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...

The Orionids meteor shower will brighten our skies later this month. What are meteors and where do they come from?Spend an hour or so under a clear moonless sky and we will be unlucky not to spot a small number of meteors. Some are slow and graceful while others may be swift and glimpsed only out of the corner of our eye.They occur when meteoroids, usually dusty clumps no larger than a grain of rice but moving in excess of 20km per second, disintegrate in the atmosphere at altitudes between 75 and 100km. Continue reading...

Social anxiety can manifest itself mentally and physically. Here are ways you can learn to manage itAccording to British singer-songwriter Morrissey, “shyness is nice”. When it leaves you feeling breathless, voiceless and even friendless, though, it can be anything but nice.Shyness often manifests as social anxiety, and as Morrissey sings in his song Ask Me, it can stop you from doing the things you want to do in your life. Continue reading...

Entomologist EO Wilson’s meandering attempt to forge a new philosophy from arts and science is irritating rather than enlighteningAt 88, Professor EO Wilson has become festooned with the kind of accolades that might unhinge any scholar, however sober and down-to-earth. For his publishers, he is simply “the world’s greatest living scientist”; to Ian McEwan, he is “an intellectual hero”. On Wikipedia he is, variously, “the father of sociobiology”, or “the father of biodiversity”, a theorist, a naturalist, a two-time Pulitzer prize winner, and the author of more than 20 books; while Jeffrey Sachs describes him as “Darwin’s successor”. Lately, on the evidence of his latest volume, this grandeur seems to have got the better of his brilliance.Wilson is the author of three titles that have shaped contemporary philosophical and scientific thought: Sociobiology (1975); On Human Nature (1978); and Consilience (1998). He is, finally, the world expert in the study of ants, whose peculiar lives and customs have inspired many of his finest biological observations. The Ants (1990) is probably the last word on the subject. Continue reading...

Answer our questions to find out the link between the food you eat and your parentsIs it true that our taste in food is shaped early by our parents? Or are there other influences at play?On a scale of 1 (can’t stand it) to 5 (love it), how much do you like each of the following food types: Continue reading...

The terrifying prospect that even routine operations will be impossible to perform has been raised by experts alarmed by the rise of drug-resistant genesScientists attending a recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology reported they had uncovered a highly disturbing trend. They revealed that bacteria containing a gene known as mcr-1 – which confers resistance to the antibiotic colistin – had spread round the world at an alarming rate since its original discovery 18 months earlier. In one area of China, it was found that 25% of hospital patients now carried the gene.Colistin is known as the “antibiotic of last resort”. In many parts of the world doctors have turned to its use because patients were no longer responding to any other antimicrobial agent. Now resistance to its use is spreading across the globe. Continue reading...

Drosophila share 60 per cent of human DNA, making them perfect for research that has led to vital strides in treating cancer, autism, diabetes and many other ills. Now scientists in the field have won yet another NobelAm not I

The Nobels were awarded this week, and the incredible work of some extraordinary minds was duly feted, covering areas as diverse as gravitational waves, circadian rhythms and cryo-electron microscopy. However, frustrated classicist that I am, the news that really had me wild with excitement was the news that the Antikythera shipwreck has yielded all sorts of fresh treasures. These include something that just might, maybe, maybe be part of the Antikythera mechanism (squee!) and a bronze arm. With metal detection results indicating that there are seven to nine statues beneath the seabed, it’s going to be hard to wait a year to find out what they’re able to recover. However, there’s no shortage of other intriguing archeology afoot at the moment as reports that Santa Claus’s tomb may have been unearthed show. But if that doesn’t seem like sufficient distraction, do ponder the strange and puzzling notions of pug cafes and drive-by sex toy hacking. And after all that sleep well – you need it. Continue reading...

