Scale of loneliness among over-60s revealed as Age UK develops scheme to provide support and companionshipHalf a million people over the age of 60 usually spend each day alone, with no interaction with others, and nearly half a million more commonly do not see or speak to anyone for five or six days a week, a poll suggests.Age UK, which commissioned the research, said the results highlighted a growing number of chronically lonely older people, which was placing increasing demand on health services. Continue reading...

Financial pressures could compromise quality and lead to increased risk of miscarriages of justice, says Dr Gillian TullyThe government will damage British justice if it inflicts further cuts on forensic science, the official regulator has said.

In frozen regions, ice can force the ground into mounds called pingos – conspicuous landmarks in flat landscapesOn a cold day, bare earth crunches underfoot. This is because ice needles have formed, pushing the soil upwards, and the pressure of a footstep crushes them down again. In frozen regions, a similar effect on a grand scale produces unusual hillocks known as pingos.Pingos can be as much as 50 metres high. They typically start in old lake beds. Freezing water forms into a lens shape and expands as it becomes ice. As more water is added and the ice mass becomes larger, the ground above is gradually forced upwards into a mound. This can grow at the rate of a few centimetres a year. Continue reading...

New findings challenge our understanding of how the brain maturesFaces are important to us. From the moment we are are born, we prefer to look at faces than at other, inanimate objects, and, being social animals, we encounter faces every day of our lives. The face is the first thing we look to when identifying other people; faces also convey emotions, informing us of peoples’ mood, and from them we can usually determine a person’s sex and, sometimes, roughly how old they are. Eye movements can also reveal to us something about another person’s intentions.Related: How your eyes betray your thoughts Continue reading...

Unlike other brain regions, which are fully formed in early life, tissue responsible for telling faces apart keeps expanding after childhoodThe lumps of human brain tissue that help us tell one face from another grow all the way into adulthood, according to scientists who made the surprise discovery.Until now it was thought that brain tissue growth halted in early life, with the organ adapting in later life by tweaking the connections between its neurons. Continue reading...

MoD contract aims to have army and navy using technology by mid-2020s and air force by mid-2030sThe prospect of UK forces being armed with laser weapons has taken a step closer to reality with the awarding of a £30m Ministry of Defence contract.The deal, announced on Thursday, is to assess the potential of the laser as a weapon, with the aim of having a product in place by the mid-2020s. Continue reading...

Climate sceptic journalist’s claim that marine life has nothing to fear from rising ocean acidity levels is not misleading but ‘comment’, says IpsoA magazine article claiming “marine life has nothing whatsoever to fear from ocean acidification” has been deemed neither misleading nor inaccurate by the UK’s press regulator.The feature, written by journalist and climate-change sceptic James Delingpole, appeared in the Spectator under the headline “Ocean acidification: yet another wobbly pillar of climate alarmism”. Continue reading...

There’s a lot that experienced researchers can learn from their former newbie selves. Here’s eight pointersA vivid memory of my own first week as a PhD student: overhearing the senior members of the lab talk about the scientist in charge – a frighteningly brilliant woman they joked was “out of touch” in the lab.I was shown – somewhat reverentially, with a warning to steer clear – a tidy, approximately two-foot square section at the end of one lab bench dedicated to her infrequent forays to the coal face. The boss reserved a few hours a month from writing successful grants and high-profile papers for risky, exploratory experiments that allowed her to keep her hand in, generate new lines of enquiry, and keep an eye on our wayward exploits. Continue reading...

Andrea Leadsom blames the EU for ‘holding us back’. But it’s encouraging agribusiness to flourish at the expense of small farmers that must changeIt’s not hard to warm up an audience by promising to scrap irritating European regulations. That’s exactly what Andrea Leadsom, the environment secretary, focused on at the Oxford Farming Conference yesterday morning, promising to ditch “rules that hold us back”. Top of Leadsom’s list are EU billboards that spoil the countryside, and greater “common sense” on what constitutes “a bush, a hedge or a tree”.Related: Andrea Leadsom promises Brexit bonfire of regulation for farmers Continue reading...

