Researchers have managed to halt the progression of DMD in mice using a recently developed gene-editing techniqueGene-editing injections could one day offer hope to those with the inherited disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy, research suggests.Researchers were able to halt the progression of DMD in adult mice using a recently developed technique that has been hailed as the scientific breakthrough of 2015.

After the shock general election vote, pollsters are looking to psychology to find out why the predictions were unreliableIn their mission to find out what went wrong in the general election in May, pollsters have been staring deeply into some unlikely places – including the brain.Martin Boon of ICM Unlimited has been talking to neuroscientists to uncover the telltale signs when respondents’ answers aren’t what they seem. “Brain science has come a long way since the days of crude lie detectors, which would look out for a little pick-up in pulse. It is now possible to put probes on the skulls of a respondent as they watch a speech, or a leaders’ debate, and gain direct insights into the emotional response,” says Boon. Continue reading...

There’s more to losing weight after the festive binge than cutting calories – lifestyle, psychology and setting realistic goals are also key to successAfter the culinary excesses of the festive season, it is no surprise that one of the most common New Year resolutions is to lose weight. And while reaching a healthy weight can take commitment and willpower, there are some tried and tested approaches that should make the task easier.There is no doubt that people with an optimum body weight live longer and have healthier lives. Overweight or obese people are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, osteoporosis, and experience fertility problems. They die younger too. Body mass index is not a perfect measure, particularly for heavy people who are lean and muscular, but it works for much of the population. The healthiest BMIs range from 22.5 to 25. When it reaches 30 to 35, life expectancy falls by two to four years. A BMI from 40 to 45 typically shortens life by eight to 10 years. Many deaths in overweight people are the result of vascular disease.

Dr Michael Jacobs from the Royal Free London, where Will Pooley and Pauline Cafferkey were treated, among those to receive honoursThe role of British doctors, scientists and advisors in developing treatments that helped end the Ebola epidemic that killed 11,000 people worldwide has been recognised in the New Year honours list.Dr Michael Jacobs, the consultant who treated three Britons with the disease, said he was “honoured and humbled” to receive a knighthood for his services to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Continue reading...

We’ve received more than a quarter of a million photographs relating to Australia over the past 12 months – and we’ve shot and seen plenty more on our travels. Here are some of the most memorable, newsworthy, creative and talked-about images from professional and amateur photographers alike Continue reading...

British astronaut will help revellers welcome in new year when his words are beamed on to big screens during street partyA message from space will welcome in the new year for revellers at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party.The British astronaut Tim Peake will beam a message from the International Space Station on to screens at the event just before midnight on Thursday. Continue reading...

Kalobios is second company with ties to Shkreli now in turmoil, following Turing, which raised the price of a life-saving drug 50-fold in SeptemberKalobios, the troubled drugmaker taken over by Martin Shkreli last month, is seeking bankruptcy protection less than two weeks after his arrest for securities fraud.It is the second pharmaceutical company with ties to the former hedge fund manager now in turmoil following his indictment on charges unrelated to his involvement with them, though the drugmakers are not lacking for problems of their own. Continue reading...

Blister of sea surface heat in Pacific Ocean can set off devastating drought, storms and rainfall around the globe – or just fade awayEl Niño is one of the most predictable climate events on the planet, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but it also has a way of keeping climate scientists guessing.In March the oceanographers predicted the current event could be the weakest on record, but in August the same agency warned it could be the strongest. Continue reading...

Lab tests find vapour from e-cigarettes can damage or kill human cells although results would not necessarily be same in living person, say researchersThe e-cigarette – the smoking alternative that has gone from nothing to a sprawling, unregulated multibillion dollar business in less than a decade – could be “no better” than traditional cigarettes, according to a new study.Research published in the Journal of Oral Oncology claims to have demonstrated that vapour from the electronic devices may damage DNA or even kill human cells in laboratory experiments. Continue reading...

News that a London clinic is rejecting dyslexic donors raises questions about the line between avoiding disease and seeking unattainable genetic perfectionIn the last season of The Bridge, the main plot hinged on the actions of the vengeful son of a sperm donor. It raised a host of unsettling questions about the obligations of biological fathers and the rights of their children.Related: Dyslexic donors turned away from largest UK sperm bank Continue reading...

