In a new series marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the novelist calls for a revolt against petrochemical polymersAh, the Reformation. And then, inevitably, the Counter-Reformation. We remember them, sort of, especially after reading Dissolution, CJ Sansom’s detective thriller about the shutting down of and, not incidentally, the looting of rich but decadent English monasteries under Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. Or after watching the bloodflow and interfrying of both Catholics and Protestants in various TV series set during various Tudor regimes, most recently Wolf Hall.Printing the Bible in the vernacular could get you executed. So could attempting to blow up parliament in aid of a Catholic restoration, like Guy Fawkes, which has given us a legacy of those creepy masks sported by members of the online group Anonymous. Then there was Oliver Cromwell, who broke a lot of priceless stained-glass windows in the name of a reformed religion, and made himself so unpopular with monarchists that his corpse was dug up and beheaded. Continue reading...

A Clockwork Orange author only managed entries for three letters and his abortive labours were thought to have gone for everThe writer Anthony Burgess invented futuristic slang for his cult novel A Clockwork Orange and was so fascinated by the language of the street that he began work on a dictionary more than 50 years ago. Now his lost dictionary of slang, abandoned after several hundred entries covering three letters, has been discovered.The work had been hidden in a vast archive of his papers and possessions held by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, an educational charity in Manchester, where he was born a century ago. Continue reading...

The national science agency is in a research partnership with a Chinese state-owned enterprise responsible for the same advanced military technologies Australia’s intelligence community is working hard to guard againstIn April 2017 a joint centre for advanced science and technology research was launched at the University of Technology, Sydney. The partner and funder is the China Electronics Group Corporation (CETC), one of China’s largest state owned-enterprises.

Report covering children diagnosed from 1970 to 1999 finds rate of severe long-term side effects dropped from 12.7% to 8.8%More children are surviving childhood cancer with fewer debilitating long-term side effects, a new study has found.The study used data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, a US database supported by the National Cancer Institute, which collects information on long-term health outcomes of more than 35,000 childhood cancer survivors. It focused on children diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1999 who had survived for at least five years. Continue reading...

Voles have almost perfected monogamy, which has made them perfect subjects for studying the neuroscience of love. With the help of rodent Romeos and Juliets, scientists have now pinpointed the specific patterns of brain activity that accompany romance. It’s an exciting development, but this next one blew me away: scientists have also now discovered how the brain recognises faces - effectively by reading the minds of monkeys. Yuh-huh. We’re through the looking glass, people. And on the other side of looking glass may well be the secrets of black holes and dark matter, now that Ligo has detected gravitational waves for the third time. This latests observation brings scientists closer to goal of using gravitational waves to see ancient events invisible to optical and radio telescopes. And from the stars, we looked back into history here on Earth – through ice, although the results have been a little disturbing. Ice cores and records from the era of the Black Death show lead entered the air from human activity – and scientists now think that there’s no such thing as a “natural background” level for lead. So essentially, as one researcher put it: “We have basically been poisoning ourselves for about 2,000 years.” Oops. This last piece of news makes up for it though – scientists have found a way to modify the already pretty magical antibiotic vancomycin so that it works in three ways, making it harder for bugs to develop resistance. This is truly the sort of development that could pull us back from the brink, so ladies and gents of the Scripps Research Institute, I tip my hat and raise my glass to you. Continue reading...

Footage taken at the beginning of the year shows the split in an Antarctic ice shelf. A giant section is hanging by a thread and is due to break off at any moment

Donald Trump may have used his ‘very good brain’ to create scientifically sound reasons for pulling the US out of the Paris climate treaty. Sort of.So, Donald Trump has pulled the United States, the biggest polluter in the world after China (and even that is questionable if you consider relative population densities), out of the ground-breaking Paris accord, the global treaty aimed at tackling climate change by curbing carbon dioxide, CO, emissions. Obviously, this hasn’t gone down well with … well, essentially anyone. But despite this widespread condemnation of what looks to be a disastrous, damaging, illogical decision with dubious motives, maybe, just maybe, Trump knows what he’s doing?Trump keeps saying he has “a very good brain” and is “one of the smartest people anywhere in the world”, so maybe we should take him at his word? He’s the president after all. Granted, nothing he’s done or said thus far supports his claim to be one of the smartest people alive, but when much of your campaign was based on anti-intellectualism, you can’t be seen doing or saying intelligent things. It’s quite smart if you think about it, briefly. Continue reading...

