Science | The Guardian

Innovative scanning techniques show painting of sculptures was potentially as intricate as their carvingThough the Parthenon marbles were admired for centuries for their stark white brilliance, it has long been known that the sculptures were originally brightly painted, before millennia of weathering, cannon bombardment, rough handling and overenthusiastic cleaning scoured them clean.Evidence for the paintwork has been highly elusive, however, leading their former curator at the British Museum to confess that, after years of hunting in vain for traces of pigment, he had sometimes doubted they were painted at all. Continue reading...

Exclusive: synthetic compound highlights neurodegeneration when injected into patients at early stages of disease, study shows

Research shows birds with small alterations to one gene are highly resistant to avian fluScientists have created the world's first flu-resistant chickens in an advance that could pave the way for gene-edited poultry on UK farms.The birds, which had small alterations to one gene, were highly resistant to avian flu, with nine in 10 birds showing no signs of infection when exposed to a typical dose of the virus. Continue reading...

When managers can't fix all the problems faced by their teams, it's time to reach out for support from peers and senior leaders

There's something to the notion that Nobel winners create less thereafter. But it is life-changing, and it truly helps to get things doneTwenty-two years ago, I was in a room in London talking about setting up a museum to celebrate the monk Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics. Someone came in and gave me a note from my lab saying I should turn on my mobile phone. A heavily distorted message had been left, and it sounded like a journalist asking me for comments on the Nobel prize in medicine, which he said had been awarded that day to my friend Tim Hunt. I listened to it again and then a third time. Was he also saying I had won it too? I returned to the room and said something that in retrospect must have sounded very strange: I must go now because I think I may have won a Nobel prize." It was true, I had won it, together with Tim and Leland Hartwell, a scientist from Seattle, for our work on how cells control their division.The prize changed our lives. It is the one scientific prize everyone knows. Suddenly you become a public figure being asked to do all sorts of things: to give lectures, quite often on topics you know little about; to sit on committees and reviews you are not always well qualified to be on; to visit countries you have barely heard of; to sign endless petitions on what are probably good causes, but you never know. It is like having a whole new extra job, with upwards of 500 requests a year. It is impostor syndrome on steroids.Sir Paul Nurse is director of the Francis Crick Institute and chancellor of the University of Bristol. He was awarded the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 2001 and the Royal Society Copley medal in 2005 Continue reading...

The Guardian's Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis, tells Madeleine Finlay about the explosion in bedbug sightings in the city, and how residents and officials have reacted. And Prof Jerome Goddard explains what makes the creatures so difficult to eradicate, and why the biggest threat they pose may be to our mental healthClips: Tiktok, ITV, NBC, LeFigaroRead more Guardian reporting on this story. Continue reading...

Report's authors also estimate about 12% of children hooked and call for further research into problemOne in seven adults and one in eight children may be hooked on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), experts have said, prompting calls for some products to be labelled as addictive.Recent studies have linked UPFs such as ice-cream, fizzy drinks and ready meals to poor health, including an increased risk of cancer, weight gain and heart disease. Global consumption of the products is soaring and UPFs now make up more than half the average diet in the UK and US. Continue reading...

Roscosmos says temperatures in affected unit normal after flakes of frozen coolant seen in live feedThe Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) has sprung its third coolant leak in under a year, raising new questions about the reliability of the country's space programme even as officials said crew members were not in danger.Flakes of frozen coolant spraying into space were seen in an official live feed of the orbital lab provided by Nasa on Monday, and confirmed in radio chatter between US mission control and astronauts. Continue reading...

Analyst and psychiatrist who proposed a science of human nature that embraced psychology, anthropology and medicineThe analyst and psychiatrist Anthony Stevens, who has died aged 90 after suffering a stroke, was distinctive among followers of Carl Jung in looking to evolutionary theory for a basis for the idea of a collective unconscious and archetypes affecting development and behaviour in the individual psyche. Rather than extending the archetypal concept upwards towards a spiritual dimension and inwards into the realm of inner psychic life, Anthony traced it to its biological roots and outwards into the realm of social behaviour.In his first book, Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self (1982), he compared the findings of behavioural biology with those of analytical psychology - the term that Jung used to distinguish his approach from the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud - in order to illuminate the ways in which the so-called archetypes of the collective unconscious might influence human development in fundamental areas. Continue reading...

