Artificial intelligence is already making inroads into the NHS and could have profound effects on the medical workforceAdvances in clinical uses of artificial intelligence (AI) could have two profound effects on the global medical workforce.

The former PM’s pants were just the beginning of my journey as I tested a prizewinning memory palace technique inspired by an ancient poetA surreal scene is unfolding in my home: David Cameron is sitting at my kitchen table in a pair of lemon yellow Y-fronts. He’s having his hair trimmed by his Ethiopian barber, who wears an Adidas tracksuit. Out in the garden, Trinny Woodall is lying in a toboggan swigging Spanish port from the bottle and Alan Carr is blithely wading into the pond, where we keep the pet piranhas.No, I am not a modern-day Gatsby. These are the motley inhabitants of my newly constructed memory palace, designed to help me memorise 63 world capitals I didn’t know, for a test set by my editor. Cameron is Cameroon, the yellow undies are Yaoundé and so on (I’ll leave you to guess the rest). By translating the country-capital pairs into vivid images in specific locations within a familiar environment, the facts will be indelibly imprinted on my brain – at least, that’s the aim. Continue reading...

So. Technically, the biggest story this week was the news that scientists at the Synthetic Yeast Project are close to completing an entire synthetic genome for baker’s yeast. This means that we could soon have human-designed organisms capable of producing drugs and vaccines, or that can convert waste into energy or even grow organs for human transplant operations. But yeast isn’t that sexy. Accordingly, our actual “biggest” story this week was, in fact, about sex. Or rather, about a lack of sex, because a US study has found that today’s adults are having less sex than the adults of 20 years ago. Don’t despair, though – one factor may be that we’re all a bit more empowered nowadays, so people are having less crap sex. They might also be watching more Netflix. Swings and roundabouts, eh? Still, now you don’t have to devote as much time to sex, maybe you could spend time working on your memory palace, an ancient technique that a new study has shown can make dramatic long-term improvements to memory. Alternatively, you could take a wander around the Rome of 315AD, courtesy of a new free online course from the University of Reading, which will use an immersive 3D panoramic model to let students explore the city. This was my personal favourite this week (and yes, I have registered for the programme). I absolutely cannot wait. The news that analysis of Neanderthal dental tartar has revealed some exciting variations in diet (including what looks to be a plant-based diet for the Spanish Neanderthals studied) but also the possibility that they were able to self-medicate with forms of painkiller and penicillin. Continue reading...

Archaeologists in Cairo believe they have uncovered parts of a temple of Pharaoh Ramses II, including an eight-metre-high statue. The statue could not be identified from its engravings, but since it was found at the entrance to the temple, it was likely to represent Ramses II, who ruled Egypt in the 13th century BC

Study reports 14% of people with epilepsy used cannabis products to manage condition, with large majority reporting improvementsMany epilepsy patients in Australia are turning to medicinal cannabis to manage their seizures, a survey has shown.The nationwide survey found 14% of people with epilepsy had used cannabis products to manage the condition. Of those, 90% of adults and 71% of children with epilepsy, according to their parents, reported success in managing seizures. Continue reading...

This eccentric, diverting film about the world of mould and its enthusiasts is as weird as they come, but it could teach us a thing or two … well, maybeHere is a documentary that in filmic and scientific terms is the equivalent of a lengthy mandolin solo on a triple gatefold prog-rock album. It’s all about the weird world of slime mould. We hear from amateur slime mould enthusiasts who love to study time-lapse footage of the frilly, bulbous mouldy growths spreading and branching all over fallen trees, like the fractal images in those films that used to be shown on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Slime mould is part plant, part mysterious, shapeless animal.There is an intriguing link with early cinema. In the days of magic lanterns, things like this were a favourite spectacle: the pioneering film-maker and naturalist F Percy Smith produced what he called “time magnification” films of fungi. This film interviews people from organisations such as the International Center of Unconventional Computing with some freaky and funky slime mould-related notions. Could the spontaneous formation of mould teach us something about urban planning? Road networks? Er, it’s not proven. Some researchers gauge the electric charge of slime mould growth and link it up to a weirdo “robot emotion head”. Strange, eccentric, diverting. Continue reading...

