Government rhetoric about ‘global Britain’ is not matched by its limp response to proposals for securing the future of research and higher educationTheresa May’s Lancaster House speech on Brexit resounded repeatedly with declarations of her ambition to foster a new ‘global Britain’, a term mentioned no less than twelve times. But what precisely are her government’s plans for UK research, which has been launched into a fog of uncertainty by the EU referendum? Does it have the boldness and clarity of purpose to match her rhetorical bravado?The report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on the future of UK science outside the EU is certainly a bold document. Published in December 2016, A Time for Boldness: EU Membership and UK Science After the Referendum is not without its flaws but it proposes clear actions to help UK research and higher education to face the challenges of Brexit. Continue reading...

Being christened Tim sets you up for a life of failure, it’s been claimed. I’d hoped this was nonsense, but sadly a new study suggests it may be trueA lot of baggage comes with the name Tim. I have not forgotten Martin Amis’s 20-year-old description of Tim Henman as “the first human being called Tim to achieve anything at all”. More recently Will Self wrote: “There’s little doubt that your life chances will be constrained should your otherwise risk-averse parents have had the temerity to Tim you.” This was in a review of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain, the many faults of which Self put down to founder Tim Martin never being able “to escape the fact of his Timness”.At the time I was summoned on to the Today programme to defend being called Tim, along with the wine writer Tim Atkin. He came armed with a roll call of accomplished Tims, which sounded like a list of people the programme editors might have rung before we finally said yes. Continue reading...

Set of five scientists, engineers and astronauts – including Katherine Johnson – wins Lego Ideas contest and will go into productionLego will release a set of five female Nasa scientists, engineers and astronauts based on real women who have worked for the space agency.Maia Weinstock, an American science writer who created @legoNASAwomen, tweeted the good news on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Study shows strong evidence of a link between excess body fat and cancers of the colon, breast, pancreas and ovary among othersBeing overweight could increase the risk of a host of cancers, including those of the colon, breast, pancreas and ovary, researchers have warned following a wide review of more than 200 studies.According to previous figures from two leading charities, almost three quarters of people are expected to be overweight by 2035, with 700,000 new cases of obesity-related cancer expected over the next 20 years. Continue reading...

Leaving Euratom treaty will shut down nuclear industry if international safety agreements are not made in time, MPs toldNuclear power stations would be forced to shut down if a new measures are not in place when Britain quits a European atomic power treaty in 2019, an expert has warned.Rupert Cowen, a senior nuclear energy lawyer at Prospect Law, told MPs on Tuesday that leaving the Euratom treaty as the government has promised could see trade in nuclear fuel grind to a halt. Continue reading...

Margery Kempe was known for religious fervour, and a list in the manuscript of her pioneering autobiography has been analysed as a prescribed cure for her fitsIt is a case that has intrigued historians, psychiatrists and theologians for the last 80 years, but an academic has found what may be the oldest known attempt to diagnose Margery Kempe’s erratic religious behaviour. A recipe for medicinal sweets, written 600 years ago in the back of the medieval mystic’s memoir, has been deciphered by Dr Laura Kalas Williams – and the Exeter University-based researcher is convinced that it reveals an attempt to prescribe a cure for Kempe’s notorious fits of devotion.Though the recipe, written in the final portfolio of the 1438 manuscript, has long been known to scholars, it had hitherto proved impossible to read. Dr Andrea Clarke, the British Library’s lead curator of medieval and early modern manuscripts, suggested multispectral-imaging technology be used to reveal its secrets. Kalas Williams and two colleagues, Professor Eddie Jones and Professor Daniel Wakelin, were then able to decipher the ingredients and discovered it was a cure for “flux”, defined in the Medieval English Dictionary as “a pathological flowing of blood, excretions or discharges from any part of the body, or dysentery”. Continue reading...