Goalies' brains appear able to merge signals from different senses more quickly, say researchersThe former Premier League goalkeeper Brad Friedel once said that to be able to work well in the box, you have to be able to think outside the box.Now scientific data supports the idea that goalies' brains really do perceive the world differently - their brains appear able to merge signals from the different senses more quickly, possibly underpinning their unique abilities on the football pitch. Continue reading...

Scientists find feline low register when signalling pleasure is produced in a similar way to the croaky voice of some singersScientists have cracked the mystery of how cats produce the purring sound that signals their approval. It turns out they use a strikingly similar technique to vocal fry" - the croaky voice used by the singer Katy Perry and reality television star Kim Kardashian.Researchers have long puzzled over how an animal as small as a domestic cat can produce the deep resonance of a purr, when such vocalisations are usually only produced by animals with far longer vocal cords, such as elephants. For many years, they believed purrs were produced using a unique mechanism that involved the cyclical contraction and relaxation of muscles in the voice box - something that would require constant neural input from the brain. Continue reading...

Experts uncover 17th-century coins at site linked with clan chief Alasdair Ruadh Maclain' MacDonaldA hoard of coins linked to a Highland chief - which may have been stashed away as he tried in vain to escape the Glen Coe massacre - has been discovered underneath a fireplace.The 17th-century collection of 36 coins included international currency, and was hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall. Continue reading...

Early risers across the world can witness the alignment, while an annular eclipse can be seen from the AmericasEarly risers are in for a treat this week, as a beautifully thin waning crescent moon lines up with the bright star Regulus, in Leo, and the brilliant jewel of Venus.The chart shows the view looking east from London at 5am BST on 10 October. The moon will have just 18% of its visible surface illuminated. The alignment can be seen across the world at a similar time, although from places like Cape Town, South Africa, and Sydney, Australia, the triplet will rise in the pre-dawn skies, making Regulus a little trickier to spot. Continue reading...

Excavations reveal structure that may be one of a kind below building that was used for range of leisure activitiesThe therapeutic value of ice baths or cold water immersion were recognised long before wellness gurus and celebrities extolled them on social media. Even the Romans were fond of a dip in the frigidarium.Now it has emerged that the men and women of 18th-century Bath could visit their local assembly rooms for an icy plunge, alongside indulging in other leisure and pleasure pursuits. Continue reading...

I travelled to Nordic forests and windswept archipelagos to understand the health benefits of the sauna - no wonder it's becoming popular in the UKAs I squeeze myself on to the top bench of the sauna in my local lido, I'm grateful to have a spot. It's rammed; standing room only. Next to the stove, cold water swimmers huddle and struggle to peel neoprene off shivering hands and feet, their teeth chattering. In fact, everyone is chattering. It's as noisy as the pub before closing time and as ebullient; a steamy collective fuelled by extremes of temperature rather than extremely large amounts of booze. But, unlike the pub, everyone is semi-naked, sweating and stripped back - job title, wealth, celebrity and status left firmly by the pool.Since we opened the sauna at Parliament Hill Lido six years ago, we have seen visitor numbers shoot up," says Paul Jeal, swimming facilities manager at Hampstead Heath for the Corporation of London. Once deserted and running at a loss in winter, the lido now sees queues at weekends and Jeal has to manage sell-out sauna sessions of 30 tickets an hour. Since Covid, visitor numbers have increased fourfold," he adds. Many are new to cold water swimming and they say the sauna has encouraged them to come." In spring, the sauna benches collapsed from heavy use. Continue reading...

As virus cases rise by 30% in the past week, the clinically vulnerable and medics fear they will be put at risk this winterHealthcare charities and patient groups are calling on NHS England to reintroduce Covid-19 precautions for staff, amid fears that clinically vulnerable patients and medics will be put at risk this winter.Since Covid safety measures were dropped earlier in the year, staff in NHS England are no longer required to wear a mask in clinical settings. Most healthcare workers who have symptoms of a respiratory infection are no longer asked to test for Covid. Continue reading...

