From Dr Strangelove and water fluoridisation to climate change, scientific method and facts are not always enough to win over the sceptics Continue reading...

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Key DNA strand propels neuron growth in brain’s region central to reasoning, language and sensory perceptionA strand of DNA that lies at the heart of what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom has been identified by researchers in Germany.

Manmade warming in past decade has likely been offset by cooling from natural cycles in the Pacific and Atlantic - but effect will reverse in coming decadesManmade global warming over the past decade has probably been partly offset by the cooling effect of natural variability in the Earth’s climate system, a team of climate researchers have concluded.

Images from Dawn spacecraft reveal a pair of bright spots which scientists believe may be primordial ice reflecting sunlightA Nasa probe that is speeding towards the largest object in the asteroid belt has spotted two mysterious shiny patches on the otherwise dark and cratered body.The latest images from Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft reveal a pair of bright spots on Ceres, a 590-mile-wide dwarf planet, with the brightest of the two reflecting at least 40% of the sunlight that falls on it. Continue reading...

If the NHS and policymakers are bold, it could spell the end for HIV in the UK Continue reading...

Google’s artificial intelligence studio Deep Mind has created a computer program that can play Pong. Here is why that feat is more impressive than it soundsSo a computer program has learned how to play classic Atari games. Big deal. I mean, they’re just big blocks of pixels pushing smaller blocks of pixels around a screen, right?Yet somehow, the UK artificial intelligence specialist Deep Mind, bought last year by Google for £240m, is extremely excited about the fact that it has developed an AI agent capable of learning how to play Space Invaders. I learned how to play Space Invaders in a cafe in Blackpool when I was six. But Google hasn’t acquired me. What’s going on?Related: Google develops computer program capable of learning tasks independently Continue reading...

Science and technology committee damns EU rules on authorisations for genentically-modified crops as politicised and unscientificThe UK should be handed the regulatory power to green light genetically-modified crops because the EU’s GM rules are politicised and unscientific, an influential committee of MPs have said.A new report from the committee is damning of regulatory delays caused by the EU’s consideration of GM under a ‘precautionary principle’ which obliges caution where scientific evidence is insufficient, inconclusive or uncertain. Continue reading...

A book that beautifully explores the astonishing variety and complexity of life iterated across the species in an attempt to answer the biggest question of all: why is life the way it is?This is a book that addresses fabulous and life-enhancing themes. It is written beautifully enough to take your breath away, even as its author writes about trying not to hyperventilate. A book through which ideas, energy and food for thought cycle across every page; a book that attempts to address the biggest questions of all: why is life the way it is, why are big things so different from small things, why are there so many creatures and if that’s the wrong question, why are there so few?But first, a spoiler. The questions are enormous but the answers are ultimately inconclusive. Few arguments are clinched, or cases closed. That is no fault of the book. Some questions are hard to answer because life’s like that. Continue reading...

Development hailed as a potential breakthrough in aircraft manufacture after university-CSIRO joint project prints two gas turbine engines Continue reading...

Treatment to become available from second quarter of 2015, offering hope in fight against resistant bacteria Continue reading...

Scientists name new ‘object’ SDSS J0100+2802 and say it is 12.8bn light years from Earth and was formed just 900m years after the Big Bang Continue reading...

Moscow assures it will continue funding the International Space Station until 2024 but will then disconnect its modules to build a national base Continue reading...

The cold weather hasn’t helped bring on spring flowers, but lesser celandines are coming into bloom, especially in southern England. These relatives of buttercups have glossy yellow flowers and heart-shaped leaves, and the flowers also have the uncanny knack of swivelling round to track the sun like little solar energy dishes, trapping the sun’s warmth to entice early insects into the flower; but when skies turn overcast and rain threatens the petals close shut.Snowdrops are now at their best and most widespread in many damp places, especially in wet woods and on the banks of streams, their drooping white bell flowers nodding and swaying in the wind and smelling sweet of vanilla or honey. They are able to survive the cold of winter and flower so early because they grow from bulbs, and most colonies of snowdrops in Britain reproduce by their bulbs dividing, rather than being pollinated by insects. Continue reading...

Three Austrian men have become the first in the world to be fitted with bionic hands that are able to be controlled by the mind. The men suffered severe injuries in vehicle and climbing accidents which damaged vital nerves and lead to hand amputations. Videos released by the Lancet medical journal show the men, equipped with their new prosthetics, carrying out everyday activities such as pouring liquid, lifting objects and undoing buttons Continue reading...

Doctor plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body using procedures he believes will soon be readyA surgeon says full-body transplants could become a reality in just two years.Sergio Canavero, a doctor in Turin, Italy, has drawn up plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body and claims the procedures needed to carry out the operation are not far off. Continue reading...

Virus still present in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia after more than a year, causing concern among health experts

Following the publication of a new report on The Business of People, James Wilsdon and David Walker set out the case that the social sciences will be making through the election and spending review. Continue reading...

Because animals are people too – and sometimes we learn something important from them Continue reading...

A solar eclipse could plunge parts of Europe into darkness next month, as power supplies dwindle in the obscured light. The eclipse on 20 March is expected to be the biggest since 1999. The lack of light is unlikely to affect Britain, which relies very little on solar energy, but could cause significant power shortages across Europe Continue reading...

People and rats are mutually dependent as a result of disease cycles and medical advances made possible by animal testing, among many other things Continue reading...

