Site unearthed on land awaiting construction of housing complex is labelled an ‘exceptional find’ by culture ministryA “little Pompeii” is how French archaeologists are describing an entire ancient Roman neighbourhood uncovered on the outskirts of the southeastern city of Vienne, featuring remarkably preserved remains of luxury homes and public buildings.

Study focuses on mechanism that controls ability to coordinate feeding with burning energy and fasting with storing itObese people aren’t able to regulate the way body fat is stored or burned because a “switch” in their brain stays on all the time, a new study by Australian researchers has shown.Specialised fat cells called adipocytes are switched back and forth from brown cells, which are energy burning, to white, which store energy. Continue reading...

Suzanne Moore states that the average man ‘produces 14 gallons of ejaculate in a lifetime’. That can’t be right, argues Andrew BarnardIn her article (Making babies is beginning to look as difficult for men as it always has for women, 27 July), Suzanne Moore states that the average man “produces 14 gallons of ejaculate in a lifetime”. One doesn’t have to be Einstein to work out that 14 gallons of semen would require 12,740 ejaculations of five millilitres volume (the oft-quoted average). This would mean an average of just over four ejaculations per week, every week for a 60-year period (or five per week over 50 years, etc), say from early teens to early seventies. This seems unlikely. Perhaps Ms Moore is confusing gallons with litres – 14 litres produces rather more believable averages. I think that some proper checking of journalists’ figures is required.

Ninety per cent of Britons think of their pet as part of the family – 16% even included them on the last census. But recent research into animals’ emotional lives has cast doubt on the ethics of petkeepingIt was a Tupperware tub of live baby rats that made Dr Jessica Pierce start to question the idea of pet ownership. She was at her local branch of PetSmart, a pet store chain in the US, buying crickets for her daughter’s gecko. The baby rats, squeaking in their plastic container, were brought in by a man she believed was offering to sell them to the store as pets or as food for the resident snakes. She didn’t ask. But Pierce, a bioethicist, was troubled.“Rats have a sense of empathy and there has been a lot of research on what happens when you take babies away from a mother rat – not surprisingly, they experience profound distress,” she says. “It was a slap in the face – how can we do this to animals?” Continue reading...

Media and political attention is being wasted on boosting the public’s notion of scientific consensus, crowding out more important discussion and actionIn a democracy, we hope that science helps to inform the public about its problems. In the case of climate change, believe it or not, the evidence suggests this is going relatively well.Climate science is a vast, sprawling field of knowledge that has achieved great success in occupying the public consciousness. According to Yale University’s Climate Change in the American Mind project, six in ten Americans are worried about global warming, seven in ten think global warming is happening and eight in ten think humans have the ability to reduce global warming. These figures have fluctuated very little since 2012, suggesting that the US public is relatively well informed about the risk, reality and policy potential of climate change, even in the face of well-documented attacks by climate sceptics. Continue reading...

Archaeologists have unearthed two-metre high, centuries-old object during an excavation of an ancient hospitalArchaeologists have unearthed a large, centuries-old statue that is believed to have once stood guard over an ancient hospital at Cambodia’s famed Angkor temple complex.

11.8 million adults in England are eligible to be offered cholesterol-lowering drugs, say researchers who examined 2014 guidance on statins set out by NiceAlmost all men over 60 and women over 75 should be eligible for statins, according to a new analysis.After examining guidance on which patients should be offered statin therapy, researchers calculated 11.8 million English adults are eligible for the cholesterol-lowering drugs. Continue reading...

The government must take the lead on ensuring that terms of employment do not deter women who wish to breastfeed and social attitudes must also improve, write Neena Modi and 17 other signatoriesThe evidence that breastfeeding has long-lasting benefits for infant and mother is clear. Further, though some women are unable to breastfeed and some choose not to, with the right support, the vast majority of women are able to breastfeed successfully.So why is it that over 73% of mothers in England initiate breastfeeding but by six to eight weeks this figure has dropped to just 43%? To give this some perspective, in Norway the figure at six months is 71%. Continue reading...