The luxury fashion brand announced a collaboration with Axiom Space to outfit astronauts for the 2025 mission to the moonPrada will take its designs to the next atmospheric level as the Italian fashion house announced its latest partnership with Axiom Space to design spacesuits for astronauts.This week, the Milan-based luxury brand announced its collaboration with the Texas-based commercial space company to design Nasa's lunar spacesuits for its 2025 Artemis III mission - the first crewed flight to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Continue reading...

Ahead of the organisation's report into the state of our flora and fungi, its director of science talks about his work as a biogeographer and how our diet can make a differenceAlexandre Antonelli is director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a professor of systematics and biodiversity at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He spoke to the Observer ahead of this week's launch of the organisation's seminal report The State of the World's Plants and Fungi, which last took stock in 2020. He is also the author of The Hidden Universe: Adventures in Biodiversity (Ebury Press, 14.99).What do you do at Kew - what are the best and the worst things about your job?

Quantum computers may still be years away, but it's prudent that end-to-end encryption providers are ramping up defencesA spectre is haunting our networked world. It's the prospect of quantum computers. These are machines that harness some of the weirder properties of subatomic particles in ways that would make them exponentially more powerful than the computers we use today.Existing computers are based on manipulating digital bits that can be either 1 (on) or 0 (off). Quantum machines, in contrast, work with qubits, which can be on and off simultaneously. (And, yes, I know that seems nuts, but then so does much of subatomic physics to the average layperson.) Such machines are fiendishly difficult to build, but about 80 or so small-scale ones already exist, with qubit counts ranging from five to 400. So that looming spectral presence is beginning to put on weight. And if researchers find a way of reliably scaling up these machines, then we will have moved into uncharted territory. Continue reading...

We asked experts in teen mental health how to talk about everything from the environment to screen time with adolescentsCommunication is one of the biggest issues when you've got a teenager. Conversations can be fraught, loaded - they often feel as if they're about to go ballistic - or worst of all, they're just nonexistent. Your teen seems to be a closed book - they don't want to talk and you don't seem to be able to coax them out of their shell.And yet there are effective ways to open up a conversation with your teenager - though you need to be very sensitive, and self-aware, and genuinely interested in creating a dialogue rather than just a chance to ram home what you think about an issue. Continue reading...

More resilient variants are emerging. Yet monitoring and testing have slowed, and access to vital drugs is patchyIt may feel like we should all be done with Covid-19, but sadly Covid-19 is not done with us. At the moment, cases in England are rising again, with a 10% rise overall in hospital admissions and the greatest increase in the north of England. With testing reduced, national monitoring paused, the ONS infection survey paused since spring and only recently relaunched, we have much less data about Covid than we ever had before. We know Covid hasn't stopped evolving, and we have a good idea about what sort of situations might result in new and dangerous mutations, but with less surveillance of emerging variants and spread, we are losing what used to be a near real-time picture of the situation.This makes it harder to know which variants are driving the increase in cases. The latest estimates suggest there is a soup, with several variants, including some derived from XBB, which emerged last year, as well as EG5.1 (Eris) and a small amount of BA.2.86 (Pirola), both of which were identified in the past few months. It seems as though this virus is ever-changing, and as a reflection of that, new data released in the last few days shows that the so-called Pirola variant has evolved again - and could be more immune-evasive than the XBB-derived variants.Sheena Cruickshank is an immunologist and professor in biomedical sciences and public engagement at the University of Manchester Continue reading...

Startup PLD Space says launch of Miura-1 is just the beginning' amid European drive to send satellites into orbitSpanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in south-west Spain, carrying out Europe's first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for its stalled space ambitions.The startup's test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said. Continue reading...

Amazon launched its first two prototype satellites into space on Friday, as Jeff Bezos's tech firm races to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in building a mega-constellation of broadband internet-providing satellites. The duo, called Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, will be deployed in an orbit 311 miles above Earth's surface

Pioneering physician who promoted and brought rigour to the new field of audiovestibular medicineWhen Linda Luxon, who has died aged 75 of a brain tumour, began her medical career, few had heard of audiovestibular medicine". First recognised as a medical specialty in 1975, it treats a wide range of disorders that affect hearing and balance. The vestibular system controls balance and spatial orientation through organs located in the vestibule, a bony cavity of the inner ear. These organs detect head movement and send signals to the brain so that we stay upright and balanced. When the system malfunctions, dizziness, vertigo and tinnitus can result.According to her close colleague Doris-Eva Bamiou, Luxon became the specialty's pioneer and poster child", giving it academic rigour and promoting it widely. In 1991 she was appointed professor of audiovestibular medicine at University College London (UCL). There she anchored the new specialty in evidence-based research, systematically delineating all the different disorders and setting criteria for diagnosis. She wrote or co-authored a number of key reference titles and more than 175 research papers. Continue reading...

Fossil footprints date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, upending previous theory that humans reached continent laterNew research confirms that fossil human footprints in New Mexico are probably the oldest direct evidence of human presence in the Americas, a finding that upends what many archaeologists thought they knew.The footprints were discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in White Sands national park and date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, according to research published on Thursday in the journal Science. Continue reading...

Results in the Lancet's EClinicalMedicine journal found a similar risk' of long-term symptoms as those with CovidScientists say they have found evidence that people may experience long colds", acute respiratory infections with long-term symptoms.Some of the most common symptoms include coughing, stomach pain, and diarrhoea more than four weeks after the initial infection. The severity of an illness appears to be a key driver of risk of long-term symptoms. Continue reading...

Results from study involving 50,000 women suggest even occasional wood burning can contribute to lung cancerUsing an indoor wood stove or fireplace increases women's risk of developing lung cancer by 43% compared with those that do not use wood heating, according to a US study.In the UK, one in 13 men and one in 15 women born after 1960 are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer during their lifetimes. In the US it is one in 16 men and one in 17 women. Continue reading...

Research in mice reveals hormonal changes late in pregnancy trigger parenting instinct and switch in prioritiesPregnancy leads to a permanent rewiring of neurons, according to research that gives new insights into the influence of hormones on behaviour.The research, in mice, revealed that their parenting instincts were triggered by changes in the brain that occur in response to oestrogen and progesterone late in pregnancy. Similar changes are likely to occur in the human brain, according to scientists, who said the work could pave the way for fresh understanding into parenting behaviour and postpartum mental health. Continue reading...

Sex determination of sea turtles is temperature dependent, with the proportion of female hatchlings increasing when nests are warmer

Guardian science correspondents Linda Geddes, Nicola Davis and Hannah Devlin give Madeleine Finlay the lowdown on the Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry that were announced this weekClips: Nobel Prize, Penn MedicineFind all the Guardian's coverage of the Nobel Prizes for Science here Continue reading...

Michelle Donelan's plan to depoliticise" science with new guidelines on sex and gender research is a chilling moveThe science secretary, Michelle Donelan, told the Conservative party conference this week that the Tories are depoliticising science". Or as a Conservative party announcement later put it, in case you didn't get the culture-war reference, they are kicking woke ideology out of science", thereby safeguarding scientific research from the denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness".Scientists do not seem too delighted to be defended in this manner. As a scientist, I really don't know what this means," tweeted Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. This is totally shocking and is something I never thought I would see in the UK," said Buzz Baum, a molecular cell biologist for the Medical Research Council.Philip Ball is a science writer and the author of the forthcoming book, How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New BiologyDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

After three million people tuned in for the online version of this therapy show for Black couples, Channel 4 have turned it into an explosive series. Brace for controversyIn a world where we are on our seventh series of Naked Attraction's genital unveilings, it's hard to imagine there are many boundaries left for British reality television to break. But In Love & Toxic: Blue Therapy pushes at a more subtle taboo - Black people going to therapy. That may seem relatively innocuous, but it's full of couples baring their souls on screen, admitting to infidelity and insecurities and uttering ludicrous statements such as: But I'm a bad bitch!" It's quite the way to challenge a stereotype the show's creators wanted to battle against: that therapy is exclusively for middle-class white people."Channel 4's latest series is one of the most fresh, fun and subversive reality TV debuts of the year. It is not entirely new, however. It has been adapted from the hit 2021 YouTube show Blue Therapy, an outrageous but surprisingly complex portrait of Black people's relationships that was named the most explosive reality show of the year". Continue reading...

