Artificial intelligence experts welcome the launch of the Elon Musk-backed venture, but open algorithms are only the first stepThere is a common misconception about what drives the digital-intelligence revolution. People seem to have the idea that artificial intelligence researchers are directly programming an intelligence; telling it what to do and how to react. There is also the belief that when we interact with this intelligence we are processed by an “algorithm” – one that is subject to the whims of the designer and encodes his or her prejudices.OpenAI, a new non-profit artificial intelligence company that was founded on Friday, wants to develop digital intelligence that will benefit humanity. By sharing its sentient algorithms with all, the venture, backed by a host of Silicon Valley billionaires, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, wants to avoid the existential risks associated with the technology. Continue reading...

A surge in cases of the tick-borne infection Lyme disease has made some people wary of the countryside. But there’s no need to worry, if you take care‘To be honest,” enthuses Dr Tim Brooks, “it’s a fascinating disease.” As head of the Rare and Imported Pathogens laboratory at Public Health England, trying to solve the growing problem of Lyme disease (and other bugs, such as ebola) is his vocation. Lyme disease – a bacterial infection spread by infected ticks – is a particularly complex puzzle, with little reliable data available so far. It can appear in numerous forms, occasionally causing long-term neurological symptoms that could be mistaken for other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease.Following a surge in cases this year – thought to be due to increased public awareness and rising numbers of the ticks that spread the disease – the Department of Health plans to install a network of experts around the country to support GPs and hospital staff who are unfamiliar with the disease. Meanwhile, beware misinformation online. For a start, the strains differ according to country, and no, you can’t catch it from other people. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people in the UK come down with it each year, and most cases are straightforward to treat. Complications only arise in a minority of cases, if caught late. Here’s how to best avoid being affected. Continue reading...

Major Tim Peake is Britain’s first European Space Agency astronaut and has all the qualities of a modern-day heroSuddenly I feel inadequate, as a human being, as a father. In many ways, I have a lot in common with Tim Peake. We’re both fine physical specimens, at the peak of health and fitness. Brilliant at what we do, but modest, we’re also family men, great dads with a couple of small boys each. We’ve even both got a Thomas.So, Thomas, what does your daddy do? Well, sometimes he goes to a boring office, but mostly he just sits on the sofa watching TV. And other Thomas? My daddy’s an astronaut, he trains in the United States and Russia, and on Tuesday he’s going in a rocket, to space. Continue reading...

Less than two weeks before Christmas, the strong Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak, with up to 100 meteors per hour expected in the early hours of 14 December. If the weather plays ball, observers will experience a dark sky late in the evening after the waxing crescent Moon sets below the horizon – making it easier to witness the fainter streaks.The show lasts over a few weeks from 4 to 17 December as the Earth ploughs through a cloud of debris left over from the rock comet 3200 Phaethon. Most meteor showers originate from crumbling comets; however 3200 Phaethon is a 5km wide asteroid moving in a very elliptical orbit around the Sun. As it passes close to the Sun its surface bakes at a temperature of 750C, resulting in thermal fracturing in the rock. Continue reading...

Kerry defends agreement after James Hansen, considered the father of climate change awareness, condemned talks over lack of potential for carbon tax

Leaders from the US, China and the EU celebrate agreement reached in Paris, with Barack Obama warning there is hard work aheadWorld leaders have hailed the 11th-hour climate deal reached in Paris on Saturday, claiming it provides the “best chance we have” of saving the planet from catastrophic climate change.

Emotions, friends and play are all crucial parts of our journey towards adulthood, says psychologist Paul Howard-JonesBefore filming the Channel 4 series The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds I’d never imagined what following a young child through their day would feel like. It was wonderful to have the chance to listen to each child and follow the stories of their day. I thought I’d get absorbed by the science, but I kept getting pulled into the drama and being surprised by what we were observing. In the Science Room we were supposed to be witnessing events objectively, but things often got a bit emotional. Here are some things we witnessed:Related: How what we wear affects our mood Continue reading...

Take this simple Observer quiz and find out how flexibly you thinkHere’s a test that will really get on your wick. You have a small candle, a box of drawing pins and a book of matches. Your task is to attach the candle to the wall so that it does not drip on to the floor below it. What do you do?