Report by commission led by Chris Christie lays out stark depiction of addiction crisis and calls for ‘bold action’ to combat harmful effectsPresident Trump is being urged to declare a federal state of emergency to address the epidemic of opioid overdoses that is claiming as many American lives as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 every three weeks.Related: Route to recovery: how people overcome an opioid addiction Continue reading...

John Sotos, chief medical officer at Intel, paints a dark picture of technology turned to nefarious purposes, with tailored diseases rewriting genomes on the flySplitting the atom brought humanity nuclear power and nuclear weapons. A cure for cancer could have the same potential for pushing humanity to new highs – or terrifying lows. According to John Sotos, the chief medical officer of Intel, the same technology that might someday allow us to defeat illness for good also poses the prospect of tailored diseases attacking individuals, families or even whole races and rewriting their genomes on the fly.Sotos made his remarks at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas, a place where hackers gather to share tips and tricks for how to break into almost anything with a circuit board. But during a weekend when attacks were demonstrated against wind farms, voting machines and almost every major smartphone in one fell swoop, Sotos’ nightmare scenario still stood out as plausible and terrifying. Continue reading...

The idea that patients should stop taking antibiotics ‘when they feel better’ is too subjective, say representatives of the British Society for Antimicrobial ChemotherapyWe welcome the debate sparked by your article (Keep taking the tablets? Antibiotics rule could be wrong, 27 July). The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) is keen to safely reduce the overall use of antibiotics, given that “overuse” is helping to drive the alarming rise in so-called superbugs.We, like others, suspect that a significant number of antibiotics are being prescribed for longer than is necessary. However, the idea that patients should stop taking antibiotics “when they feel better” is too subjective and risks treatment failure or relapse. Most patients simply will not know if the cause of their infection has been eradicated – or not. Two things need to happen urgently: research to identify (1) all those infections that do not need to be treated with antibiotics, and (2) the most effective length of treatment for those infections that do. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today in my puzzle blog I asked the following problems about planting trees on an island:(For the purposes of this puzzle the island is empty apart from the trees, and a tree is hidden only when it lies directly behind another tree from the perspective of the observer). Continue reading...

The record for the longest word spoken in parliament has been broken with pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – but there are plenty of alternativesIs this the first sign of Moggmentum draining away? We can but hope. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the MP for North East Somerset and the 18th century, has been knocked off his perch as utterer of parliament’s longest word. Michael Bryan’s use of “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” in a select committee meeting means floccinaucinihilipilification’s reign – it has been a mere five years since Rees-Mogg said it during a Commons debate – is over. Whether Bryan will follow through on this promising start by naming his future children after numbers is yet to be seen. He’s only 16, which means there’s plenty of time for a course correction if the position of National Fogey loses its appeal. In the meantime, here are five words you can slip into conversation if you want to put in a bid yourself. Continue reading...

A puzzle about planting treesUPDATE: You can read the solution here.Hello guzzlers,Your mission today is to design an arrangement of trees on a desert island, like the one below. Continue reading...

Researchers find fourfold increase in diagnosis rate when testing carried out as part of surgeries’ registration health checkOffering routine HIV tests to people when they register with new GP surgeries in high-risk areas is cost-effective and could save lives, a study has shown.The researchers are calling for HIV screening to be introduced in all 74 local authorities in England with high rates of infection with the virus. Continue reading...

These are the steps to follow if you make a museum-worthy discovery – like the nine-year old who uncovered a 1.2m-year-old animal skull in New MexicoWhen so many relics are stumbled on by accident, it is a wonder that specialists still bother digging around in books, rather than just going for a wander. Indeed, New Mexico State University recently revealed that it received a call last year from the parents of nine-year-old Jude Sparks, who had literally stumbled over a 1.2m-year-old fossil. Sparks was out walking with his family in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when he tripped over something jutting out from the earth. He thought it was the skull of a “big fat rotten cow”, but biologist Prof Peter Haude determined that it belonged to a Stegomastodon – a distant relative of the elephant, and similar to a mastodon. The university estimates that the process to study and reconstruct the skull, jaw and tusks will take several years to complete.If Jude’s story has inspired you, you might want to follow these tips provided to the Guardian by Prof Paul Barrett, president of the Palaeontographical Society and a researcher at the Natural History Museum. “Finding fossils is a mixture of pure chance and careful planning,” says Barrett. “It takes a keen eye and lots of looking at the ground to see those that erosion has started to uncover.” Continue reading...

