A new study found people were less likely to want to become friends with those who confronted climate sceptics. How can we overcome these attitudes?When does a social attitude become morally unacceptable enough that it is OK to challenge and confront it?

A recycled SpaceX rocket recovered at sea from its first flight nearly a year ago blasted off again on Thursday from Florida on a satellite-delivery mission. The launch was another key step in founder Elon Musk’s plan to slash costs by reusing his rockets. The success is a step toward vastly less expensive spaceflight, which some hope can revolutionize travel in the solar system and take humans to Mars Continue reading...

US astronauts were halfway through their mission to prepare a docking port for upcoming commercial space taxis when they lost a bag of equipmentA 1.5m (5ft) debris shield being installed on the International Space Station has floated away during a spacewalk by two veteran US astronauts.Peggy Whitson, who became the world’s most experienced female spacewalker during the outing, told ground control teams that a bag containing the debris shield floated away at about 10am EDT/1400 GMT on Thursday. Continue reading...

Cameras on the International Space Station have tracked a bag containing a debris shield as it sailed away and into the distance after it somehow became untethered from the station during a spacewalk. Nasa engineers determined it posed no safety threat to the astronauts or to the facility, a $100bn research laboratory that flies about 250m (402 km) above Earth. Continue reading...

Partially recycled Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched and landed, a step toward vastly less expensive spaceflightSpaceX launched its first “pre-flown” rocket on Thursday, marking the first time anyone has relaunched a booster into space, in what CEO Elon Musk called “a milestone in the history of space”.“This is going to be ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight,” Musk said on a SpaceX broadcast of the launch. Continue reading...

Scientists in Peru conducted experiments reminiscent of the 2015 Matt Damon film the Martian, creating similar conditions on EarthCould potatoes one day support human life on Mars?Scientists in Peru have used a simulator that mimics the harsh conditions on the red planet to successfully grow a small potato plant. Continue reading...

Loneliness has no impact on symptom severity or likelihood of getting sick, but does appears to be linked to feeling more under the weather, say researchersHaving a cold can be a miserable experience, but it turns out that the symptoms may seem worse if you feel lonely.A study by a team of US researchers has found while loneliness does not appear to have any impact on an individual’s chance of falling ill with a cold, or the actual severity of the symptoms, it does seem to be linked to feeling more under the weather. Continue reading...

A new report by the House of Commons science and technology committee calls for a rethink of the relationship between scientists, media and the publicScience and journalism don’t always see eye to eye. Scientific accuracy is often sacrificed in the quest for an enticing headline, but at a time when fake news is on the rise, high quality scientific reporting has never been more essential.As the House of Commons science and technology select committee, which I chair, argues in its latest report, if the press is to maintain the public’s trust, journalists must demonstrate their commitment to clear and unbiased reporting of scientific facts – and be given the necessary support by policymakers to do so. Continue reading...

Narcissism is the latest condition being bandied around as the root of all evil. And thanks to online quizzes and columns, you don’t need any qualificationsIt was 15C spring weather in New York this week and my timeline was full of pictures of daffodils and checklists on how to spot and deal with a narcissist. I feel as if we go through this every few years: a condition, vaguely defined, emerges as the focus of a million quizzes and pop psych columns that encourage us to diagnose those who displease us.Related: What does your profile picture say about you? - Quiz | Ben Ambridge Continue reading...

Tyrannosaurs had sensitive snouts that they may have enjoyed rubbing together while mating, scientists sayIt made its name by terrorising Earth at the end of the Late Cretaceous, but Tyrannosaurus rex had a sensitive side too, researchers have found.The fearsome carnivore, which stood 20 feet tall and ripped its prey to shreds with dagger-like teeth, had a snout as sensitive to touch as human fingertips, say scientists. Continue reading...