The compelling and uncompromising diary of a prizewinning French enthusiast and eccentricTo really appreciate mathematics, you have to see it evolve, to work through the twists and turns yourself; it’s almost never enough for someone to just tell you about it. These wise words from my secondary school maths teacher have stuck with me ever since. Cédric Villani knows this, too. To put it in his words: “Appreciating a theorem in mathematics is like watching an episode of Columbo: the line of reasoning by which the detective solves the mystery is more important than the identity of the murderer.” Villani should know. He is widely regarded as one of the most talented mathematicians of his generation. His work has won him almost every prize going: the Fermat prize (a big deal) the Poincaré prize (a very big deal) and even the Fields medal (off-the-chart big deal). For those who aren’t familiar, the Fields medal is often referred to as the Nobel prize of mathematics but, as it is only awarded once every four years, and even then only to mathematicians under 40, it is much, much harder to win. Villani’s medal was awarded in 2010 for his work in mathematical physics describing the behaviour of particles in gases and plasmas.The Birth of a Theorem is written as a diary, taking us through the early evolution of the idea in Lyon in 2008, through six months of frustration trying to wrestle the beast of a theorem to the ground at Princeton (his words, not mine) and culminating in the news that he has won the most coveted prize. Continue reading...

Natalie Bennett has ascribed her car-crash interview on LBC to a ‘mind blank’. So what’s going on when the brain refuses to cooperate?It makes for “excruciating” listening – not my words, but those of Green leader Natalie Bennett, who was forced to admit she’d given a disastrous radio interview on the very morning of her party’s campaign launch.

Clinics in UK will be able to apply for licenses from this autumn after MPs approved new rules earlier this monthBritain has become the first country in the world to permit the use of “three-person IVF” to prevent incurable genetic diseases.The House of Lords voted by 280 votes to 48 on Tuesday evening to approve changes to the law allowing fertility clinics to carry out mitochondrial donation. Babies conceived through this IVF technique would have biological material from three different people – a mother, father and a female donor. Continue reading...

Study looking at transmission among men who have sex with men recruited 545 participants at high risk of contracting HIVA daily pill can effectively protect gay men against infection with HIV, a UK trial has shown, which experts say now offers hope of reversing the virus’s spread.Taking the drug, called Truvada, could become a daily routine for men who have sex with men in the same way that the contraceptive pill is for women, some believe. NHS England will now study the results to determine whether it is cost effective to provide it for men at risk of infection. Continue reading...

A blind man from Minnesota is able to see his wife for the first time in 10 years, after receiving a bionic eye. Allen Zderad, 68, was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease around 20 years ago, which eventually left him blind. Minnesota's Mayo Clinic gave Zderad a prototype eye device, known as Second Sight, allowing him to see shapes and human forms Continue reading...

Glass jars of blow flies, dissecting table and doll’s house-size models on show in Forensics, at newly expanded museumStanding beside the liver of a Victorian girl and the six-inch knife with which her brother fatally stabbed her four times, Ken Arnold, head of exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection, says cheerfully: “No, I don’t think we’re going to have any fainters this time.”The more full-on exhibitions at Wellcome, including footage of open-heart surgery and vividly realistic wax models of appalling diseases, have acquired a reputation for causing sensitive visitors to be carried out feet first. Forensics, an exhibition that follows the course of murder and violent assault from crime scene to courtroom, may yet continue that trend. Continue reading...

New research from UCL brings us closer to finding out what’s behind one of our biggest killers Continue reading...

For years, black rats have been blamed for spreading bubonic plague, but now scientists in Norway believe it was giant gerbilsName: Variable.Age: Immaterial. Just keep replacing them until your child is old enough to contemplate pet-death with equanimity. Continue reading...

Octopus versus crab. On land. Who will win? This may be the first time this remarkable octopus behaviour has been captured on video Continue reading...

‘Intelligent clothing’ will employ artificial muscles to assist people with reduced mobility, and could even replace stairlifts and wheelchairsA real-life version of The Wrong Trousers immortalised by Wallace and Gromit is being developed by a British team of robotic experts.The close-fitting “smart trousers” will employ artificial muscles to assist the mobility of frail elderly and disabled individuals. Continue reading...

Scientists launch annual ‘health check’ of world’s plantsScientists at Kew Gardens are launching an annual “health check” of the world’s plants to examine issues including wildlife loss, disease and invasive species.Results of the first “state of the world’s plants” assessment will be published in December, forming part of the new science strategy for the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) at Kew. Continue reading...

The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, where Dolly spent her whole life, is to be presented with a sign to commemorate its contribution to advances in the science of cloningName: Dolly the sheep.Age: For ever six-and-a-half. Continue reading...

Alice Bell: Willie Soon has been criticised for taking money from the energy industry, but he’s more normal than much of science would like to admit.

Gerard ’t Hooft, Dutch Nobel laureate and ambassador for project, says he does not believe mission can begin in 2024 as plannedThe budget and timeline for plans by a Dutch organisation to colonise Mars are highly unrealistic, one of the project’s most eminent supporters has suggested.Gerard ’t Hooft, a Dutch Nobel laureate and ambassador for Mars One, said he did not believe the mission could take off by 2024 as planned.Related: Mars One mission: a one-way trip to the red planet in 2024 Continue reading...

Instead of travelling to remote locations in faraway countries, scientists sometimes discover a new species by looking a little more closely at an old specimen in a museum drawer. Continue reading...

Photographs from the Eyewitness series Continue reading...

The scientist whose research led to Channel 4’s The Cannabis Trial explains the point of the experiment“Skunk stole Snow’s soul”, “Just say no, Snow” – these were just some of the headlines this week in response to Jon Snow’s blogpost and video recounting his experience of smoking ‘skunk’-type cannabis as part of a scientific study at University College London (UCL) which will be shown in a live TV programme – Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial – on Channel 4 on March 3.We wanted to answer some of the questions raised by people about the trial as well as providing some of the wider context about this study, plus its aims and rationale.