Our anti-ageing quest only increases anxiety, says Matt Haig. Instead, we need to understand the tricks of timeAs a culture, we are obsessed with ageing. We have always been obsessed but now, paradoxically, in an era where we live longer than ever, we fear it more than ever before too. There is, of course, a whole industry devoted to capitalising on our fears of the natural ageing process and it’s a lucrative one. In fact, the anti-ageing industry, which is the largest part of the beauty industry, is now worth more than $200 billion a year.Our perfectly understandable worries about time and mortality are being capitalised on, and exploited. Every advert that encourages us to look young is confirming the same thing: we need to fear growing old. And yet no anti-wrinkle eye cream in the world is going to stop us from getting old. The anti-ageing industry is a marketer’s dream because it is an industry offering continual solutions for something that isn’t ever really solved. Ageing. Continue reading...

In theory being married is better for than you than being single, but there’s a twist…Is your marriage healthy? Many studies have found that married people are healthier than unmarried ones, and the longer you have been married, the healthier you are. But it depends on gender and age. To find out for yourself, answer these questions:1. When were you born?

They can’t help being born at a lucky timeNick Cohen tars all “baby boomer” pensioners with the same brush (“Must growing old mean becoming poorer and lonelier?”, Comment). As a baby boomer pensioner, I think this is very unfair.We are certainly comparatively well off; undoubtedly we benefited from various housing booms and now benefit from our protected pensions. However, some of us feel guilty enough about this without being accused of “selfish idiocy” over the costs of Brexit, which we certainly did not vote for and are very angry and sad about. Continue reading...

News last week that sperm counts in western men have halved confirmed what experts already knew. The real problem is that no one knows whyThe topic has become the mainstay of dystopian science fiction. Our world is afflicted by widespread infertility and childless civilisations are left hovering on the brink of collapse. Children of Men and The Handmaid’s Tale provide perfect examples of these unsettling narratives.Yet the scenarios outlined in these books and dramatisations may be less fanciful than is first supposed. Indeed, reaction to a study of male infertility, published last week, suggests we may already be hurtling towards such a fate. Continue reading...

She was the only woman to have won the Fields medal, maths’ equivalent of the Nobel prizeThe mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani died two weeks ago. She was 40. I had never heard of her before reading about her death in the papers. It’s a piercingly sad story: Iranian-born, and latterly a professor at Stanford University, Mirzakhani was the only woman to have won the Fields medal, the equivalent for a mathematician of the Nobel prize, and is survived, in newspaper-speak, by a husband and a daughter.I always find the locution “survived by” too cruel to bear. So final the rupture, no room for error: she’s gone, they’re left. And, in this case, how young the mother and the wife. Continue reading...

The ‘sprites’ – 3.5cm x 3.5cm miniature satellites weighing four grams each – are successfully in orbit and communicating with systems back on EarthThe smallest spacecraft ever launched are successfully travelling in low Earth orbit and communicating with systems on Earth, scientists have announced.Known as “Sprites”, the miniature satellites are just 3.5cm x 3.5cm and carry radios, sensors and computers, with each device powered by sunlight and weighing just four grams. Continue reading...

Artefact, made in 698, is regarded as most important wooden object surviving in England from before Norman conquestAs the light picked out every detail of the angels and saints, and the runic and Latin inscriptions carved into the oak coffin of a man who died more than 1,300 years ago, the dean of Durham Cathedral struggled to find an appropriately reverent word. “Wow,” Andrew Tremlett finally said. “Wow.”Janina Ramirez, a historian, was also seeing for the first time the cathedral’s new display of the coffin of St Cuthbert. She said she had been unable to sleep from excitement the night before. “This is the Tutankhamun’s tomb of the north-east,” she said, “a window into a time in history which some people call the dark ages.” Continue reading...

