Professors who advised government and led study identifying cancer risks of drugs not invited to give evidence to committee formulating new guidelinesThe UK’s leading experts on the cancer risks of hormone replacement therapy were not invited to give evidence to the committee preparing guidance for the NHS on treating the menopause, the Guardian has learned.Prof Klim McPherson from Oxford University, who has written many papers on HRT and sat on the government’s committee on the safety of medicines when it warned doctors to prescribe as little HRT for as short a time as possible for women suffering symptoms, was not aware the guidance was being formulated until recently. Continue reading...

Radar images of the Mauritanian desert have revealed a river stretching for more than 500km and suggest plants and wildlife once thrived thereA vast river network that once carried water for hundreds of miles across Western Sahara has been discovered under the parched sands of Mauritania.Radar images taken from a Japanese Earth observation satellite spotted the ancient river system beneath the shallow, dusty surface, apparently winding its way from more than 500km inland towards the coast. Continue reading...

After 20 years of collecting fossils, team believes sauropod-like specimen, nicknamed Highland Giant, was largest animal to roam Karoo regionA dinosaur reconstruction effort that began with half a giant thigh bone discovered in South Africa is puzzling palaeontologists, who think they might have stumbled across a new species.After 20 years of patient collection, researchers finally have enough fossils to put together a complete picture of a 14-tonne creature from the sauropoda group of dinosaurs, characterised by their small head, long neck, long tail and elephant-like gait. Continue reading...

Cosmologist had planned to describe the nature of black holes and respond to questions from the public in lectures, due to be broadcast from 24 NovemberThe BBC has postponed this year’s prestigious Reith Lectures because the speaker, Professor Stephen Hawking, is not well enough to deliver the talks.

Europe’s scientific advice mechanism is launched today, with a line-up of seven experts whose mission is to boost the role of evidence in policy.

Report by UCL polled relatives and found many said patients’ perception of what was funny changed dramatically and became ‘inappropriate and graphic’An increasingly twisted sense of humour could be one of the early signs of dementia, a new study has found, including laughing at inappropriate moments.The University College London research, published in the Journal of Alzeheimer’s disease, questioned the families and friends of 48 dementia patients, who had known them for more than 15 years before their disease took hold. Many of them noted that their relatives’ sense of humour had changed. Continue reading...

Researchers find leg muscle force to be more closely linked to age-related changes in mental function than any other lifestyle factor testedAnyone who doubts the intellectual prowess of high-profile footballers might have to think again. Scientists have discovered a link between strong legs and a fit brain that resists the effects of ageing.Researchers found a “striking protective relationship” between high leg power and better preserved mental ability and brain structure over a period of 10 years. Continue reading...

Photographer Gaia Squarci followed a Nasa simulation of mission conditions on the red planetMars on earth Continue reading...

‘Particularly impressive’ heat difference detected at ground level on eastern side of largest of three pyramids, says Egypt’s antiquities ministryAnomalies have been found in Egypt’s Khufu pyramid two weeks into a thermal scanning project aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument’s secrets including possible hidden burial chambers, officials have said.Related: Is Egypt closer to unlocking the mystery of Queen Nefertiti in King Tut's tomb? Continue reading...

Here’s the solution to today’s topological twister - and an extra puzzle that theoretical physicists use to explain the world. Ready, Steady, Braid!Earlier today I asked you to turn this Continue reading...

Scissors away and pencils down! Did you solve it? Were you crafty enough to create the impossible braid from the puzzle Alex set earlier? There’s also an additional puzzle in this solution for those of you who are keen to keep braiding. For a more in-depth look at the maths involved, Alex’s solution blogpost can be read here. Continue reading...

My father-in-law, Amyan Macfadyen, who has died aged 94, was an expert in ecology, and in particular soil ecology.He was born in the Weald of Kent to Eric, an agriculturalist, businessman and Liberal MP, and Violet (nee Champneys), who ran the family farm at Meopham Bank, near Tonbridge, Kent, for 40 years. Amyan attended Dauntsey’s school in Wiltshire and then studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford. His academic career was punctuated by second world war service in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, where he learned many practical skills that re-emerged in the experimental equipment he used in his later scientific work. Continue reading...

An MP has accused Sebastian Coe of ‘pretaliation’ in advance of the damning report into doping in world athletics. We asked a language expert for a ‘presponse’ to the new word’s coming popularityThe thing about retaliation, as everyone knows, is that you should get it in first. And now there’s a word for that: the eminently logical “pretaliation”. The MP Paul Flynn has been having fun on Twitter by describing Seb Coe’s attempts to defend himself in advance against the report on doping in athletics as “(new word) PRETALIATION”.It’s not actually a new word. The earliest Google results seem to be for Pretaliation, the noughties heavy metal band, which figures. More recently, the term has arisen in US commercial law to describe onerous employee non-disclosure agreements that seek to circumvent rules against retaliation towards whistleblowers. One might be reminded of the deathly absurdities of military euphemism: the innovation last decade, for instance, of “pre-emptive strike” to denote an attack to defend against something that hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t. Continue reading...

Prof John Schellnhuber says that if countries implement their pledges made for Paris climate summit it will give huge boost to wind, tidal and solar powerCatastrophic global warming can be avoided with a deal at a crunch UN climate change summit in Paris this December because “ultimately nothing can compete with renewables”, according to one of the world’s most influential climate scientists.Most countries have already made voluntary pledges to roll out clean energy and cut carbon emissions, and Prof John Schellnhuber said the best hope of making nations keep their promises was moral pressure. Continue reading...

Exceptionally well preserved 520-million-year-old arthropod brains overturn the old idea that nervous tissue does not fossilize, and provide fresh insights into brain evolutionAt first glance, the term ‘neuropaleontology’ may seem like an oxymoron. The neuro- prefix means something related to the nervous system, and paleontology is the scientific study of what fossilized animal and plant remains tell us about the evolution of life on Earth. Brain tissue is soft and wet, however. It usually begins to decompose minutes after death, and rarely, if ever, leaves any trace in the fossil record.Or so we thought. The recent discovery of preserved brain tissue in a small shrimp-like creature that lived some 520 million years ago challenges this conventional wisdom, however. It provides the most convincing evidence yet that brains can indeed fossilize, as well as valuable insights into how complex brains evolved, and how the arthropods are related to one another. Continue reading...

UN experts urge immediate action to cut emissions as CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are on track to hit historic high, up 43% on pre-industrial timesThe Earth’s climate will enter a new “permanent reality” from next year when concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are likely to pass a historic milestone, the head of the UN’s weather agency has warned.The record concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere were up 43% since pre-industrial times, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), prompting its secretary general Michel Jarraud to say immediate action was needed to cut CO2 emissions. Continue reading...

Photographs from the Eyewitness series Continue reading...

Scissors at the ready! Here’s a crafty craft puzzleHello guzzlers.Today’s puzzle is one for your hands, not just your head. Continue reading...

You’ll have to be crafty in more than one sense of the word to solve this week’s puzzle. To solve it, you will need some scissors and either some paper, or, if you have 5p to burn, a heavy-duty plastic bag. Can you create the impossible braid? Alternatively, here’s a written version of the puzzle Continue reading...

British researcher John Hardy among those to win a Breakthrough prize at ceremony hosted by Seth MacFarlane in the USScience is starting to pay big for a small minority who land major prizes. At a ceremony in California on Sunday night, six researchers became substantially wealthier when they were handed Breakthrough prizes, set up by the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner along with some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley.Among those honoured were Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and Edward Boyden of MIT for developing a procedure called optogenetics – a means of turning neurons on and off using light. They took home $3m (£2m) apiece for winning the Breakthrough prize in life sciences. Continue reading...

George Osborne warned by chair of science and technology committee over depleted Treasury support for research facilitiesBritain will lose its status as a world-leader in research unless investment in science is ramped up to bring the UK in line with the spending of other nations, MPs warn.While science has traditionally been one of Britain’s strengths, spending on research now lags far behind other countries, leaving the UK 12th in the EU in terms of the amount it invests as a portion of GDP.