Split in the Larsen C ice shelf will release an iceberg a quarter of the size of Wales, changing the landscape of the Antarctic peninsulaA giant section of an Antarctic ice shelf is hanging by a thread and could break off at any moment, researchers have revealed.The split in the Larsen C ice shelf of the Antarctic peninsula will release a huge iceberg 5,000 sq km in size – an area about a quarter of the size of Wales. Continue reading...

Oxford’s decision on compulsory retirement raises pressing questions about fairness – and what is best for academia as a wholeIncreasing diversity in academic science is a thorny issue that has exercised its practitioners for more than a generation.In the life sciences, for example, a pool of equal numbers of men and women at the undergraduate, PhD and even postdoctoral level soon becomes skewed, with about 80% of professors being male. This “leaky pipeline” has persisted for nearly thirty years, despite a raft of well-meaning efforts including, in this country, the Athena SWAN initiative. Racial diversity is another area where science doesn’t score well. Continue reading...

It has a reputation as a party drug, but some patients say it has transformed their lives after no other treatments helpedWhen depression takes hold of Helen it feels like she is drowning in a pool of water, unable to swim up to the world above. The 36-year-old former nurse has had mental health problems most of her life. No drugs, hospital stays or therapies have been able to help.Then one day, during yet another spell in hospital, her consultant told her about a psychiatrist treating patients with ketamine. The psychiatrist in question visited her to discuss using the drug. He warned there were no guarantees, but it had helped some patients. Continue reading...

Psychiatrists hail benefits of ‘transformational’ drug, and call for more trials to explore its potentialThousands of people with severe depression could obtain urgent relief if experimental treatment using ketamine were made more widely available, medical experts say.The drug has been championed by doctors and psychiatrists as a potentially life-changing treatment for those with depression who are resistant to medication or suicidally depressed. Medics are calling for more specialists centres and trials to be set up to explore the drug’s potential under controlled conditions. Continue reading...

Trump’s confirmed withdrawal from the United Nation’s Paris climate deal shows it’s time to get to grips with the climate science denial industryMoments before the US president, Donald Trump, strode into the Rose Garden, TV cameras pictured his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, shaking hands and looking generally pleased with himself.

The Paris agreement is facing a mortal, US-led threat. But at this crucial moment, our prime minister is, once again, absent, silent and weakThe most important international agreement to tackle climate change is about to be dealt a severe blow – but Theresa May is nowhere to be found.Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, in which 195 countries signed up to ambitious targets to arrest the rise in global temperatures. Such a decision from the US will heighten the risk of a climate disaster, with all the damaging consequences to food supply, the global economy and our security. Continue reading...

Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch, which has a 117m wingspan, is designed to send satellites into orbitThe world’s biggest plane, boasting a 117-metre wingspan, has been launched by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.The six-engine, dual-hulled Stratolaunch aircraft is designed to launch satellites into orbit. Launching the satellites on rockets while the Stratolaunch is in flight has the advantage of saving fuel comparing to sending them into orbit from a launchpad. Continue reading...

Using brain waves researchers were able to make almost perfect replicas of human faces shown to monkeys – raising prospect of thoughts being accessible to explorationScientists have created eerily perfect replicas of human faces that were shown to monkeys just from recording the animal’s brain waves, in one of the most impressive feats of mind reading to date.The demonstration solves one of the most intractable problems in neuroscience – how the brain recognises faces – and raises the prospect of our innermost thoughts becoming increasingly accessible to scientific exploration. Continue reading...

