Scientists find male birds performing alone with small sticks before female audience, with calls, periodic blushing, and raising feathers on their crestsResearchers have captured the first footage of cockatoos bashing out drum solos with little sticks and seedpods in what are believed to be musical displays to impress the opposite sex.Scientists took the extraordinary footage after stalking the shy and elusive Cape York palm cockatoos for seven years through the unspoilt wilderness of the peninsula in far north Queensland. Continue reading...

After warm weather and summer rain, flying ants emerge from nests for a mass mating event to ensure survival and dispersal of the speciesA steady stream of black ants scurries in and out of a crack in the patio. They have been living there quietly for weeks. Perhaps you tried to get rid of them – especially if they were taking sugar from the kitchen or crawling across your bedroom. Perhaps you ignored them, or marvelled at their ability to navigate over apparently featureless paving stones back to their nest.Then we have a spell of warm weather, a summer downpour, and when it stops there are winged explorers erupting from the ground – welcome to flying ant day! Continue reading...

David Spiegelhalter, president of Royal Statistical Society, says sloppy attitude to statistics leads to misleading claims and draws parallels to rise of fake newsA sloppy attitude towards statistics has led to exaggerated and unjustified claims becoming commonplace in science, according to one of Britain’s most eminent statisticians.Speaking ahead of his president’s address to the Royal Statistical Society, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, said that questionable practices such as cherry-picking data and “hacking statistics” to make findings appear more dramatic threatens to undermine public trust in science. Continue reading...

Low dose taken by women at risk of pre-eclampsia throughout pregnancy more than halves chances of premature birth, finds study

Training for shootouts can deliver escape from the penalty lottery, but England must stop living in the pastAt least this time, an England team made it to a penalty shootout. In recent tournaments, the senior team finished bottom of their 2014 World Cup group, and lost against Iceland in their first Euro 2016 knockout match. So when England Under-21s reached the Euro 2017 semi-final and took a far more experienced Germany team to penalties, that in itself represented progress – until the penalty curse struck again.This was an opportunity for England to exorcise some serious penalty ghosts. The Germany coach was Stefan Kuntz, who had scored Germany’s fifth penalty in the Euro 96 semi-final at Wembley. I spoke to Kuntz in researching my book Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty. He understands the pressure of a penalty and did not want to take one at all. He chose to kick fifth because he hoped the shootout would be over before he was required. The kicker after him was Gareth Southgate; his penalty was saved. Continue reading...

BBC Watchdog investigation of iced water from the three major coffee chains found faecal coliform bacteria in samplesIce from three major coffee chains in the UK has been found to contain faecal bacteria.An undercover investigation revealed that iced water obtained from high street outlets Caffè Nero, Starbucks and Costa Coffee all contained faecal coliform bacteria, with a positive test found for seven out of 10 samples from Costa and three out of 10 samples from the other two chains. Continue reading...

Researchers in Canada say ‘zonal waves’ in upper atmosphere may explain why people have reported oddly well-lit evenings since Roman timesThe Romans referred to it as the “nocturnal sun”. Later accounts describe it as an unexplained glow – bright enough to read a book by – that would sometimes light up the night sky.Now researchers from York University in Canada have come up with a possible explanation for the rare phenomenon known as “bright nights”. Using satellite data, two atmospheric scientists from the Toronto institution suggest that the bright nights are not due to the sun or meteors, but instead the result of converging “zonal waves” in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Continue reading...

Hannah Devlin sits down with experimental physicist Athene Donald to explore her work in polymers and role as an advocate for gender equality in scienceSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn a career that spans more than three decades, Professor Dame Athene Donald – an experimental physicist at the University of Cambridge and master of Churchill College – has turned her mind to the likes of crash helmets, starch and more recently, protein. Something of a renegade, much of her career has seen her attempt to apply the ordered rules of physics to complex and unruly biological systems. But where did it all begin for her? How hard was it to build a career as one of the only females in the field? And how important are women like in her in the fight for gender equality in science? Continue reading...

