New moon and dark skies expected to make conditions especially good for the annual meteor shower – just try to get away from the city for the best viewsFleeting blazes of fire and light will streak and fade through the sky this week, at the height of what astronomers predict will be a spectacular meteor shower visible to skygazers in the US.The Perseid meteor shower will peak on the nights of 12 and 13 August, as the Earth swings through the densest debris left behind by a distant comet’s trail. On the east coast, the greatest cascade of fiery, disintegrating debris will fall at about 4am (1am Pacific time). Continue reading...
Footage recorded using light-sheet microscopy could help scientists understand how the brain and nerve cord interact to generate behaviourThe neural activity of an entire central nervous system has been captured in a fairly complex animal for the first time.
My friend and colleague, Dick Cotton, who has died aged 74, was a medical researcher who was internationally prominent in the field of human genetics. He had a long and distinguished career as both an innovative researcher and as a persuasive activist promoting the prevention and treatment of genetic disorders and birth defects.Dick grew up on the family farm in Wangaratta, Victoria, the only child of Esther and Graham Cotton. His father, an orange farmer, died when Dick was three years old. Dick went as a boarder to Melbourne grammar school, and graduated from the School of Agricultural Science at the University of Melbourne in 1963. Continue reading...
The results of a small study appear to show that a three month course of daily fish oil capsules could reduce the rate of psychotic disorders in young peopleEating more fish or taking regular fish oil supplements may help prevent psychosis in those most at risk, researchers claim.A three month course of daily fish oil capsules appeared to significantly reduce the rate of psychotic disorders in young people, an improvement that seemed to persist when doctors assessed their mental health seven years later.
Social anthropologist who studied the Samburu and Maasai peoples of the central Rift ValleyThe social anthropologist Paul Spencer, who has died aged 83, was best known for his work on the peoples – principally the Samburu and Maasai – speaking the Maa languages and living in the central Rift Valley from northern Kenya to northern Tanzania. His initial interest lay in age organisation: how these livestock-rearing communities assembled groups of boys of around the same age and managed their passage to maturity through a succession of initiation ceremonies. The young men developed a lifelong bond by living and eating together apart from their families, dancing and raiding as one, and, later on, acting as patrons and mentors for junior groups in their turn.Age and the passage of time remained at the core of Paul’s work, but he expanded his interests to include gender relations within the household, systems of belief and the social significance of dance. Despite his focus on men, he displayed an understanding of the predicament of women in a patriarchal world. They played a crucial role in upholding the core values that defined the community by shaming errant husbands and sometimes collectively punishing men whose delinquent behaviour transgressed the moral order. As Paul pointed out, relations between men were always mediated through women, despite the latter’s apparently subordinate position. Continue reading...
A new play examines why less than 3% of Nobel laureates in science are women – and highlights the stories of a few of those who have succeededIt’s clear to me that female scientists have always been swimming against the current – and continue to do so today. But the play No Belles, staged recently at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, has brought this unfortunate situation to dramatic life.A three-woman show written and performed by Portal Theatre company , No Belles presents the fascinating personal stories of members of a rare club: women who are Nobel laureates in science subjects (to date only 17 prizes have been awarded to women) Continue reading...
A video put out by the Guardian has angered scientists for portraying crude and offensive stereotypes of them. Is this anger valid, or is there more to it than that?Yesterday on Twitter, someone flagged up this video, from the Guardian itself, where a scientist explains how the Higgs Boson works.Except not quite. The scientist is fictional, and is less an authentic scientist than, as many have noticed, a ridiculously exaggerated offensive stereotype of a “scientistâ€. This video is the last of a series, one that most scientists have never noticed before now. Weird. Nonetheless, this one certainly drew attention. Mostly bad attention; it’s really upset/enraged many scientist types. But others like it, finding it amusing, ironic, an obvious joke etc. Continue reading...
