A sliding block puzzle to corner youHello guzzlers,The sliding block puzzle was one of the earliest puzzle crazes. It is still popular as a toy for kids and as a cheesy branded giveaway. Continue reading...

Despite flaws, this lively and accessible history of the gene and its implications for the future is bursting with complex ideasIn 2010, researchers launched a study, the Strong African American Families project, in one of the bleakest, most impoverished areas of rural Georgia, a place overrun by alcoholism, violence, mental illness and drug use. “Abandoned clapboard houses with broken windows dot the landscape,” Siddhartha Mukherjee tells us. “Crime abounds. Vacant parking lots are strewn with hypodermic needles. Half the adults lack a high school education and nearly half the families have single mothers.” You get the picture.The scientists wanted to know how an individual’s genetic makeup might help or hinder their chances of surviving this grim background, and so began testing local families to determine which variant of a gene known as 5-HTTLRP they possessed. One, known as the short variant, had previously been linked to individuals prone to depression, alcoholism and anxiety. The other, the long variant, was associated with relative “normality”. Continue reading...

Whether it’s dealing with a life-threatening diagnosis or the loss of a loved one, we are remarkably resilient as a species. We don’t fully understand the science, but we know the support of others is crucialAmie Du Buisson-Spargo is a drama student set to follow in the footsteps of Grace Kelly and Robert Redford when she starts at the New York acting school they attended. She faced stiff competition – and never let on that she lives with a rare, incurable condition, gastroparesis, that means she can’t eat solid food and must be fed via a tube into her intestine for 10 to 15 hours a day. “I try to do it at night, so that it doesn’t interfere with my day-to-day life,” she says. “It’s difficult, though, since it means I’m connected to a machine on the mains supply and I can’t really move; it’s difficult to get a good night’s sleep. But it’s just one of those things you have to adjust to.”So, how does a young person such as Du Buisson-Spargo keep going? How does the mum having chemotherapy for a life-threatening cancer get up, make the packed lunches and take the kids to school? How do parents who have lost a child go to work and do the laundry? When others face these daunting challenges, we look on and admire their fortitude. In fact, most of us would do the same if we had to – we are a remarkably resilient species. But the science that underpins resilience is only partly understood. Continue reading...

A-list music stars are inadvertently contributing to childhood obesity, according to research by New York UniversityCelebrity endorsements for food and drink products from A-list stars including Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey, overwhelmingly plug brands that are nutrient poor and high in sugar, according to researchers investigating the impact of advertising. They say that the use of celebrities to market products to young people is contributing to childhood obesity.Related: Caravaggio and the art of dieting Continue reading...

Scientists to test hypothesis that a weight loss programme for breast cancer patients after medical treatment lowers risk of disease returningA large trial is being launched this summer to establish whether diet and exercise regimes should be prescribed by doctors for women who have had breast cancer in the same way that they prescribe drugs, to prevent the disease returning and potentially save lives.Women who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of breast cancer. But accumulating evidence suggests that becoming fitter and losing some pounds after a diagnosis could cut the chances of a recurrence and even lower the risk of death. Continue reading...

As ice caps and glaciers melt, could reduced pressure on Earth’s crust lead to increased volcanic activity?Our planet is always on the move, but sometimes it is more restless than usual. As the last ice age came to an end, around 10,000 years ago, there was a surge in volcanic activity as ice caps melted, decreasing pressure on the Earth’s crust.Since then our planet has reached a steady state, with around 50 volcanoes erupting each year and around 150 earthquakes greater than magnitude six. But geo-hazards expert Bill McGuire is concerned that human-induced climate change may bring a resurgence in activity in the coming centuries. “In areas of major ice loss, such as Alaska, Iceland, the Andes and Himalayas we may see a rise in earthquakes, volcanism and landslides” says McGuire, who describes this scenario in Waking the Giant. “It only takes the pressure of a handshake to trigger a quake or volcanic blast in a primed system.” Continue reading...

Does science have a cure for ultracrepidarianism? Richard Dawkins (What’s in a number, Review, 4 June) quotes one of his favourite writers: “Complete knowledge is just within our grasp.” In fact we don’t even have the knowledge to handle many of the problems science has made.About a month after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the distinguished physicist David Bohm, then a young man, dreamed that science had been ruined. This was wrong, but such despair at the destructive power now released is understandable. Many people, including scientists, have shared, and share that despair. Continue reading...

