Toilets are a source of interaction, social structures, organisation, norms and values. So why aren’t sociologists discussing them more?It may be a turn of the stomach, a nervous flutter, a morning coffee or a sudden, unpredictable rush. You may look for a sign, if you are lucky enough to live in a society where they are readily available. There may or may not be a queue, often depending on the room of your gender. You may look for disabled access, whether you are in a wheelchair or have an invisible illness. You may select a space based on who is there, or your perception of its cleanliness. For some, it is an unwritten rule that one cannot go next to another person relieving themselves. What are you looking for?

Drinking in moderation helps protect heart, with study finding it lowers risk of many conditions compared with not drinkingModerate drinking can lower the risk of several heart conditions, according to a study that will further fuel the debate about the health implications of alcohol consumption.The study of 1.93 million people in the UK aged over 30 found that drinking in moderation – defined as consuming no more than 14 units of alcohol a week – had a protective effect on the heart compared with not drinking. Continue reading...

Positive outcome of trials in Niger fuels hope that vaccine can protect children in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond from infection that causes often fatal diarrhoeaA vaccine capable of enduring scorching temperatures for months at a time could strike a decisive blow in the fight against rotavirus, preventing nearly half a million children around the world from dying of diarrhoea each year.Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has hailed successful trials of the BRV-PV vaccine in Niger as a “game changer” in tackling rotavirus infection, which is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea globally and claims the lives of an estimated 1,300 children daily, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Continue reading...

Gadget designed to clip onto a smartphone able to detect abnormal sperm samples with 98% accuracy in trialsMen may soon be able to measure their own sperm count and quality at home, using a smartphone app developed by scientists.In early tests the gadget, designed to clip onto a smartphone, detected abnormal sperm samples with an accuracy of 98%. Continue reading...

Cat-sized Scottish fossil proposed as candidate for common dinosaur ancestor in controversial study that could overthrow a century of dinosaur classificationThe most radical shakeup of the dinosaur family tree in a century has led scientists to propose an unlikely origin for the prehistoric beasts: an obscure cat-sized creature found in Scotland.The analysis, which has already sparked controversy in the academic world, suggests that the two basic groups into which dinosaurs have been classified for more than a century need a fundamental rethink. If proved correct, the revised version of the family tree would overthrow some of the most basic assumptions about this chapter of evolutionary history, including what the common ancestor of all dinosaurs looked like and where it came from. Continue reading...

A 430m-year-old fossilised shrimp from Herefordshire has become the latest species to be named after the broadcaster, joining the pygmy locust, semi-slug, rubber frog, Amazonian butterfly ...When he was a boy, Sir David Attenborough supposedly had an impressive collection of fossils. These days, the 90-year-old naturalist and broadcaster could probably demand a corner of the Natural History Museum devoted solely to the fossils named after him.As of this week, those include the Cascolus ravitis, a 430m-year-old fossilised shrimp from Herefordshire. (“Cascolus” is the Latin version of the Old English equivalent of “Attenborough”.) “The biggest compliment that a biologist or palaeontologist can pay to another one is to name a fossil in his honour,” Sir David told the BBC. Continue reading...

Hannah Devlin looks at recent advances in the field of cryopreservation and asks how close we are to applying these technologies to whole organs

We’re still a long way from from being able to provide timely treatment to everyone who needs it, but we could be on the brink of change thanks to VRFew tech topics are hotter right now than virtual reality (VR). Though it’s been around for decades, VR has at last entered the world of consumer electronics via devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive and, increasingly, headsets that can be used in conjunction with our mobile phones. But VR isn’t just a technological game-changer: it could transform the way we tackle mental health problems.Not so long ago, talking about psychological problems was taboo. Now the scale of these disorders is no longer a secret. We know, for example, that one in four people will experience mental health issues at some point in their life. The ramifications from this ocean of distress aren’t merely personal; the socio-economic consequences are profound. Nearly half of all ill health in working age adults in the UK is psychological. Mental illness costs the UK economy £28 billion every year — and that’s excluding NHS costs.

