Scientists say discovery of ingredients for life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is bittersweet as spacecraft prepares to end 20-year missionCould there be life in our own solar system?This is the question posed by the discovery of hydrogen gas erupting in plumes from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, indicating the likely existence of an energy supply for microbial life. Continue reading...

‘Liquid biopsy’ diagnosed cancer recurrence up to a year before CT scans are able to in major lung cancer trial, and could buy crucial time for doctorsA revolutionary blood test has been shown to diagnose the recurrence of cancer up to a year in advance of conventional scans in a major lung cancer trial.The test, known as a liquid biopsy, could buy crucial time for doctors by indicating that cancer is growing in the body when tumours are not yet detectable on CT scans and long before the patient becomes aware of physical symptoms. Continue reading...

Mandibulates, a group that includes crustaceans and insects, show huge diversity – Tokummia katalepsis could be the missing link that explains whyA fossilised ancient creature boasting huge pincers resembling can-openers, a hinged two-piece shell and more than 50 pairs of legs has been discovered, shedding light on the evolutionary past of a huge and diverse group of animals.Researchers say the creature, thought to have lived about 507 million years ago during the Cambrian period, offers insights into the early body plan of mandibulates – a group that encompasses creatures including millipedes, crabs and ants. The group takes its name from the presence of mouth parts known as mandibles, which the animals use to help hold or eat food. Continue reading...

Smashed mastodon bones show humans arrived over 100,000 years earlier than previously thought say researchers, although other experts are scepticalThe history of the people of America, a story that dates back to the last ice age, has been upended by the battered bones of a mastodon found under a freeway construction site in California.Archaeological sites in North America have led most researchers to believe that the continent was first reached by humans like us, Homo sapiens, about 15,000 years ago. But inspection of the broken mastodon bones, and large stones lying with them, point to a radical new date for the arrival of ancient humans. If the claim stands up, humans arrived in the New World 130,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Using drones, snowmobiles and antler-cams, Norwegian broadcaster NRK is charting the passage of more than 1,000 reindeer as they travel to pastures new. Just as soon as they get a move onHigh up on a mountain plateau in Lapland there has been a tense silence for some days. A crew from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has been stuck with a herd of reindeer who are not intending to move. But move they must. Food is getting scarce and besides, their annual spring migration, towards new grazing land down at the coast 200km away, is going live on TV. Minute by minute.The transmission started on Monday night, but as the reindeer scraped through snow searching for more food, the lead female deer looked on unconcerned and immobile. The crew, less so. “We were waiting for the lead female to make a move,” editor Ole Rune Hætta explains. All reindeer herds have female leaders, but this this one seemed to be a little stuck. More than 1,000 reindeer and many more television viewers – including those across the world following the live stream – were about to go on a spectacular journey, if she ever got going. Continue reading...

A response to advances in neurotechnology that can read or alter brain activity, new human rights would protect people from theft, abuse and hackingNew human rights that would protect people from having their thoughts and other brain information stolen, abused or hacked have been proposed by researchers.The move is a response to the rapid advances being made with technologies that read or alter brain activity and which many expect to bring enormous benefits to people’s lives in the coming years. Continue reading...

A recent meta-study suggests that regular exercise improves the functioning of the brain in people aged 50 and over. How does that work, and is it even surprising?A recently-published study has provided strong evidence that regular exercise is very beneficial for the health and functioning of the brain in the over 50s. To many scientists, this is just confirming what we already knew. But for others, this may come as a surprise to hear.Who can blame them? Crude portrayals and stereotypes from mainstream entertainment, most obviously bawdy American comedies of the 80s, give the impression there is some sort clear divide between enjoying physical or intellectual activities, as if these things are incompatible. They present a world where you can either be a big, lumbering, strong-but-monosyllabic sports star, or a feeble, pasty, asthmatic book-and-gadget-loving genius. Continue reading...

