Science | The Guardian

It's easy enough to get lured into adopting a brittle persona, but there are other ways to live your lifeMy work used to land in the form of harsh clacking on a titanium-reinforced MacBook, but these days I prefer to write in a pale blue suedette notebook that was given to me by a relative a few Christmases ago. It is an object that until recently I had kept at the back of a drawer, fearing it would seem too sappy a thing for a serious writer to own.It forms part of a new tendency in my life towards softness - the quality of being gentle to the touch, sensual and pliable, but also receptive, yielding and adaptive. As an antidote to our digitally enhanced lives, which can appear to be cold and hyper-real, softness seems to be on the rise. There is the girlhood aesthetic", which is the nostalgic use of bows, frills and smock dresses. In literature, Arrangements in Blue by Amy Key chronicles the author's journey to creating a soft and cosseting home environment, while the hugely popular Milk Fed by Melissa Broder is a love letter to fleshiness and abundance. Continue reading...

The evolutionary expert discusses the triumphs and challenges of the groundbreaking research on Galapagos Islands finches she undertook with her husband, PeterStudying Darwin's finches has been the life's work of the renowned British evolutionary biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant. For several months every year for 40 years, the husband-and-wife team visited the Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific to meticulously track the fate of thousands of finches on two small islands there. The Grants demonstrated that evolution by natural selection can be observed in the wild in real time: they were the first to see and measure it in action in nature. One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward is Rosemary Grant's new memoir. It reflects on her far-from-straight path to becoming a biologist, living with a family on the Galapagos - for 10 years the scientists' two daughters accompanied them - and the joy of sharing ideas with her partner. Rosemary, 87, is senior research biologist, emeritus at Princeton University in New Jersey. The book comes ahead of a new edition of 40 Years of Evolution - the Grants' classic account of their study of the finches - due out later this year.The Galapagos are famous for their unusual and unique species including giant tortoises, marine iguanas and flightless cormorants. But what's the Charles Darwin connection?

Don't put your faith in the 10,000-hour rule - some athletes are born with talents the rest of us will never haveStefan Holm was told he was too short to be a high jumper. But by the time he won Sweden a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, he had honed himself into the perfect projectile. It was the result of a 15-year obsession: his whole life had been pulled into alignment with this goal. If he wanted to stop on page 225 of a book, he would push himself to page 240, in order to train his mind to overshoot. It's all about your 10,000," he told David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene. There had been jumpers who had beaten him when he was young, and where were they now?But in 2007, entering the world championships in Japan as the favourite, he faced an unknown opponent: Donald Thomas, from the Bahamas. Thomas had begun jumping just eight months previously, on a whim after a bet, and admitted he found the high jump kind of boring". He had slacked off training - his form was all over the place - and his coach couldn't even persuade him to wear the right kind of shoes. But he had one big advantage: an achilles tendon that could store just a bit more elastic energy than everyone else's. That year, Thomas sprang awkwardly over the bar to victory. Continue reading...

Research helping mice reach a ripe old age is of little use to humans if it boosts longevity but not healthspansProspects for extending lifespans have generated some striking headlines in recent weeks. Tantalising drug lets mice live longer but retain youthful looks," the Times announced. Anti-ageing drug is holy grail' of cancer fight," claimed the Telegraph.Nor is the agent of this media adulation - antibodies that block the action of the inflammatory chemical IL-11 - the only wonder anti-ageing medication to make news over the past few months. In March, researchers announced that, by properly balancing two types of immune cells, they had managed to improve the ability of elderly mice to fight off viral infections and so live longer. This came on top of research last year from another group revealing they had used injections of the drugs dasatinib and quercetin to rejuvenate the hearts of mice and make them less frail. Continue reading...

Offensive term to be replaced as first step towards more changes in unprecedented reform of nomenclature rulesScientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday inMadrid.The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that contain the word caffra, which originates in insults made against Black people, will be replaced by the word affra to denote their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral tree, which will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrinacaffra. Continue reading...

