It is a disgrace that the latest iteration of a key Commons group is composed entirely of menAsk a group of people to nominate candidates for an important role and the chances are they’ll come up with a bunch of men. The evidence shows this time and time again. Think of the much-mocked Northern Powerhouse event earlier this year, with its dearth of female speakers, or the all-male panel – now colloquially known as a manel – which too many conferences showcase.Many men are sufficiently annoyed by this to sign up to pledges, refusing to talk on platforms in which there is insufficient gender diversity. This is progress, but it’s depressingly slow. In STEM fields the problem is probably more acute than in, say, humanities. We are long way from seeing a transformation in scientific leadership despite the numbers of women rising through the hierarchy growing steadily. Continue reading...

Number of hospital admissions in England rose to 11,660 last year as doctors say drugs are being prescribed too readilyThe number of patients admitted to hospital for overdosing on powerful and potentially addictive opioid painkillers has more than doubled in a decade, with doctors saying it is the “very worrying” consequence of the drugs being prescribed too readily.

We need more trials into the long-term impacts of e-cigarettes, but is disagreement between scientists over their effects putting people off taking part?Whenever I tell anyone I research e-cigarettes, they almost always have an opinion about them. Some will be vapers themselves, and those who are will almost without fail sing the praises of the device that finally helped them quit smoking. But often people who’ve never tried e-cigarettes will focus on the potential risks from using them, and in particular whether they’re likely to reintroduce smoking to a young generation who have been steadily shunning it in larger and larger numbers over recent decades. A particular fear is that young people will experiment with e-cigarettes and that this will be a gateway in to smoking, as well as fears around the harms from e-cigarettes themselves.Related: Fears over e-cigarettes leading to smoking for young people unfounded – study Continue reading...

It’s easy to think that dusty old bones have nothing left to offer, but a new study of dodo bones has given us a glimpse into a long-dead world“So rapid and complete was their extinction, that the vague descriptions given of them by early travelers were long regarded as fabulous or exaggerated, and these birds, almost contemporaries of our great-grandfathers, became associated in the minds of many persons with the Griffin and the Phoenix of mythological antiquity.”Hugh Strickland, 1848, in Strickland & Melville’s The dodo and its kindred. Continue reading...

Over half of employees in the UK are not happy in their jobs. Here’s a guide for business owners who want to raise a smile from their staffThe average British workplace is not a cheery domain. Over 55% of UK workers are unhappy in their jobs, according to a recent survey by training course site Course Library.Related: Office too hot? Computer playing up? Go on, have a grumble, it’s good for you | Phil Daoust Continue reading...

Plastic sleeve that helped patients with type 2 diabetes lose more than two stone on average is less risky and invasive than gastric bypass surgery, study showsA device that helps obese people with type 2 diabetes shed more than two stone on average should be rolled out across the NHS, experts say.The Endobarrier is a reversible treatment that provides people with an alternative to drastic gastric bypass surgery. Continue reading...

It’s a dream trip if you like geology – all rocks, craters and volcanoes. Plus, The 100 Year Old Driving SchoolWe holidayed in Cornwall and France again this year, as we do every year. And I’m thinking next year we might do something different. Been looking into options, from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads. Or maybe Mars, in which case this Horizon: Mars – A Traveller’s Guide (BBC2) will be useful. It won’t be long before it happens; many scientists think the first person to set foot on the red planet is alive today.The programme is handily divided into sections: getting there, what to do and see etc. With experts. Spacecraft structures engineer Abbie Hutty explains the journey. Not entirely surprisingly it isn’t easy, rocket science. The landing especially, with temperatures of 1750C generated as you enter Mars’s atmosphere. Don’t forget your heat shield. Then there are the ferocious winds and the dust. Oh, and the journey takes seven months. Bloody hell, we find the seven-hour drive to Cornwall a challenge, seven months is going to be a nightmare. I spy with my little eye something beginning with “S”… Star? ... Yup. Continue reading...