Archaeologists hope DNA from four skeletons will shed light on bronze age settlement as locals see chance to develop more than just site’s ancient heritageWazir Chand is explaining life 4,000 years ago. He points to the rocky mounds looming over a huddle of brick houses, a herd of black buffalo and a few stunted trees. The rising sun burns off a chill mist over the north-west Indian plains.

2015 was a great year for books, science books in particular. 2016 looks set to improve on this with many titles that promise to be exciting and illuminating, as well as non-existentBooks. Everybody loves books, and this includes science books. As yet another year winds down, it’s traditional to review the best books of the past 12 months, using varying criteria. One such criteria is science books, an ever popular subgenre of nonfiction.But while everyone is looking back, why don’t we get ahead of the game by looking ahead? Based on existing trends and reading habits, what science books promise to be enlightening, entertaining and informative in 2016? Continue reading...

Every day millions of internet users ask Google some of life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the most common queriesIf I were being perfectly honest, I suspect the answer is likely to be yes. Essentially, counselling provides dedicated time and space for people to talk about things that are concerning or troubling them – and that’s a luxury for many of us.Related: Talking therapies are better than pills, but you have to find the right one | Stephanie Merritt Continue reading...

New strain of tumour – the fourth transmissible cancer found anywhere – makes devils the only species known to be affected by more than one strainScientists have discovered a second strain of cancer causing the fatal facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils, making the endangered marsupial the only species to be affected by two types of transmissible of cancer.Related: Tasmanian devils thrown a lifeline by facial tumour that threatens them Continue reading...

Toyama Bay dive shop owner joins 3.7-metre-long creature in the water, where it was ‘lively, spurting ink and trying to entangle his tentacles around me’A giant squid, rarely seen outside of deep waters, has been filmed swimming near a pier in central Japan.The 3.7-metre-long squid was spotted swimming under fishing boats at Toyama Bay on Christmas Eve. Continue reading...

Newly released National Archive files reveal late PM failed to declare diamond and emerald gifts and how the US president prepared for a cold war arms summit

White lion Brutus fathers three ‘miracle’ cubs at South African sanctuary despite having sterilisation operationA lion who fathered three cubs despite having had a vasectomy is going back to the vet to have the operation a second time.The lion, Brutus, and his partner, Nala – who live at the Drakenstein lion park near Cape Town in South Africa – surprised staff at the sanctuary when the cubs were born just before Christmas. Continue reading...

Regulator to review practices at London Sperm Bank, which screens for ‘diseases’ including dyslexia and dyspraxiaBritain’s largest sperm bank has been turning away donors with dyslexia in what it describes as attempts to “minimise the risk of transmitting common genetic diseases or malformations to any children born”.In a practice branded “eugenics” by campaigners and a would-be donor, the London Sperm Bank has banned men with dyslexia or other common conditions it described as “neurological diseases” from donating. Continue reading...

Our X Factor culture obscures the fact that the most important element of success is resilienceWest Point, the training academy for aspiring army officers in the United States, is regarded as one of the most formidable educational institutions in the world. The opening weeks of training are deliberately tough. There are physical and psychological challenges, including gruelling marches carrying heavy weights, and batteries of tests of reasoning and intellect. Many find the going so tough that they drop out. The military has long regarded these opening weeks as a way of separating the best from the rest. Indeed, it has a scientific measure of potential, called the Whole Candidate Score, which measures physical prowess and intelligence through SAT tests. These, plus other ingredients of talent, help to predict which recruits are likely to progress.Related: Importance of failure: why Olympians and A-level students all need to fail Continue reading...

The twenty-three books this scientist read in 2015 in search of stimulation and amusement. For the most part, he was not disappointedHere continueth a tradition I started way back in 2013, having resolved at the beginning of that year to read less internet and more books. I present a review of the twenty-three titles that I got though in 2015, in the order that they were read.As in 2013 and 2014 my predilection for non-fiction remains. The mix of science, science policy, history and biography is leavened by just six novels and one play. Continue reading...

China’s Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) has returned its first data to ground stations. Initial assessments indicate everything is working correctly and the spacecraft is now ready to begin a three-year mission.DAMPE, which is also known as Wukong, after the monkey king in the Chinese fairytale Journey to the West, blasted off on 17 December from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu province. Carried on a Long March 2D booster, the spacecraft was placed in a 500km-altitude orbit. Continue reading...