The 2017 Nobel prize for medicine was awarded for the discovery of how our circadian rhythms are controlled. But what light does it shed on the cycle of life?The cycle of day and night on our planet is age-old and inescapable, so the idea of an internal body clock might not sound that radical. In science, though, asking the questions “why?” and “how?” about the most day-to-day occurrences can require the greatest leaps of ingenuity and produce the most interesting answers.This was the case for three American biologists, Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young, who earlier this week were awarded the Nobel in medicine or physiology, for their discovery of the master genes controlling the body’s circadian rhythms. Continue reading...

Flat-faced dog breeds are prone to a host of health conditions, say experts, who warn that events may raise their popularity and fuel trend for unhealthy breedsA growing craze for pug-themed social events has drawn criticism from experts who fear they could help fuel the fashion for the squashed-nosed dogs.Flat-faced breeds, including French bulldogs and pugs, have soared in popularity in recent years, with data from the Kennel Club in the UK revealing that annual registrations of pugs alone rose from 2,681 to 10,408 between 2006 and 2016. The two breeds are now the third and fourth most popular in the UK respectively, with Labradors remaining top dog at almost 34,000 registrations in 2016.

Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), says she initially thought the announcement of the award was a prank. Speaking on Friday at Ican’s head office in Geneva, Switzerland, Fihn describes the prize as a surprise and an honour Continue reading...

I’ve repeatedly asked the government to ensure households won’t be vulnerable to internet-of-things safety breaches. Will vibrators finally attract its attention?Hacking tends to bring to mind compromised bank accounts or infiltrated government security systems, not anything as salacious as a dildo. But yesterday, the scientist Ben Goldacre alerted me to the practice of “screwdriving” – short-distance sex-toy hacking.It might sound far-fetched, but the bluetooth low energy (BLE) networking protocol that “smart” sex toys often use can be compromised relatively easily, as demonstrated by security consultant Alex Lomas, who wandered the streets of Berlin taking control of Lovense Hush buttplugs. Continue reading...

The men behind the first observations of gravitational waves deserve their prize. But you have to go back half a century to find a female physics laureateMore than 1bn years ago, a pair of massive black holes violently merged, sending ripples across the fabric of spacetime. Humans didn’t exist yet when this cataclysmic event took place – yet last year scientists were able to observe the event using a detector made from giant tubes and lasers.The people who came up with that experiment definitely deserve a prize – and this week, rightly, three of them – Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne – were awarded the Nobel prize in physics. In fact, all the science recognised this week is awe-inspiring in different ways. So it seems almost churlish to point out that this year has seen yet another glory parade of “stale white males”. The science speaks for itself – does it really matter who did it? Continue reading...

The world is terrible, mainly because of people. But today there is good news – the Lord Howe Island stick insect isn’t extinct!

After thousands of years of failure, some scientists believe a breakthrough might finally be in sight. By Nicola DavisonThe common cold has the twin distinction of being both the world’s most widespread infectious disease and one of the most elusive. The name is a problem, for starters. In almost every Indo-European language, one of the words for the disease relates to low temperature, yet experiments have shown that low temperature neither increases the likelihood of catching a cold, nor the severity of symptoms. Then there is the “common” part, which seems to imply that there is a single, indiscriminate pathogen at large. In reality, more than 200 viruses provoke cold-like illness, each one deploying its own peculiar chemical and genetic strategy to evade the body’s defences.It is hard to think of another disease that inspires the same level of collective resignation. The common cold slinks through homes and schools, towns and cities, making people miserable for a few days without warranting much afterthought. Adults suffer an average of between two and four colds each year, and children up to 10, and we have come to accept this as an inevitable part of life. Continue reading...

Website allows people to experience a 3D view of the SS Thistlegorm, a British merchant steam ship sunk in 1941, seen as one of the world’s best wreck divesArmchair archaeologists are being given the chance to explore a second world war shipwreck online in 3D virtual reality.