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method of electrically stimulating deep brain tissues without opening the skullSince 1997, more than 100,000 Parkinson’s Disease patients have been treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS), a surgical technique that involves the implantation of ultra-thin wire electrodes. The implanted device, sometimes referred to as a ‘brain pacemaker’, delivers electrical pulses to a structure called the subthalamic nucleus, located near the centre of the brain, and effectively alleviates many of the physical symptoms of the disease, such as tremor, muscle rigidity, and slowed movements.DBS is generally safe but, like any surgical procedure, comes with some risks. First and foremost, it is highly invasive, requiring small holes to be drilled in the patient’s skull, through which the electrodes are inserted. Potential complications of this include infection, stroke, and bleeding on the brain. The electrodes, which are implanted for long periods of time, sometimes move out of place; they can also cause swelling at the implantation site; and the wire connecting them to the battery, typically placed under the skin of the chest, can erode, all of which require additional surgical procedures. Continue reading...

Latest observation by Ligo brings scientists closer to goal of using gravitational waves to see ancient events invisible to optical and radio telescopesRipples in the fabric of spacetime triggered by the cataclysmic merger of two black holes more than 3bn years ago have been detected by physicists.The observations mark the third occasion that scientists have spotted gravitational waves – the compression and stretching of space itself that was first predicted by Einstein. Continue reading...

In 2007, conservationists discovered a new species inhabiting a beach just behind a pub in Granity, New Zealand. But could they save it before erosion and rising waters wiped it off the face of the planet?

Tuberculosis kills more people than HIV, but medicines to treat the disease have barely improved in 50 years - it’s time for urgent and radical innovationFour years ago, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) made the decision to sponsor and run its own tuberculosis clinical trial. The aim was to find a new treatment regimen for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) that was radically better than what was currently available.As an organisation that specialises in delivering short-term emergency healthcare, this was a bold and new direction to take. But it was a decision that came from our frustration, anger and impatience on behalf of the more than 20,000 people with TB that we treat every year. We felt compelled to search for improved treatments ourselves because too few pharmaceutical companies, organisations or universities were doing enough about it.

Peer review recognition company Publons is set to expand under new owners. Could this boost peer review and stop it being seen as an onerous, thankless task?Although expert evaluation of research papers and funding applications is still widely regarded as central to the quality control of research, publishers and funders have increasing difficulty getting academics to agree to spend time on what can often be an onerous, thankless task. In short, peer review has problems.

Only other UN members not party to Paris agreement never signed up, but for reasons of war and principle, not disbelief

There is nothing inferior about Angela Saini’s new book on how science got women wrong and is still struggling to free itself from biasWhen Mrs Caroline Kennard, an active member of the women’s movement in Boston, wrote to Charles Darwin in late 1881 seeking reassurance that his theories of evolution didn’t entail the inferiority of women, she was disappointed by the great man’s reply. The author of On the Origin of Species wrote back: “there seems to me to be a great difficulty from the laws of inheritance, (if I understand these laws rightly) in [women] becoming the intellectual equals of man.” While Darwin’s scientific work has certainly withstood the test of time, his views on the capabilities of women have not, as Angela Saini reveals in her quietly powerful new book, Inferior.Subtitled “How science got women wrong and the new research that’s rewriting the story”, Inferior explores the science of gender difference, which turns out to be far more complicated than Darwin supposed. In doing so she uncovers how science has been no better than any other field of human endeavour in freeing itself from the historical and cultural baggage of societies that have long treated women as the second sex. Saini peels back the meritocratic veneer that still coats much of science to reveal a shabbier interior. Continue reading...

