Bad experiments for stroke and cancer drugs produce poor results, say research chiefsResearch agencies have ordered UK scientists to improve the way they use animals in experiments. Too often poorly designed projects – to test new medicines for strokes, cancer and other conditions – have produced meaningless results and wasted animals’ lives, the organisations have warned.In some cases, researchers – desperate to control the costs of their work – have underestimated the number of animals needed to test a new medicine. As a result, their tiny studies have lacked the power to pinpoint biological effects in the drugs under scrutiny. These unreliable results mean the lives of the animals involved have been wasted, along with scientists’ time and resources. The over-use of animals in experiments has also led to unnecessary loss of their lives. Continue reading...

Lord Renfrew says artefacts in Iraq endangered by war would be protected under the Hague convention Continue reading...

Footage shows swarms of barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo) off the coast of Cornwall in the UK. The video, taken by a local wildlife enthusiast Ross Wheeler on Wednesday from a boat near Falmouth Harbour, shows the jellyfish gliding through calm water. This swarm of barrel jellyfish, which can grow up to six feet long, was reportedly a mile long Continue reading...

Like millions of other people, the drugs I take every day to live a normal life. But the amount of information we have on the risks is worryingly thin Continue reading...

Before heading out to a tropical island for your summer holidays, you might be interested to learn more about the critical role that islands play in the evolution of new species. Today, I share two important books with you, both of which explore the importance of islands as “natural laboratories” of evolution and ecology Continue reading...

The team discuss the ins and outs of sex surveys, plus the secrets of knuckle-cracking are revealed at last Continue reading...

What a curious beast we are, reducing the natural world to a petting zoo, then ceaselessly reinventing its threats Continue reading...

The latest reports of a dementia breakthrough illustrate the dangers of overhyping cutting-edge research into drugs and disease Continue reading...

Charles Bolden countered criticism from House on agency’s ‘partisan environmental agenda’ and ‘uninspiring’ space work at budget hearingThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s mission to land on an asteroid and its Earth science division both drew angry criticism from lawmakers on Thursday, as administrator Charles Bolden defended the agency on Capitol Hill.At a House hearing on Nasa’s 2016 budget, space subcommittee chairman Lamar Smith criticized what he called “the disproportionate increase” in funding for Earth science research, saying that over eight years almost $2bn had been added to its budget. Smith and other Republicans argued that Nasa should not devote so many resources to studying the climate when it could work on space. Continue reading...

Scientists have found that dogs and owners experience surges in oxytocin, a hormone responsible for maternal caring, when they look into each other’s eyesA rush of hormone that helps people bond could explain why humans and dogs have been best friends for thousands of years, say researchers in Japan.

Archaeologist responsible for raising the wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, from the seabed Continue reading...

Analysis of fundraising pages shows men are competitively generous: a big donation early on, helped by an attractive picture, can be key to successWhen fundraising for charity, picking a cause close to people’s hearts and subjecting yourself to a sufficiently gruelling physical ordeal might help, but scientists suggest there could be an even easier way to swell the coffers. Picking a flattering photo and persuading a male friend or relative to make a hefty donation to your fundraising page early was found to significantly boost donations - for women at least.A study of fundraising pages from the 2014 London Marathon showed that men become competitively generous when they see another man has already given a large sum of money. The effect was especially striking when men stood to impress an attractive female, the study revealed. In these circumstances, men quadrupled their average donations from £10 to £40 when another man had already pledged a large sum.Related: Sex and the successful fundraiser | Richard P Grant Continue reading...

A real-world study shows that in the art – and science – of fundraising, some of us have a natural advantage... Continue reading...

Analysis of millions of audio files has led one US company to claim that their software can predict how a person’s voice will make a listener feel Continue reading...

Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first ever colour photo of Pluto and its moon Charon. The image shows a reddish dwarf planet and similarly coloured moon. No spacecraft has ever visited Pluto but scientists are hoping that will change on 14 July, when Nasa's New Horizons probe is expected to fly within 9,978km of the dwarf planet after a nine-year journey Continue reading...

It might feel as though certain familiar sayings have existed since the dawn of time. But proverbs have to be invented – and here are some recent candidates Continue reading...

Union representing CSIRO workers attribute impasse to federal government’s ‘unacceptable’ public-sector bargaining policy Continue reading...

An unmanned SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida on Tuesday but failed to land on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The 208-foot (63-meter) Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon capsule, thundered off its seaside launchpad at Cape Canaveral air force station to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station. The rocket made a hard but survivable landing on the return platform, but teetered and ultimately fell over Continue reading...

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An MRI scanner, a bespoke finger-pulling device and a willing knuckle-cracker helped researchers put their finger on the answerFor centuries, scientists have wrestled with the deepest mysteries of space, time and the nature of consciousness. But not all of them. Some turn their minds to what can fairly be described as lower-hanging fruit. Like why our knuckles crack when we pull them.The question has never been the subject of sustained scientific inquiry, but the puzzle crops up in medical literature reaching back more then 50 years. It began, perhaps, with a German physician called Nordheim, who in 1938 demonstrated that most joints in healthy people can be made to pop when pulled upon. Continue reading...

What if it becomes possible to carry a baby to term at 70, 75 or 80? Already some argue carrying many babies to term poses dangers for both mother and foetuses Continue reading...

Oxcytocin, the “cuddle hormone”, found to amplify the cries of baby mice in the brains of mothers and could explain increased sensitivity in human parentsAs any bleary-eyed new mother will confirm, the sound of a baby’s cry is almost impossible to ignore, no matter how tired you are feeling. Now scientists have uncovered clues that could help explain why parents are so sensitive to the sound of crying.A study found that the so-called “cuddle hormone”, oxytocin, which surges following childbirth, changes the way auditory signals are processed in the brains of mice. In effect, the hormone was amplifying the cries of baby mice in the brains of mothers. Continue reading...

Findings from the US bring us closer to understanding what causes this disease, but ‘Alzheimer’s mice’ are not a perfect parallel for what happens in human brains Continue reading...

Findings indicate that voting Conservative (or not) is strongly influenced by genetics, whereas voting Lib Dem is affected by environment alone Continue reading...

Analysis of baby skeletons could help predict medical problems among contemporary children, says archaeologistTiny teeth of babies who died in the Irish famine in the 1840s, or soon afterwards when their parents moved to London in search of work, reveal they were the starving children of malnourished mothers – but the analysis may also help predict medical problems among contemporary children.The remains, from a graveyard in Lukin Street, which in the 19th century was a slum area of Whitechapel in east London, and from the site of a workhouse in County Kilkenny in Ireland, showed the dead babies had higher nitrogen levels than found in the bones of children who survived infancy.

Findings of US research contradict current thinking on Alzheimer’s and offer hope of finding new treatmentsA study using mice has uncovered a possible cause of Alzheimer’s disease, and suggests that a drug currently being investigated in human clinical trials to treat cancer could prevent the illness.

Following his viral cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, Hadfield plans to release a full album with parts recorded in outer space Continue reading...

Maria Skłodowska-Curie will be European co-production chronicling life of double Nobel-prize winning scientist best known for work in radiation therapy Continue reading...

There has been a rise in a number of ‘educated’ accents, particularly among young girls Continue reading...

Spacecraft forced to keep its distance from host comet thanks to streams of dust interfering with the navigation systemThe Rosetta spacecraft is being forced to keep its distance from its host comet because dust streaming from its surface is muddling its onboard navigation systems, mission scientists have reported.Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, said that future close flybys may no longer be possible, because the spacecraft appears to become disoriented when it flies low over the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. Continue reading...

The launch of an unmanned SpaceX rocket – and an innovative attempt to land it on an ocean barge – got under way successfully after bad weather postponed the launch. The rocket, carrying a Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station, blasted of from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, located just south of NASA's Kennedy Space Center Continue reading...

Centuries-old diagnosis of epilepsy may be overturned by new research which suggests that Caesar suffered a number of strokesHealth problems that blighted the Roman general Julius Caesar may have resulted from a spate of mini-strokes, according to a fresh review of his symptoms.The great military leader, who was instrumental in the rise of the Roman empire, suffered a host of medical ailments, from vertigo, dizziness and insensibility to limb weakness that on occasion caused him to fall over. Continue reading...

Pioneer, inspired by Dutch project that aims to land manned spaceship on Mars, confronts the question of whether humans can cope with space travel Continue reading...

GoPro footage shot in space by US astronaut Terry Virts shows two spacewalks at the International Space Station on 25th February and 1st March. Nasa says the spacewalk missions were to rig power and data cables for a pair of docking port adaptors that are due to arrive later this year as well as installing antennas, cables and navigation aides to rig parking spots for new US space taxis Continue reading...

Increased sunlight may allow lander to re-boot and send further samples; data received so far has already challenged leading theory on planet formationThe Rosetta mission’s hibernating lander could awake within weeks, according to new predictions that it will soon be receiving enough sunlight to recharge its batteries.The Philae probe shut down just three days after making a spectacular, but bumpy, landing on the duck-shaped comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and has been in a dormant state ever since. Despite making it to within half a mile of its target on the comet’s “head”, after a 250 million mile journey through space, the lander came to rest in the shadow of a cliff meaning that its solar-powered batteries have been unable to recharge since November. Continue reading...

Nasa, the Russians and the Europeans are all planning trips to our closest planetary neighbour that could provide crucial information about the universe Continue reading...

Recent reports say NHS users will have to show a passport to cut down on health tourism. But why would so many health tourists come here? See this guide Continue reading...

Georgina Voss: Which fiction books offer us useful and powerful ways to engage with the politics of science and technology? Continue reading...

Sums spent on conditions bear little relation to their costs to health services, as compared with cancer or heart disease, say researchers Continue reading...

Paper thought to date from 1942 details Enigma codebreaker’s work on foundations of mathematical notation and computer science