British astronaut experiencing dizziness and vertigo as he readjusts to Earth and begins intensive rehabilitation in GermanyBritish astronaut Tim Peake is experiencing the “world’s worst hangover” after spending six months in space.Now back on Earth at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, he faces three weeks of rehabilitation during which he will undergo a barrage of medical tests and maintain a strict exercise regime. Continue reading...

Pioneering case settles family feud by verifying Murray Pringle’s hereditary claim to 17th-century baronetcy of StichillAn accountant from the home counties has won the right to inherit a Scottish baronetcy in a pioneering case where DNA testing proved aristocratic entitlement.The judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC) ruled on Monday that Murray Pringle, 74, who lives in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, should become the next baronet of Stichill.

Laptop-sized device can be used to spot hidden brain injuries or bleeding and allow speedy emergency interventions to reduce long-term damageA portable ultrasound system that can detect bleeding in the brain could help save the lives of soldiers on the battlefield and people living in remote communities far from well-equipped hospitals.Researchers in Scotland have created software for existing ultrasound scanners that allows the devices to be used by medics with no formal training in diagnosing brain injuries.

Tim Peake says adjusting to life back on Earth after spending six months in space is like having the world’s worst hangover. The British astronaut landed safely in Kazakhstan on Saturday inside a Soyuz capsule, alongside a US and Russian cosmonaut in Kazakhstan. Photograph: Stephane Corvaja/ESA/PA Continue reading...

From deep inside caves to the bottom of the ocean, wildlife photographer Danté Fenolio seeks out the creatures that don’t want to be found Continue reading...

Three tennis puzzlesHello guzzlers,To celebrate Andy Murray’s triumph at Queen’s yesterday, and in anticipation of Wimbledon, which starts next week, lets smash some neurons around the grass court of your brains. Continue reading...

Latest New Shepard mission took off on Sunday morning in West Texas and was the first time the Amazon chief’s company, Blue Origin, aired live videoThe private space company run by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos completed its fourth successful unmanned rocket launch and safe landing in West Texas on Sunday, using the same vehicle.The latest New Shepard mission took off on Sunday morning near Van Horn, and was the first time Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, aired a live video of the launch and landing. The rocket landed upright, with Bezos tweeting: “Successful mission.” Continue reading...

The ability to manipulate DNA is advancing with breathtaking speed – and breathtaking potential. There is no argument for stuffing the genie back in the bottle, but we must proceed alert to the risks of accident and abuseThe confluence of technology and imagination is what drives science forward, sometimes at astonishing speed. This has been especially true of biology since the structure of DNA was elucidated by Crick and Watson in 1953. The discovery of the chemical basis of life meant that it could be manipulated directly, by chemistry, rather than slowly and indirectly by selective breeding. But, of course, man came late to this game. Viruses had been attacking and subverting DNA for billions of years, and organisms have been defending themselves against such subversion for just as long. Slowly we have learned to find and appropriate the weapons of that long war and turn them to our own purposes. We now have access to tools of astonishing power and precision for the editing of DNA. At the same time we are able to manufacture the substance through pure chemistry. It’s possible to glimpse a future in which DNA engineering becomes something as relatively simple as software engineering, and its products become as easy to use.Easy to use is not at all the same as safe. We have refined our nuclear engineering to the point where unimaginable destruction could be released at the press of a single button. Genetic engineering is not as spectacular, but it might have military applications almost as devastating – even if it were never used directly on humans. The results of a malevolent or a simply flawed experiment could devastate food supplies, weaken disease resistance or increase the virulence of existing pathogens. Entire ecosystems could be destroyed by thoughtless tinkering. This is not an entirely new threat. We have been doing that for millennia now: the history of the settlement of the Americas is (among other things) a ghastly chronicle of ecological destruction, the extermination of animal species, and the use of biological warfare against other human groups. So there is no reserve of natural goodness or moral luck which we can rely on to protect us against such dangers now that they are greater and closer than ever before in history. What will be needed is a profound sense of responsibility towards the planet and towards our fellow human beings. Continue reading...

It may be flattering to be described as Britain’s “top scientist” with the power to “disciplin[e] the disputes and manifest failings” of scientists, but I hasten to assure Simon Jenkins (Scientists aren’t gods. They deserve the same scrutiny as anyone else, 9 June) that science is not a hierarchical priesthood with a papal authority to enforce appropriate discipline and dogma.At the frontiers of science there is always debate and disagreement about the facts and their meaning. It is only as evidence accumulates that a consensus emerges. Sometimes the consensus itself changes as new facts come to light. It is important that people have at least some idea of the evidence behind various claims and counterclaims so that they can judge their value. What ultimately matters is the strength of the evidence, not the motivation of the researcher or where the funding comes from. This is why it is important to encourage a scientifically engaged society, which must necessarily begin with the education of our children. Continue reading...