Old Etonians in the FA Cup | Climbing Everest | Makeup tips | Jeremy Corbyn’s memory for figures | Paul Nuttall’s internment plan | New spin on an old proverbOne of the two FA Cup finals Old Etonians won (Letters, 30 May) was in 1882. They were playing a storming Blackburn Rovers, who by the end of that season stood undefeated in 35 games. The Rovers were perhaps overconfident; their club poet (yes) came to the Oval with copies for sale of an Ode to Victory. In the event, the OEs prevailed 1–0. But an immortal couplet from the ode has long survived in my memory: “All hail, ye gallant Rovers lads! / Etonians thought ye were but cads.”

As a species, voles have almost perfected monogamy – so scientists have turned to the tiny mammals to study the neuroscience of love“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind,” Shakespeare wrote. Now scientists have pinpointed the specific patterns of brain activity that accompany romance, offering a new explanation for why love sends our judgement haywire.

Reef conservation must not be an attempt to restore reefs of the past, but to identify the parts essential to their continued existence, and protect thoseThe survival of coral reefs requires a radical rethink of what conservation means, as well as embracing some of the changes they are undergoing, according to a paper by leading coral reef scientists.“Helping coral reefs to safely navigate the Anthropocene is a profound challenge for multiscale governance,” the scientists say in a paper published today in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

Observations suggest that black holes swallow doomed stars whole, increasing the mystery surrounding these celestial monstersOf all the mysteries in the universe, black holes surely top the list. They have such strong gravitational fields that once an object falls in, it will never be able to escape.What then happens to that object is a total mystery that current physics cannot answer. Our best ideas suggest that in the overwhelming gravity, matter is simply crushed out of existence – but what does that actually mean? Can it really happen?

Influential people have always had the power to change language. The president’s late-night typo sent the internet crazy, but will it stick around?Covfefe is the word on everyone’s lips. Or rather, it would be if people knew how to say it. You see, this latest contender for 2017’s “word of the year” (see also: kakistocracy; emolument; kompromat) started life on the page. A page that was refreshed millions of times as Twitter users blinked at their screens in confusion. The president of the United States had once again typoed his way into the early hours and the world’s befuddled consciousness. This time, however, unlike “unpresidented” and “honered”, the mangling was so complete it wasn’t immediately clear what he meant.Trump’s tweet went thus: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”, and that was it. Keyboard detectives have pointed out that the strokes needed to type “erage” are vaguely similar to “fefe”, and that would fit semantically with the rest of the brainfart. So, boringly enough, he meant to type “coverage”. But it was too late. Covfefe was born. Continue reading...

A ‘faceless’ fish has been rediscovered by scientists on an expedition in the depths of a massive abyss in waters south of Sydney. The 40cm fish was found 4km below sea level. It was last seen in waters off Australia in 1873

Peter Wohlleben’s book has become bestseller in Germany but he tells Hay festival audience it has annoyed scientistsTrees are social creatures that mother their young, talk to each other, experience pain, remember things and have sex with each other, a bestselling author has said.If that persuades you to go and hug the nearest tree, then great, said Peter Wohlleben. Just avoid a birch: “It is not very sociable. Try a beech.” Continue reading...

Renamed the Parker Solar Probe to honour solar astrophysicist who predicted high speed solar wind, the spacecraft will attempt to get close to sun’s surfaceNasa has announced its hotly anticipated mission to send a spacecraft into the sun’s outer atmosphere has a new name.Formerly known as the Solar Probe Plus mission, the endeavour will now be known as the Parker Solar Probe, honouring the American solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker who predicted a high speed solar wind – the stream of charged particles, or plasma, that flows from the sun out into space. Continue reading...