Sy Montgomery’s account of octopuses will do much to rehabilitate the much maligned and mythologised creatureShooting Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1916 – the first motion picture filmed underwater, no less – J Ernest Williamson trembled: “No words can adequately describe the sickening horror one feels when from some dark mysterious lair, the great lidless eyes of the octopus stare at one… One’s very soul seems to shrink.” And the image of giant octopuses enveloping ships, pulling sailors to watery graves and generally being the writhing, eight-armed stuff of shivery nightmares has pervaded our culture. In The Soul of an Octopus, the American author and naturalist Sy Montgomery seeks to de-monsterise the intriguing creatures. And it’s testament to some fine writing that by the end, stroking an octopus’s head or getting a “love bite” from one of its 1,600 suckers seems downright desirable.Where Montgomery really convinces the squeamish is not in show-and-tell encounters with various octopuses but in her quest to try and know this misunderstood “alien”. She discovers they’re highly intelligent, capable of tenderness, playfulness, happiness and friendship. All of which are recognisably human characteristics, of course, and Montgomery is well aware of the dangers of anthropomorphising. But she’s firmly in the camp that believes animal science should allow for thoughts, feelings and personality. As the person who designs the complex puzzles for the octopuses to solve tells her: “Octopuses have their own intelligence that we can’t match.” Continue reading...

Researchers will soon have the means to study embryos beyond the 14-day legal limit. Does the potential for advances in medicine outweight ethical concerns?It is not birth, marriage or death, but gastrulation that is truly the most important time in your life.”When the eminent embryologist Lewis Wolpert wrote these words 30 years ago in From Egg to Embryo: Determinative Events in Early Development, human gastrulation – the most momentous of all embryonic transformations – was something of an unknown quantity. Indeed, it is still referred to as the “black box” of human development, occurring about 16 or 17 days after fertilisation and more than a week after the free-floating embryo has anchored itself to the lining of the womb. Continue reading...

Trusting your own instincts seems to have some bearing on whether you feel a sense of purpose in lifeDoes your life have meaning? To find out, rate the items below on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), then add up your score.

To understand our genetic code more fully, we need to build one to see the role of the genes and how they can changeScience can move at a startling pace. In 2003, biologists from the Human Genome Project announced that they had learned how to read an entire human genome. A few days ago, they revealed that they now want to press ahead to try to write one. In other words, researchers have reached the stage where they want to build the genetic instructions that form the blueprint for living cells. The idea, outlined in Science last week, is exciting, audacious and also controversial.So why put forward such a plan? Why court controversy with such a seemingly outlandish proposal? In fact, the idea goes back to the results of the original Human Genome Project that are now providing greater understanding of the causes of cancer, heart disease and schizophrenia while also shedding light on human evolution. Continue reading...

The largest planet in the solar system may finally give up its secrets thanks to a new probeA few days from now, a US spacecraft carrying a 200kg titanium vault crammed with delicate electronic equipment and fitted with a vast array of solar panels will sweep over the poles of Jupiter before entering into orbit around the giant planet. The craft, named Juno, has travelled almost three billion kilometres since it was launched in 2011. For the next two years, the huge spaceship will skim over Jupiter’s thick atmosphere while trying to avoid the planet’s huge belts of deadly radiation in a bid to uncover the secrets of this mysterious, remote world.The $1.1bn (£757,837m) mission is designed to peer deep into the thick layers of gases that make up the planet’s atmosphere and return data that could be crucial to understanding the birth not just of Jupiter but of all the planets in our solar system, including Earth. Continue reading...

The words of the 8th-century Saint Bede are among those that have been found by detecting iron, copper and zinc – constituents of medieval inkMedieval manuscripts that have been hidden from view for centuries could reveal their secrets for the first time, thanks to new technology.Dutch scientists and other academics are using an x-ray technique to read fragments of manuscripts that have been reused as bookbindings and which cannot be deciphered with the naked eye. After the middle ages manuscripts were recycled, with pages pasted inside bindings to strengthen them. Those fragments may be the unique remains of certain works. Continue reading...

We know some people can’t conjure up mental images. But we’re only beginning to understand the impact this “aphantasia” might have on their educationNever underestimate the power of visualisation. It may sound like a self-help mantra, but a growing body of evidence shows that mental imagery can accelerate learning and improve performance of all sorts of skills. For athletes and musicians, “going through the motions,” or mentally rehearsing the movements in the mind, is just as effective as physical training, and motor imagery can also help stroke patients regain function of their paralysed limbs.

4 June 1959: No signal received amid US attempts to bring mice back aliveVandenberg Air Base (California), June 3.

Two researchers challenged ‘characterization of medical care as more dangerous’ than guns or cars and provided numbers that were 10% of original findingsTwo researchers have challenged a recent British Medical Journal analysis that said medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US.In a searing response to the analysis, also published in the BMJ, researchers wrote that the results came from a flawed, informal methodology and misconstrued how many people died annually from medical error. Continue reading...

New era of targeted treatment that will extend survival rates detailed at American Society of Clinical Oncology meetingA new era of cancer treatment is beginning in which patients get drugs matched specifically to their tumour, according to scientists at the world’s biggest cancer conference in Chicago.Precision or personalised medicine, as it is called, “is about targeting treatment so that it’s more powerful, while reducing the toxicity, so there are fewer side-effects”, said Prof Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center. “At the moment it’s more like using a cannonball to kill an ant – and creating a whole lot of damage at the same time.” Continue reading...

Liverpool University-led study found mix of two off-patent drugs upped five-year survival rate from 16% to 29% of patientsNearly a third of patients with pancreatic cancer can survive for five years on a combination of two drugs which are off-patent and have been used separately for years, an important charity-funded trial has shown.

After annual survey finds MDMA is making a comeback, we ask drug counsellors about other substances – and what can be done

Thanks to the internet, proverbs are enjoying a second day in the sun‘We each have two lives,” a wise person once said, “and the second begins when we realise we have only one.” I can’t tell you which wise person, sadly; the internet attributes it in roughly equal measure to Confucius and Tom Hiddleston. (It’s not a very Confucian sentiment, so I’m going with Hiddleston.) But it hardly matters. It’s an aphorism, and like all the best ones, it feels as if it always existed, and only needed someone to discover it. Or rediscover it: judging by various new books and essays, this oldest of philosophical forms is making a comeback. Our era of dwindling attention spans and 140-character content-burps is generally held to be one of escalating stupidity. But it’s also ideally suited to aphorisms. So maybe we’ll end up imbibing some wisdom accidentally, too.There are two species of aphorism, James Lough explains in Short Flights, a recent modern collection. The more irritating is the “instructional” kind: pompous nuggets on how to behave, of the sort dispensed by Benjamin Franklin. (“Early to bed and early to rise.” OK, we get it, Ben. You’re perfect.) Not all instructional aphorisms are terrible: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” is useful advice. But juicier by far are “aphorisms of insight”, which don’t tell us what to do, but radically shift our view of how things are. As Lough writes: “An insight aphorism is anarchic, a bomb exploding in an empty house, blasting out the windows, blowing the doors off their hinges.” Continue reading...

Before it happened to me, I never truly understood how awful chemo could be: no description can do it justice. But there are ways to ease its horrors that feature in none of the official advice, and I want everyone to know about themIf you were born after 1960, the odds that you will get cancer in your lifetime are now one in two. It is an extraordinary statistic. Even if you turn out to be one of the lucky ones, half of the people around your kitchen table this morning will at some point sit in a doctor’s surgery and be given the news that they have cancer. If the numbers continue in the same relentless direction, before long, it will be most of them.Not all will have chemotherapy. The fortunate ones can be cured in other ways, while the truly unfortunate will have cancers chemo cannot treat. I met one of those unluckiest of souls only the other day. It hadn’t occurred to me until then to feel very grateful for having been eligible for what was, without a doubt, the most unpleasant medical ordeal of my life. Continue reading...

Measurements taken by Hubble space telescope conflict with studies of radiation left over from Big Bang – fuelling theories of ‘dark energy’ and mystery particlesThe universe is expanding faster than anyone had previously measured or calculated from theory. This is a discovery that could test part of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, a pillar of cosmology that has withstood challenges for a century.Nasa and the European Space Agency jointly announced the universe is expanding 5% to 9% faster than predicted, a finding they reached after using the Hubble space telescope to measure the distance to stars in 19 galaxies beyond theMilky Way. Continue reading...

The petroglyphs – thought to be 1,000 to 1,500 years old – are the first known of in the British Overseas Territory: ‘They really add to Montserrat’s unique history’Hikers out for a stroll on the Caribbean island of Montserrat have discovered ancient stone carvings that archaeologists believe could offer valuable insight into the island’s pre-colonial history.The petroglyphs – which appear to depict geometric designs as well as beings of some kind – were carved into the side of a mossy boulder in the densely forested hills in the island’s north.

The negativity in our 24-hour media-obsessed culture can get on top of you. It would be great to have a better balance with tales about the brighter side of lifeThe joyous news that seven-year-old Yamato Tanooka has been found alive and very much unabducted, unmurdered, and uneaten by wild bears, will have brought smiles to many a face this morning. The child, who disappeared after he was made to get out of his parents’ car on a mountain road for misbehaving, has been found bunking down in a military hut after spending six nights out alone. “I’m overcome with emotion,” said his father in a public statement, “Really, thank you very much.”Tanooka’s story serves as a reminder of how, despite living in a 24-hour news-obsessed culture, we rarely get to see things turn out well Instead, news outlets emphasise the horrific, the lurid and the depraved in an attempt to maximise audiences and therefore profits. The result is a skewed view of the world as dark, depressing place in which positive things rarely happen. To look at any tabloid news website, for example, is to be faced with reports of rape, murder, poverty, famine, violence, terrorism and war. Anything positive and heartwarming inevitably goes uncovered or gets lost in the sea of negativity, and the rise of the internet and, more specifically social media, as a purveyor of news is only making the distortion worse. Continue reading...

Nasa films a fireball so bright that it blinds all-sky meteor cameras as far away as western New Mexico. The meteor – 5ft wide and weighing a few tonnes – entered Earth’s atmosphere over Arizona early Thursday morning at a speed of 40,200m [64,700km] per hour, lighting up the pre-dawn sky for a few seconds

Why do we fear radiation? Is it because so much about it is still unknown, or that it’s often invisible to us? Timothy Jorgensen of Georgetown University explainsTimothy Jorgensen, associate professor of radiation medicine at Georgetown University, Washington DC and author of Strange Glow, joins Nicola Davis to discuss the story of radiation, exploring the varied ways it exists, and dispelling some of the myths surrounding it. Continue reading...

The 1875 letter, part of correspondence between British scientist and Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, was stolen by an employee in mid-1970s, FBI saidMore than three decades after a letter by Charles Darwin was stolen, the FBI’s art crime team has recovered and returned it to the Smithsonian.The letter, part of the Darwin’s correspondence with an American geologist, Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, was written in May 1875 to thank his fellow naturalist for field studies of what became Yellowstone national park. Continue reading...

Study raises possibility that two populations of grey wolves, separated by thousands of miles and years, may have resulted in modern domestic dogsHumankind’s long friendship with the dog may have begun at least twice. Grey wolves in western Eurasia may have started hanging around Stone Age hunter-gatherer clans even before humans and dogs clinched the relationship perhaps 14,000 years ago in east Asia.New research based on DNA samples from prehistoric hounds, as well as genetic studies of modern dogs and wolves, suggests that two populations of grey wolves – separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years – may have begun the connection that turned Canis lupus into Canis lupus familiaris. Continue reading...

Twenty years after scientists learned to ‘read’ the human genome, scientists are hoping to write their own synthetic version of the DNA recipe for lifeTwo decades ago we learned to “read” the human genome – the entire three-billion-letter DNA recipe for life coiled in the human chromosomes. Now scientists want to start writing it.A $100 million global consortium has been proposed, to devise ways to assemble human DNA in the laboratory so as to better understand how it works, and look for new ways of treating disease and saving lives. Continue reading...

The nature of the gas giant’s atmosphere has long been something of a puzzle, but radio wave data has allowed scientists to peek beneath planet’s cloudsHuge plumes of ammonia have been found beneath the clouds of Jupiter, providing new insights into the planet’s dynamic atmosphere, scientists say.Nearly 780 million kilometres from the sun and the largest planet in the solar system, the gas giant Jupiter has long fascinated astronomers. But the nature of its atmosphere has been something of a puzzle. Continue reading...

Tiny particles of plastic litter in oceans causing deaths, stunted growth and altering behaviour of some fish that feed on them, research showsFish are being killed, and prevented from reaching maturity, by the litter of plastic particles finding their way into the world’s oceans, new research has proved.Some young fish have been found to prefer tiny particles of plastic to their natural food sources, effectively starving them before they can reproduce. Continue reading...