When Nasa realised its spacecraft was on a near-collision course with Phobos, it was time for its first avoidance manoeuvreNasa successfully avoided a possible collision between its Maven spacecraft and the martian moon Phobos this week. The danger was spotted in late February by mission controllers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.Maven studies Mars’s upper atmosphere and has been at the planet for two years. It follows an elliptical orbit that crosses the paths of Phobos and several other Mars spacecraft. This means that controllers are always on the look out for possible collisions. Continue reading...

Human-designed organisms could produce drugs and vaccines, convert waste into energy or grow organs for human transplant operationsScientists are close to completing an entire synthetic genome for a microbe that has been used in bread, beer and wine making for more than five thousand years, paving the way for a realm of new organisms designed by the human hand.The work on baker’s yeast marks a substantial advance in researchers’ ability to manufacture the code of life. While genetic modification alters only small numbers of genes at a time, the new approach allows scientists to rewrite entire genomes. In doing so, they can strip out excess genetic baggage and unstable regions that have accumulated over millions of years of evolution and add fresh DNA on the way. Continue reading...

Archaeologists believe eight-metre statue found in Cairo slum is of Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt in 13th century BCArchaeologists from Egypt and Germany have found an eight-metre (26ft) statue submerged in groundwater in a Cairo slum that they say probably depicts revered Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.The discovery – hailed by Egypt’s antiquities ministry on Thursday as one of the most important ever – was made near the ruins of Ramses II’s temple in the ancient city of Heliopolis, located in the eastern part of modern-day Cairo. Continue reading...

I believe patient care depends on the use of disruptive innovators. My live demo at the Science Museum will show how far we’ve already comeOn Friday 10 March, I will perform an operation in public for the first time. In a live demonstration, I will aim to show how robots can assist surgeons to cut more safely, with greater precision, and achieve better results for patients.I should say at the outset that no patient’s life will be put at risk during this event. I will be operating on a surgical mannequin – a specially adapted version of the shop mannequin designed to respond like a human body – and the event will take place at the Science Museum in London. Continue reading...

Research seeking to unpick the reasons for contagious itching suggest it is not linked to empathy but is programmed into the brain’s neurocircuitryHumans and monkeys are not alone in finding they can catch an itch. Researchers have discovered that mice also start scratching when they see others at it – and worked out why.Contagious itching has long intrigued scientists, with various suggestions cropping up to explain the phenomenon, among them the possibility that it might help social animals curb the spread of parasites. Previous research has also suggested that it is more prevalent among highly neurotic people. Continue reading...

It was one of those moments historians dream of. In 2012, Florike Egmond discovered an enthralling collection of 16-century drawings and watercolours of animals collected by the founding father of zoology Conrad Gessner and his fellow Swiss successor Felix Platter hidden away in the Amsterdam University Library. These and many more illustrations feature in her new book on early modern natural history illustration, Eye For Detail (Reaktion Books, 2017) Continue reading...

A controversial new treatment facility in Los Angeles wants to find out if cannabis can help keep opioids from claiming more lives to addictionWhen Joe Schrank got the call six years ago that his friend Greg Giraldo had been found unconscious after an overdose in a New Jersey hotel room, he was not surprised. Giraldo, a comedian, had cycled through the addiction loop for years, and Schrank had tried in vain to save him. Continue reading...

Fears youngsters could be denied access to Europe-wide tests of new medicines when Britain leaves EU amid calls for reformLeading doctors are warning that British children with cancer could suffer if they are no longer able to join Europe-wide trials of innovative new medicines as a result of the Brexit deal.The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust say the best hope for some children with cancer is a clinical trial where a new drug is being tested. But because of the small number of children with the same cancers, the trials have to be run in many hospitals, often across Europe. Continue reading...