Not all research is created equal. There needs to be more clarity in the media about where study findings have come fromLast month US TV channel CNBC published an online news story based on a study which it said showed that Instagram is “most likely to cause young people to feel depressed and lonely” out of the major social apps. But the “study” is actually a survey which fails to provide substantive evidence that Instagram is the worst for mental health, or that there is even a relationship between social media use and depression or loneliness. It was another enticing - but misleading - headline.Over the next days the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), which published the report in conjunction with the Young Health Movement charity, retweeted and shared news stories like CNBC’s. The society’s report was featured by most national media outlets, and although some pointed out that it was based on a survey, others presented it in a way that could be construed as scientific research. In any case, most included a statement about Instagram being damaging to mental health in the title in a way that made the findings appear more conclusive than the report suggests.

Self-administered patch carrying 100 microneedles found to be as safe as traditional vaccination method and is preferred by patientsA small, dissolvable patch boasting an array of tiny needles could offer a safe relatively painless alternative to traditional injections for vaccination against flu, researchers have found.The approach is likely to be welcomed by those who shudder at the sight of a needle, but it could also provide other benefits.

If aircraft are not certified to fly in high temperatures, they will remain grounded, which is what happened to some Bombardier jetsMuch of Arizona rarely sees a cloud, and it usually offers great weather for flying. Phoenix is one of the top four US locations for number of flying days per year. But last week more than 50 flights were cancelled, not because the weather was bad but because it was too hot.Hot air is less dense that cold. The wings of an aircraft generate lift by effectively pushing down on the air, and less dense air provides less lift. An aircraft needs a certain amount of lift to take off and gain altitude. The hotter the weather, the less dense the air and the less lift the wings produce. Continue reading...

My first alien encounter came at a gathering for the great and the good. And if you look at the state of the planet it’s clear creatures from outer space are running thingsThe hacking group Anonymous believes that Nasa is on the verge of announcing proof of alien life. For years, the space agency has been trawling through the universe, probing galaxies and solar systems, sifting through cosmic dust, spending millions if not billions searching for beings that did not originate on planet Earth.Really, they needn’t have bothered. I could have told them about my first alien encounter for free. It happened three years ago at a gala, where the great and good of London were gathered. Towards the end of the evening, a prominent politician gave a speech. He moved the crowd to laughter and cheers with his textbook public-school delivery and his cultivated, dishevelled charm. When he descended from the stage, a swarm of fans surrounded him. Continue reading...

Almost two-thirds of head collision incidents at the tournament were not followed by players being assessed on the sidelines by medical professionalsHead collisions experienced by footballers during the 2014 World Cup were not tackled according to Fifa’s own standards, research has revealed.A team of doctors from Canada have found that after almost two-thirds of the head collision events that occurred during the tournament, the players involved did not receive an assessment on the sidelines by healthcare personnel. Continue reading...

Ornithologists stress importance of conserving the blue-winged Amazon parrot, with no more than 100 of the birds thought to be in existenceMiguel Gómez Garza was on his final expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula to gather information for his book Parrots of Mexico when it happened. He heard a group of parrots in the distance, but their call was like none on record. So he loitered by a tree full of pods that parrots like for lunch, hoping they would come and feed.The wait was worth it. When half a dozen parrots flew over to the tree, Gómez Garza noticed their intense red fronts and the beautiful blue tips on their wing feathers. The plumage set them apart from the two species known to live in the area, which both have distinctive white fronts. Continue reading...

Met Office and NHS England find parents are too relaxed about exposing their children to sun, and warn over UV raysAlmost four out of 10 parents mistakenly believe that a sun tan is a sign of good health, research suggests.A new poll for the Met Office and NHS England found evidence of apparently relaxed attitude to children’s sun exposure. Continue reading...