Reconstruction is part of research project aimed at gaining insights into the anonymous poor of the medieval cityThe face of a Cambridge man who died more than 700 years ago has been reconstructed as part of a project to gain insights into the anonymous poor of the medieval city.The 13th-century man, known as Context 958 by researchers, was among hundreds whose remains were found in a graveyard under what is now the Old Divinity School of St John’s College. Continue reading...

Primodos: The Secret Drug Scandal, airs on Sky this week. Will this media intervention repeat history by helping campaigners get compensation?If the history of drug scandals teaches us anything, it is that fair compensation is typically achieved only through lengthy media campaigns and legal battles. Though lacking the direct powers of judges or policymakers, interventions by investigative journalists and broadcasters have sometimes proved decisive.Take thalidomide: between 1957 and 1961 the widely prescribed morning-sickness treatment caused miscarriages, and many thousands of babies around the world were born with severe limb malformations. In the UK, an adequate settlement was negotiated with the British distributor, Distillers Company (now part of Diageo), only after the Sunday Times took up the cause in 1972.

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesThis has to be at the more abstract end of “things to ask the internet”. If you wanted a standard, hippy-humanist answer such as: “It’s right if it feels right, and wrong if it feels wrong”, you’d probably just ask a reasonably kind and thoughtful person. The fact that this question is addressed to a giant information network that knows absolutely nothing about you or your circumstances surely means it’s serious. That it’s also asked post factum suggests a mischievous approach to time and reality. Perhaps you’re hoping to be reminded that string theory argues for the idea of a multiverse in which parallel realities can co-exist.While you may fear that you married the wrong person, bought the wrong car, or shouldn’t have committed a crime, don’t worry because some physicists may argue that there are infinite versions of you out there in polyamorous, ambisexual relationships, driving very cheap or expensive vehicles while sometimes obeying the law. Meanwhile you can screw up as much as you like in the happy knowledge that one of you is bound to be getting everything right. Continue reading...

From hopping Cretaceous desert mammals, to muddy Scottish sauropods, fossil footprints reveal more than you might expect about extinct life

Test based on 31 genetic markers could be used to calculate any individual’s yearly risk for onset of diseaseScientists have developed a new genetic test for Alzheimer’s risk that can be used to predict the age at which a person will develop the disease.A high score on the test, which is based on 31 genetic markers, can translate to being diagnosed many years earlier than those with a low-risk genetic profile, the study found. Those ranked in the top 10% in terms of risk were more than three times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s during the course of the study, and did so more than a decade before those who ranked in the lowest 10%. Continue reading...

Researchers are scrambling for ways to get the strong, light material out of landfill and make it ready for recycling and reuseCarbon fibre is increasingly celebrated as a wonder material for the clean economy. Its unique combination of high strength and low weight has helped drive the wind power revolution and make planes more fuel efficient.

Czech zoo takes saw to the horns of its 21 rhinoceroses in response to deadly attack at Paris wildlife park this monthA Czech zoo has started to remove the horns from its 21 rhinos as a precaution after the recent killing of a rhinoceros at a wildlife park in France by assailants who stole the animal’s horn.With rhino horns considered a wonder cure in Asia – for everything from cancer, colds and fevers to high blood pressure, hangovers, impotence and other ailments – poachers have killed thousands of the animals in Africa and elsewhere. Continue reading...

Every increase of 0.1 units in the ratio between waist and hip raises the risk of developing the disease by 21%, researchers sayWomen who have a higher waist to hip ratio could have an increased risk of womb cancer, a study suggests.Researchers writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that for every increase of 0.1 units in the ratio between waist and hip, the risk of developing the disease increased by 21%. Continue reading...

