BepiColombo spacecraft will also attempt to explain why the solar system’s smallest planet appears to be shrinkingThe BepiColombo spacecraft, which will become the third probe to visit Mercury, has been unveiled ahead of a mission that will tackle some of the deepest mysteries of our solar system.The spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October 2018, will investigate the existence of water ice at Mercury’s poles and its volcanoes, and attempt to explain the surprising discovery that the solar system’s smallest planet appears to be shrinking. Mercury remains the most elusive of the solar system’s inner planets, partly due to the challenges involved in building a spacecraft robust enough to withstand the “pizza oven” conditions at the planet. Continue reading...

The European Space Agency unveils its ambitious €1.3bn Bepi Colombo mission to inner planet MercuryI raised a sceptical eyebrow when Alvaro Gimenez, ESA director of science, said that BepiColombo mission to Mercury is the most complicated science mission ever performed by the agency.What could be more difficult than ESA’s Rosetta and Philae mission, I thought, which navigated around a comet and sent a lander to the icy surface. An hour later after listening to the science and especially the engineering talks, I was convinced. Continue reading...

My father, Stephen Morley, who has died of cancer aged 67, was a highly respected academic who made it his life’s work to understand and treat chronic pain.His research involved providing the evidence to support psychological treatments for chronic pain. He created novel methods now used worldwide for helping people live with pain. He was passionate about science being relevant to individuals, and pioneered the study of how personal identity is affected by constant pain. Continue reading...

Ian Sample delves into our evolutionary past to explore the role creativity and collaboration may have played in early human societiesSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIt is held up as a trait that sets us apart from the rest of the animals: the ability to think creatively and to use our powerful imaginations to shape the world around us. But how our creative imagination became so crucial to our existence remains a mystery with plenty of competing theories put forward. What ideas have scientists come up with? And with something as complex as creativity, how do we even define it, let alone study it in the lab? Continue reading...

Discovery has major implications for hunt for alien life on the red planet as it means any evidence is likely to be buried deep undergroundThe chances of anything coming from Mars have taken a downward turn with the finding that the surface of the red planet contains a “toxic cocktail” of chemicals that can wipe out living organisms.Experiments with compounds found in the Martian soil show that they are turned into potent bactericides by the ultraviolet light that bathes the planet, effectively sterilising the upper layers of the dusty landscape. Continue reading...

Experts from 15 countries say regulation needed to prevent vulnerable patients pursuing unproven and potentially deadly treatmentsMedical and legal experts from around the world have united to call for more stringent regulation of stem cell therapies to prevent people pursuing unproven and potentially deadly treatments overseas.In a perspective piece for the US journal Science Translational Medicine, 15 experts from countries including the UK, the US, Canada, Belgium, Italy and Japan wrote that national efforts alone would not be enough to counter an industry offering unproven treatments to vulnerable patients. Continue reading...

Venus flytraps, socks with mouths and giant heads … as the artist’s new show Mamma Mia! opens, she tells us about putting therapy into clayAt Emma Hart’s studio, two assistants are helping the artist with last-minute touches to graphic patterns inside a group of outsized ceramic heads. The heads appear to be consuming them as they lean deep inside, torches strapped to their foreheads, delicate paintbrushes in hand. In a little over a week, the finished works will be moved to London’s Whitechapel Gallery where they’ll be strung from the ceiling like lamps: the centrepiece of Mamma Mia!, Hart’s show as laureate of the biennial Max Mara art prize for women.Formed, fired and glazed in Italy, during Hart’s six-month residency for the prize, the heads show the influence of time spent both in professional ceramics studios, and as an observer in a centre for family therapy. “Both are driven by patterns,” Hart explains. “The psychiatrist is trying to unravel human behavioural patterns, and the studio to generate a visual pattern.”

Predicted rise of disease down to people living longer, but research unravelling biomarkers of Alzheimer’s give hope of finding a cureMore than 1.2 million people are expected to be living with dementia in England and Wales by 2040, up from almost 800,000 today, research suggests.Researchers say the predicted rise in the prevalence of dementia is largely down to people living longer, but add that the figures also show that the risk of developing dementia for each age group is falling – a finding they say suggests that preventive strategies are having an impact.

