Research suggests difference in life expectancy between men with highest and lowest quality is nearly three yearsSperm may be the canaries in the coalmine for male health, according to research that reveals men with higher-quality semen live longer.Danish scientists analysed samples from nearly 80,000 men and found that those who produced more than 120 million swimming sperm per ejaculate lived two to three years longer than those who produced fewer than 5 million. Continue reading...
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, at the International Space Station since last June, were on a mission that was to last a few weeksNasa's two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space.Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with He on (#6VNNC)
Beavers were once abundant in the UK, but hunting them for their fur, meat and scent oil drove them to extinction. Now they're back, with the news that the release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries. To understand why this is seen as a huge win for the environment, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian's environment reporter Helena Horton.Ultimate bringers of life': How one Cornwall farmer is using beavers to stop floodingSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
It is vital to act, and I urge colleagues to do so. How can we stand by and laud this man while he undermines scientific integrity?Fellows of the Royal Society met yesterday to discuss, as they put it, Fellows' behaviour". In light of the resignation of two fellows and an open letter signed by nearly 3,500 scientists, many, including me, expected the discussion to be focused on the behaviour of one particular fellow: Elon Musk.The Royal Society, as one of the world's most esteemed scientific institutions, bears the responsibility of maintaining standards among its fellows. Musk, admitted as a fellow in 2018 for his technological innovations, has recently engaged in behaviour that contravenes the society's code of conduct. In particular, many scientists have taken issue with his assault on the conduct of science in the US and beyond as head of the Trump administration's department of government efficiency" (Doge) as well as his malicious accusations against public scientists (such as Anthony Fauci) and other public figures. Continue reading...
Genetically modified mice have traits geared towards cold tolerance, in step towards modifying elephantsA plan to revive the mammoth is on track, scientists have said after creating a new species: the woolly mouse.Scientists at the US biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences plan to de-extinct" the prehistoric pachyderms by genetically modifying Asian elephants to give them woolly mammoth traits. They hope the first calf will be born by the end of 2028. Continue reading...
Shez Partovi, chief innovation officer at Philips, is excited about the benefits of new technology for patients and cliniciansTwo decades ago, Shez Partovi was working as a neuroradiologist at the US private hospital chain Dignity Health in Arizona, and remembers listening to a lecture by a nun between seeing his VIP patients from Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Sister Margaret was talking about children with diabetes on Native American reservations just 50 miles from the private hospital, who had little or no access to medical care.Partovi, now chief innovation and strategy officer at the Dutch healthcare company Philips, recalls: She said: I want you to remember there are people that are born, live and die never having seen a physician, and your job is to know that.'" Continue reading...
Astronomers deeply concerned that darkest, clearest skies in world will be compromised by proposed facility nearbyIn the Atacama desert, the driest non-polar region on Earth, the sky shines when the sun sets.Up in the arid hills 130km south of the Chilean city of Antofagasta, comets burn brightly and flawless trails of stars and nebulae streak the night sky. Continue reading...
Under Arnolds Field, tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been burning for years, spewing pollution over the area. Locals fear for their health - and despair that no one seems willing to help
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6VNH9)
UCL team is inviting parents to share their experiences, as age at which children in west acquire the skill risesStorybooks about potties, underpants featuring superheroes, rewards for doing a wee: toilet training is a rite of passage for any child. But with the average age of toilet training steadily creeping upwards, scientists are now hoping to crack the question of which methods are most effective.A team at University College London is inviting people from across the world to share their experiences and techniques as part of the Big Toilet Project. The ultimate aim is to uncover evidence that could help parents toilet train children earlier and reduce the massive contribution that disposable nappies make to landfill waste. Continue reading...
Analysis forecasts a third of young people will also be overweight or obese, in unparalleled' threat to healthMore than half of adults and a third of children and young people worldwide will be overweight or obese by 2050, posing an unparalleled threat" of early death, disease and enormous strain on healthcare systems, a report warns.Global failures in the response to the growing obesity crisis over the past three decades have led to a staggering increase in the numbers affected, according to the analysis published in the Lancet. Continue reading...