Encounters with new worlds and new life will present religions with the ultimate theological conundrum. But they will adapt, as they have done beforeAbout two decades ago, it was quite uncertain whether stars other than our own sun even hosted their own planets. However, according to Nasa, the latest count of confirmed exoplanets stands at around 3,500 – and at least six of them are potential Earths. This count will definitely go up and many researchers believe that the advancement of technology will enable humans to discover some form of life on another planet in the coming years.Related: Exoplanet discovery: seven Earth-sized planets found orbiting nearby star Continue reading...

Scientists can’t turn their backs on the engagement of mass-media, but when it comes to inaccurate and sensational headlines, do the ends justify the means?“The public is mostly made of people who just don’t care. The media know they don’t understand the science and they don’t want to learn about it either.” An established scientist bitterly confesses to me his experiences with public outreach, via news media. He is red-faced and his voice is getting louder. “I know you have good intentions, but when you’ve been in the field for as long as me you’ll realise that we can’t win – the media will always take your words and turn them against you. All they care about is public entertainment. Accuracy? Forget it!”We’ve been talking for ten minutes, and it has become increasingly tense. The frustration is obvious: here is someone who loves his work and really wants to tell people about it. Yet he no longer engages with the press office at his institution, not if he can avoid it. He has learnt the hard way that if you speak to the media, what you say is too often misquoted and misunderstood. The science, the real message, is lost to sensationalism. Continue reading...

The British Isles split from Europe several thousand years ago. Now, maritime archaeology is revealing a lost landscape on the seafloorThe British Isles separated from the European continent approximately 8,000 years ago. For this Brexit there was no referendum or bus, no Leavers or Remainers, nor was it hard or soft. This was a watery Brexit as rising sea levels filled the Channel and created the North Sea. Maritime archaeology is revealing this submerged landscape that once connected the continent to Britain.Earth is a dynamic planet that is constantly changing. Going back far enough in time, Britain has been separated from the continent several times as sea levels changed. However, for the study of Homo sapiens it is the change at end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Holocene epoch 11,700 years ago that is most interesting. Continue reading...

Nearly half of LGBTIQ Australians hide their sexual identity at work, with many experiencing homophobic abuse. It’s time to do betterIn 2015 a US survey found that LGBTIQ scientists felt more accepted in their workplaces than their peers in other professions did. The Queer in Stem survey, published in the Journal of Homosexuality, surveyed 1,400 LGBTIQ workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They found respondents in scientific fields that had a high proportion of women were more likely to be out to their colleagues than those who worked in male-intensive disciplines.This is heartening news as it’s not necessarily that way in most Australian workplaces. Last year a report found that nearly half of LGBTIQ Australians hide their sexual identity at work. The research was conducted by Dive In festival on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The report also found six in 10 LGBTIQ people have experienced verbal homophobic abuse in the workplace, while two in 10 have experienced physical violence. Continue reading...

Scientists at Imperial College London used MRI scans and algorithms to produce computer-generated brain age and spot risk of dying youngDoctors may be able to warn patients if they are at risk of early death by analysing their brains, British scientists have discovered.Those whose brains appeared older than their true age were more likely to die early and to be in worse physical and mental health, a study by Imperial College London found. Continue reading...

Mathematical analysis reveals that for players with good control, using an unorthodox underarm technique gives better odds of scoringIt might invite ridicule, but it gets results. A scientific analysis has concluded that using a “granny style” underarm technique is the optimal way to take a free throw in basketball.Adopting the unorthodox strategy could result in marginal gains for professional players, the research suggests. And, as sporting doctrine goes, marginal gains can lead to remarkable results. Continue reading...

The key points in a debate between cardiology experts over the link between fat, cholesterol and coronary diseaseWhat’s the fuss about?A furore has blown up over whether eating saturated fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease after three cardiologists said that “the conceptual model of dietary saturated fat clogging a pipe is just plain wrong”. They also dismissed the drive for foods with lower cholesterol and the use of medications as “misguided”. Continue reading...

