My father, Arno Rabinowitz, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering educational psychologist and a widely admired mentor, counsellor and confidant. His existence was down to a confluence of luck: his mother, Tilly, was one of three siblings evacuated from eastern Europe in the early 1920s during the pogroms against Jews. These three were Ochberg Orphans", fortunate recipients of the philanthropy of another emigre, the industrialist Isaac Ochberg, who enabled Jewish orphans to emigrate to safety in South Africa.Arno was born in Johannesburg, to Tilly (nee Abrahams) and Danny Rabinowitz, a hotelier. He went to school at Highlands North in Johannesburg and later studied English and politics at the University of the Witwatersrand in the 1950s. There he was involved in clandestine anti-apartheid activities and was briefly a legal intern, in which capacity he saw Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo in court. Continue reading...

The altar stone, which we now know is from Scotland, may have been a gift or marker of political allianceFive thousand years after the first monument was created at Stonehenge, it continues to give up dramatic new secrets - such as the jaw-dropping" revelation earlier this year that its central stone had been transported more than 700km to Salisbury plain from the very north of Scotland.While it had been known for more than a century that the huge sarsens for which Stonehenge is best known come from more than 12 miles (20km) away and its bluestones" originated in Wales, the discovery that the altar stone, which sits right at its heart, was Scottish caused an archaeological sensation, capturing headlines around the world. Continue reading...

Scientists surprised to find so many animals unknown to science in Alto Mayo, a well-populated regionResearchers in the Alto Mayo region of north-west Peru have discovered 27 species that are new to science, including a rare amphibious mouse, a tree-climbing salamander and an unusual blob-headed fish". The 38-day survey recorded more than 2,000 species of wildlife and plants.The findings are particularly surprising given the region's high human population density, with significant pressures including deforestation and agriculture. Continue reading...

Prof Mark Pallen, Dr Aimee Parker, Prof Nick Loman and Prof Alan Walker take issue with an article that discussed the existence of a brain microbiome and its impact on diseasesContrary to what is implied in your article (The brain microbiome: could understanding it help prevent dementia?, 1 December), the weight of expert opinion in medical microbiology rejects the existence of a brain microbiome" in the sense of a resident microbial community in healthy human brains. While pathogenic microbes - such as Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, or fungal pathogens like Cryptococcus neoformans - can invade the brain and cause neurological symptoms, these are examples of infections, not evidence of a nativemicrobialcommunity.Similarly, cognitive benefits of vaccines can be explained by their role in preventing infections or modulating immune responses and inflammation, rather than any impact on a brain microbiome". Furthermore, the studies cited in the article have not undergone independent validation, nor do they provide any kind of consistent picture. This mirrors controversies around other supposed microbiomes - such as that of the placenta - which have failed to withstand independent scrutiny. Over a decade of research indicates that contamination, typically from laboratory reagents, is the most plausible explanation for such findings, particularly when even supposedly ultrapure water has been shown to harbour DNA signatures and culturable microbes. Continue reading...

One algorithm identified the five strongest notes in each drink more accurately than any one of a panel of expertsNotch up another win for artificial intelligence. Researchers have used the technology to predict the notes that waft off whisky and determine whether a dram was made in the US or Scotland.The work is a step towards automated systems that can predict the complex aroma of whisky from its molecular makeup. Expert panels usually assess woody, smoky, buttery or caramel aromas, which can help to ensure they don't vary substantially between batches of the same product. Continue reading...

Scientists race to discover new species before destruction of natural world drives them to extinctionFrom a toadstool with teeth to a vine smelling of marzipan and a flower that has cheated its way out of having to photosynthesise, a weird and wonderful host of new plant and fungus species have been discovered in 2024.Other plants given scientific names for the first time include beautiful new orchids, a ghostly palm and a hairy plant that appears to have stolen a gene from an unrelated family. The species are among the 172 new plants and fungi named by scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and their partners. Continue reading...

Dr Chris van Tulleken has been at the forefront of the campaign to change our food system and better regulate the sale of ultra-processed foods (UPF). This year he will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, Britain's most prestigious public science lectures, in which he'll be investigating how food has fundamentally shaped human evolution, the importance of our microbiome - as the extra organ' we didn't know we had - and how we can all eat better in future, for the sake of our own health and the health of the planet.Nicola Davis sat down with Van Tulleken to discuss the lectures, the challenge of understanding the impact of UPFs on our health, and his top tip for Christmas dinner. Madeleine Finlay hears from them both in this Christmas special edition of Science WeeklyClips: Sky News Continue reading...