Is it okay to speculatively diagnose public figures like Trump? No, says the Goldwater rule – and recent challenges to it could set worrying precedentsThis week the Goldwater rule has come into focus – the convention that psychologists should not give an opinion about the mental state of a person they have not examined. Recently, the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) emailed its members to remind them that they as individual practitioners are not bound by the Goldwater rule (which is a rule of the American Psychiatric Association, APA), and that they should feel free to offer fact-based but non-specific assessments of public figures - figures like Donald Trump.

Proving that Joni Mitchell is one of the greatest astrophysicists of our time (followed closely by Moby, obviously,) simulations have revealed that up to half the material in our home galaxy – and by extension in our bodies – arrived from smaller galactic neighbours, as a result of powerful supernova explosions. Add to this the news that the moon is wetter than we thought, which raises new possibilities for lunar exploration, and frankly, I’m starting to feel positively intergalactic. Back here on Earth, however, the picture is a mixture of optimism and concern. On the one hand, an extremely exciting piece of research (described as a “tour de force” by one expert, so there you go) has shown that the hypothalamus controls ageing, and that implanting stem cell from it into the brains of mice slowed their rate of ageing and kept them mentally and physically fit for longer. They’re hoping to conduct human trials soon. So far so life-affirming, but on the other hand we have the rather worrying news that sperm counts among western men have halved in last 40 years. Nobody seems to know why, and it appears that this is partly because men’s reproductive health is a rather neglected area. Researchers have also found a strong association between consuming higher levels of sugar and depression in men (a link not seen in women). Looks like we need to start paying better attention to men’s health – mental and physical – or all that extra old age spent bouncing around our moon colony is going to be no fun at all. Continue reading...

Drinking a moderate amount of certain drinks such as wine three to four times a week reduced diabetes risk by about 30%Regularly drinking a moderate amount of certain alcoholic drinks could reduce a person’s chances of developing diabetes, according to a study.Consuming alcohol three or four days a week was associated with a reduced risk of developing diabetes – a 27% reduction in men and a 32% reduction in women – compared with abstaining, scientists found. Continue reading...

Evidence that finishing the course may fuel bacterial resistance will test our relationship with experts – and perhaps begin the healing process

When knowledge advances, so should the advice doctors giveThe idea that we have a moral duty to complete any course of antibiotics that the doctor prescribes is intuitively comforting. Following the course to the end appears as an act of solidarity against the genuinely terrible threat of widespread antibiotic resistance, something that could make medicine as we know it impossibly dangerous. Following the doctor’s orders allows us to be mildly uncomfortable in pursuit of collective good. So it is rather shocking when the British Medical Journal reports that the instruction is mistaken and indeed counterproductive. We should not only take antibiotics less often; we should take them for much less time.Nonetheless, the argument of the BMJ paper is very strong. It starts from history. At the beginning of the antibiotic era, the danger to patients came from insufficient dosage, not from too much. The very first patient ever treated with penicillin died after supplies ran out, even when they were recycled from what he had already consumed. Sir Alexander Fleming himself believed that antibiotic resistance would be stimulated by inadequate courses of antibiotics. In any case, there are compelling legal and social reasons why doctors are more worried about being accused of doing too little than too much. Continue reading...

Impressed by the sticky and elastic properties of slug mucus, researchers have developed tough, flexible glues that can even work on bloody, moving tissueIf there are two words in the English language likely to trigger a curl of the lip, “slug mucus” would be towards the top of the list. But while the molluscs and their slimy secretions are the bane of the green-fingered, it seems they have triggered a moment of inspiration in the laboratory.