Recent discoveries are adding greatly to our understanding of the giant sauropod dinosaursThe sauropod dinosaurs are instantly recognisable to anyone with the most passing knowledge of dinosaurs. The huge size, columnar limbs, long tail and, in particular, long necks make them distinctive even among the huge diversity of the dinosaurs. Familiar names like Brontosaurus and Diplodocus bring up images of multi-tonne giants filling landscapes. Yet surprisingly our understanding of these great animals is often limited.Although they make up around a quarter of dinosaur species (birds aside), are obviously large and were often common animals, their fossil record is rather poor, at least in some key areas. Firstly, these giants often had very small and very fragile skulls. Loads of sauropods are known from great specimens that are basically complete apart from some bits like ribs and toe bones but completely lack a head. The skull is critical for huge amount of research as it contains the brain, the major sense organs and the feeding apparatus, so missing this for most species is more than a bit of a handicap for researchers.When found, a great skull can help produce important research. 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 queries“The camera has the power to catch so-called normal people in such a way as to make them look extremely disturbed,” writes Susan Sontag in an essay from 1973 called Freak Show. “The camera chooses oddity, chases it, names it, elects it, frames it, develops it, titles it.” Sontag was talking about photography, but this concept of naming-and-framing is a useful analogy for how we view one another in society at large.We muscle through life constantly framing the “normality” of others against our own patchwork of knowledge, life experiences, values and opinions. We can’t help it. Yet normality is probably the most subjective concept human beings can ponder. Continue reading...

My Life Films combine music, photos, clips and interviews to celebrate the lives of those with dementia – and help carers build better patient relationshipsJo throws her arms up in enjoyment, hugs herself, laughs. She has watched the film of her life many times before, but each time it seems fresh, because Jo has dementia.“One of the joys of this experience is she’s almost seeing it for the first time each time, and that definitely extends its value,” says her son.

‘Almost unique’ remains of wealthy home from town’s Roman heyday found under public park in centreThe foundations of a luxurious private bath house once owned by some of the richest citizens of Roman Chichester have been found under a public park in the centre of the city.

Participants in study also tended to see anger rather than happiness in faces when anxious, say researchers

Given a ‘down to earth’ nickname for the time being, a newly found fast-moving gas ribbon is fascinating astronomersA mysterious streak of purple light spotted by aurora watchers adds to a growing list of upper atmospheric phenomena. Previously spotted electrical effects have been called elves, sprites and gnomes; the newcomer has the less fairytale name of Steve.The name was bestowed by the Alberta Aurora Chasers, an online skywatching group who first noticed the phenomenon. Initially it looked like a faint contrail, but longer exposures showed that it was luminous with a distinctive purple colour. Continue reading...

Maternal instinct – the devotion that informs our idea of archetypal motherhood – doesn’t mean only women with children can care about future generationsAs a mother, I understand the powerful bond that can exist between a parent and child. I love my son, and I really would do anything for him. Society assumes that all women, with enough exposure to their babies, will feel the same sense of endless, selfless love. We’re thought to be biologically programmed this way. But the truth is far more complicated.It’s hard for any woman to escape the expectation to be a mother. The maternal myth suffuses every human culture, from Catholicism’s Virgin Mary to Hinduism’s goddess mother. It’s considered the most natural state of womanhood, leaving the childless woman the object of pity. Let’s not even mention the woman who doesn’t want or like children at all. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ice cores and records from the Black Death show lead entered the air from human activity – and scientists claim “natural background” levels are zeroAnalysis of an ice core taken from the Swiss Alps together with records dating from the time of the Black Death have revealed that there is no “natural” level of lead in the air, researchers have claimed.

Sarah Harper, director of Oxford Institute of Ageing, suggests people in their 70s and 80s should be considered active adultsPeople should not be called old until they are seriously frail, dependent and approaching death, one of the UK’s leading social scientists has told Hay festival.

It has taken 60 years for bacteria to become resistant to vancomycin; modified drug now works in three ways, making it harder for bugs to develop resistanceAn antibiotic has been modified to make it more potent against bacteria, in an advance which researchers hope will help fight the threat of antibiotic-resistant infections.The medicine, vancomycin, has been prescribed by doctors for 60 years and bacteria are only now becoming resistant to it. Continue reading...