Paper published in International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents in 2020 withdrawn by Dutch publisher ElsevierA controversial study that promoted hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a treatment for Covid-19 has officially been withdrawn.On Tuesday, Elsevier, a Dutch academic publishing company which owns the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, issued the retraction of the March 2020 study, saying concerns have been raised regarding this article, the substance of which relate to the articles' adherence to Elsevier's publishing ethics policies and the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants". Continue reading...

Return pushed back to late March, stretching mission that was supposed to last eight days to more than nine monthsThe two Nasa astronauts who have been stuck in space since June because of technical issues will have to remain at the International Space Station even longer - stretching a mission that was originally supposed to last only eight days to more than nine months.On Tuesday, Nasa announced that its astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with Russia's cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will return to Earth following the arrival of Crew-10 next year. Originally scheduled for a February launch, the space agency has pushed back the Crew-10 mission's launch date to no earlier than late March of 2025. Continue reading...

Jaw found in Scotchtown, Orange county, is latest notable discovery from ice age-era animal in the regionA New York state resident has found a complete mastodon jaw just below the surface of their lawn, after spotting two large teeth protruding from the ground.Mastodons roamed the US north-east during the Pleistocene epoch, and there have been several notable mastodon discoveries in the region, including a complete 13,000-year-old skeleton in Hyde Park, New York, in 2000. Continue reading...

Study finds 9,000-year-old remains in Americas hold genomes of bacteria family that causes diseaseAfter the French king Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494, an unknown and disfiguring disease erupted in the army camps and duly spread across Europe when the men returned to their homelands the following year.The epidemic is regarded as the first historical account of syphilis, but where the disease came from has been debated by scholars ever since. One camp believes it emerged in the Americas, and was brought to Europe by Columbus in 1493. Another suspects it was lurking in Europe before the explorer set sail. Continue reading...

At HMP Grendon, psychology professionals aim to re-child' a group of Britain's most serious offenders in relatively relaxed conditions. Does the treatment work?As you go through the gates of Grendon prison in Buckinghamshire, past the raised garden - whose intricacy is still discernible in November - towards the main block, there's a foundation stone laid by Rab Butler from when building commenced in 1960. As home secretary, he wanted two things: to improve understanding of crime, and its treatment," Simon Shepherd, head of the Butler Trust, a charity celebrating exemplary work by prison staff, tells me. So he got the funding for the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. And he also got the funding for Grendon, the world's first dedicated psychotherapeutic prison."The idea, radical in the 60s, and still radical when it's applied to criminals, is that you re-child people, re-educate them. Childhood is where you learn the skills to manage life. If you have a personality disorder, that is essentially because you didn't get those skills in childhood. So you put somebody into a really intensive environment where they learn how to manage themselves and deal with people," Shepherd says. The NHS reports that 60 to 70% of prisoners in the UK have a personality disorder; I've heard numerous forensic professionals put the figure as high as 80%. Continue reading...

After success in Tanzania, other African countries may introduce the rodents to help sniff out the diseaseMwajuma Abdalla Ngema went to the clinic in Dar es Salaam with a persistent cough and intense pain around her ribs. The mother of two was tested for tuberculosis (TB) but the result came back negative. I was given some medication to manage the cough but the pain was unbearable," says Ngema, who went home feeling frustrated at the lack of clarity over her health.A few days later, Ngema was called back to Mbagala Kizuiani clinic - she had subsequently tested positive. She was relieved to finally have a diagnosis: I am currently on medication and on the road to recovery." Continue reading...

For the past 10 years cosmologists have been left scratching their heads over why two methods for measuring the universe's rate of expansion provide totally different results. There are two possible solutions to the puzzle, known as the Hubble tension: either something is wrong with the measurements or something is wrong with our model of the universe. It was hoped that observations from the James Webb space telescope might shed some light on the problem, but instead results published last week have continued to muddy the waters. To understand why the expansion rate of the universe remains a mystery, and what might be needed to finally pin it down, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Catherine Heymans, the astronomer royal for Scotland and a professor of astrophysics at the University of EdinburghThe Hubble constant: a mystery that keeps getting biggerSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Academics agree that by protecting robotic vehicles and landing sites we will help archaeologists of the futureJust as the outline of an iron-age hut or remains of a Roman sword cause excitement today, archaeologists of the future could be brushing Martian dust off metal and marvelling at one of Nasa's rovers.Researchers have said that such instruments, as well as other forms of human activity on Mars, including landing sites and debris, must be preserved as part of the archaeological record of space exploration. Continue reading...

