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University of Derby finds smartphone users in study spent average 3.6 hours a day on devices, often causing severe distraction from relationships and ‘real life’Smartphones are psychologically addictive, encourage narcissistic tendencies and should come with a health warning, researchers have said. A study by the University of Derby and published in the International Journal of Cyber Behaviour, Psychology and Learning found that 13% of participants in the study were addicted, with the average user spending 3.6 hours per day on their device.Related: Stop worrying about your 'addiction' to the internet. We're all cyborgs – always have been | Jess Zimmerman Continue reading...

A Mirror Online report on a breast cancer patient who refused medical treatment for so-called natural alternatives ignores the health risks Continue reading...

Black bird watchers are rare birds themselves, and there are special rules that the black birder must observe to remain safe when out in the field chasing rare birds. Continue reading...

If you ever read the comments on any article, you’ll invariably find someone bemoaning how it shouldn’t exist as there are ‘more important’ matters and issues. But how do you determine how important a piece is in comparison to others? And what’s the bare minimum importance required to justify its existence? Continue reading...

Paranoid fears are common and have a variety of causes but new research shows specific issue cognitive behaviour therapy can bring significant benefits

International study of 15,000 penises is being used to reassure men concerned they are not within the ‘normal range’The enduring question now has a scientific answer: 13.12 centimetres (5.16 inches) in length when erect, and 11.66cm (4.6 inches) around, according to an analysis of more than 15,000 penises around the world.

Findings published in The Lancet show chance of heart attack drops by 48% when people most at risk take cholesterol-lowering medicationsPatients with the highest genetic risk of suffering a heart attack benefit the most from cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, a study has found.

Government criticised over short-term, stop-start funding, which has meant that Kew’s managers cannot plan for its long-term future

Nasa engineers investigate problem that has stopped the rover’s robotic arm, with testing expected to take days

Texas engineers attach miniature computer wired into nervous system of live cockroaches for remote control and aim to gather video information in places such as broken sewers

There’s a lot of debate about whether cannabis could lead to harder stuff. Michelle Taylor discusses the evidence Continue reading...

Recent studies have used “hash” and “skunk” to describe varying strengths of cannabis. Amir Englund explains the complexities of cannabis strain variation Continue reading...

Over a billion people worldwide are now at risk of hearing loss due to recreational noise. On International Ear Care Day, the World Health Organization warns that it’s up to individuals – and big industry – to create a badly needed change Continue reading...

Recent claims about the safety of certain supermarket foods highlights the lack of awareness that the media has when it comes to food science. Robin Bisson takes a look Continue reading...

Google recently reversed their decision that ‘adult’ material should be removed from the Blogger network. Regardless of the outcome, this shows how corporations have an alarming authority to change and control what’s online

New study reveals participants unconsciously sniff their right hand after shaking it with others as part of process to pick up chemical signals about others

A discovery by the Pasteur Institute offers hope for sufferers of gangrene27 January 1926: New vaccines for tetanus and diptheria Continue reading...

Breakthrough as scientists in China produce genetically modified animals that are more difficult to infect with tuberculosisScientists have created the first tuberculosis-resistant cattle using genetic engineering techniques. The advance could pave the way for genetically modified farm animals that would be automatically protected against disease, reducing the need for culls of infected herds and the blanket use of antibiotic drugs.The study is the first to show that when cattle are genetically modified to carry a protective mouse gene, they become more difficult to infect and are largely shielded from the damaging symptoms of the disease. Continue reading...

US study claims regime’s unsustainable agricultural policies meant drought led to collapse of farming in north-eastern region and triggered mass migration to cities and added to feelings of discontent

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A hundred and eighty years ago, Darwin visited the city of Santiago, Chile. Generations later, one of its residents has worked for months to recreate his voyage in Lego; and soon you might be able to build it too. Continue reading...

Today’s “Museum Monday” video shows how museums are central to the process of shedding new light upon the relationships within the avian Tree of Life. Continue reading...

Lion trainer Thomas Chipperfield is never happier than when he’s in the training ring with his big cats. And as long as he’s the alpha male, Thomas feels safe in their company. Matilda Temperley photographs him at work Continue reading...

Forces says delay is temporary until they satisfy themselves that legal and procedural issues involved can withstand legal scrutiny Continue reading...

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If we have neglected to prepare for the solar eclipse on the morning of 20 March, there should still be time. It is probably too late, though, to find accommodation on the Faroe Islands or Svalbard which have the only land on the path of totality, from which the Moon obscures the Sun completely. Britain, and particularly Scotland, is well placed to enjoy a deep partial eclipse with 87% of the Sun’s diameter being hidden from London, 94% from Edinburgh and up to 98% for the outer Hebrides. Continue reading...

Whether they exist or not, we can at least think of four different kinds of multiverse. Or maybe five.