Blue Origin live-streams the launch, and successful landing, of its New Shepard rocket on Sunday for the fourth time. Brainchild of CEO Jeff Bezos, The New Shepard is designed to potentially take six people some 62 miles [99.7km] above the Earth’s surface, considered the edge of space. On Sunday, Blue Origin conducted an intentional ‘crash landing’ of the crew capsule, to test whether people would be safe should a failure occur Continue reading...

British astronaut who spent six months on the ISS will undergo checks in Germany – but first he gets family time, pizza and beerThe British astronaut Major Tim Peake, on terra firma for the first time in six months, is to spend up to three weeks being prodded and probed by scientists and doctors as he begins to acclimatise to gravity.As the 44-year-old spends time with his young family, researchers eager to glean crucial data on how humans adapt to living in space will be subjecting him to a battery of tests. Continue reading...

Politics, the badger cull, trainspotting, the psychic powers of Paul the octopus – maths comes into it all, says the TV and radio presenterDr Hannah Fry is quickly becoming the UK’s best-known mathematician, having appeared as an expert and presenter on BBC4’s Climate Change by Numbers, Radio 4’s The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, and City in the Sky, an in-depth study of the aviation industry, currently on BBC2. Far from being a mere pop scientist, however, Fry is a much-published researcher and a lecturer at UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), where she specialises in the mathematics of urban and social systems. After gaining her PhD in fluid dynamics five years ago, she has published papers combining mathematics with criminology and architecture, as well as her 2015 book The Mathematics of Love, which applies statistical and data-scientific models to dating, sex and marriage. The accompanying TED talk has been viewed nearly 4 million times.In City in the Sky, you look at the maths behind the aviation industry. Are you concerned about the way that industry is expanding?

Whether you’re skiing or piloting a plane, mistakes are inevitable. And learning from them is vital, says Matthew SyedWe want our children to succeed, in school and, perhaps even more importantly, in life. But the paradox is that our children can only truly succeed if they first learn how to fail. Consider the finding that world-class figure skaters fall over more often in practice than low-level figure skaters. At first sight this seems contradictory. Why are the really good skaters falling over the most?The reason is actually quite simple. Top skaters are constantly challenging themselves in practice, attempting jumps that stretch their limitations. This is why they fall over so often, but it is precisely why they learn so fast. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan estimates that she endured some 20,000 falls as she progressed from a beginner to an Olympic champion. Continue reading...

Swarming mayflies, a black-naped monarch and beached whales are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

The British astronaut will have an enormous impact on science and technology in the UK, and his project could influence the future of humanityWelcome home, Tim! It’s a sentiment that will be shared by most scientists and engineers – whether or not they are involved in space research. You will no doubt feel a bit rough for the next few days, but you’ll recover. Whether your life will be normal again after travelling 125 million kilometres and witnessing so many of Earth’s glories from space is a different matter. I am certainly jealous of the experiences you have had and have waved at you several times as the bright dot of the International Space Station moved across the night sky.In the UK the impact of your mission – especially on schoolchildren – is likely to be enormous. A million pupils have been involved in carrying out experiments connected with your adventure and it will be important to see if this enthusiasm is translated into a long-term interest in science and technology in secondary schools and universities – something this country sorely needs. If such a surge takes place, you could certainly argue that the cost to the UK of this venture will be justified on these grounds alone. Continue reading...

The father of evolution tested his theory as he sat watching plants and animals from his windowThe room that Charles Darwin used to monitor his revolutionary biological experiments has been recreated more than 100 years after it was closed and its contents were dispersed. Visitors to Down House, the great scientist’s home in Kent, will now be able to sit in the great bedroom where Darwin once monitored the research that helped him to develop his theory of natural selection.Curators from English Heritage have used decorators’ inventories, family photographs and paint analysis to recreate the likely wallpaper, carpets, chintz curtains and giant four-poster bed that would have adorned Down House’s great bedroom. There is also a sofa based on the one that Darwin used while listening to his wife, Emma, reading extracts from popular novels, as well as a bookcase that includes a volume of Darwin’s favourite book, Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Continue reading...