Cancer researcher whose work on drug development had a major impact on life expectancyKen Harrap, who has died aged 85, was a pioneer in the development of anti-cancer drugs. The research he directed over several decades in the UK resulted in the discovery of three registered cancer drugs, carboplatin, raltitrexed and abiraterone, an outstanding achievement.When Ken was born there were no effective anti-cancer drugs and, except for patients in the early stage of the disease who could be cured by surgery, a diagnosis of cancer was a death sentence. Today, thanks to treatment in which his drugs play an important role, more than half of cancer patients can expect to be alive 10 years after diagnosis. Continue reading...

Jules Howard writes that teaching evolution from an early age would help combat racism and promote humanist values (Utopian thinking: Forget British Values – teach children they are apes, theguardian.com, 27 March), but this is not borne out by experience. Most early evolutionists were racist, Darwin included. Some of the most brilliant evolutionary theorists, such as Francis Galton and Ronald Fisher, were strong proponents of eugenics. That this strand of thinking is mostly abandoned in today’s mainstream evolutionary biology is reassuring, but does not stem from any particular scientific finding. Rather, it was the horrors of Nazism (itself strongly influenced by evolutionary ideas) that made further promotion of racism and eugenics untenable.Another optimistic expectation is that the realisation that we are apes would free us of our bodily embarrassment. Again, this is not supported by evidence. The contrary seems to be the case, where anxiety about their position in the mating market stemming from their understanding of evolutionary theory leads many men to extremely misogynistic thinking. This can be seen in the flourishing of the online “red pill” trolling culture. Continue reading...

Study shows extent to which US and western European demand for clothes, toys and mobile phones contributes to air pollution in developing countriesWestern consumers who buy cheap imported toys, clothes and mobile phones are indirectly contributing to tens of thousands of pollution-related deaths in the countries where the goods are produced, according to a landmark study.Nearly 3.5 million people die prematurely each year due to air pollution, the research estimates, and about 22% of these deaths are associated with goods and services that were produced in one region for consumption in another. Continue reading...

Researchers say increase is seen across all social groups, ages and sexes and highlight link between misuse of prescription opioids and heroin abuseHeroin use among American adults has increased almost fivefold in the last decade, according to a study based on a survey of almost 80,000 people.Researchers found that just after the turn of the millennium, 0.33% of the adult population reported having used heroin at some point in their life, but 10 years later it had risen to 1.6% – a figure corresponding to about 3.8m Americans. Continue reading...

Inspired by global unrest, Riot uses artificial intelligence, film and gaming technologies to help unpick how people react in stressful situationsAn immersive film project is attempting to understand how people react in stressful situations by using artificial intelligence (AI), film and gaming technologies to place participants inside a simulated riot and then detecting their emotions in real time.Called Riot, the project is the result of a collaboration between award winning multidisciplinary immersive filmmaker Karen Palmer and Professor Hongying Meng from Brunel University. The two have worked together previously on Syncself2, a dynamic interactive video installation. Continue reading...

Research has shown that cats love human company above all else. That may be news to some – but not to me and my loyal, sociable sidekickIn very important news: cats are nice. Yes, that’s right – forget about Legs-it; purge your mind of Trump’s climate change idiocy (if only) and don’t worry about the axing of your gluten-free bread prescription. Just turn to your nearest source of feline fluff (try a friend, neighbour or simply venture on to the street if you find yourself devoid of cat) and say “ahhhh”.Related: Readers' prize winning pictures of cats Continue reading...

Neuroprosthetic procedure first in world to restore brain-controlled reaching and grasping in man paralysed from the neck downA man who was paralysed from below the neck after crashing his bike into a truck can once again drink a cup of coffee and eat mashed potato with a fork, after a world-first procedure to allow him to control his hand with the power of thought.Bill Kochevar, 53, has had electrical implants in the motor cortex of his brain and sensors inserted in his forearm, which allow the muscles of his arm and hand to be stimulated in response to signals from his brain, decoded by computer. After eight years, he is able to drink and feed himself without assistance. Continue reading...

Science storytelling could be the way forward for science communication, so for your edification here’s the story of the Three Little Corals ...Science and storytelling don’t seem like obvious bedfellows but recently there’s been a serious vein of science communication research that suggests a strong narrative can help with dissemination, understanding by nonexperts and number one for most publishing scientists, citations.Of course, sciencing the art of storytelling, with narrativity indices and reader appeal charts does sound typically soul-suckingly dry, but it is at the heart of the science communication movement and many of the Lost Worlds Revisited blogs are retellings of decades of palaeontological research into narratives with a beginning, middle and end.