The hunger for ‘miracle cures’ has skewed our understanding of medical research. We need greater emphasis on quality of lifeThe horror of a cancer diagnosis is unforgettable. It is the grimmest and most personal bad news. The solemnness of the doctor; the loaded pause as the nurse asks: “Is anyone with you today?”; the strategically placed box of tissues.Related: Over half of new cancer drugs 'show no benefits' for survival or wellbeing Continue reading...

Therapy which restored consciousness hailed as huge advance, but researchers criticised for withholding fact that patient died of lung infection months after treatmentFrench scientists have been criticised for concealing the death of the patient at the centre of a breakthrough in which consciousness was restored to a man in a persistent vegetative state.The treatment was hailed as a major advance in the field and suggested that the outlook for these patients and their families might be less bleak than was previously thought.

Google and Wikipedia have a responsibility to see that their content isn’t skewed – and we users should hold them to accountWe recently passed a milestone in the history of human connectivity – people online now ​make up the majority​ of the world’s population. This has largely gone unnoticed, but it is an important moment and not just for statistical reasons.North American and European internet users now make up only about a quarter of the world’s users. Furthermore, while countries like the US and the UK have almost reached internet saturation, Africa, Asia and Latin America are home to billions more people who will come online in the next few years. Continue reading...

Staff at Symbio wildlife park, located on the southern outskirts of Sydney, have announced the arrival of meerkat triplets. Born on 31 August to first-time parents Aya and Penfold, and weighing in at an estimated 25g and just 8cm, the pups have now emerged from the comfort of their den and are beginning to discover the world beyond. Still finding their feet, they are shadowing their parents’ every move and will continue to do so for up to 12 weeks, as they learn the ropes of being a meerkat Continue reading...

Of 48 cancer drugs approved between 2009-2013, 57% of uses showed no benefits and some benefits were ‘clinically meaningless’, says BMJ studyMost cancer drugs that have recently arrived on the market have come with little evidence that they boost the survival or wellbeing of patients, research reveals.Forty-eight cancer drugs were approved by the European Medicines Agency between 2009 and 2013 for use as treatments in 68 different situations. Continue reading...

Stem cell medicine has huge potential but unscrupulous clinics offering unrealistic hopes are endangering its futureThe credibility of stem cell research is at risk because of charlatans and dodgy clinics peddling unproven cures for diseases, according to a group of eminent scientists in the field.Stem cell research, or regenerative medicine, has great potential and has already delivered some breakthroughs, but its future is threatened by poor science, unrealistic hopes, unclear funding models and unscrupulous private clinics, they say in the Lancet medical journal. Continue reading...

The 2017 chemistry laureates were recognised for developing cryo-electron microscopy. But what is it, why is it exciting and where will it take us next?A trio of scientists share this year’s Nobel prize for chemistry: Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson.Their win is for work on a technique known as cryo-electron microscopy that has allowed scientists to study biological molecules in unprecedented sharpness, not least the Zika virus and proteins thought to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease. Continue reading...

Unicorn theatre, London

Arm points to existence of at least seven statues from Greek shipwreck, already the source of most extensive and exciting ancient cargo ever foundMarine archaeologists have recovered a bronze arm from an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, where the remains of at least seven more priceless statues from the classical world are believed to lie buried.Divers found the right arm, encrusted and stained green, under half a metre of sediment on the boulder-strewn slope where the ship and its cargo now rest. The huge vessel, perhaps 50m from bow to stern, was sailing from Asia Minor to Rome in 1BC when it foundered near the tiny island between Crete and the Peloponnese. Continue reading...

This year’s prize has been awarded for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution

Archaeologists say they have found almost fully intact temple and burial grounds of Saint Nicholas in AntalyaTurkish archaeologists have dashed the hopes of millions of children by claiming to have uncovered the likely burial place of Saint Nicholas.Surveys have uncovered an intact temple and burial grounds below St Nicholas church in the province of Antalya, where he is believed to have been born, archaeologists told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Continue reading...