Brain activity linked to simulating possible journeys appears to be absent when a person is following directions rather than independently planning a route

Images reveal dramatic collapse of a 100 metre-long cliff on comet 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoA landslide on a comet has been documented by astronomers for the first time in images that reveal the dramatic collapse of a 100 metre-long cliff.The observations by the Rosetta spacecraft of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, provide before and after snapshots, which show how the dusty avalanche has left a large patch of pristine ice from the comet’s interior exposed. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has rejected global leadership on the issue, so now it’s down to us as individuals to plan, and push through new policies change where we canA little girl sits outside on her front stoop, watching the cars go by and the people trot to work in the early hours of the morning. She wears a long-sleeved shirt, pants, and sneakers. Nothing is particularly shocking about this image, except the fact that it’s December in New York City (or Detroit, or London). In a “traditional” year, this girl would be wearing her winter coat, a hat that covers nearly her entire head, and potentially snow boots. But not in 2016. Or 2015. Or 2014. It’s simply too warm for all those clothes.Related: Record-breaking climate change pushes world into ‘uncharted territory’ Continue reading...

Frenchman wins prestigious prize for theory that links maths, information technology and computer scienceFrench mathematician Yves Meyer was today awarded the 2017 Abel Prize for his work on wavelets, a mathematical theory with applications in data compression, medical imaging and the detection of gravitational waves.Meyer, 77, will receive 6 million Norwegian krone (about £600,000) for the prize, which recognises outstanding contributions to mathematics and is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Continue reading...

Earth is a planet in upheaval, say scientists, as the World Meteorological Organisation publishes analysis of recent heat highs and ice lowsThe record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.The WMO’s assessment of the climate in 2016, published on Tuesday, reports unprecedented heat across the globe, exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging sea-level rise. Continue reading...

Ingredient in funnel web spider venom can protect cells from being destroyed by a stroke, even when given hours after the event, study showsDoctors have stumbled on an unlikely source for a drug to ward off brain damage caused by strokes: the venom of one of the deadliest spiders in the world.A bite from an Australian funnel web spider can kill a human in 15 minutes, but a harmless ingredient found in the venom can protect brain cells from being destroyed by a stroke, even when given hours after the event, scientists say.

With childhood cancer being a controlling factor in tackling daily life, and having been forced to defy a very poor prognosis myself, I feel a need to respond to your letter about Brexit’s impact on children with cancer (14 March). Glenis Wilmott MEP states that 1,700 children are diagnosed with cancer, of which over 250 die, annually in the UK, and that their only chance of survival may lie with being on a clinical trial, due to lack of treatments.Cancer treatment is dreaded by adults, but is much worse for a child, with the consequences of treatment often casting a shadow for the rest of their lives. With a 40% increase in child cancer in less than 20 years, surely we have to refocus and ask politicians at all levels to take responsibility for their decisions in allowing industries which increase risks and known causes of cancer, such as air pollution. The unborn child can be 1,000 times more vulnerable than a grown man to environmental pollutants, and yet recently activists against fracking have been deemed irresponsible. Continue reading...

Vladimir Yevdokimov, an executive at Roscosmos convicted in embezzlement case, died from ‘gaping stab wound to the neck’, reports said on MondayRussian authorities are investigating the murder of a senior space official in a Moscow prison cell as reports emerged that he died from a deep stab wound to the throat.Vladimir Yevdokimov, a 55-year-old executive director at the Russian state space agency, died while in detention on fraud charges over his previous role at the MiG aircraft company, which makes fighter jets. Continue reading...

HarperCollins signs ‘historic’ deal with Shanghai publishers amid hopes it will boost British students’ performanceBritish students may soon study mathematics with Chinese textbooks after a “historic” deal between HarperCollins and a Shanghai publishing house in which books will be translated for use in UK schools.

Stephen Hawking says he fears he may not be welcome in the United States since the election of Donald Trump as president. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, the eminent physicist says a hard Brexit would leave the UK isolated and inward–looking

TeamIndus is one of four teams competing to win Google’s Lunar XPrize for the first ever private moon landing, worth $20mTo this day, Rahul Narayan doesn’t know why he said yes, except that it was the very last day to sign up, and if he didn’t agree to it, then there would be no Indian teams in the running. He threw together a proposal and clicked submit.