My mother, Marion Macleod, who has died aged 86, was an academic microbiologist and medical sociologist. She was also a fine example of the benefits of the postwar policy of opening up higher education to bright students from all backgrounds.Marion was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Roland Fairman, a coach painter, and his wife, Rhoda (nee Finch), a cleaner. The family lived in a shared terraced house with no bathroom and an outside toilet. Evacuated at the outbreak of the second world war, Marion was sent first to Berwick-upon-Tweed and then to Shap in Cumberland (now Cumbria). On returning to Newcastle, economic pressure forced her to leave school and start work aged 16, as a technician in a bacteriology laboratory at Newcastle University. She continued her school studies at evening class and won a university scholarship. Continue reading...

When great whales are dying in numbers not seen since hunting’s heyday, naming the Natural History Museum’s new exhibit Hope seems a forlorn gesture

Researchers say they have found a strong association between consuming higher levels of sugar and depression in men – a link not mirrored in womenMen who consume a lot of added sugar in drinks, cakes and confectionery run an increased risk of depression, according to a new study.Researchers from University College London (UCL) looked at sugar in the diet and common mental health problems in a very large cohort of 5,000 men and 2,000 women recruited for the Whitehall II study in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Patagonia’s icefields, Australia’s changing tides, and volcanic activity in Alaska are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthAlaska’s remote Bogoslof Island volcano erupted in a series of explosions starting in December 2016, triggering the highest aviation alert as it shot ash plumes at least 35,000ft into the atmosphere. By monitoring the volcano via satellite and seismologic data, scientists can provide a warning of when further eruptions could pose a risk to aircraft. This image shows just a small puff of smoke rising from the volcano, while a sediment plume drifts towards the top left of the image, turning the Bering Sea a bright blue-green. Continue reading...

MS Society says there is sufficient evidence of drug’s effectiveness to relax ban for patients with no other optionsTen thousand people with multiple sclerosis in the UK should be allowed to use cannabis legally in order to relieve their “relentless and exhausting” symptoms, experts in the disease have told ministers.The MS Society claims the one in 10 sufferers of the condition whose pain and spasticity cannot be treated by medication available on the NHS should be able to take the drug without fear of prosecution. Continue reading...

Simulations reveal that up to half the material in our galaxy arrived from smaller galactic neighbours, as a result of powerful supernova explosionsNearly half of the atoms that make up our bodies may have formed beyond the Milky Way and travelled to the solar system on intergalactic winds driven by giant exploding stars, astronomers claim.The dramatic conclusion emerges from computer simulations that reveal how galaxies grow over aeons by absorbing huge amounts of material that is blasted out of neighbouring galaxies when stars explode at the end of their lives. Continue reading...

Experts suggest patients should stop taking the drugs when they feel better rather than completing their prescriptionTelling patients to stop taking antibiotics when they feel better may be preferable to instructing them to finish the course, according to a group of experts who argue that the rule long embedded in the minds of doctors and the public is wrong and should be overturned.Patients have traditionally been told that they must complete courses of antibiotics, the theory being that taking too few tablets will allow the bacteria causing their disease to mutate and become resistant to the drug. Continue reading...

Michael Gove’s pledge to ban new petrol and diesel cars in 23 years is not enough to tackle health crisis now, say campaignersThe government’s new clean air plan has been branded inadequate by the leaders of eight heavily polluted cities, as campaigners said banning petrol and diesel cars from 2040 would not help the thousands dying each year from illnesses linked to toxic fumes.

Researchers hope to launch human trials as breakthrough shows hypothalamus controls ageing, with treated mice remaining fitter and living 10-15% longerScientists have slowed down the ageing process by implanting stem cells into the brains of animals, raising hopes for new strategies to combat age-related diseases and extend the human lifespan.Implants of stem cells that make fresh neurons in the brain were found to put the brakes on ageing in older mice, keeping them more physically and mentally fit for months, and extending their lives by 10-15% compared to untreated animals. Continue reading...