Francis Galton’s synoptic chart described conditions of the previous day and sidestepped the pitfalls of predictionThe first newspaper weather map was published in the Times on 1 April 1875, the work of polymath Francis Galton, an explorer and anthropologist who was also a statistician and meteorologist.The map was not a forecast, but a representation of the conditions of the previous day. This is known as a synoptic chart, meaning that it shows a summary of the weather situation. Readers could make their own predictions based on the information it provided. Continue reading...

Breeding wax moth caterpillars to devour our waste sounds good. But they would attack bee colonies too, and ultimately put crops at riskCaterpillars that can munch up plastic bags have just been identified, fuelling excited speculation that this could one day eliminate global pollution from plastic waste. The chance discovery, initially made by a scientist and amateur beekeeper whose plastic bag had been eaten through by the moth caterpillars, was reported this week by researchers at Cambridge University and the Spanish National Research Council.Related: Plastic-eating worms could help wage war on waste Continue reading...

Study sheds light on breed evolution and why certain types of dog are prone to the same diseases despite appearing to be very differentIt sounds like the ultimate shaggy dog story, but scientists say they have created the definitive canine family tree.The study not only sheds light on the evolution of different breeds, but also reveals why certain breeds are prone to the same diseases even though they appear to be very different.

Lambs born at equivalent of 23 weeks human gestation kept alive and developing in advance could transform outlook for very premature babiesAn artificial womb designed to support critically premature babies has been demonstrated successfully in animals for the first time, in an advance that could transform the lives of the most fragile newborns.Lambs born at the equivalent of 23 weeks in a human pregnancy were kept alive and appeared to develop normally while floating inside the transparent, womb-like vessel for four weeks after birth. Doctors said that the pioneering approach could radically improve outcomes for babies born so early that they cannot breathe, feed or fight infection without medical help. Continue reading...

Astronaut Peggy Whitson, who broke the US record for the most time in space, has received a congratulatory call from Donald Trump. The US president has urged Nasa to ‘speed up’ its Mars mission despite announcing plans to cut the space agency’s spending by about $200m

Wax moth larvae are usually bred as fish bait, but a chance discovery has revealed their taste for plastic – which could be used to beat polluting plasticFor caterpillars that are bred as premium fish bait, it must rank as a better life. Rather than dangling on the end of a hook and wondering what comes next, the grubs are set to join the war on plastic waste.The larvae of wax moths are sold as delicious snacks for chub, carp and catfish, but in the wild the worms live on beeswax, making them the scourge of beekeepers across Europe.

Support for ‘machine learning’ depended on what it would be used for, with mass unemployment among main fearsApart from fears of mass unemployment, accidents with machinery, restrictions on freedom, increased economic inequality and a devalued human experience, the public are broadly optimistic about the arrival of artificial intelligence, according to one of the first surveys of British opinions about the technology.Research by the polling firm Ipsos Mori found nearly a third of people believe the risks of “machine learning” outweigh the benefits, while 36% believe the risks and benefits are balanced. Continue reading...

Peggy Whitson, who broke the US record for most time spent in space, received praise from president, who plans to cut Nasa’s budget and certain programsAstronaut Peggy Whitson broke the US record for most time spent in space on Monday, and received a phone call from Donald Trump in which the president congratulated her and urged Nasa to reach Mars ahead of his own proposed schedule.Whitson, 57, reached her 534th day in space early on Monday morning. The president called her from the Oval Office, where he sat flanked by his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, and Dr Kate Rubins, another Nasa astronaut. Continue reading...