Study tracking 6.6 million people estimates one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s among those living by busy roads could be linked to air and noise pollutionPeople living near a busy road have an increased risk of dementia, according to research that adds to concerns about the impact of air pollution on human health.Roughly one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s in urban areas could be associated with living amid heavy traffic, the study estimated – although the research stopped short of showing that exposure to exhaust fumes causes neurodegeneration. Continue reading...

Research shows if a healthy embryo is transferred alongside one of poorer quality then chance of pregnancy is reduced by 27%

‘Fast radio bursts’, discovered only a decade ago, were found likely coming from dwarf galaxy about 3bn light years from Earth but cause remains uncertainA mysterious type of radio wave from deep space, discovered only a decade ago, has been traced to a precise source for the first time, astronomers said on Wednesday.So-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) picked up in 2016 by a telescope in New Mexico likely emanated from a dwarf galaxy some 3bn light years from Earth, the scientists reported in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

Ultraviolet radiation can have huge effects on our planet’s climate, but what has it done the past? The fossil record can tell us about UV through the study of pollen and spores

Historian Michael Scott says series builds most complete picture yet of ‘jigsaw’ of underground worldThe historian Michael Scott’s worst moment in the miles of tunnels deep under Naples, which he has been exploring for a BBC documentary, came not from fear of earthquake or volcanic eruption, nor among crumbling Roman quarries or the eerie rusting remains of cars seized and dumped under Mussolini’s regime. However, he was extremely unhappy when, in a cramped, airless space heated by volcanic gases, reached by a narrow, 2,000-year-old passage, he met a scorpion.“It was a small scorpion, but it was a very confined space, and all I thought I could remember about scorpions is that the small ones are more venomous. I stayed very, very still and tried to look unthreatening until it went away.” Continue reading...

Shrewsbury We walked to the grave of Mary Webb and found the fungi growing around her neighbours’ headstonesThe toadstools opened from the graveyard like fleshy satellite dishes – ears of the necropolis listening to the living. We were in Shrewsbury cemetery to pay our respects at the turning year to those we knew there. The newer part had serried ranks of black or white marble headstones between drives, their funerary decorations modest symbols of grief and remembrance in a utilitarian order to keep the public face of death tidy.The older part of the cemetery belonged to a much more Gothic sensibility: the graves mostly Victorian to the 1930s, their mossy stones listing on undulating ground and scattered randomly under trees, separated by meadow grasses.

It takes a brave man to take a shot at a national treasure, and they don’t come any more treasured than David Attenborough, so hats off to Martin Hughes-Games for bravery (Why Planet Earth II should have been taxed, 2 January). But I fear he’s wrong. He says programmes like Planet Earth II lull us “into a false sense of security” as wildlife species are decimated across the globe. That is almost certainly correct, but one thing we’ve learned from last year’s EU referendum is that ordinary people just don’t listen to “experts” lecturing them about unfolding, manmade disasters. Planet Earth II, with its beauty and grandeur, and, yes, entertainment value, takes a subtle approach worthy of the most sophisticated advertising campaign: it says, look at this marvellous planet, do you really want to allow its destruction?

Stuart Wilson, 37, describes the discovery of what could be the lost city of Trellech after spending his life savings of £32,000 on buying a field in South Wales. Although he has a degree in archaeology Wilson had been working in a toll booth before taking the gamble on the plot of land, which he was convinced marked the site of an ancient settlement

The next few years could be pivotal for sustainable food in the realms of organic farming, sustainable fishing and plant based meat alternativesAmericans love to eat. Each person devours, on average, 1,996 lbs – or nearly a ton – of food per year. The enormous effort to satisfy that big appetite creates significant environmental impacts, from fertilizers leaching into our water supplies and overfishing to massive die-offs of bees from pesticides and habitat loss.Our eating habits come with tremendous social costs, too. More than 70% of the adults in the US and about a third of children are overweight. The medical cost of treating people who are grossly overweight, or obese, reached $147bn within the past decade. Continue reading...

After facing years of doubts, Stuart Wilson’s claim that he has found medieval city on English-Welsh border is being listened toThe first clue was provided by moles. As the creatures burrowed beneath a farmer’s field close to the border between England and Wales, they threw up fragments of what appeared to be medieval pottery.Stuart Wilson, an archaeology graduate who was working in a toll bridge booth, took a gamble and bought the field for £32,000 when he could have been investing in his first house. Continue reading...

Keepers at ZSL London Zoo begin their annual stock take on Tuesday, counting each animal from the 750 different species at the zoo. The Zoo’s head of zoological management Mark Habben says the count is necessary to obtain a license, but it also allows an opportunity to share information with other collections around the world

At the start of the new year, many people are vowing to get in shape, which usually involves giving up alcohol. But can you lose weight without losing the booze? Science says yes, but it’s not exactly easyAlcohol. Fun, isn’t it, for various reasons. The Christmas holidays are a period of particularly heavy drinking for many of the UK population, so much so that January often feels like one long national hangover. This often combines with the sense of “starting afresh” and the ritual of New Year’s Resolutions and results in a period of abstention. In recent years, it’s become fashionable to swear off alcohol for the whole of January, often (but not always) as part of an overall effort to improve general fitness and lose weight.But, is this necessary? Or is it possible to have your pint and down it, and lose weight while carrying on indulging in the booze? Continue reading...

Master of Birkbeck, University of London, Prof David Latchman to be investigated despite being cleared by similar inquiry last yearA London university’s most senior academic is to be reinvestigated for alleged research misconduct after being cleared by a similar inquiry last year, the Guardian has learned.Prof David Latchman, a prominent geneticist and master of Birkbeck, University of London, was found to have “no case to answer” by an inquiry in 2015, but a new investigation has been ordered following fresh claims of potential wrongdoing.

The solutions to today’s countdown puzzlesEarlier today I set the following three puzzles, variations on the same theme:Fill in the equations below using any of the basic mathematical operations, +, –, x, ÷, and as many brackets as you like, so that they make arithmetical sense. Continue reading...

Jess Cartner-Morley is wearing Statue of Liberty green, Angela Hartnett hails the rise of regional bistros and TED’s Chris Anderson has a new vision for the futurePart one: from driverless cars to interstellar travelAuthentic voices and undiluted stories

Despite evidence suggesting e-cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, more people than ever believe them to be just as harmful. Professor Linda Bauld discusses the evidenceJanuary is a time for New Year’s resolutions and if you’re one of the world’s one billion smokers, your resolution may be to stop smoking. For some people, this year’s quit attempt might involve an electronic cigarette, and a recent study in England, published in the BMJ, suggested that these devices helped at least 18,000 smokers to stop in 2015 who would not otherwise have done so. That’s very good news, but will there be as many quit attempts in 2017 as there have been in the past with e-cigarettes? I’m not so sure.Since I last wrote about e-cigarettes in this column one year ago, headlines about the dangers of these devices have continued to appear and show no sign of abating. The result is clear. More people believe today, compared with a year ago, that e-cigarettes are as harmful as smoking. In fact these incorrect perceptions have risen year on year, from fewer than one in ten adults in Great Britain in 2013 to one in four this past summer. Surveys of smokers show similar patterns, with an increasing proportion believing that e-cigarettes are more or equally harmful than tobacco. Continue reading...

Liam Williams quit standup fearing his pessimism about the state of the planet was making audiences worryingly apathetic. But is a sunny outlook really any healthier? We sat him down for a session with psychotherapist Philippa Perry

Complete the countdown conundrum 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 2017 and win a prizeUPDATE: Solutions now up hereHello guzzlers,Here in Numberland, we always knew that 2016 was going to be a bad one, since: Continue reading...