‘Liberation therapy’ to widen veins in multiple sclerosis sufferers has been shown to be worthless after ‘gold standard’ studyA surgical treatment pioneered in Europe that was sought out by thousands of desperate people with multiple sclerosis has been categorically debunked by Canadian researchers.“Liberation therapy” to widen narrowed veins from the brain and spinal cord was devised by the Italian surgeon Dr Paolo Zamboni, who suggested in 2009 that the neurological disease could be triggered by a build-up of iron where the blood did not flow freely. Continue reading...

Analysis of 100 hair samples sheds light on population movement around Australia and depth of links to regionsA study of ancient Aboriginal hair samples has revealed distinct Aboriginal populations were present in Australia with little geographical movement for up to 50,000 years.The discovery of such a long, continuous presence in the those regions emphasised why land was so sacred to Aboriginal people, researchers said. Continue reading...

Analysis of teeth of Spanish Neanderthals shows diet of pine nuts, mushrooms and moss and indicates possible self-medication for pain and diarrhoeaA diet of pine nuts, mushrooms and moss might sound like modernist cuisine, but it turns out it was standard fare for Spanish Neanderthals.Researchers studying the teeth of the heavy-browed hominids have discovered that while Neanderthals in Belgium were chomping on woolly rhinoceros, those further south were surviving on plants and may even have used naturally occurring painkillers to ease toothache. Continue reading...

New research shows that we can train our brains to become memory championsTo many of us, having to memorize a long list of items feels like a chore. But for others, it is more like a sport. Every year, hundreds of these ‘memory athletes’ compete with one another in the World Memory Championships, memorising hundreds of words, numbers, or other pieces of information within minutes. The current world champion is Alex Mullen, who beat his competitors by memorizing a string of more than 550 digits in under 5 minutes.You may think that such prodigious mental feats are linked to having an unusual brain, or to being extraordinarily clever. But they are not. New research published in the journal Neuron shows that you, too, can be a super memorizer with just six weeks of intensive mnemonic training, and also reveals the long-lasting changes to brain structure and function that occur as a result of such training. Continue reading...

Cultivating a ‘memory palace’ can make long-lasting improvements to recall, say scientists, suggesting many of us have untapped memory reservesA memory technique invented by the ancient Greeks can make dramatic and long-lasting improvements to a person’s power of recall, according to research that suggests many of us have extensive untapped memory reserves.After spending six weeks cultivating an internal “memory palace”, people more than doubled the number of words they could retain in a short time period and their performance remained impressive four months later. The technique, which involves conjuring up vivid images of objects in a familiar setting, is credited to the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, and is a favoured method among so-called memory athletes. Continue reading...

The extended evolutionary synthesis is controversially proposed as an update to evolutionary theory as we know it. Nicola Davis explores the argumentsSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterOn 24 November 1859, Charles Darwin published his seminal work On the Origin of Species, laying out what would later become the foundations of our understanding of evolution. Over 150 years later and many of Darwin’s ideas still underpin evolutionary theory. But a group of academics are beginning to challenge this with something they call the “extended evolutionary synthesis”. But is an update needed? And if so, why? More importantly, why have so many in the field branded the ideas of extended synthesis both unnecessary and counter-intuitive? Continue reading...

The ability to participate in science has always been political. On International Women’s Day, scientists must decide how best to defend women’s rightsThe politics of the moment seem fuelled by a bonfire of the enlightenment principles that many of us never even realised were vanities. As waves of people take to the streets to march in defence of women’s rights to control their own bodies, and keep the heavy hand of government from holding back the science vital to our survival as a species, there is a palpable feeling amongst many of us that, if we don’t want to end up in a cut-rate dystopia, we had better do something. On International Women’s Day, we need to ask ourselves what that is. Do we take part in a global call to strike, or do we mass and march?