Psychology research shows people mistrust those who make moral decisions by calculating costs and benefits – like computers doTechnologies built on artificial intelligence are revolutionising human life. As these machines become increasingly integrated in our daily lives, the decisions they face will go beyond the merely pragmatic, and extend into the ethical. When faced with an unavoidable accident, should a self-driving car protect its passengers or seek to minimise overall lives lost? Should a drone strike a group of terrorists planning an attack, even if civilian casualties will occur? As artificially intelligent machines become more autonomous, these questions are impossible to ignore.There are good arguments for why some ethical decisions ought to be left to computers—unlike human beings, machines are not led astray by cognitive biases, do not experience fatigue, and do not feel hatred toward an enemy. An ethical AI could, in principle, be programmed to reflect the values and rules of an ideal moral agent. And free from human limitations, such machines could even be said to make better moral decisions than us. Yet the notion that a machine might be given free reign over moral decision-making seems distressing to many—so much so that, for some, their use poses a fundamental threat to human dignity. Why are we so reluctant to trust machines when it comes to making moral decisions? Psychology research provides a clue: we seem to have a fundamental mistrust of individuals who make moral decisions by calculating costs and benefits – like computers do. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following riddles:1. A retired professional wrestler boards a crowded train in Chicago when a young man stands up to offer his seat. The wrestler is not injured and is only 36 years old. All week, riders on the train offer to give up their seat so that the famous wrestler can sit down instead. Why do people keep offering their seat to this muscular former athlete? Continue reading...

Live grenades, graffiti, Australian toffees and a 1930s red sports car among finds at site being cleared for housingA vast battlefield landscape of tunnels and trenches dug to train troops for the first world war has been discovered on army land being cleared for housing.Archaeologists who worked on the site at Larkhill, in Wiltshire, said the century-old complex was a valuable discovery – although it posed hazards. Continue reading...

After events across the world on Saturday we asked readers working in or involved in science to tell us why they were taking action

An eight-year project at Teotihuacán, once the western hemisphere’s largest city, failed to locate its rulers’ tomb but findings offered tantalising clues to its originsFor decades, the hunt for a royal tomb at the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacán has gripped archaeologists trying to unravel the secrets of the kingdom’s extraordinary political power.It is a mystery investigators thought they were on the verge of solving in 2015, when large quantities of liquid mercury were found amid a treasure trove of precious artefacts in a secret tunnel. Continue reading...

Stargazers were treated to a spectacle when the Lyrid meteor shower lit up the night sky over the north-eastern province of Jilin at the weekend. The annual event usually occurs between 19 and 23 April when the Earth passes through the dusty tail of comet Thatcher

Four years ago, Gavan Naden nearly died from anaphylactic shock after being stung by wasps. He became fearful of going outside, but a drastic immunotherapy regime has saved himOver the past three and half years, I’ve had 70 wasp stings injected into my left arm. Voluntarily. This hasn’t been an exercise in masochism, but rather to ensure I can go outside without screaming from fear.Every year in the UK, there are between two and nine deaths from anaphylaxis caused by bee and wasp venom. In 2015-16, there were 4,451 hospital admissions for anaphylactic shock. In an effort to avoid adding to these statistics again, I’ve completed an immunotherapy programme. Fingers crossed “the cure” is never put to the test. Continue reading...

Three riddles that will wrestle you to the groundUPDATE: Read the solutions hereHi guzzlers,I have a different type of puzzle for you today: three riddles suggested by Adam Rubin, a magician, bestselling-writer and puzzle designer. Read the following stories and answer the questions. Continue reading...

New research suggests southpaws are more likely to have traffic incidents than right-handers. But perhaps our roads are simply rigged against the leftName: Left-handed people.Also known as: Lefties, southpaws. Continue reading...

Cancer Research UK says disease has risen 40% in last decade, and threatens to become one of the fastest growing cancersObesity is to blame for a surge in kidney cancer in the UK, causing an extra 20,000 cases in the last 10 years, according to a leading charity.Cancer Research UK says that new cases of kidney cancer have risen steeply, by 40% over the past decade. Continue reading...