Researchers in Western Australia posit that trees and termite mounds could lead prospectors to paydirt“There’s gold in them thar hills”, says Colonel Mulberry Sellers in Mark Twain’s 1892 novel, The American Claimant. There might have been some truth in it then but, these days, gold prospectors could do better by sampling termite mounds and leaves from acacia trees. New research in Western Australia reveals where remaining gold deposits might be hiding.Across the world, most of the easy gold (outcropping at the Earth’s surface) has already been found and gold miners have to be a bit more cunning. One area that hasn’t been searched thoroughly is underneath sediments and soils. But how does a modern gold prospector know where to start digging? Continue reading...

What to look out for in the first weeks of the new year, including the Quadrantid meteorsThe crescent Moon stands between the brilliant evening star Venus and the much fainter Mars on the 2nd. Look for them in the constellation Aquarius some 20° high in the SSW as night falls. At the same time, Orion is rising in the E, below Taurus and the Pleiades, while the “W” of Cassiopeia lies overhead in the Milky Way. Continue reading...

Astronomer who found evidence of the existence of dark matter and became an inspiration for women in scienceVera Rubin once tweeted: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t good enough. My science teacher once told me I wasn’t good enough for science and look at me now.” In the 1970s and early 80s Rubin, who has died aged 88, established that the stars in the outer regions of galaxies move at similar speeds to those in the middle, a result that led to the hypothesis that most of the universe is invisible, the cosmos filled with “dark matter”, mysterious stuff whose nature is still unknown. During recent years she became a popular favourite for a Nobel prize, but never received the accolade. Having battled sex discrimination throughout her career, she became an inspiration for women in science.In the outer regions of the solar system, far away from the sun where the force of its gravity is more feeble than hereabouts, planets move more slowly than the Earth. Were Uranus to move as fast as us, it would escape from the solar system entirely, its centrifugal thrust too large for the weakened inwards gravitational pull from the sun. This has been understood since Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and is a cornerstone of Einstein’s general relativity: bodies orbiting a central mass will have speeds that fall in proportion to the square root of their distance from the centre. Continue reading...

The physicist and oceanographer explains the science of everyday things – from popping popcorn to spilling coffee – with erudition and enthusiasmHelen Czerski’s engaging debut book seeks to demystify physics in everyday life, so whether you know your refraction from your reflection, or find the entire subject incomprehensible, this should be an invaluable primer. Dealing with the everyday – such as what really happens when you spill a few drops of coffee, or how magnetism really works – is a winning ploy. It enables Czerski to offer a mixture of erudition and enthusiasm to explain her chosen topics, leading the reader gently by the hand into some surprisingly complicated areas, but mostly keeping the discussion light, accessible and interesting. It must be said that, very occasionally, Czerski’s almost determinedly unpretentious approach can verge on the grating, and if you’re allergic to popular science, this won’t be the book to convert you. But for everyone else, there will be a great deal here to edify and to entertain.• Storm in a Teacup by Helen Czerski is published by Bantam Press (£18.99). To order a copy for £15.57 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99 Continue reading...

A broken pelvis drove 16-year-old Krtin Nithinayanandam away from the squash court and into the lab – and has led to some ambitious research projects

Make up the punchlines to five jokes then discover whether you are a complete gagmeister or a total painHow funny do you think you are? To find out, complete the following zingers - ideally with a willing friend or partner - and compare your witticisms. Possible answers are shown at the bottom of the page.(a) The angler told me he hadn’t had a bite in days. So…

Replica dinosaur makes way for blue whale skeleton in Natural History MuseumSo farewell then, Dippy the Diplodocus. For more than a century the much-loved 26-metre long dinosaur skeleton has held centre stage at the Natural History Museum in London, captivating generations of children. But this is the last weekend of Dippy’s residency. On Wednesday the 292 plaster-cast bones that make up his splendid frame will be taken apart and packed up.After 112 years as the museum’s best-known prize exhibit, the country’s most famous diplodocus will embark on a farewell tour of the UK, following which there are no plans to put him on show. His replacement at the Natural History Museum will be the genuine skeleton of a young blue whale who died in 1891 on an Irish beach, around 152 million years after Dippy’s demise in the United States. As yet, the whale has no nickname – Bluey doesn’t really swing it. Continue reading...