UK not part of Iris2 project described as a significant step towards Europe's sovereignty and secure connectivity'The EU has launched an ambitious 10bn (8.3bn) space programme with a constellation of 290 satellites to rival Elon Musk's Starlink, further widening the post-Brexit security gap with the UK.The constellation is intended to ensure the bloc's security for governments and armies amid increasing global concerns over cybersecurity. Continue reading...

Scientists explain why the music of Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga and Wicked sticks in our minds - and the best ways to ditch an unshakeable tuneSomething has changed within me - and it's really bloody annoying!Ever since Wicked stormed the global box office last month, many people have been holding space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity - which is to say, unable to get them out of their head. Continue reading...

US company Viatris has applied for a UK trademark for wafer-like film that dissolves in the mouthIt is a little blue pill that has transformed male health and the sex lives of millions.But while Viagra's success has made the erectile dysfunction drug famous, a less conspicuous form could soon become available. Continue reading...

The former Friends star criticised the film which makes extensive use of an AI-driven tool called Metaphysic Live to de-age and face-swap actorsTom Hanks' new film Here has been criticised as an endorsement for AI" by former Friends star Lisa Kudrow.Kudrow was discussing the implications of ageing with host Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast and pointed to Here as the harbinger of crisis for the film industry. Continue reading...

Peak of activity will be on 22 December and early risers should definitely look upAnother week, another meteor shower. Last week it was the highly reliable Geminids meteor shower, this week it is the lesser shower known as the Ursids. Whereas the Geminids were disrupted by the presence of a full moon, the Ursids will appear in a largely dark sky. Only after midnight will the moon, now progressed to its last quarter phase, appear above the horizon.The Ursids themselves will potentially be visible from the moment darkness falls in the northern hemisphere, since their radiant is located in the constellation of Ursa Minor, near to the north celestial pole. Continue reading...

Oxford analysis shows evidence of bloody massacre, with hand and feet bones chewed by human molarsA collection of human bones discovered 50 years ago in a Somerset pit are evidence of the bloodiest known massacre in British prehistory - and of bronze age cannibalism, archaeologists say.At least 37 men, women and children were killed at some point between 2200BC and 2000BC, with their bodies thrown into a deep natural shaft at Charterhouse Warren, near Cheddar Gorge. Continue reading...

Experts express fear - and resilience - as they prepare for president-elect's potential attacks on climate researchAs the world's largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trump presidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting drew a record 31,000 attendees this year for the unveiling of a slew of new research on everything from seismology to climate science to heliospheric physics, alongside a sprawling trade show and bouts of networking as scientists jostle to advance their work. Continue reading...

A professor of statistics explains that living is about taking risks and not knowing the outcome, and why it's important to accept and embrace thatMy father was an enthusiastic traveller, but as he got older he increasingly suffered from what he called travel fever", a vivid term for the acute anxiety felt before a journey, essentially due to uncertainty about all the things that could go wrong. Sadly, this eventually stopped him from going on holiday. Then I, too, started to suffer similar apprehension, so I consulted a psychotherapist. She recommended a small piece of cognitive behavioural therapy, which involved acknowledging the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety, but telling myself that these were essentially indistinguishable from feelings of excitement about the prospect of a journey. This reframing of my feelings has been reasonably effective - it's one way of dealing with uncertainty.It's not just the uncertainty of travel that we all have to face. None of us knows what is going to happen, or what is currently going on outside our immediate knowledge, or the vast majority of what has happened in the past. Uncertainty has been called the conscious awareness of ignorance", and there is a lot we are ignorant about. Continue reading...

Lines for pastries, phones, even paying respects have become famous. What is it that draws people to spend their scarce, precious time in queues?

Life-saving surgery in Greg Scott's youth instilled determination to find more effective EEG diagnosisAs a student, the neurologist Greg Scott had very little interest in following a career in medicine. Computing was the focus of his studies.Then one day he suffered a grand mal seizure. Also called a tonic-clonic seizure, it causes a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions. Continue reading...

The Southern Sky Astrophotography 2024 exhibition displays the top entries from the 20th David Malin awards for Australian astronomers and photographers. The images are on display at the Sydney observatory until 1 February Continue reading...