Legislation on mind-altering substances – famously hard to test scientifically – will only lead to the wrong people profitingThe relationship between politics and science has never been easy, but there has rarely been a more embarrassing mismatch than in our drug laws. Supposedly a measure to protect the health of the nation, we have arrived at a situation where some of the most dangerous drugs are legal, some of the least dangerous are prohibited, and where many of the dangers from drug use arise from their illicit supply. But even by the standards of this self-imposed prohibition of science, the new Psychoactive Substances bill is a work of monumental ignorance that has taken drug legislation beyond the point of farce into the realm of surreal fantasy.The motivation behind the bill is the wave of new psychoactive substances or legal highs. Grey market labs have rifled the scientific literature to create substances that produce similar effects to popular street drugs like cannabis, ketamine and ecstasy, but are different enough to avoid existing bans and are often significantly worse for your health. To try to address this problem, the government is trying a radically new approach: pretending that one of the most difficult problems in neuroscience – and one of the deep mysteries of consciousness – doesn’t apply to them. It’s a bold move, to say the least. Continue reading...

While the summit delegates herald their ambitious targets, scientists and campaigners have mixed views of the agreementThe agreement is extremely welcome. However, we should also be cautious. It is clear that the 1C temperature rise over pre-industrial levels that we have seen so far has triggered a whole range of effects including melting of mountain glaciers, significant sea-level rise, devastating droughts, and flooding. These effects are likely to get much worse with even modest future increases. Keeping temperatures to manageable levels also assumes that we know what the precise link is between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and the global temperature response. We don’t know this, nor the nature and strength of natural feedbacks in the climate system that might drive future warming.

A spectacular series of fossil discoveries, now going on public display, has transformed the study of our early ancestorsA stark demonstration of the dramatic changes that have swept through the science of human evolution will be revealed this week at London’s Natural History Museum. A wall of skulls has been built at the entrance of its new human evolution gallery, graphically showing how our understanding of our seven-million-year journey from ancient apeman ancestors to Homo sapiens has been transformed in recent years.In just over a decade an unprecedented number of new species have been uncovered by palaeontologists, from the Hobbit man of Flores to the Denisovan cavemen of Siberia. Most will be displayed on the wall of skulls. Continue reading...

The former Nasa scientist criticizes the talks, intended to reach a new global deal on cutting carbon emissions beyond 2020, as ‘no action, just promises’Mere mention of the Paris climate talks is enough to make James Hansen grumpy. The former Nasa scientist, considered the father of global awareness of climate change, is a soft-spoken, almost diffident Iowan. But when he talks about the gathering of nearly 200 nations, his demeanor changes.

New research shows that unhappy and stressed people are no more likely to succumb to ill-health or premature death than their cheerier counterpartsThe happiness industry – now contracted to consult with everyone from corporate America to the US military – thinks your well-being is a matter of individual effort and personal responsibility. This is the American dream applied to the soul: the faith that if we put in enough emotional elbow grease, if we read enough self-help books and practice mindfulness and think positive and meditate and keep a gratitude journal, then we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps from misery to joy.A thousand inspirational virtual photo-cards declare that ‘happiness is a choice.’ Even the dictionary agrees. Although the word happiness originally came from the Middle English word “hap”, meaning chance or good luck (think ‘happenstance’ or ‘perhaps’), any idea that our own wellbeing may be outside of our direct control has been firmly squashed. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary now declares that the old definition of the word happiness as “good fortune” has become obsolete.

We search for science fact in the world’s most popular science fictionObi-Wan Kenobi called it an “elegant weapon for a more civilised age”, but it’s more like a humming glowstick that’s also lethal. “Lightsabers appear to work like superheated swords, able to slice through metal, human or alien tissue,” says Dr Iain Beardsell FRCEM, a consultant in emergency medicine. “So any victim would probably be taken to the nearest UK major trauma centre, possibly by air ambulance.” Even a glancing blow would likely cause so much trauma, the doctor-paramedic team would place the patient into a drug-induced coma using a “rapid sequence induction of anaesthesia and intubation”. But it’s not all bad news. “There is a chance a patient with these injuries may well survive,” says Beardsell. “One advantage of being struck by a lightsaber rather than a conventional blade might be the immediate cauterisation of the wound from the associated heat, stopping bleeding instantly.” So if a Sith Lord scythed your hand off, it could be reattached? “Possibly,” he says. “Hours of plastic surgery would be required, but the clean edges would actually aid the procedure. It would preserve the limb beautifully.” GV Continue reading...

Non-profit research company OpenAI to seek ‘a good outcome for all over its own self-interest’, say Tesla boss and others donating a combined $1bnSome of the most prominent executives in the technology industry including the Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk are backing a non-profit artificial intelligence research company with funding of $1bn.

Duration of day has lengthened by a millisecond over the past 100 years as water from shrinking glaciers slows Earth’s rotation and shifts position of polesThe impact of climate change may appear to be overwhelmingly negative but there is a bright spot for those who struggle to find enough time in the day: melting glaciers are causing the rotation of the Earth to slow thereby lengthening our days, new research has found.Harvard University researchers have provided an answer to a long-held conundrum over how shrinking glaciers are affecting the rotation and axis of the Earth, calculating that the duration of a day has lengthened by a millisecond over the past 100 years. Continue reading...

Archaeologists claim carbon dating of ancient weapons found in Kessel proves Roman emperor led massacre of Germanic tribes on Dutch soilArchaeologists claim to have proved that Julius Caesar set foot on what is now Dutch soil, destroying two Germanic tribes in a battle that left about 150,000 people dead.The tribes were massacred in the fighting with the Roman emperor in 55BC, on a battle site now in Kessel, in the southern province of Brabant. Continue reading...

Anticipation builds for COP21 to deliver a groundbreaking deal as experts welcome draft statement to keep warming to well below 2CThere’s a cafe next door to the thronging media centre at the UN global climate talks in Paris where the constant clang of the door to the chill air outside can barely be heard above the buzz.Veteran climate scientist and biologist Prof Lesley Hughes has taken a seat with me close by and is struggling to hear herself think. Continue reading...

The Force Awakens is in UK cinemas next week, which should give you enough time to brush up on your physics and make yourself some appropriate kit ...This piece was originally published on The Conversation.As even casual Star Wars fans will know, lightsabers are probably the coolest weapon ever to make an appearance on the big screen. Lightsaber fights are so elegant that they are almost hypnotic and, even though not all of us might have a strong enough flow of Force running through our veins, a lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe. Continue reading...

The former helicopter test pilot is used to danger, but on Tuesday the British astronaut will face new challenges aboard the Soyuz rocket, bound for the ISSThe area cleared around the Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan extends for more than a mile before reaching the observation area where family and colleagues gather on launch day. To watch from afar has several advantages. It is easier on the neck, for one. The roar of the 26 million horsepower engines is bearable that far out, too. The main reason, though, is more sobering. At such distance, the crowd should be safe if the Soyuz, a machine that burns 270 tonnes of fuel and oxygen in nine minutes, explodes.On Tuesday, Tim Peake, the first Briton admitted to the European astronaut corps, will ride a coach into the heart of Baikonur’s exclusion zone. After a short stop to urinate on the coach’s rear right wheel, a tradition embraced since Yuri Gagarin did the same more than 50 years ago, Peake will take his seat in the capsule on top of the rocket. At 11.03am UK time, the engines are due to light up, blasting Peake and his two crewmates into the sky. He is not expected back until June.

Siberian tigers, giant panda and an albino squirrel are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

A Japanese spacecraft has achieved orbit around Venus, only five years late and on its second attempt.The Venus Climate Orbiter, called Akatsuki after the Japanese word for dawn, was launched on 20 May 2010. It arrived at Venus on 6 December 2010 and began the rocket burn that would place it into a four-day orbit around the planet. Continue reading...

Douglas Walker, who has died aged 87, was the longest-serving managing director of the agricultural and grounds care equipment company John Deere.Doug, as he was known, was a key figure in the company’s establishment and growth in the UK and Ireland after it started trading from headquarters at Langar, near Nottingham, in January 1966. In the 25 years under his leadership it developed into a strong, well-known organisation. Continue reading...

Coins and other items buried in the late 870s and found by hobby metal detectorist in farmer’s field in Oxfordshire may be worth a small fortuneA hoard of Viking silver that casts new light on Alfred the Great and the one-time ally he virtually obliterated from history has been found by a metal detectorist in a field in Oxfordshire.The hoard, described when it arrived at the British Museum as “a greasy haggis with bits of treasure sticking out at the corners”, was buried in the late 870s, the period in which the hit television series Last Kingdom is set. It may have been the hastily concealed wealth of a Viking conscious of imminent regime change after the defeat of the invaders by Alfred the Great at the battle of Edington in 878. Continue reading...

Jenny Rohn: Despite years of effort, women remain under-represented in science. But are there really any neat solutions?Another week, and another attempt to engage girls in the sciences being widely ridiculed on Twitter. This time it was IBM, whose hastily withdrawn campaign joins the ranks of other criticised efforts, including the European Commission’s “Science: It’s A Girl Thing” video, and EDF Energy’s “Pretty Curious” initiative.One can’t help feeling a bit sorry for IBM and other corporations whose well-meaning efforts fall flat. I personally found nothing offensive about the IBM video, which invited aspiring female engineers to subvert a so-called “girly” household object into something more interesting (examples included a hot air-driven clock). In fact, the video explicitly challenged the stereotype that women are only interested in body image. Unfortunately, the territory of “pinkification” is so sensitive and fraught that it seems to be off-limits as a hook – even one that subverts the stereotypes instead of feeding them. Continue reading...

With cities and regions behind more than 70% of climate change reduction measures, it is crucial they’re included as partners in the Paris agreementCompared with previous UN conferences, there seems to be a far greater sense of optimism at the Paris climate talks. Before the start of the negotiations more than 146 countries, representing 86% of global emissions, submitted their plans to cut them. Yet this was deemed not enough: it would have only, according to the UNFCCC , limit temperature rises to 2.7C by 2100 – not the 2C scientists consider to be the maximum the world can tolerate.Related: World will pass crucial 2C global warming limit, experts warn Continue reading...

A professor from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Alexander J. Travis, explains the conservation benefits behind the first litter of puppies born through IVF. The healthy delivery of the dogs by caesarean section on 10 July marks a success that has eluded scientists since efforts began in the mid-1970s. The procedure could transform attempts to save endangered dog species, and potentially help prevent the genetic disorders that afflict so many breeds Continue reading...

Nineteen embryos, seven pregnancies, one female beagle ... scientists say procedure could save endangered species and prevent genetic disordersFrom the paint on their toes and the tips of their tails, the puppies stand out as unusual. But the litter of seven will go down in history for more than the colours that tell them apart. Now five months old and doing well, the dogs are the first to be born through IVF.The healthy delivery of the dogs by caesarean section on 10 July marks a success that has eluded scientists for 40 years since efforts began in the mid-1970s. The procedure could transform attempts to save endangered dog species, and potentially help prevent the genetic disorders that afflict so many breeds.

Fresh images from Nasa’s probe reveal sparkly patches on dwarf planet likely to be water vapour emanating from subsurface iceWhen Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft reached the largest object in the asteroid belt earlier this year, mission scientists were baffled to find that the alien terrain gleamed with giant bright spots.The glinting patches on the surface of Ceres sparked an intense debate among astronomers who could not work out if the shiny material was frozen water, reflective salt deposits, or even geysers blasting water vapour into space.

If being a teenager is hard, teaching them is harder. Here are four insights into the adolescent brain – and how it can inform classroom practice

Head and neck cancer patients undergo trial involving genetically modifying their white blood cells to recognise and attack the tumourPatients with head and neck cancer are receiving a groundbreaking new treatment that involves prompting their immune systems to battle the disease.The trial, at the National Institute for Health Research biomedical research centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust and King’s College London, involves genetically modifying patients’ white blood cells so they recognise and attack the tumour. Continue reading...

The author’s radio quest to unlock the scientific genius of James Clerk Maxwell ends in frustration, but the journey is revelatoryThere’s a potent antidote to the “Isn’t this amazing?” school of science communication and it’s called Will Self. In Self Drives: Maxwell’s Equations, which was broadcast recently on BBC Radio 4, the curious curmudgeon takes science to task once again as he goes in search of the mathematical and physical genius behind James Clerk Maxwell. In the 19th century, Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory unified electricity, magnetism and light in four compact, if redoubtable, equations, which celebrate their 150th anniversary this year.Over five short episodes, Self’s querulous quest takes him from Maxwell’s birthplace in Edinburgh to his family home in Glenlair, to the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank and the Diamond synchrotron near Oxford, and finally to Cambridge, where Maxwell studied mathematics in his youth and returned in his latter years as one of the nation’s most accomplished scientists to head the university’s Cavendish physics laboratory. Accompanying Self along the way is Akram Khan, the same physics professor who joined the errant writer on his earlier orbit of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. I would have dubbed Khan Sancho Panza to Self’s Don Quixote but for this particular expedition the characters are reversed. It is Khan who wishes to see the poetry of science, while Self is happier to be grounded in prosaic and flawed reality. At CERN he refused truculently to worship in the cathedral of particle physics, stymied in equal measure by the difficulty of the subject matter and the boosterism of its scientific proponents. Here again the journey is mostly one of disappointment and frustration. Continue reading...