Astronomers in the US are setting up an experiment which, if it fails – as others have – could mark the end of a 30-year-old theoryDeep underground, in a defunct gold mine in South Dakota, scientists are assembling an array of odd devices: a chamber for holding tonnes of xenon gas; hundreds of light detectors, each capable of pinpointing a single photon; and a vast tank that will be filled with hundreds of gallons of ultra-pure water. The project, the LZ experiment, has a straightforward aim: it is designed to detect particles of an invisible form of matter – called dark matter – as they drift through space.It is thought there is five times more dark matter than normal matter in the universe, although it has yet to be detected directly. Finding it would solve one of science’s most baffling mysteries and explain why galaxies are not ripped apart by stars flying off into deep space. Continue reading...

The turbulence of this year might seem set to continue well into the next, but there are good things to come too. From mass protests to comfort telly, there’s something for everyone – and lie-ins are positively encouragedRelated: Troubled times make it hard to be an optimist. But I don't plan to stop | Mary Elizabeth WilliamsIt does, admittedly, look as if 2017 will be bleak. Donald Trump becomes president, Theresa May has pledged to trigger article 50 by the end of March, and the far right march onwards. Still, it’s not all bad news. There’s the new season of Game of Thrones, apparently high heels are out, and it looks as if publishers may finally stop putting out thrillers with the word “girl” in the title. Here are six more reasons to be cheerful. Continue reading...

Chances are that the cosmos neither treasures nor regrets humans. It permits us, with marvellous neutrality, and could do without our interferenceIn a Scandinavian hotel a few years ago, I came across a documentary I didn’t expect to watch for more than a minute or two, but at least it was in English. It was past time to go to bed, but I ended up watching the whole thing. Aftermath: Population Zero imagines that overnight humanity vanishes from the planet.Related: The 13 impossible crises that humanity now faces | George Monbiot Continue reading...

British Antarctic Survey director Jane Francis and biologist Amanda Fisher recognised in New Year honours listA polar scientist who helped to uncover dramatic historical warming in Antarctica and became the first woman to lead the British government’s research in the region has been made a dame in the New Year honours list.Prof Jane Francis, the director of the British Antarctic Survey and a veteran of more than a dozen expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, receives the award for her services to polar science and diplomacy. Continue reading...

Intense scrutiny of the president-elect’s neurological quirks provide a starting point for insight into what makes us so creative, and so destructiveA fair number of people are implacably opposed to seeing any hope for the future after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. But there’s one good reason to be hopeful. Many observers saw quite quickly that Trump’s personality was highly disordered. People with yet more dangerous personality disorders have gained power many times in human history – probably far more often than not. This time, however, the phenomenon is being scrutinised on those terms. The opportunity for everyone to learn a lot about this domineering, exploitative, unstable and superficially charismatic personality type has presented itself on a grand scale.In fact, there has never been a better time than now for human beings to start gaining far greater insight into ourselves, what makes us so creative and what makes us so destructive. And it’s not just a matter of information. All the neuroimaging, all the psychological theorising, all the psychiatric experimentation with pharmacology, it’s already prompting a huge need for careful, scientifically anchored engagement with the ethical and philosophical debate about what it is to be human. Continue reading...

Man sought after he poured plaster into the fossilised footprints, which are thought to 165m years old, at Staffin beachPolice are searching for a vandal who damaged two fossilised dinosaur footprints by pouring plaster into them.The footprints, thought to be about 165m years old, are a tourist attraction at Staffin beach on Skye. Continue reading...