The ongoing extinction crises shows that zoos are needed - even for common speciesI have written before about the importance of zoos and the role they have to play in the world for conservation and education. They are in particularly important for endangered species – many animals are critically endangered in the wild and may go extinct there soon but are going strong in zoos. Many others are already extinct in the wild and only survive because of populations kept going in captivity. Even those critical of zoos often recognise this role and that it is better to have species preserved somewhere than be lost for all time. However, even species that are common can come under severe threat very quickly or without people realising.Take the ring-tailed lemur of Madagascar for example. This animal is almost ubiquitous in zoos and few do not keep groups of these pretty primates as they breed well in captivity and the public are fond of them. However, despite their high numbers in collections around the world, they are under severe threat in the wild. A recent survey suggested that a huge 95% of the wild populations have been lost since 2000. This is clearly catastrophic and also means that the remaining individuals are greatly at risk. One bad year or a new disease could wipe out those that are left, and small and fragmented populations will be vulnerable to inbreeding so even a single loss can be keenly felt. Continue reading...

Solar winds sending charged particles to Earth in ‘clouds’ can double normal exposure to radiation on long-haul flightsSpace weather is not usually noticeable on Earth, but research suggests that it may produce blasts of radiation that do affect air travellers. Fortunately, this occurs in localised “clouds” which aircraft could avoid, just as they can avoid clouds of volcanic dust.The research, published in the journal Space Weather, is connected to the Nasa-funded Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (Armas) project. Scientists already knew that there was more radiation at higher altitudes; a long-haul flight can give you the same exposure as a chest X-ray. However, it was a surprise when, during six of 265 test flights, radiation levels shot up far beyond the normal levels. Continue reading...

Finding may be down to factors including changing gender roles, social media use and living at home longer, but is not necessarily bleak, say researchersAdults are having sex less often than they were 20 years ago, according a US study based on a survey of almost 27,000 individuals.Researchers have found that adults, on average, were having sex seven fewer times annually in the early 2010s compared to the early 1990s, and nine fewer times compared to the late 1990s. Continue reading...

When one of the smartest people in the world thinks you’ve had it, listen to them. Those of us who love the NHS need Labour in power, not exiled from itJohn McDonnell wrote an article on 26 February announcing that a “soft coup” is under way against Jeremy Corbyn. This coup, claimed McDonnell, “is being perpetrated by an alliance between elements in the Labour party and the Murdoch media empire, both intent on destroying Jeremy Corbyn and all that he stands for”. But the truth is that not everyone who wants Corbyn out is a Blairite stooge, or in thrall to Rupert Murdoch: the latest ally of the Progress Putsch is Stephen Hawking.This, to remind you, is the man who said “I wouldn’t be here today if not for the NHS”, and warned that the NHS “must be preserved from commercial interests who want to privatise it”. He has also pointed out that inequality is one of the biggest threats to the planet. Sentiments not so far from those of a certain Islington MP. Not exactly the rightwing ideologue of McDonnell’s imagination. Continue reading...

University of Reading launches online course allowing students to explore the Rome of 315AD using an immersive 3D panoramic modelStudents from all over the world who sign up to a new free online course on ancient Rome from the University of Reading will be invited to explore its temples, monuments, shops and back streets, through the most detailed digital model of the ancient city ever created.Matthew Nicholls, a lecturer in the university’s classics department who has been working on the model for more than ten years, will lead the five week Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City programme starting on March 13. The course, Nicholls said, is for anyone interested in the city, from holidaymakers to prospective archaeology or history students. “We are offering an immersive and unique virtual tour of the Eternal City without even leaving your living room, and everyone is invited.” Continue reading...

Participation in prestigious projects ranging from an Antarctic mission to a major satellite programme is now in doubt, a report from Prospect findsBritish scientists risk being reduced to bit-part players in some of the most ambitious projects of the next decade, a report has warned.The findings by the union Prospect on the implications of Brexit for science highlight a number of prestigious projects where British participation is now in doubt. These include a planned Antarctic mission to drill the oldest ice core ever obtained, the most ambitious Earth observation satellite programme to date, and a European mega project to investigate the potential of nuclear fusion as a clean, sustainable energy source. Continue reading...