The lobby’s recommendations for environmental charities would set a dangerous precedent and could hamper any community group the government deems to be in conflict with its worldviewTens of millions of dollars are spent annually on political lobbying for the interests of the fossil fuel sector. That investment serves the interests of a small amount of company shareholders in keeping a legacy industry alive, despite the availability of newer, clean technologies, at lower cost.In the wake of these behind-the-scenes policy negotiations, the real and present impacts of climate change, such as bushfires, coastal flooding and reduced crop yields are left at the door of future generations to deal with. Continue reading...

Follow-up to alarming reports issued at turn of century says women on therapy do not die sooner than those on placebosWomen will be able to take hormone replacement pills without worrying that the therapy will shorten their lifespans, according to the longest follow-up yet of research that raised fears about the risks of a once-popular treatment.That earlier research was stopped early when unexpected harm was found to be caused by the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – oestrogen alone or in combination with progestin, a synthetic hormone. Continue reading...

A viking grave in the Swedish town of Birka has been found to contain a woman’s bones. How many more warriors’ remains have been incorrectly presumed male?

Scythian man’s head goes on display along with scan showing his features, including moustache, pierced ear and long scarThe real face concealed by a clay mask on the mummified head of a Scythian warrior has been revealed for the first time in almost 2,000 years. The head is on display in an exhibition opening at the British Museum this week along with the scan, made in a St Petersburg hospital, which reveals that he had fine teeth, a ginger moustache, a pierced ear, a hole in his skull where his brains had been removed, and a savage wound, beautifully stitched and healed, which originally ran from the corner of his eye socket to the point of his jaw.Since the real head closely resembles the painted mask, the curator St John Simpson assumes that the faintly smiling mask of a young woman beside him, which has yet to be scanned, is also based on her appearance in life. Continue reading...

Trump’s Nasa nominee Jim Bridenstine is a climate denier who wants to end the agency’s climate researchAccording to 2016 election exit polls, only 38% of voters considered Donald Trump qualified to be president. 17% of those who thought him unqualified voted for Trump anyway, perhaps because he promised that as a wealthy businessman, he would be able to hire the best people to advise him. That was a claim his daughter Ivanka explicitly made in her speech at the Republican National Convention: Continue reading...

Macmillan Cancer Support says one in two people will get a cancer diagnosis. Yet our treatment still focuses on the disease, not the person’s specific needs“I need you to see this patient now,” a nurse whispers, her quiet tone masking a mountain of concern.“I am an oncologist,” I introduce myself to the stricken stranger. “We haven’t met before, but you don’t look so well so I am going to help.” Continue reading...

Women worried by guidance advising abstinence should be told there is little evidence that the odd glass of wine causes harm to the baby, says studyMothers who are consumed by anxiety and guilt for having drunk the odd glass of wine when they are pregnant should be reassured by a new study showing there is very little evidence that it harms the baby, say experts.Drinking in pregnancy is a fraught issue and causes much anxiety. Last year new guidance to the NHS in England urged women to try not to drink at all, but in the real world, say the new study’s authors, up to 80% in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia drink some alcohol while they are pregnant. Since half of all pregnancies are unplanned, many women drink before the test shows positive. Continue reading...

Exercise is not enough to ward off the risks of sitting still for long periods of time, regular movement is needed, research showsMoving your body at least every half an hour could help to limit the harmful effects of desk jobs and other sedentary lifestyles, research has revealed.The study found that both greater overall time spent inactive in a day, and longer periods of inactivity were linked to an increased risk of death. Continue reading...

The great success of the Cassini mission deserves our appreciation, but Nasa’s work on Earth’s climate matters moreThe Cassini mission, which will end on Friday, is one of the most wonderful achievements of the human race. A slack-jawed awe is the only proper reaction to the spacecraft’s travels and to its intricate route over seven years to Saturn, aided by the slingshot effects of its grazing the orbits of the inner planets, first Venus and then Earth, as it passed them in vast loops, representing astonishing feats of calculation.Nor was it enough just to reach the outer planets and their region of immense distances from the Sun, from us and from each other. The flypasts of Jupiter and its moons, reached after three years, and then the orbit of Saturn attained four years later, are wonders of remote control and communication. The pictures that Cassini has sent back of the surface of the moons it has explored – and it actually landed the smaller probe, Huygens, on one of them – enlarge our vision of the universe as nothing else could. Continue reading...