It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell. By Stephen BuranyiIn 2011, Claudio Aspesi, a senior investment analyst at Bernstein Research in London, made a bet that the dominant firm in one of the most lucrative industries in the world was headed for a crash. Reed-Elsevier, a multinational publishing giant with annual revenues exceeding £6bn, was an investor’s darling. It was one of the few publishers that had successfully managed the transition to the internet, and a recent company report was predicting yet another year of growth. Aspesi, though, had reason to believe that that prediction – along with those of every other major financial analyst – was wrong.The core of Elsevier’s operation is in scientific journals, the weekly or monthly publications in which scientists share their results. Despite the narrow audience, scientific publishing is a remarkably big business. With total global revenues of more than £19bn, it weighs in somewhere between the recording and the film industries in size, but it is far more profitable. In 2010, Elsevier’s scientific publishing arm reported profits of £724m on just over £2bn in revenue. It was a 36% margin – higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year. Continue reading...

Fossilised skull scans reveal neurovascular canal that might have enabled precision-feeding, and face-biting ‘to make a point’Dinosaurs’ faces might have been much more sensitive than previously thought and may have helped them feed more carefully or woo potential mates, according to new research.Experts from the University of Southampton used advanced X-ray and 3D-imaging techniques to look inside the fossilised skull of Neovenator salerii – a large carnivorous land-based dinosaur found on the Isle of Wight, and found evidence that it possessed an extremely sensitive snout of a kind previously only associated with aquatic feeders. Continue reading...

Survey asked what kind of asylum system is fair, with 72% saying countries should receive applications according to capacity rather than current systemThe majority of Europeans support proportional allocation of asylum seekers, a system that takes into account each country’s capacity, research has revealed.But the study also shows that support for the system is dramatically affected by the number of asylum seekers expected for each country if the policy were implemented. Continue reading...

Experts in South Korea think they have found a less irritating way to express your frustration with fellow motorists. Well, it beats flipping them the birdAt the risk of sounding like Michael Gove, I think the problem with experts is that they don’t agree. Researchers in Seoul, having tested various car noises on 100 volunteers, have found that horns would suit us all much better if they sounded like ducks – still managing to alert people while being less irritating. However, Mike Stigwood, a consultant with noise-pollution specialist MAS Environmental, couldn’t disagree more. “No, absolutely not. You need a noise that triggers the sense in an alarming way and immediately draws your attention – which is what sirens and car horns currently do.” A quack is not that noise, except possibly to ducks.The thing we hear is the intention beneath the noise, and intentionality governs response. It is also the difference between what you are acclimatised to and what you become hypersensitive to. “Someone moving from the countryside to live next to a motorway will have acclimatised to the traffic noise within a month,” Stigwood says. “Whereas if your neighbour has a rock-band rehearsal twice a week, you will get to the point where even the cars pulling up on the driveway will trigger adverse emotion.” Continue reading...

Although there’s some uncertainty in the distribution among Earth’s ocean basins, there’s no question that the ocean is heating rapidly

Data reveals there are 150 to 180 animals in Finland, where government awards licences to hunt them

Nights are getting longer again, bringing the first dark skies of summer. Look out for Saturn – more than a dot, even with binocularsAs the sun turns southwards, our nights begin to lengthen and the moonless spell later in July brings many of us our first dark skies of the summer. The chart shows the Plough in the NW as the Summer Triangle reaches the high meridian. Formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair and Deneb, in the constellations Lyra, Aquila and Cygnus respectively, it is bisected by the Milky Way, which arches high across our E sky from Sagittarius and Scorpius (SCO) low in the S to Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Perseus in the NE.

Lots of dogs chase their tails – but for some the behaviour is a sign of the canine version of OCD. Now scientists are finding the minds of dogs and humans might be more closely linked than we thoughtCuriously, and perhaps eagerly, I am looking at a bull terrier named Sputnik, searching for a resemblance. He’s a stocky three-year-old, mostly slate grey, with a white stripe on his head and a pink splotch on his elongated, bull-terrier nose. So far, our only similarity is we’re both waiting in an examination room at Tuft’s veterinary school in North Grafton, Massachusetts.Sputnik has canine compulsive disorder (CCD) and is at Tuft’s for a checkup with Nicholas Dodman, a veterinarian who has been studying CCD for more than two decades. I’m shadowing this visit to learn about Dodman’s work and, selfishly, to learn something about myself: I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder a few months ago. Continue reading...