I write as a retired food technologist who spent many years working in the food industry. Joanna Blythman’s article (Food labels have passed their sell-by date, 5 November) is the first sensible article on this subject that I have ever seen in the media.The legislation which at first insisted that food had a “sell by” date started as a very laudable way of ensuring that retailers could not pass off old food as fresh. Enforcement agents (environmental health officers) could easily initiate prosecutions against cheats. However, more detailed good intentions soon led to “mission creep”, and with the introduction of “use by” and “best before” dates turned also into guidance to food consumers as to how to control the contents of their larders. Continue reading...

Take the Observer quiz and find out what your responses say about you

A waxing crescent moon on the nights of 17 and 18 November means the sky will be dark enough for a good view of the spectacular annual light show Continue reading...

Life-defining moments are all very well, but then what? Chris Wright has made a study of what it means to move onOne day Alan Bean decided it was time for a change of career. History would always remember him as the fourth man to walk on the moon, during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969; he’d served on Skylab, too. But he wanted to do something else. So he took to his great passion, painting, and has had considerable success for the best part of 40 years. But he’s only ever painted one thing: astronauts on the surface of the moon.Moving on from a defining moment can be challenging – and not just for moonwalking astronauts. Many of us are aware of a moment when we think: well, that’s it – everything else is an afterthought now. For some it is the kids leaving home; for others it might be the highest point they reach in a corporate career. For many the pivotal moment of their life is about tragedy or loss. But it is all punctuated by the same urgent question: now what? Continue reading...

Transparency of research is essential in drugs trialsWe would like to reassure Dr Aseem Malhotra that the Academy of Medical Sciences is taking great care to ensure independence and inclusivity in our inquiry into how society judges the safety of medicines (“How too much medicine can kill you”, Comment).The project will explore three crucial issues that have an impact on society’s interpretation of evidence: the methods used to collect and evaluate evidence, possible conflicts of interest arising in the process of evidence gathering and evaluation, and the process of communicating evidence within the profession and to the public. Continue reading...

Committee to warn that vital research is suffering after funding freeze, sending it below that of industrial competitorsGeorge Osborne will get a reprimand this week from an all-party committee over his handling of the country’s funding of science.Britain’s £4.7bn science budget has been frozen in cash terms for the past five years and has slumped to a level well below that of most of our industrial competitors, including Germany and the US, MPs will warn. Continue reading...

Move to help Beijing alter laws and halt animal experiments for European beauty productsBritain has been training Chinese scientists in techniques that could replace the use of animals in cosmetic safety tests.The programme, which has been running for more than a year, is intended to lead to Chinese authorities banning all animal testing for toiletries, lipsticks, moisturisers and other beauty products. Continue reading...

Campaign funded by treatment manufacturer could mislead women before official menopause guidance is released, some scientists fearA PR campaign to promote the use of hormone replacement therapy in women is under way before official guidance on how to treat the menopause is released, causing some scientists concern that the cancer dangers of the drugs will be underplayed.The campaign, run by the Weber Shandwick agency and funded by a drug manufacturer that provides the treatment, has already put out a survey saying women are unnecessarily worried about the risks of HRT. It is preparing a further release about the attitudes of GPs to prescribing the drugs. Continue reading...

The Sharm el-Sheikh plane crash, Europe’s refugee crisis, Sonny Bill Williams at the Rugby World Cup Final 2015 – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...

Archaeologists find remains of 22 ancient merchant ships whose cargos reveal centuries-old trade routesIn the Fourni archipelago of the Greek Aegean region, towering underwater cliffs descend into the darkness. Marine archaeologists comb these murky depths for objects made by human hands – a ceramic shard encrusted with sea sponges, or an ancient vase that an eel has claimed for its home.Here, through the centuries, human handiwork has been absorbed by its natural aquatic surroundings, with rock and reef steadily growing around any remnants of life from early western civilisation. The seeming improbability, then, of finding substantive artefacts in the patchwork makes discovery all the more exciting. Continue reading...

Psychologist Rob Bretherton talks about his new book and the way suspicion can overcome rationalityThere is not so much of a difference between conspiracy theorists and the rest of us. We are drawn to the idea of conspiracy because it resonates with us; we understand the idea of people being self-interested and not having our best interests at heart, and having hidden motives and getting together to do shady stuff. Conspiracy theories extend upon that and tap into these assumptions and fears we have about the world. But we all have them, that’s why conspiracy theories make sense to us all. Continue reading...

A look at the the preparation and training leading up to Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station, due to blast off in December Continue reading...

The imaginary constructions of science fiction fill us with awe at their alien vastness. Which have you explored, and what was the most overwhelming?Sci-fi fans call it “sensawunda”, that awe and amazement that the best science fiction stories can inspire in us. The entire world felt it recently when scientists declared that observations of a distant star might have revealed an alien megastructure. Did inhabitants of the KIC 8462852 star system encase their sun in solar panels to harvest energy? Or was this our generation’s canals on Mars moment? The sensawunda effect is so powerful that, even with scant real evidence, we are swept into believing.The unlikely cause of KIC 8462852’s strange emanations is speculated to be a partially constructed Dyson sphere. Imagine the Death Star from Return of the Jedi, in its partially constructed state, but on a scale large enough to swallow a star. Engineering on this scale is as far beyond human capacity today as building a skyscraper was to our cave-dwelling ancestors. Imagine the power of of a civilisation that can capture a star. Then imagine the drama that might stop the construction work partway, a very real war among the stars. There, that is sensawunda! Continue reading...

As he packs his bags for the International Space Station next month, Major Tim Peake hopes to inspire the next generationMajor Tim Peake, Britain’s first official astronaut, has packed family photos, Christmas gifts and a pack of balloons for his trip to the International Space Station, and confessed his only fear ahead of the mission is leaving something behind.In a final pre-launch briefing at the Science Museum in London on Friday, Peake said he hoped his six-month mission, which begins at a Kazakhstan launchpad on 15 December, would inspire the next generation to study science, maths and engineering. Continue reading...

Elephants use their trunks to blast air at inaccessible food, bringing it within rangeMineko and Suzuko are female Asian elephants at Kamine Zoo in Japan and can use their trunks to blast air at inaccessible food, driving it within reach. Continue reading...

Facebook, Candy Crush, Bananagrams ... million-dollar ideas are simpler to come up with than you think

Nasa may be accepting applications, but even if you are the right nationality, in tip-top condition and with an off-the-planet CV, you still need a lot of luckNasa has announced it will be accepting applications for astronauts to pave the way for a new generation of space exploration. Sadly, only alpha Americans may apply. But space isn’t just about America. Next month, Tim Peake will become the first British astronaut to travel in space for more than 20 years. A dozen other nationalities have boldly gone. The cosmos has never been so, er, cosmopolitan. Continue reading...

Inspired Halloween costumes, decorations and fancy dress with a history of science theme (the winner is... number 8!) Continue reading...

Neuroscientist David Eagleman discusses how neuroscience and technology are reshaping how we understand our brainsThis week's guest is David Eagleman, assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action as well as the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He's written numerous books on neuroscience, along with the international fiction bestseller, Sum. He discusses his latest book The Brain - The Story Of You, which guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics and how our brains construct our own subjective reality.Subscribe for free via iTunes or our SoundCloud account to ensure you don't miss a single episode Continue reading...

Reactions have been largely positive to Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, the first in Canada’s history to have equal numbers of men and womenIf Canada’s new prime minister wants his government to reach for the stars, he has probably called on the right man for at least one cabinet job: appointing the first Canadian in space as his transport minister.Marc Garneau, a 66-year-old former astronaut and Canadian Space Agency president, was sworn in on Wednesday as the country’s new Liberal government officially took power. Continue reading...