Researchers call on the government to settle dispute, which they say is impeding groundbreaking researchResearchers have called on the government to step in to settle a dispute preventing them from fully exploiting the world's largest store of human genetic data. The scientists say they are unable to access patients' data, held by British GPs, despite a decade of requests, and that the refusal is impeding the development of new diagnoses and treatments.Prof Naomi Allen, chief scientist of UK Biobank, told the Observer it had sequenced genomes of more than 500,000 volunteers and collated a host of other data about them. However, it was still prevented from accessing their primary health care data held by their GPs. Continue reading...

Habitat built to replicate the red planet's conditions when astronauts land - ambitiously set for the late 2030sAsk Anca Selariu what it was like living on Mars for a year, and there is no hesitation in her answer: absolutely exhilarating".The US navy microbiologist is one of four Nasa crew members who returned to Earth earlier this month after becoming the first humans to reside on the red planet, or at least the closest thing the US space agency currently has to it. Continue reading...

Scientists have long known the mental and creative benefits of the flow state, in which total absorption in an activity banishes anxiety. But what causes it, and how can we achieve it?As a professional ballet dancer, Julia Christensen knew the flow state well: a total absorption in her body's movements, without the constant chatter that typically accompanies our waking lives. The hours could fly by without her even registering the time that had passed.A back injury put an end to her career, and alongside the many other life changes that this brought on, she found herself missing the mental calm that had accompanied her practice and performances. I became aware that I couldn't control my thoughts," she says. And I'd never had to deal with that before." Continue reading...

Researchers unsure why animals turn up with items such as socks and gloves - but agree pilfered items are not presentsThe thieves went for particular items. Day after day, they roamed the neighbourhood and returned home to dump their loot. Before long they had amassed an impressive haul: socks, underpants, a baby's cardigan, gloves and yet more socks.It's not unusual for cats to bring in dead or petrified mice and birds, but turning up with random objects is harder to explain. Researchers suspect a number of causes, but tend to agree on one point: the pilfered items are not presents. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Citizens were failed by a lack of planning, and Lady Hallett wants a better system to be built fastCitizens of all four nations of the UK were failed by politicians and officials who neglected to prepare properly for a pandemic or other civil emergency. Former UK health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and MattHancock did not update or improve an inadequate pandemic strategy from 2011, that was geared towards flu rather than a novel virus. Resources that did exist were constrained" by funding and, after 2018, redirected towards Brexit planning. Ministers were guilty of groupthink and did not make effective use of external experts or challenge scientific advice. The possibility of a lockdown was never seriously considered. Nor was enough attention paid to the likelyimpact of a pandemic on vulnerable groups.These highly critical conclusions from the first module of the Covid inquiry are a landmark moment in the process of national reckoning being overseen by Heather Hallett. This is the first time that relatives of the 230,000 people who died of Covid have seen their anger about official failures, both before and during the pandemic, endorsed in such an authoritative way. Continue reading...

Research argues tremors occurred as Vesuvius erupted in AD79, causing buildings to collapse on to peopleVictims who perished in Pompeii after the devastating AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have been killed by a simultaneous earthquake, research has suggested.Scholars have debated for decades whether seismic activity occurred during the eruption of Vesuvius in southern Italy nearly 2,000 years ago, and not just before it, as reported by Pliny the Younger in his letters. Continue reading...

