Hannah Devlin speaks with the IT pioneer about her life as a woman in tech, having a son with autism, and how it all led to her later role as a philanthropistSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn 1962, Stephanie Shirley - now Dame Stephanie Shirley - set up the computing company Freelance Programmers with just £6. The company was one of the first to commercialise software which, until then, had often been given away for free with computers. And with a gender balance of roughly one man for every hundred women, the company was pioneering in other ways too. Continue reading...

A quarter of those who groom their pubic hair have suffered mishaps from cuts to burns and rashes – some requiring medical help – researchers have foundWhether it’s shaving, waxing or laser hair removal, pubic grooming has become commonplace – but more than a quarter of those who remove hair have met with mishap in the process, research has revealed.The study found that 76% of US adults quizzed said they removed some or all of their pubic hair, with almost 26% of those who groomed reporting that they had sustained at least one injury while doing so, ranging from cuts to burns and rashes. Continue reading...

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi, named after the seven-year-old who discovered it, changes everything we thought we knew about dino evolution …Name: Chilesaurus diegosuarezi.Nickname: The Frankenstein dinosaur. Continue reading...

Originally classified as a relative of T rex, analysis shows Chilesaurus belongs to a different dinosaurian group, with implications for the dinosaur family treeAn unusual vegetarian dinosaur with the silhouette of a flesh-ripping velociraptor, whose fossilised remains were unearthed in southern Chile 13 years ago, is a missing link in dinosaur evolution, researchers have said.A revised assessment of the kangaroo-sized Chilesaurus diegosuarezi , reported in the journal Biology Letters, bolsters a theory unveiled earlier this year that threatens to upend a long-standing classification of all dinosaurs. Continue reading...

Palaeontology is synonymous with excavating fossils, but the stereotype of the rugged, white, male digger, could be a barrier to diversity in Earth science

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries

Britain faces a worsening social care crisis with people living longer but with substantial care needs, researchers sayAn extra 71,000 care home spaces are needed in the next eight years to cope with Britain’s soaring demand as people living longer face more health problems, a study has found.New research predicts there will be an additional 353,000 older people with complex needs by 2025, requiring tens of thousands more beds. Continue reading...

The fruit’s evolutionary history has been unpicked for the first time by studying a range of wild and cultivated apples from China to North AmericaIt is a lunchbox staple so ubiquitous as to have become mundane. But the apple we know today is the fruit of an extraordinary journey, researchers have revealed.Scientists studying the genetics of the humble apple have unpicked how the cultivated species emerged as traders travelled back and forth along the Silk Road – ancient routes running from the far east to the Mediterranean sea. Continue reading...

Carolyn Churchill was in agony after mesh surgery, but doctors were reluctant to blame her implant, even suggesting the pain might be a mental health issueSix years ago, Carolyn Churchill, 57, from near Pontypridd in Wales, was in a long-term relationship, worked as a chef, and spent hours each week walking with her dogs and looking after her granddaughter’s pony. She was busy and content, but was bothered by stress incontinence, which affects roughly 10% of women.“Never knowing when you’re going out if you’re going to wee yourself. It really got to the stage where it was embarrassing,” she recalls. Continue reading...

Traumatic complications mean one in 15 women fitted with the most common type of mesh support will require surgery to extract it, figures suggest• Vaginal mesh implants: ‘I really thought I was dying’Thousands of women have undergone surgery to have vaginal mesh implants removed during the past decade, according to NHS records that reveal the scale of traumatic complications linked to the devices.The figures, obtained by the Guardian, suggest that around one in 15 women fitted with the most common type of mesh support later require surgery to have it extracted due to complications. Continue reading...

By taking part in projects such as counting hedgehog homes, ordinary people enable scientists to understand and protect Britain’s much-loved wildlifeToday sees the launch of the “hedgehog housing census”. All over the country, thousands of people are going to the trouble and expense of building or buying hedgehog homes. We want to know how important this is to the lives of one of our most loved animals – and how we can improve the way we help hedgehogs in the future.For a hedgehog scientist – and believe me, there are such things – gathering the volume of information required to make this a meaningful study cannot be done alone. They would need to get into thousands of gardens, assess the structures, what they are made of, where they are situated. They would also need to see what other features the garden had that might encourage hedgehogs, such as access. One of the key messages from our Hedgehog Street campaign is the necessity to make small holes, around the size of a CD case, at the bottom of fences and walls to allow the animals to roam. Continue reading...

Tyler Nordgren, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Redlands says eclipse watchers should be prepared for a multi-sensory experienceMillions of Americans will look up toward the sky on Monday 21 August and watch stars shine in the afternoon, feel the day’s heat swapped for an evening chill and hear the sounds of confused birds and animals during the first total eclipse seen in the continental US in 38 years.

With a breakthrough in gene editing, the prospect of breeding animals to harvest their organs looms. Chas Newkey-Burden and Susan Watts go head to headPigs are intelligent creatures with social instincts and emotional depth. We are so closely related to them that their hearts can replace our own. But what sort of person would kill a relative for spare parts? Continue reading...

Less than two-thirds of doctors feel confident discussing activity levels and almost a third have never heard of national guidelinesThe majority of doctors in England are unfamiliar with recommended levels of physical activity, with fewer than two-thirds confident about discussing the topic with their patients, researchers have revealed.Set out in July 2011 by the Chief Medical Office, national guidelines recommend that adults aged between 19 and 64 undertake 75 minutes of intense activity or 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week.

John Collis on the limitations of DNA testing, Peter McKenna on the Romans and race, and Alun Thomas on West Midlands historyDNA testing to determine people’s origins (DNA uncovers villagers’ exotic heritage, 11 August) should come with a major health warning as interpretations are based on false scientific methodologies.First, there is a confusion between two types of data. Our DNA is what we inherit from our parents and, until recently at least, could not be altered. Ethnic or “racial” terms like “English” are culturally constructed “imagined communities” and can be altered and redefined. Though genes may affect our perception of ethnicity (eg in skin colour) it is not dictated by them. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s firelightersOn my puzzle blog earlier today I set the following three questions:A barracks (the matchbox below) is surrounded by 24 guards (matchsticks) in groups of three, such that when the sergeant drives once around the guards to check that they are all there he sees two rows of 9 guards (the top and bottom rows), and two columns of 9 guards (the left and right columns).

Science is not just for boffins. If we can get our minds around football statistics, we can handle scientific enquiry – starting in primary schoolScience is not just the brainy preserve of the stereotypical boffins you see on TV. In an interview last week, the head of the British Science Association, Katherine Mathieson, said this formal public image was not helpful and that we need to see more of the everyday people involved in science. She called for this everyday approach to science to extend to teaching, with creative experiments involving “genuine open-ended research by pupils, rather than fiddling around with beakers”.Related: Science classes won’t future-proof our children. But dance might | Christina Patterson Continue reading...

Leading scientist who focused on the biological origins of animal behaviourSir Patrick Bateson, who has died aged 79, was a scientist whose work advanced the understanding of the biological origins of behaviour. He will also be remembered as a man of immense warmth and kindness, whose success as a leader, teacher and administrator of science owed much to his collaborative spirit, generosity and good humour.He was a key figure in ethology – the biological study of animal behaviour. As well as being a conceptual thinker who revelled in painting the big theoretical picture, he was an accomplished experimental scientist. He published extensively, with more than 300 journal papers and several books to his name. Continue reading...

You expect to find climate change denial on the right. But from the left too, there is a strange silence about the single most pressing issue facing humanitySomeone writes a memo about his views on gender difference and it kicks off. Apparently women are in tears, too traumatised to go to work. A baker refuses to ice a wedding cake for two guys and my Twitter feed practically bursts into flames. “HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING?!”But mention the climate crisis, something that is smashing temperature records, raising sea levels, driving diseases into places they’ve not been before, and which may lead, as Professor Stephen Hawking suggests, to a need for the human race to flee the planet, and there’s radio silence. You can almost see the digital tumbleweed. Continue reading...

