The US science startup Bolt Threads can do more than a spider can – it creates and spins stronger, softer, lighter and stretchier silk from scratchA spider’s silk has long been admired by scientists for being incredibly robust – five times stronger than steel – as well as flexible, elastic, soft and stable at high temperatures. They are properties that could be put to use in a wide range of consumer products.But attempts to produce the silk in large amounts have proved tricky, not least because spiders are cannibalistic and territorial so collecting the material is not economically viable. The thread itself is so fine that it would take millions of spiders to produce a kilogram of silk. Continue reading...

James Doty’s prospects were bleak, but then one summer he was taught a new, compassionate way to thinkWhen I speak in my capacity as a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University or as an entrepreneur with a company worth $1.3bn, there is an assumption that I had a privileged background, one of affluence. In fact I grew up in poverty on public assistance with an alcoholic father and a mother impaired by a stroke who was chronically depressed and attempted suicide many times. My father was jailed repeatedly and we were evicted from our home on quite a few occasions.Related: Why babies are so good with wookiees Continue reading...

High wind threatens once again to delay launch of 7,400lbs of food, clothes and toiletries – as well as Christmas presents – to International Space StationHigh wind has once again threatened to keep space station supplies stuck on Earth.

Programme presented by the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts failed to make clear that the Met Office’s views on climate change were backed by most scientists

Next April, Briton Tim Peake will run the London marathon in space – on the International Space Station – at the same time as the real race on earth. He explains the challenges he faces – and the virtual course he will followWhat happens when you hit the wall in space? This is not a daft question from a

54 years ago today Enoch Powell confirmed that ‘the pill’ could be prescribed on the NHS. Vanessa Heggie explains how the first British trial of the contraceptive pill, in 1960, led to nearly a third of participants becoming pregnant.It’s not the speech we remember Enoch Powell for, but on 4 Dec 1961, in his role as Minister for Health, he confirmed in the House of Commons that ‘birth control pills’ could be prescribed on the NHS. This was in response to a rather pointed question from fellow Tory, Nicholas Ridley about the cost of the pills; at the going rate of 17 shillings a month, that meant a subsidy from the NHS of at least 15 shillings per prescription (about £15 in today’s money) and Ridley thought Powell should try to restrict access to the drug. Powell refused to lay down any rules about the prescribing of the Pill – aside, of course, from making it available only to married women.

Experts, however, say altering DNA of human embryos for clinical purposes is unacceptable given unknown risks todayA landmark meeting of scientists convened to debate the future of human gene editing has ruled out a ban on modifying human embryos that are destined to become people.But the experts made clear that altering the DNA of human embryos for clinical purposes was unacceptable given the unknown risks today and noted that even the most compelling cases to use the procedure were limited. Continue reading...

To solve the climate problem, policy must be based on facts and not prejudice. Alongside renewables, Nuclear will make the difference between the world missing crucial climate targets or achieving them

These striking images are of cutting-edge research and are the top ten submitted to an annual competition held by Parkinson’s UK in memory of scientist Dr Jonathan Stevens. Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological condition for which there currently is no cure Continue reading...

Swedish research shows women who put on weight after first pregnancy increase risk of stillbirth by 30-50% and likelihood of infant death by up to 60%Women who put on weight after their first pregnancy are more likely to have a stillborn second child or a baby who dies within the year than those whose weight remains stable, new research shows.A study carried out in Sweden confirms that the increased risk of the baby’s death in the womb or within its first year of life is real in women who put on even a modest amount of weight – about 6kg (13lb) – between pregnancies. It affects all women, not just those who are overweight or obese when they get pregnant for the first time. Continue reading...

New research hints that far from being the greedy, clumsy bird of legend, the dodo was a resilient animal whose demise was caused by an ecological disaster“You Dutch people killed the dodo. And now that they are extinct, you come back for their bones as well!” A thing you might hear when you are a Dutch palaeontologist excavating dodo bones on Mauritius. It is an understandable sentiment, but a wrong one.Despite its iconic status, we have very few clues about where the dodo came from, and how and when it arrived on the remote island of Mauritius, located about 500 km east of Madagascar. DNA evidence indicates that the dodo’s closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon, a glossy-feathered ground-dwelling pigeon from Southeast Asia. The dodo’s ancestor may have island-hopped from Southeast Asia all the way down to the isolated Mascarene Islands, but the details of its journey remain fuzzy at best. After millions of years of idyllic island life, humans, in the form of Dutch sailors eager to stretch their legs after months on sea, arrived on Mauritius in 1598. As is often the case, catastrophe ensued. Less than a century after the first humans set foot on the island, the dodo had left the stage. Continue reading...

In her new book Mathematics and Art, historian Lyn Gamwell explores how artists have for thousands of years used mathematical concepts - such as infinity, number and form - in their work. Here she choses ten stunning images from her book that reveal connections between maths and art.When I was a graduate student in art history, I read many explanations of abstract art, but they were invariably inadequate and misleading. So after completing my PhD, I went on to learn the history of biology, physics, and astronomy, and to publish a book detailing how modern art is an expression of the scientific worldview.Yet many artworks also express the mathematics and technology of their times. To research Math and Art I had to learn maths concepts like calculus, group theory and predicate logic. As a novice struggling to understand these ideas, I was struck with the poor quality and confusing content of illustrations in most educational books. So I vowed to create for my book a set of cogent math diagrams that are crystal-clear visualizations of the abstract concepts. Continue reading...

Ahead of blast off later this month, we secured a few minutes with astronaut Tim Peake to ask him your students’ questions. Here are his answers

The signs are clear in this document: the public is not going to be allowed much of a role in defining the public goodThe eagerly awaited Nurse Review of UK Research Councils has just landed. It arrives at a critical juncture, as decisions are made about overall UK public sector research funding and about the status and role of the institutions that will be responsible for spending the allocated budget. In that context it is to be expected that the review focuses on the nature, importance and impact of research, and on high-level adjustments to the current system. The broad, integrating thrust of those proposed administrative and governance changes is politically timely.As the review clearly states, research delivers for society, both in terms of knowledge that adds to our culture and in underpinning innovations that can improve our quality of life and contribute to economic growth. In this societal context the recommendations call for ‘an effective dialogue and understanding between researchers, politicians and the public’, and the very last recommendation reads: ‘Society and its elected representatives should be engaged in high-level questions about the overall direction of science and research, such as top-level allocation of resources, or in respect of needs that society might like to see addressed by research’. Taken in conjunction with the statement in the review that a successful research endeavour requires: ‘a compact that bonds science and society’, I looked avidly in the rest of the review for some pointers as to what this all might imply. Continue reading...