Head north, avoid light pollution and seek out high ground - how to plan to see the northern lightsThe northern lights lit up the skies across the UK and Europe several times this year, and experts are predicting 2025 will be a great year for spotting the often elusive light show.The dazzling natural phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, has been particularly active in late 2024 and this will continue into next year. Continue reading...

Nyxoah's Genio device zaps the nerves in the tongue to help sufferers breathe better overnightPatients with a common sleep disorder have been fitted with an app-controlled device that zaps the nerves in the tongue to help them breathe overnight in a UK first.Sleep apnoea causes breathing to stop repeatedly during sleep and is thought to affect about 8 million people in the UK. Continue reading...

Amazing flurry of activity' possible in 2024's largest meteor shower with peak visibility across the country early on Saturday

Experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could put humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infectionsWorld-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create mirror life" microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an unprecedented risk" to life on Earth.The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections. Continue reading...

As a study reveals that England has fourth-fastest growth rate globally, we outline some of the issues that increase riskRates of bowel cancer in young people are rising more sharply in England than in many other countries around the world, a study has found. Experts are still in the early stages of understanding the reasons behind the rise but here we look at some of the factors that could be contributing. Continue reading...

As a UK report finds women with reproductive conditions have faced poor care due to medical misogyny', people share their sufferingWomen and girls in the UK with gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and adenomyosis have spent years in pain due to medical misogyny", according to a parliamentary report.The women and equalities committee report found that women with reproductive conditions faced inadequate care due to a pervasive stigma" and symptoms being normalised" by healthcare professionals. Continue reading...

On Monday Google unveiled its Willow quantum computing chip. The new chip takes just five minutes to complete tasks that would take 10 septillion years for some of the world's fastest conventional computers to complete. But despite its impressive power, it's not clear the chip has any practical applications. So does it bring quantum computing any closer? To find out Ian Sample speaks to Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex.Because of industrial action taking place by members of the National Union of Journalists at the Guardian and Observer this week, you may notice some disruption to the availability of new episodes in your Guardian podcast feeds in the coming days. All the work on this episode was done before the strike action began. For more information please head to theguardian.comGoogle unveils mindboggling' quantum computing chipSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Cochlear implantation is controversial in ways that parallel medical situations - such as artificial limbs and cornea transplants - are not. Why does this issue provoke such fierce debate?

Study suggests rate of disease among young adults is rising for first time and England has one of the fastest increasesThe number of under-50s being diagnosed with bowel cancer is increasing worldwide, according to research that also reveals rates are rising faster in England than almost any other country.For the first time, global data suggests doctors are seeing more young adults develop early-onset bowel cancer, from Europe and North America to Asia and Oceania. Continue reading...

UK's AI research body's ability to be a serious scientific organisation' is in danger, 90 staff tell trusteesStaff at the UK's national institute for artificial intelligence have warned that its credibility is in serious jeopardy" and raised doubts over the organisation's future amid senior departures and a cost-cutting programme.More than 90 staff at the government-backed Alan Turing Institute have written to its board of trustees expressing concerns about its leadership. Continue reading...

Researchers find that varying stiffness and speeds at which skin grows lead to mechanical' formation of inward foldsIt sounds like a conundrum that Rudyard Kipling would have explored in his Just So Stories, but researchers say they have the answer to how crocodiles get the scales on their heads.Many animals, from turtles to birds, have scales - hard plate-like structures that form on the skin. Continue reading...

As Apple Intelligence rollout continues, linguists say tools to rewrite texts and emails can miss nuance and characterIs that you? Or is it the bot? Linguists have said the nuance and character of human language is at risk, as Apple becomes the latest tech firm to launch artificial intelligence tools that can rewrite texts and emails to make users sound more friendly or professional.The ability to lighten a grumpy missive or turn arcane language into something a five-year-old could understand is promised from the new technology, which will be available on UK iPhones, iPads and Macs from Wednesday. Continue reading...

Company and investors to buy up to $1.25bn of stock at $185 a share, up from $112 a few months ago

The technology, which enables a gene to spread itself through a population, might prove a significant tool for disease preventionMosquitoes carry some of the world's deadliest diseases, including malaria, yellow fever and dengue. But challenging geography, conflict, budgets and insecticide resistance are among the issues hampering efforts to fight them.With global malaria cases continuing to rise and the climate crisis hastening the spread of virus-carrying mosquitoes into more countries, scientists are searching for low-cost, equitable ways to stop them transmitting disease. Continue reading...

