Iranian mathematician who was the first woman to win the Fields medalIn 2014 the Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, who has died aged 40 of cancer, was awarded the Fields medal, the discipline’s most celebrated prize. The 52 previous recipients had all been men. Maryam won it “for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces”.Surfaces are basic objects in mathematics, appearing in many guises. The surface of our planet is a sphere, but from local observations alone one cannot be sure of this: the Earth could be shaped like a bagel, for example, or a bagel with a few handles attached. A bagel-like surface is known in mathematics as a torus. Continue reading...

The disease is now the leading cause of death among the oldest people. Given focus and funding, however, Alzheimer’s will yield to science and reason

Rapid climate change is a unifying feature of ancient mass extinctions – how bad might it be now?At one level extinction normal and natural. Most of the diversity of life on Earth that has ever existed is now gone, and all species will one day pass from being extant to being extinct. But although it is normal for species to die out, the normal rate is considered to be quite low. On average perhaps just one or two species go extinct in any given year out of all of the bewildering diversity of beetles, mammals, plants, microbes, worms, fungi and fish. In short, a tiny percentage of the literally millions of species.The current rate of loss though, while naturally hard to measure (not least when we have perhaps only described around 20% of the species on Earth) is considered to be considerably higher. There is a growing list of species we know have gone extinct in the last century and plenty of others are critically endangered or already doomed to extinction (some species have no known breeding animals, or are known from populations of only males). Even though many species are still apparently flourishing they are at a fraction of their previous distribution and populations – there may be tens of thousands left in one forest, but if they formerly numbered in the millions and were much more widespread, then they are now clearly very vulnerable to an outbreak of disease or a single disaster like a flood or fire. Naturally then, there is huge concern about what is happening to these species and what it might mean in the future and scientists are keen to show how bad this may be and for people to respond.

Computer trained to determine what makes places beautiful could help design new towns and decide which areas should be protected, say researchersWordsworth found it in a host of daffodils; Nan Shepherd in the nooks of the Cairngorms. For Monet it popped up all over the place, from the windmills and canals of Amsterdam, to the sailing boats of Argenteuil.What lends a scene beauty has long been left to the poets and painters to define, but that may be about to change. In a new study, researchers trained a computer to tell scenic views from blots on the landscape. One day it could help with decisions over what land to protect, and how better to design new towns and cities, the scientists claim.

Since the early 19th century, artists have depicted colourful – if sometimes fictional – dinosaurs and prehistoric environments, mingling science with unbridled fantasy. This art is the subject of a new book: Paleoart Continue reading...

June 2017 was beaten only by June in 2015 and 2016, leaving experts with little hope for limiting warming to 1.5C or even 2CLast month was the third-hottest June on record globally, temperature data suggest, confirming 2017 will almost certainly make a hat-trick of annual climate records, with 2015, 2016 and 2017 being the three hottest years since records began.

Zion Harvey had procedure in US in 2015 and can now use scissors and play baseball, but report highlights his difficult recoveryAfter almost 11 hours of surgery involving four teams of doctors, Zion Harvey had earned his place in medical history. The eight-year-old had become the first child in the world to receive two new hands in a procedure that seemed to herald a revolution in transplant medicine.Related: UK's first double hand transplant patient delights in writing letter to thank surgeon Continue reading...

‘Cotton wool’ clouds above sub-tropical shores unmasked as formations caused by humidity variations high in the skyThe weather forecast had predicted a cloudless day, but when Ilan Koren, an atmospheric scientist, looked up he saw small “cotton wool” clouds dotted across the bright blue sky over Israel.Related: Stunning 'new' cloud formations captured in updated atlas – in pictures Continue reading...

Experts draw comparisons with the thalidomide scandal as they reveal that traumatic complications are more common than official figures suggestSenior doctors have called for a public inquiry into the use of vaginal mesh surgery amid mounting concerns that a significant proportion of patients have been left with traumatic complications.Speaking at a meeting in parliament, Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford, drew comparisons with the thalidomide scandal, saying that there was evidence that mesh procedures, used to treat complications from childbirth, carry significantly more risk than official figures suggest. Continue reading...

