Experts from Seattle, Silicon Valley, Atlanta and beyond are donating their time to develop technology that could help eliminate malaria by 2020

Actor’s call for women to seek testing for breast and ovarian cancer mutations raised screening rates but may not have reached those most at riskAngelina Jolie’s revelation that she underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of developing breast cancer boosted rates of genetic testing among women, but might have failed to reach those most at risk, new research suggests.In a 2013 article for the New York Times, Jolie explained her decision to undergo a double mastectomy after finding that she had a mutation in a gene known as BRCA1 that greatly increased her risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Continue reading...

A label doesn’t just describe, it shapes our imaginations - so let’s ditch stone age with its limited range and Flintstones mischaracterisations‘Stone age’ is shorthand, for many, for a human past before the dawn of civilisation. Cavemen, clad in furs, throwing stone-tipped spears at woolly mammoths. Perhaps some dinosaurs parading around in the background. Maybe these humans are a little heavy of brow and shaggy of hair.

Tracks found by accident on proposed museum site in Tanzania were preserved in volcanic ash dampened by ancient African rainsThe footprints of five ancestors of humans who walked the Earth more than 3.6m years ago have been found preserved in volcanic ash that was dampened by ancient African rains. Researchers unearthed the tracks by accident when they began to excavate test pits that had been called for as part of an assessment of the impact of building a proposed museum on the site in Tanzania.

A steady stream of new discoveries is developing our view of the colourful and fuzzy world of dinosaurs and ancient birdsHello everyone, and welcome to a new episode of News from the World of Old Feathers. Sit back and relax, because my, my, we have some new ground to cover.Colourful feathers are relevant to numerous aspects of avian biology, including sexual selection, camouflage and communication. For a long time, the answer to the question “What colour were the first birds?” was a rather speculative one, as contrary to what creationists or the TV series the Flintstones try to tell you, no humans were around in the Mesozoic era when the first birds appeared. But the discovery of feathers in avian and non-avian dinosaurs, and traces of colour inside those feathers, has massively increased our understanding of the early evolution of birds. Continue reading...

Researchers say the positive effects of the augmented reality game on physical activity are short-livedThose searching for a fun way to boost their exercise levels might need to look further than the next PokéStop.While Pokémon Go initially raised hopes of an innovative, albeit inadvertent, approach to encouraging individuals to walk further, new research suggests such effects are short-lived. Continue reading...

A study reports that playing Highway to Hell could be just the thing to break your opponent’s concentration - but what other tricks will help you win?The work of rock band AC/DC may not be an obvious festive choice, but for wily board game players it could come to define the sound of every Christmas to come. Research by Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music found that rock music can distract men (but not women) “undertaking complex surgical procedures” in the game Operation. In the experiment, 352 volunteers with no previous surgical training were given either a Mozart piano sonata, Thunderstruck by AC/DC or a recording of operating theatre sounds to listen to while removing the patient’s wishbone, Adam’s apple and that weird plastic horse; those listening to AC/DC fared the worst. But what else could put off your opponents and ensure you are board-game champion this Christmas? Continue reading...

Findings could support theory that more cautious behaviour as we age could be a result of diminished grey matterThe older we get, the fewer risks we take. But what lies behind people’s more cautious behaviour in their older years has been one of the unsolved puzzles of human behaviour.Now, researchers have found a clue in the form of brain scans which revealed that changes in grey matter can predict risk-taking behaviour more than a person’s age itself.

My father, Miles Vaughan Williams, who has died aged 98, received global recognition for his work on heart rhythm problems. He realised that these were the commonest cause of sudden death, and his main contribution was to put the pharmacological treatment of arrhythmias on a firm scientific basis. He conducted pioneering work on beta-blockers, which have saved countless lives since. The Vaughan Williams index of anti-arrhythmic drugs – established in 1970 – is still used today. His work was recognised with an honorary fellowship of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and an honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne.Son of Stella (nee Pressey) and Arthur Vaughan Williams, he was born in Bangalore, India. His father, first cousin of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, was an engineer charged with managing all the steam engines of the Madras and Southern Mahratta railway. Aged six, Miles was sent to Crowthorne Towers prep school in Berkshire, then to Wellington college. He went to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1937 to read classics and philosophy. Continue reading...

A recent report recommends dealing with mental illness before poverty, but this overlooks the fact that the two are fundamentally linkedA recent report by Lord Richard Layard suggests that “Happiness depends on health and friends, not money”. The conclusions presented argue that the UK government should focus more on providing better healthcare and resources for dealing with mental health issues in a variety of societal contexts, rather than trying to combat poverty and make people wealthier.For the record, I’ve no issue with Lord Layard, and I’ve no doubt that his intentions are honourable and intended to be helpful. It is also the case, without question, that the UK government should indeed invest significantly more in mental healthcare, given the dire state it’s currently in. Continue reading...

Scientist recommended Nasa build an interceptor rocket, with periodic testing, alongside an observer spacecraft to stop catastrophic fireballs from hitting usHumans are woefully unprepared for a surprise asteroid or comet, a Nasa scientist warned on Monday, at a presentation with nuclear scientists into how humans might deflect cosmic dangers hurtling toward Earth.“The biggest problem, basically, is there’s not a hell of a lot we can do about it at the moment,” said Dr Joseph Nuth, a researcher with Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Continue reading...

Researchers find neonicotinoid insecticides harm ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out pollen to fertilise cropsThe world’s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, according to preliminary results from a new study.Some flowers, such as those of crops like tomatoes and potatoes, must be shaken to release pollen and bumblebees are particularly good at creating the buzz needed to do this. But the research shows that bumblebees exposed to realistic levels of a neonicotinoid pesticide fail to learn how to create the greatest buzz and collect less pollen as a result. Continue reading...