Leading British physicist and cosmologist tells Good Morning Britain he is concerned about US president’s environmental policyStephen Hawking, the leading British physicist and cosmologist, has said he no longer feels welcome in the US under Donald Trump.Prof Hawking is a recipient of the prestigious US Franklin medal for science and received the presidential medal of freedom from Barack Obama in 2009. Now he has spoken out about his fears for the country’s “definite swing to a rightwing, more authoritarian approach”. Continue reading...

Watchdog to examine new files found by campaigners while Primodos maker Bayer denies it caused abnormalitiesThe UK drugs regulator is to examine new evidence about a pregnancy test used in the 1960s and 70s which hundreds of parents believe caused serious deformities in their children, often leading to early death.A 7,000-page cache of files discovered by a victims’ campaign group includes papers suggesting the British government knew in 1975 that the hormonal drug Primodos increased the risk of a child being born with malformations. The drug was withdrawn in 1978. Continue reading...

What does the bombardment of food imagery do to our brains and bodies? The ‘gastrophysicist’ who has worked with Heston Blumenthal explains all in an extract from his new bookYour brain is your body’s most blood-thirsty organ, using around 25% of total blood flow (or energy) – despite the fact that it accounts for only 2% of body mass. Given that our brains have evolved to find food, it should perhaps come as little surprise to discover that some of the largest increases in cerebral blood flow occur when a hungry brain is exposed to images of desirable foods. Adding delicious food aromas makes this effect even more pronounced. Within little more than the blink of an eye, our brains make a judgment call about how much we like the foods we see and how nutritious they might be. And so you might be starting to get the idea behind gastroporn.No doubt we have all heard our stomachs rumbling when we contemplate a tasty meal. Viewing food porn can induce salivation, not to mention the release of digestive juices as the gut prepares for what is about to come. Simply reading about delicious food can have much the same effect. In terms of the brain’s response to images of palatable or highly desirable foods (food porn, in other words), research shows widespread activation of a host of brain areas, including the taste and reward areas. The magnitude of this increase in neural activity, not to mention the enhanced connectivity between brain areas, typically depends on how hungry the viewer is, whether they are dieting (ie, whether they are a restrained eater or not) and whether they are obese. (The latter, for instance, tend to show a more pronounced brain response to food images even when full.) Continue reading...

Space physicist Dr Carrie Nugent talks about the chances of Earth being hit by a giant asteroid – and why she owes her job to a Bruce Willis movieDr Carrie Nugent is a 32-year-old geo- and space physicist who specialises in asteroids. Her new book Asteroid Hunters – published by TED Books and accompanied by a talk – answers all our questions on these small, mysterious objects that travel between the planets. Her day job is spotting and tracking asteroids as part of a Nasa-funded research team at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech in Pasadena. She is also the host of a weekly podcast called Spacepod, in which she interviews a space explorer about our universe.Our team has named a couple of asteroids: one after Malala Yousafzai and one after Rosa Parks Continue reading...

Foisting unnecessary fears on to our children can severely limit their futuresFor 20 years I’ve sat in my therapy room and listened to people. I’ve heard hundreds of stories from childhood that have led to lives of pain and limitation. Some are what you’d expect – abuse, trauma and deprivation – but many are much more mundane. Can a bad first day at school really lead to a fear of failure? Can a single moment of rejection lead to serial relationship disasters? It certainly seems so.Yet for every childhood sufferer of trauma who still bears the scars as an adult, there’s an adult for whom trauma has led to a life of meaning and achievement. Until its sad demise I worked as a therapist with Kids Company, a charity that helped vulnerable young people. As a consequence, I’ve often seen young people dragging themselves out of a routine of deprivation to pursue a better life with a resilience that left me breathless. Continue reading...

Try our quiz to find out the relationship between the size and cost of your wedding and its likely successDoes the size and cost of your wedding predict the success of your marriage? Answer these two questions to find out.1) How many people came to your wedding? (a) Just the two of us (b) 11-50 (c) 51-100 (d) 101-200 (e) 201 or more. Continue reading...