Official announcement comes after trio's names were leaked in email to Swedish newspaper earlier in the dayTwo American scientists and a Russian have been awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, which helped drive a revolution in nanotechnology.The prize is shared equally between Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexey Ekimov for discoveries on the unique properties of nano-materials, and how to make them, that paved the way for wide-ranging applications in consumer electronics, biochemistry and medicine. Continue reading...

Not sure why you love hanging out with your canine buddy so much? Here are the qualities in dogs - and you - that help explain it

Scientists believe luminescent quality is widespread after finding 86% of species studied had fur that glowed in UV lightFluorescence in mammals is much more common than previously thought, new research suggests.A luminous property, fluorescence has been described in recent years in Australian marsupials including platypuses, wombats, Tasmanian devils and echidnas. Continue reading...

The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be far more easily available than the first vaccine - but the reality of life in Africa will blunt its impactA new vaccine against malaria - which kills 600,000 people every year, mostly children - is to be injected into babies' arms in 18 countries where the disease is most deadly. That's joyous news. But the unbridled enthusiasm the announcement has generated says as much about the sorry state of malaria control as the brilliance of scientific invention.Because this is an imperfect vaccine that at best will protect 75% of those given it. That's the top figure from the clinical trials. In the reality of village life in poverty-ridden parts of Africa, it may keep fewer than half safe. It's still hugely important to get vaccination programmes going in the 18 countries that will now be funded to run them, because many deaths will be averted. But it's not the end of malaria. Nowhere near. Continue reading...

Scientists work with food companies to try to improve the health impacts of foods, says Prof Peter WildeI am writing in response to your article as one of the scientists named in it (Scientists on panel defending ultra-processed foods linked to food firms, 28 September). I am a researcher at Quadram Institute Bioscience with almost 40 years' research experience. My research focuses on the mechanisms by which food and its composition underpin health benefits or harms.As a government-supported institute, we are encouraged to engage with industry to maximise the impact of our publicly funded research, to translate the findings towards benefiting the public. We work with food companies from time to time to try to help improve the health impacts of foods. Continue reading...

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier share 823,000 prize for work on electron dynamics in matterThree scientists have been awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in physics for their work on creating extremely short pulses of light that can be harnessed to study processes occurring inside atoms and molecules.Pierre Agostini, of Ohio State University, Ferenc Krausz, of Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, and Anne L'Huillier, of Lund University, will each receive equal shares of the 11m Swedish kronor (823,000) prize announced on Tuesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Continue reading...

Silver and copper alloy disc from days of King Alfred hailed as one of the most important finds of its kindWhen it emerged from the earth it was dull, corroded and battered, the centuries it had spent lying beneath a Somerset field having taken their toll.Now restored and gleaming, the Cheddar brooch, a rare early medieval piece regarded as one of the most important finds of its kind, is going on display at a museum close to where it was found by a metal detectorist. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay meets menopause expert Dr Louise Newson to find out about some of the myths surrounding the menopause, how women can prepare for this stage in life, and why information and support can be so difficult to access Continue reading...

Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to properly dispose of satellite and violating the FCC's anti-space debris ruleThe US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its first fine to a company that violated its anti-space debris rule, the commission announced on Monday.Dish Network has to pay $150,000 to the commission over its failure to deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite, which has been in space for more than two decades. Instead of properly deorbiting the satellite, Dish sent it into a disposal orbit" at an altitude low enough to pose an orbital debris risk. Continue reading...

At its peak BlueWalker 3, which resembles a Tetris block, is as bright as two of brightest stars in night skyThe night sky is peppered with light from stars, planets and other celestial bodies. But now researchers have revealed one of the brightest objects visible from Earth is a communications satellite resembling a Tetris block.Scientists say while the apparent brightness of BlueWalker 3 is not constant, its peak is on a par with Procyon and Achernar, two of the brightest stars in the night sky. Continue reading...

Scientists have spotted a 2km-high dust devil on Mars. The twister was observed moving across the Martian landscape by Nasa's Perseverance rover. The six-wheeled geologist robot documented the lower portion of the twister as part of an atmospheric exploration of the Jezero crater. The whirlwind was seen moving east to west about 19 km/h (12 mph) along Thorofare Ridge on 30 August. Dust devils, which also occur on Earth, form when rising cells of warm air mix with descending columns of cooler air

The answers to today's bam-booze-lersEarlier today I set you the following questions that the authors of Headscratchers, a new puzzle book, suggest are perfect for discussion and solving in licensed premises. The first one, in particular, leads itself to heated debate.Here they are again with solutions. Continue reading...