The Sopranos put a mobster through analysis. Now Gypsy is making a psychotherapist the star of the show. Does TV get it right – or is gross malpractice just dramatically inevitable?

A new Neanderthal mitochondrial genome supports a remarkable hypothesis – that there was interbreeding with an extremely early migration of African homininsKeeping pace with new developments in the field of human evolution these days is a daunting prospect. It seems as though every few weeks there’s an announcement of exciting new findings from hominin fossils, or the recovery of an ancient genome that significantly impacts our understanding of our species’ history.The best way to keep up is by regularly revisiting and reassessing a few core questions. When and where did our species first appear? How and where did we migrate? What was our relationship to our (now-extinct) hominin relatives? What evolutionary and cultural factors influenced our histories? How do new findings change the answers to these questions? Are they generally accepted by the relevant community of experts, or are they provisional or controversial?

Behind the Royal Society’s prestigious Royal Medals, whose 2017 winners were announced today, is a 200-year-old story of Britain’s fear of scientific decline in the face of international competitionThe Royal Society today announced a slew of medal and award winners. I wrote previously about the curious history of the Society’s oldest prize medal, awarded earlier this year, but today press focus is on their next most prestigious, the Royal Medals. While the illustrious list of past winners may be recalled, few recognise the medals’ origin in a period of concern for British science and sustained attack on the Society.As the Society’s website tells us, the Royal Medals were founded by George IV in 1825, to be offered annually for the two “most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge” in the physical and biological sciences. In the 20th century a third medal was added, for applied sciences. A full list of winners – boasting names like Dalton, Davy, Herschel, Faraday, Darwin, Crookes, Eddington, Dirac and Perutz – can be found here. Continue reading...

Experts highlight need for earlier diagnosis and improved access to treatments, as figures show UK healthcare spend is lower than the European averageCancer survival rates in the UK continue to lag behind those of other European countries, research suggests, with experts flagging the need for earlier diagnosis and improved access to treatments.The report is the latest to highlight the problem, with previous research suggesting that UK survival rates for breast cancer are a decade behind countries including France and Sweden. Continue reading...

With so many unknowns in our DNA, using genetics in medical testing doesn’t always bring the answers – sometimes it brings only doubt. By Carrie ArnoldAnneMarie Ciccarella, a fast-talking 57-year-old brunette with more than a hint of a New York accent, thought she knew a lot about breast cancer. Her mother was diagnosed with the disease in 1987, and several other female relatives also developed it. When doctors found a suspicious lump in one of her breasts that turned out to be cancer, she immediately sought out testing to look for mutations in the two BRCA genes, which between them account for around 20% of families with a strong history of breast cancer.Ciccarella assumed her results would be positive. They weren’t. Instead, they identified only what’s known as a variant of unknown or uncertain significance (VUS) in both BRCA1 and BRCA2. Unlike pathogenic mutations that are known to cause disease, or benign ones that don’t, these genetic variations just aren’t understood enough to know if they are involved or not. Continue reading...

The astrophysicist talks about alien life, sci-fi and why he believes Australians shouldn’t get stuck in trafficAlbert Einstein has been called many things: a genius, a pioneer, a Nobel prize winner. Neil deGrasse Tyson just calls him a badass.“I think it fits, right? It’s not a stretch,” he tells Guardian Australia before his appearance in Melbourne on Saturday night. “The dude’s a badass.”

Punctuation | Solar-powered legs | Dogs and litter | Crossword themes | Puzzle changePunctuation is indeed important (Letters, 17 July). The story goes that an American millionaire’s wife, travelling through Europe, came across a beautiful diamond ring for sale for $1,000. She sent a telegram: “Can I buy?” “No price too high” came the reply. So she purchased the ring and her husband was furious. He had meant “No; price too high” – and it is said that after that incident the telegram companies introduced the convention of inserting the word “stop” at the necessary places.

The solution to today’s 3D puzzleIn my puzzle blog earlier today I set you this puzzle:Draw a 3-dimensional picture of a shape that goes through each of the holes above, exactly touching all sides as it passes through. Continue reading...