In 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space. On her 80th birthday, she looks back at a lifetime of immense political changeParachuting was her first love. The moment she could, Valentina Tereshkova joined the renowned paramilitary flying club in her native Yaroslavl (without telling her mother) and trained almost every weekend. She has more than 90 jumps under her belt. “I did night jumps, too, on to land and water – the Volga river.” Day and night, she tells me, “it’s a very different experience, but both are wonderful”, and she spreads her arms wide as though balancing herself in flight, radiating delight. “I learned to wait as long as possible before pulling the cord, just to feel the air; 40 seconds, 50 seconds ... It’s not really falling; you experience enormous pleasure from the sensation of your whole body. It’s marvellous.”It is hard to believe that the woman sitting across the table from me enthusing about her early hobby is 80. All right, she turned 80 only a few days ago, but even immaculate hair and makeup can only flatter so much. She looks to me not a day over 70. My gaze keeps alighting on her elegant hands with their flawless dark nail varnish. My own (rather younger) hands look wrinkled and gnarled by comparison. Continue reading...

Renowned primatologist is dismayed by Trump administration’s climate skepticism, but says people have ‘woken up’ to the dangers of doing nothing

A paralysed man has been able to drink and feed himself thanks to an experimental neuro-prosthesis, which reconnects his brain with his muscles. The system uses decoded brain signals and sends them to sensors in his arm to regain movement in his hand and arm. The technology had only been tested on one participant in the USA but the team behind the research say the findings could lead to greater independence for people with paralysis Continue reading...

After a startling encounter with a cuttlefish, Australian philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith set out to explore the mysterious lives of cephalopods. He was left asking: why do such smart creatures live such a short time?Inches above the seafloor of Sydney’s Cabbage Tree Bay, with the proximity made possible by several millimetres of neoprene and a scuba diving tank, I’m just about eyeball to eyeball with this creature: an Australian giant cuttlefish.Even allowing for the magnifying effects of the mask snug across my nose, it must be about 60cm (two feet) long, and the peculiarities that abound in the cephalopod family, that includes octopuses and squid, are the more striking writ so large. Continue reading...

Newly-discovered prints left by gigantic herbivores are part of a rich collection of tracks belonging to an estimated 21 different types of dinosaurThe largest known dinosaur footprints have been discovered in Western Australia, including 1.7 metre prints left by gigantic herbivores.Until now, the biggest known dinosaur footprint was a 106cm track discovered in the Mongolian desert and reported last year. Continue reading...

My mentor, the psychologist Zander Wedderburn, who has died aged 81, was an international authority on shiftwork who helped to overturn the conventional wisdom that workers should rotate shifts on a weekly basis. Instead he found that rapidly rotating shifts – say, two early, two late, two nights and three days off – were more acceptable because of the social flexibility they offer.Zander was born Alexander Wedderburn in Edinburgh. His father, Innes, was auditor to the Court of Session, and his mother, also Innes (nee Jeans), was a housewife. After being the top pupil at Edinburgh Academy, Zander studied for an MA in psychology, philosophy and classics at Exeter College, Oxford in 1959. He gained a PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, after much of his research on night-work had already been published. Continue reading...

The European Space Agency is meeting with Mars scientists and engineers to take the next step in deciding where to land its life-searching ExoMars roverIn about four years, the ExoMars rover will open its eyes on the surface of Mars. After a brief look around, its wheels will slowly crunch onto the frozen ground, beginning its journey on another planet.

‘Post-truth’ society provides the perfect conditions for dubious theories to flourish. But are some people more susceptible to conspiracy theories?“I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake, phoney, fake. A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people …” Donald Trump’s assault on “terrible, dishonest” journalists (“the lowest form of life”) has become one of the hallmarks of his fledgling administration. But as many have noted, this posturing echoes developments closer to home. It was Michael Gove, of course, who claimed during the Brexit campaign that “people in this country have had enough of experts”. Continue reading...