From car to rail, it’s hard to find a terrestrial journey that matches SpaceX’s astronomical costIt is a stratospheric sum but it does, at least, include the return journey. Elon Musk, the billionaire American transport visionary, has suggested that the first, so far unnamed, passengers on his SpaceX flight round the moon will pay about $70m (£56m).Musk says the journey, tentatively scheduled for 2018 on an untested Falcon Heavy rocket, will cover up to 400,000 miles, although the Apollo 13 crew, on their trip to the moon in 1970, were a record 248,655 miles from Earth, so this figure seems modest if anything. Either way, 400,000 miles (about 16 times the circumference of Earth) for £56m is equal to about £140 a mile, which is easier to fathom. But how does it compare with terrestrial journeys? Continue reading...

Two metal-detecting friends tell how they unearthed a hoard of iron age gold jewellery in a Staffordshire field. The four pieces of gold, which have been named the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs, were found in December 2016 by Mark Hambleton and Joe Kania. The jewellery is some of the oldest examples of Iron Age gold, and of Celtic ornament, ever found in Britain

Meet Handle, the two-wheeled, four-legged creation from the Google-owned robotics firm that even company founder Marc Raibert says is frighteningGoogle-owned robotics firm and “nightmare” factory Boston Dynamics has released video of its latest creation: a two-wheeled, four-legged hybrid robot named Handle.The robot can stand on four legs, like Boston Dynamics’ previous creations such as BigDog and Spot. But at the end of its back two legs are two stabilised wheels, which let it stand up vertically and roll around at speeds of up to nine miles per hour. Think “Terminator riding on a hoverboard” and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the impression Handle gives off. Continue reading...

Friends who returned to abandoned hobby find iron age gold jewellery – the Leekfrith torcs – in Staffordshire fieldTwo metal detecting friends have found a hoard of superb iron age gold jewellery after returning to a Staffordshire field where they previously found nothing and became so bored that they gave up the hobby and turned to fishing for 20 years.The four iron age gold torcs – three collars and a bracelet-sized piece, including two made of twisted gold wire, two with trumpet shaped finials and one with beautiful Celtic ornament – are of international importance. Continue reading...

CEO Elon Musk said the private journey would take about a week, nearing the moon’s surface without landing on itThe SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, revealed on Monday that two people have paid for a private mission around the moon, tentatively set for launch in 2018 with the private company’s yet untested Falcon Heavy rocket.In a conference call with reporters, Musk declined to name the people or what they had paid, though he said the individuals know each other and are “very serious” about the flight. The “private citizens” approached the company late last year and will receive training and take health and fitness tests as early as this year. Continue reading...

In 1991, Shell produced a public documentary on global warming called Climate of Concern. It warned that trends in global temperatures raised serious risks of famines, floods and climate refugees. But in the quarter century since, Shell has continued to invest heavily in fossil fuels

Antibiotic resistance could make c-sections, transplants and chemotherapy too dangerous to perform, warns World Health OrganisationThe World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a list of the 12 bacteria which pose the greatest threat to human health because they are resistant to antibiotics.

Wipe away the sawdust, it’s the solution to today’s dissection riddleEarlier today I set you the following puzzle:A carpenter needs a square piece of wood measuring 30 inches by 30 inches. Unfortunately the only suitable piece in his workshop is a rectangle 25 inches by 36 inches. Continue reading...

The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates by Barry Berkovitz and Peter Shellis offers a unique look at the teeth of fish, reptiles and amphibians teeth, from the hardened skin rasps of the lamprey to the fangs of the rattlesnake Continue reading...

Unfortunately, the links between online porn and Donald Trump’s successful campaign to become US president are easy to seeDonald Trump is the president of the United States. No matter how many times it’s said, to many it still sounds surreal, given our understanding of how the world is meant to work.Countless theories have been put forward to explain this shocking turn of events that took all seasoned pundits by surprise. It was because the Democrats embraced neoliberalism, because of misogyny, both outright and internalised, because of low democrat turnout, because of media bias, because of deeply-embedded racism, and many more factors. Continue reading...

The problem of fake data may go far deeper than scientists admit. Now a team of researchers has a controversial plan to root out the perpetrators Continue reading...

