rise to 10m in the next three decades.The need for new classes of antibiotics has repeatedly been emphasised, with researchers turning to some of the most extreme environments on Earth in the hunt for new molecules. But finding broad-spectrum antibiotics that work against all classes of bacteria is challenging – and even if we discover new narrow-spectrum ones that work against particular strains, the likelihood of them becoming clinically available is slim. The economic realities of drug development mean that narrow-spectrum antibiotics aren’t cost-effective for pharmaceutical companies to produce. Continue reading...

Items from codebreaker’s life – and death – go on display at Fitzwilliam Museum in CambridgeIn 1929, a teenager’s end-of-term report noted that his English reading was weak, his French prose was very weak, his essays grandiose beyond his abilities, and his mathematical promise undermined by his untidy work.The report gave few clues that Alan Turing would come to be seen as a genius, a mathematician and computer pioneer whose codebreaking work at Bletchley Park helped shorten the second world war and whose name is given to a test for artificial intelligence. Continue reading...

Cambridge University says Properties of Expanding Universes is already most-requested item in open access repositoryAnyone in the world can now download and read the doctoral thesis of a 24-year-old Cambridge postgraduate student, written in 1966; how many will fully understand Properties of Expanding Universes is another matter.Stephen Hawking hopes that giving free access to his early work will inspire others, not just to think and learn but to share research. He said: “By making my PhD thesis open access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos.