Even in an election where the outcome is so uncertain, it seems that over half the parliamentary seats in the UK are winnable only by one party. Why?Safe seats. The “dark matter” of the UK political system; rarely observed, but their presence and influence dictates how everything else works. Safe seats are parliamentary seats where there is little to no chance of anyone but the party that has held it for years actually winning it. Estimates state that over half the parliamentary seats in the UK are safe seats. That’s over half of the UK political landscape that is essentially frozen in place. But whereas dark matter seems to be an integral component of the structure of the universe, safe seats arguably hinder democracy, restricting the whole process of deciding a government to a narrower pool of more uncertain regions, like a dead sheep lodged in an irrigation channel.But this is arguably an unfair assessment, and not just for sheep. Safe seats are still elected by the local population, there’s no rule saying they can’t elect anyone else, however much those in power would like there to be. Safe seats are safe because thousands of people vote reliably and consistently each time the opportunity arises. Why would they do this? As with anything involving large groups of people, there are numerous possible explanations. Continue reading...

Research has revealed that so-called neurobabble is surprisingly convincing – here’s a quick guide to harnessing its persuasive powers Continue reading...

Low-speed test event was preparation for much higher-energy activity next month, which will mark the start of the accelerator’s search for new physicsThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has smashed its first particles together since the machine restarted after a two years hiatus for crucial maintenance and repair work.The giant subterranean accelerator at Cern near Geneva collided bunches of protons at low energy for several hours on Tuesday morning, spraying subatomic debris into the machine’s huge detectors.

Archaeornithura meemannae is at least 130 million years old and was found with its feathers preserved, allowing comparison with modern-day birdsResearchers have stumbled upon the oldest known ancestor of all modern birds after breaking open a lump of ancient rock near a town in north-eastern China.They discovered the fossilised remains of the prehistoric bird, complete with exquisitely preserved plumage, in silt rock that formed 130 million years ago in the region.

Far from being dead, a rotting human corpse is the cornerstone of a complex ecosystem. A better understanding of this ecosystem could have direct applications in forensic science Continue reading...

Baleen whales feed by rapidly sucking in vast quantities of prey-laden water. For this, they need elastic nerves Continue reading...

Feeding wild birds on bread and seed encourages high densities of introduced bird species at the expense of native species, thereby altering urban bird communities, according to a new study Continue reading...

Eden Project in Cornwall opens Invisible You: The Human Microbiome, which reveals how and why we are colonised by bacteria and other microbes Continue reading...

Fourteen-year global trial finds 86% of women can be diagnosed correctly by tracking level of protein in blood

Samantha Cristoforetti becomes world’s first orbiting barista after firing up experimental ISSpresso coffee machine 250 miles above Earth Continue reading...

Smartphones may answer our navigation needs these days, but over the centuries, paper maps have done more than just get us from A to B Continue reading...

Falling number of patents for renewable energy products risks governments missing carbon reduction targets Continue reading...

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Reading a map is about so much more than getting from A to B Continue reading...

Expert warns that UK faces major and growing challenge in coming years as more Britons are diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

There are climate change sceptics, mainstream scientists – and a significant group in the middle. Whose voice is being heeded Continue reading...

The threat to our planet and the lives of billions of people – not to mention big business – has led to wild claims on both sides of the divide. Here are some facts Continue reading...

300 years ago, on the 3rd of May 1715, a rare solar eclipse occurred over England. It was an opportunity too good to miss for those promoting new astronomical theories – and their own careers.In 1715, 300 years ago today, a total solar eclipse was visible across a broad band of England. It was the first to be predicted on the basis of the Newtonian theory of universal gravitation, its path mapped clearly and advertised widely in advance. Visible in locations such as London and Cambridge, both astronomical experts and the public were able to see the phenomena and be impressed by the predictive power of the new astronomy.Wikipedia will tell you that this is known as Halley’s Eclipse, after Edmond Halley, who produced accurate predictions of its timing and an easily-read map of the eclipse’s path. Halley did not live to see the confirmation of his predictions of a returning comet – a 1759 triumph for the Newtonian system – but he was able to enjoy his 1715 calculations, which were within 4 minutes, and to improve on them with a corrected map (above). He observed the eclipse from the Royal Society’s building in Crane Court on a morning with a sky of “perfect serene azure blew”.

Only 65 of 49,000 prosecuted under outdated laws have so far had their records quashed Continue reading...

Police have called off the search for two Dutch scientists. Unusually thin ice likely played a role in their presumed death in the Canadian Arctic this weekIn a voicemail on Tuesday, Dutch researcher Marc Cornelissen, founder of Cold Facts, an organization supporting scientific research in polar regions, laughed at his predicament. He explained that unexpectedly warm weather had forced him and fellow explorer Philip de Roo to complete that afternoon’s skiing in the Canadian Arctic in their underwear.“I’m glad you guys don’t have pictures of us on the ice,” he said with a chuckle. “But it was the only way to deal with the heat.”