Some of our readers lucky enough to experience clear skies share their spectacular views of the Perseid meteor shower Continue reading...

Many students will have important decisions to make after getting their GSCE and A-level results. Here’s what teachers can do to helpResults day will soon be upon us. For many students across the country, it will mark the end of one journey and the start of a new one. Most will get the grades they want and be rewarded for the many hours of revision and hard work. But some will fall short of their expectations and have to make important decisions about what to do next. Teachers are often the first point of call to help navigate this difficult moment. Here’s what your students need to know:

For bright sparks!UPDATE: you can read the solutions hereHi guzzlers,The first two puzzles today come from reader Gabriella Horvath, who lives in Hungary. She first came across them in her childhood, during the Soviet-backed socialist regime, at a time when many people smoked, and when military service was compulsory. Match puzzles about soldiers were guaranteed entertainment. Continue reading...

Scientists find that silver used came from mines on Iberian peninsula captured by Rome from Carthaginian leaderThe defeat by the ancient Romans of Hannibal, despite the Carthaginian leader’s famous feat of marching his army – complete with war elephants – over the Pyrenees and Alps into Italy, also meant that the Romans captured the silver mines of the Iberian peninsula, bringing so much silver into the Roman empire that it can be traced through the coinage.Scientists have for the first time analysed the silver content of a group of coins bracketing the Second Punic War from 218-201 BC, in which Hannibal initially inflicted humiliating defeats on the Romans, but was then forced by a counter-invasion to fall back to north Africa and ultimate defeat. The Carthaginians also lost control of the Iberian peninsula and the richest silver mines of the Mediterranean world. Continue reading...

The newspapers love a cancer research story, but many are misleading or won’t affect patients for many years. But there is plenty of progress worth reportingEvery news story about cancer research should come with a health warning: believe the hope, but not the hype. Good headlines are quick and catchy, good science is steady steps taken on a complicated issue over a long time. If a new treatment is still being researched, it could be metaphorical miles and actual years away from getting into the hands or bodies of patients. As blogger Kay Curtin, who has advanced melanoma, puts it: “The media tend to pick one line on a report and run with it, but they do not draw attention or highlight that it’s just a potential benefit, or the fact that many of these are just proven in a petri dish or a mouse and very often do not prove effective when tested on humans. It is cruel to existing patients to make claims with misleading headlines.”One of the best ways to deal with cancer is to divide and conquer, based on as much knowledge as we can get of how individual tumours work. Treating all cancers from the same part of the body equally isn’t good enough – you must match the right patient with the right treatment. Continue reading...

How to enjoy the full eclipse experience on 21 August, during the first total solar eclipse to cross the USA from coast to coast since 1918The countdown to the Great American Eclipse on 21 August is entering its final week as eclipse-watchers are completing their plans for the first total solar eclipse to cross the USA from coast to coast since 1918.Millions live in the path of totality, the corridor up to 115km wide that visits 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina. Millions more will converge on it so that highways may be gridlocked and hopes of chasing clear weather may be curtailed. Even for those under clear skies, though, one has to wonder just how many will enjoy the full eclipse experience. Continue reading...

The grand finale of Nasa’s epic 20-year mission to the ringed planet will be overseen from a deep space centre near Canberra. A photo essay by Jonny WeeksOn 15 September 2017 at about 10pm AEST, Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft will plunge deep into the hostile atmosphere of Saturn on a historic but suicidal course. It’s the grand finale of a 20-year mission which has revolutionised our understanding of the solar system and sent home more than a quarter of a million stunning images of Saturn and its moons.Cassini’s instruments will be running to the last, capturing every possible byte of data from its closest encounter with the ringed planet before it ultimately evaporates. Continue reading...