SSRIs may not be for everyone, but when anxiety dominated my life, they brought me into a world of reliefI think of it as the warm chord. I was sitting in the front room, alone. My parents had gone to bed, but I wanted to listen to a CD I’d bought. I turned the light out, to immerse myself. That in itself was strange. When you’re anxious, immersing yourself in a feeling seems like a bad idea – your skin is so thin anything might penetrate it and overwhelm you, a song or a smell or a mood. But I took the risk, and instead of fear – the heartbeat stoking, paralysing fear I’d experienced for much of the past year – there was something else. Fear had left a space, one I was invited to explore. It said: you can come out now.But alongside that, there was a positive presence, a low thrum of safety. A warm chord. Nothing to do with the music; it was more elemental than that. I sat and the world turned, but without the familiar promise of danger. A stillness settled over everything. I no longer had to hold all of existence in my hands, as if super-human vigilance could protect me from harm. Continue reading...

It’s so easy to scoff at pseudo-profound sayings, but in my dark times I have found them comfortingIf you’re offended by swearing, apologies, because I’m about to use the word bullshit quite a lot. It’s not my fault. It’s because researchers who recently published a paper about the intelligence of people who believe in the wisdom of inspirational quotes were awfully fond of the word bullshit. It appears in the title, On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-profound Bullshit; it’s there five times in the abstract alone; and the first keyword is – well, you can probably guess.The researchers were extremely keen to know whether certain people were more likely to believe in pseudo-profound statements, and whether that had anything to do with intelligence. You know the kind of thing: phrases such as “You can’t start on the next chapter of your life if you keep rereading the last one” or “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Continue reading...

Sting operation uncovers two prominent climate sceptics available for hire by the hour to write reports on the benefits of rising CO2 levels and coalAn undercover sting by Greenpeace has revealed that two prominent climate sceptics were available for hire by the hour to write reports casting doubt on the dangers posed by global warming.Posing as consultants to fossil fuel companies, Greenpeace approached professors at leading US universities to commission reports touting the benefits of rising carbon dioxide levels and the benefits of coal. The views of both academics are well outside mainstream climate science. Continue reading...

Last Wednesday BBC2 Scotland gave us an excellent hour-long programme on James Clerk Maxwell: The Man Who Changed the World – recognised as the greatest scientist between Newton and Einstein. When Einstein was asked if he stood on the shoulders of Newton, he replied “No, on the shoulders of Maxwell”; he gave Maxwell’s photo pride of place on his study wall (100 years on, is this Einstein’s greatest gift to humanity?, 7 December). BBC2 viewers outside Scotland were treated to the Tottenham MP’s advice surgery. Whether or not the BBC shows Maxwell more widely in future, such programmes surely justify simultaneous transmission throughout Britain. Scottish ignorance of our home-grown genius is sad enough; it’s probably even worse elsewhere.

Tests show compound, similar to that found in energy drinks, clears amyloid beta plaques, which build up in the brain in early stages of Alzheimer’sScientists have discovered a chemical that destroys toxic plaques which build up in the brain in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.Preliminary tests found that when added to drinking water, the compound cleared amyloid beta plaques from the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, and restored their cognitive function to normal.

Charisma must be stopped, if any quick-witted person with nice teeth has it. No new kid on the block should be able to Farage us all with a devastating bon motFinally, researchers have figured out the deep truth of what charisma is, and it’s basically “just being quick”. Yeah, George Clooney: I’m on to you, buddy. According to a University of Queensland study, the ability to think and act quickly is a key column around which the most intangible of personality traits is built. They backed up their findings with a do-it-as-quick-as-you-can general knowledge quiz, and found that those who completed it quickly were viewed as more charismatic by their friends. The study also looked at the most likeable musicians, leaders and celebrities. “When we looked at charismatic leaders, musicians and other public figures, one thing that stood out is that they are quick on their feet,” research leader William von Hippel said. “Our findings show that social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to do. Social intelligence also requires an ability to execute, and the quickness of our mind is an important component of that ability.”Related: If bacon-sandwich charisma defines political leadership, only Nigel Farage wins | Stefan Stern Continue reading...

It may have been ill-conceived, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that IBM’s ‘hack a hairdryer’ campaign wasn’t actually aimed at women already doing great thingsIBM promoted the video on Friday. The internet got vexed on Saturday. Things got even more heated on Sunday. IBM apologised profusely on Monday. Someone probably got sacked on Tuesday. No, this isn’t a Craig David song gone horribly wrong. It’s the timeline of an IBM marketing initiative gone horribly wrong.The tech company has just axed a campaign that asked young women to “hack a hairdryer”. The point of this “hacking”, by the way, was to encourage more women to pursue Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers – not to increase the incidences of electrocution in the bathtub. Continue reading...