Children need to be taught health literacy in school so they can analyse, interpret and question pseudoscienceParents of infants could be forgiven for panicking if they read reports about “needle-like”, “potentially dangerous” and “toxic” nanoparticles in Australian infant formula products. Sounds pretty horrifying. There were calls to pull infant formula from shelves this week after the eco-activist group Friends of the Earth issued a media release saying it had ordered independent testing of formula products and had found the nanoparticles, which it said could cause kidney and liver damage. Many major Australian media outlets ran the story.Here’s the thing. Nanoparticles are simply microscopic particles less than 100 nanometres in size. The nanoparticles being demonised by Friends of the Earth were calcium phosphate crystals, a normal and natural component of human tissue, teeth and bones. A look at the study Friends of the Earth based its scare campaign on reveals rats were injected with the nanoparticles through their abdominal cavity at extremely high concentrations, far greater than those found in baby formula, which is obviously ingested by babies, not injected into them. There is no way conclusions could be drawn between the rat study and the nanoparticles in the infant formula – which dissolve in digestive acids anyway – on supermarket shelves. Continue reading...

Carolyn Rogers on fertility problems, Cliff O’Gorman on whole-gene screening and Martyn Cornell on the effects of alcoholIt was interesting to read the latest research from Edinburgh University revealing that women who have survived cancer in the past 30 years are a third less likely to become pregnant (Report, July 4). It shines a light on the urgent need for a conversation between women and their treatment team about fertility preservation following a diagnosis of breast cancer. At Breast Cancer Care we speak to women all the time who are frustrated by the lack of information on fertility. Our survey last year found over half (53%) of younger women diagnosed with breast cancer have no discussions with healthcare professionals about fertility preservation options, contrary to Nice guidance.This missed opportunity can be devastating for women who want a chance to have a child or extend their family after breast cancer. It is crucial that women feel empowered and are able to make informed decisions that are right for them. The NHS must make sure oncologists and fertility specialists work together to make this a reality.

Planet could heat up far more than hoped as new work shows temperature rises measured over recent decades don’t fully reflect global warming already in the pipelineHopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive temperatures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research.The work shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even worse than feared.

The motivational phrases beloved of sportspeople might seem trite, but for players from Katie Boulter and Andy Murray to Arthur Ashe, they’re surprisingly importantKatie Boulter can console herself that, while she could not beat a player 178 places further up the rankings, her Wimbledon dream did not end because she lacked motivation. There it was, in bold words, underlined for good measure, on a folded piece of paper.“YOU DESERVE THIS – Focus,” the 20-year-old read quietly during breaks in her grand slam debut on Tuesday. “Trust yourself and trust your game ... Play the match like it’s the last match of your life – show how much you want it.” Continue reading...

An exhibition including iconic – and infamous – feathered dinosaur specimens comes to Europe for the first timeFeathered dinosaurs are rarely out of the news and are a regular topic for our blog. For those in the UK, there’s a rare opportunity to see some of the original feathered dinosaur specimens this summer in Nottingham.The exhibition – Dinosaurs of China: Ground Shakers to Feathered Flyers – opened on 1 July at Wollaton Hall, home of the Nottingham Natural History Museum. The ground-shaking sauropod Mamenchisaurus, mounted 13.5m tall in a rearing pose, is a spectacular centrepiece. But, from a scientific perspective, it’s the much smaller dinosaur specimens, from the 125-million-year-old Jehol biota, that are the real stars of the show. Continue reading...

Recent research shows that male fertility declines after the age of 40. Perhaps we all need to be a bit more honest about the choices we make

Disasters like Grenfell offend our sense of control over the world, and challenge the unconscious faith we have in a ‘system’ that cares about usWalk into the street, right now. Keep walking past the first hundred or so properties that you see. Look at them. Count the doors and the windows. Note the number of cars parked on driveways, in garages, or on the road. Look for cracks of light or flickers of movement or wisps of steam from chimneys. Listen for the unmistakeable sounds of habitation; a footstep, a sigh, a voice on a telephone.Think of the people inside. Think of the owners or the tenants. Think of their friends, families and lovers. Think of the older child who may be home from university, or may have chosen to travel this summer. Think of the sublets; some legal, some less so. Think of the undocumented migrants and refugees who can haunt London estates like administrative ghosts, invisible to and uncounted by the state.

It’s unscientific, fails basic risk management, is bad for the economy, and immoral

Scientists say memory lapses keep your brain healthy. But if it’s so clever, surely it should erase mundane or unpleasant minutiae

An epic scientific story, from the Earth’s first days to your most recent inhalation, is told with a helluva high level of informalityWe are creatures of light and air. Life’s a gas, in every sense. We are oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, packed together with the carbon that photosynthesising life has plucked, one molecule at a time, from the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. At cremation, our bodies bake down to a handful of minerals. When Hamlet beseeched his too, too solid flesh to melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew, he got it about right: the Prince of Denmark would have been about 70% water, which is itself an atmospheric vapour. And he certainly could have been blown away.Harry Truman – “not that Harry Truman”, as Sam Kean says in this bright and breezy book – was blown away by Mount St Helens. Truman was the defiant man who dismissed the warnings of volcanologists and refused to leave the high slopes of America’s most violent modern volcano before it erupted in May 1980. Kean reconstructs his death because, as a chemist, he knows the temperatures at which water, viscera and bones could vaporise as a black cloud of intense heat, 100 storeys high and 10 miles wide, came roaring down the mountain at 350mph: “Truman’s clothes would have flared and disappeared, and then Truman himself would have sublimed in the scientific sense – transformed from solid to spirit almost instantly. And with a final hiss, he would have risen up into the air.” Continue reading...

Whale Weekender at Grant Zoology Museum calls on public to clean then reassemble bones of 8-metre mammalThe public is invited to help reassemble a giant jigsaw in a London museum, 157 years after two Somerset fishermen went out to catch a “great fish” and brought back a northern bottlenosed whale more than eight metres (26ft) long.Their catch was a local sensation: the carcass went on a west country tour then the skeleton was displayed for years hanging from the ceiling of the museum in Weston-super-Mare. Continue reading...

New paper suggests that the hotly contested physics thesis, which involves the existence of six ‘extra dimensions’, may be settled by cutting-edge laser detectorsString theory makes the grand promise of weaving together all of physics into a single sublime framework. The only downside is that scientists have yet to find any experimental proof that it is right – and critics question whether its predictions are even testable.Now, a new paper has claimed that gravitational wave measurements could hold the key to whether string theory is destined to fulfil its lofty goals or be consigned to the dustbin of discarded ideas. The study suggests that the first observable evidence for the existence of extra dimensions, one of string theory’s predictions, could be hidden within the ripples of gravitational waves. Continue reading...

David Karoly says without an expert to replace him, the CCA will struggle to fulfil its legal mandateImagine, if you will, a government board to champion Australian arts without any artists on it, or an agency to advise on medical research without any medical researchers.Or perhaps even, imagine a government authority set up to provide expertise on climate policy without any actual climate scientists. Continue reading...

Report reveals slight drop on figures from 2016 – but Royal College of Nursing says number is not falling fast enoughMore than 9,000 attendances to NHS services in England last year involved the identification or treatment of female genital mutilation, a report has revealed.The data, released by NHS Digital and covering the period from April 2016 to March 2017, includes figures from both NHS trusts and GP practices. Continue reading...

Near-complete fossilised skeleton of 132m-year-old creature, believed to be an Iguanodon, has been taken to special laboratory for further investigationThe near-complete fossilised skeleton of a dinosaur, thought to have lived about 132m years ago, has been unearthed at a brick factory in Surrey.Paleontologists say they discovered the bones during a routine visit to the site of the Wienerberger quarry in February. The first clues came when the team looked at rock that had been turned up by a bulldozer at the site and discovered a couple of tail vertebrae. Continue reading...

Sally Davies calls for making genomic testing as common as blood tests to usher in the era of precision medicine to treat cancers and rare diseasesGenomic testing should become a normal part of NHS care, beginning with cancer patients and those with rare diseases, says the chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies.In her annual report, Davies stresses her enthusiasm for the genomic revolution which could transform the treatment that NHS patients receive. Drugs can be matched to the disease and to the patient to maximise the benefit and reduce side-effects. Continue reading...

Research suggests people on proton pump inhibitors are more likely to die than those taking different antacid or none at allMillions of people taking common heartburn and indigestion medications could be at an increased risk of death, research suggests.The drugs, known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), neutralise the acid in the stomach and are widely prescribed, with low doses also available without prescription from pharmacies. In the UK, doctors issue more than 50m prescriptions for PPIs every year. Continue reading...

Former EU commissioner Pascal Lamy calls for post-Brexit framework in which the UK can remain in the European Research Area

Scientists have cracked the secret to Roman water-based structures’ strength – and findings could help today’s buildersTheir structures are still standing more than 1,500 years after the last centurion snuffed it: now the Romans’ secret of durable marine concrete has finally been cracked.The Roman recipe – a mix of volcanic ash, lime (calcium oxide), seawater and lumps of volcanic rock – held together piers, breakwaters and harbours. Moreover, in contrast to modern materials, the ancient water-based structures became stronger over time. Continue reading...