They are persecuted in their homeland, but music is now changing their lives. Meet the Tanzanians who play with sledgehammers, chant in Swahili – and dance till they dropIt is a Wednesday night in a London pub and a group are about to play their first ever gig. It doesn’t begin well. Some members start singing the wrong song, the keyboard won’t work properly and they don’t all finish at the same time.But then something happens: the audience claps. The four singers look stunned and overwhelmed, and then Teleza Finias, the band’s only woman, starts jumping up and down with joy. Amidu Didas, a lanky singer in a woolly Arsenal hat, shakes his arms in celebration, while Elias Sostines and Riziki Julius, the other two members, shout, “Tanzania! Tanzania! Tanzania!” over and over, making the crowd shout it back. Continue reading...

My friend Jo Draper, who has died aged 68 from cancer, was an author, editor, archaeologist, museum curator and an authority on post-medieval pottery. Much of her considerable output focused around Dorset and her adopted home town of Dorchester.Born near Winchester, Hampshire, the daughter of John and Betty Draper, Jo espoused the common-sense values of her farming background. Encouraged by a teacher at Fareham girls’ grammar school to take part in an archaeological dig in Portsmouth in 1964, she moved on to join Barry Cunliffe’s key excavations at Portchester Castle and Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester, West Sussex. She then enjoyed a happy stint at Southampton University, where she met and married Christopher Chaplin, then an archaeologist and later a land surveyor for the Ordance Survey. Continue reading...

The annual Perseid meteor shower filled the sky will glowing streaks over the weekend near the archaeological site of Mesimvria outside Alexandroupoli in northern Greece. As the meteors burn up, they can appear as green, white or orange streaks across the sky

Views from UK, Macedonia, Spain and Turkey of the Perseid meteor shower, which occurs every year when the Earth travels through debris shed by comet Swift-Tuttle Continue reading...

Answer four questions to find out if you really are God’s giftInterviewer: What’s your biggest weakness?Applicant: I’m a perfectionist Continue reading...

The annual meteor shower will fill the night sky with glowing streaks this weekend, as the Earth travels through debris shed by comet Swift-TuttleFrom piquing the interest of astronomers to fuelling the musings of poets, meteor showers have left a trail of inspiration in their wake since humanity first peered up into the sky.Now inspiration is set to strike once more. This weekend the night sky will be filled with glowing streaks as the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak, with the best views in the northern hemisphere. Continue reading...

Israel Kristal, who was only member of his family to survive war, described as ‘very hardworking’ by grandsonIsrael Kristal, the world’s oldest man who lived through both world wars and survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, has passed away just a month short of his 114th birthday, his family have said.Related: Maximum human lifespan could far exceed 115 years – new research Continue reading...

As our understanding of the minds of our fellow species improves, will we increasingly look back at the way we have treated them in horror and repulsion?

If you’re lucky enough to spot any shooting stars, we would love to see your photos

Sci-fi becomes reality as University of Washington lab uses strands of DNA to hack into a computer, but experts say there’s no cause for concernResearchers from the University of Washington say they have successfully hacked into a computer using custom strands of DNA for the first time.

A nanochip that sits on the skin and uses an electric field to reprogramme cells could be a breakthrough in the way we treat injured or ageing tissue, say researchers. Will it keep us healthy for longer? Or is that something that increasing our salt intake could help with? Scientist James DiNicolantonio thinks so, but his new book The Salt Fix has public health bodies falling over themselves to condemn his advice. We need to nail this healthy eating thing (not necessarily clean eating, though) if we’re going to live long and prosper on other planets. And given that a new discovery about the Moon’s magnetic field has raised fresh possibilities in the hunt for new worlds, we should really get on it quicksticks. Finally, two excellent yarns for all you bone lovers out there. Firstly, some good news from Bradford University, who are to digitise the slightly bonkers archive of the boundlessly eccentric palaeopathologist Calvin Wells, sadly without the shrunken head, but still: interesting objects abound. Secondly, analysis of bones found in a Somerset cave (which have already been linked to human cannibalism 15,000 years ago) has revealed evidence of ritualistic engravings. A charming combination of the horrifying and fascinating to start your weekend! Continue reading...