Skybolt 2 successfully launched from back of truck in Northumberland carrying science project, cameras and a stuffed toyThe largest rocket to blast off from the British mainland has launched from Northumberland for a test flight, fuelling hopes that it could pave the way for commercial flights into space.Built and privately funded by the Manchester-based firm Starchaser, the Skybolt 2 successfully fired into the sky from the back of a converted flatbed truck in Otterburn, a village 31 miles north-east of Newcastle in the usually tranquil Northumberland national park. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s fowl questionsOn my puzzle blog earlier today I set these four questions, here restated with the answers:1. If cocks cost 5 qian each, hens cost 3 qian each and chicks are three for a qian, how many cocks, hens and chicks do I buy if I buy 100 of them altogether for exactly 100 qian. Continue reading...

My friend, work colleague and cousin by marriage, Ross Lazar, who has died aged 72 of cancer, was a psychotherapist and organisational consultant who spread British psychoanalytic ideas across Europe. A central part of his career lay in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and its associated observational studies. But in parallel he also developed a second strand working with groups and organisations.Born to Jack, a businessman, and Pearl (nee Wachs), a legal secretary, in New Jersey, Ross came to Britain in the early 1970s to train at the Tavistock Clinic in London, where the Kleinian school of psychoanalysis – grounded in the observation of infants, children and families – had been established. Continue reading...

Ministers say culls are vital for cutting TB infections in cattle but scientists say there is little evidence to support the policyUp to 33,500 badgers will be shot this autumn in an attempt to control tuberculosis in cattle, a huge rise from the 10,000 killed in 2016.The government has announced that 11 new badger cull areas have been licensed, adding to the 10 already in place. Devon now has six badger culls under way, with Somerset and Wiltshire having three each, with others in Cheshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Continue reading...

Two thousand years of fowl play has resulted in some truly eggcellent puzzlesUPDATE: The solutions can now be seen here.Hi guzzlers,Today I’ve selected four puzzles about chickens, an animal which appears with curious frequency in the history of puzzles. Continue reading...

Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin says there are four basic personality types, and improving your life is all about working out whether you conform or rise upIn the often-woolly world of personal development, Gretchen Rubin is a practical and grounded sort. She doesn’t even – shock – like meditation. Rubin has spent the past decade researching and writing about happiness. A former lawyer, it was her fifth book, The Happiness Project written in 2009 – for which she spent a year testing different theories about how to live a more fulfilled life – that became a bestseller and made her a star of the self-help world (she also runs a popular blog and podcast).Her latest book, The Four Tendencies, develops ideas first explored in 2015’s Better Than Before, in which she looked at how happiness and habits were linked. “[People] wanted to run,” she says, “but for some reason they couldn’t make themselves exercise. Or they wanted to write a novel in their free time, but somehow they weren’t doing it. It was trying to figure out why people did and didn’t break habits.” Continue reading...

Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, flash fires, droughts: all of them tell us one thing – we need to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fastFor the sake of keeping things manageable, let’s confine the discussion to a single continent and a single week: North America over the last seven days.In Houston they got down to the hard and unromantic work of recovery from what economists announced was probably the most expensive storm in US history, and which weather analysts confirmed was certainly the greatest rainfall event ever measured in the country – across much of its spread it was a once-in-25,000-years storm, meaning 12 times past the birth of Christ; in isolated spots it was a once-in-500,000-years storm, which means back when we lived in trees. Meanwhile, San Francisco not only beat its all-time high temperature record, it crushed it by 3F, which should be pretty much statistically impossible in a place with 150 years (that’s 55,000 days) of record-keeping. Continue reading...