Questions remain over whether further action will be taken after resignations and calls for the Tesla CEO to be expelledElon Musk's fellowship of the Royal Society remains intact after a meeting of the scientific body, the Guardian has learned, but questions remain about whether further action will be taken.Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who also owns the social media platform X, was elected a fellow of the UK's national academy of sciences in 2018, apparently in recognition of his work in the space and electric vehicle industries. Continue reading...
The solutions to today's gridsEarlier today I set you these three Sudokus. They obey the standard rule of having all digits form 1 to 9 in each row, column and 3x3 box, with the extra rule:A cell that contains its position in either its row, column or 3x3 box (read left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is coloured gold. Continue reading...
Details emerge about Natal conference in Austin later this month, set to feature figures linked to far-right politicsA natalist conference featuring speakers including self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science, apparently including the man behind a previously pseudonymous race-science influencer account, and the founder of a startup offering IQ screening for IVF embryos, will be held at a hotel and conference venue operated by the public University of Texas, Austin.Details of the conference have emerged as a prominent supporter of pro-natalist positions, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, lays waste US government agencies under the banner of his Doge" initiative, with the blessing of Donald Trump. Continue reading...
Get in positionToday I unveil a fantastic new type of Sudoku invented by reader Alf Smith. Like all Sudoku, the digits from 1 to 9 must appear in all rows, columns and boxes.What's different in this new variant, however, is that the starting grids have no number clues. Instead, some cells are coloured gold. The extra rule is that the numbers in gold cells must describe the position of that cell in either its row, column or box (read left-to-right, top-to-bottom.) Continue reading...
The size of a compact car, the four-legged Blue Ghost touched down Sunday near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the north-east corner of the moon's Earth-facing side. Flight controllers at Firefly's Austin, Texas headquarters watched as Blue Ghost descended toward the moon's surface at 2 miles per hour, confirming on a live stream that the spacecraft had entered lunar gravity
US firm Firefly Aerospace celebrates second-ever commercial lunar landingA US company has successfully landed its spacecraft on the moon, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone - and the first to do so upright.Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 8.34am GMT near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the moon's north-eastern near side. Continue reading...
I suggest to my son that the object of going to the planetarium should be for him to learn something, not to catch the scientists outSince it was half-term, I took the boy out for the day. My choice was the planetarium at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which melds my two great loves: space and having to traverse the entirety of London, with a chatty six-year-old, twice in one wet afternoon. Our journey involves two buses, a tube, an overground, and 20 minutes of walking either side. Time was, all these various modes of transport would be a big plus for my son, who used to whoop and cheer as trains arrived and scream with contagious delight at every bus driver he met. As he moans about how long everything is taking, I realise for the first time that those mundane pleasures of the everyday world have left him. No wonder, I think with egregious lachrymosity, he has his eyes set on the stars.Being a six-year-old, he is stocked with questions. We have both presumed he will get some time with space boffins, ready and eager to answer any queries from 4ft-tall astronomers in training. It's just that my son is equally insistent that they'll be eager to learn something from him. As we take our seats on the tube, he lays out his prolix plan: a set of 14 questions sorted into four distinct classes; 4 x easy, 4 x medium, 4 x hard, and 2 x EXTREME. Continue reading...
Five years on from March 2020, millions of people still face debilitating symptoms, with huge repercussions on public health and productivity. But politicians are starting to pretend the pandemic never happenedOn 20 March 2020, Rowan Brown started to feel a tickle at the back of her throat. Over the next few days, new symptoms began to emerge: difficulty breathing, some tiredness. By the following week, the UK had been put under lockdown in a last-minute attempt to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, or Covid-19. No one else she knew had yet been infected, so she posted updates on Facebook to keep people informed: Oh, guys, it feels like a mild flu. Tonsillitis was definitely worse."Brown didn't know then she was at the beginning of a condition that did not yet have a name, but which has since become known as long Covid. After two weeks, she had a Zoom with a friend, and at the end of the conversation it was as if all life force had drained out of her body. Her doctor advised her to stay in bed for two weeks. Those two weeks turned into three and a half months of extended Covid symptoms: nausea, fevers, night sweats, intense muscle and joint pain, allodynia (a heightened sensitivity to pain), hallucinations, visual disturbances. By the end of the three months, she had noted 32 different symptoms. I didn't recognise the way my body felt at all: my skin, my hair," she remembers now. It was like being taken over by a weird alien virus, which I guess is what happened." Continue reading...
Academics and medics are working to understand why hamstring injuries are keeping players sidelined for longerThe sight of a player pulling up with a hamstring injury has become all too familiar in the Premier League. Weary muscles are being stretched to the limit by an expanding calendar, but dealing with more games is not the only challenge for medical departments.It is not that there has been a sudden explosion. It can simply seem that way when high-profile players such as the Arsenal forwards Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz are long-term absentees. Using figures up to and including game week 26, that ended last Sunday, the Premier Injuries website says 100 of the 418 injuries this season related to hamstrings (24%), compared with 120 from 457 (26%) at the same stage last year. Continue reading...
Experts hope research can create greener methods of extracting the metal vital for renewable energy revolution and boom in electrical devicesIt is the key ingredient of bronze, the alloy that helped create some of the world's greatest civilisations and took humanity out of the stone age on its way to modern times. For good measure, the metal is invaluable for electrical wiring, plumbing and industrial machinery. We owe a lot to copper.But the metal now faces an uncertain future as manufacturers prepare to expand its use to make the electric cars, renewable power plants and other devices that will help the planet move towards net zero. Unrestricted extraction could cause widespread ecological devastation, scientists have warned. Continue reading...
Out of his depth and determined to defy stereotypes, one writer discovered his sense of self in a bracing cold dipGrowing up, I learned not to trust water. I was a poor swimmer and splashing in the sea on holiday always had a hard edge to it. The second my toes left the sandy floor I panicked, for fear of being swept away.Things changed a few years ago at a friend's birthday weekend in Cornwall. One February morning, a dozen of us took a hungover walk to the beach. It was overcast and blustery, and we had come to skinny-dip. I was buoyed up by the camaraderie and games of the night before, and felt a safety in numbers. People stripped off, actions hastened by the wind, and before I could think, I followed. We ran over sand and pebbles and dived into the oncoming waves. It was a total sensory overload. Salt filled my nose and mouth. I heard shrieks and cursing, and so much laughter. As I emerged there was a surge of adrenaline, and I couldn't stop giggling. It was scary, but I was also proud, like a child who's climbed a really big tree. Afterwards my skin tingled and as we shared a flask of tea, I felt singularly happy. Continue reading...
It was yet another reminder that Trump and his associates will turn even the sex trafficking of minors into a photo opDrum roll, please: the most transparent administration in American history" is declassifying shocking new information about Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. After years of speculation that powerful people have been concealing information related to the late financier and convicted sex offender, the Trump administration said earlier this week that it would release unseen details about the case. Continue reading...
Are ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections and normal differences being unnecessarily pathologised? One doctor argues just thatSchool was a difficult time for Anna. It still haunts her. She recalls being a sociable child, good at making friends. But she also remembers becoming hyperfixated on one friend, then another and another in succession. She tended to be impulsive and, wanting to please others, easily led. One distressing incident in particular has never left her. On the first day after moving to a new school, she was relieved to be taken under the wing of two girls. At lunchtime, in fits of giggles, the girls egged each other on to do naughty things. Anna spat orange juice at the boys. She did it with relish, only to reproach herself later. She feels the episode coloured her whole school experience.As a child and an adult, Anna felt sanctioned, judged and misunderstood. She considers herself a chameleon who adapts to new environments and survives by being funny, but all too often regrets things she has said. Her self-esteem is low. Anna is a nurse and, although she loves her job and is good at it, she still often feels inadequate. People don't think I'm as clever as I feel. I can't get the words out quickly enough," she says. Continue reading...
The first all-female private flight into space funded by the Amazon tycoon's Blue Origin company has little to do with female empowerment and a lot to do with PRA pop star, a TV host and a billionaire's fiancee walk into a private rocket ship. The pop star turns to the others and asks: Is this what feminism looks like?" According to the space technology company Blue Origin, owned and founded by the Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, the answer seems to be a resounding yes.On Thursday Blue Origin announced it would be launching the first-ever all-female commercial flight to space with a crew of astronauts including US singer Katy Perry, the morning news host (- and close friend of Oprah Winfrey - Gayle King and Bezos's own partner, the journalist Lauren Sanchez, who reportedly organised the mission, which will happen sometime this spring. Continue reading...
by Stephen Reicher, Rachel Clarke, Rafael Behr, Franc on (#6VKYT)
We asked a group of experts on politics, trade, literature, psychology, work and more: what has been the most surprising or shocking consequence of Covid-19 in your field? Continue reading...
Though scientist was not thought to be a great drinker, he may have used beer as an ingredient in the homemade ink in which he wrote his greatest workIsaac Newton has long been a familiar figure in museums around the world. Now, one of the famed scientist's most prized possessions is due to go on display for the first time in 160 years: his beer mug.The wooden mug will be on public display at the Royal Society, in central London, from 4 March, alongside items including Newton's greatest work, the Principia, and the scientist's death mask, which was prepared shortly after his death to serve as a likeness for sculptures. Continue reading...
Up to 90% of young people in Taiwan have myopia but eye experts say the growing global trend can be reversedIn the final days of their eight-week bootcamp, dozens of young Taiwanese conscripts are being tested on an obstacle course. The men in full combat kit are crawling underneath rows of razor wire and through bunkers as controlled explosions blast columns of dirt into the air. Pink and green smoke blooms in a simulated gas attack, requiring the conscripts to quickly don gas masks so they can rush the zone. But it's here where many of them pause, stopping the assault drill to spend precious seconds removing their glasses so the masks will fit.The conscripts mostly look to be in their early 20s. Statistics suggest that means anywhere up to 90% of them have some degree of myopia, otherwise known as shortsightedness. Continue reading...
by Kat Lay, Global health correspondent on (#6VK8B)
USAid cuts to clinics dispensing antiretroviral drugs will be death sentence for mothers and children', expert warnsSweeping notices of termination of funding have been received by organisations working with HIV and Aids across Africa, with dire predictions of a huge rise in deaths as a result.After the US announced a permanent end to funding for HIV projects, services across the board have been affected, say doctors and programme managers, from projects helping orphans and pregnant women to those reaching transgender individuals and sex workers. Continue reading...
The recent hand jiu-jitsu' with Keir Starmer is just the latest awkward exchange between the US president and world leadersAs Keir Starmer handed Donald Trump his unprecedented invitation from King Charles - a second state visit - he grasped the US president chummily by the shoulder, more than once.Starmer was skating a tricky line, between matey familiarity and patronising reassurance, which must have been tutored, as he's not a tactile man. Trump's body language looked completely untaught, because nobody could teach this. The man has always been incredibly idiosyncratic. Continue reading...
The seven will appear to form a straight line in the night sky in display that won't be seen again until 2040Seven planets will appear to align in the night sky on the last day of February in what is known as a planetary parade.These planetary hangouts happen when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once. Continue reading...
Dr Wendy Tagg has missing photos in her album of memories, while Judith Abbs says there isn't a word for a sibling who is now aloneJason Hazeley's piece on the death of his sister (When my sister died, it wasn't just her own childhood memories that disappeared. Mine did too, 24 February) took me right back to a vague memory of hurtling down a snowy hill on the big wooden sleigh that my father had made.The real loss is that I can't ask mybig brother. He would have known which hill it was, the route we took, whether we drove there inthe blue Reliant or the beige Morris, whether I was wearing the red woolly coat that was once his. I, too, have missing photos in my album of memories.
Activist Amanda Nguyen, movie producer Kerianne Flynn and former Nasa scientist Aisha Bowe will also be on flightJeff Bezos announced on Thursday that an all-female crew would helm the next flight into space of a Blue Origin rocket. The singer Katy Perry will join the television host Gayle King, the civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, the movie producer Kerianne Flynn, the former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and Bezos's fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, on a short hop from a west Texas launchpad this spring.The 11th crewed mission of its New Shepard capsule, which the billionaire's space company announced in a press release, will mark the first time since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo flight in 1963 that no men have been aboard a human-crewed spaceflight leaving Earth, Blue Origin said. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6VJPF)
Scientists find sterile ISS environment could explain rashes and cold sores and suggest adding microbes to stationsExcessive cleanliness is not generally regarded as a downside when it comes to travel accommodation. However, scientists have concluded that the International Space Station is so sterile that it could be having a negative impact on astronauts' health and have suggested making it dirtier".The study found that the ISS is largely devoid of environmental microbes found in soil and water that are thought to beneficial to the immune system. The lack of microbial diversity could help to explain why astronauts often experience immune-related health problems such as rashes, cold sores, fungal infections and shingles. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6VJES)
Shift in circulating strains means those who've already had vomiting bug this winter risk catching it againThe UK could be facing a second wave of the winter vomiting bug, norovirus, the UK Health Security Agency has warned.The latest figures show a rise in norovirus across the UK, with reported cases at the highest level in more than a decade. A shift in circulating strains means that those who have already been ill with norovirus this winter are at risk of catching it again. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Damian Carringt on (#6VJ8F)
When the palaeontologists of the future search for clues to understand how we lived, what might they find? Two scientists exploring this question have suggested that technofossils' will be our lasting imprint on the Earth. To find out exactly what these are and what they could reveal about our lives, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, and from Sarah Gabbott, a professor of palaeontology at the University of Leicester and one of the scientists behind the new book Discarded: How Technofossils Will Be Our Ultimate LegacySupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepodTechnofossils': how humanity's eternal testament will be plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones Continue reading...
Synechococcus elongatusis soaks up carbon dioxide for its photosynthesis and stores more than other strainsChonkus may sound like a champion Sumo wrestler but it is the nickname for a superpower strain of microbe that absorbs lots of CO relative to its size and stores it in its large cells.Chonkus's real name is Synechococcus elongatus, and it is a large and heavy strain of blue-green alga that soaks up CO for its photosynthesis, grows fast in dense colonies and stores more carbon than other strains of this microbe. Continue reading...
Bumblebees declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to conservation charityFigures show 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees in the UK since records began.Bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to data from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. The researchers said the drop was probably due to the cold and wet conditions in the UK last spring. Continue reading...
Trump has the classic authoritarian personality - not the same as being authoritarian, writes Mary Wilkinson, plus, letters by Tom Brown, Jim Hatley, Sally Burch and Alison RouthJonathan Freedland's comments about Donald Trump highlighted two Trumps: the shoot-from-the-hip tough guy and the supplicant at the court of Vladimir Putin (Trump is the world's greatest showman - and the weakest strongman it has ever seen, 21 February). Isn't he an example of the authoritarian personality (not to be confused with being authoritarian)?Rupert Wilkinson's 1972 book The Broken Rebel explored the subject. Some of the characteristics of the authoritarian personality that he listed are submission to a strong, admired authority; aggressive hostility to people in authority whose traits he resents, often as a result of being dominated himself in childhood or to compensate for a sense of weakness; open hostility to outsiders and admiration for his own side; a desire to be strong, to hold power and assert it aggressively; detests ambiguity and uncertainty; craves simple solutions and obvious results.
by Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent on (#6VHTF)
Archaeologists suggest woodhenge' was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circleAn extraordinary" timber circle believed to be thousands of years old and connected to Stonehenge in England has been discovered in the ground in Denmark.The circle of at least 45 wooden posts in Aars, North Jutland, has a diameter of about 30 metres and is believed to have been constructed between 2600 and 1600BC. Continue reading...
Earth's plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 but proportion absorbed has been declining since, study findsOur planet is losing its appetite for mopping up carbon dioxide. Analysis of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements show that Earth's plants and soils reached peak carbon dioxide sequestration in 2008 and absorption has been declining ever since. Passing this tipping point increases the chances of runaway climate breakdown.Plants and trees have had it good for the last century or so. Rising levels of carbon dioxide helped to spur growth and warmer temperatures gave rise to a longer growing season. But at some point these benefits start to be outweighed by the negatives of a warming climate: wildfires, drought, storms, floods, the spread of new pests and diseases and plant heat stress all reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that plants absorb. Continue reading...
Antimicrobial resistance contributing to estimated 35,000 deaths a year in UK, and government a long way' from containing the problem, says NAOSuperbugs are on the rise in the UK and the government is failing in its efforts to tackle them, ministers have been warned.The World Health Organization has described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) - where pathogens evolve and develop resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobials so the drugs usually used to fight them no longer work - as one of the top global public health and development threats". Continue reading...
From ghost trains to backstreet weddings, from demolition sites to alien's eye views' of Leeds, groundbreaking photographer Peter Mitchell captures our changing world with his trusty Blad' - and once even tried to leave itThe Quarry Hill flats in Leeds were once the largest social housing complex in the UK. A utopian vision of homes for 3,000 people. Built in the 1930s, they were modelled on the Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna and La Cite de la Muette in Paris. However, after just 40 years, the buildings were crumbling and largely deserted. Over the course of five years in the 1970s, Peter Mitchell documented their demolition, from smashed windows and wrecked apartments to abandoned wardrobes and solitary shoes. Finally, when all that was left standing was a lone arch, he tried to photograph the wrecking crew standing in front of it, but couldn't get the arch in.So," Mitchell remembers, the foreman said, We do have a crane.' I can't stand heights but they lowered the crane down so I could stand on it, then lifted me up to quickly get the shot. I was swaying about a bit and all but one of them came out blurred - but I got the picture." Continue reading...
For the next few weeks we're asking readers to nominate their invertebrate of the year: click here to give us your suggestionsDoes a worm feel pain if it gets trodden on? Does a fly ache when its wings are pulled off? Is an ant happy when it finds a food source? If so, they may be sentient beings, which means they can feel", a bit or a lot, like we do.Invertebrate sentience is becoming an ever livelier topic of debate and with new science we are getting new insights. But Dr Andrew Crump at the Royal Veterinary College, who helped ensure that new UK laws recognising animal sentience were amended to include large cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans - octopuses, lobsters, crabs to you and me - says this is not at all straightforward. Continue reading...
Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump's first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation's budget will be slashedChuck Hagel, the former US defense secretary, and other former US national security officials, including two senior figures from Donald Trump's first term, on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in critical technology fields and urged Congress to increase funding for federal scientific research.The appeal comes a week after the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds science research, fired 170 people in response to Donald Trump's order to reduce the federal workforce. An NSF spokesman declined comment on reports that hundreds more layoffs were possible and that the agency's budget could be slashed by billions. Continue reading...
Scientists say consumption of the beverage may have health benefit by reducing intake of metals such as leadThe medicinal effect of a cup of tea is no surprise to anybody who has headed straight to the kettle after a laborious work meeting.But researchers say they may have found a more scientific explanation for why it is associated with health benefits. Continue reading...
For more than 20 years, scientists have followed the animals in Norway's Arctic archipelago to understand how they may adapt to changing threats as the ice they depend on meltsWhen Rolf-Arne Olberg is hanging out of a helicopter with a gun, he needs to be able to assess from a distance of about 10 metres the sex and approximate weight of the moving animal he is aiming at, as well as how fat or muscular it is and whether it is in any distress. Only then can he dart it with the correct amount of sedative. Luckily, he says, polar bears are quite good anaesthetic patients".Olberg is a vet working with the Norwegian Polar Institute, the body responsible for the monitoring of polar bears in Svalbard, an archipelago that lies between mainland Norway and the north pole. Every year he and his colleagues track the bears by helicopter, collect blood, fat and hair samples from them and fit electronic tracking collars. Continue reading...
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