Joy as mathematicians discover a new type of pentagon that can cover the plane leaving no gaps and with no overlaps. It becomes only the 15th type of pentagon known that can do this, and the first discovered in 30 yearsIn the world of mathematical tiling, news doesn’t come bigger than this.In the world of bathroom tiling – I bet they’re interested too. Continue reading...
Astronauts filmed five-and-a-half-hour walk on hand-held cameras and kept in touch constantly with each other and Russian mission control near MoscowTwo Russian cosmonauts added new equipment outside the International Space Station on Monday and took pictures to study its exterior during a five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk.The outing was the 188th in support of the space station and the 10th of Gennady Padalka’s career, a veteran cosmonaut and grandfather who is serving as commander of the space station. Continue reading...
Nasa astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Scott Kelly, along with Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, ate red romaine lettuce grown in space on board the International Space Station on Monday. The harvest comes from Nasa’s Veg-01 experiment, aimed at studying how plants grow in orbit in order to give astronauts on possible longer missions in the future the ability to grow their own meals and fresh produce for longer missions Continue reading...
Study finds parasitic disease in samples taken across three continents, as 42% of frog species are listed as being in declineTadpoles are contracting a new and highly infectious disease that may threaten frog populations worldwide, British scientists have found.A parasitic disease caused by single-celled microbes known as “protists†was found in the livers of tadpole samples taken from six countries across three continents, the scientists said in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal on Monday. Continue reading...
The text speak acronym may soon be laughing no more, according to a Facebook survey in the US, with haha, hehe and emoji now far more popularIt began as a shorthand understood only by computer geeks and went on to enter the dictionary and be (mis)used by the prime minister. But LOL, the acronym for “laugh out loud†used to express an electronic laugh, has had its day, according to a Facebook survey.As parents and grandparents have taken up “lolling†and “lolzingâ€, the young have abandoned it in favour of the heartier “haha†and “heheâ€, or use emoji to express amusement in text.
Re Brian O’Donovan’s letter (8 August): 25 years ago I lived in a mixed English-Asian community. My immediate neighbours were Pakistanis and the head of the household had little English but I eventually understood his father was ill and allowed him to use my phone to talk to his family. Days later it became clear that his father’s condition was serious and later that he had died. Khalid was in tears. All he wanted was a shoulder to weep on. At that moment, with little language in common, all he needed was my shoulder and arms around him. That was the start of our friendship.
The bountiful harvest aboard the International Space Station is part of Nasa’s Veggie experiment to make spacecrafts more self-sustaining for longer missionsIt was one small bite for man, one giant meal for mankind.On a gustatory adventure never attempted by humanity, astronauts have for the first time dined on a harvest sown in space. The verdict from astronaut Scott Kelly: “Tastes good. Kinda like arugula.†It was a strangely appropriate comment, given that arugula is also known as rocket. Continue reading...
A pair of Russian cosmonauts embark on a six-hour space walk, floating more than 200 miles above the earth’s surface, to install new equipment and carry out maintenance tasks including window cleaning. Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko left the station’s Pirs module at 1420 GMT, installing equipment to help crew members manoeuvre outside the ISS, before cleaning a porthole window to remove years of dirt left by exhaust fumes from visiting ships. The expedition is the 188th ISS spacewalk and the tenth for Padalka, who has spent more time in space than any other human Continue reading...
Once we just nagged ourselves with handwritten notes. Now our phones bleep constantly with reminders. Overwhelmed with chores and helpful alerts? Get real and start deleting. (Remember: must read this)It’s funny how to-do lists take on the characteristics of their owners. Illegible handwriting and multiple crossings-out? Looks as though life is spilling over at the edges. Neatly written on a pristine piece of paper? A vision of self-control and restraint. And if yours is full of hysterical punctuation and self-chastisement (“Do NOT forget the milk AGAIN!!!!!!â€), it might be time to talk to a therapist.It seems a shame, then, that these little paper peculiarities are heading for extinction, as a raft of digital alternatives take their place – most of which can be found on your smartphone. Since June 2012, every Apple device running iOS 5 or above – of which there are around 1bn worldwide – comes with the Reminders app. One of the most popular on Android, ColorNote Notepad, has been downloaded more than 80m times since its 2009 launch. There are plenty of quirky offerings, too – Carrot, “the to-do list with a personalityâ€, “hilariously†berates and cajoles you into getting things done – although dedicated to-do apps are just the beginning. They are joined by the emails we send our future selves in a cold sweat at midnight, the calendar reminders that coo and vibrate throughout the day and the tattered paper shopping list we somehow still have pinned to the fridge. Continue reading...
We now have proof that simple handwashing with soap is a roadblock on the superhighway that infections travel on. Yet less than one in five of us does itWe’re always being told that we should wash our hands, but many of us still find reasons to skip this basic everyday habit; maybe the water is too cold, or too hot, the soap doesn’t smell nice or we’re just in too much of a hurry. But now the results of a huge new study, just published in the Lancet, mean that we no longer have any excuses. This simple everyday practice could be vital, not just for our own and our family’s health, but for that of the country and even all of our species.Researchers at the University of Southampton randomly divided more than 20,000 people from GP lists into two groups, one of which was invited to visit a website designed to encourage people to wash their hands, while the other group didn’t get access. After three years of follow-up, Paul Little and his team found that those in the website group reported having fewer colds, flu and gastroenteric infections. Participants’ immediate families saw similar health benefits. And these self-reported findings were confirmed as those in the handwash website arm of the study also showed up less often in GPs’ surgeries and were prescribed fewer antibiotics. The effects weren’t huge, with 10% to 20% reductions in infections and consultations. But small effects multiplied to population level to produce huge benefits from what was a cheap, automated and easily accessed intervention. Continue reading...
by Dominic Burgess, Elliot Smith and Amy Mathieson on (#GYPM)
Fictional scientist Jeremy Bumble gets to grips with the concepts of matter, mass and the mighty 'God particle', also known as the Higgs boson. Along the way he ropes in some partying friends and UCL physics professor Jonathan Butterworth to makes sense of it all
The area of south-west Queensland where the elusive nocturnal parrot, presumed extinct, was caught is now to be protectedThe elusive night parrot, a species thought to be extinct for about 100 years, has finally been captured and tagged by scientists as part of a pioneering project to safeguard the remaining ground-dwelling birds.
Data from Cancer Research UK suggests 80% of patients survive for at least 10 years after being diagnosed in early stages of eight of most common cancersThe survival rate for people with eight of the most common cancers is more than three times higher when the disease is diagnosed early, Cancer Research UK said on Monday.Data for thousands of patients between 1996 and 2000 suggests just over 80% of those with cancer survive for at least 10 years when their disease is diagnosed at stage one or two but only a quarter of those diagnosed at stage three or four live for at least a decade more. Continue reading...
by Affelia Wibinoso (Royal Observatory, Greenwich) on (#GXEP)
Get ready to watch nature’s very own fireworks display as the Perseids meteor shower rolls into town. The shower can be seen every year between 17 July and 24 August, with the peak falling this year on the morning of 13 August. Conditions for viewing the shower are favourable as the moon – a natural source of light pollution - diminishes into a new moon on 14 August. Continue reading...
The Rosetta mission makes the case for togethernessLook for the moment beyond the sordid argument about Greek debt, the mean-spirited management of the refugee confrontations in Calais, the murderous bitterness in the Ukraine. Forget the grotesque posturing of would-be Republican candidates in the US.Far away – more than 102m miles away but moving very fast – the European space probe Rosetta is escorting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its journey to perihelion, its closest approach to the sun. This is the point at which the dust and gas blasted from the comet’s surface will be at its maximum, and, through Rosetta, humans will witness close at hand for the first time one of those mysterious celestial firework displays interpreted for 3,000 years as portents of wonderful or dreadful things to come. Meanwhile, even further away, a US space probe called New Horizons, travelling at 34,000mph, has already sped past what has traditionally been considered the ninth planet, Pluto, and its moon Charon. Continue reading...
The NOνA far detector, at Ash River Minnesota, measures neutrinos fired from Fermilab in Chicago - 800 km away. This week NOνA reported data showing that they change types during that journey; the begining of what promises to be an exciting programme of precision neutrino physics. And meanwhile, in Antarctica...
Ministers aim to use recent EU powers to opt out of a regime that is expected to see greater commercial use of GM crops around EuropeScottish ministers are planning to formally ban genetically modified crops from being grown in Scotland, widening a policy divide with the Conservative government in London.Ministers in Edinburgh are to apply to use recent EU powers that allow devolved administrations to opt out of a more relaxed regime, which is expected to increase commercial use of GM crops around the EU. Continue reading...
70 years on from the destruction of Nagasaki, much of the attention regarding radiation is still directed to the physical dangers, but the psychological consequences can also be damaging.Radiation protection research has been focused upon the bodily effects of exposure to ionising radiation, rather than upon the psychology of survivors. However, recent work, including my own, has shown that the most significant impacts of radiation emergencies are often in our minds.The physical consequences of radiation exposure are well documented, from radiation sickness to cancer. However, there is another insidious and debilitating impact upon the people in areas affected by nuclear accident, regardless of proximity to hazards and actual exposure; something that has a greater prevalence and a higher rate of morbidity and mortality than all physical health cases combined – mental health effects. Continue reading...
A simple experiment questioning people’s response to a picture reveals a common error that hampers our decision making. In an extract from his new book, psychologist Richard Nisbett reveals the ‘mindware’ to help us think smarterBill Gates is the richest person in the world. At the age of 19, he dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft, and in a few short years he made it the most profitable corporation in the world. It’s tempting to think that he must be one of the smartest people who ever lived.Gates is undoubtedly extraordinarily bright. But his pre-college life was blessed, computationally speaking. He was bored at his Seattle school in eighth grade in 1968, so his parents switched him to a private school that happened to have a terminal linked to a mainframe computer. Gates became one of a small number of people anywhere who had substantial time to explore a high-powered computer. His luck continued for the next six years. He was allowed to have free programming time in exchange for testing the software of a local company; he regularly sneaked out of his house at three in the morning to go to the University of Washington computer centre to take advantage of machine time made available to the public at that hour. It is unlikely that there was another teenager in the world who had the kind of access to computers that Gates had. Continue reading...
By viewing scientists at work in the lab as artistic, creative figures, photographer Dan Stier has created a surreal series that shows researchers in a whole new lightA woman marches towards the camera on a sloping treadmill, fists clenched. Above her head is a muddle of electrical cabling; behind her are walls of tinny, zigzagged metal and surrounding her is a pervasive sense of the 70s B-movie. Her shimmering silver spacesuit and custard-yellow hood are garish and camp, reminiscent of Roger Moore’s costumes in Moonraker. She looks like she’s from the future, only it’s a future dreamed up by Hollywood 40 years ago.In fact, the year is 2009 and the woman is a scientist working at the Technical University in Dortmund, Germany. The room in which she is walking is a climatic chamber, designed to simulate precise environmental conditions and to gauge their effects on human subjects. Shot by Daniel Stier for his new book, Ways of Knowing, the photograph is one of 32 studies of laboratory interiors, all of which depict the cutting edge of modern science, only not as we are used to seeing it. Continue reading...
Animals at specialist charity will undergo evaluation at Milton Keynes hospital after proving 93% effective in detecting odour of prostate tumoursDogs capable of sniffing out cancer have been approved for use in a trial by the NHS.The charity Medical Detection Dogs has gained approval from Milton Keynes University Hospital for further trials, after an initial study showed specially trained dogs can detect prostate tumours in urine in 93% of cases. Continue reading...
by Brady Dennis for the Washington Post on (#GT9A)
Hong Kong chosen as focus of study because it is global crossroads for the diseaseThere’s no shortage of experts monitoring influenza outbreaks around the globe.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks flu activity in the United States year-round and produces weekly flu activity reports between the peak months of October to May. Likewise, the World Health Organisation constantly gathers epidemiological surveillance data, and releases updates on outbreaks taking place anywhere, anytime. Continue reading...
Robot probe Rosetta could provide dramatic images as 67P reaches perihelion, its orbital highpoint – and threatens to break upEuropean scientists are preparing to celebrate an unusual midsummer festival – on a comet that is currently 165 million kilometres from Earth. The comet, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, is set to reach the closest point to the Sun in its 6.5-year orbit on Thursday and Europe’s robot probe Rosetta is poised to provide scientists with a ringside view.The spaceship has already been in orbit around Comet 67P for a year and has studied dust and gas as they have started to erupt from its surface as it has approached the Sun. On Thursday, when the comet reaches perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, that activity will reach its peak. Continue reading...
A close look at the eyes of 214 types of animal has revealed a relationship between the shape of the pupil and the animal’s ecological nicheThe eyes say it all. They answer questions about a creature’s social scale, and its place in the pecking order. The geometry of the eye indicates whether an animal is the hunter, or the hunted – and how tall it walks.
by Presented by Richard Lea and published by Eva Krys on (#GR34)
Can humanity escape extinction by reaching for the stars? We confront final questions with the science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson and the psychologist Sheldon Solomon
From background radiation to chemicals in the food chain, environmental changes are contributing to a rapid global rise in neurological diseaseMy interest in neurological disease was triggered by a second friend dying of motor neurone disease (MND), which in purely statistical terms was exceptional. It is suggested there is an incidence of about one in 50,000 who are affected by MND and most die. No one knows 50,000 people, so was it a statistical fluke?This raised the question of whether there were increases not only in MND, but in neurological disorders as a whole, including the dementias. Using World Health Organisation mortality data, which – while not perfect – is the best information available as it is collated in a standard and uniform way, myself and colleagues at the faculty of health and social sciences at Bournemouth University set out to investigate this. Continue reading...
Debates over Trident and energy policy are rarely joined up. But are there deeper links between Britain’s nuclear deterrent and its commitment to nuclear power?Two momentous issues facing David Cameron’s government concern nuclear infrastructure. The new secretary of state for energy, Amber Rudd, recently confirmed her enthusiasm for what is arguably the most expensive infrastructure project in British history: the Hinkley Point C power station. At the same time, a decision is pressing on a similarly eye-watering commitment to renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent.Ostensibly distinct, both of these issues are intensely controversial, extremely expensive, agonisingly protracted, and often accompanied by vicious political rhetoric. Yet commentators rarely ask how these decisions might be connected. Could such links help to explain the strength of the UK’s nuclear lobby? Britain remains one of only a handful of countries committed to a “nuclear renaissanceâ€, with senior government figures asserting the manifest falsehood that there is “no alternative†to nuclear power. Meanwhile, support for renewables and energy efficiency has been cut. Continue reading...
Largest-ever survey of youth mental health has found 10% of all teenagers have engaged in self-harm, and one in every 13 has contemplated suicideAlarming new figures show one in four Australian teenage girls have engaged in self-harm.The largest-ever survey of youth mental health found 10% of teenagers had engaged in self-harm, and one in 13 had contemplated suicide. One in 40 actually attempted it. Continue reading...
New analysis of interdisciplinary collaboration across the UK research landscape highlights important questions about how we organise, fund and assess research
Four-year project maps location of species, with Australian state of Queensland found to host the greatest number of native speciesThe world’s first ever ant map showing the distribution of the tiny industrious creatures around the globe was launched on Thursday by the University of Hong Kong in a bid to shed more light on the insect world.
Three-year study involving 20,000 adults shows increased washing of hands leads to drop in acute respiratory, influenza-type and gastronintestinal illnessesThe trial of an online scheme that educates adults about proper hand-washing techniques has offered the first conclusive evidence that washing your hands makes a difference in reducing infection.You don’t only protect yourself, you also protect your family members, and presumably your colleagues as well Continue reading...
One of the joys of being old is that you can remember being younger. Those who are younger, like John Harris (Opinion, 5 August), can only imagine being older, and, like most imaginings, his is romantic. He imagines choosing to hobble down the road to drink his slow half. But as a fairly healthy 70-plus, I can tell him that you don’t choose to hobble. In my case it might so far be limited to taking the stairs one tread at a time instead of two, having to pre-plan crouching down, or failing with monotonous regularity to remember names. But it gives me enough of a peek into the future to know I might not like it at all. I might still be hale and hearty like Denis Healey at 90, or perhaps not. I have just witnessed the trauma of a friend losing both very elderly parents after caring for them through their increasingly serious illnesses. It’s not nice and it’s not fair. So, if I had a choice to be that sort of a burden or not to be, I hope I’d have the courage to consider the alternatives.
The headline “Rivalry is now part of higher education’s DNA†(5 August) is an oxymoron. DNA and the features encoded in it are inherited, not added during the lifetime of the organism. So a characteristic that is “now†part of higher education does not come from its DNA, but from the present circumstances. What does the Guardian’s style guide say on this topic?
‘Eco-based’ engineering systems may be key to protecting cities that face up to eight times more risk from rising tides, storm surges and floods, says studyRich nations spend huge sums to keep the seas at bay but wealth may not save them indefinitely.New research suggests that the probability of flooding in cities and megacities built on river deltas is on the increase and over time, the Mississippi and the Rhine may become up to eight times more at hazard from rising tides, storm surges or catastrophic downstream floods.
Anthropologist who developed new insights into the origins of human societiesThe anthropologist Sir Jack Goody, who has died aged 95, combined thorough fieldwork with an original intellect that led him to establish links between very different civilisations, and gave him a deep understanding of the processes of change. One of his most remarkable pieces of work was a comparison between the societies of ancient Greece and modern Ghana.He was particularly interested in the transmission between the generations of both property and knowledge, in his work in northern Ghana. His comparisons of inheritance systems led him to the conclusion that, in medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church had resisted marriages between relatives for fear of losing bequests of property. Continue reading...
A team of scientists have identified two species of venomous frogs, a unexpected discovery. While a number of frogs have toxins in their skin and thus are considered poisonous, the term “venomous†is reserved for animals, such as pit vipers, that can inject their toxins into other animalsIt’s common knowledge that some frogs secrete toxins from special glands in their skin. But according to a paper published today in Current Biology, an international team of researchers report for the first time ever that two frog species are actually venomous. To be considered venomous, an animal must possess a toxin and must have some sort of mechanism, such as fangs, to deliver that toxin into another animal. And these frogs’ delivery mechanism of choice? Sharp spines on their faces.
The Labour Leadership contest furore continues unabated. With so much arguing and dispute between the available candidates and their supporters, is anyone really suitable for the role? A more rational, scientific approach is needed to determine who would be the best choice for leader of the oppositionWho should be the next leader of the Labour party? That’s a question a lot of people feel strongly about at present, resulting in a constant stream of analysis and opinion attempting to address the matter. What looked to be a by-the-numbers contest between familiar candidates has been turned upside down by the unexpected popularity of Jeremy Corbyn, resulting in a lot heightened passions about the “correct†way to proceed.However, are any of the available candidates “ideal†for the role of Labour leader? As the constant meticulous assessment of each has shown, all of them have their flaws. This is an inevitable consequence of being human. So are there better options out there? Is there a potential leader who could be universally popular, make the tough decisions and unify a fractured party? A scientific look at the current state of affairs and all the evidence suggests that yes, there might be. Continue reading...