Little Bradley Ponds, South Devon Taxonomy tussles aside, spotting any grass snake can be far from easy, and I circled the ponds several timesThis small nature reserve was my final stop: a tranquil oasis surrounded by woodland and set back from the road near Bovey Tracey in south Devon. I had spent the morning visiting gardens in search of grass snakes, nosing around compost heaps and scanning the edges of ponds without luck. Reptiles known to inhabit one glorious wildlife-friendly property on the edge of Buckfastleigh had kept out of sight, while nearby locations offered up handsome slow worms, but not the secretive species I was after. Continue reading...

Scientific reticence allows politicians to neglect the real dangers we face. But waiting for perfect information means it will be too late to actThree decades ago when serious debate on human-induced climate change began globally, a great deal of statesmanship was on display. A preparedness to recognise that this was an issue which transcended nation states, ideologies and political parties. An issue which had to be addressed proactively in the long-term interests of humanity, even if the existential nature of climate risk was far less clear cut than it is today.Then, as global institutions were put in place to take up this challenge and the extent of change this would impose on the fossil-fuel dominated world became more obvious, the forces of resistance mobilised. Today, despite the diplomatic triumph of the Paris climate agreement, debate around climate change policy has never been more dysfunctional, indeed Orwellian, particularly in Australia. Continue reading...

A couple of minor constellations, in a relatively dim region of sky, are worth the trouble of finding and observing, with their neighbouring globular cluster M15In the week when Cassini ends its explorations at Saturn, and when the waning earthlit Moon meets Venus, Regulus, Mars and Mercury in our E morning twilight, it may seem incongruous to focus on a relatively dim region of sky, albeit one that is ideally placed in the S as the night begins. Continue reading...

Answer our questions to find out if you are as fair and honest as you think you areKnow thyself, urged Socrates. But do you? Or are there others who know you better than you know yourself? Answer the following and find outQ1. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (completely), to what extent would you say you’re fair when dealing with others? Now, without revealing your answer, ask a friend, family member or partner to answer on your behalf. Continue reading...

Mummies, jewels and sarcophagi are among the 3,500-year-old treasures discovered in a goldsmith’s tomb in necropolisA remarkable ancient Egyptian tomb has been discovered in the necropolis of Draa el-Naga, near Egypt’s famous Valley of the Kings.The tomb consists of a small room at ground level and a burial chamber eight metres below containing four mummies. Its principal occupant was a goldsmith named Amenemhat from the 18th Dynasty (1550BC to 1292BC), the time of Tutankhamun, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. The tomb also contains skeletons, funerary artefacts, including 150 ushabti statues, intended to be servants in the afterlife, and four wooden sarcophagi, jewellery and funerary cones. Continue reading...

The most exciting story this week is kind of about nothing ... but a very big nothing. Astronomers have found evidence of enormous black hole one hundred thousand times more massive than the sun hiding in a gas cloud near the galaxy’s centre. It’s not just a big hole though: it could help us understand how supermassive black holes form. And while we’re still gazing heavenward, everyone’s favourite dwarf planet, Pluto, has had its surface features officially named. Pluto’s mountains, craters and regions now celebrate global mythology, explorers, map-makers and a British schoolgirl, among others. Feeling sleepy after all that stargazing? If so, you’re lucky: researchers have revealed that insomnia could contribute to mental health problems. On the up side, the study showed that therapy designed to treat insomnia also reduced paranoia and hallucinations, and improved depression and anxiety in patients. More positive news on the health-improvement front: it seems that a pacemaker-liked device that “hacks” the body’s neural circuits could alleviate symptoms of diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to Crohn’s. The scientists responsible say it could be the end of pills for certain illnesses – an extraordinary boon for anyone living with chronic disease. Excellent news indeed, because scientists are hoping to develop a medication that mimics a diet stripped of carbohydrate, after two studies showed that mice on a zero-carb diet lived longer and and performed better on a range of physical and mental tasks than those on a regular diet. More time for contemplating the heavens, then. Continue reading...

Those in the UK should look northwards for the aurora tonight as the aftermath of the biggest solar flare for more than a decade continues to pummel EarthThe particle ‘debris’ created by a monstrously large solar flare reached Earth at around 00:00 BST last night. It sparked displays of the northern lights that were seen as far south as Edinburgh in Scotland and Arkansas in the US.At 00:12 BST, Lancaster University’s Aurorawatch issued an amber alert, meaning that aurora is likely across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland. A dozen minutes later, they upgraded to red alert, saying “It is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK.” Continue reading...

