I congratulate myself – but then spot the mistake in my analysisRemember my DNA test a few weeks ago? I got my results back from FitnessGenes, and spent a couple of hours awed by my own capacities, before I realised how to interpret the information. Starting from the top: ACE is the endurance gene. You either have two copies of the long version, II; two copies of the short, DD; or one of each, ID. The long version is associated with endurance athletes, the short with being a power/strength athlete. I’m an II, so my endurance is epic.I have these endurance genes in spades – in ACTN3, the gene for speed, I’m an RR, which is associated, in women, with higher-than-average baseline strength, and in older women, with better response to resistance training. (The letters are just the names of alleles – genetic-sequencing variations.) With the fat-burning gene, PPARA, I’m a GG, which is another endurance athlete’s trait. Continue reading...

Pieces weighing up to 100kg could make it to the surface, says expert, when out-of-control 8.5-tonne laboratory breaks apart in the atmosphereAn 8.5-tonne Chinese space station has accelerated its out-of-control descent towards Earth and is expected to crash to the surface within a few months.The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US bodybuilding star and an ex-conman are linked to UK sales of the toxic diet drug DNP following searches on premises in CumbriaA series of raids in northern England has uncovered an operation suspected of selling a deadly fat-burning chemical used by bodybuilders that has killed eight young people in Britain in the last two years.Around 11 kilos of the chemical 2,4-dinitrophenol, known as DNP, was found last month at premises in Wigton, Cumbria, alongside other legal supplements and equipment that could be used for making tablets. Continue reading...

Obviously to a scientifically-minded human like myself, the news that astronomers have found half of the missing matter in the universe initially conjured up images of odd socks and lost car keys. It’s a little more complex than that, it seems: the findings could potentially resolve one of cosmology’s most perplexing problems. Scientists have also discovered that dwarf planet Haumea, a rugby ball-shaped planet which lies beyond Neptune, has a ring around it. Until now, ring-like structures had only been found around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Returning to Earth, there’s optimistic news from a trial using psilocybin – the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms – to treat patients with depression. The study suggests that it might “reboot” the brain, although more trials are needed, and the researchers have warned against self medication. Also intriguing on the brain front is a piece of research that appears to confirm the stereotype that women are kinder and less selfish than men. Apparently our reward system is geared towards more “prosocial” and generous behaviour. That said, another study out this week seems to show that there is one area in which women are unwilling to compromise: household temperature. And on that chilly note, we’ll end with the cool news that in the wake of the loss of iceberg A68 from the Larsen C ice shelf, British Antarctic Survey researchers will study the damaged area, which has been hidden for up to 120,000 years. Continue reading...

Today is not a good day to be superstitious. My tip for sufferers of friggatriskaidekaphobia? Drive to the Netherlands, or Spain – avoiding the M25There is a chance that you are reading this while curled up at home with the curtains drawn and doors locked, convinced that the best way to avoid the malevolent influence of Friday the 13th is to avoid all human contact. If so, you aren’t alone.Related: The 13 worst things that have ever happened on Friday the 13th Continue reading...

The winning and shortlisted entries for the the Royal Society of Biology’s 2017 Photographer of the Year and Young Photographer of the Year competitions. This gorgeous and intriguing series of images features species from across the globe, and ranges from microscopic insights into the development of frogspawn, to the incredible emerald hues of an Indian lake photographed from 30,000 feet Continue reading...

University researchers’ ‘staggering’ find contradicts theories that Islamic objects in Viking graves are result of plunderA Swedish university has discovered Arabic characters for “Allah” and “Ali” woven into Viking burial clothes. Researchers at Uppsala University describe the finding of the geometric Kufic characters in silver on woven bands of silk as “staggering”.Related: How the female Viking warrior was written out of history Continue reading...