The way we deal with popularity at school stays with us for life. But, asks Mitch Prinstein, is it our true self?

Justice department fighting use of unclaimed money from settlement for museum honoring black men who were not given treatment for disease

They feel your pain as if it were their own – and charge you £200 an hour to do so. Why has empathy become such a prized commodity?It is late on Friday at Piper’s diner in Koreatown, Los Angeles. David Sauvage, a slight 36-year-old man with an arresting stare, is preparing to empathise with me. “These aren’t ideal circumstances, but that’s OK,” he says. A few night owls busy themselves with eggs and tacos; a waiter carries a tray of drinks between booths. Sauvage crosses his legs, removes his necklace, exhales deeply and prepares to inhabit my feelings.“If we start with where you are now, you’re much more open than you were a few moments ago.” He pushes his head back and takes tiny gulps of air. “You’re right now in your life going through… I almost want to say a spiritual awakening? You’re searching for cosmic truth. Or some emanation of the divine.” He shudders. “It’s very weird to have this experience in someone else’s body.” Continue reading...

The technological autopsy on last year’s Tesla Autopilot crash has now closed. Regulators must now take responsibility for safety improvements

The race between wealthy tech billionaires to get to Mars is a distraction from mortalityFor science fiction writers ranged across the astronomical distance that separates Edgar Rice Burroughs and Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars has been a theatre of dreams, variously realistic. Now the tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are competing to see who will make it first there in reality. Bezos is spending a billion dollars a year out of his Amazon stock to keep his project going; Musk has announced he wants the first manned private flights to set off by 2026. He hopes that the price can be brought down from around $10bn to $200,000 and that reusable spaceships will ferry a million people to Mars over a period of decades until they can start a self-sustaining civilisation there. This, of course, is only the beginning: once the technology of reusable spacecraft fuelled by methane made from raw materials found at their destination has been mastered, Musk foresees no limit to their explorations.Related: Life on Mars: Elon Musk reveals details of his colonisation vision Continue reading...

Measures outlined in space industry bill are not enough to alleviate the problems Brexit has created for the industry in Britain, say companiesPlans for commercial spaceports outlined in the Queen’s speech this week will not cancel out the economic threat of Brexit, industry leaders have warned.The space industry bill would enable rocket launches from British soil and ease regulations to make it possible for startups to send constellations of cheap micro-satellites into orbit. Continue reading...

Bison, bluebells, bumble bees and beavers are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Is there life on other planets? Probably. The list of Earth-like planets just keeps growing and growing. Nasa’s Kepler telescope has recently found 10 more Earth-like planets, so it is now known that there are around 50 worlds of a similar size and temperature as our own. Prompting one Kepler programme scientist to conclude that it’s highly likely: ‘we are not alone.’ Continue reading...

Facts are the science world’s stock-in-trade, but in an era of fake news it is ever more important to build public trust by avoiding exaggerated claims and jargonOne of my most cherished possessions is a handmade cherrywood salad bowl that’s never held a leaf of lettuce. It is 25 years old and gets more beautiful every year. The bowl was a gift, carved by a widower who was left to raise his daughter alone when his wife died under my care as an oncologist. My patient, who I’ll call Erica, had the most challenging form of breast cancer and I didn’t have the tools to save her life. I’ve always felt undeserving of the gift, despite doing everything I could.

Although fracturing and surface melting on the Larsen C ice shelf might sound like indicators of climate change, these processes are naturalAntarctica boasts a great many superlatives: it is the driest continent, the coldest, the remotest, the windiest and the highest on average. Right now, during midwinter, it is also the darkest. As a rift on the continent’s Larsen C ice shelf lengthens and gets closer to the ice front, we are anticipating the detachment of a large tabular iceberg within the next few weeks.This comes after observations of a waterfall on another ice shelf last summer, reports of extensive surface melting on several ice shelves and, in a report last week, indications of a widespread surface-melting event, which included rainfall as far as 82° south, during the 2015-16 El Niño. Are glaciologists shocked by any of this? Is Antarctica going to melt away? Is Larsen C about to collapse? Continue reading...