The US politician has claimed he could stick electrodes in your brain and have you recite verbatim a book you read 60 years ago. In no way is this trueBen Carson, recently appointed US Housing and Urban Development secretary, is a qualified neurosurgeon. You therefore expect him to have some impressive expertise on the brain. But given his claim in a controversial recent speech that he could stick electrodes in your hippocampus and have you recite verbatim a book you read 60 years ago, this expectation seems wildly optimistic, bordering on farcical. There are so many reasons why this is the case. Continue reading...

Study may reveal why melatonin affects breeding, horn growth and coat thickness – and allow farmers to change the timing of lambing seasonThe mystery of why sheep get horny in the winter might have been solved, according to new research.Scientists say they have uncovered the key to the mechanism by which changes in the length of the day prompt certain animals to begin breeding, trigger the growth of horns and even change the thickness of their coat. Continue reading...

Online information is already being used to manipulate us. We must act now to own the new political technologies before they own usHas a digital coup begun? Is big data being used, in the US and the UK, to create personalised political advertising, to bypass our rational minds and alter the way we vote? The short answer is probably not. Or not yet.A series of terrifying articles suggests that a company called Cambridge Analytica helped to swing both the US election and the EU referendum by mining data from Facebook and using it to predict people’s personalities, then tailoring advertising to their psychological profiles. These reports, originating with the Swiss publication Das Magazin (published in translation by Vice), were clearly written in good faith, but apparently with insufficient diligence. They relied heavily on claims made by Cambridge Analytica that now appear to have been exaggerated. I found the story convincing, until I read the deconstructions by Martin Robbins on Little Atoms, Kendall Taggart on Buzzfeed and Leonid Bershidsky on Bloomberg. Continue reading...

The battle between selfishness and fairness takes a surprisingly long time to resolve in children, but shows the seeds of adult moral senseOn the one hand, humans are stupendously nice to each-other. We send money overseas to help complete strangers, we give of ourselves anonymously and muddle along in large groups largely through an improbable degree of tact and solicitude.Research with very young infants suggests the foundations of this morality are present at birth. Before they can speak, infants prefer helpful characters over mean characters and expect meanness to be punished.

A public campaign to cull ‘invasive’ cownose rays was hugely successful. But re-examining the data revealed a horrible truth: the rays weren’t the problemEffective conservation management is something that every biologist wants to see. This is especially true for shark biologists like me, because one in four cartilaginous species are currently estimated to be threatened with extinction (Dulvy et al 2014). But while it’s easy to cheer conservation efforts, what happens when the research underpinning the strategy is wrong?

Author of widely discredited study of intelligence says opponents of his lecture looked like they had come from ‘casting for a film of brownshirt rallies’The controversial author of The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, has attacked violent protests that left one injured and shut down his speech at an elite US college as “straight out of casting for a film of brownshirt rallies”, after a protest by students descended into aggressive confrontation.In the two decades since Murray and his co-author Richard J Herrnstein wrote The Bell Curve, its linking of black and Latino genetics with intellectual inferiority has attracted vociferous condemnation. Writing for the New York Times when it came out in 1994, columnist Bob Herbert described the book as “a scabrous piece of racial pornography masquerading as serious scholarship”, while the Southern Poverty Law Center accused Murray of being a “white nationalist” who used “racist pseudoscience and misleading statistics to argue that social inequality is caused by the genetic inferiority of the black and Latino communities, women and the poor”. Continue reading...