Some people just love pointing out mistakes and errors made by others. Why? What do they get from it?Pedants are literally everywhere. Although, there’s still space for oxygen and rabbits and scented candles. Announcing themselves with a catchphrase that could be from a Richard Curtis film about rustic water sources and being charmingly upper-class and awkward (Well, actually…), pedants can frequently be seen correcting grammar, factoids and social etiquette at auspicious occasions, before disappearing in a puff of nothing back to wherever it was they came from. It’s enough to make you nauseous.Sigmund Freud stated that pedants are men who are unable to laugh at themselves. I would point out that female pedants exist, but he’d probably say I was being anal. Or maybe genital. Between you and I, I can never remember the developmental stages. Irregardless, pedants are individuals who make excessive displays of their own knowledge based on formal rules and overly precise details with an enormity that disregards common sense. Pedantry represents a behaviour and as such can potentially be explained through psychology/neuroscience/scientific just-so stories. Continue reading...

Bones of young woman buried with her greatest treasures will be part of collection housed at new Museum of London siteThe skeleton of a young Roman Londoner will soon return to within 100 yards of the site where she was buried more than 1,700 years ago – with her greatest treasure, a stack of seven bronze bangles – heaped up on her breast.

Combination of carbon emissions and ‘urban heat island’ effect of concrete and asphalt gives rise to worst-case scenario by end of 21st centuryUnder a dual onslaught of global warming and localised urban heating, some of the world’s cities may be as much as 8C (14.4F) warmer by 2100, researchers have warned.

Study finds 95% of patients who had heart attack but not heart failure saw no benefit, suggesting drugs are overprescribedMany patients given beta blockers after a heart attack may not benefit from being on the drugs, suggesting they may be being overprescribed, researchers have said.

HSE University unveils 1.5 tonne die stamped with phrases including “Major Changes” and “Reject” to highlight importance to research of peer reviewHuge, concrete and with ominous phrases including “Major Changes” and “Reject” stamped on its six sides, a new monument in Moscow celebrates an unlikely hero: the anonymous peer reviewer.Unveiled at the Institute of Education, HSE University on Friday, the 1.5-tonne die is the result of a crowdfunding campaign that drew support from a host of researchers, including the Nobel laureates Erik Maskin and Andre Geim – the latter being the co-discoverer of graphene who is currently based at the University of Manchester. Continue reading...

Although psychosis is rare, factors including stress related to migration and discrimination could contribute to increased risk, say researchersPeople from ethnic minorities have up to a five times greater risk of psychotic disorders than the white British population, researchers say.A new study reveals that the trend holds in both urban and rural settings, with first-generation migrants who arrive in the UK in childhood among those at increased risk.

Onlookers were treated to a stellar show on Sunday when the phenomena appeared above Tasmania and New Zealand’s South IslandThe southern-most points of Australia and New Zealand have been treated to an extraordinary spectacle as unusually colourful aurora australis lights swept across the skies.Images and video of the event flooded social media on Sunday night. The Aurora Australis Tasmania Facebook page, which counts more than 52,000 members, was a focal point for people to share what they captured. Continue reading...

Jupiter rules the heavens, but keep an eye open for noctilucent clouds that gleam low in the sky after nightfall and before dawnJune brings our summer solstice on the 21st and sees Jupiter remain as the stand-out object in a night sky that is blighted by persistent twilight at our latitudes. The latter is so severe over northern Britain that it swamps all but the brighter stars and planets. Those bright stars include Vega in Lyra which is high in the E by our map times as the Summer Triangle it forms with Altair in Aquila and Deneb in Cygnus returns to prominence. Continue reading...

Scientists studying FRBs – energy explosions from distant parts of the universe – are on to something vitally important. But what causes them?In summer 2006, astronomer Duncan Lorimer started work on a seemingly routine piece of scientific research. He and a team of students began examining old records of sky surveys that had been carried out using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia in past years.Lorimer was looking for observations of pulsars – highly energetic rotating neutron stars left over from supernovae explosions – that might have been missed during previous sweeps of the heavens. Pulsars are his celestial obsession, the astronomer admits, and he was keen to discover as many new ones as possible. Continue reading...