Orthodox church renews controversial call for inventor’s remains to be moved to St Sava’s CathedralA long-running dispute in Belgrade over what should be done with the remains of Nikola Tesla, one of the world’s greatest inventors, has flared up again after the Serbian Orthodox church reiterated its demand for his ashes to be moved to a cathedral.The ashes of the man who developed, among other things, the alternating current electricity supply system widely in use today have been preserved in a gold-coloured sphere in the Nikola Tesla museum in the Serbian capital since 1957.

‘London terminals’ and ‘any permitted’ among confusing terms highlighted in regulator’s report which finds jargon is rifeJargon is widely used by train operators’ ticket machines at Britain’s railway stations, the industry’s regulator has said as it published a study that found more needs to be done to eradicate confusing terminology when passengers are buying tickets.Phrases highlighted for concern by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) included “London terminals”, “any permitted” and abbreviated text such as “Anytime R” meaning “Anytime Return”. Continue reading...

Trapped in a holding pen of teenagers brimming with hormones, we experience emotions so strong they monopolize our recollectionsFor better or worse, many of us never forget high school: the unrequited romantic crushes, chronic embarrassment, desperate struggles for popularity, sexual awakening, parental pressure and, above all else, competition – social, athletic, academic.There’s even an entire genre of entertainment that revolves around high school. Beverly Hills 90210, Mean Girls, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High all revisit the conflict and angst of these years. Continue reading...

Researchers who analysed metal composition of dagger within wrapping of mummified teenage king say it ‘strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin’A dagger entombed with King Tutankhamun was made with iron from a meteorite, a new analysis on the metal composition shows.In 1925, archaeologist Howard Carter found two daggers, one iron and one with a blade of gold, within the wrapping of the teenage king, who was mummified more than 3,300 years ago. The iron blade, which had a gold handle, rock crystal pommel and lily and jackal-decorated sheath, has puzzled researchers in the decades since Carter’s discovery: ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt, and the dagger’s metal had not rusted. Continue reading...

A stroke of luck at a bleak time meant I got to take the ground-breaking Herceptin. It allowed me to live, and follow my dream of becoming an authorThough I loved being an English teacher, my dream from childhood was to be a writer. Aged 34, I was head of English in a secondary school, newly married, and about to start a family. Just three weeks after the wedding I found something strange in my right breast. It was more of a mass than a lump.On the 11 November 2004 at 1.35pm, I was told I had cancer. The words I remember were “no cure”, “mastectomy”, and “breast cancer and pregnancy don’t mix” – all said in the same sentence. Continue reading...

From shooting music videos for John Lennon to filming life-sized documentaries in space, Toni Myers talks about her eclectic career in film“It was the rock and roll 60s, we were all kids. It sounds like name dropping, but it really wasn’t like that.” Toni Myers casually dismisses working with Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Like many pivotal moments in the documentary filmmaker’s early days, she claims her meeting with the musical icons was more serendipity than calculated career move.Myers was living and working in London with her British husband at the time, making documentaries out of their Soho offices in Greek Street. Despite a shoestring budget, the pair were experimenting with shooting films to song. Word got out that the couple were producing the world’s first rock videos and it wasn’t long before some of the era’s musical legends began knocking on their door. Continue reading...

In this series, I’ll be investigating different drugs, busting some myths and explaining potential harms and benefits. This week it’s the turn of tobaccoTobacco, the dried leaf that’s smoked in cigarettes, cigars and pipes, and taken in various other forms such as snus and chewing tobacco, has been used as a recreational drug for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Cigarettes as a method for smoking became popular during World War one, when they were included as part of soldiers’ ration packs. People who smoke report that it relives stress, and can make them feel calmer and more relaxed. But is this really the case? Two in three smokers will have started smoking before the age of 18, and smoking is illegal in this age group, in the UK and many other countries around the world. The percentage of current smokers who want to quit is similarly high (around 2 in 3 current smokers report wanting to quit). Continue reading...

Promising method simulates a viral infection to mobilise the body’s immune system against tumoursGerman researchers on Wednesday presented a “Trojan horse” method of attacking cancer, sneaking virus impersonators into the human body which prompt an immune response that attacks tumours.Tested in only three people so far, the treatment claims to be the latest advance in immunotherapy, which aims to rouse the body’s own immune system against disease. Continue reading...