We all love science when it’s making life better, longer and easier. It’s a much harder sell when it points to inconvenient truths about our way of lifeThere is an old joke about being able to tell an extroverted scientist: instead of staring at their shoes when they talk to you, they stare at yours. This is no longer true. Scientists are the new rock stars. Tonight Einstein gets the full soft-focus Crown-style treatment as National Geographic launches a 10-part series about the man described by the actor Geoffrey Rush, who portrays him in Genius, as a “stud-muffin theoretical physicist”.Related: Why I marched for science Continue reading...

Fake objects Nightingale rated highly to join ancient Egyptian amulets she thought ‘shabby’ at World Museum in LiverpoolA collection of ancient Egyptian amulets acquired by Florence Nightingale in the winter of 1849 when she went on an adventurous Egyptian holiday are going on display for the first time – and the curator at the World Museum in Liverpool is rather more impressed by them than the Lady of the Lamp herself was.Five years before she sailed to Scutari, Istanbul, during the Crimean war, Nightingale travelled to Egypt at a time when mass tourism there was in its infancy. She wrote vivid letters home to her older sister, Parthenope, who later published them, but described her little amulets as “rubbish”. Continue reading...

It’s not just about the flavour – or even the pain. In this extract from his new book, Bob Holmes uncovers the pharmacology and psychology behind humanity’s heat-seeking desireI’ve been procrastinating. On my dining room table I have lined up three hot peppers: one habanero, flame-orange and lantern-shaped; one skinny little Thai bird’s eye chilli; and one relatively innocuous jalapeño, looking by comparison like a big green zeppelin. My mission, should I choose to accept, is to eat them.In ordinary life, I’m at least moderately fond of hot peppers. My fridge has three kinds of salsa, a bottle of sriracha, and a jar of Szechuan hot bean paste, all of which I use regularly. But I’m not extreme: I pick the whole peppers out of my Thai curries and set them aside uneaten. And I’m a habanero virgin. Its reputation as the hottest pepper you can easily find in the grocery store has me a bit spooked, so I’ve never cooked with one, let alone eaten it neat. Still, if I’m going to write about hot peppers, I ought to have firsthand experience at the high end of the range. Plus, I’m curious, in a vaguely spectator-at-my-own-car-crash way. Continue reading...

Science will not make moral and political choices for us, or tell us what our goals should be. But it will help delineate the possibilities for achieving themLike many others, I marched for science on Saturday 22 April. I also spoke at the rally in Parliament Square, London, along with several excellent and varied speakers. We all had our own take on what we were there for, and why it was important, as did our fellow marchers and speakers around the world. This is the gist of what I said.I am a particle physicist, so I think it is ok to start by paraphrasing one of our heroes, Richard Feynman. Science is a way of trying not to fool ourselves. Continue reading...

British scientists are exploring ways to use the steel industry’s waste to capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphereThe Industrial Revolution left a deep mark on our world. Its dawning saw the start of the widespread burning of coal for factories and steam engines and, as a result, the beginning of significant outputs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our climate is now warming noticeably as these emissions have accumulated across the planet.The British landscape has also been changed dramatically. In particular, the countryside is now peppered with piles of slag left over from old steel mills. Landscaping these piles of industrial waste has required major efforts by local authorities in recent decades. Continue reading...

Our brains evolved to make sense of uncertainties, so there’s no need to fear doubt

$100m spent and still there is no sign of extraterrestrialsVery sad news for fans of aliens (should they exist). After more than a year of listening for signals, astronomers working on the $100m Breakthrough Listen project, funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Yuri Milner, have found no evidence of extraterrestrials. The only “intelligent signals” came via satellites, mobile phones and other “earthly devices”.The good news is that the “ET phone home” scene packs an even greater punch now that we know about all those strong mobile signals. A tiny negative: $100m is rather a lot for what sounds like the equivalent of holding your phone in the air and yelling: “No UFOs as yet, but I’ve got three bars.” Continue reading...