Victorian botanist Anna Atkins brought nature to life with her striking, modern-looking cyanotypes of seaweed and algae Continue reading...

Board of education chairman says subject is debatable, controversial and too complicated for studentsEvolution will no longer be taught in Turkish schools, a senior education official has said, in a move likely to raise the ire of the country’s secular opposition.Alpaslan Durmuş, who chairs the board of education, said evolution was debatable, controversial and too complicated for students.

Nasa astronauts-aquanauts have made a temporary underwater home to prepare for future missions. An Aussie space engineer is part of the teamOn Sunday a group of six astronauts, engineers and scientists submerged 19 metres to the bottom of an Atlantic Ocean reef to live underwater for Nasa’s extreme environment mission operations (Neemo) expedition.

Three craft, millions of kilometres apart and linked by lasers, will watch out for minute ripples in the fabric of spacetimeThe European Space Agency (ESA) has formally embarked on a mission to search for gravitational waves from space.The Lisa (laser interferometer space antenna mission) will use three spacecraft to detect these minute ripples in the fabric of spacetime. The spacecraft will be stationed millions of kilometres apart in space, and linked via laser beams. Continue reading...

Ninety-tonne cyclotron at Christie hospital will give NHS patients access to treatment that is currently only available abroadA 90-tonne machine that will allow cancer patients to receive state-of-the-art high-energy proton beam therapy on the NHS for the first time is to be installed at a hospital in Manchester.The cyclotron delivers a special type of radiotherapy currently only available overseas. The NHS has been paying for patients to travel abroad for the treatment since 2008. Continue reading...

The English colonial legacy has left its mark in Wales, and it sticks in the craw that otherwise liberal people might criticise minority-language activists in the UK

After Uganda’s president said he and Queen Elizabeth were ‘friends with mutual benefits’, I was inspired to investigate some other confusing idiomsUganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, recently tweeted that he and Queen Elizabeth II were “friends with mutual benefits”. I sympathize: English expressions are confusing, some of them feel almost deliberately obscure – designed to exclude non-native speakers from the joke.Museveni later deleted his tweet. I wish he hadn’t. We should celebrate linguistic ambiguity and explore the universe of meanings in words. Continue reading...

It is a plant that millions depend on for survival. But another, identical variety can be lethal – and desperate people turning to the black market can’t tell them apartVenezuela has suffered food shortages for several years but things only seem to be getting worse. People are resorting to the black market for food, skipping meals and rummaging through garbage in search of sustenance. Last year, three quarters of adults involuntarily lost an average of 19lb (8.6kg). Malnutrition is on the rise and people are being exposed to lethal foods. At least 28 people have died as a result of eating bitter cassava, having mistaken it for the sweet variety.Cassava, also known as manioc and yuca, is a staple food for about 700 million people worldwide. The perennial plant is native to South America but was brought to Africa by 17th-century explorers and later introduced to Asia. It thrives in tropical climates. The plant is very resilient, surviving where many other crops fail, and involves less human investment per calorie than potatoes. It is often poorer communities that rely on cassava for their survival. Continue reading...

‘After two hours of drinking vodka, General Boris suggested we just do the shoot at his house’Star City is a self-contained city for cosmonauts about an hour from Moscow. Astronauts still come from all over the world to get trained there. It might look dated but, underneath, the important stuff is all working. As well as a training centre, it has a launch site, a technical department, a school, and a hospital – everything really. During the cold war, when there was a lot of money going into the space race, it was an important place. That’s not so much the case now.We are all awed by space – and, although there is something old-fashioned, even funny, about this image, it is still noble. The subject’s name is General Boris V and I took his portrait back in 2007. Originally, the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre had agreed to let me shoot on their premises, but when I got there they asked for money. Continue reading...