Genome analysis shows mass migration of Stone Age farmers from Fertile Crescent and Bronze Age settlers from eastern Europe was foundation of Celtic populationScientists from Dublin and Belfast have looked deep into Ireland’s early history to discover a still-familiar pattern of migration: of stone age settlers with origins in the Fertile Crescent, and bronze age economic migrants who began a journey somewhere in eastern Europe.The evidence has lain for more than 5,000 years in the bones of a woman farmer unearthed from a tomb in Ballynahatty, near Belfast, and in the remains of three men who lived between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago and were buried on Rathlin Island in County Antrim. Continue reading...

Laura Jacques and Richard Remde received news of second dog’s birth on Monday morning after paying £67,000 to South Korean cloning firmA British couple have been celebrating after a second cloned puppy was born using DNA from their beloved pet dog who died earlier this year.Richard Remde and Laura Jacques from West Yorkshire paid £67,000 to have their boxer dog, Dylan, who died of a brain tumour in June, cloned. Continue reading...

The second cloned puppy from a dead pet boxer dog sleeps with its sibling in Sooam Biotech Research Foundation after being born in the early hours of Monday morning. West Yorkshire couple Richard Remde and Laura Jacques paid £67,000 to have their pet boxer dog cloned. The puppies are called Chance and Shadow Continue reading...

Copies of 15-metre Temple of Bel entrance in Syria to be built in Trafalgar Square and Times Square in ‘gesture of defiance’Replicas of an ancient monument in Palmyra that has apparently survived attempts by Islamic State to demolish it are to be erected in London and New York.The 15-metre structure is one of the few remaining parts of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel in the Syrian city. Isis fighters all but razed the temple as they systematically destroyed Palmyra over the past year. Continue reading...

Don’t go hunting for it as though it were a single entity. Creativity emerges from a variety of mental process and has no precise locationEven in the wilderness that is human thinking, creative ideas seem to be deliberately designed to defy empirical inquiry. There is something elusive, perhaps even mystical, about them – visits from the muse or lightbulbs come to mind.So what are neuroscientists to do if they want to study inspiration in the lab, under tightly controlled conditions? Clearly, they cannot simply take volunteers, shove them into the nearest brain scanner, and tell them: now please be creative. Continue reading...

Scientists say flooding in Britain, record US temperatures and Australian wildfires linked to El Niño making effects of man-made climate change worseFrom some of the worst floods ever known in Britain, to record-breaking temperatures over the Christmas holiday in the US and and forest fires in Australia, the link between the tumultuous weather events experienced around the world in the last few weeks is likely to be down to the natural phenomenon known as El Niño making the effects of man-made climate change worse, say atmospheric scientists.El Niño occurs every seven to eight years and is caused by unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. This year’s event is now peaking and is one of the strongest on record, leading to record temperatures, rainfall and weather extremes.

Dame Sally Davies asks GPs and pharmacies to ensure they are prescribing correct drugs after 16 cases of drug-resistant strain of STI this yearGonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease, England’s chief medical officer has said.Dame Sally Davies has written to all GPs and pharmacies to ensure they are prescribing the correct drugs after the rise of a highly drug-resistant strain of the infection. Continue reading...

Is Instayoga all about self-reflection or self-promotion? Megan Carnegie Brown on a new incarnation of yogaAnne-Marie Newland’s students wouldn’t dare use their mobile phones in her yoga class, let alone take a surreptitious snap of their sphinx pose. However Newland, founder of the Sun Power Yoga School, is reluctant to criticise the growing presence of yoga selfies on the internet. The Instayoga trend now extends far beyond the usual celebrities – searching #yogaeverydamnday on Instagram generates more than 4m posts, and a nameless model known only as nude_yogagirl attracted 80,000 followers after joining the site five weeks ago (though that may have been the “nude” rather than the “yoga”). But how should we view this eruption of self-promotion when yoga is founded upon principles of self-reflection?Newland, who is based in Leicester, advises us to consider the reason for each upload. “The difficulty is seeing past all these fashionistas who are jumping on the bandwagon. If the intent is to be trendy, to big yourself up, to show how you’ve matched your nail colour to your mat, then you’ve missed the point of yoga,” she says. Continue reading...

Do you roll over or under? Next time you visit the smallest room in the house have a look at the loo rollThis week let’s do a bit of – ahem – roll play. How do you prefer to hang your toilet roll? Do you like the loose end to be far away from the wall (the over style) or next to the wall (the under style)?Now let’s see what Dr Gilda Carle (“relationship expert to the stars”) has to say about your choice. Continue reading...

The World Health Organisation found there was enough evidence to say that salted, cured, fermented or smoked meats were indeed carcinogenicChristmas is the time of the year when I struggle most with being a vegetarian. I gave up meat when I was 18, and it was an ethical decision. I loved the taste, and went on holiday to Greece, fairly gorging myself on lamb souvlaki before taking the plunge into a meatless existence. I was a fairly strict vegetarian – I ate eggs and dairy products but nothing that would involve killing an animal to furnish the food on my plate. (Although Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall once reminded me that the dairy industry involves quite a bit of death, if you’re a male calf, and it’s not all sweetness and light for the female calves and their mothers, either. Thanks for that, Hugh).I’m now one of those vegetarians I used to frown at – one who occasionally eats fish Continue reading...

Excavation reveals scale and importance of Greek city on Nile delta that dominated tradeA major excavation led by the British Museum has unearthed a wealth of revealing detail about a Greek trading city in ancient Egypt. Wood from Greek ships and Egyptian figurines dedicated to a “festival of drunkenness” are among more than 10,000 ancient artefacts discovered on the site of the city of Naukratis, which was on the Nile delta. The ancient port is mentioned in the accounts of Herodotus, the Greek historian writing in the fifth century BC.The finds reveal a vast trading network befitting an international city with a history spanning 1,000 years from the seventh century BC. Dr Ross Thomas, the British Museum curator who leads the project, told the Observer that Naukratis should now be viewed as “the Hong Kong of its era”. Continue reading...

Laura Jacques and Richard Remde were devastated when their beloved pet died. Now they are looking forward to meeting his replicaOn the mantelpiece is a sign saying “A home is not a home without a dog”. Next to it, in the couple’s living room, is a framed picture of a dog, which is itself nestled among various dog ornaments. The kitchen, where Laura Jacques and Richard Remde’s four dogs primarily play and rest, is similarly adorned. Upstairs is the couple’s super-kingsize bed, roomy enough to accommodate two humans and four dogs. Even the toilet has a little stuffed dog propped up on a wicker basket.Visitors to the couple’s home in Silsden, West Yorkshire, are left in no doubt about the importance of dogs in their lives. Their four dogs will soon become six, when they bring home two cloned boxers, the first in the world to be duplicated from a pet that had been dead for more than two weeks. Continue reading...

A British couple make history as a boxer puppy is born after being cloned from their dead pet dog on Boxing Day in South Korea. Laura Jacques and Richard Remde from Yorkshire were grief stricken after their boxer died in June, and decided to have a puppy cloned from it by Sooam Biotech Research Foundation Continue reading...

West Yorkshire couple Laura Jacques and Richard Remde enlisted South Korean firm offering dog-cloning service for £67,000A British couple have made history after a surrogate dog gave birth to the first cloned puppy of its kind on Boxing Day.In the first case of its kind, the boxer puppy was cloned from the couple’s dead dog, Dylan, almost two weeks after it died. The previous limit for dog cloning was five days after death. Continue reading...

If you look beyond the tumult of sensational headlines and atrocities, there’s a quiet trend of improvement throughout the worldThe year that’s past was a season of fear. Next to the onslaught of anxiety, hope and optimism seem powerless, if not downright foolish. As a motivating force, hope is more fragile, harder to inspire, easier to lose sight of. Fear is a powerful motivator and easy to conjure – but only hope can lead us into a better world.In 2015, the brutal violence of the Syrian civil war, which gave rise to a wave of refugees on Europe’s doorstep, metastasized into bloody terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. In the US, fear and xenophobia is now the theme of the Republican presidential primary. Donald Trump led the way, openly appealing to bigotry in his call to bar all Muslims from the US, but the other candidates weren’t far behind. Continue reading...