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman share 823,000 prize announced by Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in StockholmTwo scientists have been awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their contributions to RNA biology that contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during the Covid pandemic.Prof Katalin Kariko and Prof Drew Weissman share the 11m Swedish kronor (823,000) prize announced on Monday by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Continue reading...

Jupiter-mass binary objects floating freely in Orion Nebula appear to defy usual definition of planetsDozens of planet-sized objects have been discovered in the Orion Nebula via observations that could herald the existence of a new astronomical category.The free-floating entities, which have been named Jupiter-mass binary objects, or Jumbos, appear in spectacular images taken by the James Webb space telescope. The objects are too small to be stars, but also defy the conventional definition of a planet because they are not in orbit around a parent star. Continue reading...

Test yourself against the readers of New Scientist magazineUPDATE: To read the solutions click herePubs are for drinking, socialising - and doing puzzles. Or so claims Headscratchers, a new compendium of puzzles from New Scientist magazine, from which today's cranium-ticklers are taken.The first is a classic pub puzzle. (An inn-igma? a bam-booze-ler? A conun-dram?) Which is to say, it is a mathematical challenge that lends itself to being tackled in a group, and may lead to heated debate! Continue reading...

Precession of Earth's rotation pole means brightest star in Cepheus will one day function as north starThis week, track down the northern constellation of Cepheus, the king of Ethiopia in Greek mythology. Although somewhat faint, the constellation is large and relatively easy to locate because of its proximity to the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, who was Cepheus's wife.The chart shows the view all week looking roughly south from London and up towards the zenith. The brightest star in Cepheus is Alderamin, located 49 light years from Earth. Because of the precession of the Earth's rotation pole, in the year 7500 Alderamin will function as the north star. Continue reading...

Recovering from the loss of his wife, Allan Brown turned his hand to an ancient craftIn 2016 textile artist Allan Brown, 54, a baker at the time, finally gave in to his four children's demands for a dog and got Bonnie, a golden labrador-cocker spaniel cross. Already exploring ways to live sustainably for a low-carbon future, Allan decided to use their country walks near his home in Brighton to forage and learn about medicinal plants and those that could be used for making cloth. He knew the names of loads of plants, but the most ubiquitous was the stinging nettle, that hated outlier that grows amidst rubble and gravestones, stinks when boiled, and had stung him very badly when he fell into a clump of them as a child.There was something about the nettle's fuck-you attitude" and its resilience and stubborn ubiquity that spoke to Allan's interest in public land for common usage. I thought, I wonder if nettles have ever been used to make clothing, and if they have been, how was it done? I just had to set about trying to do it myself,"' he recounts in The Nettle Dress, a mesmerising documentary directed by his friend Dylan Howitt about Allan's life with nettles and the devotional dress he made in honour of his late wife, Alex, a keen sewer and maker. Continue reading...

The Chilean author's assured fictionalised portrait of the visionary Hungarian scientist who contributed to the Manhattan Project and laid the foundations of modern computing is darkly intelligent and feverishly propulsiveEarly on in this darkly fascinating novel based on real people and events, the Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest speaks of a strange new rationality" that's taking shape as the old certainties of classical physics crumble around him. He describes it as a spectre haunting the soul of science... both logic-driven and utterly irrational... preparing to thrust itself into our lives through technology by enrapturing the cleverest men and women with whispered promises of superhuman power and godlike control".Ehrenfest is speaking from the depths of a breakdown but his warning sets the tone for the rest of Benjamin Labatut's book, which explores how these clever men and women (though mostly men) set about unleashing that spectre with dazzling and devastating consequences. After a short, riveting account of Ehrenfest's demise - he killed himself and his son in 1933 as the Nazis rose to power - we meet John von Neumann, the formidably intelligent Hungarian mathematician, physicist and computer scientist who contributed to the Manhattan Project, laid the foundations of modern computing (Maniac is the name of a computer he developed) and foresaw the possibilities of artificial intelligence. Then we flash forward to the rise of AI, whose promises enrapture its developers even as they fret over its apocalyptic potential. Continue reading...