Why academics feel aggrieved by Lord Adonis raising the old canard that they have too much time off in the summer“Most academics don’t teach enough,” spouted Lord Adonis, former Labour Education Minister on Twitter last week. He cites his time in Oxford as “evidence”, though I think we might more accurately call it an anecdote. Adonis is perpetuating the myth that academics are lucky so-and-sos who have three months off in the summer. Like teachers. Like MPs even. Remind me: just how long is the parliamentary summer recess?The reality is, as I’m sure he knows from his sojourn in academia, that the summer is the moment when academics can finally breathe and do all the vital work to keep them going during the teaching year. To tweet that the “Oxford’s estate and resource woefully underused from mid-June until early Oct (3.5 months!). Teaching year far too short,” means he hasn’t set foot in a university during those months recently. They are frequently heaving with academic conferences, summer schools for students of all kinds, open days and more. These summer months are the time when, for instance, physics teaching laboratory equipment in heavy use during the year can be overhauled, maintained and updated; when academics can get into the teaching labs to prepare new experiments. To dream up new experiments that fit within the budget, with robust and (dare I say it) fool-proof equipment for tens if not hundreds of first years is no mean feat. It takes time, and it needs to be a time when the teaching labs are empty – an important logistical detail that evidently escapes Adonis Continue reading...

UK expertise in preventing the misuse of chemical weapons should be applied to tackling the alarming rise in acid violenceOn 13 July, five acid attacks occurred across north London in the space of ninety minutes, causing “life-changing” injuries in at least one case, with others severely injured. Two of the alleged attackers have been arrested, yet little is known about them. This follows several incidents of acid violence in London, including an attack last month against Resham Khan and Jameel Muhktar.Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, has sought to calm the brewing hysteria, stating that “I don’t want people to think this is happening all over London all the time, it is really not”. But the Met is now working with the Home Office to see if any changes in the law are required. Earlier this month the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) held a joint summit on acid attacks in which the government’s approach was laid out. This includes reviewing sentencing for such attacks, ensuring legislation is effectively used, and “working with retailers to…restrict access to the most harmful products.” Continue reading...

As the Large Hadron Collider at CERN continues probing the high-energy frontier of physics, a new feature of its greatest discovery so far has come into viewIn high-energy particle collisions we study the smallest known constituents of matter. According to our best knowledge of physics, these constituents have mass only because of the way they interact with a unique quantity which permeates all of space. This quantity, like practically everything else in the strange world of the very small, is a quantum field.So much for the recap. Last week we learned something new about the Higgs boson Continue reading...

Auditory issues could be an early sign of future risk of memory and thinking problems but more research is required to unpick the link, researchers sayPeople who experience hearing loss could be at greater risk of memory and thinking problems later in life than those without auditory issues, research suggests.The study focused on people who were at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, revealing that those who were diagnosed with hearing loss had a higher risk of “mild cognitive impairment” four years later.

A puzzle that tests 3D thinkingUPDATE: The solution is now uploaded hereHi guzzlers,Today’s puzzle was sent in by a reader who remembers it from his days as an architecture student. Continue reading...

Humans hard-wired to favour leaning to the right while locking lips with romantic partners, an international study has foundHumans are hard-wired to favour leaning to the right while kissing romantic partners, an international study by psychologists and neuroscientists has found.

Security minister Ben Wallace set to launch competition seeking ideas on how ‘to keep people safe in crowds’The government is to make up to £2m available to fund research into technology and behavioural science projects that could identify possible terrorists in crowds.Ministers hope the competition will generate techniques to improve the surveillance and detection of potential terrorist threats. Continue reading...

Child’s death, divorce or job loss linked to poorer cognition in later life, study finds, with African Americans more susceptibleStressful life experiences can age the brain by several years, new research suggests. Experts led by a team from Wisconsin University’s school of medicine and public health in the US found that even one major stressful event early in life may have an impact on later brain health.The team examined data for 1,320 people who reported stressful experiences over their lifetime and underwent tests in areas such as thinking and memory. The subjects’ average age was 58 and included 1,232 white Americans and 82 African Americans. A series of neuropsychological tests examined several areas, including four memory scores (immediate memory, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, and story recall). Continue reading...