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Patients unresponsive to conventional treatments benefit when treated with natural psychoactive compound, but researchers warn against self medicationMagic mushrooms may effectively “reset” the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression, the latest study to highlight the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics suggests.Psychedelics have shown promising results in the treatment of depression and addictions in a number of clinical trials over the last decade. Imperial College London researchers used psilocybin – the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms – to treat a small number of patients with depression, monitoring their brain function, before and after. Continue reading...

Expert interrogators know torture doesn’t work – but until now, nobody could prove it. By analysing hundreds of top-secret interviews with terror suspects, two British scientists have revolutionised the art of extracting the truth. By Ian LeslieIn 2013, a British man was arrested for planning to kidnap and brutally murder a soldier. The suspect, who had a criminal history, had posted messages on social media in support of violent jihad. In a search of his residence, the police had found a bag containing a hammer, a kitchen knife and a map with the location of a nearby army barracks.Shortly after his arrest, the suspect was interviewed by a counter-terrorist police officer. The interviewer wanted him to provide an account of his plan, and to reveal with whom, if anyone, he has been conspiring. But the detainee – we will call him Diola – refused to divulge any information. Instead, he expounded grandiloquently on the evils of the British state for 42 minutes, with little interruption. When the interviewer attempted questions, Diola responded with scornful, finger-jabbing accusations of ignorance, naivety and moral weakness: “You don’t know how corrupt your own government is – and if you don’t care, then a curse upon you.” Continue reading...

Concern over illicit use and addiction is putting morphine out of reach for millions of patients globally who need it for pain reliefMore than 25 million people, including 2.5 million children, die in agony every year around the world, for want of morphine or other palliative care, according to a major investigation.

Elon Musk’s firm blasts previously flown Falcon 9 first-stage booster into space and recovers it safely back on EarthSpaceX set a brisk pace this week, with two successful launches of the Falcon 9 rocket. The second launch by the company – whose chief executive is its billionaire founder, Elon Musk – re-used a previously flown first stage booster, increasing confidence that SpaceX could deliver re-useable rockets and so drive down launch costs.The first launch took place on 9 October. The rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg airforce base in California at 05:37 PDT (12:37 GMT). It placed 10 communications satellites in a 400-mile-high orbit for Iridium, the telecommunications company. Continue reading...

Universities urged to help the UK weather the post-Brexit economy through EU science collaborations and new incentives to commercialise their researchJo Johnson, the universities minister, said the government wanted to secure “an ambitious agreement” with the EU to safeguard Britain’s science and innovation, and pledged to allow British universities to continue close research collaboration with their European peers.

Research reveals subtle changes in sound patterns help babies recognise the voice of their mothersCooing to an infant might not seem like sophisticated speech, but it turns out that baby talk is more complex than previously thought.While it has long been known the pitch and rhythm of speech changes when mothers talk to their babies, researchers have now found the timbre of their voice changes too – a quality that reflects properties such as how velvety, raspy or nasal a sound seems. Continue reading...

Scientists produce indirect evidence of gaseous filaments and sheets known as Whims linking clusters of galaxies in the cosmic webIt is one of cosmology’s more perplexing problems: that up to 90% of the ordinary matter in the universe appears to have gone missing.Now astronomers have detected about half of this missing content for the first time, in a discovery that could resolve a long-standing paradox. Continue reading...

Research using brain scans finds people experience feelings of contentment from places more than from objects such as photographs or wedding ringsThe poet WHAuden is credited with first coining the word “topophilia” to describe a strong emotional pull to a special place.Now scientific research, using cutting-edge brain imaging, suggests Auden was on to something. According to a study commissioned by the National Trust, people experience intense feelings of wellbeing, contentment and belonging from places that evoke positive memories far more than treasured objects such as photographs or wedding rings.

Why are so many women with autism often misdiagnosed? And how does this issue resonate with broader ideas of neurodiversity?Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterLast week, the Guardian’s Virtual Reality team released their latest film; ‘The Party’, which allows the viewer to step into the shoes of a 16-year-old with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Importantly, the viewpoint is that of a female. Surprised? It’s little wonder. Autism is often discussed in relation to males, and misdiagnosis of ASDs with other conditions is more common in females. But why do so many females fall through the diagnostic net? What techniques might they employ to cope with autism? And how can we improve the situation? Continue reading...