The extraordinary story of the man who risked his career to create vaccines against our worst diseasesIn March 1968, biologist Leonard Hayflick visited the basement of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia. He was seeking a set of 375 vials, each bearing the code WI-38. Once found, he placed them in a nitrogen-cooled container and then hid them in a friend’s house. He informed no one at Wistar, his former employer, of his actions.A few days later, Hayflick transported the vials to Stanford University, where he had just been made professor of medical microbiology. There he started to sell them to drug companies. Continue reading...

Today’s riddle about a square piece of wood is a dissection puzzle. Don’t get too cut up if you can’t solve it ...UPDATE: Solution now posted here.Hello guzzlers.I’ve not set you a dissection puzzle before – that’s the name for puzzles about reassembling shapes – so here’s one to cut your teeth on. Continue reading...

What to look out in the coming weeks, including the best chance in eight years to follow Venus in transition from an evening to morning starThe Sun crosses northwards over the equator at our vernal or spring equinox on the 20th, when days and nights are similar in length around the Earth. As our days lengthen in March, the stars at nightfall shift almost 50° westwards, with Orion toppling from due S into the SW and Leo climbing from the E to the meridian where its leading star, Regulus, stands close to the Moon on the 9th.

It would take a telescope as big as a planet to see the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. But a team of scientists think they know how to do itAt the heart of our galaxy, a vast black hole is devouring matter from the dust clouds that surround it. Little by little, expanses of interstellar material are being swallowed up by this voracious galactic carnivore that, in the process, has reached a mass that is 4m times that of our sun.The Milky Way’s great black hole is 25,000 light years distant, surrounded by dense clusters of stars, shrouded by interstellar dust and, like all other black holes, incapable of emitting light. Continue reading...

Eugenia Cheng combines home baking with higher-dimensional category theory. She talks about pudding, infinity, and why geeks are the new alphasEugenia Cheng is a British mathematician who is senior lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her main interest is higher-dimensional category theory but she has also written a book about the maths of baking entitled How To Bake Pi. Her latest book is Beyond Infinity: An Expedition into the Outer Limits of Mathematics.What is higher-dimensional category theory? Can you describe it in a sentence?

Dr Daniel Glaser delves into the murky world of Artificial Intelligence and asks whether true intelligence can exist without an understanding of moralitySubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterThis week, Observer Magazine columnist and neuroscientist Dr Daniel Glaser visits old friend and former colleague John Morton – emeritus professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London – to discuss his modelling approach to the human brain. What can it tell us about the developing mind? Could it ever be replicated in silicon? And is true Artificial Intelligence (AI) even possible without crucial stages of development in early life? Continue reading...

In 1919, a tank holding 2.3m gallons of molasses burst, causing tragedy. Scientists now understand why the syrup tsunami was so deadlyIt may sound like the fantastical plot of a children’s story but Boston’s Great Molasses Flood was one of the most destructive and sombre events in the city’s history.On 15 January 1919, a muffled roar heard by residents was the only indication that an industrial-sized tank of syrup had burst open, unleashing a tsunami of sugary liquid through the North End district near the city’s docks. Continue reading...

The discovery of planets where other lifeforms might flourish makes the universe look more interesting – even if we never reach themLooked at in the right perspective, 39 light years is a trivial distance. In the imagination of science fiction writers it is only a hop and a skip away; even without faster-than-light travel, it is a distance that could conceivably be covered by a robot probe or even a colony ship. So the discovery that there are seven Earth-sized planets hurtling around a red dwarf star named Trappist-1 only 39 light years away, and that three of them may well have water oceans capable of nourishing life similar to that of primitive Earth, is deeply satisfying, as well as exciting.What took them so long? There are already nearly 4,000 planetary candidates known from earlier surveys of the neighbouring stars. The number of stars in our galaxy alone is ungraspably huge: just the margin of error in one estimate is a figure with 11 zeros after it. If even one in a million had planets around it, that would still leave anything between 20m and 40m planetary systems in our galaxy alone. If none at all holds life, that would be completely astonishing. But if some have developed life, we are left with the question named after the Nobel-winning physicist, Enrico Fermi: where are they? Where are the aliens? Continue reading...