First rendezvous with the largest object in the asteroid belt separating Mars from Jupiter will reveal what Ceres is made ofNasa scientists are making final preparations for a spacecraft to begin the first orbits around a dwarf planet in the planetary rubble on the far side of Mars.Almost eight years after blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and travelling 3bn miles (4.8bn km), the $450m (£290m) Dawn probe is due to arrive at Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt that separates Mars from Jupiter, on Friday 6 March.Related: Nasa probe spots mysterious shiny patches on dwarf planet Ceres Continue reading...

A pair of docking ports will fly up later this year, followed by crew capsules commissioned by Nasa, with astronauts aboard in 2017 Continue reading...

Fields medal winner Cédric Villani is an impassioned advocate for mathematics, as Carole Cadwalladr discoversThe second time I meet Cédric Villani is when I bump into him in the Eurostar terminal in Paris. But then how could I miss him? There are crowds of milling businessmen and weekending couples but there, amid the Sunday-night chaos of the Gare du Nord, is a figure who looks like he’s somehow slipped the space-time continuum: Lord Byron on a mini break. Or Baudelaire who has returned to Earth, only this time as a Parisian banker doing the Monday-Friday commute. He has a silk bow around his neck. His hair flows around his shoulders. And when I stop to say hello, he embraces me and starts telling me about his latest projects (dozens of them) and his trips (to everywhere, he’s always travelling) and the book he’s writing and then he rummages through his briefcase to give me a business card.But instead of one business card, he hands me a stack of around 50, scattering another 50 or so over the floor. “Here! Take them!” he says. But, Cédric, I say, I only need one, but he presses them into my hands and as he does so drops a file of papers and a small case on the ground. The commuters and weekenders have, by now, started to take notice of the commotion in front of them, though he’s oblivious as he gesticulates and exclaims and then opens up the small case to show me what’s inside. “Spiders!” he says showing me a dozen different decorated hand-made spider brooches. “I always wear one,” he says and points to his jacket, where there is an ornate bejewelled spider crawling across his lapel.Related: Dr Hannah Fry: the mathematical models that underpin our sexual successRelated: Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure by Cédric Villani – review Continue reading...

As we harvest ever more human genomes one fact remains unshakeable: race does not existBarely a week goes by without some dispiriting tale of racism seeping into the public consciousness: the endless stream of Ukip supporters expressing some ill-conceived and unimaginative hate; football hooligans pushing a black man from a train. I am partly of Indian descent, a bit swarthy, and my first experience of racism was more baffling than upsetting. In 1982, my dad, sister and I were at the Co-op in a small village in Suffolk where we lived, when some boys shouted “Coco and Leroy” at us. Fame was the big hit on telly at the time, and they were the lead characters. My sister and I thought this was excellent: both amazing dancers and supremely attractive: we did bad splits all the way home.As someone who writes about evolution and genetics – both of which involve the study of inheritance, and both of which rely on making quantitative comparisons between living things – I often receive letters from people associating Darwin with racism, usually citing the use of the words “favoured races” in the lengthy subtitle to his masterpiece, On the Origin of Species. Of course, Darwin doesn’t discuss humans in that great book, and “races” was used to describe groups within non-human species. Contemporary use of language must be taken into account.Related: 'There is grandeur in this view of life'Genetics has a blighted past with regards to race. Even today important figures express unsupportable racist views Continue reading...

The Hubble telescope, launched 25 years ago next month, is unrivalled in its breathtaking and compelling visions of the cosmos

Forty thousand years ago in Europe our ancestors formed a crucial and lasting alliance that enabled us to finish off our evolutionary cousins, the NeanderthalsDogs are humanity’s oldest friends, renowned for their loyalty and abilities to guard, hunt and chase. But modern humans may owe even more to them than we previously realised. We may have to thank them for helping us eradicate our caveman rivals, the Neanderthals.According to a leading US anthropologist, early dogs, bred from wolves, played a critical role in the modern human’s takeover of Europe 40,000 years ago when we vanquished the Neanderthal locals. Continue reading...

China has just announced the findings of its once-a-decade census of wild pandas and the numbers are up. Continue reading...

The Hubble telescope was launched in April 1990. Ever since, it has been providing astronomers with breathtaking images of the cosmos

Intuitively, we might think that any sort of violent act is immoral. But, as David Nussbaum and Séamus A Power argue, morality doesn’t always preclude violence Continue reading...

A time-lapse video focuses on a room filled with cats, all of whom are determined to sleep in a narrow sunbeam as it moves across the floor. Continue reading...

No more ‘actually’ or ‘almost unique’. Yes, English is a glorious, evolving thing – but my war on verbiage must be waged Continue reading...

An optical illusion has proved divisive on social media. But our varying perceptions mean we will find it hard to come to an agreement

This week, I share my thoughts about two new books; one that argues for a radical new history of life on Earth, and the other is a newly revised field guide to diving in Antarctica Continue reading...