Our globalised economy responds voraciously to biotech advances, but lax regulation risks turning the poor into biological resources to be used for profit“Look at us, here! We are creating the world of tomorrow!” exclaims Mike. His words bounce off the walls of the high-tech fertility clinic we are in. Outside, the sun is slowly sinking into the smog of New Delhi’s skyline as the streets fill with commuters. The brutal socio-economic inequality between the haves and the have-nots of India’s economic miracle is laid bare in rush hour traffic. Shiny luxury cars, taking wealthy businessmen from high-rise offices to palatial homes stop at the traffic lights outside. Beggars approach them, knocking on tinted windows to plead for a fraction of that economic wonder, a share of the spoils of India’s integration into global neoliberal trade systems, so that they can feed their family for the day.

These politically motivated data deletions come at a time when the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average

Statistics say that one in six women will contract this painful condition. So why did it take years and endless misdiagnoses before I was properly treated?It was after a spate of kidney infections that I started experiencing intimate pain, including a burning and stinging sensation on the skin around my vulva whenever I attempted to sleep with my partner or insert a tampon. I was a student at the time and the first move of the campus GP was to test me for chlamydia. Although this came back negative, I was tested for the same infection a further three times over the following months. Then I was sent to a sexual health clinic, despite the fact I had one long-term partner and my situation had not changed. Assumptions were being made about me, I felt, because I was a student, and I was embarrassed that neither my GP nor the clinic staff would believe I was having safe sex.Related: What are your experiences of getting help for gynaecological problems? | Sarah Marsh Continue reading...

Ian Sample and bioarchaeologist Brenna Hassett explore the history of our relationship with an urban lifestyle – the good, the bad, and the uglySubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterIn 2014, the United Nations estimated that 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a figure expected to increase to 66% by 2050. But life for Homo sapiens wasn’t always like this. Rewind 200,000 years and our early human ancestors were fully or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, often living in small communities. But what happened between then and now? Why did humans choose to move to villages and then cities? And what has this dramatic change in lifestyle done to our health and our relationships with others? Continue reading...

The second part of the solution to the tricky teaser set by the world’s first computer programmerThe first part is hereOkay, so here we’re solving the following grid. Each square has a number from 1 to 7. No digit appears more than once in each row or column. The digits must obey the inequalities and if there is a circled number, the two digits either side must differ by that number. Continue reading...

The first part of the solution to the tricky teaser set by the world’s first computer programmerFor the explanation of the second grid click hereYesterday I set you the following puzzle by Pavel Curtis, channelling Ada Lovelace. (Here’s a printable pdf.)My dear Mr Bellos, Continue reading...

Brian Cox goes down under and stares up at southern skies; Rio Ferdinand explores grief and emotional struggles. Plus: Jim Al-Khalili investigates gravityFor this new series, Brian Cox and Dara O Briain trade Jodrell Bank for its equivalent on the other side of the world: the Siding Spring Observatory, situated on a mountaintop in New South Wales. As the dawn approaches, Brian and Dara are joined by Liz Bonnin to discuss what they spotted overnight, along with input from outback astronomer Greg Quicke, who is acting as their guide to the sprawling southern skies. Ben Arnold Continue reading...

Sex, the NHS, Brexit, loose tal​k – all have been ​described as ​‘weaponised’​. But what is the effect on the public when ​language is constantly on a war footing?

Findings support view that big brains have evolved from diet rather than long-held theory it is due to social interactionForaging for fruit may have driven the evolution of large brains in primates, according to research attempting to unpick the mystery of our cerebral heftiness.The finding appears to be a blow to a long-held theory that humans and other primates evolved big brains largely as a result of social pressures, with extra brain power needed to navigate and engage in complex social interactions. Instead the researchers say it supports the view that the evolution of larger brains is driven by diet. Continue reading...