Kidney disease has killed 20,000 agricultural workers, but no one knows whyTwo brothers stand in a dusty alley in the town of Chichigalpa in Nicaragua. They stare with suspicion at Australian photographer Josh Mcdonald, who has just captured their image – a picture that won a Wellcome Image award last week for its depiction of the impact of a medical condition that has been devastating the male population of central America.The illness is described as “chronic kidney disease of undetermined cause” and it is responsible for 75% of deaths of young and middle-aged men in Nicaragua. Workers in the sugarcane industry are worst affected, and the disease has been destroying families and communities for 20 years. Yet the cause remains unknown. Continue reading...

James Runcie plans to rebalance programmes in drive to put more ‘creative voices’ on airWith mathematicians, physicists and doctors dominating much of the airtime on BBC Radio 4, science coverage has never had it so good. But is it time to restore some balance?The talk station’s latest signing, the Grantchester novelist James Runcie, thinks so: “The renaissance in science shows has been remarkable. Now we really need to listen to a few more creative voices. Radio should be the perfect place to take creative risks.” Continue reading...

Climate change denial and energy conspiracy are high on the president’s agenda, but US scientists are fighting backEver since Donald Trump became US president, certain sectors of American society have felt particularly embattled. His statements on Mexicans and Muslims are notorious, but there is another community, less heard about, that has also been sent reeling: scientists.If politics has never been a world that is overly respectful to empirical research, Trump’s victory exploited a growing popular suspicion of expertise, and a tendency to seek out alternative narratives to fact-based analysis. Conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination campaigns and climate change deniers have all traded on this rejection of science, and their voices have all been heard, to differing degrees, in the new administration. But for the science community perhaps the most provocative act so far of Trump’s short time in office was the appointment of Scott Pruitt, a Republican lawyer and climate change sceptic, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Continue reading...

From prince being under fire for having no proper job to George Osborne fitting yet another job in with his MP’s dutiesPrince William is getting a lot of flak for going on a lads’ ski trip to Verbier, though the headlines of “Don’t you have a proper job to go to?” appear to have been mainly an excuse for newspapers to print pictures of the prince drinking and dancing in nightclubs. Not least because the simple fact is that he doesn’t have a proper job to go to. That’s the whole point of him. Most of us encounter a sense of existential futility at some point, but few have it embedded in our job description. He’s basically twiddling his thumbs waiting for his granny and his father to die. It’s almost enough to make a member of the royal family turn republican. Continue reading...

Diagnosing yourself as having writer’s block, rather than just not currently writing, will make matters worse‘What do you do when you get writer’s block?” someone asked me the other day. I was happy to answer. I get up from my desk and wander around with a self-pitying expression on my face, sometimes clutching at my scalp in an agonised fashion. I buy sour gummy chews and eat too many; I compulsively click “refresh” on Twitter; I start to hate myself, and express it by snapping at others.On reflection, I see why this response didn’t satisfy my questioner: he wanted to know what I do to overcome writer’s block. I’ve no idea. I keep eating the chews and snapping, and eventually it’s bedtime, and in the morning the block has usually gone. Feel free to try this solution yourself. Continue reading...

The pace of AI advances is speeding up. It seems like every week we hear of another breakthrough, and so this week’s big news is that Google’s DeepMind has taken another step closer to artificial general intelligence with a program that can learn like a human. And if that weren’t enough of a mind-flip, a study out this week that suggests it’s possible to use brain scans to spot the difference between people who committed crimes on purpose and those who broke the law through sheer reckless behaviour. All this just goes to show that humans have come a long way, whether it’s through adapting physiologically to thrive in particular climates or developing IVF techniques to prevent incurable genetic diseases being inherited by children. The latter development is an extremely exciting one, and this week the first UK clinic was granted a licence to use the three-person baby fertility technique – doctors hope to offer the procedure to the first UK patients from this summer. Continue reading...

Artist Siobhan McDonald named UN Climate Action Programme’s first artist of the week with ‘beautiful and intelligent’ mixed media exhibition Crystalline

Variations in nose shape developed as a result of natural selection in response to different climates, new study suggestsHuman noses have been shaped by climate, according to research probing variation in the human snout.Researchers say their findings back up the theory that wider nostrils developed in populations living in warm, humid conditions, while populations living in high latitudes, such as northern Europe, developed narrower nostrils as an adaptation to the chilly, dry conditions. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including a cunning flower mimic and a twinkly night Continue reading...