Vilifying Sutton reserve goalkeeper for his FA Cup snacking is like berating windy Doris for Labour’s byelection defeatMondayA 60-year study conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh has revealed that personality is not, as had previously been thought, immutable. This may be good news for all those in their 20s and 30s who wake up most days feeling anxious and are hoping it won’t last forever, but it’s not so great for those of us who have reached our 60s and detect no discernible difference from our younger selves. Continue reading...

Awards season demands complexion perfection: no wonder some stars turn to a toxin seven million times more poisonous than cobra venomAwards season is fast accelerating towards its glamorous peak, the Oscars. It will be a fabulous evening of gorgeous gowns and flawless complexions. Those on the red carpet will be scrutinised by millions. The pressure to look perfect must be huge.

Deliberate ignorance helps explain why people don’t go to the doctor or check their bank balance; in the short term, it’s more comfortable to stay in the darkIt’s a cliche of modern tourism that no matter which hotel or B&B you plan to stay at, someone will have described it on TripAdvisor as the worst they’ve ever visited, from which they’re still suffering post-traumatic stress. This is also why you shouldn’t use Google to diagnose that pain in your abdomen: some site will convince you it’s a fatal flesh-eating disease. Or perhaps, like me in recent weeks, you have found yourself loitering on parenting websites, trying to discover whether letting your baby cry himself to sleep would be unconscionably cruel and all but guarantee a disastrous adulthood.Except, once again, it’s not really a matter of “whether”. Now that the barrier to broadcasting your opinion is so low, you’re certain to find an apparently authoritative person expressing precisely that view, along with its opposite, and everything in between. (Incidentally, I think I’ve figured out the official standard for describing yourself as a “baby sleep expert” online: you need to be able to switch on a computer and start a blog.) Continue reading...

Collaboration with Europe is crucial to future breakthroughs, say cancer experts including Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse

Climatologists say Labrador Sea could cool within a decade before end of this century, leading to unprecedented disruption, reports Climate News NetworkFor thousands of years, parts of northwest Europe have enjoyed a climate about 5C warmer than many other regions on the same latitude. But new scientific analysis suggests that that could change much sooner and much faster than thought possible.

Ok, so it may not be as catchy as Bowie’s musings on Mars, but it’s certainly as thrilling: with the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star Trappist-1, hopes have been raised that the hunt for alien life beyond the solar system could start within the next decade. That should give us time to sort out the bot-on-bot editing wars that have broken out on Wikipedia, and train bumblebees not merely to score goals for sugar, but to sort out the NHS as well or something. Let’s not look too far ahead though, as it turns out that most people would rather avoid knowing their future. On a more serious note, researchers have discovered that long-winded speech could be early sign of Alzheimer’s disease, and suggest that subtle changes in speech style occur years before more serious mental decline takes hold. Given that life expectancy is forecast to exceed 90 years in coming decades, early interventions for health conditions will be welcome, although one thing it seems you can do to protect your health is up your fruit and veg intake to 10 portions a day. Do crisps count? Continue reading...

Whether it’s through mentoring students as I do, or working in schools, we need active role models to encourage young black scientists to stay in educationMost black women were probably not aware that Katherine G Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan ever existed. I certainly wasn’t until earlier this year, when the founder of the Black British Academics network sent me a link to these amazing black women in science. Now that their story has been told in an Oscar-nominated film, could Hidden Figures encourage more black women to pursue a career in science?Related: Why Hidden Figures should win the best picture Oscar Continue reading...

It’s often been described as ‘elusive’ but a study from a team of US researchers suggests that a combination of genital stimulation, deep kissing and oral sex is the ‘golden trio’ for women when it comes to increasing their likelihood of reaching orgasm with a sexual partner Continue reading...

Exoplanets found orbiting Trappist-1 raise hope that the hunt for alien life beyond the solar system can start much sooner than previously thoughtA huddle of seven worlds, all close in size to Earth, and perhaps warm enough for water and the life it can sustain, has been spotted around a small, faint star in the constellation of Aquarius.Related: This discovery is a lottery win for astronomers looking for life beyond Earth Continue reading...