Despite the unprecedented speed of current breakthroughs investment is weak and money is either stashed away or distributed to shareholdersPrepare for the age of the driverless car and the robot that does the housework. That was the message from the World Economic Forum earlier this year as it hailed the start of a new industrial revolution. According to the WEF, the fourth big structural change in the past 250 years is upon us. The first industrial revolution was about water and steam. The second was about electricity and mass production. The third harnessed electronics and information technology to automate production. Now it is the turn of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, 3D printing and quantum computing to transform the global economy. Continue reading...

Killian Fox has eaten termites, he’s tried crickets, but there’s one food he is afraid of. Can psychology and a brilliant young chef help?Why do fears exist, if not for us to confront them? This is what I’m telling myself as I enter Tim Spedding’s kitchen in east London on a brisk evening in late spring. On the face of it, it doesn’t seem like such a bad proposition: one of the most exciting young chefs in the city, who honed his skills at the Ledbury and the Clove Club, has offered to cook dinner for me at his home. The downside is that everything on tonight’s menu contains boiled eggs – the food of my darkest culinary nightmares.I have only myself to blame. This is all part of a plan to overcome an aversion that I’ve been trying to beat for years, without much success. Having enjoyed Spedding’s recent residency at P Franco in Hackney, where he turned out a series of extraordinary dishes from a tiny space at the back of a wine bar, I thought he’d be a good person to help out. So why is the sight of six peeled eggs on the kitchen counter making me wish I’d never asked? Continue reading...

Anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali discovers lessons for modern medicine among remains of 23 preserved peopleThe crypt under the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Vilnius has a vivid history.The coffins hidden in the gloomy lair under the church’s altar were stripped by Napoleon’s army for wood. During the second world war, the Nazis used it as a makeshift bomb shelter. And in their time as the local overlords, the Soviets converted the crypt into a museum of atheism. Continue reading...

The celebrated neurosurgeon and writer talks about 40 years inside our skulls, what’s wrong with the NHS – and the Zen of woodworkHenry Marsh made the decision to become a neurosurgeon after he had witnessed his three-month-old son survive the complex removal of a brain tumour. For two decades he was the senior consultant in the Atkinson Morley wing at St George’s hospital in London, one of the country’s largest specialist brain surgery units. He pioneered techniques in operating on the brain under local anaesthetic and was the subject of the BBC documentary Your Life in Their Hands. His first book, Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery, was published in 2014 to great acclaim, and became a bestseller across the world. Marsh retired from full-time work at St George’s in 2015, though he continues with long-standing surgical roles at hospitals in the Ukraine and Nepal. He is also an avid carpenter. Earlier this year he published a second volume of memoir, Admissions: a Life in Brain Surgery, in which he looks back on his career as he takes up a “retirement project” of renovating a decrepit lock-keeper’s cottage near where he grew up in Oxfordshire. He lives with his second wife, the social anthropologist and author Kate Fox. They have homes in Oxford, and in south London, which is where the following conversation took place.Have you officially retired now?

Social media bullying is getting the parliamentary attention it deserves – but politicians must focus on what’s going on behind this toxic behaviourOne of the most important breakthroughs in public health came in 1847, when a Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis, discovered that surgeons could dramatically cut mortality rates by disinfecting their hands. At the time, he was ridiculed by his medical contemporaries. But today, hand washing remains the cornerstone of lifesaving medical hygiene.I wonder if we’ve got something important to learn from Semmelweis when it comes to online abuse. Last week, MPs debated a new cross-party report on the rising levels of abuse levelled at election candidates. It found people on all sides of politics being subject to terrible abuse, but particularly women and ethnic minority candidates. While abuse has always been a feature of our politics, there is no doubt it has been turbocharged by the internet and social media. Continue reading...

Disagreeing with an authority figure in public is associated with creativity but having unprotected sex is not. Answer our questions to test yourselfCreativity has many different aspects, but one way to measure it is through its links with risk taking. Many pieces of art and music took risks by flying in the face of the accepted norms of the day (Michelangelo’s nudes for example). So, on a scale of 1 (extremely unlikely) to 7 (extremely likely), how likely are you to take risks in the following areas of life:Morals and ethics eg, having an affair.