One of the winners of the 2017 Brain Prize reveals the 1955 computer program that helped transform our understanding of the human brainIn 1955, American computer pioneer Arthur Samuel unveiled a draughts-playing program that human opponents described as “tricky but beatable”. The achievement sounds quaint today given the subsequent decisive triumphs of machines over humans at chess, Jeopardy, Go and poker. But according to Prof Peter Dayan, a computational neuroscientist at University College London and one of the recipients of the 2017 Brain Prize, Samuel had hit on “one of the first good ideas in AI” and a concept that has transformed our understanding of the human brain.Samuel’s program used a souped-up form of Pavlovian reinforcement to learn how to play draughts. Pavlov’s dogs learned the simple association between hearing a bell and the arrival of food, but in a game like draughts there are many steps on the path to victory or defeat. This raises the question of how we (or a computer) learn which moves contribute to victory and should be repeated in the future. Continue reading...

Peter Dayan, Ray Dolan and Wolfram Schultz share €1m neuroscience prize for work unravelling the brain’s reward systemSelling high calorie foods in plain packaging could help in the battle against obesity according to a leading researcher who has won a share of the most lucrative prize in neuroscience for his work on the brain’s reward system. Continue reading...

Douglas Adams’s sci-fi classic has inspired real-life tech innovations. So what else could we rip from its pages to aid our ailing society?The Mobile World Congress, which takes place annually in Barcelona, is usually dominated by smartphones. Grabbing headlines this year, however, is the Pilot earpiece and its promise to instantly translate languages: a real-life version of the Babel Fish from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Continue reading...

The causes of the global obesity crisis are not fully understood, but stress may have a part to play, new research suggestsDoes stress make you fat, even if you don’t overeat? That is the question researchers from UCL have been trying to answer by giving volunteers of different shapes and sizes a haircut and measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their hair. Long-term stress raises cortisol levels, and the researchers found that the larger volunteers had higher levels in their hair. So does this mean we can attribute obesity to stress and, if so, what can we can do about it?The idea itself isn’t new. Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys. It plays a vital role in keeping glucose levels in the bloodstream in a steady state. When we are stressed or threatened, cortisol levels rise to release more glucose from stores in the liver, so we have more fuel to fight or run for our lives. Too much cortisol means too much glucose floating around and if it doesn’t get used, the excess is stored as fat. Continue reading...

Eating plenty of nuts, fruit and fish may cut risk of getting oestrogen-receptor-negative cancer, Dutch research findsFollowing a Mediterranean diet could help reduce the risk of contracting one of the worst types of breast cancer by 40%, according to a large study for the World Cancer Research Fund.The Mediterranean diet, which is rich in olive oil, fish, fruit, nuts, vegetables and wholegrains, has well-publicised benefits, including reducing the risk of stroke and heart disease. Continue reading...

A South African scientist believes that zircons found on Mauritius may be the remants of a buried continental fragmentOceanic crust lives fast and dies young, usually being dragged down a subduction zone after 250m years or so. By contrast, continental crust lives to a ripe old age, with some of the oldest continental crust on Earth – dating to 4bn years – found in Canada and Greenland.But geologists have long been puzzled as to why there isn’t more continental crust bobbing around. Now new research indicates that some of it might be hidden underneath ocean-island volcanoes. Continue reading...

University of Pittsburgh says doctor who carried out first transplant and gave baboon livers to humans ‘died peacefully’ at home on SaturdayThomas Starzl, who performed the first liver transplant and was the driving force behind the world’s first baboon-to-human liver transplants and research on anti-rejection drugs, has died. He was 90.The University of Pittsburgh, speaking on behalf of Starzl’s family, said the renowned doctor had “died peacefully” on Saturday at his home in Pittsburgh. Continue reading...

Jeremy Freeman, a neuroscientist from the multimillion-dollar research project set up by the Facebook founder to find global health solutions, talks about his goalsThe Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) was announced in December 2015 by the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, Priscilla Chan at the announcement of the birth of their first daughter. The couple committed 99% of their Facebook stock to the philanthropic project to “advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy”. In September last year they announced plans to invest $3bn over the next 10 years towards the goal of eradicating all diseases.“By investing in science today,’ said paediatrician Chan, “we hope to build a future in which all of our children can live long and rewarding lives.” Continue reading...