A farm in New Zealand with an active fault line running through it has become a mecca for geologists seeking to unlock secrets deep undergroundWhen dairy farmers Gray and Vicki Eatwell purchased a block of farming land just outside the tiny west coast village of Whataroa in New Zealand, the real-estate agent gestured vaguely at a cliff of striking, green-tinged rock on the border of their property at Gaunt Creek.“She said: ‘That’s the alpine fault, the meeting of the Australian and Pacific plates’,” says Gray Eatwell. “But we thought no more of it, locals were blasé about it. I had no idea my whole life would become about that rock.” Continue reading...

Long-term forecasting is fraught with difficulty, but some scientists believe the warm Arctic autumn may portend a severe winter in northern EuropeThis year winter arrived early in the UK, with temperatures plunging well below freezing before November was even out. So is an extra cold winter on the cards?Forecasting months ahead is fraught with difficulty, but some scientists believe that the warm autumn in the Arctic may portend a cold winter for North America and northern Europe. Continue reading...

A decades-old thought experiment reveals our inconsistent moral intuitions. What would you do?In the 2015 British thriller Eye in the Sky, a military team locates a terrorist cell preparing an attack expected to kill hundreds. They command a drone that can drop a bomb on the terrorists, preventing their attack. As the team readies the bomb, their cameras spy a little girl selling bread within the blast radius. Should they go through with their mission – killing the girl in order to prevent the deaths of many others?This modern-day moral dilemma has its roots in a classic philosophical thought experiment known as the trolley problem. Introduced in 1967 by Philippa Foot, the trolley problem illuminates the landscape of moral intuitions – the peculiar and sometimes surprising patterns of how we divide right from wrong. Continue reading...

Methane warms planet 20 times as much as similar CO2 volumes but lack of monitoring means scientists can’t be sure of sourcesEmissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane have surged in the past decade, threatening to thwart global attempts to combat climate change.Scientists have been surprised by the surge, which began just over 10 years ago in 2007 and then was boosted even further in 2014 and 2015. Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere over those two years alone rose by more than 20 parts per billion, bringing the total to 1,830ppb. Continue reading...

Legislation may be unsexy, but I’d like to raise a glass to 50 years of a tiny but mighty act which has saved countless American cultural sitesIn the wake of the second world war, the US embarked on a construction frenzy that began decimating the country’s existing urban fabric. The federal government encouraged much of this Make-America-Shiny-Again activity through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Many people, however, were concerned with the onslaught of destruction, and rightfully so.

University College London is now investigating its links with the work of Paolo Macchiarini, whose windpipe transplants led to a surgical scandalIt was the case of the superstar surgeon, the prestigious Swedish institute and the ill-fated windpipe transplants that escalated into allegations of misconduct, dismissal and a criminal investigation.Now, a leading British university has launched an inquiry into its own links with the endeavours of Paolo Macchiarini, the surgeon at the centre of the trachea operations following which six patients died. Continue reading...

Study by German sports psychologists finds individual athletes score higher on depression scale than those in team sportsAthletes in individual sports are more prone to depression than those in team games, according to German research to be presented at a conference in Cardiff.The research by the Technical University of Munich confirms not just the loneliness of the long distance runner but a range of other depressive symptoms among solo sportsmen and women more generally.

Some of the brightest stars in the winter sky will be hidden by the Moon this week, and the radiance of the full moon will dim the lustre of the Geminids meteor showerThe Moon stands low in the E at nightfall on 12 December, to the right of Aldebaran in Taurus and below the Pleiades. Continue reading...

Pankaj Mishra’s exposé of the poverty of economic man (Welcome to the age of anger, 8 December) is powerful but, among the “more complex drives” he lists, he omits “belonging” – key to understanding “identity politics”. Facing danger our instinct, like that of animals who herd, is to cling to the familiar and the group. Incomers may or may not be a realistic threat, but they are easily perceived to be in times of disturbing upheaval. This need not be a counsel of despair; it could be a cause for hope. Globalisation and technical change may not be inevitably destructive: whether they do harm or good depends on the values by which we handle them. If we remain dedicated to the competitive pursuit of material gain and are indifferent to the feelings of shame, humiliation, helplessness and anger of those who are left out – or if, worse still, we continue our persecution of the poor – then recent events are just a foretaste of a future that will be bleak indeed.

Auction house says bones of allosaurus named Kan, bought by unnamed French buyer, will go on public displayA nearly complete dinosaur skeleton has sold for more than €1m at auction in the eastern French city of Lyon.The bones of the allosaurus, a ferocious carnivore named Kan whose species went extinct 135m years ago, fetched €1.1m (£900,000) on Saturday, the Aguttes auction house said. Continue reading...

Michael Lewis tells the compelling story of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, whose behaviourist theories led to his own bestseller MoneyballAll love stories involve the science of decision making – for better or worse, richer or poorer. No romance has been as alive to the fallibility of that process as the one described in this book. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman were both the grandsons of eastern European rabbis. Chance and fate brought them together in Tel Aviv in the 1960s. Their subsequent deep friendship and intellectual collaboration – a bromance that invented “behavioural economics” and established cognitive rules for human irrationality – has arguably done as much to define our world as, say, the intertwining between Francis Crick and James Watson.One of the Israeli duo’s observations was that “no one ever made a decision because of a number – they needed a story”. Kahneman and Tversky argued and proved that in the main humans decided things emotionally, not rationally – the trick was to recognise those habits, and not confuse one for the other. Practising what they preached, their scientific papers were rigorous with fact and research but laced with memorable parable and anecdote. They never made the mistake of thinking that the behaviour they described – of subconscious biases and illogical choices that skewed markets and misunderstood risk – did not also apply to themselves. Continue reading...