CDC also says July 2014 outbreak in which three other patients were sickened after man contracted disease from his put bull terrier was largest in 88 yearsWhen a man in Colorado contracted the plague from his two-year-old pit bull terrier and spread it to four other people last summer, the resulting outbreak was the largest in 88 years – and the first known dog-to-human transmission of the disease, according to a new study released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The first patient to be identified with plague, described as a previously healthy middle-aged man, was first wrongly diagnosed with pneumonia. It wasn’t until 10 days later, after the man’s condition had precipitously worsened, that doctors realized he had contracted pneumonic plague. The disease, which attacks the lungs, is caused by the same bacterium that causes the more common bubonic plague and is typically passed to humans through flea bites. Continue reading...

The crew capsule constitutes a launch abort system for crews of future space launches, something Nasa’s now-retired space shuttles lacked Continue reading...

US researchers exposing mice to streams of high-energy particles similar to galactic cosmic rays discover damage to nervous system affecting cognition

US researchers exposed mice to streams of high-energy particles, similar to those in galactic cosmic rays, and found they produced nervous system damage that caused the animals' performance to decrease. Similar cognitive problems could take a while to build in astronauts, but space-farers on a long-duration round-trip to Mars could be at risk, warn experts Continue reading...

New series The Enfield Haunting begins on Sunday night, and is based on supposed poltergeist activity. But what does science say about such phenomena?A couple of years ago I was asked to appear on ITV’s This Morning to discuss the Enfield ‘poltergeist’. It’s not an unusual request per se: as editor of The Skeptic I get to be the freethinker-du-jour in various media from time to time.But there were two things that made this one odd. The first was that the focus of the famous 1977-79 ‘poltergeist’ case – Janet Hodgson – was making a rare public appearance. (She has appeared in a documentary or two and had been filmed heavily in shadow for Jane Goldman Investigates but doesn’t make a habit of it.Related: Timothy Spall: dealing with ghostsRelated: Halloween special: the science of scary apparitions – podcast Continue reading...

Because boredom is unpleasant, it encourages people to escape from it – just beware if no escape route is found Continue reading...

The box jellyfish has a deadly venom. It also has 24 eyes and sleeps Continue reading...

From 12 days for an opossum to 22 months for an elephant – and with humans towards the longer end – the time parents wait for the next generation is a varied one Continue reading...

Watch a series of actual imagery and animation from Nasa documenting the work of the Messenger probe that crashed into the surface of the planet around 19.30GMT on 30 April. The probe had been orbiting Mercury since March 2011 and was the first probe to ever circle Mercury after being launched in 2004. The video was released as a tribute by Nasa to mark the work of the Messenger Continue reading...

The star’s concern about the role business plays in the environment has led her to set up ethical companiesWhen did the climate change campaign start for you?I think it was a fairly gradual process. It wasn’t something I connected with when I was younger. Maybe it was some sort of lack of empathy, but I wasn’t able to relate to it. And then round about 16 or 17, I not only started travelling more, getting more of an appreciation for nature, I also simultaneously started learning more about the science around climate change. And the combination of falling in love with nature, with the realisation that there was a genuine threat to the natural world as we know it, kind of worked together. It went from being an issue that I wasn’t really that engaged with at all, to being probably the one I thought was the most important to try and address in some way – and continue to think is the most important. Continue reading...

Elon Musk claims at launch that two billion large batteries could provide enough electricity to meet the world’s needs Continue reading...

The Sichuan bush warbler was discovered after its insect-like song attracted the notice of researchers. 19 years on, it has finally been relocated and confirmed as a new speciesA new bird species has been discovered in central China by an international team of scientists. This shy brown bird, named the Sichuan bush warbler, Locustella chengi, breeds in the mountainous region of the Sichuan Basin at 1000-2300 m elevation. Its winter home is currently unknown. This bird was first noticed whilst singing its distinctive song in May 1992 by two members of the research team, who thought it might be something new. After nearly two decades of searching, they found the bird again. Extensive analyses of the bird’s DNA, physical measurements, plumage colour and vocalisations confirmed their hunch that this is indeed a new bird species to science. Continue reading...

A new theoretical model describes the nervous impulse as an electromechanical wave

Minnesota moose population has gone from 8,000 to 3,450 since 2006 Continue reading...

Activists and corporations are increasingly using public information laws to intimidate scientists. Funding disclosures are fair game, argues Michael Halpern. But documents related to the research process should stay off limits. Continue reading...

The team look at the rapid rise of genome editing procedures and the power scientists now have to tinker with human DNA. Where's the technology going? And where should it stop? Continue reading...

Parents’ fomo is justified as they are left behind by terms like fleek, bae and other neologisms their children are using online Continue reading...

The probe, which was the first to orbit planet closest to sun, collected massive amounts of revelatory data before running out of fuel Continue reading...