Pioneering paediatric radiologist and authority on the x-ray diagnosis of child abuseWhen Helen Carty was appointed in 1975 as a specialist in paediatric radiology at the Royal Liverpool Children’s hospital in Alder Hey, Merseyside, x-rays were just about the only tool available to diagnose many disorders in children. Helen, who has died aged 72, set about changing all that. She became a driving force in developing the full range of imaging technology, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and CT and MRI scanning that is now in use with children, and an important expert witness in cases of child abuse.Paediatric radiology, as with much of paediatrics, is about adapting what is known in adult practice. Helen had the vision to see how technology could be used and was especially forceful in making the case for such technology to be made as easily available for young patients as for adults. Thanks in part to her efforts, Alder Hey raised money to provide a CT scanner for children, and in 1995 to install one of the first dedicated MRI scanners for children in the UK. Continue reading...

The platinum-iridium cylinder used to standardise the kilogram is getting an upgrade – to a complicated process that involves the measuring of lightTime is running out for Hollywood to make its big metrology action thriller. In late 2019, the chance for a leathered-up Jeremy Irons to cut through several thick vaults in Paris suburb Sèvres and ransom the world’s kilogram will end.Kept under three bell jars and secured by three keys – only two of which are in France – few objects are as precious to our civilisation as the platinum-iridium cylinder made in 1889 to serve as a new global standard for weighing things. A kilo is a kilo because of this kilo, and it is so precious that it is only taken out once every 40 years – and then only so that replica kilos, kept in other locations, can be compared with it. Continue reading...

Dorfman, London

Ian Sample sits down with Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson to discuss the future of the workplace and the role artificial intelligence will play

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

New research reveals humans have identified as either cat or dog lovers since the stone age, but in fact, our pets are more closely related than you might thinkAre you a dog person, or a cat person? The question is often treated as dichotomous: if you appreciate the solidity of a steadfast pooch, you can’t also relish the coquettish companionship of a kitty. Recent studies suggest humankind could have been divided by their pet-preferences since the stone age. In evolutionary terms, however, the question is far from black and white. Cats and dogs belong together, related to one another by a common ancestor. They share this ancestry with a whole suite of other animals, large and small. One may as well ask: are you a badger person, or a hyaena-person? Do you prefer meerkats, or weasels?Our beloved pets belong to the order Carnivora. This group includes bears, hyaenas, mongooses, civets, skunks, badgers and more, as well as marine members, the seals, walruses, and sea-lions. The name of the group is a little misleading: not all meat-chomping mammals are part of Carnivora, and not all members of Carnivora feast on flesh.

The Milky Way, the Northern Lights and hurtling asteroids feature in the shortlist for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 14 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 16 September

Victorian-era weather alerts saved many mariners but a row over ‘useless’ Met Office forecasts halted warnings for two yearsStorm warnings are a vital part of the work of the Met Office based in the UK, but 150 years ago the very idea of such forecasts was highly controversial.In July 1867 William Sykes MP drew attention in the Commons to the fact that storm warnings had been suppressed, and called for them to be reinstated. Continue reading...

Signed and dated copy of the jovial 1951 image to go under the hammer on 27 July; previous copies have sold for almost $44,000Wild haired with a bushy moustache and his tongue sticking out, the photograph revealing Albert Einstein as something of a prankster is one of the most recognisable images of the physicist. Now a signed and dated copy is about to be auctioned.Snapped by United Press International photographer Arthur Sasse as Einstein departed in the back of car following his 72nd birthday celebrations in 1951, the image shot into the public consciousness after publishers overcame their initial qualms and printed the jovial image. Continue reading...

Researcher finds medieval understanding of male and female infertility was more evenhanded than thought - and discovers some interesting ‘cures’Boiled catnip taken on an empty stomach for three days could help, or a delicious goblet of dried ground pig testicles mixed with wine: a new study of medieval advice on male infertility – and recipes to remedy it – suggests people were far less ready to automatically lay blame on the woman than had been assumed.Catherine Rider, senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of Exeter and expert on medieval magic, medicine, religion and marriage, has studied popular texts in English from the period, as well as Latin texts aimed at the university-educated elite. She found a general understanding that male infertility could be responsible when a couple failed to produce a longed-for child. In the late 14th century John of Mirfield, who worked at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London and probably drew on much earlier texts, warned: “It should be noticed that when sterility happens between married people, the males are accused by many people of not having suitable seed.” Continue reading...