A pacemaker-liked device that ‘hacks’ the body’s neural circuits could alleviate symptoms of diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to Crohn’s, say researchersA pioneering approach to tackling a host of diseases using an electrical implant could eventually reduce or even end pill-taking for some patients, researchers have claimed.The technology relies on electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve – a bundle of nerve fibres that runs from the brain to the abdomen, branching off to organs including the heart, spleen, lungs and gut, and which relays signals from the body’s organs to the brain and vice versa. Continue reading...

They may cause misery, pain and zombie cockroaches, but parasites are also responsible for glorious biodiversity. Now climate change threatens their survivalHave you ever seen a headless toad? If the answer is no, now is a good time to go out looking for one. You see, it is almost exactly at this time of year that they are becoming headless thanks to the actions of tiny parasites that are emerging from out of their bodies. It is with these creatures that I would like to begin this piece about the worthiness or worthlessness of parasites.Related: Climate change could wipe out a third of parasite species, study finds Continue reading...

Collaboration with European space agencies began in 1997 and has provided pictures of the moon, Titan, for scientists.

Mythological figures, astronomers, explorers and a British schoolgirl are among those immortalised as mountains, craters and regions on the distant worldA British schoolgirl who came up with the name “Pluto” for a newly-found planet in 1930 has been immortalised on the distant world by having a crater named after her.On hearing of the planet’s discovery from press reports, 11-year-old Venetia Burney from Oxford proposed the name of the Roman god of the underworld to her grandfather, a librarian at the city’s Bodleian library. He dutifully passed it on to US astronomers where it was approved by Clyde Tombaugh, who had spotted the rocky body.

Professor Sarah Harper took over as director in May; her resignation has been followed by the departure of three other senior staff membersThe Royal Institution, one of Britain’s most revered scientific organisations, is facing fresh troubles following the resignation of its director and three senior managers.Professor Sarah Harper, a highly-respected gerontologist at Oxford University, took over as director at the institution in May, but has resigned after less than four months in the post. Three other senior staff, in HR, fundraising, and operations, have also stepped down.

We are beginning to unravel lines of communication between gut and brain. But don’t hold your breath for the probiotic that will lift your moodHistorically, microbes have been associated with deadly diseases such as bubonic plague, smallpox and malaria. But they have had a bad press: only a tiny minority are pathogenic (capable of causing disease), and in fact many of the microbes that live on and in our bodies – especially the trillions of bacteria residing in our gut – may be beneficial, or indeed essential, for human health.Related: Organisms created with synthetic DNA pave way for entirely new life forms Continue reading...

It may deviate into descriptions of giant humans and Noah, but Robert Plot’s 1676 work demonstrates how current research is based on generations of workIn the history of dinosaur palaeontology, naturalist and chemist Robert Plot, is credited as making the earliest (surviving) description and illustration of a dinosaur fossil. In the rather verbose The Natural History of Oxfordshire of 1676, addressed to King Charles II, Plot systematically records his observations of the heavens, air, waters, earths, stones, plants, men, women, arts and animals of Oxfordshire.Chapter five of the book is about “Formed Stones” and it’s in this chapter that the “first dinosaur” is recorded. In a section describing formed stones reminiscent of the parts of humans, Plot describes and illustrates a stone in “... the figure of the lowermost part of the thigh-bone of Man or at least some other Animal ...” but larger in proportion than a horse or ox and different and smaller than an elephant. With some suspect deduction, Plot suggests that this must be from a giant man or woman and then gives an exhaustive account of giants known from history. Continue reading...

95,000 square-kilometre space base will be used to train astronauts as well as entertain glamping touristsThe 55m-kilometre jaunt from planet Earth to the red planet takes up to a year. From Beijing’s international airport you’ll soon be able to fly there in just over seven hours.