The organiser of the Wellcome Trust’s awards for outstanding scientific imagery explains why she believes that pictures really are worth a thousand wordsWith its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”– for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below.One of the winners in this year’s Wellcome Image Awards, the bobtail squid strikes a cheery note. But others scooping a gong evoke quite different emotions. Continue reading...

Find out the truth about how your personality changes as you get olderDo you think you improve with age? If so, do other people agree? To find out, answer the following questions comparing your 14-year-old self with how you were, or are, or imagine you will be at 29.Answer yes or no. Would you say that between the ages of 14 and 29 you became more… Continue reading...

From algae to fish and polar bears, the loss of habitat caused by global warming is affecting the food chainIn a few days the Arctic’s beleaguered sea ice cover is likely to set another grim record. Its coverage is on course to be the lowest winter maximum extent ever observed since satellite records began. These show that more than 2 million square kilometres of midwinter sea ice have disappeared from the Arctic in less than 40 years.The ice’s disappearance – triggered by global warming caused by rising carbon emissions from cars and factories – is likely to have profound implications for the planet. A loss of sea ice means a loss of reflectivity of solar rays and further rises in global temperatures, warn researchers. Continue reading...

Once again the myth that Alexander Fleming “discovered” penicillin is repeated in your article (Report, 2 March). The antibacterial activity of penicillium mould had been known for at least four decades before Fleming. In particular, the eminent surgeon Joseph Lister, who introduced antisepsis to surgery and treatment of infections, experimented with penicillium (its identity confirmed in his elegant drawings) and, along with his mycologist brother Arthur, showed its antibacterial effect in the laboratory. He then went on in 1884 to treat two people with infected wounds with the green juice extracted from his mould. One was a nurse, who confirmed her successful treatment by Lister in an interview in 1940. There is no evidence that Fleming read the literature or appreciated the importance of his “discovery” for many years afterwards. The last sentence in your article, that it took a decade for others, notably Florey and Chain, to realise this and work out how to produce enough to be useful in treatment of infections, illustrates this.

Scientists believe they have found fossils dating back at least 3.8bn years – and they might even help us find life on other planetsWhat’s all the excitement about?

In a week in which Cambridge scientists created first artificial embryo from stem cells, the world’s oldest fossils were found in Canada and a heart tissue cryogenics breakthrough gave hope to transplant patients around the world, what were our readers most interested in? Wee in swimming pools. That’s right, watersports fans: urine luck, because scientists have developed test designed to estimate how much urine has been covertly added to a large volume of water. For the swimmers amongst you not keen to find out how polluted your pool is, console yourself - we did have other stories as well, including the intriguing news that woolly mammoths may have been silky-coated and suffering from a host of genetic mutations that aided their decline. Ok, it’s a bit of a downer, as is the news that being overweight (not just obese) is linked to an increased risk of 11 types of cancer, but don’t despair: we’ve got the answers to some of your questions on orgasm - most enlightening! Continue reading...

Should we accept that Vietnamese medicinal demand for rhino horns is traditional, and inevitable? Those who stockpile horns think soReports in February that the South African government was considering lifting the 2009 domestic moratorium on trade in rhino horns brought into focus something that is not necessarily obvious to those outside of that country: there currently exist in South Africa numerous large stockpiles of rhino horns, nearly all legal, all potentially extremely valuable.Related: Legal rhino horn and ivory trade should benefit Africa, says Swaziland government Continue reading...

Exclusive New research indicates the benefits of eating omega-3 fatty acids, but also that pollution particles can penetrate the lungs into many organs, including testiclesSupplements of healthy fats could be an immediate way of cutting the harm caused to billions around the world by air pollution, according to emerging research.However, the research also shows air pollution particles can penetrate through the lungs of lab animals into many major organs, including the brain and testicles. This raises the possibility that the health damage caused by toxic air is even greater than currently known. Continue reading...

Researchers comparing genomes of ancient and more recent Arctic island relatives find latter developed coats too soft for the cold