Men caught up in scandals often claim to be sex addicts, but does that even exist? The science is debatableAnother day, another powerful man embroiled in a sinister sexual scandal decades in the making. This time it’s powerful Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein. The moral, ethical and political aspects of this whole mess have been covered extensively elsewhere, and will no doubt continue to be so over the coming days and weeks.However, recent reports suggest that Weinstein has checked himself into a European rehab clinic for sex addiction. This has been met with some not-inconsiderable cynicism, but, even if it is true, wondering whether Weinstein is a sex addict overlooks a more fundamental question: is anyone a sex addict? Because that diagnosis, as commonplace as it may seem, is far from established psychiatric fact. Continue reading...

SpaceX launched a partially used Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk has hailed the twin achievement of salvaging a used rocket and re-launching it yet again as a revolutionary step in his quest to slash launch costs and shorten intervals between space shots Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire The fly’s head tipped back a little, eyes the colour of a tired strawberry, its legs frozen, as if in ecstasySitting down at the wheel of the car I found my view through the windscreen partially obscured by two large insects having sex. At least, this was how things looked from the driver’s seat. A solitary wasp had mounted its mate and wrapped its forelegs fondly around its neck. It had managed to anchor the both of them to the sloping glass with its rear feet.This wasp was an angular Audrey Hepburn of insects, narrow-waisted with a pencil-point slender abdomen and an impeccable dress sense of yellow and black hoops and bars. It had pulled big time, for its “partner” was a whopper of a catch – a giant house fly, its coarse-haired, scabby, bulbous, abdomen flattened against the screen. Continue reading...

Rugby ball-shaped dwarf planet with two moons also has a ring around it and orbits in the outer solar systemA ring has been discovered around one of the dwarf planets that orbits the outer reaches of the solar system.Until now, ring-like structures had only been found around the four outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Continue reading...

While male and female body temperatures are similar, subtle biological difference conspire to make household temperatures a perennial bone of contentionForget negotiations over who takes out the bin, new research suggests that the ideal home temperature is the vexed question most likely to split households down gender lines.A study found that one third of couples dispute this issue and that four in 10 women covertly turn up the heating behind their partner’s back. Continue reading...

Scientists are discovering more and more about the internal lives of animals. But what does this mean for the way humans behave?Last week footage of five young elephants being captured in Zimbabwe to sell to zoos travelled round the world. Parks officials used helicopters to find the elephant families, shot sedatives into the young ones, then hazed away family members who came to the aid of the drugged young ones as they fell.The film, shared exclusively with the Guardian, showed the young captives being trussed up and dragged on to trucks. In the final moments of footage, two men repeatedly kick a small dazed elephant in the head. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsIs it possible or ethical to gather all the nuclear waste the world produces, load it into a rocket, and blast it into the sun? I’m guessing it will burn up before reaching the sun, but would it have any adverse effects?Stella Cloherty Continue reading...

Lentils might not sound like a spectacular archaeological find but at the prehistoric site of Gurga Chiya in Iraqi Kurdistan they hold the clues to social transformationRelated: Iraq: Kurdish leader Barzani claims win in independence referendumI should be in the Kurdish region of Iraq right now knee-deep in Late Chalcolitic archaeology, but instead I’m watching Bake Off in Crewe. The autumn excavation season in the Kurdish region is cancelled and most of the international teams have left, including the University College London project I was working on and the British Museum’s training excavation at Qalatga Darband. The cessation of international flights into and out of Iraqi Kurdistan, imposed by Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum on 25 September, has put a stop to archaeology in the region just at the best time of the year for digging. Continue reading...