As linguists celebrate English Language Day and Shakespeare’s birthday, what does the ever-changing way we speak reveal about us?It is a division as entrenched and as bitter as the split between Brexit backers and EU Remainers – though in this case, the issue is truly personal. Do you pronounce the word “scone” to rhyme with “cone”, or to rhyme with “gone”?To those in the latter group, it is a posh affectation to use a long vowel for this staple item of afternoon tea. By contrast, those in the former group believe they are merely following a logical extension of the pronunciation of the word cone by adding an s as a prefix. Continue reading...

Thousands of people gathered in demonstrations across the globe for the ‘March for Science’ on Saturday, in a rebuke of Donald Trump’s dismissal of climate science and his attempts to cut large areas of scientific research. People congregated in cities such as London, Sydney and Berlin, with more than 600 marches planned across the US, Europe, South America and Australia

Some say that the March for Science risks making science political. But it already is – and not addressing that is a problemTens of thousands of scientists and supporters of science are pouring into the streets of Washington DC and other cities around the world on Saturday in a massive March for Science, aimed at highlighting the importance of science to society and the need for basing government policies on evidence.

Academics and industry workers rally in British cities amid fears that ‘post-truth’ era is devaluing evidence-based research

People around the world are taking to the streets to stand up for science on Earth Day. We’ll be updating this gallery with photos from the UK marches throughout the day Continue reading...

When politicians smear science, real people get hurt. I’m marching because we must fight for communities who are harmed by bad science policyI’m marching for science today because I’m mad. Yes, I’m a mad scientist. I became a scientist because I wanted to help people. In my career I’ve researched gene therapy, how to engineer new antibiotics and how to make better cancer drugs. But now what I do and care about has come under attack. I’m mad at politicians for hijacking science for their own selfish interests.I know that many people just love debating whether science should be political or not. But personally I’m not really too interested in spinning my wheels in this pyrrhic war. Science has always been political ever since we first used it to show that the Earth orbits the Sun. And right now, we haven’t any time to waste. Continue reading...

Ahead of a massive March for Science in Washington, the popular TV educator attacked the Trump administration’s dismissal of ‘objective truths’Bill Nye, the face of science in US popular culture, has attacked Donald Trump’s “dangerous” dismissal of climate change and planned cuts to research ahead of the first March for Science in Washington DC.

Stories about feral children always seem to go viral. But are they true? And what does our fascination with the story of a monkey girl really reveal?In 2011, I made a TV documentary series for Discovery, researching the truth behind stories of feral children. Are they ever true? How might a child be affected by growing up in a jungle, or chicken coop, or with dogs? We found witnesses and scraps of evidence to support or debunk the stories that had grown around these strange girls and boys. We explored human developmental psychology, the anthropological ideas that could explain a family or community’s reaction to a particular child, and the traits of ‘host’ species that might determine whether survival (and acceptance) was at least possible.The tales were murky, fantastical and frequently harrowing. Vulnerable children in dangerous places, inevitably carrying the scars of their experiences. The extraordinary thing was not that they were supposedly protected by monkeys, or that they could run on all fours, it was that they’d survived at all. Continue reading...

President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national securityChina’s first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, marking a major step towards Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national security. Continue reading...

The science community – and reason – is facing an unprecedented attack. This march is about defending the place of evidence, method and rigor in our lives

March for Science organisers hope the mobilising thousands around the world can help restore science to its rightful place. But marching may not be enoughThe placards are made, the speeches prepared. On Saturday, crowds in their thousands are expected at 500 marches in more than 35 countries to remind the world, and its many politicians, that society cannot thrive without science. It will be the largest show of solidarity for science the globe has ever seen.Arranged to coincide with Earth Day, the anniversary of the modern environmental movement, organisers hope that the mobilisation of so many can help restore science to what they consider to be its rightful place. But despite healthy support for the events – more than 100 professional societies and organisations have endorsed them – marches alone will not be enough, according to researchers who study protest movements.