The disease killed 600,000 people amid 263m cases globally in 2023, says WHO, calling for nations to address funding shortfallMalaria killed almost 600,000 people in 2023, as cases rose for the fifth consecutive year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).Biological threats such as rising resistance to drugs and insecticides, and climate and humanitarian disasters continue to hamper control efforts, world health leaders warned. Continue reading...

UN health body says patients could have more than one disease as unidentified illness continues to cause alarmTen patients suffering from a mystery disease that has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have tested positive for malaria, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.However, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the patients could have more than one disease simultaneously. Continue reading...

I tried Sora, OpenAI's new tool, and it just left me sad. Are we ready for a world in which we can never tell what is real?I recently had the opportunity to see a demo of Sora, OpenAI's video generation tool which was released in the US on Monday, and it was so impressive it made me worried for the future. The new technology works like an AI text or image generator: write a prompt, and it produces a short video clip. In the pre-launch demo I was shown, an OpenAI representative asked the tool to create footage of a tree frog in the Amazon, in the style of a nature documentary. The result was uncannily realistic, with aerial camera shots swooping down on to the rainforest, before settling on a closeup of the frog. The animal looked as vivid and real as any nature documentary subject.Yet despite the technological feat, as I watched the tree frog I felt less amazed than sad. It certainly looked the part, but we all knew that what we were seeing wasn't real. The tree frog, the branch it clung to, the rainforest it lived in: none of these things existed, and they never had. The scene, although visually impressive, was hollow.Victoria Turk is a London-based journalist covering technology, culture and society Continue reading...

Elsevier investigates journals by scientist who created discredited rankings of countries' intelligenceA leading academic publisher is reviewing its decision to publish research papers by the late British professor Richard Lynn, an influential figure in the discredited field of race science" who argued western civilisation was threatened by genetically inferior ethnic groups.Elsevier provides access to more than 100 papers by Lynn, including several iterations of his national IQ" dataset, which purports to show wide variations in IQ between different countries but which has been criticised by mainstream scientists for serious flaws in its methodology. Continue reading...

Filter performs well in removing plastic pollution from water and Chinese researchers say it appears to be scalableA sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.Just as importantly, the filter's production appears to be scalable, the University of Wuhan study authors said in the paper, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science Advances. That would address a problem that has stymied the use of previous microplastic filtration systems that were successful in controlled settings, but could not be scaled up. Continue reading...

A look at wrath, gluttony and the rest from a medical perspective offers valuable insights - but is disease a good guide to normal functioning?From Adam has sprung one mass of sinners and godless men," wrote St Augustine, arguably the key architect of the Christian doctrine of original sin. The notion that babies are born with this indelible stain, the residue of Adam's fall in Eden, can seem one of the most pernicious features of Christian dogma. But as Guy Leschziner argues in Seven Deadly Sins, we could interpret Augustine's austere judgment as an acknowledgment that we are inherently inclined to do things we shouldn't. The catalogue of seven direst vices first adduced by Tertullian and immortalised in Dante's Divine Comedy - pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth - may seem arbitrary, but we can all recognise aspects of them in ourselves.Leschziner, a consultant neurologist at Guy's Hospital in London, explores the physiological and psychological roots of these failings" and argues that, in mild degree, all might be considered not just universal but necessary human attributes. The goal, he implies, is not to renounce them but to align our natural impulses with the demands of living healthily and productively in society. Seven Deadly Sins takes the case-study format pioneered by Oliver Sacks in using dysfunction to explore the neurological origins of behaviour. It is a profoundly humane book, occasionally compromised by excessive clinical detail and perhaps more so by its lack of wider context. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay speaks to Sophie Scott, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, to dig into the science of laughter. Sophie explains what exactly laughter is, the many different purposes it serves for humans and animals, and how prioritising it could make us all feel a little betterSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Research shows walk or cycle improves cognitive performance for day ahead - and day afterFor cycle-to-work commuters and those who start the day with a brisk walk, the benefits of banking some early exercise is well understood.Now scientists believe activity is not just a good idea for improving the day ahead - physical activity could be associated with small increase in memory scores the next, too. Continue reading...

The solution to today's puzzleEarlier today I set you the following puzzle, which I read in the new Sally Rooney novel, Intermezzo. Here it is again with the solution.A liar who always lies says All my hats are green." Continue reading...

Literary logicUPDATE: Read the solution hereMidway though the new Sally Rooney novel, Intermezzo, two of the characters discuss a puzzle about hats. I thought it would make a perfect puzzle for this column, so here it is.A liar who always lies says All my hats are green." Continue reading...