After 186 days orbiting the Earth, Briton returns from spaceTim Peake returned to Earth yesterday at the end of his six-month stay on the International Space Station. His journey home took place in a craft that fell from a height of 410 kilometres and decelerated from 27,600 km/h to a standstill in less than four hours. The 44-year-old astronaut described the trip as “the best ride I’ve been on ever”.Peake was crammed into a tiny Soyuz capsule with two other astronauts – the American Tim Kopra and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko – and ended up in a remote patch of the Kazakhstan steppe. Continue reading...

International Space Station mission ends as British astronaut and two crewmates land in Kazakhstan in Soyuz capsuleThe British astronaut Tim Peake has said “it feels wonderful” to be back on Earth after six months in space, having landed in Kazakhstan at the end of a seven-hour return journey from the International Space Station (ISS).The Soyuz capsule, which also carried the Nasa astronaut Col Tim Kopra and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, completed its de-orbit to enter the Earth’s atmosphere at about 10am on Saturday UK time. It landed by parachute in a remote spot in the vast scrubland steppe of Kazakhstan 15 minutes later. Continue reading...

Scientists have discovered a small asteroid, labelled 2016 HO3, that bounces up and down through Earth’s orbit – but it’s 38 times farther away than the moonThe Earth has an asteroid companion traveling in orbit with it around the sun, Nasa astronomers have discovered.The small asteroid has a slightly tilted orbit, bouncing up and down through Earth’s orbital plane once a year. Over decades, as it scuttles along its path around the solar system, it twists back and forth. Continue reading...

After six months in space, the Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko, Nasa’s Tim Kopra and Major Tim Peake leave the International Space Station in a Soyuz capsule and land in Kazakhstan Continue reading...

After the Orlando shooting, I was overcome by an ocean of sadness. But my favorite songs filled me with hope againRelated: 'I'm gonna die' is a text no mother wants to receive. Mine always feared she would | David FergusonMusic has been one of the only things that brings me any form of real comfort. Science has shown that music can make us physically stronger. Music acts as “a type of legal performance-enhancing drug,” giving athletes more stamina, more energy and increased ability to ignore and overcome pain, says a wealth of research.

The Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakhstan at 10.15am UK time after a seven-hour journey from the International Space Station. The spacecraft was carrying Peake, the US Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who had spent 186 days in space

Research shows different activities have quite specific mental effects – here’s how moving your body could sharpen your ideasThe brain is often described as being “like a muscle”. It’s a comparison that props up the brain training industry and keeps school children hunched over desks. We judge literacy and numeracy exercises as more beneficial for your brain than running, playing and learning on the move.But the brain-as-muscle analogy doesn’t quite work. To build up your biceps you can’t avoid flexing them. When it comes to your brain, an oblique approach can be surprisingly effective. In particular, working your body’s muscles can actually benefit your grey matter. Continue reading...

Popular science author Hugh Aldersey-Williams on why he hates the label, thinks scientists should shut up – and why he once spent 13 hours watching the tideIt sounds like satire but Hugh Aldersey-Williams’s account of the day he was dispatched by his publisher to a “branding workshop” is all too terrifyingly real. The author of Periodic Tales, Anatomies and The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century, one of the more interesting writers to labour under what he calls the “nasty label” of popular science, spent a day brainstorming his brand. He was, he says, less polite about the value of the exercise than his six fellow authors. “Unpredictability is my brand characteristic,” he says. “Am I a science writer? Are we forever stuck that way or are we allowed to write about other things? I’m interested in architecture and modern music and difficult things like that ... I’ve got lots of hare-brained ideas, none of which my agent likes.”We are strolling along Norfolk’s rapidly eroding cliffs of Happisburgh (pronounced Haze-brrr, appropriate on a chilly day) because it seems like a good spot to talk to him about Tide, his new exploration of “this huge and rather mysterious physical phenomena”. There is something “rather curious and unaddressed” about our understanding of the tides, he says, which does not reflect “the fact that we all spend ages on the beach staring at the sea in a rather gormless way”. Some of the largest tides in the world ebb and flow on the shores of Britain, but the British are particularly inept at handling them, and Tide offers a fascinating short history of the tide’s role in military defeats. “It’s quite embarrassing when you tot them up,” he says. “You could do an article – 10 Times Britain was Disgraced by the Tide.” Continue reading...