Major Tim Peake became Britain’s first career astronaut to make it into orbit – but scientific advances and Pluto discoveries were even bigger news

British astronaut on board the International Space Station tweets apology to woman he rang by mistake and to whom he said, ‘Hello, is this planet Earth?’British astronaut Major Tim Peake has apologised for dialling a wrong number and saying: “Hello, is this planet Earth?”

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi hails restoration of homes, bathhouse and laundry as he unveils new marvels at ancient city swallowed by volcanic eruptionTourists in ancient Pompeii have freshly restored marvels to admire, including a merchant’s luxuriously decorated home and a more modest middle-class dwelling.A business where Pompeii residents brought fabrics to be cared for and a structure with thermal bathing areas are also among the six buildings opened to the public on Thursday after a €105m (£77m) restoration. Continue reading...

From the excitement of the Pluto flyby to the discovery of new dinosaurs, we take a look back at some of the biggest science stories of the past 12 months Continue reading...

A bottle of wine laced with deadly poison; a stack of Agatha Christie books in the suspect’s home: the ingredients for a true-life Christmas Eve crimeOn 24December 1977 in Créances, France, Maxime Masseron, 80, and his wife sat down for their Christmas Eve meal. They had decided to open a bottle of Côtes du Rhône given to them by their nephew, Roland Roussel, in the summer. The elderly couple were normally abstemious and they had saved the bottle for a special occasion. Perhaps they toasted their nephew before they took a drink. A few minutes later Maxime was dead and his wife was unconscious.Fortunately a neighbour found the couple and Mrs Masseron was rushed to hospital but was still in a coma 11 days later. Doctors thought it was a case of food poisoning; the couple had made a mistake in the preparation of their festive food, a tragic accident. However, the diagnosis came into question a few days later when the couple’s son-in-law, Paul Isabert, and the local carpenter, Roger Regnault, called at the Masseron’s home. The bottle of wine was still on the table. Perhaps the pair drank to the memory of Maxime or to the speedy recovery of his wife. Maybe they just didn’t want to waste the wine. Whatever the reason, they both collapsed on the floor unconscious. Continue reading...

Laura Jacques and Richard Remde are first British customers of Sooam Biotech Research FoundationA British couple has flown to South Korea to await the arrival of two puppies due to be born over Christmas after having their dead pet cloned.Laura Jacques and her partner, Richard Remde, from Yorkshire, are the first UK customers to employ the services of the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, which offers a dog cloning service for $100,000 (£67,000) per canine. Continue reading...

Washington thinktank claims SpaceX founder, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, are contributing to ‘alarmist’ concern about machine intelligenceIt has been a remarkable year for Elon Musk, the CEO of the high-end electric car company Tesla and SpaceX, which on Monday announced that it had successfully launched and then returned a rocket to Earth.His pioneering contribution towards cheaper, and less resource-intensive transportation means he is generally considered one of technology’s most successful innovators. Yet Musk has just been labelled “a luddite” by a Washington-based policy thinktank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which shortlisted him for its annual Luddite Awards. Continue reading...

Based on trials over two decades, study says millions of lives could be saved by lowering threshold at which pressure is treatedMillions of lives could be saved by giving blood pressure lowering drugs to people at risk of heart attack and stroke even if they have normal pressure, researchers have said.

Israeli authority on the Byzantine Christian archaeology of the Holy LandThe particular achievement of the Israeli scholar Yoram Tsafrir, who has died aged 77, was to establish the Byzantine Christian archaeology of the Holy Land as a discipline in its own right. The region’s ancient history is reflected in the Bible, and has long been subject to archaeological inquiry. Its classical period, from Alexander the Great in 332BC to the Roman invasion of 63BC, the Great Jewish Revolt of AD67-73 and the fall of Jerusalem in AD70, is also well-documented archaeologically. Yoram’s work focused on the four centuries from the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in AD313 and establishment of a new capital for the empire in Byzantium, which in AD330 became Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), until the Arab conquest of AD636-640.In 1976 Yoram started excavations that resurrected the Byzantine town of Ruheiba, in the Negev desert of what is now southern Israel. In the first century this was a way-station, a stopping point for caravans of traders and their pack animals, for the Nabateans, an Arab people whose capital was Petra. From the second half of the fourth century it grew into an extensive Byzantine agricultural and trade landmark on the roads to Gaza both from southern Palestine and across the River Jordan. Continue reading...