Science | The Guardian

T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze star, was last seen in 1946 and will be visible again some time between now and SeptemberIn what is being called a once-in-a-lifetime event", light from a thermonuclear explosion on a star has been travelling towards Earth for thousands of years and it will be here any day.T Coronae Borealis (also known as T Cor Bor, T CrB, and the Blaze star) will be as bright as the north star (for those in the northern hemisphere). Continue reading...

Warriors from Britain joined far-flung Byzantine military campaigns in sixth century, grave goods suggestSixth-century Anglo-Saxon people may have travelled from Britain to the eastern Mediterranean and northern Syria to fight in wars, researchers have suggested, casting fresh light on their princely burials.St John Simpson, a senior British Museum curator, and Helen Gittos, an Oxford scholar, have concluded that some of the exotic items excavated at Sutton Hoo, Taplow and Prittlewell, among other sites, originated in the eastern Mediterranean and north Syria and cannot have been conventional trade goods, as others have suggested. Continue reading...

I climbed a mountain and took up the French horn. If he can hold on to who he is away from the court, Murray can find joy after tennis

A thought provoking look at social forces, and the ways ordinary people can change the worldAfter the Arab spring uprisings spread to Libya in 2011 and Muammar Gaddafi ordered histroops to fire on protesters, many ordinary Libyans took up arms and joined anti-government militias. I had been living in Libya since 2008 and watched with shock as friends and acquaintances - party animals barely out of their teens, middle-aged accountants - became fighters overnight. The kindly receptionist at work became a powerful military commander. Ever since then I've puzzled over the change in them, and how freedom fighters are created.It turns out that the social anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse and his colleague Brian McQuinn travelled to Libya in 2011 to try to answer these questions. Whitehouse's studies of everything from painful initiation rituals in Papua New Guinea to Catholics and Protestants responding to sectarian abuse in Northern Ireland have illustrated that sharing emotive and difficult experiences can lead to powerful group bonding, creating a sense of fusion", a visceral feeling of oneness with your group. The principle applies to fellow tribesmen, Chelsea fans or new mothers. His interviews with Libyan fighters showed that Gaddafi's violence had helped those on the frontline see themselves as more closely aligned with their brothers-in-arms than with their relatives. Shared hardship can create such a powerful sense of kinship that it harnesses the same deep-seated instinct to sacrifice yourself for your descendants. To understand the logic of hatred and violence, in other words, you also need to understand love. Continue reading...

Researchers simulated how cities, such as Shanghai, as well as warehouses and shopping centres can slow down windCities slow the wind down. Skyscrapers, warehouses, suburbs and shopping centres all create obstacles to airflow and this increase in surface roughness slows the wind down. Across China the rapid growth of cities has resulted in average wind speed decreasing by 11% since the 1980s. But urbanisation also increases surface temperatures within cities, driving more mixing with the air above and potentially increasing wind speed. So which effect is dominant?Researchers from Nanjing University in China have simulated the impact of the buildings in one of China's megacities - Shanghai - to understand what impact the cityscape is having on the wind. The research, which is published in the Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems, shows that Shanghai's built landscape takes a significant amount of energy out of the wind, slowing it down by about 50%. However, during warm periods when the urban heat island effect is particularly strong, the slowing effect of the buildings is outweighed by the energy being added via turbulent mixing with the air above. Under the most extreme circumstances this can result in average urban wind speeds increasing by as much as 30%. Continue reading...

Recent research has suggested a global reproductive crisis could be in the offing, with researchers in Israel saying average sperm counts may have more than halved in the past 40 years. But a study published last month appears to call this narrative into question. Ian Sample is joined by the Guardian's science correspondent Nicola Davis to unpick why these studies have come to different conclusions - and what could be causing the crisis, if declines are as dramatic as they appear Continue reading...

National Trust ground-scanning technology maps new features close to site of Roman city of WroxeterAn archaeological survey of more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in Shropshire has identified a wealth of previously unknown features, including two grand Roman villas and multiple earlier iron age farmsteads.The geophysical survey, the largest ever conducted by the National Trust, used ground-scanning technology to map undetected features close to the site of the Roman city of Wroxeter, just south of modern day Shrewsbury. Continue reading...

Code will remove grey area around stem cell-based technology and ensure responsible research, say scientistsBiological models of human embryos that can develop heartbeats, spinal cords and other distinctive features will be governed by a code of practice in Britain to ensure that researchers work on them responsibly.Made from stem cells, they mimic, to a greater or less extent, the biological processes at work in real embryos. By growing them in the laboratory, scientists hope to learn more about how human embryos develop and respond to their environment, questions that would be impossible to answer with real embryos donated for research. Continue reading...

New dating technique finds painting on island of Sulawesi is 6,000 years older than previous record holderThe world's oldest known picture story is a cave painting almost 6,000 years older than the previous record holder, found about 10km away on the same island in Indonesia, an international team of archaeologists has said.The painting, believed to be at least 51,200 years old, was found at Leang Karampuang cave on the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers from Griffith University, Southern Cross University and the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency wrote in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

He was mentored by Jacques Derrida, amd his memoir about taking hormones broke new ground. Now, Preciado's radical cinematic riff on Virginia Woolf's novel explores a life spent defying the gender binaryIn the opening seconds of Orlando: My Political Biography, a shadowy figure in a quiet city street says: Someone once asked me, Why don't you write your autobiography?' And I replied, Because Virginia Woolf fucking wrote it for me in 1928.'" The scene takes place in the dead of night, with the silence broken only by the swish of a brush as this speaker pastes up a large gold poster. Orlando," it reads, ou es tu?"Moments later, this fly-poster apologises to Woolf for his profanity: I say it with tenderness and admiration, because your writing seems impossible to surpass. But I also say it with rage, because you represented us - trans people - as aristocrats in colonial England who one day wake up in a woman's body." Continue reading...

People with diabetes on semaglutide, found in Wegovy and Ozempic, four times more likely to be diagnosed with disease of optic nervePeople who have been prescribed a weight-loss injection could be at a higher risk of developing an eye condition which can lead to blindness, a study has found.The study found that people with diabetes who were prescribed semaglutide, most commonly known under the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic, were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with an eye condition known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (naion). Continue reading...

About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientistsA giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past. Continue reading...

Higher inoculation rates could make it less likely viruses will spread, thereby reducing risk to asthmatic childrenHigher Covid vaccination rates could help protect children against asthma attacks, according to research.While previous studies show that vaccination helps prevent Covid 19 illness, the authors believe this is the first study to assess whether Covid inoculation is associated with reductions in children's asthma symptoms, by preventing viral illness in children with asthma. Continue reading...

Analysis shows hippos get all four feet off the ground at once up to 15% of the time when at full peltIt takes a scientific mind to see the grunting hulk of a hippopotamus and wonder whether, given sufficient motivation, such an improbable beast might ever become airborne.And so to researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, whose painstaking examination of footage of the creatures revealed that when the hefty herbivores reach top speed they do indeed take off. Continue reading...

Experts say the DEA's rescheduling of cannabis as a medication will be a little bit incoherent'The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposed rules earlier this year that would officially give cannabis status as a medication rather than an illegal narcotic - that's exciting news for researchers, but will rescheduling mean that cannabis could soon move from the dispensary to the drug store?Experts say it's not that simple. Continue reading...

By 2021, women around the world were 6% angrier than men, a gap that widened during the pandemic. Dr Jennifer Cox says it is time to let it all outOh my God, I love a scream," says Dr Jennifer Cox, her face lighting up. Screaming underwater, I recommend. It's amazing. It's so liberating and no one can hear."The same is true for standing on a motorway bridge and venting your pent-up rage and frustration into the roar of the traffic underneath. Or, at a pinch, for yelling under the noise of the shower, she says. Women are like: Oh, I can't be seen to do this stuff.' OK, don't be seen. But let it out." Continue reading...

Eli Lilly says Kisunla demonstrated meaningful results' for people showing early symptoms of the diseaseFederal health authorities on Tuesday gave approval to an experimental new drug that has shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease in trials.Donanemab, manufactured by Eli Lilly, is the second medication that has won the blessing of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat patients showing early symptoms of the disease, most prominently cognitive impairment. Continue reading...

Research on carpenter ants provides first example of a non-human animal severing limbs to curb infectionsIt sounds like a scene from a Spielberg film: an injured worker undergoes an emergency amputation, performed by one of her colleagues, allowing her to live another day. But this is not a human story - it is behaviour seen in ants.While it is not the first time wound care has been seen in ants, scientists say their discovery is the first example of a non-human animal carrying out life-saving amputations, with the operation performed to treat leg wounds and prevent the onset or spread of infection. Continue reading...

Richard Forrest has spent half a century combing beaches for ammonites and other fossils. Along the Dorset coast, the constant shift of earth, rocks and sand continually reveals fresh evidence of life millions of years ago

A moth garden at Hampton Court Palace shows off plants that can be grown to help the insects, which are threatened by habitat lossEveryone loves bees and butterflies, but now moths are coming into the spotlight (as long as they don't fly around it).The moth expert Charles Waters has seen a surprisingly rapid increase in interest in moths from the younger generation as, he believes, people become more aware of their beauty and diversity, as well as their importance as pollinators. Continue reading...

As she steps down as the Green party's first, and so far only, MP, Caroline Lucas tells Madeleine Finlay what it's been like as the sole Green voice in parliament for the past 14 years, her hopes for her party in Thursday's UK general election, and what she plans to do in her life beyond politicsCaroline Lucas: Labour must pursue social justice while tackling climate crisis Continue reading...

Study is first to track people at different time points in life and finds close link between nutrition and cognitive abilityA healthy diet earlier in life could help keep you mentally sharp into your 70s, and even ward off dementia, according to research that followed thousands of Britons for seven decades.While most studies on diet and cognitive ability have focused on people already in or reaching old age, the new review was the first to track people throughout their life - from the age of four to 70 - and suggests the links may start much earlier than previously recognised. Continue reading...

Brain-controlled device results in more natural gait and improves stability on stairs and uneven terrainA brain-controlled bionic leg has allowed people with amputations to walk more quickly and navigate stairs and obstacles more easily in a groundbreaking trial.The device allows the wearer to flex, point and rotate the foot of the prosthetic using their thoughts alone. This led to a more natural gait, improved stability on stairs and uneven terrain and a 41% increase in speed compared with a traditional prosthetic. The bionic leg works by reading activity in the patient's residual leg muscles and uses these signals to control an electrically powered ankle. Continue reading...

Our selective engagement with nature stops humans from seeing animals clearly - and that's not good for them or for usOne of my most annoying traits, I have been told, is my tendency to puncture others' casual enjoyment of nature with brutal and unsolicited pieces of trivia. Chalk it up to the influence of my hobbyist herpetologist father, who instilled in me not only a passion for less cuddly animals but also a rigorous attention to the facts.If your favourite animals are sea otters, which mate for life and hold hands so they don't drift apart? I will inform you that they also sometimes rape baby seals to death. Oh, you prefer chimps? Have you seen that David Attenborough footage of a group of them hunting a monkey that was apparently too disturbing to broadcast with close-up detail?Elle Hunt is a freelance journalistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

A space rocket operated by a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday. It soared straight up into the air before losing power and falling back to earth, hitting nearby forested hills.The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launchpad due to a structural failure, said the company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account

Life on this planet is becoming er ... awkward anyway

Light from the detonation, which will make the star visible without an aid, has been travelling through space all this timeWe are still waiting for the star T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) to do its thing. First mentioned in April, the star experiences a thermonuclear detonation on its surface roughly every 80 years. This explosion will make the star visible without an aid for the first time since the 1940s.The chart shows the view looking south-south-west from London at about 2300 BST. It marks the location to keep an eye on. When it erupts, T CrB is expected to reach the same brightness as Alphecca, the brightest star in the constellation of Corona Borealis, the northern crown. Continue reading...

Bilbies have the biggest genome of any marsupial, which could be down to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell

Company Space Pioneer says first stage of its Tianlong-3 launched during test after structural failure' and crashed in hills near city of GongyiThe space rocket of a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday, after it accidentally launched during a test.The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, said company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account. The rocket landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China, it said. Continue reading...

Moss that grows in Mojave desert and Antarctica may help establish life on the red planet, researchers sayWhile Matt Damon relied on potatoes cultivated in crew biowaste to survive in the hit film The Martian, researchers say it is a humble desert moss that might prove pivotal to establishing life on Mars.Scientists in China say they have found Syntrichia caninervis - a moss found in regions including Antarctica and the Mojave desert - is able to withstand Mars-like conditions, including drought, high levels of radiation and extreme cold. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsMy 13-year-old daughter just came to me and said: I have a much longer tongue than my friends. Does that mean I have more taste buds?" I don't know who else to ask; can the readers help? David Wynne, West SussexPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

It felt selfish, but at home I couldn't finish a thought without being interrupted by my kids - so I packed my bags and headed to the coastAs the windscreen wipers cut back and forth, and my house disappeared in the rear-view mirror, I wondered if I was going to cry. I tried reminding myself that I was on my way to do something lovely: I'd booked a three-night stay at a hotel in Devon to work on my novel: my first ever solo writing retreat.I was driving away from a world of chaos, leaving my seven-year-old weeping at the front door, my nine-year-old worrying about a science project, my mother-in-law unexpectedly in hospital, and my husband juggling it all. Continue reading...

In 1974, the fossilised bones of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old hominin, were discovered in Ethiopia. How has this remarkable skeleton disproved Darwinian theory - and what links her to the Beatles?On 24 November 1974, the US anthropologist Donald Johanson was scrabbling through a ravine at Hadar in the Afar region of Ethiopia with his research student, Tom Gray. The pair were looking for fossilised animal bones in the surrounding silt and ash when Johanson spotted a tiny fragment of arm bone - and realised it belonged to a human-like creature.We looked up the slope," Johanson later recalled. There, incredibly, lay a multitude of bone fragments - a nearly complete lower jaw, a thighbone, ribs, vertebrae, and more! Tom and I yelled, hugged each other, and danced, mad as any Englishman in the midday sun!" Continue reading...

Book says one of Australia's most eminent scientists promoted discussion of eugenics in the 1960s and 70s, but not that he supported racist ideas - and researchers praise his thorough commitment to reconciliation and racial justice

The organisation responsible for monitoring digital falsehoods is reportedly being wound down after pressure from Republicans and conspiracy theoristsFor most of us, the word medium" means a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment". For a biologist, though, the term means something rather different: the nutrient solution in which cells or organs are grown". But there are times when the two conceptions fuse, and we're living in one such time now.How come? All developed societies have a media ecosystem, the information environment in which they exist. Until comparatively recently that ecosystem was dominated by print technology. Then, in the mid-20th century, broadcast (few-to-many) technology arrived, first as radio and later as television, which, from the 1950s to the 1990s, was the dominant communication medium of the age. And then came the internet and the technologies it has spawned, of which the dominant one is the world wide web. Continue reading...

Celebrities have spoken up about their experiences - and Silicon Valley types learned ovaries may hold the key to long lifeIf you had asked 20-year-old me to explain what perimenopause" was, I would have stared at you blankly. Honestly, I would have struggled to even tell you much about menopause. It was never a mainstream topic of conversation and studies have found most women were never educated about it. Indeed, I'm pretty sure I learned far more at school about Henry VIII's wives than what I could expect from my own body as I got older. Continue reading...

Love Islanders have it, daters want it and TikTok influencers will teach you how to get it - but rizz (a close cousin of charisma) is hard to fabricateAt the end of 2023, the Oxford University Press chose rizz" as its word of the year. Rizz, which topped a shortlist that included Swiftie", parasocial" and situationship", is defined by the OUP as a noun denoting style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner". It can also be used as a verb, often linked with the word up", as in to rizz up".Etymologically, rizz is said to be derived from charisma, although the person directly credited with popularising rizz - the American YouTuber Kai Cenat - has said that, as far as he knows, it is not. Continue reading...

Next government urged to lower upfront visa costs that are 17 times higher than international averageTop international researchers cannot afford to take jobs in the UK because of a tax on talent" that makes it impossible for them to afford the upfront costs, the head of the Wellcome Trust has warned.Dr John-Arne Rottingen, who has led the biomedical research charity since January, said some of the best researchers offered posts in the UK would have to turn them down because they faced having to pay tens of thousands" in visa fees and surcharges. Continue reading...

Charlotte Edwardes interviews the Labour leader as he closes in on power, but who exactly is the man who wants to run Britain? Plus the extraordinary story of the woman who stepped in as a surrogate for her daughter's baby, and Sam Pyrah examines the latest scientific understanding about why we dream what we do Continue reading...

Lacklustre Euro 2024 performances may prompt faddish quick fixes but the real key to success may lie in replacing fear with the fun players felt as 10-year-oldsSporting success isn't down to pickle juice, according to a leading sports psychologist. The secret isn't to be found in the inflatable unicorns England's players famously mounted to recuperate in the pool. Or the 3,400 electric bikes they pedalled to boost their post-match recovery. It's not even about the manager.Instead, what I'm going to say will horrify you," said Michael Caulfield, who has worked in professional sport for more than 25 years. Football is - or should be - only about joy."Take your mind away from the consequences of your action and focus on the action. Anxiety, fear, stress are projections of the future: concentrate on the present.Learn how to change your perceived reality. Premier League footballers learn to shut out fans if they feel oppressed by them. This could help people who don't like public speaking, for example, who can see their audience as more intimidating than they may actually be.Find a ritual to recover from disappointment that creates positivity.Learn from those you admire. Stay close to them and be forgiving of their mistakes and failures.Don't have top tips, said Caulfield, because by tomorrow someone else will have come up with five other tips and you'll be completely confused". A good grandparent is better than any tip," he said. Turn to grey hair because the chances are they've been through a bit. They're not right or wrong but they'll ask the right questions and help you sort things out." Continue reading...

Leaked documents from Philip Morris reveal secret' strategy to market its heated tobacco product IQOSThe tobacco company Philip Morris International has been accused of manipulating science for profit" through funding research and advocacy work with scientists.Campaigners say that leaked documents from PMI and its Japanese affiliate also reveal plans to target politicians, doctors and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the multinational's marketing strategy to attract non-smokers to its heated tobacco product, IQOS. Continue reading...

Viral video of Prince William prompts experts to laud benefits of men communicating their hormones', from lifting mood to boosting trustIn his early 20s, Prince William was often seen stumbling out of night clubs after a night of grooving. Now, however, as though a clock has struck 12, this youthful cavorting appears to have transformed into something altogether more cringeworthy: dad dancing.In a viral video captured at a Taylor Swift concert, the heir to the throne was filmed with his arms aloft, chest shimmying swiftly - and somewhat stiffly - to the beat. Continue reading...

The six US astronauts aboard International Space Station rush to their spacecrafts in case of emergency departureA defunct Russian satellite has broken up into nearly 200 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, US space agencies said.There were no immediate details on what caused the breakup of the Resurs-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared dead in 2022. Continue reading...

Early onset ischaemic stroke more likely to affect adolescents with low cognitive function, study findsTeenagers with lower levels of mental ability may be three times more likely to experience a stroke before the age of 50, research suggests.The association held true even after accounting for a range of factors, prompting experts to say more comprehensive assessments beyond traditional stroke risk factors were now needed to ward off disability and death. Continue reading...

Higher incidence of damage to hips, jaws and thumbs reveals their writing efforts may have taken a tollFrom bad backs to eye strain, office work can take its toll on the body.But it seems such perils are nothing new: researchers have found Egyptian scribes experienced damage to their hips, jaws and thumbs as a result of their efforts. Continue reading...

Study shows population on Arctic island was stable until sudden demise, countering theory of genomic meltdown'The last woolly mammoths on Earth took their final stand on a remote Arctic island about 4,000 years ago, but the question of what sealed their fate has remained a mystery. Now a genetic analysis suggests that a freak event such as an extreme storm or a plague was to blame.The findings counter a previous theory that harmful genetic mutations caused by inbreeding led to a genomic meltdown" in the isolated population. The latest analysis confirms that although the group had low genetic diversity, a stable population of a few hundred mammoths had occupied the island for thousands of years before suddenly vanishing. Continue reading...

Psychologists usually expect ambivalence to be a driver of political apathy. But a new study appears to show a link between ambivalence in our views and the likelihood that we'll support extremist actions. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the study's co-author Richard Petty, professor of psychology at Ohio State University, to find out what pushes people to take extreme actions, how politics could be driving this behaviour and how it could be combated Continue reading...

UPFs should also be heavily taxed due to impact on health and mortality, says scientist who coined termUltra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets all over the world" despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of Sao Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week. Continue reading...

Researchers say in most cases condition is mild but it can increase risk of heart attacks and strokesOne in four healthy people aged 60 and over in the UK have undiagnosed heart valve disease, research suggests.The conditions develops when one or more of the heart valves do not work properly. The main problems are caused by the valves either not opening fully or not closing correctly. Continue reading...

Skull anatomy shows the boy or girl would have been severely disabled, yet survived until the age of sixA Neanderthal child with Down's syndrome survived until at least the age of six, according to a new study whose findings hint at compassionate caregiving among the extinct, archaic human species.Recent examination of a human fossil unearthed at the Cova Negra archaeological site in the Spanish province of Valencia found traits in the inner-ear anatomy which indicated Down syndrome, in the earliest-known evidence of the genetic condition. Continue reading...