Climate change is serious: the BBC needs to stop this obsession with ‘balance’ and reject the scientifically-discredited argument that Nigel Lawson existsThe BBC has recently come under fire for a Radio 4 programme which featured Nigel Lawson criticising the concept of climate change. This has drawn the ire of many scientists, and rightly so. The science on this matter is settled, there is no meaningful debate to be had, and the evidence is there for all to see should they choose to go and look for it. Basically, Nigel Lawson isn’t real.It’s all very well putting forward opposing views in the name of “balance”, although it’s worth noting that the importance of “balance” at the BBC seems to differ wildly depending on the subject matter. You seldom get Flat Earth proponents giving contrasting weather forecasts to combat the globular bias in meteorology, and it seems the BBC is perfectly happy broadcasting debates about whether the Welsh language deserves to exist which feature, you know, NOBODY WHO ACTUALLY SPEAKS IT. Balance isn’t a priority in these instances, clearly. But the increasingly-unhinged and militant types who insist that Nigel Lawson exists, they must be given airtime apparently. It boggles the mind. Continue reading...

The bone reports, body parts and even jokey postcards collected by founding figure of palaeopathology Calvin Wells will be available online for the first timeAn archaeological treasury – the voluminous collection of papers, slides, research notes, recordings, jokey postcards, and miscellaneous bits of long-dead human beings collected by the late Calvin Wells – is to be digitised to make it available in its eccentric entirety to scholars for the first time.The archive, for which the University of Bradford has won a grant of almost £140,000 from the Wellcome Trust, includes thousands of the “bone reports” for which Wells became famous. The reports were based on boxes of human remains sent by archaeologists to Wells’s home and studied on the kitchen table. Continue reading...

None of the inhabitants of Bledington in the Cotswolds are 100% Anglo-Saxon, with ancestors coming from all over the worldThe residents of the Cotswold village of Bledington were entitled to see themselves as the quintessential English villagers, blessed with a village green, stream, medieval church, Kings Head pub, mention in the Domesday Book, even a Victorian maypole. However, a DNA survey, one of the most comprehensive attempts to capture an entire village, has revealed their surprisingly diverse origins.The village was classified as white British in ethnic origin from census data, but the saliva samples contributed by almost 120 of the residents – including the pub landlord, a farmer, an artist, a marketing director and the village historian – told another story: not a single individual of those tested was 100% English. Continue reading...

Havant Thicket, Hampshire The beetle’s astonishingly efficient process means 98% of the energy linked to the chemical reaction is emitted as lightIt was just before 10pm when I spotted the first vivid green spark in the understorey – a female common glow-worm. She had climbed a tall blade of grass and was advertising her availability to males on the wing, curling her abdomen to show off the bioluminescent rear segments to their best effect.The ethereal illumination – which can also act as a warning – is generated within the glow-worm’s light-producing organ, known as the lantern. A chemical reaction occurs between oxygen, the light-emitting compound luciferin, an energy-transporting molecule called adenosine triphosphate, and the enzyme luciferase. Continue reading...

Space rock 2012 TC4 expected to zoom by harmlessly, coming within 27,300 miles – an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the MoonA house-sized asteroid will shave past our planet on 12 October, far inside the Moon’s orbit but without posing any threat, astronomers have said.

Astronomers ponder the make-up of an oddly shaped Kuiper belt object before Nasa’s spacecraft completes a flyby in 2019Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft is making good progress towards its next target, an elongated mini planet which may actually be two smaller worlds in orbit around one another.Since New Horizons made the first ever flyby of Pluto, in July 2015, the spacecraft has been heading into the depths of the solar system. This region is known as the Kuiper belt, and, rather like an icy asteroid belt, is the home to a large collection of celestial objects. Continue reading...