Moths’ role as pollinators is disrupted in brightly lit urban areas, finds researchStreet lights don’t just lure moths, they may be helping to impoverish suburban gardens by causing them to fly too high to pollinate flowers, researchers at Newcastle University report.It could be at the cost of honeysuckle, ivy, the roadside wildflower white campion, and even buddleia, say the authors of a new study in the journal Global Change Biology. Continue reading...

Elizabeth Holmes’s former valuation was based on her stake in blood-testing startup Theranos, which has seen its value collapseRelated: Forbes investigates after 'contributor' asks PR for £300 to write online profileUS business magazine Forbes, which monitors the world’s wealthiest individuals and publishes a rich list, has revised the net worth of the woman it named as America’s richest self-made woman last year from $4.5bn (£3.1bn) to zero. Continue reading...

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, speaks to astronauts onboard the International Space Station on Wednesday night via Facebook Live. Zuckerberg quizzes the ISS crew, including British astronaut Tim Peake, on what they do for fun and how to become a successful cosmonaut

The strange patterns seen on Pluto’s icy surface are evidence of convection in the kilometres-thick layers of frozen nitrogen, two papers published today suggestThe polygons of the dwarf planet Pluto have posed a puzzle for scientists. Perplexing patterns on the surface of a sea of frozen nitrogen are evidence of convection driven by temperature differences. Continue reading...

Cultural heritage expert claims off-duty regime soldiers have been carrying out illegal excavations at Unesco siteSyrian regime troops are looting the ancient city of Palmyra like the Islamic State jihadis who controlled it until March, according to a leading archaeologist.Related: Looted in Syria – and sold in London: the British antiques shops dealing in artefacts smuggled by Isis Continue reading...

Acceptance of same-sex sexual activity has nearly quadrupled since 1990, while adults reporting at least one same-sex partner has also increasedUS public acceptance of sexual activity between two adults of the same sex has nearly quadrupled since 1990.According to a national survey of more than 30,000 Americans, those who view sexual activity between two adults of the same sex as being “not wrong at all” increased from 13% in 1990 to 49% in 2014. The shift was even greater for adults under the age of 30, with the proportion rising from 15% to 63% during the same time period. Continue reading...

The news that Marks & Spencer is canning piped tunes will hit the right note with some shoppers, but experts say the silence may come at a priceIn its increasingly desperate bid to revive its fortunes, Marks & Spencer has introduced some radical ideas in recent times – there was the pre-chopped avocado, then the celebrity designers. Now, it’s getting rid of the music in its stores. In a few weeks’ time, the tills will no longer be alive with the sound of muzak – good news if you view piped tunes as noise pollution of the worst kind, but the silence may give some of M&S’s sadder stores a graveyard air. It was, says a spokesperson, “the result of extensive research and feedback from our customers and colleagues”.But silence may not prove golden. Professor Adrian North, head of the school of psychology at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and an expert on the psychology of music, says he disagrees with the move. “The research shows that music can have a double-digit impact on sales,” he says, “so turning off that source of revenue is a poor decision.” Continue reading...

When it comes to the fossil record, what is a species? And how is a ring of stalagmites made by Neanderthals challenging our identity as a species of Homo?We’re inundated through the media with biology news about invasive species, endemic species, native species, endangered species, reintroduced species, new species and extinct species.Identifying and describing species is difficult for living organisms let alone from fossil remains. If you watch a wildlife documentary or visit a natural history museum, you may get the impression that our knowledge of life on Earth is fairly comprehensive, but for the majority of described species we know little detail about their anatomy, biology and behaviour. Continue reading...

Why do people have such disproportionately aggressive responses to attempts at rebooting their childhood entertainments, like the new Ghostbusters movie?Maybe you haven’t heard. Maybe you’ve been combing the Mariana Trench for a dropped contact lens, or been employed to brush the dust off the Mars Rover, so have been out of the loop for a while. For everyone else, it’s common knowledge that they’ve made a Ghostbusters reboot, that it has LADIES in it, and large chunks of the internet are seriously unhappy about it.There are a few explanations for this, from a general disgruntlement with excessive Hollywood reboots to the whole Ghostbusters aspect being a feeble cover for what is basically an enraged anti-feminism backlash, something which is a depressing inevitability when women attempt to do anything, in any context, ever. But some people just seem outraged that they dare to “tamper” with their beloved childhood favourite, in this case Ghostbusters. Continue reading...