IVF technique uses DNA from three people to prevent genetic diseases being passed on, and could be offered by Newcastle clinic from this summerDoctors in Newcastle have been granted permission to use the three-person baby fertility technique to prevent incurable genetic diseases being inherited by children.

Ariel Leve offers strategies to stay resilient in the face of psychological abuse that distorts the truth – much like what’s coming from Trump’s administrationRight now, many Americans listening to their president are experiencing what I experienced frequently a child. Nothing means anything, and reality is being canceled. There is confusion, there is chaos, everything is upside down and inside out. When facts and truth are being discredited, how is it possible to know what to believe, especially when it comes from someone we expect to embody both ethics and etiquette?Related: Ariel Leve: 'I was the parent and my mother was the child' Continue reading...

Florida case an example of growing ‘wanton misapplication of cellular therapy’, says dean of Harvard Medical SchoolThree women were left nearly or totally blind by a vision treatment at a stem cell clinic, in what doctors called a dramatic illustration of how risky such clinics can be.“These women had fairly functional vision prior to the procedure ... and were blinded by the next day,” said ophthalmologist Dr Thomas Albini of the University of Miami, whose team examined the women after their treatment at a clinic in Florida. Continue reading...

Naomi Alderman’s science fiction story The Power is the sole novel on a 14-book longlist for the political writing award, with accounts of recent and historical developments in Britain dominatingNaomi Alderman is the only novelist to make it on to the longlist for the 2017 Orwell prize for outstanding political writing, in a year when George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is once again troubling the bestseller lists.Alderman’s The Power heads a 14-strong list of books that span anthropology, politics, memoir and history for an accolade considered Britain’s most prestigious for political writing, which comes with a cash award of £3,000. Described as The Hunger Games crossed with The Handmaid’s Tale, Alderman’s dystopian novel examines the roots and impact of misogyny by reversing the gender roles in a future society ruled by women. The novel has also been longlisted for the 2017 Bailey’s prize for women’s fiction, and shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust science writing prize. Continue reading...

Established in 1997, the Wellcome Image Awards reward and showcase the best in science image making – and this year’s 22 winning images represent a broad spectrum of techniques and specialisms Continue reading...

Improvements to water quality or fishing controls don’t prevent underwater heatwaves damaging coral, studies of mass bleaching events revealThe survival of the Great Barrier Reef hinges on urgent moves to cut global warming because nothing else will protect coral from the coming cycle of mass bleaching events, new research has found.The study of three mass bleaching events on Australian reefs in 1998, 2002 and 2016 found coral was damaged by underwater heatwaves regardless of any local improvements to water quality or fishing controls. Continue reading...

Study gets to the bottom of ‘musical symphony’ produced in regions prone to mega-quakes as scientists work toward better quake hazard forecastingYou are at a classical music concert. There is an orchestra with three main sections. High up at the back, the percussion section has one very loud, large and moody-looking drum that gets struck very rarely. A handful of triangles produce occasional quieter “tings”. Further down, in the middle, there is a small band of violinists, but they are playing the strings so slowly the audience can barely hear them. Down at the front, a family of double bass instruments produces low-pitched, gentler hums from time to time.This somewhat unconventional orchestra is like a type of tectonic plate boundary known as a subduction zone. Subduction zones delineate the battle lines between the collision of two titanic tectonic plates. Yet, this encounter is rather one-sided. One plate firmly stands its ground; the other sinks into the depths of the Earth. The grinding and sliding of these two plates produces a musical concert that can be detected by sensitive geophysical instruments and by humans during large quakes. The shallow parts of subduction plate boundaries can produce devastating mega-earthquakes with magnitude eight or greater (like the giant drum in the percussion section). In the tens to hundreds of years between these massive quakes, scientists eagerly listen to the signals at subduction zones to estimate whether the plate boundary fault is primed for a future quake, and to forecast what a rupture may look like.