The UK is currently a world leader in fusion research; leaving Euratom would be calamitousIn the south of France, the largest scientific experiment mankind has ever embarked upon is rising out of the ground. This facility, the Iter project, will demonstrate nuclear fusion power on a commercial scale, involving the European Union, US, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and India. Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars, and bringing it to Earth has long been a staple of science fiction fantasies.It is an energy source that, instead of burning fossil fuels, uses water; it produces no long-lived waste and can operate alongside solar, wind and other renewables to power the world to a carbon-free future. Iter will be operational within a decade and will represent a huge step towards fusion, revolutionising the way we generate electricity in the middle part of this century. Continue reading...

Scientists say marine life has proved ‘remarkably resilient’ despite the Pacific island being declared a wasteland in the 1950sThe former island paradise of Bikini Atoll is slowing blooming back to life, 70 years after the United States dropped 23 nuclear bombs on it, including a device in 1954 that was 1,100-times larger than the Hiroshima atom bomb.A team of scientists from Stanford University have been surprised to discover an abundance of marine life apparently thriving in the crater of Bikini Atoll, which was declared a nuclear wasteland after the bombings, with its 167 inhabitants relocated to other islands. Continue reading...

Experts warn that Earth’s sixth mass extinction has begun – and humans are to blame. Can Hope help us to confront biological annihilation?A single blue whale, even with a skeleton of 4.5 tonnes, weighs imperceptibly in the world’s scales when biological annihilation is set on the other side. Yet perhaps the “new” 126-year-old star of the entrance hall of Natural History Museum in London may play some tiny part in tipping the balance. By replacing “Dippy” – the much-loved cast of a diplodocus skeleton – with a creature whose relatives still swim the oceans, the museum seeks to remind us of the glories that remain in the natural world, and the urgent need to conserve them.The whale was unveiled as the Guardian revealed that researchers believe a sixth mass extinction is under way (marginally more optimistic scientists think we are merely on the verge of such an event). Estimating overall populations – not just the number of exterminated species – they conclude that up to 50% of all land animals have been lost in recent decades. Unlike the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, which saw off Dippy et al, this one is manmade. Scientists blame human over-population and consumption and expect the challenges to intensify, “painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life”. We are not just threatening the creatures with whom we share the world; we are risking our own future. Admittedly, other new research assures us that life on Earth is secure even in the event of cosmic calamity. But while the endurance of the portly micro-animals known as tardigrades may console those thinking on such a grand scale, most of us would rather these creatures have company – including ours. Continue reading...

From declining royal honour to refusing to sit for a portrait, correspondences show co-discoverer of evolutionary theory avoiding publicityDarwin’s name is eternally linked to one of the most momentous scientific breakthroughs of all time, while his co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, who first coined the phrase “origin of species”, has been largely forgotten.Now a newly revealed archive of Wallace’s letters provides a remarkable insight into how he came to be the underdog of evolutionary theory. Continue reading...

Scientists hit a new milestone this week when they successfully exploited the properties of quantum entanglement – particles generated simultaneously existing in a single, shared quantum state – to teleport photons 300 miles into space from Earth. The implications of this are huge. While Star Trek-like teleportation of humans exists in realms of fiction only, achieving space-scale quantum entanglement distance opens up the possibility of building an unhackable quantum internet. Continue reading...

No wild cat has ever been observed nursing a cub from another species – the event may be the result of the Tanzanian lioness having lost her own litterA lioness has been spotted nursing a tiny leopard cub in Tanzania, the first time a wild cat is known to have adopted a cub from another species.The five-year old lioness, called Nosikitok is closely monitored by conservationists in the Ngorongoro conservation area and is known to have had a litter of her own in mid to late June. Continue reading...