The astronaut has been in the headlines constantly since his selection in 2009. But press campaigns and social media are only part of the reason for his successSqueezed into a Soyuz capsule and surrounded by luggage, Tim Peake and two crewmates from the International Space Station will fall to Earth on Saturday morning in a fireball descent. All being well, the hair-raising ride should end at 10.15am UK time with the smouldering craft at rest in the open grasslands of southern Kazakhstan.Weak and hemmed in, he and his companions - Nasa’s Tim Kopra and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko - will be lifted free, checked by doctors, and after a short traditional ceremony flown back to their respective space agencies. Peake will accompany Kopra to Bodø air force base in Norway, switch planes in the dead of night and arrive in Cologne, home to the European Space Agency’s astronaut centre, early on Sunday morning.

We’ve all heard eyebrow-raising tales – so what’s really going on?In 1944, a British soldier fighting in Italy was knocked unconscious by shell fragments. That same day in Monmouthshire, he later recalled, “my wife was washing up after lunch. My daughter, aged two and a half, to whom I was only a name, was playing with some bricks on the kitchen floor. She suddenly got to her feet, went over to my wife, said ‘Daddy’s been hurt,’ and went back to her bricks.”This eyebrow-raising tale appears in Connecting With Coincidence, a new book by the psychiatrist Bernard Beitman – along with so many others it becomes easier to keep one’s eyebrows permanently raised. Beitman has one of his own: in 1973, he found himself inexplicably choking at his kitchen sink – only to learn, the next day, that his father had choked on his own blood and died at the same moment. Continue reading...

Arguments about gun control devoid of meaningful data and attempts to sow division based on misrepresentation highlight failures of science and democracy that we must fix togetherLast weekend, we saw the darkest side of humanity. Omar Mateen, an American citizen, driven by (perhaps internalized) homophobia, took 49 lives and destroyed the lives of hundreds more.This massacre, and its aftermath, point to multiple failures of science and democracy that together we can and must fix. Continue reading...

Don’t laugh at May Ashworth and her old-fashioned, formal usage of Google, nor anyone who marries a rock or apologises to a kicked chair. It’s all perfectly rationalMy sister wanted to ceremonially bury our clapped-out car in the garden, like a dead pet. When my old bike broke I wept as if I’d lost a boyfriend (I had lost a boyfriend, incidentally – it used to be his bike). When her car has managed to go up a big hill, my friend will tap it on the dashboard and mutter, “Well done, darling.” When we’ve knocked into a chair, who among us hasn’t uttered a quick “sorry!” to its rigid back?Omg opened my Nan's laptop and when she's googled something she's put 'please' and 'thank you'. I can't pic.twitter.com/hiy2tecBjU Continue reading...

How certain pieces of music send tingles up the spine has stumped researchers for centuries, but a recent brain scan study may have provided some cluesThe skin comes out in goosebumps and tingles run up the spine. But how particular pieces of music can induce such rapturous effects in people has stumped researchers for centuries.With the passing of time comes new technology though, and suitably equipped with modern brain scanning equipment, scientists may now have made some headway. Continue reading...

A ripple in the fabric of spactime sent the science community wild in February, and now we know it wasn’t a one-off: this week LIGO scientists announced that a second gravitational wave has been detected, stemming from the collision of two black holes over a billion years ago. Archaeologists were also popping opening the bubbly as they announced the discovery of not one, but a series of vast medieval cities hidden beneath Cambodia’s jungle. There’s some great video of it as well. On a lighter note, the news we were all really waiting for: the unique mating position of Bombay night frogs has finally been revealed.

From Buzz Aldrin to Versace, all things space are now on the radar of fashion’s mission’s control. Forget DHL – Nasa is your logo of choiceForget the the Gucci Gs, Versace’s medusa or Louis Vuitton’s monogramme. The insider logo to wear in fashion right now? Nasa’s.See Kylie Jenner with her Nasa sweatshirt – as seen on Instagram this weekend. While that V Files sweatshirt is actually the really cult reference of nineties club night Nasa – AKA Nocturnal Audio and Sensory Awakening – that’s obviously a bit double-layered in the first place. Nasa jackets, patched with badges from the space agency, are the best bomber to wear right now. Sarah Snyder, Ciara and Joey Bada$$ have worn the Alpha Industries one and Versace put similar design on the men’s catwalk for autumn. Continue reading...

Why do ideas discarded for centuries, like electric cars, return to the cutting edge of science and technology?Steven Poole’s new book Rethink shows what we can learn by considering obsolete ideas from a new perspective, drawing on examples from military strategy and psychotherapy to chess and morphic resonance.

Medicines regulator Nice moves at record speed to approve nivolumab for use with ipilimumab in melanoma patientsA combination of two immunotherapy drugs for advanced skin cancer has been approved for general use in the NHS, raising hopes that the deadly disease will be stalled and perhaps eradicated in many more patients.

The mechanism that brought floods to the Ile de France and a prolonged heatwave to the American Midwest is still not fully understoodAn omega block might sound like a comic-book secret weapon, but it is a genuine meteorological effect, and was responsible for extensive flooding in Europe last month.An omega block is an extreme version of a “blocking high”, an area of high pressure which remains stationary for a prolonged period. It gets its name from the way that the jet stream bends around the high and the lows on either side of it, forming a shape resembling the Greek letter omega – Ω. Continue reading...

Astronauts Chris Hadfield and Samantha Christoforetti describe the ‘wild ride’ in the Soyuz capsule and adjustments to life back on Earth that await Tim PeakeIn astronaut circles, the return to Earth aboard the Soyuz capsule is described in a hundred ways, but a common thread runs through them. Even when all goes smoothly, the ride itself is never smooth. “It is physically extremely violent,” says Chris Hadfield, the retired Canadian astronaut. “We often describe it as 15 explosions followed by a car crash.”It is with such thoughts in mind that Tim Peake will leave the International Space Station on Saturday morning after 186 days in orbit. At 4am UK time he and two others, Nasa’s Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, will say farewell to their crewmates, clamber into the Soyuz, and close the hatch. Six hours later, they will hit the planet. With luck, not too hard.

Having seen at first hand how the European Union works, and the benefits that it delivers for science, society and our security, the choice on 23 June is clearMy father-in-law, Charlie George, died last week. He was 98 and a very fine man; someone our country could be proud of. He fought in the second world war, and his memories of those desperate times remained vivid until the end. But the European Union changed all that; we’ve had peace in Europe for over seventy years by cementing our relationships through trade, cooperation and shared values. We all have a stake in the Nobel Peace Prize which was awarded to the EU institutions in 2012. So why do so many feel that the UK’s prospects would be brighter as an isolated island?

Composer Hans Zimmer, physicist Jim Al-Khalili and documentary Particle Fever recognised for their roles in propelling science into the public consciousnessComposer Hans Zimmer, physicist Jim Al-Khalili and science documentary Particle Fever have been announced as the inaugural winners of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.The gongs are intended to recognise individuals or endeavours that have propelled science into the public consciousness.They will be presented by Hawking later this month at the Starmus Festival in Tenerife. Continue reading...

It is 200 years since the birth of ‘a story to speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror’. Why are we still so interested in the story of Frankenstein?As far as anyone can tell, today marks the 200 anniversary of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin getting up after a sleepless night and declaring: “I’ve found it! What will terrify me will terrify others. I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow”. She had hit upon the idea that would become Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, the cautionary tale that has provided a vocabulary for the relationship between science and society ever since.Appropriately, it has been a dark and stormy (OK, rainy) night on the shores of Lake Geneva, where I and other Frankenstein-botherers have been gathering at the Brocher Foundation, a few miles from the grand villa where Mary was staying with Lord Byron, her future husband Percy and associated hangers-on. Continue reading...

Poll shows Brexiters are also more likely to think media exaggerates agreement on climate science, distrust scientists and oppose windfarmsBritish people backing a leave vote in the EU referendum are almost twice as likely to believe that climate change does not have a human cause, according to a new poll. Continue reading...

SpaceX launches two communications satellites into orbit on its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on Wednesday. Minutes later, a camera mounted on a platform in the Atlantic films the rocket’s reusable main-stage booster crashing onto the platform, where scientists had hoped it would land safely

Up to 80% of subject choice could be down to genetic influence, making the argument for a more personalised approach to education, say scientistsStudents choices when it comes to A-level subjects could largely be down to genetics, a new study suggests.Scientists say that up to 80% of students’ choices of A-level subjects is down to genetic influence with environmental factors such as home life, accounting for 23% of the choice at most. Continue reading...

Report from Royal Society for Public Health and Faculty of Public Health says misuse of drugs should be a health issue, not a criminal one

In this series, I’ll be investigating different drugs, busting some myths and explaining potential harms and benefits. This week I’m raising a glass to alcohol When we talk about alcohol as a recreational drug we really mean ethanol, a particular type of alcohol that is produced when sugar is fermented by yeast. Alcoholic drinks are usually made from fermented fruits or grains, and usually fall in to three categories: beers, wines, and spirits. Alcoholic drinks have a long history of use in the UK, and are very much ingrained in UK culture. Ale was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, though it was much weaker, and consumed daily in large quantities. Continue reading...