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson receive £825,000 prize for developing method for generating 3D images of life-building structuresThe Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for developing a technique to produce images of the molecules of life frozen in time.Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson will receive equal shares of the 9m Swedish kronor (£825,000) prize, which was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Restricting Nobel prizes to three individuals has always been problematic, and increasingly glosses over the contributions of everyday scientistsYesterday, the Nobel prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of gravitational waves, following a massive group effort by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo) experiment. The announcement reignited the perennial discussion of how a scientific advance can possibly be ascribed to so few people.According to a tweet by BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh, Professor Martin Rees, former Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, told BBC News, “@LIGO’s success was owed to hundreds of researchers. The fact that the #NobelPrize2017 committee refuses to make group awards is causing increasingly frequent problems + giving a misleading impression of how a lot of science is actually done”. Continue reading...

Universities need technicians from abroad, but the current immigration regime makes them difficult to recruit – and it will get harder after Brexit

A new telling of the story of the Apollo astronauts between 1968 and 1972 involves nervous breakdowns, a former Nazi and an atheist churchAs he approached the moon in 1971 the Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa played the hymn “How Great Thou Art”. When Michael Collins first went into space in 1966 – he was the one who stayed on board the command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the steps – he carried a copy of the sonnet “High Flight” by the wartime Spitfire pilot John Magee: his Gemini X craft had “slipped surly bonds of Earth” and “touched the face of God”.All three members of the crew of Apollo 8 read the opening verses of Genesis in a global broadcast when they rounded the moon in late December 1968. The following year, Aldrin sipped communion wine on its surface, ate pre-consecrated wafers at a makeshift altar aboard the lunar module Eagle and read the words from the Gospel of John that begin “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Armstrong afterwards said: “I had plenty of things to keep busy with. I just let him do his own thing.” Continue reading...

Nicola Davis is joined by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy to explore zero, infinity and everything in betweenSubscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterTake a moment and think about a space that is infinite. A space with no boundary and extending forever. Having trouble? That’s probably because it’s near impossible to truly fathom infinity with our finite human minds. But, just because we can’t quite grasp it, that doesn’t mean we can’t come to grips with it. And all because we know how to count. But how and when did counting come about? How important was it for our survival? And how exactly does counting help us reach the unreachable? Continue reading...

Mocked-up Mars spacecraft inhabited for 17 months full of microbial life despite adequate cleaning, raising issues for craft design and human healthOf the many potential hazards astronauts might ponder on a trip to Mars, radiation poisoning, weightlessness and the foibles of crewmates might top the list.But according to scientists, there’s another potential problem. Researchers examining a mocked-up spacecraft inhabited for 17 months by a six-man crew say parts of the capsule were rife with microbial life. Continue reading...

The suffering inherent in mass meat production can’t be justified. And as the artificial meat industry grows, the last argument for farming animals has now collapsedWhat will future generations, looking back on our age, see as its monstrosities? We think of slavery, the subjugation of women, judicial torture, the murder of heretics, imperial conquest and genocide, the first world war and the rise of fascism, and ask ourselves how people could have failed to see the horror of what they did. What madness of our times will revolt our descendants?There are plenty to choose from. But one of them, I believe, will be the mass incarceration of animals, to enable us to eat their flesh or eggs or drink their milk. While we call ourselves animal lovers, and lavish kindness on our dogs and cats, we inflict brutal deprivations on billions of animals that are just as capable of suffering. The hypocrisy is so rank that future generations will marvel at how we could have failed to see it. Continue reading...

Janov achieved celebrity with the idea that repressed childhood trauma leads to mood disorders, addiction and even epilepsyArthur Janov, a psychotherapist whose “primal therapy” had celebrities screaming to release their childhood traumas and spawned a bestselling book in the 1970s, has died. He was 93.Janov died on 1 October at his Malibu home from respiratory arrest following a stroke, said his wife, France Janov. Continue reading...