Experts praise return to harm-reduction in strategy aimed at cutting illicit drug use and improving dependence recovery ratesDrugs charities and critics have welcomed a shift away from an “abstinence-only” approach to drug treatment and a return to an emphasis on harm-reduction and recovery in the government’s revised drugs strategy.The 2017 drug strategy, published on Friday by the Home Office, comes at a time of a sharp rise in drug-related deaths despite falling levels of use. It targets psychoactive substances – formerly known as legal highs – performance-enhancing drugs, including “chemsex” substances, and misuse of prescription medicines. Continue reading...

Microscopic creatures reassure scientists complete eradication of life on the planet is extremely unlikelyWhether it is a supernova or an asteroid impact, should a cosmic calamity strike, it seems there will be at least one form of life left: a tubby, microscopic animal with the appearance of a crumpled hoover bag.The creatures, known as tardigrades, are staggeringly hardy animals, a millimetre or less in size, with species living in wet conditions that range from mountain tops to chilly ocean waters to moss and lichen on land. Continue reading...

Chances of developing irregular heartbeat – atrial fibrillation – spikes up considerably with working more than 55 hours a week, research showsA long hours office culture can affect more than just your social life – long days at work can be bad for your heart as well, according to a major study.It’s been established that too many hours in the office can increase the risk of a stroke. Now it seems that clocking up more than 55 hours a week means a 40% higher chance of developing an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation (AF), when compared to those with a better work-life balance. Continue reading...

14 July 1961: Prime minister Harold Macmillan attended a reception for the man hailed ‘Columbus of the space age’There must have been moments yesterday when Major Gagarin could have wished himself back in the solitude of space. Especially last night at a reception at the Hyde Park Hotel arranged by the Great Britain-USSR Association. It was attended unexpectedly by Mr Macmillan – who had earlier found Major Gagarin “charming” – Lord Home, and most of the Cabinet.Related: From the archive: Russia hails 'Columbus of space' Continue reading...

Absence of climate and energy policy has left Australia lagging dangerously behind, missing out on investment and facing major electricity disruptions.

Swedish experiment shows the notoriously brilliant bird has capacity to think ahead, an ability previously documented only in humans and great apes

Commercial space company says it is still on track to land on the moon and bag Google’s $20m prize before the end of 2017Moon Express, a private company founded in California in 2010, is living up to its name. This week in Washington DC, its chief executive, Bob Richards, said it was still on course to launch its lander by the end of the year.To do this means sticking to a tight schedule. Moon Express is currently building the lander, termed the MX-1E, and hopes to be finished by the end of the summer so it can ship it to the launch site in New Zealand, where further challenges await. Continue reading...

Female life expectancy is now 83 years but many women will spend a quarter of their lives in ill-health, finds reportAlzheimer’s disease and dementia are the biggest cause of death among women, according to a government report on the state of the nation’s health.

Timid mice turn bold after their ‘alpha’ circuit is stimulated as results show ‘winner effect’ lingers on and mechanism may be similar in humans

Transfer of Eadweard Muybridge’s galloping horse opens possibility of using living cells to store informationHis groundbreaking photos showed life in motion, from cantering bison to leapfrogging boys, and settled an argument that had long divided trainers and riders: do all four hooves of a racehorse ever leave the floor at once?Now, more than a century later, the stills and animations of Eadweard Muybridge, the eccentric Englishman and father of the motion picture, have had a modern makeover. Where Muybridge captured his pictures on photographic plates, Harvard scientists have set them in DNA. Continue reading...

Nasa releases raw data to public, enabling citizen scientists and experts to share their own processed versions of the images• The great red spot of Jupiter as never seen before – in picturesNasa’s mission to send a spacecraft hurtling around Jupiter has captured stunning images of the planet’s great red spot in its first up-close flyby of the huge storm.The images from the Juno spacecraft not only showcase the scale of the tempest but also its extraordinary colour. Continue reading...

Medical papers relating to Luana Gomes raise fears highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas was released when insulation burnedA survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire has been treated for cyanide poisoning, raising fears that the highly toxic gas hydrogen cyanide might have been released by the burning of insulation or plastics during the blaze.Luana Gomes, 12, was diagnosed with smoke inhalation injury and cyanide poisoning, according to discharge papers from King’s College hospital in London seen by the BBC’s Newsnight. Continue reading...