Animal trials hint that short-chain fatty acids produced by a fibre-rich diet could protect against early-onset diabetesScientists have raised hope for the prevention of early-onset diabetes in children after a fibre-rich diet was found to protect animals from the disease.More than 20 million people worldwide are affected by juvenile, or type 1, diabetes, which takes hold when the immune system turns on the body and destroys pancreatic cells that make the hormone insulin.

Badger tunnels under a road in Braunton have been blamed for a road collapsing. They’ve got some work to do before they belong in this rogue’s gallery of chaos-causing creaturesWe are destroying their homes and their kin so it was, perhaps, only a matter of time before the animals started fighting back. Until evolution gives them opposable thumbs, they have to use whatever nature has equipped them with. In the case of badgers, this means digging. Perhaps sickened by the numbers killed on Britain’s roads (an estimated 50,000 badgers are hit by vehicles every year), badgers have tunnelled under a road in Braunton, north Devon, causing it to collapse. It has been closed by the council “for the safety of the travelling public”. It is far from the first incidence of animals attacking the human world. Here are some others: Continue reading...

Research seems to link energy drink cocktails with higher alcohol consumption and an increase in negative consequences. How bad can a vodka Red Bull be?The majority of research suggests that people who drink alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED) consume higher quantities of alcohol than non-AmED drinkers. This is then associated with an increase in behaviours with potentially very serious negative consequences, such as drink driving and unplanned unprotected sex.The general assumption behind this link is that energy drinks might mask the intoxicating and impairing effects of alcohol. It’s very easy to say we would never have unprotected sex or drink and drive when we’re sober, but after a few drinks our inhibitions fall away, and we may feel carefree and invincible. If you also reduce the sedative effects of alcohol by consuming energy drinks, you’re going to feel more awake and perhaps less impaired (although you will still be impaired). Continue reading...

Global warming makes temperature patterns that cause heatwaves, droughts and floods across Europe, north America and Asia more likely, scientists findThe fingerprint of human-caused climate change has been found on heatwaves, droughts and floods across the world, according to scientists.The discovery indicates that the impacts of global warming are already being felt by society and adds further urgency to the need to cut carbon emissions. A key factor is the fast-melting Arctic, which is now strongly linked to extreme weather across Europe, Asia and north America. Continue reading...

We’ve channelled the spirit of the mathematician, writer and daughter of Byron in order to set a riddle for Guardian readersHello guzzlers,I have a special treat for you today: a letter from the nineteenth century mathematician, Countess Ada Lovelace. The letter comes through the medium of Pavel Curtis, who every month for the last few years has been releasing similar puzzles from Ada that he calls Adalogical AEnigmas. Pavel, who has a day job as a software architect at Microsoft, is a legend in the puzzle community. He composed - I mean channelled - today’s puzzle for Guardian readers. Enjoy! Continue reading...

Darwin’s revolutionary, humane and highly readable introduction to his theory of evolution is arguably the most important book of the Victorian eraWhen Charles Darwin first saw On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life in book form, he is said to have remarked that he found it tough going. Actually, the book, composed in a hurry to forestall his rivals, after 20 years of research, and aimed at that mythical beast “the educated general reader”, is extraordinarily accessible, sometimes even moving, in its lucid simplicity. That’s all the more remarkable for a revolutionary work of scientific theory, arguably the most important book published in the English language during the 19th century.From a 21st-century perspective, Darwin’s Origin has two roles in this list. First, it is a profoundly influential work of biology, argued in astonishing, and compelling detail. For example, one famous passage (too long to quote in full) describes the ecological benefits to “a large and extremely barren heath” derived from the planting of Scotch fir: “I went to several points of view, whence I could examine hundreds of acres of the unenclosed heath, and literally I could not see a single Scotch fir, except the old planted clumps. But on looking closely between the stems of the heath, I found a multitude of seedlings and little trees, which had been perpetually browsed down by the cattle. In one square yard … I counted 32 little trees; and one of them, judging from the rings of growth, had during 26 years tried to raise its head above the stems of the heath, and had failed. No wonder that, as soon as the land was enclosed, it became thickly clothed with vigorously growing young firs.” [pp 123-24] Continue reading...