Study shows gene editing can remove porcine endogenous retroviruses from DNA, potentially making it safe to grow human transplant organs in pigsGrowing human transplant organs in pigs has become a more realistic prospect after scientists used advanced gene editing to remove threatening viruses from the animals’ DNA.Porcine endogenous retroviruses (Pervs) are permanently embedded in the pig genome but research has shown they can infect human cells, posing a potential hazard. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Unprecedented scientific expedition funded by private tourism company is designed to unlock secrets of surviving coralA scientific research expedition funded by the tourism industry will undertake the first significant underwater study of remote northern sections of the Great Barrier Reef, which were severely damaged by recent coral bleaching.Nonprofit organisation Great Barrier Reef Legacy will launch a 21-day research trip on a 32-metre charter boat, offering at least 10 free spaces to scientists, including Charlie Veron, known as “the godfather of coral”. Continue reading...

Hannah Devlin explores the science and ethics behind a landmark study that successfully edited the genomes of developing embryos. How did they do it? What did they hope to achieve? And, further down the line, what kind of doors might research like this open?Subscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterOn 2 August, Nature published a paper that detailed how a team of scientists had successfully used gene editing to mend heart disease mutations in human embryos. A world first, this proof-of-principle could ultimately lead to entirely new treatments for genetic diseases. That said, the study also poses profound ethical questions about what it means to be human. Continue reading...

Drug testing is increasingly becoming part of UK festivals and clubs. Could it be an effective way to change behaviour and reduce the harmful effects of drugs?For the first time, people going to BoomTown this weekend will be able to find out what’s in the drugs they plan to take, by getting them tested by non-profit organisation The Loop. Front of house drugs safety testing, or Multi Agency Safety Testing (MAST), was first offered by The Loop at Secret Garden Party and Kendal Calling in 2016. This was such a success that they have been invited to provide their service at a number of festivals this year, BoomTown being the next on the calendar.A growing number of festivals are now openly discussing a new approach to drugs, based on information and harm reduction rather than criminal justice. This shift in attitudes is coming at a very welcome time. Recent developments in the European drug market have seen an unprecedented rise in the strength of ecstasy tablets, with a number of recent reports of adverse health effects, including emergency medical treatment and fatalities, attributed to MDMA toxicity. Indeed, Office for National Statistics figures show an eightfold increase in deaths related to ecstasy in five years, rising to 63 in 2016 from an all-time low of 8 in 2010. Continue reading...

Conservationists see only one hope for the saola: a risky captive breeding programmeIn 1996, William Robichaud spent three weeks with Martha before she died. Robichaud studied Martha – a beautiful, enigmatic, shy saola – with a scientist’s eye but also fell under the gracile animal’s spell as she ate out of his hand and allowed herself to be stroked. Captured by local hunters, Martha spent those final days in a Laotian village, doted on by Robichaud.Since losing Martha, Robichaud has become the coordinator of the Saola Working Group (SWG) at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has dedicated his life to saving this critically endangered species – and believes the best chance to achieve that now is through a captive breeding programme.

Extracted from foxgloves, digitalis was once used as a treatment for epilepsy. Could a side effect have triggered the artist’s “yellow period”?It was recently the 127th anniversary of the tragic death of Vincent van Gogh. His short life came to an untimely end two days after he shot himself in the chest; he had experienced mental health issues through much of his life. In the absence of a definitive diagnosis, speculation as to the true nature of his illness fills volumes.Although he came under the care of several doctors during his life time, knowledge of diseases of the mind was in its infancy in the late nineteenth century. As a result, many of the treatments used at the time would have been ineffective if not potentially dangerous. From our point of view, however, one drug that might have been given to Van Gogh is particularly interesting. Continue reading...

Even small planets could have long-lived magnetic fields, crucial for atmosphere and water, raising fresh possibilities in the hunt for new worldsThe moon’s magnetic field lasted at least a billion years longer than previously thought, researchers have revealed, shedding light on an enduring lunar mystery and expanding the possibilities in the hunt for habitable worlds beyond Earth.Nowadays, the moon has no global magnetic field, but that was not always the case; between 4.25bn and 3.56bn years ago, the lunar magnetic field was similar to that of the Earth. The field is thought to have been generated by the churning movement of fluids within the moon’s molten core – a sort of lunar dynamo. Continue reading...