I recently decided to abandon the rules that govern nature for the rules that govern people and markets: economics. Why would I do such a thing?I love physics. Brick by brick, you can build new theories from established ones and know that they will apply not just on Earth but throughout the entire universe. The upsides are incredible: I worked on the theory and simulation of plasmas (the stuff stars are made of) for nuclear fusion. If nuclear fusion succeeds in its objectives, it could mean the end of our reliance on fossil fuels, the end of climate change, and energy security for at least millions of years. The experiments in fusion push the limits of nature. Every time Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Ignition Facility in California fires its fusion laser, the world’s most energetic, material is heated from 18 degrees above absolute zero to hotter than the centre of the sun in just a few nano-seconds. The work was as exciting and intellectually rewarding as you might expect.As quantum mechanics brought down classical mechanics, the financial crisis has led to a reappraisal of macroeconomics Continue reading...

Huge and unexplained bloom has fishers racing to save their nets, and scientists hurrying to study the rare animalA rare, tiny marine creature known as the “unicorn of the sea” has swarmed in its millions on the west coast of America, ruining fishermen’s nets and baffling scientists who are scrambling to find out more about them.Fishers along the west coast have told researchers that in some places they are unable to catch anything because the pyrosome clusters are so dense and tightly packed. Their hooks, when pulled from the ocean, wriggle with the odd-looking creatures, which are sometimes referred to as “sea pickles” or “fire bodies”. Continue reading...

Scotland is home to majority of 4,000 sites on database – but many are not on hills and are not really forts, say researchersSome soar out of the landscape and have impressed tourists and inspired historians and artists for centuries, while others are tiny gems, tucked away on mountain or moor and are rarely visited.Related: First world war training tunnels and trenches discovered in Wiltshire Continue reading...

Ian Sample explores research on cellular senescence and the role this therapeutic approach can play in age-related diseases and health issues

Previously unknown Anglesey landscape possibly includes cairn cemetery in what experts described as ‘really exciting stuff’Archaeologists have uncovered a prehistoric ritual landscape that possibly includes a cairn cemetery around a 5,000-year-old burial mound aligned with the summer solstice sun on Anglesey.Though far less famous than Stonehenge, the spectacle of sunlight shining down a long narrow passage to light up the inner chamber of Bryn Celli Ddu on the longest day of the year is unforgettable. Excavation now suggests the site had significance for prehistoric people that lasted for millennia after the earth mound was raised over a stone passage grave. Continue reading...

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesDinosaurs dominated terrestrial life on this planet for over 130m years. If it hadn’t been for a wayward asteroid, the reign of Tyrannosaurus rex and its ilk could have lasted for at least another 66m. In fact, let’s presume for a moment that the cosmic boulder that ended the Cretaceous period totally missed Earth and allowed dinosaurs to survive to the present. What would life be like now? Continue reading...

Despite dinosaurs having met extinction long ago, our dreams of reviving them refuse to die. Recent events imply we may have to settle for resurrecting poultryThere are some ideas that just won’t die. Like the villain in a movie, even when they’ve been shot with the bullets of refutation, scalded by heated discourse, and pushed off into the pool of disproven theories, these ideas still claw their way back, bedraggled and screaming, to attack us one more time.If there is one idea in palaeontology that typifies this tiresome cycle, it is the resurrection of the dinosaurs. “Can we ever bring them back?” it is so often asked. Despite scientists repeatedly saying no, the question lives on. This is due in part to the rehashing of a handful of studies that seemed for a moment to offer promise of a real-life Jurassic Park, but have all been shown to be flawed. Continue reading...

Scientists in Paris come up with unexpected answer to the age-old problem of running to the departure gate with a two-wheeled suitcaseHalf a century after the American businessman Bernard D Sadow shocked travellers with the invention of “rolling luggage”, scientists have worked out why suitcases tend to to rock violently from one wheel to the other until they overturn on the race through the airport.This most pressing of modern mysteries was taken on by physicists in Paris, who devised a scale model of a two-wheeled suitcase rolling on a treadmill and backed up their observations with a pile of equations and references to holonomic restraints, finite perturbations and the morphing of bifurcation diagrams. Continue reading...