Astronauts look forward to the arrival of cargo missions carrying fresh produce to liven up their diets as well as experiments and other suppliesTwo supply vessels blasted off within days of each other this week – both heading for the International Space Station (ISS).On 19 February at 14:39 GMT, Space X, a private company, launched a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39a at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch pad is historic because it was built for the Apollo moon landing programme of the 60s and 70s. It was then used for space shuttle launches. Since April 2014, the launch pad has been used by Space X, which signed a 20-year lease with NASA. Continue reading...

I began studying economics at night school in Leeds in the 1950s and continued, at various institutions, as an external student of London University. Our courses were broadly, but not uncritically, Keynesian. We abjured fancy equations and sprinkled our essays with phrases like “a tendency to” and “pressure towards” this or that as a consequence of some other event. As a teacher I have tried to keep reasonably up to date, and learned in the early 70s, for example, to regard most monetarist nonsense as the fantasies of “Friedmaniacs”.With this background, and aware of the influence on our leaders of Oxford’s PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) course, I have often wondered what on earth they taught them. Andy Beckett’s article (The degree that runs Britain, 23 February) gives the answer. PPE graduates are “intellectually flexible”. Or, to put it another way, they sway with the wind. And the winds of monetarism and arrogant attempts to make human behaviours as subject to mathematical predictions as the laws of physics, have captured economics academia for the past 40 years. Conservative, Labour and, to our eternal shame, Liberal Democrats have been equally culpable, as the damage done to the bottom 20% in this country, and to 80% of the population of Greece, so clearly demonstrates. Continue reading...

Over time, the encyclopedia’s software robots can become locked in combat, undoing each other’s edits and changing links, say researchersFor many it is no more than the first port of call when a niggling question raises its head. Found on its pages are answers to mysteries from the fate of male anglerfish, the joys of dorodango, and the improbable death of Aeschylus.But beneath the surface of Wikipedia lies a murky world of enduring conflict. A new study from computer scientists has found that the online encyclopedia is a battleground where silent wars have raged for years.

Bees are better at problem solving than previously thought, and can learn tasks totally unlike their natural behaviour, say researchersBumblebees can learn how to manoeuvre a ball just by watching others carry out the task, researchers have discovered in the latest study to shed light on the insects’ surprising talents.While bees have already been shown to be able to learn how to pull on strings, push caps and even rotate a lever to access food, researchers say the new study shows that bees are better at problem solving than we thought. Continue reading...

Recent reports that it might be possible to use MRI to identify at-risk children are exciting, but we are still a long way from autism diagnosis by brain scanWhat if I told you that we can now identify babies who are going to develop autism based on a simple brain scan? This, in essence, is the seductive pitch for a study published last week in the journal Nature, and making headlines around the world.Early identification and diagnosis is one of the major goals of autism research. By definition, people with autism have difficulties with social interaction and communication. But these skills take many years to develop, even in typically developing (i.e., non-autistic) children. Potential early signs of autism are extremely difficult to pick out amidst the natural variation in behaviour and temperament that exists between all babies. Continue reading...

Study sheds light on approaches, revealing ‘orgasm gaps’ both between the sexes and those with different sexual orientationsThe female orgasm has often been described as elusive, but researchers say they might have discovered how to boost the chances of eliciting the yes, yes, yes.A study from a team of US researchers suggests that a combination of genital stimulation, deep kissing and oral sex is the “golden trio” for women when it comes to increasing their likelihood of reaching orgasm with a sexual partner.

Research by Dundee University and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue found that over 80% of the children tested did not respond to the sound of an industry-standard smoke detector operating. More than 500 volunteer families are being sought across the UK to join a study testing new fire alarm sounds which have a lower pitch and a woman’s voice

Scientists say even just 2.5 portions daily can lower chance of heart disease, stroke, cancer and premature deathFive portions of fruit and veg a day is good for you, but 10 is much better and could prevent up to 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide every year, say scientists.The findings of the study led by Imperial College London may dismay the two in three adults who struggle to manage three or four portions – perhaps some tomatoes in a sandwich at lunchtime, an apple and a few spoonfuls of peas at dinner. Continue reading...