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesA great frustration for those who study natural history is that the sounds made by almost every extinct creature that ever lived will never be heard by human ears. The best we know of the call of the dodo, for instance, is that, perhaps, its name was an onomatopoeic allusion to a two-noted pigeon-like “cooo”. Likewise, the best we know of the great auk, a flightless penguin-like bird of the northern hemisphere, is that it may or may not have made a “gurgling noise when anxious”. My favourite of these extinct sounds is that of the Huia, a charming long-billed New Zealand bird which, although last seen in 1907, managed to stow its song into modernity because an elderly Maori man could remember the song from his childhood and recite it 50 years later, whistling it in front of audiences still saddened by its loss.Related: Why are children so annoying? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Phil Daoust Continue reading...

A new study of oviraptor eggshell fragments shows remarkable similarities between the reproductive biology of dinosaurs and birdsBird eggs come in a variety of colours. From the creamy and chalky whites in doves and pigeons to spotted yellow lapwing eggs and brown chicken eggs, to the blues of blackbirds and American robins. The striking colours and patterns have inspired artists, scientists and home decor makers from Aristotle to high-end jewellers. Thanks to palaeontology, we can now add oviraptor blue-green to the spectrum.Remarkably, only two chemical compounds bring about the whole spectrum of bird egg coloration and patterning: reddish-brown protoporphyrin IX and green-blue biliverdin. Both pigments have distinctly different chemical properties, and whereas biliverdin is distributed throughout the inner core layer of the eggshell, protoporphyrin IX is limited to the outermost eggshell layer. Continue reading...

The former Australian prime minister’s misleading speech to a London thinktank was full of climate denial mythologyTony Abbott titled his London speech on climate change “Daring to Doubt” – a challenge, if you will, to reject mountains of evidence and instead lick your fingers and shove them into the plug socket of denial.Go on, I dare you. Continue reading...

Nasa says there will be ‘no danger’ when the asteroid 2012 TC4 shaves past Earth at just above the altitude at which most satellites operate on ThursdayA house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss on Thursday, giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat as it passes inside the moon’s orbit.Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000km (27,300 miles) – just above the 36,000km altitude at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth. Continue reading...

Living With the Gods will include exhibition and 30-part radio series hosted by venue’s ex-director Neil MacGregorPatterns of shared belief and ritual over 40,000 years, from the ice age to the present day, are to be explored in an ambitious 30-part radio series and exhibition at the British Museum.Living With the Gods, presented by the former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, will air over six weeks, beginning this month, on BBC Radio 4. An exhibition of objects that form the core of the series will open on 2 November.

The work of economists such as Nobel prize winner Richard Thaler has profound implications for society. A nudge is sometimes all we needRichard Thaler’s Nudge opens with a story about a school cafeteria in the US. Not for the first time, a headteacher was grappling with the question of how to encourage the kids to eat better.Should the school ban sugary sweets altogether? Subsidise the salads? Eventually, the head found the answer was simple – just put the healthier foods at eye level, and watch as more students reach for carrot sticks over fries. Continue reading...

People are better able to pick up on the emotions of others by focusing on a speaker’s voice, rather than their expression or gestures, study suggestsWhen it comes to understanding how another person thinks and feels, it might be best to close your eyes and listen.A study by an American psychologist suggests that people are better able to pick up on the emotions of others when simply focusing on their voice, compared with both watching and listening to them, or just watching them. Continue reading...

Be it the tale of the Grenfell fire survivor being reunited with her cat, or the ‘refugee cat’ lost in Greece and found in Norway stories of pets draw us in like no otherWhat could be more heartening than the story of the Grenfell fire survivor who was reported this week to have been reunited with the cat she thought she’d lost in the blaze? What could warm the cockles more than the story, also reported this week, of the “refugee cat” lost in Greece and reunited with its family in Norway courtesy of a global social media campaign. For stories of cats and dogs, be they heroes or victims, draw us in like no other. What magic was cast upon us to seemingly love them so?Related: Miaow! Row over harm done by domestic cats sends fur flying Continue reading...

A new study by neuroeconomists suggesting that women’s biology could make them a soft touch covers overly familiar gendered groundRichard Thaler has just won the Nobel prize for economics for his work explaining how human choice can be influenced. The insight that people make decisions for all sorts of reasons, not all of them based on a cool assessment of the consequences, led Professor Thaler to global acclaim as the slayer of homo economicus. Homo economicus was an entirely fictional character who decided whose turn it was to put the bin out on rational grounds. Thaler was, among his lesser achievements, David Cameron’s favourite economist, his nudge theory credited with encouraging people to stop smoking and eat more healthily.What Professor Thaler, in his moment of glory, may not yet realise is that his insights may already be on their way to extinction, just like homo economicus. He is being nudged out of the future by biology: to be precise, by neuroeconomics, which like his is an interdisciplinary science but one that studies brain activity, or the lack of it, to draw conclusions about why people behave as they do. Continue reading...

Love films and science? Science(ish) author and podcaster Rick Edwards answered our questions, but can you answer his in the quiz below?Film and science have combined with varying degrees of success, from 50s B-movies all the way to Interstellar. But is science just a hokey hook from which to hang a plot? Or can films actually help to teach and encourage science?Hoping to answer those questions, or at least gain an insight, I met up with Rick Edwards the day his book, Science(ish): the Peculiar Science Behind the Movies, was published to ask him. Based on the podcast of the same name, which he hosts with co-author Dr Michael Brooks, the idea behind Science(ish) is to take a serious look at big screen science, so he seems the ideal person to ask. Continue reading...

Excavation has revealed fragments of bronze sculpture and raises the possibility of several buried statues in the area. So what do these discoveries tell us?The shipwreck at Antikythera, Greece, continues to reveal its secrets and surprise archaeologists. As reported last week, recent excavations on the 1st century BC shipwreck have revealed statue fragments, bronze ornamentation, and wooden remains from the ship’s hull. The finds are sensational, but the artifacts and the project have broader importance. Continue reading...

New research into bloodstream ‘biomarkers’ aims to unlock the full impact of social status on people’s lifetime health outcomes. The key is exposure to stressHealth is a well-known inequality issue. While ageing is inevitable and most of us will get sick at some point, the rate of your decline is likely to be faster the lower down the socioeconomic ladder you started.

Despite its stomach-churning aroma, the durian is an important tropical fruit crop and knowing more about its DNA may help protect itOnce described by a detractor as smelling of “turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock”, southeast Asia’s durian fruit leaves no one unmoved – you either adore or abhor it.

Health bill will be ‘enormous burden’ without more preventative measures to check worsening epidemic, say expertsThe cost of treating ill health caused by obesity around the world will top $1.2tn every year from 2025 unless more is done to check the rapidly worsening epidemic, according to new expert estimates.Obesity and smoking are the two main drivers behind the soaring numbers of cancers, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes worldwide, grouped together officially as non-communicable diseases. They are the biggest killers of the modern world. Continue reading...

British Antarctic Survey researchers will study area opened up by loss of iceberg A68, which has been hidden for up to 120,000 yearsA team of scientists is planning an expedition to examine the marine ecosystem revealed when an enormous iceberg broke off the Larsen C ice shelf earlier this year.In July, the iceberg known as A68 broke off the shelf, leaving the area at its lowest recorded extent. Researchers are now hoping the event may lead to novel revelations from their investigations of the area opened up, which had been hidden under ice for up to 120,000 years. Continue reading...

Stephen Sedley speculates on links between How Great Thou Art, the Horst Wessel Song and Wernher von Braun’s contribution to the US space programmeTim Radford’s review of The Earth Gazers by Christopher Potter (Review, 7 October) notes that the American astronaut Stuart Roosa played the hymn How Great Thou Art as his craft, Apollo 14, approached the moon. The review goes on to discuss the contribution of the ex-SS officer (and, in the view of many, war criminal) Wernher von Braun to the US space programme.The two things may not be unconnected. The Nazi anthem known as the Horst Wessel Song, still banned in postwar Germany, has a tune that, if not derived from How Great Thou Art, closely resembles it. One wonders whether the choice of this particular hymn to play to a listening world was a simple error of judgment or something rather more unwholesome.

The solutions of today’s puzzles, and the results of the Nikoli Derby.In my column earlier today I set five examples of a new Japanese puzzle called Snake Place and we also played a re-run of the Nikoli Derby, where I asked you to submit a number, with the winner being the person submitting the lowest number that no one else also submits.The solutions to Snake place can be seen here (on a printable page). Continue reading...

Reward system in female brains geared toward ‘prosocial’ behaviour, say researchers, but experts quick to dispute controversial findings“Woman seems to differ from man in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tenderness and less selfishness,” wrote Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man.Now scientists claim that the stereotype is supported by evidence that the brain’s reward system may be geared towards more “prosocial” behaviour in women. Continue reading...

Agribusiness and big pharma prioritising profits could lead to 10 million deaths a year by 2050 – but political intervention can prevent this disasterAn antibiotic apocalypse is coming. It threatens to reverse medical practice by 100 years by making life-saving operations impossible and turning routine infections into killers again. Rather than panic and head to the hills, we need to understand the heart of the problem, and transform two of the most antisocial industries in the global economy: agribusiness and pharmaceuticals.Related: Act now to tame the superbugs that are killing 700,000 a year Continue reading...

The Geological Society of London has announced the 12 winners of its photography competition. The chosen images represent the dynamic processes which have shaped the UK and Ireland over its tectonic history, from ancient volcanic activity to ice age glaciers. The pictures will feature in a free exhibition at the Geological Society to mark Earth Science Week, 7-15 October. Continue reading...

With one in four teenage girls being depressed, it’s clear that there is no shortage of people needing help. It needn’t cost the earth – and it certainly worked for meWas I mentally ill? I suppose I was, though the first time someone in my family used the phrase “verge of a nervous breakdown”, or something like it, I was taken aback. Probably I was about as far from well as it was possible to be while still going about my business: essays, lectures, friends and so forth (I was a student at the time). A broken heart – that, is, a rejection so disappointing I couldn’t bring myself to accept it – was the trigger. But it brought up all manner of shit. By the time I went to talk to a psychoanalyst, I had feelings so muddled that sharing them with anyone else would have been weird.Related: 'After, I feel ecstatic and emotional': could virtual reality replace therapy? Continue reading...

Lindsey Fitzharris’s story of Lister’s battle to introduce hygiene to the operating theatre makes compelling readingArmed with surgical instruments, chloroform and his sterilising spray, Joseph Lister was ready for action. It was 1871 and the eminent surgeon was about to tackle an enormous abscess that, left unchecked, could prove fatal.There was one further complication: the patient was the Queen. It was a crucial operation – not just for Victoria, but the practice of surgery itself. Radical change was afoot, at its heart the substance Lister was about to use on the monarch: carbolic acid. Continue reading...

A new logic puzzle from Japan, and another chance to be a number ninjaUPDATE: Click here for the solutions and the results of the Nikoli Derby Hi guzzlersLast column we played the Nikoli Derby, a Japanese game in which I asked you to submit the lowest number nobody else submits. The winner was 69. Honestly! It was such fun that we’re going play another round today, below. (Again, there’s a prize). Your strategy, however, may be different, since this time you can make a decision based on how people voted last time. Continue reading...

AI professor and author Toby Walsh discusses the dangers of ‘stupid’ artificial intelligence with Jack Stilgoe.

Researchers develop gene test that will give more detailed information on risk to women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutationsA genetic test that accurately predicts the risk of developing breast cancer could soon be used on high-risk groups.Researchers behind the test say it could reduce the number of women choosing pre-emptive mastectomy surgery as they will be able to make more informed decisions about their care. Continue reading...