‘Striking’ structural differences seen in study which compared brain scans of young men with antisocial behavioural problems with their healthy peersBrain scans have highlighted “striking” differences between the brains of young men with antisocial behavioural problems and those of their better-behaved peers.The structural changes, seen as variations in the thickness of the brain’s cortex or outer layer of neural tissue, may result from abnormal development in early life, scientists at Cambridge University claim.

Following February’s historic announcement, LIGO has again spotted ripples in the fabric of spacetime, from the collision of a second set of black holesPhysicists have detected ripples in the fabric of spacetime that were set in motion by the collision of two black holes far across the universe more than a billion years ago.The event marks only the second time that scientists have spotted gravitational waves, the tenuous stretching and squeezing of spacetime predicted by Einstein more a century ago.

The government wants to overhaul the UK’s research system. But a persuasive case for change has not been made. We should shelve the Nurse review proposalsAs we saw in debates on the Queen’s Speech, parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s higher education and research bill is likely to focus on student fees, the quality of university teaching, and the role and degree-giving powers of private providers. But as the bill approaches its second reading, and particularly when it reaches the House of Lords, it will be important that the proposed upheaval in the bodies that fund research receives equal scrutiny.The continued success and vitality of UK research depends on the dual support funding system, which combines grants from the research councils with block funding allocated to universities on the basis of periodic assessment. For this system to operate, some kind of research excellence framework, or REF, is a necessary evil. Continue reading...

Fieldwork in Antarctica was both a challenge and a privilege - and hopefully we’ll answer some questions about life near the end of the Age of DinosaursHeroes of Antarctic exploration-past famously include Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen who raced to the South Pole in search of fame and discovery. They encountered harsh conditions and suffered extreme hardships, cut off from communication with the outside world. It took years of planning, then years of recovery, for these explorers to even begin to understand what they went through – let alone to describe what they discovered.Over one hundred years later, filled with probably just as much excitement and anticipation, a new group of explorers has again journeyed to Antarctica. After years of planning, the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, or AP3, an international team of scientists, of which I am a part, headed off to probe a new frontier of Antarctic exploration. Our mission was not to discover the South Pole, but to find evidence of ancient life on a continent largely void of anything alive today. Would we really get there? Could I carry my own weight? Was my mom justified in worrying like I was her six-year-old daughter, not a 36-year-old professional paleontologist? These questions, among others ran through my mind, as I got ready to join 11 other paleontologists for this extreme fieldwork experience.

Organisation’s cancer research agency says beverages consumed at more than 65C are probably linked to oesophageal cancerThe World Health Organisation has cleared coffee of causing cancer, but a detailed investigation has found that very hot drinks may be linked to cancer of the oesophagus, or gullet.Coffee was classified as a possible cause of cancer in 1991, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of WHO, has now reconsidered the evidence. It carried out a detailed review of the many studies published on the subject and found that coffee drinkers have no reason to worry. Continue reading...

The biggest threat to Britain from the EU is uncontrolled moth migration. We need to let these winged freeloaders know that they’re not welcome hereWith all the frantic panic going on around the EU referendum next week, it’s easy to overlook the fact that this is a distraction from the real issue. Never mind immigration, or terrorism, or economic concerns, or who controls what; the real danger facing the UK at the moment? Moths! Millions and millions of greedy selfish European Diamondback moths are set to invade our glorious land, devouring our crops, hassling our women, taking our jobs and claiming benefits.You won’t have heard a peep about this from the government though, thanks to the liberal pro-moth lefty PC agenda that controls our media for some reason despite us having the most right-wing government for a generation. You can’t argue with the facts! Unless they’re facts you don’t agree with, in which case argue all you want. Fill your boots. Whatever happened to free speech? Continue reading...

New research reveals the secret behind the remarkable intelligence of some bird speciesRelated: Blind cave fish evolved a shrunken brain to save energyCalling someone “bird brain” used to be considered as an insult. Birds’ brains are very small compared to those of mammals, and what’s more, they lack the heavily wrinkled cerebral cortex, which is characteristic of the human brain, and widely believed to the seat of intelligence. It was, therefore, widely assumed that birds aren’t very clever creatures, but recently this has started to change. Continue reading...