Almost a fifth of land with the designation is neglected, but there are examples of rehabilitation with industrial sites being transformed into nature reservesGreen belts are coming under intense pressure from government plans to build thousands of homes. It conjures up an image of a tide of concrete being poured over beautiful rolling fields of wild flowers, but the original idea of the green belts was to prevent urban sprawl, not for nature conservation or even beautiful landscapes.Much of the green belt is not even green – 18% is classed as “neglected” with derelict buildings, rubbish, electricity pylons and other blots on the landscape. Only 45% is green and much of that is monoculture farmland too harsh for most wild plants to survive. Continue reading...

Nasa announced the discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a star called Trappist-1, about 39 light years away, on Wednesday. The find has widely excited the astronomy community because of its implications in the hunt for alien life beyond the solar system. Three of the planets in the Trappist-1 system are in the habitable zone near the star and so could have water on their surfacesThrilling discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star Continue reading...

There was an omission from your excellent obituary of Sir Peter Mansfield (21 February), the inventor of magnetic resonance imaging: the role played by the British Technology Group (BTG) in protecting his work. The commercial value of Peter Mansfield’s MRI invention was identified early on by an executive in BTG (previously the National Research Development Corporation), which at that time was entitled to all the intellectual property of university and government research in the UK funded by the public purse.BTG filed patents to protect the work and then found them being infringed by a major US company which was manufacturing MRI equipment. BTG spent several million pounds on litigation to defend the intellectual property. It was successful in doing so and subsequently licensed the company concerned that company and other international companies who were using the invention, achieving significant income as a result, which it shared with the inventor and his university. Continue reading...

The seven planets discovered around the dwarf star Trappist-1 confirm that the coming decade will belong to the study of exoplanetsSeven potentially habitable planets found around a single star – this latest exoplanet discovery is just mind blowing. As a fellow journalist just said to me, “It’s like Battlestar Galactica come true!” She was referring to the science fiction series’ 12 human colonies that were supposedly on planets circling the same star.Related: Thrilling discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star Continue reading...

My father, Ted Wilson, who has died aged 78, was a pioneering particle physicist at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Geneva and a visiting professor at Oxford University.In 1967, Ted worked with Sir John Adams on one of the first giant particle accelerators, the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), which is 7km in circumference and stretches across the border between Switzerland and France. Revolutionary for its time – it was a predecessor of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the SPS was switched on in 1976 and led to the discovery of the W and Z boson particles. It remains the second largest machine in Cern’s accelerator complex, after the LHC. Continue reading...

This week, Ian Sample explores the psychology behind ‘nudging’, its usage by governments, and some of the ethical quandaries involvedSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterEvery day, each one of us is “nudged” by external factors and actors to change how we behave. Whether it’s the weather forecast, an advert on the train, or advice from a friend, we are all influenced by nudges. But what is a nudge? What is the human psychology behind their effectiveness? And when does a nudge become something more sinister – such as coercion or manipulation? Continue reading...

Research showed most people prefer not to glimpse the future, whether for the results of a football match or to find out if their marriage will lastWhether anticipating good news or bad, it turns out that most people would prefer to remain in the dark than sneak a glimpse of the future.According to research involving more than 2,000 participants, more than 85% would not want to know if their marriage would end in divorce, while a similar proportion wanted to remain ignorant of when they would die. Even for happy events, ignorance was often prized, be it in the case of Christmas gifts, or the upshot of a football match. Continue reading...

Don’t book your tickets for Pleistocene Park just yet: de-extincting mammoths is a nice thought experiment that’s overstayed its welcomeDe-extincting mammoths is back in the news this week. It’s been a few years so it was time for a return to science-fiction-land, much to the undoubted chagrin of science communicators, palaeontologists and museum professionals who are probably already fielding questions about mammoths’ proposed return to the land of the living.We’re told that scientists are “on the brink” of resurrecting mammoths through some whizz bang science and some nice juicy quotes about the breakthrough being “in a couple of years”. The rest of the story and headlines write themselves. Continue reading...