Shortsighted politicians are reaping the consequences of an unsustainable market in higher education that they themselves createdThe government has a problem. Open any newspaper or turn on the news and there are items about the cost of universities and the burden of debt on students, at levels higher than the cost of most of their parents’ first house.People are complaining about universities at a time when the present government thought it had the issue sorted. The creation of a full-blown market for higher education with its own regulator – the Office for Students – heralded by the recent Higher Education and Research Act, is now nearly complete. The theory was that competition amongst the hundred or more existing universities, and a raft of new commercial providers, would hone the system to perfection. Continue reading...

Consumers persuaded to scale up a meal or drink take on an extra 55% more calories on average – and a big annual weight gain, experts revealOne in three people buys a larger coffee, more fries or added cream each week as a result of “upselling”, which experts say is fuelling the obesity epidemic.Most people in the UK – 78% of those questioned in a survey – say they are asked in restaurants, fast food outlets and stores at least once a week if they want to “go large”, opting for more food or bigger portions, according to a report. Continue reading...

Study finds therapy designed to treat insomnia also reduced paranoia and hallucinations, and improved depression and anxiety in patients

Longest study of its kind concludes current prescribing guidelines are correct, and that statins show impressive benefits for men with high cholesterol levelsStatins cut the risk of dying from heart disease by 28% among men, according to the longest study of its kind.The 20-year project examined data from 2,560 men taking part in a randomised clinical trial to test the effects of statins versus a placebo. Continue reading...

Parasites such as lice and fleas are crucial to ecosystems, scientists say, and extinctions could lead to unpredictable invasionsClimate change could wipe out a third of all parasite species on Earth, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date.Tapeworms, roundworms, ticks, lice and fleas are feared for the diseases they cause or carry, but scientists warn that they also play a vital role in ecosystems. Major extinctions among parasites could lead to unpredictable invasions of surviving parasites into new areas, affecting wildlife and humans and making a “significant contribution” to the sixth mass extinction already under way on Earth. Continue reading...

Uplifting music can help people think more flexibly and avoid getting stuck in a creative rut, say psychologistsJack London hunted it down with a club. Graham Greene found it on benzedrine. For Mary Godwin it struck one wet summer night after making up ghost stories with Lord Byron and her husband-to-be, Percy Shelley.Artists have relied on muses, nature, drink and drugs to fuel their creativity, but according to new research there may be another way to boost imaginative thinking: a blast of happy music. According to psychologists, uplifting music can help people think more flexibly and avoid getting stuck in a creative rut.

Royal Society research shows that 16% of academic staff and 14% of all post graduate researchers come from the EUThe UK faces a science brain drain following Brexit if leaked Home Office proposals for immigration are enacted, leading campaigners have warned.The warning comes as the government published its Brexit science position paper outlining its hopes to continue to pay into European funded research bodies including the flagship €80bn Horizon 2020 programme. Continue reading...

In this edition of Science Weekly, Ian Sample explores whether it is possible to communicate with those in a ‘vegetative’ state – and what are the ethical and legal ramifications?Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn 2006, neuroscientists in Cambridge ran brain scans on a young woman who had suffered serious brain damage in a traffic accident. The incident left her in a vegetative state: she slept and woke, but showed no signs of consciousness. But remarkablly, by analysing her brain activity, the scientists found a way to communicate with her. Continue reading...

Researchers seeking science funding can be big losers in the equality and diversity game: will a fresh ethos change this?Yesterday’s launch of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health Research (EDIS) network is a step in the right direction. Arbitrary barriers that prevent talented people from entering or thriving in the scientific profession – such as gender, race, orientation, disability and socio-economic status – are clearly counter-productive as well as unjust.We are all familiar with the arguments for the positive effects of diversity in STEM. In the UK, the Athena SWAN initiative has gone a long way towards institutionalising a positive approach to leveling the playing field for women in academic institutions, for example. Continue reading...

The International Space Station’s external cameras recorded hurricane Irma as it moved across the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday. The National Hurricane Center upgraded Irma to a category 5 storm and hurricane warnings were issued across the Caribbean

Disease, which causes crippling pain and can lead to infertility, affects 176 million women worldwide and currently takes seven to eight years to diagnose