The UK must never succumb to such shocking complacency again. Planning for the next pandemic must start nowIn 2002, Sars, a dangerous coronavirus, spread across the world with a fatality rate of around 10%. Although it was contained relatively quickly, east Asian countries learned from this experience and updated their pandemic preparedness plans. Their governments wanted to be ready if the virus returned. On the other side of the world, the UK didn't react or adapt. Complacency was at play, especially with the assumption that Britain was one of the most prepared countries in the world for a pandemic.The consequence, as Lady Hallett's first report from the Covid inquiry notes, is that the UK government failed in its basic responsibility to its citizens of keeping them safe. The UK had too many preventable deaths, not only from Covid, but also from the shutdown of health services and a long lockdown that would have been unnecessary had public health systems been in place.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

Multivitamins are cheap, convenient, and provide a little bit of reassurance if our diet isn't quite as healthy as we'd like. But a recent study of nearly 400,000 people spanning 20 years found they didn't help users live longer, and in fact appeared to show a 4% increased mortality risk. Ian Sample hears from JoAnn Manson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, to find out what the evidence tells us about the overall health benefits of multivitamins, and how consumers can navigate this large and sometimes confusing marketClips: Good Morning America, CBSDaily multivitamins do not help people live longer, major study finds Continue reading...

The dinosaur remains, which measure 3.4 metres tall and 8.2 metres long, show evidence that it had arthritisThe largest and most complete stegosaurus fossil ever discovered sold for $44.6m at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday to become the most valuable fossil sold at auction.The dinosaur remains, nicknamed Apex", exceeded its pre-sale low estimate by more than 11 times. Continue reading...

Separate teams find evidence of phosphine and ammonia, potential biomarkers on planet whose surface reaches 450CHot enough to melt metal and blanketed by a toxic, crushing atmosphere, Venus ranks among the most hostile locations in the solar system. But astronomers have reported the detection of two gases that could point to the presence of life forms lurking in the Venusian clouds.Findings presented at the national astronomy meeting in Hull on Wednesday bolster evidence for a pungent gas, phosphine, whose presence on Venus has been fiercely disputed. Continue reading...

Remembering the Pre-Fab Four | Longer days and more growth | Royal Mail elastic bands | Moon cave | Search for the Tory soulRe John Lennon saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus" (Letters, 16 July), I am reminded of the row over the Rutles' Ron Nasty and his interview with a slightly deaf journalist who misquoted him as having said: We're bigger than God." He'd actually said bigger than Rod [Stewart]". This led to outrage and a rise in Pre-Fab Four record sales. People were buying them just to burn them," the Rutles' film All You Need Is Cash revealed.

Researchers shed light on how psychedelic compound in drug can distort sense of space, time and self during a tripThe psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms not only gives people a day trip - it can influence the brain for weeks, researchers have found.Experts say the study helps explain why taking psilocybin - the active ingredient in the drug - can result in a distorted sense of space, time and self during a trip, as well as shed light on the mechanism by which it can help in the treatment of severe depression. Continue reading...

The FDA's recent rejection of MDMA isn't surprising. Too many advocates are trying to frame psychedelics as a miracle drugEarlier this month, an advisory panel rejected MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, possibly dooming US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug commonly called ecstasy. In a public meeting alongside FDA staff, panel members said that the research neither adequately accounted for abuse risks nor proved the drug's efficacy in combination with psychotherapy.This decision dealt a major blow to Lykos Therapeutics, the for-profit public benefit corporation of the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), which sponsored the trials. More broadly, the rejection has been described as a drastic setback for the psychedelic movement as a whole. For several years now, it seemed that greater acceptance and new legal spaces for psychedelics were a certainty. Then, scientists appeared at the FDA hearing and everything went dark. Continue reading...

A new report suggests self-declared night owls tend to have higher cognitive scores. So please can we now ditch the lazy and undisciplined stereotypes?My fellow night owls, grab a strong cup of coffee and gather around: I have great news. For a long time, our kind has been unfairly maligned. Stereotyped as lazy and undisciplined. Told we ought to be morning larks. Advised to go to bed early so we can wake before 5am and run a marathon before breakfast like all high-flyers seem to do. Now, however, we are having the last laugh. Science has officially crowned us superior to our early-rising brethren.OK, it may be a tad more complicated than that. A study published last week, which you may have already seen while scrolling at 1am, suggests that staying up late could be good for brain power. Is this study a thinly veiled PR exercise conducted by a caffeine-pill company? Nope, it's legit. Research led by academics at Imperial College London studied data on more than 26,000 people and found that self-declared night owls' generally tend to have higher cognitive scores". And we are talking quite a lot higher. Evening types ... scored about 13.5% higher than morning types in one group and 7.5% higher than morning types in another group", according to a write-up of the study. Continue reading...