Australian National University team says the breakthrough could protect satellites from radiation and create energy-efficient homesAustralian scientists have developed a technique to create temperature-controlled nanomaterial that could be used to turn a window into a mirror at the push of a button.The method, developed by a team of 12 at the Australian National University, could be used to protect multibillion-dollar satellites from harmful radiation, create energy-efficient temperature-controlled homes, or just for the trivial delight of switching a mirror on and off, said the lead researcher, Dr Mohsen Rahmani. Continue reading...

An important new study could lead to the reinstatement of rules imposing a maximum level of male sex hormones in athletes competing as female

Study shows performance-boosting effects of testosterone in female athletes, reopening controversial debate about intersex and hyperandrogenous competitors

Peter Frates posted a video of himself in a hospital bed while Pearl Jam’s Alive played in the background after multiple newspapers announced he had diedThe man who helped raise over $100m to combat the neurodegenerative disease ALS by encouraging millions of people to pour icy buckets of water over their heads is still alive, despite reports to the contrary, and has posted a video to Twitter to prove it.Peter Frates, 32, posted a 45-second video of himself in a hospital bed while Pearl Jam’s Alive played in the background on social media on Monday, writing: “In the words of my friend ed,” presumably a reference to Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. Continue reading...

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin reacted with a range of expressions while Donald Trump made a speech on Friday about the importance of exploring space. Aldrin had joined Trump at the White House for the signing of an executive order to re-establish the National Space Council

The answer to today’s moggie mysteryIn my puzzle blog earlier today I set you the following question:A straight corridor has 7 doors along one side. Behind one of the doors sits a cat. Your mission is to find the cat by opening the correct door. Each day you can open only one door. If the cat is there, you win. You are officially smarter than a cat. If the cat is not there, the door closes, and you must wait until the next day before you can open a door again. Continue reading...

The former education minister recently asserted that people who don’t go to university shouldn’t have to pay for those who do. As someone who went to university twice, Dean Burnett has seen the error of his ways and would like to make amendsDear Michael Gove,I’m writing this to say I heard your recent remarks about how people who don’t go to university shouldn’t pay for those who do. Or, to use your exact words: Continue reading...

Impact of cancer and treatment on female fertility has much improved in recent years, finds survey of 23,000 medical recordsWomen who survived cancer in the past 30 years were a third less likely to become pregnant than women in the general population, according to study into the impact of the disease and its treatment on patients.The research provides the first broad assessment of how cancer, the fertility-harming therapies that patients receive, and the decisions women make on leaving hospital, can affect their plans for a family.

The favorite satellite data of contrarians like Ted Cruz corrected for some errors and ended up hotter

Feline clever? This moggy mystery will mess with your mindUPDATE: The solution is now up, read it here.Hi guzzlers,Today’s puzzle requires you to demonstrate superior intelligence to a contrary cat. Continue reading...

Women aged under 30 with a male partner aged 40 to 42 saw chance of live birth after IVF fall to 46% from 73% for men aged 30 to 35For men who are reluctant to start a family, it is an age-old defence: there is no need to rush into fatherhood, as Des O’Connor, Luciano Pavarotti and countless rock stars have proved when they had children well after they qualified for their bus passes.But men, just like women, can wait too long, doctors warn. A new study reveals that a couple’s chances of having a baby fall with the man’s age, to the point that it can have a substantial impact on their ability to start a family. Continue reading...

Crispr inventor Jennifer Doudna talks about discovering the gene-editing tool, the split with her collaborator and the complex ethics of genetic manipulationJennifer Doudna, 53, is an American biochemist based at the University of California, Berkeley. Together with the French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier, she led the discovery of the revolutionary gene-editing tool, Crispr. The technology has the potential to eradicate previously incurable diseases, but also poses ethical questions about the possible unintended consequences of overwriting the human genome.Were you nerdy as a child? What got you hooked on science?

You’ve done something amazing and you want to tell all your friends about it. How you choose to spread the word online says a lot about youHow you choose to share personal achievements on social media says more about you than you think. Caution: you may not always create the impression you were hoping for…Suppose you have achieved the most prestigious award available in your line of work. How would you share the news on social media? Continue reading...

Document with 400 signatories says that exchange of ideas must surviveLeading European figures in culture, science and education, including physics professor and TV presenter Brian Cox and artist Mark Wallinger, will warn Britain’s EU negotiators this week of the damage that a hard Brexit would do to the UK and the rest of Europe.They will make a striking plea to David Davis’s team: involve young people in your policymaking. They will say that the youth of both the UK and the EU – “effective agents for positive change” – must play a meaningful part in shaping what will be their futures. Continue reading...

Retirement home residents take a trip to a producerForget bingo, tea dances and seaside trips. Residents from a chain of Seattle retirement homes are going on Pot for Beginners tours to learn about – and buy – cannabis in the city, where it’s now legal.Connie Schick said her son roared with laughter when he heard she was joining a field trip to a cannabis-growing operation, an extraction plant and shop. The 79-year-old, who smoked the odd joint in the 70s, wanted to know how legalisation has changed the way the drug is used and produced. Continue reading...

How Iceland became a magnet for star-gazers, film-makers – and astronauts

The International Geophysical Year started on 1 July 1957 and was a massive international effort to study the entire planet; as scientists worked in the harsh conditions of Antarctica, a team of physiologists and doctors took this unique opportunity to study the body under stress.The International Geophysical Year was a global survey, but it had a particular impact on Antarctica, as it led to the creation and signing of the Antarctic Treaty, reserving the continent for “peaceful purposes only” and ensuring “Freedom of scientific investigation”. While most of the work done was – as the name suggests – in the physical and geographical sciences, one almost unknown part of the research involved an international team of physiologists and doctors who headed out to Antarctica to study the human body in an extreme environment.INPHEXAN, the INternational PHysiological EXpedition to ANtarctica involved six researchers from three countries: Nello Pace, William Siri and Charles Meyers from the USA; Gerhard Hildebrand, a recent German immigrant to the USA (and ex-First Alpine Battalion member); and James Adams and Lewis Griffith Evans Cresswell ‘Griff’ Pugh from the UK. Initiated by Pace and Siri, who shared leisure interests in high altitude climbing as well as research interests in stress and physiology, the initial plan was a study of hormonal responses to the stress of the Antarctic environment – the cold, dark, and isolation. Charles Meyer, a dentist and bacteriologist at the Naval Biological Laboratory in Berkeley went along to conduct studies of infectious diseases. The UK team had intended to study changes in metabolism, and the possibility that people are able to acclimatise to intense cold, and agreed to join with the Americans to make an international research team. Continue reading...

The International Geophysical Year in 1957 paved the way for the Antarctic treaty, an accord born amid the cold war that continues to reserve an entire continent for peace and scienceIt all started over dinner: on 1 July 1957, the International Geophysical Year began, paving the way for an international agreement like no other – the Antarctic treaty – which reserves an entire continent for peace and science.Today’s Antarctica is a tightly regulated continent surrounded by equally carefully managed and cared-for oceans. The Antarctic treaty ensures that Antarctica is used only for peaceful purposes, and that there is freedom of scientific investigation. Continue reading...

Improving our ability to be more intimate in relationships is just another skill, like learning a language, says the neuroscientist Giovanni FrazzettoGiovanni Frazzetto speaks with a thin voice, barely louder than our footsteps; we are walking around St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. To hear, I have to lean in. At first I think he’s shy, but he’s an intimacy expert so maybe talking quietly is a device to bring us closer. After all, there is a loneliness epidemic and Frazzetto is on a mission to make human beings do intimacy better.To this end, his new book, Together, Closer: Stories of Intimacy in Friendship, Love and Family, examines the way humans relate to each other across a spectrum of relationships from parent-child to platonic friendships and, of course, romantic love. Frazzetto, a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, is a cross-disciplinary neuroscientist. He wants to explain the neuroscience behind the way people relate to each other, to explain why we behave as we do. Continue reading...

Participants adopted ‘cautious stepping strategy’ while using device for different tasks, say university researchersTexting on the hoof leads people to change the way they walk, new research has revealed.While researchers have previously looked at the impact of phone use while on a level surface, they have now explored how pedestrians cope while using their phone and negotiating that common trip-hazard: a step.

Imperial College London scientists expect to give first dose in the next two months alongside psychotherapyDoctors in Bristol are set to begin the world’s first clinical study into the use of MDMA to treat alcohol addiction.Researchers are testing whether a few doses of the drug, in conjunction with psychotherapy, could help patients overcome addiction more effectively than conventional treatments. The small trial was granted ethical approval a few weeks ago and the team expects to give the first dose of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy pills, within the next two months. Continue reading...

Critics of planned bridge say increased footfall could erode island’s structures – that is, if anyone is willing to cross itPlans for a footbridge soaring high above the waves between the Cornish mainland and the island fortress of Tintagel have caused a storm of protest.The site’s custodians, English Heritage, say the bridge will help more visitors reach the island and understand its history better. Continue reading...