Jupiter rules the sky, but also watch out for comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák and for the Lyrids meteor showerJupiter comes to opposition in April and now rules our night sky. Also at its best is Mercury, while comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák appears as an inflated greenish hazy blob as it sweeps between the Plough and Polaris – our previous Starwatch carried details and a chart. Continue reading...

‘It really is Where’s Wally,’ says Australian National University’s Brad Tucker, but the twist is you get a say in the official name of anything you findEveryday stargazers will have a shot at naming a new planet by joining Australian astronomers in the hunt for a mysterious large orb believed to be circling the fringe of the solar system.Australian National University researchers have invited the public to join them in the hunt for so called “Planet 9” by combing through a massive array of new pictures mapping the southern sky. Continue reading...

Five competitors remain in a $20m Google contest to land a probe on the lunar surface by the end of the year, but all their craft are untested, rudimentary, or look like R2-D2By the end of the year, space engineers hope to fulfil one of their greatest dreams. They plan to land a privately funded probe on the moon and send a small robot craft trundling over the lunar surface. If they succeed they will open up the exploitation of the moon for mining and ultimately human colonisation – and earn $20m prize money as winners of the Google Lunar XPrize.Out of the 29 companies that originally entered the competition, only five remain in contention. Each has until the end of 2017, the XPrize deadline, to launch its robot mission. Continue reading...

How often you change your photo says a lot about your personalityAre your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures giving away more than you think? To find out, answer the two questions below:1. How often do you change your profile picture on Facebook? (a) Once a year or less, (b) several times a year, or (c) at least once a month? Continue reading...

There is no scientific evidence that we are hardwired with emotions, says Lisa Feldman Barrett. They develop as we grow

Since it was identified on Google Earth in 2005, the forest of Mount Mabu has amazed scientists with its unique wildlife. Jeffrey Barbee joins explorer Professor Julian Bayliss on the first trip to its green heartThe soggy boots of the team slide backwards in the black mud as they struggle up towards the ridge line separating the forest edge from one of the last unexplored places on Earth.The rain is an incessant barrage of watery bullets firing down through the tree canopy. Thunder crashes. Tangles of vines and spider webs make for a Hollywood movie scene of truly impenetrable jungle. Continue reading...

With satellites under threat from collisions, a former lieutenant is now focused on technology that can remove space debrisJason Held rekindled his love for space while lying in a ditch in Bosnia in 1996, where he was one of 16,500 US troops deployed on a peacekeeping mission at the end of the Bosnian War.Then a lieutenant, he says he had “nothing to do but to watch the two armies put their guns away”. So he signed up for a class in undergraduate biology through an army education program, taking the books to the ditch and passing the hours by studying. Continue reading...

In California, radical scientists and billionaire backers think the technology to extend life – by uploading minds to exist separately from the body – is only a few years awayHere’s what happens. You are lying on an operating table, fully conscious, but rendered otherwise insensible, otherwise incapable of movement. A humanoid machine appears at your side, bowing to its task with ceremonial formality. With a brisk sequence of motions, the machine removes a large panel of bone from the rear of your cranium, before carefully laying its fingers, fine and delicate as a spider’s legs, on the viscid surface of your brain. You may be experiencing some misgivings about the procedure at this point. Put them aside, if you can.You’re in pretty deep with this thing; there’s no backing out now. With their high-resolution microscopic receptors, the machine fingers scan the chemical structure of your brain, transferring the data to a powerful computer on the other side of the operating table. They are sinking further into your cerebral matter now, these fingers, scanning deeper and deeper layers of neurons, building a three-dimensional map of their endlessly complex interrelations, all the while creating code to model this activity in the computer’s hardware. As the work proceeds, another mechanical appendage – less delicate, less careful – removes the scanned material to a biological waste container for later disposal. This is material you will no longer be needing. Continue reading...

In clinical trials, eight out of 15 men suffering from erectile dysfunction had sex six months after one-time treatmentMen unable to have an erection after prostate surgery enjoyed normal intercourse thanks to stem cell therapy, scientists are to report on Saturday at a medical conference in London.