Yes, with the help of AI, I could play Juliet or go on Naked Attraction. But wouldn't something be lost in the process?In my long life, I have had to get my head around massive technological changes. When I was young, I relied on my knowledge of the times tables, and counting on my fingers, to add up. It took me weeks to master the revolutionary Amstrad word processor. The only phone was in the hall, calls strictly rationed by my father. Over the years, I have braved the exasperation of my grandchildren, and now Google, Zoom and unmute with the best of them.But the latest incomprehensible technical revolution has me flummoxed. I seriously fear I will not have mastered artificial intelligence before passing on to a world where, hopefully, the most I will have to cope with are some old-fashioned golden gates, and there will be a nice angel to explain how they work.Sheila Hancock is an actor and a writer Continue reading...

Subjects' performances of songs by Adele, Mariah Carey or from Frozen shown to peers to assess responsesWere scientists to concoct an experiment that was all but guaranteed to unleash full-on, cheek-reddening embarrassment, then filming adolescents singing Let It Go from Frozen and playing back their performance might well do the job.And so to researchers at the University of Amsterdam who invited dozens of young volunteers into the lab before breaking the news as to what was required. In front of a camera, and without the benefit of a shot or two, they were asked to sing the Arendelle anthem or another choice track, before they and others watched the rendition back from inside a brain scanner. Continue reading...

Pharmacologist whose research into tamoxifen helped many women with breast cancer to live longerIn the 1970s only 40% of women diagnosed with breast cancer could expect to survive for 10 years or more. Today that figure is over 75%. Screening and early diagnosis have played a part, but one of the key reasons for the improvement is the drug tamoxifen, which massively reduces the risk of cancer recurring after surgery.The British-American pharmacologist Craig Jordan, who has died aged 76, was the first to show that tamoxifen could stop tumours growing by blocking the female hormone oestrogen from locking on to cells in the breast at specific sites called oestrogen receptors. Continue reading...

Recordbreaking low pressure due to extreme weather meant water was boiling at 98C in Reading on day of stormMillions of Britons were forced to drink subpar cups of tea last November due to the record-breaking low pressure caused by Storm Ciaran.The low pressure caused the boiling point of water to drop below the 100C temperature some experts recommend to extract the full flavour from tea leaves. Continue reading...

Giant publishers are bleeding universities dry, with profit margins that rival Google's. So we decided to start our own

Ramses mission to study 99942 Apophis when it passes closer to Earth than GPS and TV satellites in 2029In 2029 an asteroid larger than the Eiffel Tower will skim past Earth in an event that until recently scientists had feared could foreshadow a catastrophic collision.Now researchers hope to scrutinise 99942 Apophis as it makes its close encounter in an effort to bolster our defences against other space rocks. Continue reading...

Savor, backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, says product has lower carbon footprint as it doesn't need cowsButter made from air instead of cows? A California-based startup claims to have worked out a complex process that eliminates the need for the animals while making its dairy-free alternative taste just as good.Savor, backed by the Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, has been experimenting with creating dairy-free alternatives to ice-cream, cheese, and milk by utilising a thermochemical process that allows it to build fat molecules, creating chains of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen. The company has now announced a new animal-free butter alternative. Continue reading...

For children with ADHD, getting the help they need depends on being correctly diagnosed. As a doctor, I have seen how tricky and frustrating a process that can beLate last summer, in the waiting room of a children's mental health clinic, I found Daniel, a softly spoken 16-year-old boy, flanked by his parents. He had been referred to the clinic for an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As we took our seats on the plastic sofas in the consulting room, I asked him to tell me about the difficulties he was having. Tentatively, his gaze not leaving the floor, he started talking about school, about how he was finding it impossible to focus and would daydream for hours at a time. His exam results were beginning to show it too, his parents explained, and ADHD seemed to run in the family. They wanted to know more about any medication that could help.I had just begun a six-month placement working as a junior doctor in the clinic's ADHD team. Doctors often take a temporary post before they formally apply to train in a speciality. Since medical school I had always imagined I would become a psychiatrist, but I wanted to be sure I was making the right choice. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence companies have lofty ambitions for what the technology could achieve, from curing diseases to eliminating poverty. But the energy required to power these innovations is threatening critical environmental targets.Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian's energy correspondent, Jillian Ambrose, and UK technology editor, Alex Hern, to find out how big AI's energy problem is, and whether it can be solved before it is too late Continue reading...

As part of the annual Beaker Street festival, a celebration of science and art in Tasmania, finalist images in the festival's annual science photographic competition will be on show at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from 6 August to 23 August Continue reading...

Researchers find evidence for cave accessible from surface - which could shelter humans from harsh lunar environmentResearchers have found evidence for a substantial underground cave on the moon that is accessible from the surface, making the spot a prime location to build a future lunar base.The cave appears to be reachable from an open pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility), the ancient lava plain where the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the moon more than half a century ago. Continue reading...

More than sadness, hatred or grief, rage is something that we shut away or flee. That endangers our relationships, our happiness - and our safetyI have wanted to write about anger for some time. As I sat down to begin this column, a recent psychoanalysis session came to mind. I was telling my analyst about something that might have made me angry - but instead, as I spoke to her, I experienced a sudden wave of irresistible sleepiness. I described this sudden onset of fatigue, as I felt the overwhelming weight of my eyelids and gave up trying to keep them open, so losing the thread of what I had just been talking about. Perhaps you are sending your anger to sleep," my analyst said.The more patients I treat in psychotherapy, and the more psychoanalysis I receive as a patient, the more I think that anger is often the hardest feeling to feel. More than sadness, more than love, more than hatred, more than grief, anger is repressed, or acted out, or drunk or drugged away, or killed off, or sent to sleep. Anything, it can seem, but allowed into our minds and felt. Continue reading...

Tess, a 40-year-old female at Houston zoo, has been given a trial mRNA vaccine to help combat the virus, a leading killer of calves in captivityAn Asian elephant at Houston zoo in the US has received the first mRNA vaccine against herpes, which is the leading killer of Asian elephants calves in captivity.Tess, a 40-year-old Asian elephant, was injected with the trial vaccine at the Texas zoo in June, after a spate of deaths in juveniles in zoos around the world from the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). Continue reading...

Political violence is not OK but what about snails are they OK?

This artificial star will be dazzlingly bright - almost rivalling Venus - on 15 JulyThis week we're looking for an artificial star: the International Space Station. From London on 15 July, the ISS will pass overhead and will be dazzlingly bright.The pass begins at 22.39 BST when the space station rises above the western horizon, but it is unlikely to be visible until it climbs higher than 10 in altitude at about 22.41 BST. Three minutes later it will have climbed to its very zenith, passing through the constellation Draco, the dragon. Continue reading...

Hope for new treatments after researchers find spread of disease is aided by shutting down of molecules in key genesScientists have made a crucial DNA discovery that could help cure one of the deadliest cancers.A team of researchers from the UK and US have found that pancreatic cancer is able to shut down molecules in one of the body's most important genes, helping the disease to grow and spread rapidly. Continue reading...

Jenny Knight, an author who was a teen world rowing champion, is rediscovering the benefits of exercise after joining a local netball teamWhen I was 17, my rowing coach announced that taking a day off was unnecessary. That one time of the week that I left school at 4pm and watched Neighbours was now gone. I think that's probably why, when I gave up rowing, I stopped doing any exercise at all. I'd had enough. Exercise for me equated to diehard commitment and someone shouting at me all the time. So I did nothing. Which in retrospect was a bad idea, because there were times in my life - getting RSI when I tried to write a book while holding down a full-time job or having a baby and getting swamped by anxiety - when exercise would have helped enormously.It was when I had come out of the baby years, moved to a new area, but worked from home, that I felt the pull to be part of a team again. But I didn't know how or in what sport - there was no way I was going back to rowing. Continue reading...

A British geneticist scoured the globe for diverse grains in the 1920s. His research could be vital as the climate changesA hundred years ago, the plant scientist Arthur Watkins launched a remarkable project. He began collecting samples of wheat from all over the globe, nagging consuls and business agents across the British empire and beyond to supply him with grain from local markets.His persistence was exceptional and, a century later, it is about to reap dramatic results. A UK-Chinese collaboration has sequenced the DNA of all the 827 kinds of wheat, assembled by Watkins, that have been nurtured at the John Innes Centre near Norwich for most of the past century. Continue reading...

The breakup rehabilitation industry is in high demand but the truth is you can't force someone to love you againI got angry yesterday, which is unlike me, a lady of peace and careful breaths. I felt like that guy who kicked in his telly when the Sex Pistols swore and I may have done similar had this not been a work laptop and had I not been a little bit sleepy after lunch. The thing that got me, the thing that threatened to push me over the edge, was an article about the rise of get your ex back" coaches.This is the breakup rehabilitation industry", where people charge brokenhearted followers, typically clients who have found them on YouTube after Googling how to get my ex back", hundreds of dollars for a single coaching session. In addition to these sessions, for an extra $499 the client can send two further inquiries (at no more than 500 words each), with one coach reporting that business is booming - he's currently making multiple six figures". My schedule is packed back-to-back all week," a man called Benny Lichtenwalner told Slate. Think of the worst breakup you've had. Would you try to solve it for the price of a PlayStation? I think if their ex said, Hey, give me a PlayStation and we'll be back together,' they'd do it. I can sleep at night just fine. Because I love that I'm helping people." Continue reading...

Working from her California bungalow, Margaret Press, 77, leads a pioneering team of volunteers in the field of genetic genealogy. Thus far, they've identified the remains of more than 100 Jane and John DoesFor 37 years, the young woman remained nameless. She was known only as Buckskin girl" for the leather poncho she wore when she was found, strangled, in an Ohio ditch in 1981.That was until almost four decades later, when two women in California took up her case. In 2018, Margaret Press, a retired linguist, author and computer programmer, and Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nuclear physicist and forensic genealogist, ran DNA evidence from the crime scene through an ancestry database, looking for the victim's closest relatives. Continue reading...

Campaigners welcome seismic shift' and urge museum bosses to review links with other fossil fuel sponsorsThe Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor's environmental record, the Observer can reveal.Equinor has sponsored the museum's interactive WonderLab" since 2016, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners. Continue reading...

A conference in the UK this week will outline new developments in a project to look for technosignatures' of other advanced speciesIt has produced one of the most consistent sets of negative results in the history of science. For more than 60 years, researchers have tried to find a single convincing piece of evidence to support the idea that we share the universe with other intelligent beings. Despite these decades of effort, they have failed to make contact of anykind.But the hunt for alien civilisations may be entering a new era, researchers believe. Scientists with Breakthrough Listen, the world's largest scientific research programme dedicated to finding alien civilisations, say a host of technological developments are about to transform the search for intelligent life in the cosmos. Continue reading...

His page-turning books about quantum physics and game theory have given the Chilean writer a cult following - and won him famous fans from Stephen Fry to Bjork and Barack ObamaI know you're trying to skirt around it," says Benjamin Labatut when I put to him thathis books concern people of unworldly intelligence working on problems that are maximally deep, but the best way to sum it up is: Why am I interested in mad scientists?'" Fair play. There's no getting away from it: that's exactly what his richly satisfying, deeply researched books are about.Both of Labatut's two books currently available in English - the International Booker-shortlisted WhenWe Cease to Understand the World (2020) and The Maniac, recently published in paperback - pivot around that moment in the early 20th century in which our dreams of a perfect rational understanding of the world were turned on their heads. This was when the deranging discoveries of quantum physics killed off the clockwork universe; and when Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem destroyed for good the positivist project tosupply a stable, logically unimpeachable foundation for therules of mathematics. Continue reading...

Scientists fear adaptations to global heating may leave some species struggling to mate successfullyAn ambush bug with a darker-coloured body is better at snagging a sexual partner than its brighter counterpart when it is chilly. Darker males can warm up more easily in the early mornings, and therefore get busy while everybody else is still warming up.This is one of the many examples of how temperature affects colouring in insects, and in turn can affect their ability to mate, according to a new review article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. Continue reading...

Ideas generated by ChatGPT can help writers who lack inherent flair but may mean there are fewer unique ideasOnce upon a time, all stories were written solely by humans. Now, researchers have found AI might help authors tell a tale.A study suggests that ideas generated by the AI system ChatGPT can help boost the creativity of writers who lack inherent flair - albeit at the expense of variety. Continue reading...

Starlink internet satellites were deployed in dangerously low orbit after explosion on Falcon 9 rocket on ThursdayThe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into the in-flight failure of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket as it was launching a batch of Starlink internet satellites.The second-stage engine failure occurred on Thursday evening during a routine launch of the satellites from Vandenberg space force base in Santa Barbara county, California. Continue reading...

Kate Bingham says ageing population means tackling dementia must be treated as economic imperativeA Covid-style effort is needed to ensure NHS patients are first in line for a new wave of dementia drugs, according to the former head of the UK's vaccine taskforce.Kate Bingham is calling for the immediate recruitment of large numbers of patients to ensure that, as with Covid vaccines, the UK is a leading player in testing and launching drugs. Continue reading...

A celebration of the gifts and talents of autistic people refutes the idea that autism and empathy cannot coexistIn The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks wrote about two autistic men, twins who had an extraordinary relationship with numbers. Sacks recalled that during one of his sessions a matchbox fell from a table, disgorging its contents, and the twins cried out 111", the exact number of matches that lay on the floor. They later explained that they had not counted the matches, but could see" how many there were. The twins live exclusively in a thought-world of numbers," Sacks concluded. They have no interest in the stars shining, orthe hearts of men."Daniel Tammet only mentions Sacks once in his new book, Nine Minds, but the writings of the British neurologist haunt these portraits of autistic people. Like those twins, Tammet is on the autistic spectrum, can perform absurdly complex calculations in his head, and is able to live in a thought-world of numbers", and yet he is also a writer whose qualities contradict the oft-made assumption that autism and empathy cannot coexist within the same mind. Part literary experiment, part work of activism, his book is an extended riposte to the assumptions in Sacks's chapter; he celebrates the gifts and talents of autistic people, while exploring the richness of their desires and dreams. Continue reading...

Creators hope prototype, modelled on Dune stillsuits', could be used before 2030 in Nasa's Artemis programmeA sci-fi-inspired spacesuit that recycles urine into drinking water could enable astronauts to perform lengthy spacewalks on upcoming lunar expeditions.The prototype, modelled on the stillsuits" in the sci-fi classic Dune, collects urine, purifies it and can return it to the astronaut through a drinking tube within five minutes. Continue reading...

Firm says wires attaching first patient's brain to implant are more or less very stable' after detaching months agoThe Neuralink CEO, Elon Musk, said on Wednesday that the company would soon test its pound-coin-sized implant and brain-computer interface on a second patient. The unnamed patient's surgery is slated for the next week or so", Musk said.Surgery on a different patient intended to be the second participant in Neuralink's human trial had been scheduled for late June but was delayed when they experienced unspecified health issues contraindicating the procedure. Continue reading...