Philanthropist says he believes ‘better medical tools’ will come, but until then the world is vulnerable to a pandemicPeople across the world, particularly those in developing countries, face a decade at risk from pandemics spread by antibiotic-resistant bugs, the billionaire Bill Gates has warned.Gates, who made his fortune with the Microsoft Windows operating system before becoming a philanthropist, said the success of antibiotics had created complacency that was now being exposed by the rise of microbial resistance to the drugs. Continue reading...

Horologists to compensate for slowdown in Earth’s rotation by introducing ‘leap second’ after 23.59:59 on 31 DecemberCounting down to 2017 will take longer than usual this New Year’s Eve as horologists compensate for a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation.To be precise, it will last an extra second. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is to introduce a “leap second” after 23.59:59 on 31 December. Continue reading...

2015 study said climate change would cause productivity to decrease by up to 20% globally during summer months by 2050Apprentice tradies in northern Australia will swallow capsule thermometers to track their core body temperature during work hours as part of a range of studies to address productivity lost through heat stress in the tropics.A 2015 study found that heat stress cost the Australian economy $6.2bn in lost productivity and suggested that temperature increases due to climate change would cause productivity to decrease by up to 20% globally during summer months by 2050. Continue reading...

From viral images that made us laugh to critical news photographs that depicted major events, here are some of the most memorable Australian images over the past 12 months

Robotic submarines and ‘internet of underwater things’ to transform hunt for sunken cities and ancient shipwrecksNo one knows what happened at Atlit-Yam. The ancient village appeared to be thriving until 7000BC. The locals kept cattle, caught fish and stored grain. They had wells for fresh water, stone houses with paved courtyards. Community life played out around an impressive monument: seven half-tonne stones that stood in a semicircular embrace around a spring where people came to drink. Then one day, life ended.The village that once sat on the Mediterranean coast now lies 10 metres beneath the waves off Israel’s shore. It was inundated when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. But Atlit-Yam was destroyed before then, and swiftly, perhaps by a tsunami. Buried under sand at the bottom of the sea, it now ranks as the largest and best preserved prehistoric settlement ever found on the seafloor. Human skeletons still lie there in graves, undisturbed.

Throughout 2016, astronauts aboard the International Space Station recorded the ever-changing face of the Earth and its environment. Here are a selection of their best photographs Continue reading...

There’s no one-size-fits-all advice for sticking to New Year resolutions. We’re all different – so make sure you’re tackling changes in a way that suits youIn January, many of us resolve to develop better habits – and that’s a good idea, because habits are the invisible architecture of our existence. We repeat about 40% of our behaviour almost daily, so if we change our habits, we change our lives.Related: What’s your New Year resolution? This can be the cruellest question | Linda Tirado Continue reading...

The twenty-seven books this scientist read in 2016 as part of a long-term project to delve deeper into science and to escape it altogetherThe most irritating thing about the seasonal lists of the best books of the year that appear in the Guardian and other papers is that they are collated by people, writers mostly, whose lifestyles seem to allow them to gobble up books as soon as they are published. Here’s Alan Hollinghurst, for example, being supremely annoying: “David Szalay’s All that Man Is was a revelation to me – not only of a brilliantly inventive and observant writer, whose three previous novels I then immediately consumed, but of …”Wait…, what? He immediately read three more books? Where does he get the appetite? Or the time? Continue reading...

They already perform surgery, take blood and help people walk. But can robots replicate vital human interaction?Robots don’t do my job as a GP yet, but computers are definitely the third person in the room in every consultation. The computer can feel like an attention-seeking teenager, asking random questions that demand a response. A person comes in to discuss their suicidal ideas or recent cancer diagnosis and the computer flashes reminders about smear tests and flu jabs.

Psychologists believe they can identify progressive changes in work of artists who went on to develop Alzheimer’s diseaseThe first subtle hints of cognitive decline may reveal themselves in an artist’s brush strokes many years before dementia is diagnosed, researchers believe.The controversial claim is made by psychologists who studied renowned artists, from the founder of French impressionism, Claude Monet, to the abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning.