Thorsgill Beck, Teesdale To 16th century travellers meadow saxifrage would have been unremarkable, today it is a window into a lost landscapeFive centuries ago the White Canons, who worshipped in the Premonstratensian abbey, whose ruins sit high above the bend in the Tees at Egglestone, would have been familiar with the view that appeared as we crossed the pack-horse bridge.The pasture had buttercups and another flower that I couldn’t immediately identify. It was only when we stood among the densely packed drifts of its white blooms that it dawned on me that this was meadow saxifrage, in greater profusion than I had ever seen. Continue reading...

Guest post: Why walking away from the EU will leave UK science in difficult negotiation territoryIn late January 2014, the contract between Switzerland and the EU sat on desks, ready to sign. Switzerland was due to become an associated country on the EU’s new seven-year, €80 billion science programme, called “Horizon 2020”. Although not an EU country, Switzerland would contribute appropriate levels of money, thereby allowing its university scientists and small innovative businesses to compete for the pooled research and innovation funds in exactly the same way scientists in EU member states do.The science programme had already launched, but the Commission would not sign just yet. They were waiting. There was a referendum coming up in Switzerland that was a direct challenge to the standing bilateral agreements with the EU. The proposal, named “against mass immigration” and championed by the Swiss People’s Party, aimed to limit immigration through quotas and permit allocation of jobs preferentially to Swiss over foreigners, effectively returning Switzerland to the days before its freedom-of-movement agreements with the EU. Continue reading...

Contrary to Nobel laureate’s remark, quickly defended by London mayor Boris Johnson, Prof Ad Vingerhoets says his study found women wept less at work

The comedian’s encounter with the legendary physicist could have done with more actual science in it – but Ó Briain’s enthusiasm just about saves the dayThis week’s Radio Times splashed the documentary Dara Ó Briain Meets Stephen Hawking (BBC1) on its cover, promising “The Real Stephen Hawking”, and illustrating it with a picture of handsome young Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne playing the character of Stephen Hawking in a film. While I admit that my scientific knowledge is largely limited to a combination of the Radiolab podcast and the Facebook page I Fucking Love Science, that decision does not seem entirely logical. But it is a problem this profile also has to deal with. While it is supposed to be an intimate portrait of one of the world’s finest minds, it appears predicated on a new surge of interest in the man after the recent biopic The Theory of Everything, and as such it occasionally comes across as an extended DVD extra, although there are plenty of moments when it hints at more.Ó Briain immediately sets out his stall as a physics fanboy. The comedian and presenter, who studied mathematics and theoretical physics at University College Dublin, recalls asking his parents for a copy of A Brief History of Time for Christmas, and says throughout that he is fulfilling a boyhood dream by meeting his hero. He’s an excellent choice of host, asking difficult questions despite his clear reverence for his subject, and it is impossible not to feel the contagion of his sheer pleasure in finding himself in such a situation. More intriguingly, Ó Briain is honest about the process of interviewing a man with motor neurone disease. He says he is not sure how easy it will be to talk to Hawking, who lost his speech in the 1980s and produces, via facial muscles which activate his voice machine, an average of one word per minute. Continue reading...

In the epic battle between cane toads and native northern quolls, science may just have given the quolls a fighting chance for a comeback

Pollination by wild bees contributes an average $3,251 per hectare per year to crop production, researchers findWild bees provide crop pollination services worth more than $3,250 per hectare per year, a study reported on Tuesday.

New research into reef confirms sediment from coastal agriculture and industry development, such as the dredging for ports, is having an adverse effect on fish

Analysis of meteorite samples has led scientists to believe that the subsurface of Mars could support microbes which thrive in methane-rich environmentsDirect evidence for life on Mars may remain as elusive as ever, but if something is living there, it is probably lurking beneath the surface, according to scientists.A study has found that martian meteorites contain pockets of methane gas, hinting that methane-eating microbes might be able to thrive in the planet’s soil in a “deep biosphere similar to that on Earth”. Continue reading...

As students challenge a name they believe trivialises mental health issues, we look at the the work of scientists trying to understand despair and resilienceLast Sunday marked the official end of exam term at Cambridge University, a day of garden parties and boat races. Over the years, this final Sunday of exam week has has gained the popular moniker “Suicide Sunday”, a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that students should celebrate making it through the stressful exam period without killing themselves.The name is intended in jest, but the presence of mental health problems among the student population remains a dark undercurrent of university life. A survey undertaken by the National Union of Students found that 1 in 10 experience suicidal thoughts. There are no official figures available for suicide rates at Oxbridge. However, in their guidance to staff, the Cambridge University Counselling Service states that approximately 40-50 students a year accessing the service will have had or discussed serious suicidal thoughts. However, they are also at pains to point out that in fact the confirmed suicide rate is in fact lower than in the general population of the same age. Continue reading...

Instead of sacking or silencing every person who offends our sensibilities, why don’t we try learning from them instead?It’s a fraught prospect when a feminist finds herself sharing a side with Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London. Yet the case of Tim Hunt, the Nobel prize-winning scientist who has faced an internet tsunami of feminist wrath for his sexist comments about women in science, has compelled me into a superficial alliance with Johnson, a man whose own habitual sexism I have protested in person.Like Johnson, I don’t believe Hunt’s comments warranted his forced resignation –but this is not because I think Hunt shouldn’t be criticised for his “light-hearted, off-the-cuff speech”. Continue reading...

Yvonne D’Arcy is hopeful the high court will overturn a ruling that gives private companies the right to control certain mutations in human genesA long-running fight to stop private companies from owning the rights to isolated human gene mutations has reached Australia’s high court, and is the last legal hope for those seeking to stop gene patenting.The case dates back to December 2013, when the federal court of Australia ruled that a US-based biotech company, Myriad Genetics, had the right to a patent over a cancer-causing mutation of the BRCA1 gene.

The Philae comet lander has made contact with the European Space Agency (ESA) after it lost power in November 2014. The lander made brief contact with its parent spacecraft, Rosetta, on Saturday night, beaming up 300 of 8000 packets of data it had saved onboard. Scientists are set to bring Rosetta's orbit to within 180 kilometres of the comet's surface to allow stronger and longer communication links with the lander Continue reading...

Spacecraft to come within 180km of comet’s surface in attempt to improve contact signal and allow commands to be sent to the newly awakened landerThe European Rosetta spacecraft will swoop into a closer orbit around its comet this week to help the mothership talk to its Philae lander, which emerged from a seven month hibernation at the weekend.Scientists are set to change Rosetta’s orbit as soon as Tuesday to bring the spacecraft within 180 kilometres of the comet’s surface before the end of the week. The change in orbit should give Rosetta stronger and longer communication links with the lander, and allow scientists to send commands to the robot.

Rosetta’s comet lander Philae is awake and could now work for many weeks. Its results will short-cut decades of waiting for more comet scienceSomewhere in the shadows of comet 67P, the Philae lander has woken up. The news arrived late on Saturday when an 85 second burst of communications was relayed to Earth by ESA’s Rosetta mothership. A further three ten-second bursts were received on Sunday.Analysing that information shows that Philae has 24 Watts of power available, and this is enough to start performing science. “The lander is ready for operations,” said DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec in the ESA blog post announcing the revival. Continue reading...